Equipment woes and questions

[Cruven]

Ok so ive been a Death Knight since about last year and I've never really knew what i was doing with my gear.

Lately ive been having people try to tell me that i need to stack agility, and personally that seemed more like a rogue and hunter stat to me...i have an agility cape but that was the best i could get (Ignis has only dropped his cape for me once after 4 months...and a Warrior tank got it).

So I was looking for some advice on what to do for gear..and note that Hard mode raids and usually 25 raids are out of the question for me.

The World of Warcraft Armory

is my armory link (oh i do about...3k to about 3.8k DPS depending)

[Krenian]

Whoever told you to stack Agility's a nutcase and seriously ribbing you or has no idea what in the world they're talking about.

Most of the time, Strength is your optimum stat. For Blood, ArP helps out a lot as well and can surpass Strength when you get closer to the 100% cap. But if you don't want to break your head, go with Strength.

Strength leads the pack solely on the fact that you get 2 Ap per Strength, and almost 3 ap due to the DK mechanics. (We get something like 2.6ap per 1 point of Strength factoring Kings I believe.) This affects every single attack in your arsenal whereas ArP only affects the Physical aspects of your attacks. This is why Blood's ArP stacking is a good thing whereas Frost and Unholy tend to like it less (This isn't saying that ArP is bad for both specs, it just doesn't heed as much benefit as Blood would.)

In short, you wanna always go Strength unless you're approaching the cap of 100% either with a trinket proc or hard cap through gear. Then, it turns out to what spec you are: If you're Blood, it's worth going to the 100%. If you're the other specs, I believe it's still better to stack Strength instead.

[Cruven]

yeah im a Blood DK in DPS and i was told that i need to get the agility ring from the Ashen Verdict but none of the rings they offer seem to be all that great for me. Well compaired to my other 2 rings with STR on them (about 86str per ring).

Also whats the rule about expertise if I'm behind the mob was told i should be at 16 or so...all my expertise (besides my base 6 from talents) is from my Sword (Obsidian sword from Ony 10 and then the Victor's Call from ToC10).

[Krenian]

Your sheet should read 26 Expertise when you look at it. When opening the Character sheet (With C, naturally), under Expertise, the exact number should state 26 as the 6 that is gotten from Blood is in the sheet. Try it out: Remove all expertise equipment and you'll still see yourself with 6 Expertise.

Expertise is quite important with Blood as all your attacks are mostly physical damage therefore you want to remove any chance of them dodging or parrying (If they're parrying, you're doing it wrong.). 26 is the cap you're looking for. (This may very well be lower if you're Human. At that point, it turns into 23.)

It will also depend on what the Ashen Verdict ring will do when you hit Exalted. The ring is probably BiS for every class even if it has Agility. Compare the rings you have with the Agility ring. Short of not knowing what rings you have, let's analyze the Agility ring:

Ashen Band of Vengeance - Item - World of Warcraft

At first, you get 53 Hit (Which is useless past 8 percent if you can achieve spell hit through raid buffs: druid/shadow priest with 3%, Draenei with 1% if alliance, Virulence 3%.), you also get 53 Crit which is a little over 1% Crit rating and 114 attack power, which is 56 Strength worth.

Now most of our rings at this point have around 80+ Strength on them. This means that's 160 Attack power alone. Also, as Blood, you'll probably aim for ArP on the rings or something similar to this, therefore honestly, at this point, the Ashen Ring at it's first level looks actually worse than some of the rings you can get out there. However, you must remember that this ring gets better along the way, depending on your rep (Case in note, the Violet Hold ring as well as the Karazhan ring you got at the beginning of the whole trek).

Ashen Band of Greater Vengeance - Item - World of Warcraft

Even at Honored, you don't really get a great ring honestly. Your hit/crit number goes up to 57, which is roughly one and one quarter percent (1.25%) crit rating, and it's around 2% hit rating. The attack power raises to 123, which is 61.5 Strength. Again, short of you being low in Hit, the ring just seems lackluster again.

Ashen Band of Unmatched Vengeance - Item - World of Warcraft

This is where things get interesting: We are introduced with a Proc now. At Revered, it now adds the same statistics as it's Honored counterpart, but with a proc which, when it goes off, adds a whopping 480 Attack Power, which equals to 240 strength alone. This alone will blast any of the other rings out of the water that you may get due to the sheer magnitude of AP you get out of the proc. At this point, it is indeed time for you to replace one of your Strength rings due to the fact you'll get more AP out of this ring than you ever will with the current Strength rings you will have.

Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance - Item - World of Warcraft

The proc stays the same, but you now get 59 of each stat, and 135 AP which is around 67 Strength worth. The ring pretty much becomes BiS and furthermore, you get a socket which is rare in itself if you're not Jewelcrafting. Shove another 20 Str/Arp in there and reap the rewards of a rather awesome piece of jewelry offered.

Simple analysis of the rings will usually delve you the answers you want to see. You simply need to know the conversions and how much each item on a ring will give you.

[Krenian]

On another note, I'm going to ask this thread to be moved to the Equipment section as it truthfully should be located in that forum and not this one.

[Cruven]

hmmm well i had thought i had linked my armory page in the first post :x

[Krenian]

You did. I'm blind, sorry. lol

Ok, well both rings are -ok-. You'd lose about a good 40+ AP by swapping one ring out in it's first incarnations but Haste is really a dull stat. If you really want to switch your rings, I'd switch your haste ring out and put the new ring in, which would then allow you to get a better trinket than the Pyrite Infuser.

[Cruven]

well the pyrite infuser is there simply cause of the Hit rating thats all i use it for tbh...if i wanted to get rid of anything it would be that victors call...I'm not so good with "On Use" trinks i tend to forget that they are there : x. As for a trink i would like would be that Needle Encrusted Scorpian thing in the new 5mans.

[Krenian]

I'd sooner replace the trinket with hit on it over the one with expertise to be honest. You'll lose the expertise to be capped if you do. Simply macro it into one of your attacks such as IT or PS. Yes, it's a loss of DPS when you're not making it go off with DRW, but honestly, if you get to the point you ahve to have it up with DRW, make a macro to have it be used before casting DRW.

Problem solved: minute and a half cd trinket is being used with a minute and a half ability that needs max ap to do max damage.

[Cruven]

well i try to use the Trinket...hit 5 times for the full effect then use Hysteria and DRW just that the effect from the trink doesnt last all that long so most of the time i forget its there.

[Krenian]

Then I would sincerely tell you to just Macro it to one of your attacks, like IT, and have it proc whenever it gets off CD. Better than just forgetting the On Use items. (And yes, I agree, on use items are annoying to keep track of. I try to never have any myself.)

[Cruven]

Well I tend to forget what my rotation is so i have it on a macro with itself which helps me in situations where theres alot of moving around this way i dont have to look around for an ability (i dont like adjusting key bindings im more of spam a few buttons then looking at many (HoW is on ~, Roation on 1, Death Coil on 2 Hysteria on Z and DRW on 3) its not much but i know where most things are.

I know I specifically need a new cape, bracers and boots. I wasn't sure what to do with those slots. Was thinking of using 50 frost emblems (when I get that many) on a cape they have there.

[Krenian]

Theeeeeeeeeere is your problem.

You're using a macro for a rotation. Bad. Don't do it. Learn your rotation by pressing the right buttons and you'll see your DPS jump up.

Here's what I always say about macros: You use your macro and all of a sudden your Icy Touch misses. Your macro will keep going away without refreshing your Icy Touch, which means you just lost 10% damage for your whole rotation.

See where that can mess up? A macro doesn't think, it just does. That's the problem with it.

[Cruven]

I've looked for an addon to help me with that when i was testing out an unholy spec yeah my DPS was higher but my eyes ended up getting glued to the addon telling me what to hit next.

[Krenian]

Add ons will not help in this.

To be honest, I can give you the way I did it but it really depends on how much you can memorize your fingers to your keys. I put my rotation in a chronological order on my keyboard:

2- IT
3- PS
4- HS
5- DS
7 (which is binded to my f key) - DC.

So I just do 2 - 3- 4x2 - 5, F F.

it's pretty much keyboard playing in it's gist. You put it all around your left finger and do it in a fashion that you remember how to do your rotation properly.

[Spazlord]

Agi gear is not "bad" per se. I have an Arms Warrior, but melee plate dps are somewhat similar. My main stats are Str/Crit/ArP. I have a few slots I was unable to find a suitable Str item for, so I have an Agi/Crit/ArP piece. I lose a little AP (not heaps actually, as Agi pieces get bonus AP), but I gain about 1% crit from the Agi, so it's not a horrible trade off.

In fact, quite a few BiS Arms pieces are either Leather or Mail (ie Agi pieces, and in the case of Mail, they have Intellect too). They are powerful because they have the most ArP/Crit potential, or because, an equivalent Plate piece for that tier might be Haste/Arp (and Haste is all but useless for Arms).

Read the DK thread @ Elitist Jerks, it will explain your stats and priorities.

[Cruven]

To be honest i dont like the elitist jerks website and all the theory crafting stuff over there...they go a bit in depth with stuff and when it comes to me well...it needs to be kept simple and stupid. Plus when it comes to BiS items they list things from places that i cant do either from my DPS or just because theres no way for me to do it...ToGC is something that theres no possible way for me to do that.

[Selene]

yeah im a Blood DK in DPS and i was told that i need to get the agility ring from the Ashen Verdict but none of the rings they offer seem to be all that great for me. Well compaired to my other 2 rings with STR on them (about 86str per ring).

Also whats the rule about expertise if I'm behind the mob was told i should be at 16 or so...all my expertise (besides my base 6 from talents) is from my Sword (Obsidian sword from Ony 10 and then the Victor's Call from ToC10).

The DPS ring from Ashen Verdict is not "optimal" for plate wearers, if you tank also, then the Tank ring would probably be a better option to take.

[Cruven]

The DPS ring from Ashen Verdict is not "optimal" for plate wearers, if you tank also, then the Tank ring would probably be a better option to take.

i wasn't gonna take that ring lol. I personally don't like Death Knight tanks. So i don't tank

[Kazeyonoma]

This probably belongs in the HALP! section =P

Moved.