Monday, November 16, 2009

DK Update ( level 77 )

Hotplate hit 77 this wekeend. A lot has happened to the intrepid Death
Knight in the past few days. When she hit 75 ( or was it 76? ) I got
her dual-spec to celebrate. Since then I have spruced up her tanking
gear and she now sits at 430 defense rating.

Tanking:

I spec'd her as Blood Tank. The biggest reason for this was the
similarity in spell rotation for Blood tanking as Blood DPS. The only
major difference I can see is that instead of favoring my Heart Strike
ability I now favor Death Strike ( to recoup some HP), that and hit
Blood Boil more for AOE threat.

My first tanking experience was Violet Hold. I went in at 75, with a
level 80 DPS and some other 76-78's. I might have lucked out because I
most just tank-n-spanked the bosses we got. I held aggro pretty well,
with just the level 80 pulling off me occasionally.

I also recently tanked a 4-man Amphitheatre of Anguish run, with 2
other level 80s and a 76-ish. That went well enough.

I haven't quite decided if Tanking or DPS will be the primary spec of
Hotplate. I already have a well geared Plate DPS character ( Hooff the
Ret Pally ), so having another Plate DPS wouldn't be that new. My only
tank is Waash, but he's stuck at 76 for the forseeable future.

If I do choose to primarily tank with Hotplate, I see myself getting
quite a bit of Titansteel tanking armor crafted. That should get me
most of the way there to be able to tank regular Trial of the Crusader
and with farming that ( and possibly other level 80 regular dungeons)
get me ready to tank Heroics. After that I'll be farming Heroic ToC
and whatever Heroics I can get into for Naxx-level gear.

After getting to that level gear, it's going to be heroic farming for
Tier 8 emblem gear. I would really love to start raiding again, but
that would require finding a guild that can raid during my
schedule. With paddling the way it is, I don't know how much free time
I will have.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Death Knight in Utgarde Keep

Last night I got a chance to run my DK ( Hotplate ) through Utgarde Keep regular. Instancing is quite a bit different than leveling and it took some adjustment.

Spec:

My current spec is actually a spec I googled. Its more of a leveling spec than a max-dps spec. It gives up some of the balls to the wall DPS talents for more health regeneration, for less downtime. In a dungeon, since you have a healer behind you, health regeneration is pretty low priority. I had to shift my rotation from favoring Death Strike, to favoring Heart Strike. Heart Strike is the DK cleave, does great DPS when you have Icy Touch and Plague Strike on the target. I did have to hit Death Strike a few times, mainly cause everything else was on CD.

My DPS was decent, at times topping 1k. For a level 72 ( ending 73 ) I think that's pretty good dps. I was #1 DPS, even out DPSing our 74 pally tank. The rest of the DPS was a 70 ret pally and a 72-ish Rogue, so I did have a bit of a level advantage.

So far I like Blood DPS, it gives a decently simple rotation, and good DPS. I would have liked to have tried Unholy, but it would feel a little too much like my Affliction lock, plus I've had enough of juggling DOTs.

I was thinking of dual-speccing and picking up a tanking off-spec. It would be nice to have another leveling toon that can tank, would certainly ease getting into groups. I guess I should do some more research on DK tanking. I wonder how close to the defense cap I need to get to do regular dungeons?