Death Knight Stat Point Values

This chart displays the amount of rating required for 1% of each stat:

Stat (1%)	Rating Requirement (Lv80)	Notes
Critical Strike	45.91	+1% spell/melee crit
Melee Hit	32.79	+1% melee hit
Spell Hit	26.23	+1% spell hit
Expertise	32.79	-1% to be dodged/parried
Haste	32.79	+1% haste
Armor Penetration	12.31	-1% armor on enemy
Dodge	39.35	+1% dodge
Parry	49.18	+1% parry
Resilience	82.00	+1% Resilience

This chart shows the effects of Resilience:

Resilience	Enemy Crit Chance	Enemy Crit Damage	Enemy DoT Damage
1% (82 Rating)	-1%	-2.2%	-1%

This chart displays the amount of agility you need for certain stats:

Stat	Agility Requirement (Lv80)	Notes
Melee Critical (1%)	62.5	+1% melee crit
Dodge (1%)		+1% dodge
Armor (1)	0.5	1 agility gives 2 armor

This chart displays the amount of strength you need for certain stats:

Stat	Strength Requirement (Lv80)	Notes
Attack Power (1)	0.5	1 strength gives 2 AP
Parry (1%)	196.72	+1% parry

Notes and Useful Information: 

• Hit rating effects both spell and melee hit. The recomended +hit for PvP at lv 80 is 5% (164 rating) since that is enough for al your special abilities (strikes) to hit the the target. Two hand raiders should run 8% hit (263 hit rating)

• Strength is basically the main stat for deathknights, since it gives attack power and gets extra benefit from multiple talents. Because of this, it is always better to socket for strength instead of attack power. Your ghoul also gets extra benefit from your strength.

• Agility only increases melee critical strike chance as well as all special abilities aside from: howling blast, icy touch, and death coil.

• Expertise from talents give 0.25% chance to not be blocked or parried per point. 8.20 expertise rating is equal to 1 expertise, and 4 expertise is needed to reduce the chance to be dodged or parried by 1%. At the end 32.79 expertise rating or 4 expertise points from talents is required to reduce your chance to be dodged or parried by 1%.

Death Knight Hit Cap

 Two Hand Weapons:

This chart shows the +Hit cap at level 80 for both PvP and Raiding when using a two-hand weapon. This chart assumes that the enemy player (or raid boss) has no talents or abilities that reduce their chance to be hit.

Weapon	Hit % (PvP)	Rating (PvP)	Hit % (Raid)	Rating (Raid)
Two Hand (Auto)	5%	164	8%	263
Special Abilities	5%	164	8%	263
Spells	4%	105	17%	446

One Hand Weapons:

This chart shows the +Hit cap at level 80 for both PvP and Raiding when using 2x one-hand weapons. This chart assumes that the enemy player (or raid boss) has no talents or abilities that reduce their chance to be hit. This chart already includes +3% chance to hit from the 'Nerves of Cold Steel' talent.

Weapon	Hit % (PvP)	Rating (PvP)	Hit % (Raid)	Rating (Raid)
Dual-Weild (Auto)	21%	689	24%	787
Special Abilities	2%	66	5%	164
Spells	4%	105	17%	446

PvP: Blood

• The Spec: 54/17/0 or 52/11/8 (there are many variations)
• Presence: Blood
• Runeforge: FC (Fallen Crusader)
• Glyphs: Heart Strike, Death Strike, DRW (Dancing Rune Weapon)
  
• Sigil: Awareness or Vengeful Heart

52/11/8 is a variation of the spec that I used when testing blood. There are many variations of the spec that change the point allocation after the 51 points in blood needed for DRW.  I choose 52/11/8 since it helps to increase Death Coil damage, which comes in handy vs heavy plate teams. The standard sigil for the spec is Awareness, though Vengeful Heart can be useful vs heavy plate teams.

General Info about Blood:

Blood in patch 3.1 was not a very attractive arena spec. It was for the most part inferior in both burst and sustained damage due to the number of high armor targets in arenas. It also had issues getting kited, and the amount of armor penetration required for the most part was difficult to obtain. Blood has seen more use in raids, where bosses have considerably less armor then plate PvP'ers. In raids stat points could be put into ArP (Armor Penetration) as well, while most PvP gear has no ArP.

However, with the nerfs to both frost and unholy (an no nerfs to blood) in 3.2, blood is now looking to be a more competitive spec then in 3.1. Blood spec requires ArP gear in order to be viable against plate teams, which means you may end up having to raid to pick up some gear with ArP on it. It would be ideal to get near 50% passive ArP and raid to get a Grim Toll or Mjolnir Runestone as well.


How Blood is played:

Blood is mainly a physical damage based burst spec, meaning it is great against cloth and not so great against plate. Blood also has high survivability due to self healing and improved blood presence, as well as Vampiric Blood. The largest issue with blood is that they can be kited, and can not do much at range.

Arena based blood spec revolves around 2 abilities: Heart Strike and Death Strike. The spec has very low reliance on diseases, and many players don't even bother with diseases at all, since Death Strike is not effected by diseases on the target.

Unholy and Frost runes are almost always used for Death Strikes. Chain of Ice is sometimes used for a peel, but thats about it. Icy Touch and Plague Strike are generally not used at all against any team with a dispel (everything except very few druid healer teams).

Blood Runes are used Heart Strike. Heart Strike stick up a 50% undispellable snare on the target(s) it hits. Heart Strike also has a cleave effect, meaning it hits 2 tagets. There really is nothing else to use blood runes for, and many blood specs don't have Death Rune Mastery, so the blood runes will never turn into death runes (aside from Blood Tap).

The burst sequence for blood is pretty simple. For the most part it's [25+ RP] DS -> DS ->HS ->HS. Death Coils can be used if you have the runic power for them. As for cooldowns, Hysteria should be used before DRW (Dancing Rune Weapon) since DRW gets buffs the user has before it is casted. If using a disease spec the diseases should be used after DRW so that DRW will put up the diseases as well.


Optional Talent Choices:

• Endless Winter (If you want to play as a disease spec)
  
• Toughness or Runic Power Mastry (Improved IT isn't needed since IT is rarely used)
  
• Anticipation (2% dodge beats PS, since PS is practically never used)
  
• Unholy Command (-10 sec on Death Grip can be useful for peels)
  

PvP: DW Frost

DW Frost currently (as of 3.2) seems to be sub-par as far as I am concerned.

Obliterate frost's reliance on diseases runs into issues vs almost every team.

PS/IT spam frost gets kited too easily, and the slight damage increase when not kited isn't worth it. For players who have to play in Unholy Presence, I would recommend ShadowFrost II.

PvP: ShadowFrost II

• The Spec: 0/19/52 (Many slight variations exist)
• Presence: Unholy
• Runeforge: FC (Fallen Crusader) or CG (Cinderglacier).
• Glyphs: Icy Touch, Dark Death, Ghoul
• Sigil: Vengeful Heart
  

General Info about ShadowFrost II:

ShadowFrost II is one of several new specs that emerged and became popular after patch 3.2. The idea of this spec is to recreate the feeling of the original ShadowFrost spec back in mid S5 (Patch 3.08). Current arena situations often limit the ability to keep diseases up on targets, which limits the usage of Scourge Strike. With the damage nerf to SS, ShadwFrost II is looking like a more viable spec.

ShadowFrost II isn't exactly a new spec to 3.2. The spec for the most part existed in 3.1 as well, though was for the most part overshadowed by other specs. What sets  ShadowFrost II apart from other specs is that the damage is non physical, will pretty much always hit the target, and is played in unholy precense. Basically, it takes the niche that Frost had in 3.1. When Frost Strike was nerfed in 3.2, losing both damge and its dodge/block/parry immunity, it basically lost what set itself apart. This is where ShadowFrost II takes over.

Another interesting fact about the spec is that it was actually a viable, but not very popular, raid spec in 3.1. The spec was played as DW Unholy (Elitist Jerks Link), also known as the Death Coil spam spec. The spec was one of two raid specs that played in UP. It was also the only viable DW raid spec back in patch 3.1. However, one of the more noticable changes with ShadowFrost II is that it can play with eitehr 2H or DW. The raid version of the spec used DW since DW has higehr auto attack damage, and benefits more from necrosis and BCB. The PvP version of the spec usually doesn't incorporate necrosis or BCB, which lets it run with 2H or DW.

How ShadowFrost II is played:

ShadowFrost II is for the most part played as a support class due to its limited burst and very low crit rate compared to other specs. In exchange of a lack of burst, it gains a high amount of sustained pressure from constant damage that isn't reliant on diseases.

The spec is played by spamming single rune abilities for runic power, then using the RP for Death Coils. Death Coils should be used when you have 120 RP so you can use 3 in a row. Runes strike should also be used if you play ShadowFrost II using a 2H weapon. Runic power is also used for defensive CDs and Gargoyle.

Frost runes are used mainly for IT (Icy Touch) in this spec for both RP generation and damage. With this spec IT generates 25 RP, which makes it your main spam ability to generate RP. While almost all frost runes and death runes are usually used for spamming IT for maximum RP generation, though CoI (Chains of Ice) is also used depending on the situation. 

Unholy runes are only used for PS (Plague Strike) and Ghoul Frenzy (If your variation of the spec has it). Plague strike is used to apply blood plague, which also gives your spells and abilities bonus damage due to Rage if Rivendare talent. The other imporatnce of PS is that it causes the Desecration effect. Desecration is the main snare used for the spec, since you generally want to use IT over CoI for both damage and maximum RP generation.

Blood Runes are used for both BS (Blood Strike) and Pestilence. Pestilence should be used to ensure diseases are spread to enemies if they are within 15 yards. If nearby enemy players already have disease on them, or if there are no nearby enemies, then just use BS to convert the blood runes to death runes.

While ShadowFrost II is not a burst focused spec, burst its still very important to the spec. Death Coils should be used in chains of 3, and IT should be used in chains of 4 when possible. An optimal burst sequence should look somthign like this: [130 RP] DC, DC, DC, [10 RP] IT ,IT ,IT , [85 RP] DC ,DC. Basically, you can get 5 Death Coils and 3 Icy Touch over a span of 8 seconds. Gargoyle should also be used slightly prior to bursting, since it takes time for it to start attacking.

Optional Talent Choices:

• Wandering Plague (Extra damage, especially vs teams where enemy has no dispel)
• AMZ (Anti-Magic Zone - burst protection against casters, including DKs and Ret Paladins)
• Dirge (More RP generation)
• Ghoul Frenzy (Heals ghoul through effects such as Retribution Aura and Thorns. Also usable when you are snared)

Death Knight Macros

The macros you need. Don't be lazy and spend the 1 minute plugging your spell names in.

Use Ability on Mouse-Over Target

This macro allows you to cast an ability on the target that your mouse is hovering over. If your mouse isn't hovering over a target, or the target is dead, it will use the ability on the player you have seleceted. Replace the word SPELL with the spell's name.

#showtooltip SPELL /cast [target=mouseover, exists. nodead] SPELL; SPELL

Spells to use this macro with: Death Coil Death Grip Strangulate Gnaw

Use Ability on Focus Target

This macro will cast an ability on your focus target. If you have no focus target, or your focus target is dead, it will Death Grip your current target. Replace the word SPELL with the spell's name.

#showtooltip SPELL /cast [target=focus, exists, nodead] SPELL; SPELL

Spells to use this macro with: Death Coil Death Grip Strangulate Gnaw

Rune Strike when possible

This macro basically adds runestrike to the spell(s) of your choice. Since Rune Strike isn't on GCD, this macro can be macro'ed with all your abilities. Replace SPELL with the name of the ability. You will need to make a macro for each ability. Note: some specs shouldn't always be using Rune Strike.

#showtooltip SPELL /script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE"); /cast SPELL; /cast !Rune Strike; /script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");