WOW Guides - Death Knight Build 0/32/39 - WOW V3.0.8 : World of Warcraft General Discussions

C+P

3.0.8 has brought some potentially scary changes to DW, I almost cried when I saw the changes to Killing Machine. All is not lost, however. 0/32/39 will still hold up just fine.

What is 0/32/39?
The 0/32/39 build takes advantage of the only Death Knight F/U ability that deals damage independent of weapon damage, Howling Blast, as well as the myriad of wonderful abilities that Unholy offers, namely Necrosis, BCB (which works well with a third disease), Gargoyle, and Ghoul. 0/32/39 does incredible AOE and single target DPS, which is boosted a bunch thanks to a fast/fast weapon setup, taking advantage of Killing Machine.

However, things won't stay that way come 3.0.8. Here are the relevant changes, thanks to mm0-champion (paraphrased):

-Killing Machine is now a PPM ability based on weapon hit
-Howling Blast cooldown removed
-Corpse Explosion now uses RP as a resource and does substantially more damage
-Gargoyle now does slightly less damage and can only be sustained for up to 30 seconds
-Necrosis now does 4/8/12/16/20% additional shadow damage
-Night of the Dead now reduces the amount of damage your pets take from Area of Effect damage by 40/70%

The Killing Machine nerf hurt the most, but Night of the Dead is now a much more attractive talent, as is Corpse Explosion. Gargoyle is going to hurt a bit as well, but the most important thing here is that Howling Blast's cooldown has been removed. This allows 0/32/39 to gain a more stable rotation.

Changes in Talents
My optimal spec would be this one: (Replace the 0 in the URL with an o, and erase the space between "103" and "115") http://talent.mm0-champion.com/?deat...h=122104060105

Changes from "Standard" 0/32/39 (Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft)
-Epidemic added: Now that HB is off cooldown, runes that would normally have been dedicated to PS/IT are now dedicated to HB because it simply deals more damage. Epidemic allows you to go longer without diseases needing to be reapplied
-Corpse Explosion added: A worthwhile talent now, certainly better than spending a talent point in Desecration.

There is nothing major switched around.

Changes in Rotation
KEY: PS=Plague Strike, IT=Icy Touch, HB=Howling Blast, DUMP=Runic Power dump (Death Coil or Corpse Explosion)

3.0.3:

PS->IT->HB->BS->BS->DUMP
HB->PS->IT->IT->IT->DUMP

Since Howling Blast still had a cooldown, Rime was a much less attractive talent. Now, however, back to back Howling Blasts are possible, making Rime and Reaping (Blood Runes->Death Runes) much better talents.

3.0.8:

PS->IT->HB->BS->BS->DUMP
HB->HB->PS->IT->DUMP

Notice that there are no more consecutive Icy Touches, meaning that there is less "wasted' runic power (Glyphed and talented, IT gives 25 runic power).


Changes in Weapon
Originally, 0/32/39 favored a fast/fast setup to maximize Killing Machine procs. Now, however, Killing Machine is PPM. Therefore, slow/whatever is ideal, because you'll still be using two blood strikes in your rotation. There have been some rumors that a slower weapon will proc more as haste adds on, but math refutes this.

Enchant X has a proc rate of 10 PPM. Proc chance is calculated before haste for everything, except Seal of Command.

60/1.5=40 swings per minute. 10 in 40 hits (10/40) will proc, meaning there is a 25% chance on swing to proc.
60/2.6=23 swings per minute. 10 in 23 hits (10/23) will proc, meaning there is a 43.48% chance on swing to proc.

In comes a 60% haste buff

1.5/(1+.6)= 0.9376
2.6/(1+.6)= 1.625

60/0.9376 = 64 hits per minute. .25*64= 16 actual PPM
60/1.625 = 37 hits per minute. .4348*37 = 16 actual PPM

There is no difference in actual PPM with haste for different speed weapons. This holds true for weapons of different haste with two or more sources of haste, as well.

1.5/((1+.6)(1+.15))= 0.9376
2.6/((1+.6)(1+.15))= 1.625

.8152 = 73.6*.25=18.4 actual PPM
1.413 = 42.46*.4348=18.4 actual PPM

Changes in Stat Choice
You'll still gear more or less the way you have been in the past. Hit is a priority until you're floating in the 9-11% range (Assuming you have Virulence and a shadow priest/boomkin in your raid. It's 8-10% for Alliance if you have a squidface). It is a waste of points to cap melee swing. Crit and Strength and Expertise should be your next focus stats, until you hit 26 expertise (dodge off the table). Notice that I said STRENGTH. Attack Power is not as good because of talents that grant us percent bonuses to strength, not to mention Blessing of Kings. AP does not scale with either.



Overall, 3.0.8 did not hurt the spec as much as some people thought it would. Long live DW Death Knights!

Interresting. How did the talent build look for this one? Cant get the link to work, but surely am tempted to give it a try.

Been looking for a good dps build for my Death Knight for a while, but I am stuck. 2 handed blood at the moment but feels a little...i dont know...meh.

Hmm its from this site i know. http://talent.mmo-champion.com/ check that out.

Ow...talk about messing the old 0/32/39 up...now I will have problem what to find to be effective again..^^;