4/10/2015
Introduction:
Hello forums! My name is Thares, also known as Newruk on alliance side. I am from a horde guild called Is A Cookie which orginally came from Lordaeron but as we had cleared all content in wotlk we decided to try out cataclysm.
We started on Greymane by playing there and discovered how cataclysm was despite all the buggs that were back then with warriors doing 200k dps without trying in BWD and other classes being totally overpowerd. Later as Greymane got closed we decided to try out Frostwolf and we have been there ever since.
Back then i was one of the OT/Panic tank for LK HC and the other heroic content in wrath but when i started playing cataclysm i was very skeptical about it since i have had heard the nerfs the warrior got when cataclysm got released as well as in later patches (intercept/charge/spell reflect nerf anyone?). Despite the nerfs i tried playing as protection first but later my guild leader wanted me to try fury back in 4.0.6 and it was amazing, i loved it!
Altho when 4.3.4 came out the arms warriors got buffed and fury got nerfed so i tried arms in PvE because i only played it in PvP mostly and i've played it and tried to improve ever since. Now im here to show you how to play as an Arms warrior!
Talents and Glyphs:
These are my current talants. Mostly people would comment that i have throwdown in my spec in PvE but it is cruical to have it when you are doing for example: the Ragnaros encounter since it can be a life saver if a son of flames gets too close to the hammer. I might also recommend to take Blitz instead of Field dressing as well since you can stun multiple targets and get extra rage when you use rage but it's your personal choice.
4/09/2015
If you're here, you probably want to learn how to play a frost death knight. Frost death knights are an easy class to learn, and great DpSers, not to mention fun! Frost death knights perform best on single target dps and therefore aren't as proficient as UH DKs on AoE fights such as Lich King Phase 1. Frost death knights bring a +20% melee haste buff to raids. It's useful towards raid dps and always a must in a good raid! Frost DKs are also fairly versatile depending on what you stack. The two main frost dps specs are arp and strength. Arp does outperform strength, but mainly in heroic geared situations. Arp also requires a much higher uptime on the target to sustain its dps. In my guide, I'll be teaching you the strength spec, as that is the one I have more experience in. A word of warning, it's also fairly in depth compared to the other quick guides.* I hope you find it useful. Now let's dive in!
*If you only want to skim through and not read the entire thing, I have all the main points bolded. :)
Table of Contents:
- Abbreviations
- Talents and Glyphs
- Basic Rotation and Procs, when to use them?
- Maximizing your DpS, utilizing defensive cooldowns.
- Stat Priority
- Gems
- BiS List (includes enchants & runeforging)
- Professions
- Macros
- Addons
- Preparing for Raids (Flasks/Food)
- Credits
Abbreviations:
AMS = Anti-Magic Shell
AoE = Area of Effect
Arp = Armor Penetration
AP = Attack Power
BiS = Best in Slot
BT = Blood Tap
BCB = Blood Cake Blade
CD = Cooldown
DK = Death Knight
ERW = Empowered Rune Weapon
FS = Frost Strike
GCD = Global Cooldown
Horn = Horn of Winter
HB = Howling Blast
HA = Hyperspeed Accelerators
IBF = Icebound Fortitude
ICD = Internal Cool Down (for trinkets)
IT = Icy Touch
KM = Killing Machine
OB = Obliterate
Pest = Pestilence
PS = Plague Strike
PvE = Player versus Environment
PvP = Player versus Player
Str = Strength
UA = Unbreakable Armor
UH = Unholy
Talents & Glyphs
The talent specialization that I use (0/55/16) can be found here!
This spec is geared for complete end game, so you'll notice that Killing Machine only has 4/5. This is because when your crit is around 35-40% you can easily get by with only 4/5. I placed the extra talent in Blood-Caked Blade. This leftover point is very controversial. If it was working as intended, BCB would be the talent you'd want no question. But seeing as it's bugged, Subversion becomes a very popular alternative. Especially good if your guild's tank is having trouble keeping aggro through your burst. Finally, you can take a point out of Chill of the Grave and put it into Blood-Caked Blade if you find yourself getting TOO MUCH RUNIC POWER and only then. However, these are all trivial differences. Until you're around....6.2k+ gs, keep 5/5 in KM.
For your 3 major glyphs, you should have Glyph of Disease, Glyph of Frost Strike, and Glyph of Obliterate (in order of importance (high to low)). This is not optional, and it will never change. So feel free to buy them early into the gearing of your character.
Minor glyphs: Glyph of Horn of Winter, and maybe Glyph of Blood Tap if you don't like hurting yourself. (You don't need any minor glyphs and the only one of mild convenience is horn of winter.)
Finally, use Blood Presence when dpsing.
Basic Rotation and Procs, when to use them?
When you start any boss fight, your first spell is going to be Horn of Winter (refresh as needed during fight, after the RP dump is optimal). Rotation is then divided into two parts.
One thing you need to know is to never drop your diseases. This is one of the two most crucial elements of a frost rotation.
The other thing you need to know is the RP dump. The RP dump is where you siphon off all your RP through Frost Strike. It is also where you use your Rime Procs.
The first part of your "rotation" will be the starter rotation:
Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Obliterate -> Blood Strike -> Blood Tap -> Unbreakable Armor (& Hyperspeed Accelerators if you're an Engineer) -> Howling Blast*(Proc) -> Frost Strike (until out of RP or frost/uh runes reset).
*Note that Howling Blast should never be used before Frost Strike if you have Killing Machine procced as well. A critical Frost Strike > critical Howling Blast. HB has been fixed, so it's not as horrible an alternative, but still stick to this priority system. If Killing Machine isn't procced, Howling first.*
If you want to incorporate ERW into this rotation, here's how you'd do it:
IT -> PS -> BS -> BT -> UA/HA -> OB -> FS dump -> ERW -> OB x2/3 -> more FS + HB
This gives you a ****load of consecutive FS + OB. Alternatively you could just save it for in case you mess up your rune cds.
In this starter segment of the rotation, you see that it has you popping all of your CDs. This is because when you have high crit chance and the BiS trinkets, it becomes almost certain that said trinkets will proc within the first 15 seconds of the fight. You then want to stack all the CDs you have. This will maximize your dps more than say, waiting till you have an RP dump later in the fight but not having your trinkets up. Always stack your damage buffs. If you can get Hysteria + Heroism/Bloodlust as well, then have it activate with everything else. You WILL have higher numbers!
I'm not saying, however, that you should wait for your trinkets to proc again in the middle of the fight before you activate your CDs again. Hit your **** as soon as it becomes available. The ICD of your trinkets will generally be in line with UA anyway.
This is the standard rotation afterwards:
Obliterate x3 -> RP dump & Horn -> Obliterate x2 -> Pest -> Blood Strike (replacing Blood Strike with Blood Tap -> UA when cooldown resets.) -> RP dump
^ Repeat until the fight ends.
This rotation set/priority system maximizes your ability to use runes efficiently and with a minimum global rune cooldown. You'll notice that all Frost/Unholy Runes are used consecutively, with blood runes having a lower priority. This is because the Frost/UH runes will be the main source of your dps. If you use half your frost/uh runes and then some blood runes before switching back to frost/uh, the drop in dps will be considerable!
Maximizing your DPS, utilizing defensive cooldowns.
The first things I will mention here are some molten exploits, some commonly known, some not. For example, if you have two frost death knights in the raid, you can switch to a secondary spec and then back to your main one. This will result in you having double Icy Talons. Confirmed.
Also, switching to an Unholy spec, summoning your ghoul, and then switching back to your Frost spec will have you retain the Unholy ghoul, who will remain with you until killed. Confirmed.
Next, we'll talk about how to maximize your dps by editing rotation*. There isn't much change, just start with Army of the Dead seconds before the start of the fight, have your ghoul if you're using the UH ghoul bug, pop Horn and run in screaming LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRROOOOOOOOOOYYYYYY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNKIIIIINNNNSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!111* * After that, it's standard rotation. If you're not using the UH ghoul bug, you'll want to raise your ghoul after you pop your cds in the starter rotation because the ghoul will take the stats you have up when you summon it.
*Only Recommended on certain bosses, aka DBS/Festergut.
**PROVEN to maximize DpS! But wait for the tank to get aggro.
Finally, I'll point out some of the death knights DEFENSIVE cooldowns, which can have unanticipated dps boosts. You'll see that Anti-Magic Shield (AMS) causes you to gain runic power went struck by an effect. A common usage for this is to pop it, then deliberately step into the zone you're supposed to avoid (Marrow: Fire) (Lady: DnD) (Rotface: Sticky Slime Spray) (PP: ....too many to name) (BQL: Air Phase/Bloodbolt Whirl) (Sindragosa: Blistering Cold for us slow ones) (Lich King: Remorseless Winter ONLY...defile = GG) These are the main ones and I don't usually bother popping it in other situations. Another defensive cooldown is Icebound Fortitude: only to be used in BQL air phase, Rotface's Explosion, or something similar. There is no DpS boost from it.
Stat Priority
A Death Knight's main attribute is Strength. Of course, first you should be hit capped, and I would call the hit cap between 7-8% although it can go down to as low as 5% with your talents, but I don't recommend it. Expertise cap is: 24, not hard to reach. And make sure to factor in racial passives accordingly! (Draenei: 1% hit, Human: + 3 expertise with maces, Troll: +20% haste I believe, Orc: + pet damage and ap)
After hit is strength, stack as much of this as you can. Haste follows closely behind strength, faster global cooldowns, auto attacks more often, and more chance of Killing Machine. Then you have Crit Rating. You should have 30% or more in end-game gear. But because of KM, you really don't need to bother actively going for crit. Finally, armor penetration. I'm drawn to it, dunno why. However, you should never stack it in a strength spec because you will get all the arp you need from your gear.
So to refresh: Hit/Expertise -> Strength -> Haste -> Arp -> Crit.
Gems! Precious valuables!
I try to match all my gems to the socket color so that I can get the socket bonus, only do this when your gear is pretty high level (i264+). At this point, it's pretty much even to stacking full strength.
However if your gear isn't i264+, you should probably stack full strength, siding in hit/expertise gems as needed. Gem to your needs! When you're hit and expertise capped, go full out strength.
Meta Socket: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (+21 agility, +3% increased damage)
Red Socket: Bold Cardinal Ruby (+20 strength)
Yellow Socket: Fierce Ametrine (+10 strength +10 haste)
Blue: Nightmare tear 1, then stack str, str and expertise, or hit and expertise*
*In full BiS gear, you will only have 1 blue socket.
BiS Gear & how to enchant it.
*Note that all items are HC, and I'm not responsible for any unintentional drooling that might happen to your keyboard*
Set-up is as follows:
Slot: Item: Enchant
Head: Sanctified Scourgelord Helmet: +50 attack power, +20 crit rating
Neck: Penumbra Pendant
Shoulders: Sanctified Scourgelord Shoulderplates: +40 attack power, +15 crit rating
Cloak: Winding Sheet: +23 Haste
Chest: Sanctified Scourgelord Battleplate: +10 all stats
Shirt: Precious's Ribbon? Idk...
Tabard: Tabard of Frost (cause you're a frost DK) or Tabard of the Lightbringer
To be honest, I think Tabard of the Achiever looks the nicest with this set.
Bracers: Polar Bear Claw Bracers: + 50 attack power
Hands: Fleshrending Gauntlets: +44 attack power/+340 haste (engineer)
Belt: Coldwraith Links: + Eternal Belt Buckle (+20 strength)
Legs: Sanctified Scourgelord Legplates: +75 attack power, +22 crit rating
Feet: Apocalypse's Advance: +32 attack power/ ap + minor run speed increase/nitro boosts (passive crit) I really recommend getting something with a movement speed buff here. The survivability is nice, and your dps will be the same.
Ring 1: Ashen Band of Endless Might
Ring 2: Skeleton Lord's Circle
Trinket 1: Sharpened Twilight Scale
Trinket 2: Deathbringer's Will
Weapons: Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings x 2
Sigil: Sigil of the Hanged Man/Sigil of Virulence (Depends on the fight. High movement = Virulence. Burst = Hanged Man)
Runeforging:
Honestly it doesn't matter which weapon you put the runeforges on. Razorice on your mainhand has been proven to have a higher DpS output then Fallen Crusader, but the increase is so infinitesimally small that it doesn't really matter.
Main hand weapon slot: Rune of Razorice on Havoc
Offhand weapon slot: Rune of the Fallen Crusader on Havoc
Professions:
There are a variety of profession combinations that you can learn. The most popular is Blacksmithing + Jewelcrafting, but I personally have Engineering and Blacksmithing because I'm a gnome and I pvp sometimes, and I think works quite well. These are the best 3 professions. If you have a goblin engineering specialization, you can even link Saronite Bombs or the Global Sapper thing into a Frost Strike macro.
Macros:
Unbreakable Armor + Hyperspeed Accelerators:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Sanctified Scourgelord Gauntlets
/startattack
/castsequence reset=60 Blood Tap, Unbreakable Armor, Sanctified Scourgelord Gauntlets
^ This macro activates Blood Tap, then UA, and finally the HA. However, you do need to press it 3 times.
All the following macros are simply autoattack macros that reset your autoattack when you cast the ability, in essence allowing you an extra weapon swing in addition to your ability.
Icy Touch:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Icy Touch
/startattack
/cast Icy Touch
Plague Strike:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/startattack
/cast Plague Strike
Obliterate:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Obliterate
/startattack
/cast Obliterate
Blood Strike:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Blood Strike
/startattack
/cast Blood Strike
Pestilence:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Pestilence
/autoattack
/cast Pestilence
Frost Strike:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Frost Strike
/startattack
/cast Frost Strike
Howling Blast:
Spoiler:
#showtooltip Howling Blast
/startattack
/cast Howling Blast
Addons:
I only use 1 DK specific addon, but I think there are a couple that all DKs should have:
Power Auras
DKI: Runes/Diseases
Deadly Boss Mods
Here is a picture of my UI:
Spoiler:
The purpose of this thread is to provide a specific place for newer and inexperienced players to learn how to play their spec/class a bit, and for older and more experienced players to discuss and theorycraft regarding Retribution PvE.
If you wish to see my armory, you may look here: Lynea - Ragnaros
I usually have my PvE Retribution and tank specs enabled. Occasionally I will switch to PvE. If you are interested in my exact talent build, glyphs, and my current gear, that is where you should look.
Please try and keep the discussion clean from trolling and flames. Constructive criticism is appreciated. The more of it we have, the better the guide will develop and perhaps evolve.
Color code:
Blue = Main section.
Red = Sub-section.
Green = Specific term or topic.
Content
- Gear and stats
- Spells, Abilities, and Rotations
- Talents
- 3.3.5a Retribution BiS lists
- The Paladin Philosophy
- Disclaimer
First and foremost, gear is important.
This is the official BiS gear list for 3.3 Retribution.
A repost of the BiS lists can be found toward the bottom of the guide. They are updated for 3.3.5a, and include 4 different lists.
One for all plate and strength gear that are heroic and Ruby Sanctum loot.
One for all gear types, including leather and agility, and are heroic and Ruby Sanctum loot.
One for all plate and strength gear that are non-heroic and are currently obtainable in-game.
One for all gear types, including leather and agility, that are non-heroic and currently obtainable in-game.
Some ask "Why leather? Why agility gear?". The question is answered more simply than some may think. Agility grants a Paladin with an incredible amount of melee crit, and the attack power that comes on agility items makes it very worthwhile, and in some cases better than the available plate items by a small margin.
Contents:
1. Stat caps
2. Early Combat spec and play style
3. Late Combat spec and play style
4. BiS list
5. Enchants
6. FAQ & Tips
7. Bug Section
Abbreviations:
CP - Combo Point
SS - Sinister Strike
FoK - Fan of Knives
SnD - Slice and Dice
Evi - Eviscerate
Rup - Rupture
AR - Adrenaline Rush
BF - Blade Flurry
KS - Killing Spree
TotT - Tricks of the Trade
IP - Instant Poison
DP - Deadly Poison
AoE - Area of Effect
Go# - Glyph of #
1. Stat Caps
Hit Rating. The most important thing about DPSing no matter what you do is getting Hit-capped. No other stat matters at all if you're not Hit-capped. It does not matter if you crit for 10k Sinister Strike if that SS *misses*! Hit rating until the Hit-cap is the biggest DPS increase you will get. So, the Hit-cap for special melee abilities is 8%. You MUST always have it! No Sinister Strike misses, no finisher misses. The Hit-cap for spells (poisons) is 17%. You might want to have this as well, since poisons are a very big & important part of Rogue DPS. The Hit-cap for Dual Wield auto-attacks is 25%. It is NOT worth it reaching this cap.
Q: How do I reach the Hit-cap? - 5% from Precision, 1% from Heroic Presence (Draenei) and you got 2% left, which you will get without even trying. From there on it's about gemming & gear choices.
Q: Should I aim for the spell-cap as Combat? - even though you don't get nearly as much DPS from Poisons as Assassination, they still yield a lot of your DPS. So... you should, but it's not your #1 priority.
Expertise comes second after Hit. When attacking from the front (happens in dynamic fights) it is twice as important as Hit. However, you get a good quantity of +Exp from Weapon Expertise & Racial Weapon Specializations, making the 21 Exp cap easily obtainable just from gear. Furthermore, Exp loses half of its value just by the fact that you're attacking from behind (NPCs cannot Parry from behind, they can still Dodge) and then another big chunk from Surprise Attacks enabling your finishers to ALWAYS land when Hit-capped & attacking from behind.
Armor Penetration - this stat allows you to ignore an enemy's armor. Generally speaking, bosses have around 30% mitigation from armor. ArP is your most important secondary DPS stat as Combat, as almost all of your damage is physical. There are 2 ArP caps - the soft and the hard cap. The hard cap is 1400 - it means you'll (theoretically) ignore all of the target's armor. It is obtainable somewhere between ICC10 and ICC25 gear. Before that point you should be aiming for the ArP soft cap, which is the amount of ArP you need to reach 1400 when your ArP trinket procs.
An ArP trinket is a <must-have> for anyone starting Combat. When it procs, it causes your attacks to almost fully ignore the opponent's armor if you are already ArP-soft-capped. This is a list of the 3 pre-ICC ArP-proc trinkets:
- Mjolnir Runestone (Ulduar, vote);
- Needle-encrusted Scorpion (FoS Hc);
- Grim Toll (Naxx25).
2. Early Combat Spec and Play Style
This is the talent build you should be using as a Combat PvE in early gear levels (see below for more info)
5cp SnD + 5cp Rup is the basic Combat rotation. It will yield most of your DPS and make a mediocre Rogue out of you, but that's not what you're aiming I guess... ;)
Hello, I'm Kemisha of Frostwolf. Some of you might know me for some quite obscene damage in BGs, or playing pocket healer. However as a huge PvE fan and with the lack of a guide here (And the EJ one being outdated, badly coded thanks to changed in the WoWhead database) thought that I should throw up this little guide on how to be awesome at shaman.
Contents:
1) Overview
2) Talents
a. Tree
b. Glyphs
c. Individual Talents
3) Gear
a. Gearing
b. Gems
c. Enchants
d. Professions
4) Playstyle
5) Macros
6) Addons
Shamans are the master of elements, the true earth mothers. Controlling every element in order to damage, control or heal.
Restoration – Healer: Using the soothing energies of water to cleanse all injuries, awakening the spirits to aids those close to death. Resto Shamans are strong at aiding those who are about to die.
Elemental – Ranged Damage: Calls upon the fire and nature elements in order to cause destruction from range. Storms are coming for Elemental shamans enemies.
Enhancement – Melee Damage: Imbuing their weapons with the forces, causing strong melee damage with the powers of Wind, Fire and Nature to unleash the ultimate fury.
Picking your Race:
Alliance:
Dwarf – Racial more useful in a PvP situation, allowing you to reduce damage taken by 10% for 8s, this however might be quite good for PvE depending on how you use it. Also increased Expertise rating with Maces.
Dreanei – The 1% hit rating is a good stat to enjoy, however this is Molten and it doesn't work. The Racial heal again like the Dwarf one is more PvP based, however might have a small use in PvE.
Horde:
Goblin – 1% haste rating, which is useless to Enhc Shamans.
Orc – On use Attack Power buff, expertise when using Axes. Hands down the best Shaman race of both factions.
Tauren – AOE stun and an increased 5% Base HP.
Troll – Small Bloodlust style haste boost, bit useless for shamans, Slow effect reduction (PvP mainly).
Talents:
Primary Glyphs
Glyph of Lava Lash - Increases the Damage of Lava Lash, should be your standard go to Enhc glyph
Glyph of Windfury Weapon - Increases the proc rate of your WF weapon, again a must have glyph.
then either:
Glyph of Stormstrike - This is preferential for when you have your T13 4set, since it works with increasing your damage with Lightning Bolt and Earth Shock.
Glyph of Shocking - Better if you don't have your T13 4set, since the reduced GCDs from shock help clear up a little downtime should you still have any.
Who I am:
Well ingame my character is Faelarin (or Fae). I am a Former Mage Class Leader and Officer of <Severance> on Deathwing and have been playing Mage as my main since WoW release in 2004.
The Mage class is considered to be a top dps class. Mages can be a RNG or just a flat dps class. RNG meaning Random Number Generators. In the case of molten, most mages are RNG FFB mages. This means they rely on Crits to pull dps, if they dont get them, bye bye dps. An example of a flat dps mage is arcane, where haste is the significant part of dps rather than crits. This guide will focus mostly on RNG mages. Reasons below.
Our reasons to play mage:
1) Sexy Beast
2) High Mobility
3) Easy Defensive CDs
4) High Burst and Sustained Dmg
5) Raid Wide Int. Buff.
6) Easy Raid CC spell for those annoying Mind Controls.
Anyway, down to business.
SPECS
There 5 main PvE specs for mage:
Arcane (57/3/11)
Viable = YES
(3 extra points into Arcane Stability for not worrying about staying in range of Conc aura, These points can be redistributed to Student of the Mind and Arcane Meditation)
As you can see there is no Arcane Barrage or Slow in the spec. This is because they're just not needed. Arcane Barrage will actually drop your dps when used because of the GCD (global cooldown) that it causes. Slow is not in the spec either, this is because as of patch 3.3.3 it is no longer required to have the "Slow" spell debuff on target for Torment the Weak to take effect. This means that tanks now apply a debuff that allows you to take advantage of TTW. However in the case of Molten-WoW, only certain debuffs actually proc TTW properly, the main one being a Death Knights Icy Touch. Because most raids have a Death Knight, it is not required to have Slow in the spec. Those 2 points which most people place in these two talents have been places into Arcane Stability to allow for nearly no pushback with raid buffs for arcane missiles (namely Concentration Aura which gives 35%). It is also possible to remove 1 additional point from Student of the Mind to cap reduced pushback with Conc. Aura.
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