Note: Some aspects of this guide may not apply to your character until higher level. If are interested in getting your character to max level quickly, take a look at this leveling guide.
Glyphs come in three varieties, Prime, Major and Minor. Prime glyphs enhance core aspects of your class and generally provide the greatest benefit of the three types.
Major Glyphs, while not quite as powerful as Prime Glyphs, are still useful and continue to provide a myriad of benefits.
Minor Glyphs often times provide small quality of life improvements or visual changes, such as the Glyph of Shadow Form for priests which makes the character more visible through Shadow Form. However, a few are known to provide more significant benefits such as the warrior glyph of Berserker Rage.
Prime Glyphs:
Major Glyphs:
Minor Glyphs:
Here are your highest priority abilities.
Keep both diseases active on your target at all times, using Plague Strike to apply Blood Plague when necessary and Howling Blast to refresh Frost Fever.
Obliterate is your primary attack ability, use it as much as possible. Howling Blast should be used whenever Rime procs and Frost Strike should be used when your runes are depleted or you’re almost runic power capped.
Prioritize the use of Obliterate for Killing Machine procs. If necessary, wait a second or two to use Obliterate if it’s on Cooldown, otherwise use Frost Strike.
AoE Rotation
In multi-target situations you’ll want to drop Death and Decay as well as use Howling Blast as often as possible. Target mobs individually and use Plague Strike to apply Blood Plague, and you’ll refresh Frost Fever with Howling Blast which is your main attack tool in an AoE situation.
Cooldowns
The most important aspect of managing your cooldowns as a damage dealer is making certain to use them whenever they’re avaliable. Don’t be afraid to use them during any fight, even against trash mobs, as the higher the uptime you have with them, the greater your overall damage will be so long as you aren’t using them when a fight is about to end.
The only time to hold off on using your cooldowns is when you’ll be unable to attack the boss due to fight mechanics, such as during Morchok’s Black Blood of the Earth ability or when Hagara is about to cast Water Shield and become immune to all damage.
Melee DPS will have to watch out for this more than ranged, as they are far more vulnerable to situations where an encounter requires constant movement or the boss is utilizing some form of AoE attack that makes fighting in melee range impossible.
Strength > 8% Melee Hit > (26) Expertise > Haste > Mastery > Critical
Strength:
Strength increases your attack power, and thus damage, making it your most effective stat.
(8%) Melee Hit:
Hit rating reduces you chance to miss with attacks. A hit rating of 8% makes it so that your special abilities will no longer miss on bosses, thereby avoiding loss of DPS. Death Knights that Dual-Wield will take Nerves of Cold Steel, reducing the needed rating to achieve 8% melee hit to 601 from the 961 required by 2H Death Knights.
(26) Expertise:
Expertise reduces the chance for an enemy to dodge or parry your attacks. At an expertise rating of 26, the ‘soft’ cap, your attacks will no longer be dodged when behind your target.
Haste:
Haste increases attack speed and rune regeneration speed.
Mastery – Frozen Heart:
Frost Death Knight Mastery increases all Frost damage done.
Critical Strike:
Critical Strike rating increases your chance to critically hit with attacks.
5.0 – Reforging
When reforging gear, it’s important that you look to reforge from your least effective stat into the most effective for whatever gear goal you are currently aiming for. See our stat priority list for more information
8% Hit > Expertise (26) > Haste
(8%) Melee Hit:
First check that you have 8% melee hit, and if not, reforge until you reach it. For 2H Death Knight’s the rating required is 961, for Dual-Wielding Death Knight’s, 601 due to Nerves of Cold Steel.
(26) Expertise – Haste:
Once you’ve reached the 8% melee hit cap, optimize the amount of haste on your gear while also aiming to reach the (26) Expertise Cap.
Gems
- Red – Bold Inferno Ruby
- Blue – Etched Demonseye
- Yellow – Fierce Ember Topaz – Skillful Ember Topaz
- Meta – Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond
Unless a socket bonus offers strength, it’s more effective to gem for pure strength and ignore the bonus.
Enchantments
- Main Hand: Rune of Razorice
- Off-Hand: Rune of Fallen Crusader
- Two-Handed: Rune of Fallen Crusader
- Helm: Arcanum of the Dragonmaw – Arcanum of the Wildhammer
- Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone
- Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Greater Critical Strike
- Chest: Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
- Bracers: Enchant Bracer – Major Strength
- Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Mighty Strength
- Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
- Leggings: Dragonscale Leg Armor
- Boots: Enchant Boots – Haste
Our class guides for whichever class you’re playing:
Death Knights – Druid – Hunter – Mage – Paladin
Priest – Rogue – Shaman – Warlock – Warrior
The GotWarcraft Gold Guide
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