Heya guys!!  How’s it going?  Well it’s time for Season 5 Arena specs.  That’s right.  We’re rip, roarin’ ready to go!!

I did a lot of research on these specs.  And that means upwards of 30-40+ hours of research and reading alone.  Not even counting time spent playing the game.

Is my information 100% correct and the best out there?  Maybe not.  Arena is so subjective and player skill dependent that it is very hard to judge and accurately measure.

This post is however the basis for any good spec in Arena that will help many people out there.  I usually use WoW Head because it loads faster, however we’re moving to MMO’s talent page because it shows Glyphs at the same time.  Which means less work for me.  Heh.

So let’s blow some !@#$ up eh?!

All of these specs are based off of finalized changes on PTR.  Why?  Whatever happens in the next few weeks will not determine the real fights in Arena once people have gear, etc.  The MMO Champion talent build pages have the updated PTR patched changes.  The correct Glyph changes, etc are reflected there.  Please be aware of that.

44/27/0 - Blood Crowd Control Burst

The basic concept behind this spec is to focus on steady constant burst damage through Obliterates and Heart Strikes (which do benefit from the Glyph of Blood Strike) while never using Icy Touch.  Instead you use Chains of Ice to apply a snare and also Frost Fever.

Swaps

• Glyph of Icebound Fortitude – If you do not need the added dps from CoI and you find you are more the subject of stuns than actual damage, this can be the answer.
• Glyph of Vampiric Blood – If you do not need the added dps from CoI, and are the primary person taking damage, bringing VB to a 30 sec duration out of 1 minute can be very helpful.

Composition Notes

• The strength of this spec is in survivability, solid consistent burst, and crowd control on your primary target from CoI.  Does well on melee teams and on low CC teams.  Biggest weakness is a lack of a healing debuff.

54/5/12 – Blood Burst

The concept behind this spec is to not gimp your diseases by skipping early Unholy, but at the same time pick up Dancing Rune Weapon.  DRW combined with summoning your ghoul (it will also summon a ghoul – and glyphed this is a bonus 20 RP for you) will lay down a massive level of burst for FF that probably cannot be matched by any other spec.  You sacrifice Annihilation however, meaning your Obliterates will be destroying your diseases.  However with high damage HS and Oblit’s, this spec is still very strong.

Swaps

• Glyph of Icebound Fortitude – If you find you are more the subject of stuns than actual damage, this can be the answer (instead of VB Glyph).

Composition Notes

• The strength of this spec is in greater survivability, massive controlled burst every 3 minutes, and solid damage capacity.  This does well on heavy dps teams or low dps teams so long as you can follow through with the burst when you have too.  Does best with allies who can CC opponents who may CC you when it’s time to unload.  Biggest weakness is a lack of a healing debuff and the fact that Oblits will eat your diseases.

 47/14/10 - Basic Blood PvP

The concept behind this spec is to bring all of the strengths of Blood to the table without gimping anything.  Will of the Necropolis will give you a 33 sec CD AMS after the patch, while a glyphed VB will give you a 30 sec duration every minute.  Combined with IBF and Frost Presence this is a very high survivability spec.  Add in consistent burst from HS/Oblits and improved diseases from Unholy and you have an overall strong PvP spec.  High survivability and high dps.

Swaps

• Glyph of Icebound Fortitude – If you find you are more the subject of stuns than actual damage, this can be the answer (instead of VB Glyph).

Composition Notes

• The spec has no true weakness except against high armor opponents and a lack of a healing debuff.  It does very well with healers and with other dps that can debuff healing.  For an outlasting team, this spec does very well with no mana and the capacity for an unlimited resource for damage.

3/51/17 - Frost Crowd Control

The strength of this build lies in CoI applying a snare and Frost Fever at the same time with a 1 min CD Hungering Cold.  HC is not always a big deal, but sometimes can be a game winner.  When combined with proper applications of Fear, Polymorph, Sap, Blind, etc…this can be devastating.  Add in the massive amount of burst that Frost brings to the table and Merciless Combat, this can be a devastating build with the right team. 

Swaps

• 3/56/12 – If you find that being stunned/feared is not as much of an issue for you as consistent spell caster damage, then swapping 5 points out of Unholy for spell resistance can help.

Composition Notes

• This spec will work best when combined with a Rogue, Mage, or Warlock.  Hungering Cold is mediocre by itself, but devastating with another solid CC.  Add in heavy burst and most of it’s heavy damage ignoring armor, and you’ve got an interesting potential with the right makeup.  Potentially frightening in a 5v5 team with 2 other CC’ing dps.

23/0/48 - Unholy PvP

This spec maximizes your pet and its survivability, while increasing your survivability and your teams through AMS and AMZ.  It also skips on reaping because your BS will actually do significantly more dps than your SS will glyphed/talented versus snared targets instead of SS.  Overall this does consistent strong burst damage versus any target, with additional dps/control from your pet and gargoyle.  Combine in desecration snares with CoI, and you have a very strong well rounded build.

Swaps

• 23/5/43 - If you find the pet to be too weak, this drops the pet for Toughness to negate kiting.
• 23/0/48 – If you find the pet to be too weak and being kited is not an issue, this just picks up more dps.
• Glyph of Icy Touch – The SS Glyph is arguable at best.  Swapping this out for more RP could be a good alternative.

Composition Notes

• This team works well with just about any composition suited to a Death Knight, though it is lacking a healing debuff.  So pairing with a rogue, warrior, etc is wise.  It’s nice for 5v5’s in that it can drop AMZ for stopping ranged dps.  This will be highly sought after by other players due to Unholy Aura more than any other reason.

Rotations

There are none, I’m sorry.  Everything in Arena is subjective and open to interpretation.  Most of the time you are setting up for a Focus Fire (FF).  Laying down diseases, setting up your Death Runes, crowd controlling and seperating the other team, and then laying down as much dps as possible in a massive sudden burst.  I can’t give you a rotation because depending on what you had to do to get to a point to actually FF a target, there is no telling what Runes are available, how much RP, etc…

Burst

Burst damage is defined as large spike amounts of incoming damage in a relatively short period of time.  Coordinating multiple people at the same time to all lay down as much burst damage as possible is called Focus Firing, or Focus Fire (FF).  Banking your RP to 100, having diseases already down on a target, and letting your Runes refresh (with Death Runes if you have them) is a solid way to prepare for a FF burst.  Also using tools like Raise Dead, Dancing Rune Weapon, Hungering Cold, Deathchill, and Gargoyle can help make this more effective.

Teams

It’s impossible to know yet what the best team compositions are, though Rogue/Death Knight is looking very overpowered atm in 2v2’s.  Only time will tell.  Atm, it is very strong in any combination because Resilience is hard to come by and the healing debuff is not as needed.  However as time goes on, not having this will become more of a handicap.  Death Knights should focus on being teamed with allies who bring a healing debuff to the table or have superior burst damage combined with good CC.

Presences

Blood Presence is a “No, no…”  Period.  End of Story.  I swear to God I will hit you upside the head with a rolled up newspaper and then rub your nose in your Blood Presence like it was !@#$ or something if you use it.

Unholy Presence is your avatar, your soul, your truest form.  This is where you live in PvP.  Bonus speed (excluding Unholy) and 1sec GCD for the highest potential burst possible make this a clear winner.  Always.  Don’t even think you’re right if you were about to say anything about Blood.  YOU.  ARE.  WRONG.

Frost Presence is your butt saver.  Ever wanted to throw your keyboard across the room and scream when you were FF’ing a warrior when you suddenly saw the shield graphic pop up over his head and the 2H goes away for sword and board?  This is the same, but better.  You don’t lose any damage from Unholy Presence by doing this.  You just lose your 1sec GCD for burst and the speed bonus.  Lay into players still if possible, just pop your defensive abilities and ride out the dmg.

Runeblade

Fallen Crusader.  End of Story.  I don’t care what your spec is, this is the winner.  I read the math somewhere, but I forget where now.  >.<  Deal with it ok, I’m tired.    Even with a Frost spec, the added dps to all of your attacks from the Strength proc is insane.  It works out with even basic blue/epics to about a 700 AP bonus on a proc applied to *every* attack, including yellow and white.  And out of all of the available Runeblade enchants, this one is the only one to scale as good as it does.

Macros

Coming Soon!!  I mean, this took enough time already.  Come on!!  Give me a break guys.  Damn slave drivers…   *mutter*  *grumble*

Sianara!!

Did I spell that right?!?!  *shrug*  I swear I will beat you guys bloody if you don’t go out and kill some people with these specs damnit!!  Go!!  Get!!  Go murder some people damnit!!    heh

Tags: PvP, Specs