Heya guys!!  So one of the biggest things about leveling any toon in WoW is “What spec do I use?”  Believe it or not, it is one of the most common questions out there.  So lets dip into this question briefly?

Why briefly?  Well, I full intend on a massive post about this in depth later.  So let’s just stick to the highlights for now eh?

Level 55-58

You are basically working through the DK specific quest lines here and can spec however you wish, but as you will hear me say throughout this entire post avoid Frost like the plague (pun intended).  Using either Blood or Unholy will suit you fine.  The strong points of each coming later in the post.

Level 58-70

OK, so you actually have a few options here.

1. Random Dungeon Queue as Tank – depending on your Battle Group you will see varying results in this level range.  If you get instant queue times, this will be crazy efficient with the random bonus rewards.
2. Power Level – You can easily 2 box (or run 2 versions of WoW at the same time on your own computer) if you have 2 accounts.  Just go to the BC instances and start burning through them.  You will level stupidly fast.
3. Questing – If you’ve got 20% exp bonus from heirloom items and have an idea as to what you are doing, this might be the fastest way to level in game now.  With the in game quest help it’s hard to ignore this as a viable option.

IMHO power leveling yourself with 20% exp bonus from heirloom items is the fastest system out there.  But depending on play style, questing play style, etc…you may find better results with a different system.

Level 70-80

Power leveling becomes less of an effective direction to take by this point.  While doable, you’d be better served taking the other two options.

1. Random Dungeon Queue as Tank – You will get instant queue times making this crazy efficient exp with the random bonus rewards.  Heirloom items just makes it that much more ridiculous.
2. Questing – If you’ve got 20% exp bonus from heirloom items and know what you are doing this should be the fastest way to level.  It is important to note however that if you spend a lot of travel time and “poking around time” not exp’ing, then Random Dung’s will be far more efficient in the end if you’re a quick tank.

Personal Experience

I leveled up a 2nd DK on my server a few months back.  Her name is Skeleton Jill, and she is a Blood Tank.  I personally was unable to take advantage of Heirloom items as I had to make this on my 2nd account with my old shaman Bigeasy.  Since I only had 1 80 (Skeletonjack) on my primary account, I was boned.  Though from doing enough random dungeons I did get the heirloom shoulders at level 76.

• Lvl55-58 I did the DK quest line.
• Lvl58-70 I did the Power Leveling.  I used Jack (primary account) and pl’d Jill (secondary account) through BC instances.  I also ended up bringing along several guildies and pl’ing them for several levels as well.  I found that Sethek Halls was by far the most efficient dungeon to use after trying a bunch of them.  If you look at that armory link you can see how many times Jill kill x end bosses.  Or even look at Jack considering he never did those instances until Jill.
• Lvl70-80 I did the Random Dung que.  I purchased the mats for a full set of the green BoE Cobalt tank plate pieces (8 total).  From then on all I did was level up in dungeons.  I only ever left to pick up a quest for a dungeon and to get flight paths.  I did one quest at level 70 to get a green LK quality weapon, and that was it.  Pretty sweet when you think about it.  I never even had to quest or grind an area once.

Spec Notations

So the first note is avoid Frost like the plague.  Seriously, do not go there.  Yeah, yeah…you CAN level as Frost just fine.  But a Holy Priest can level just fine as well.  But that doesn’t mean you should fricking do it now does it?  Frost tanks are not gonna be on par with Blood tanks, and Frost dps is inherently subpar leveling due to the extreme lack of hit on leveling gear.

Tanking

If your goal while leveling is to tank, go Blood.  What?!?!  SJ is pushing BLOOD?!!?  NOT UNHOLY!?!?  ZOMG!!  The world is ending!! 

The fact of the matter is I started off tanking as Unholy.  And then after one level of it I swapped to Blood and the difference is night and day in a 5man.  Running Recount I often found myself doing 50% of the total healing of the 5man healer.  Yeah, 50%.  So if he did for example 100,000 healing for the entire run (including healing other people) I would do 50,000 healing on the same run just healing myself.

Often times when the healer dc’d, needed mana, or I just pulled without realizing the healer was AFK I would survive on a full pull so long as I understood my mistake early enough.  Popping CD’s with the massive amount of self healing, comboing in a Death Pact/Raise Dead while Vampiric Blood up, and Death Strike spam usually = win.  Not even talking about AotD when needed.

DPS

Go Unholy.  For the love of God just please listen to me for once and don’t think you know what you’re talking about.  Because you don’t if you think anything levels better than Unholy.  Yes I understand Blood has the least downtime of all of the specs, staying nearly at full health permanently.  That’s good, but it’s not as good as Unholy.

Of note in Unholy are 2 major talents often overlooked.  And when I say “Often” I really mean almost ALWAYS.

On a Pale Horse and Improved Unholy Presence set Unholy far and above well beyond any other leveling spec in game if you are DPS’ing and not staying in dungeons.  It will shave off hours, literally hours (possibly days depending on your play style), from your level time.  Because you ALWAYS get to your destination faster.  You get to the mob to loot it quicker.  You get to the quest turn in faster.  You get to the next zone faster.  You get to the mob faster.  Etc…

The thing you have to remember as Unholy while leveling is to use Death Strike (even though you have the nifty Scourge Strike) and to pull packs of mobs (3-8+) at a time.  The strength of Unholy (besides movement) is massive AoE dmg.  You can literally kill twice as many mobs as Blood can at the same time.  So while you might have a bit more downtime than Blood, the improved AoE killing capacity more than beats it.

Talents

1. On a Pale Horse
2. Improved Unholy Presence
3. Desecration
4. Morbidity
5. Improved Death Strike
6. Bloodworms
7. Heart Strike

In order those are the most important talents (from a leveling perspective only) for a DK.  If you are a tank in dungeons, 1 & 2 don’t count for squat.  So following that list if you take the first 4 it means you will be Unholy spec for DPS.  However if you are a tank (ignoring 1 & 2), you can then see you could just skip 3 and by going Blood get every other talent.

Summary

Per normal I expect to see varying cries of condemnation to these opinions.  But they won’t change one thing.  That I’m right.  *smirk*

If you’re tanking, go Blood.

If you’re dps’ing, go Unholy.

If you go Frost, you’re Wrong.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…

Tags: Power Leveling