Personally I’m a big fan of the Unholy talent tree. I’ve tried them all, but always come back to Unholy. Each one of the trees has pros and cons when leveling. A big con with an Unholy build is that you don’t get a lot of the self healing that you’d get from the Blood tree or that sexy burst damage from the Frost tree. Nope, leveling Unholy is all about steadily killing anything dumb enough to aggro. Oh I love that!

So here’s the benefit of Unholy leveling – Area of Effect (AoE) baby! This tree is all about bringing the pain to anything in range. Sometimes this even includes frogs, Eleks, Clefthoof, the random Elite mob… I think you get my drift. The downside of an AoE build is that sometimes you’ll end up pulling one more mob than you’d planned. The thing about the Unholy is that you can pull that one extra mob AND NOT DIE. (Insert evil laugh – here)

The Spec: 19/0/52

Some things you’ll notice about this build are that it skips Summon Gargoyle and picks up talents like On A Pale Horse and Anticipation. This spec also runs over into … bum bum buuuuuuum… the Blood Tree. Why? Well let’s start with the Unholy side and then get back to the Blood.

Ok, so in the last build for Dual Wielding we picked up Summon Gargoyle, but this spec doesn’t. It’s really more of a gimme talent because while leveling you will tend to not use it. In this spec you want to stick with 2 Handers, Axe, Sword, Mace, whichever. You want it to be slow and you want it to hit *hard*.

By dipping into the blood tree, we’re also hitting the Two-Handed Weapon Specialization talent. That adds a little extra oomph to your white hits and your Strikes. So if you miss a rotation because a guildy is asking a question, you can still kill pretty efficiently. We’re also grabbing a little self healing via Vendetta, and we’re getting more chances to land a critical hit (ie more damage) by grabbing Dark Conviction.

So now on to the talents that were picked. On A Pale Horse and tanking talents? Why? Ok, so yes you can get from place to place a lot faster, but read the description for On A Pale Horse a little more closely. This talent also reduces the effects of Stun and Fear effects. So when you’re doing Ring of Blood in Nagrand to pick up the very sweet Honed Voidaxe, you can do just a little more damage because you don’t spend as much time knocked out by the stuns some of those elites throw at you. !@#$!@#$!!

But realize that OaPH and Unholy Aura will make you level faster than any Blood or Frost build simply because you will get everywhere a million times faster. Call it your running shoes!  And those tanking talents?  AoE means lots of mobs.  Standing in one place to AoE them means they have to be hitting you.  Not taking damage long enough to kill them = well, you get it now right?

Paving a Swath of Destruction

Since this is an AoE build, its not only easier to take care of that extra mob you might have pulled, it’s also easier to just tag and bag more mobs at a time without having to slow down. So just like last time, the quicker you kill, the quicker you turn in, the quicker you ding.

You’d get the most out of this build by taking on more than one mob at a time. I’m usually able to take on at least three mobs at any one time, and rotate one in as soon as I knock one off.  If you practice at it, you should be able to take on 5-8 mobs.

Rotation

IT > PS > BS > BS > SS > UB

SS > SS > SS

If you’re AoE’ing you’ll want to use Pestilence and DnD are up to help add more damage like so:

IT -> PS -> Pest -> DnD -> UB

DS -> BB -> BB -> DS

Don’t forget to use Corpse Explosion as soon as a mob dies off to give you a little added AoE Damage. Now you can repeat this until you run out of mobs. Once you hit 66 you can train for and use Death Pact to sacrifice your Ghoul for a quick heal.  You can also swap out the DS for the AoE rotation with SS if you do not need self healing.

From the Starting Line

Ok so now you’re probably thinking, ok, all of these talents are great, but where do I put what talents as I push though levels. Ok, I’ve got you covered there. I’d recommend starting out putting your talents in the Unholy Tree first and then working your way over to the Blood Talents as you go. I pretty much suggest this because you’ll be able to grab Master of Ghouls, Bone Shield, and Unholy Blight a little bit sooner. Then you’ll be able to work your way over into the Blood Talents to help out with the Elite quests as you finish up in the Outlands and on to Northrend.

Talents at 58: 0/0/51
Talents at 71: 11/0/51
Talents at 80: 19/0/52

Summing Up

Ok, so tying it all together. This is an AoE build that will make leveling a lot faster by letting you kill a lot of stuff quickly. It also takes advantage of the Unholy tree’s faster movement speeds. Starting out you’ll want to move up the Unholy tree first and then branch out from there. You’ll also want to take advantage of using your AoE abilities as you’re working though the mobs.

Next up I’ll give a run down on Blood Leveling, but I wanted to get this one up first because Malék asked for an Unholy leveling spec in the comments of my last post.

-Geist

Tags: Geistig, Power Leveling, Specs

Heya guys!!  What’s going on? 

Recently I accounced that I would be adding a new content writer to my site.  And some people have decided to offer…”input”…on said decision.  So, it’s time to take a seat and listen up.  I’ve got some things to teach you guys.  I’m being serious here.

Quality Control

I’m a man who has standards when it comes to my site.  While I have slacked off on occasion (I am only human ), for the most part I have tried to keep my site as an informative resource with solid and reliable information for our community.  My mistakes are generally kept to a minimum, and there is usually a way to establish the validity of my claims.  So, with that established…

Would you think for a second that I would not hold Geist to the same standards?  I mean…really?  Feel free to hassle her if you like (within reason), but any post she makes here is read and edited by me before it sees the light of day.  And we’ve established guidelines already for posts.  Meaning she has certain requirements any post has to fulfill before the “Publish” button gets pushed.

Her Post and Spec

Some people have made a few comments as to how efficient or solid her spec recommendation is in her first post here on SJ.  DW is not efficient for Death Strike healing.  DW won’t do as much damage as a 2H build.  DW will level slower.  DW is yadda, yadda, yadda…

Old time readers, or those who searched back to the beginning of “Power Leveling”, would have noticed how I refuted DW as a decent leveling spec on multiple occasions for similar reasons.  But this was back in the day when there was not an efficient DW spec in even the raiding environment.  But in the world of 3.0.9 where DW can pump out 7,000 DPS, if you’re gonna try to sit here and tell me that it’s not solid for leveling I am going to call you crazy.

DW specs are weaker while leveling, but so too are 2H builds.  You’re not in epics or level 80 yet.  It’s all weak.  The only significant weakness to DW is smaller healing from Death Strike.  However the flip side to that coin is that a DW build does significant ranged damage.  Between ITx2, BBx2, HB, and DC’s most mobs will be dead before they ever reach you.  Combined in with a ghoul and the potential is there.  While DW as a raid spec, or a leveling spec, will not likely survive the opening of 3.1, for now it’s still viable and solid.  Whether you choose to use it for leveling, or something else.

If I did not look at that spec and work out how it would work for leveling, it would not have been posted.  She was totally solid on her advice to you guys.  The only caveat for DW is weaker DS’s.  But by taking less damage, it becomes moot.

Newbs teaching “Elite”

So, what can a newbish player teach an experienced player?  A whole hell of a lot actually.  Why do people lose on that show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?  Why does the saying, “Out of the mouth of babes” even exist then?  Seriously.  Think about it.  And if you still think I’m wrong, then you’re the newb actually.  Sorry to say.

Geist and I talk quite frequently and there are lots of times I correct her about DK’s in general.  She’ll think something works one way, but it really doesn’t.  But that isn’t why she’s here.  That’s why *I* am here.  She’s here for all of that other stuff that I don’t cater to, but wish I could make the time to.  People make new DK’s all the time, and have questions about them.  And you know what?  She has those same questions.

I don’t want my site to only cater to the best of the best.  I also want newb DK’s to come here and get something out of their experience.  And as we progress as a class, it becomes harder and harder to get back to the basics.  But with Geist, I don’t have to.  Because she can.

C’mon SJ, you’re dating Geist.

Nope.  Friends.  I actually had my roomie and best friend Garroc ask me just a day or two ago if I was dating some girl from WoW again, but hadn’t told him.  One or two people in game had said something about me letting some girl I had the hots for write on my site.  To him.  /sigh

I have always been intrigued by World of Matticus because they have 2 additional content writters.  I like the idea.  And when I put up a post asking if anyone was interested, Geist jumped on it.  Normally I’d have screened applicants and made people do a few articles before agreeing.  But Geist and I have played together for some time now and been talking for quite a while.  Simple as that.

Geist likes helping people.  A lot.  She’s a great person.  And that’s exactly the kind of trait you want in a Blogger.  Someone whose primary interest is to genuinely help out the people reading their articles.

Why is this a relevant post?

This is my site.  And I want it here for two reasons.  I enjoy it and I want to help out DK’s.  And this decision to include Geist here affects both of those things.  I know she has things to teach you guys.  And I know I won’t ever hit the “Publish” button unless I would stand 100% behind whatever it was she had to say. 

She doesn’t Publish any of her own posts.  She prepares drafts and then I Publish them if I’ve signed off on it.  So if you trust me, I’d recommend trusting her as well.

Coming Soon

I will have the preliminary Frost 3.1 specs up for Tuesday morning at latest.  I hope to get a chance to look up more on 3.1 DW again to see if something more viable has been discovered. 

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters.

Tags: Geistig, Website

Hello, I’m Geist.  And yes, I am a chick that plays WoW.

Ok so now that that’s out of the way, on to why I’m writing for SJ. My Main is Geistig, an Undead Death Knight. While I have played a few classes, the Death Knight has been my favorite character since I rolled Geistig the day WotLK was released. I liked the fact that I could choose a viable leveling build from any one of the three talent trees. I liked the fact that I’d be able to pick a viable raiding spec out of any one of the three talent trees. And I liked the fact that Death Knights could serve as DPS or as Tanks.

When I rolled Geistig, everyone was still figuring out the Death Knight class. You couldn’t find a ton of information about Death Knights that wasn’t beta material. And to me…this made the Death Knight class that much more fun. It was still getting figured out. Fortunately folks like SJ leveled up quickly, and I gathered up their ideas and experiences while leveling my own undead knight of death and destruction!

Granted, I’ve taken a lot longer than pretty much everyone else (still not quite 80). But I’ve taken some detours along the way. I’ve spent some time experiencing what it’s like to be a Death Knight Alliance side, I’ve hung out with SJ over on BB leveling some shaman and druid alts, I’ve been testing Dual Wield leveling viability, and taking advantage of the Death Gate to get back into the Old World and help out some friends that kept getting eaten by something.

That’s the one awesome thing about being Undead. After you kill it, you get to bite it back.

Right now I’m working on leveling Geistig to 80 and getting all the gear, enchants, glyphs, etc that she’ll need for end game. Unlike SJ though, I prefer to Dual Wield!! The Undead DK Dual Wield animations are awesome. Geistig practically does some Kung-Fu style moves you’d usually only see on Night Elves. Pfft… why should they get all the fun? I’ve got your Kung Fu Fighting right here!

Dual Wielding

Ok aside from that, there’s a ton of DPS to be had using the 0/33/38 spec. That’s totally on my to-do list. I’m not stoked with the PTR changes to Dual Wield and I’ve tested what I can with a Death Knight that hasn’t hit 80 yet. So I’m hoping that Blizz doesn’t tear up Dual Wielding so badly that it isn’t raid viable (I mean Shadow Priests are raid viable, come on Blizz!!), but hey I play the game. I don’t build it. I don’t think it would be a deal breaker for me if Geistig had to carry a big two hander over dual wielding a pair of hefty axes, but I’d have to say that I’d have a few choice words to say about it (insert mature language filter… here…).

Can you Dual Wield while leveling? Hells yeah! Though I’ve put off Dual Wielding here and there whenever I picked up a really sweet 2 handed weapon just because the improved dps of a brand new blue weapon would cut through mobs all that much faster. When you kill quicker you get XP faster from the kills, speeding up questing in general. Rocket science right?

Weapon drop rate aside, there’s some gearing issues to deal with when you Dual Wield that you don’t have to deal with when working with standard 2 handers.  Such as making sure that you have enough +hit and +expertise.  If you want to land some extra damage with your offhand and make sure that each hit with your main hand makes contact (and brings on the pain), you can’t just slap any green item on. Here and there, you can find some gear that helps out with these factors.

Realistically you don’t want to cheat your performance by trading out a weapon with +strength for two weapons that just have +stamina and +hit. They’ll boost your hit points and they’ll help make your weapon land on the target, but that +strength would have put a little more oomph behind it. Not to mention the fact that you’ll want to select talents that’ll boost DPS, but that aren’t as reliant on pure weapon damage.  DW builds will never do as much damage on Strikes as a 2H build.  So focus on things that increase your spell damage, or can proc damage before focusing on Strike talents. With DW you’re not going to get as much damage per hit.  And the list goes on and on.

Personally, my favorite leveling tree has been Unholy. I love the perma Ghoul, Bone Shield is just hawt!, On a Pale Horse gets you to the quest turn ins a lot faster, and pulling extra mobs with AOE overflow just adds XP. Yep! Nothing like killing a Clefthoof in Negrand, having Desecrate proc, and aggroing a Elek wandering by minding it’s own business. Poor guy didn’t stand a chance.

So in future posts I’ll offer up more details on current Death Knight leveling specs as well as post some basic Death Knight leveling gear recommendations (with some notes for folks that have the Dual Wielding bug too).  But for now I thought I’d leave you with this to enjoy.

3.0.9 DW Leveling Build

• Try to find a slow MH weapon for Death Strikes when you need the healing.
• Use Death Runes for either IT, DS, or BB as needed.
• Use HB and Corpse Explosion whenever you can.  Combined with BB, this will blow things up like the 4th of July!

ST Rotation

IT -> PS -> HB -> BS -> BS  -> Dump

IT -> PS -> HB -> IT -> IT  -> Dump

AoE Rotation

IT -> PS -> Pest -> HB -> BB -> Dump (repeat)

Now before you go, “Are you crazy?”  This spec is 2 things.  One a rough draft, and Two exactly the same premise as what SJ normally recommends.  Some tanking talents go a really long way when leveling, especially when you want to AoE!!  Which I love doing.  SJ mentioned 3.1 will probably come out within the next few weeks, so I’ll try to get working on some 3.1 leveling specs too.

-Geist

P.S.  This is what my sexy Death Knight looks like:

Totally hot?!  I know right?!  You totally dig her bones. 

Tags: Geistig, Power Leveling, Specs