T's Death Knight Guide Part 4: Combat

This is part 4 of an ongoing guide that will later be compiled into one large "uber-guide" for up-and-coming Death Knights.

Part 1 can be found here.
Part 2 can be found here.
Part 3 can be found here.

COMBAT

This section of the guide will cover the basics of Death Knight combat.

Death Knight combat is broken down into 3 phases.

1: Apply diseases. All Death Knights, regardless of spec, need to keep diseases up at all times. The damage is important, and many skills work off diseases.
2: Use remaining Runes.
3: Burn Runic Power. The only specs that will not burn RP every rotation are those that use DRW or Gargoyle, as those skills are most useful with a full RP bar.

Death Knights, moreso than almost any other class, rely on a solid rotation of skills to maintain optimum effectiveness.

Let's cover some basic rotations. These models assume perfection. That is, no misses, parries, etc. If a skill does not land, simply cast it again and move on.

Basic rotation

This is a simple, talentless rotation.

Let's look at your Runes and Runic power at the start of combat.

B B F F U U
RP: 0

Let's follow step 1 of the rotation and apply our diseases. This involves casting Plague Strike and Icy Touch. This consumes one Unholy and one Frost Rune, putting those on cooldown. One-Rune skills generate 10 Runic Power each, giving us 20 Runic Power.

B B F F U U
RP: 20

Next, let's follow step 2 and burn the rest of our runes. First, we'll use 2 Blood Strikes. This puts our Blood Runes on cooldown and generates 20 more RP.

B B F F U U
RP: 40

Depending on level, you'll cast either Death Strike or Obliterate next, putting your last 2 Runes on cooldown. Two-Rune abilities generate 15 RP.

B B F F U U
RP: 55

Time for step 3, burning Runic Power. The basic RP dump is Death Coil. Let's use that, consuming 40 RP, and assume all our Runes are up and ready for use again.

This leaves us ready to start our rotation over again.

B B F F U U
RP: 15

Basic Tanking

Here's a basic AOE-tanking rotation.

B B F F U U
RP: 0

Step one is the same as above.

B B F F U U
RP: 20

Next, throw out a Pestilence to spread your diseases to multiple mobs.

B B F F U U
RP: 30

Finally, drop a Death and Decay.

B B F F U U
RP: 55

At this point, your party can start DPSing without fear of drawing aggro. Continue your rotation.

Blood Basic

Here's my basic Blood build.

**From this point forward, all calculations are not including Butchery, which almost every talent build, regardless of spec, will include. Honestly, that math is just too complicated, I'll leave that to EJ.

Phase 1

B B F F U U
RP: 0

Apply Diseases, as always.

B B F F U U
RP: 20

Next, with a Blood build, we can replace our Blood Strikes with the much more devastating Heart Strike. Use this twice to burn both Blood Runes.

B B F F U U
RP: 40

Finally, Use Obliterate with those last 2 runes.

B B F D U D
RP: 55

See those "Ds" instead of the usual "F" and "U?" Those are Death Runes from the Death Rune Mastery talent. We'll get to those later.

Don't burn that Runic Power just yet. We want to save our RP for a full-charge Dancing Rune Weapon. If you have a Sudden Doom proc, by all means, use it.

For a shorter fight, go ahead and use Death Coil. However, this rotation will assume a longer engagement.

By now, our runes from the initial casts are coming off cooldown. For simplicity's sake, and because timing may vary, I'm going to list all runes as active for now. Time to begin the second half of our rotation.

Phase 2

B B F D U D
RP: 55

With the Annihilation and Epidemic talents, our diseases should still be active and have plenty of life left in them. What to do with those Frost and unholy runes, though? Obliterate!

B B D D D D
RP: 70

Once again, the Frost and Unholy Runes become Death Runes.

Now we can use those two Blood runes for more Heart Strikes.

B B D D D D
RP: 90

What about those Death Runes? They are treated as wild cards, and will be used as ANY rune. So, two more Heart Strikes!

B B D F D U
RP: 100

Now, bust out that Rune Weapon. With 100 RP, it will last 30 full seconds. DRW matches all of your attacks, and will gain any buffs you do, so feel free to burn trinkets and use Hysteria.

With the 3 minute cooldown, use Death Coils until DRW is almost off cooldown, then start saving RP again.

Granted, there are more complicated rotations out here that maximize the potential of DRW, but this is just a basic guide. Feel free to search around for more in-depth rotations.

At this point, there are several more phases to the rotation. Just be sure to reapply diseases when necessary, use Obliterate when the runes are available and always use Death Runes for heart Strike.

Frost Basic

Here's my basic Frost build.

This is fairly similar to the untalented rotation.

Phase 1

B B F F U U
RP: 0

Apply diseases. Be sure to use Plague Strike first, to maximize your Icy Touch damage through Glacier Rot.

B B F F U U
RP: 25

Chill of the Grave grants 5 extra RP.

2 Blood Strikes.

D D F F U U
RP: 45

Blood of the North gives us Death Runes.

Obliterate.

D D F F U U
RP: 65

Why Obliterate and not Howling Blast? True, Howling Blast tends to do more damage. However, the insane crit chance to Obliterate with a Frost build makes it the better option. Frost-heave Dual-wield builds will want to use Howling Blast, since that does not scale off weapon damage like Obliterate.

That being said, if Rime procs, use it! This will generate extra RP, but I'm not including procs in my calculations.

Frost Strike.

D D F F U U
RP: 25

Phase 2

D D F F U U
RP: 25

No Epidemic in my Frost build, so reapply diseases.

D D F F U U
RP: 50

Now, use Obliterate twice to take advantage of those Death runes.

B B F F U U
RP: 90

Frost Strike twice.

B B F F U U
RP: 10

A fairly simple rotation. Continue as necessary.

Unholy Basic

Here's my basic Unholy build.

This is fairly simple, as well.

Phase 1

B B F F U U
RP: 0

Guess what? Apply Diseases.

B B F F U U
RP: 25

Dirge grants extra RP.

Blood Strikes.

D D F F U U
RP: 45

Reaping grants Death Runes, just like Blood of the North in the Frost rotation.

Unholy's special strike is Scourge Strike.

D D F F U U
RP: 65

Now, it would appear that Obliterate will do more damage than Scourge Strike. However, without Annihilation, Obliterate will consume the diseases. Diseases are more important to Unholy builds than any other, by far. Plus, you will have to burn runes to reapply them constantly. Scourge Strike, while less damaging, itself, will grant more damage, overall.

Just like the Blood build, were going to save RP for Gargoyle.

Phase 2

D D F F U U
RP: 65

We have Epidemic, so diseases do not need to be reapplied. Since we're sitting on a bunch of runes, the best thing to do with them is use 3 Scourge Strikes.

B B F F U U
RP: 100

At this point, bring out the Gargoyle and repeat the rotation.

Just like DRW, gargoyle has a 3 minute cooldown, so burn RP with Death Coil until it's ready to use again. Also, just like Blood, there are fancier rotations out there, but I'm trying to keep things simple.