Toughness is NOT a DPS Talent

Small amounts of math incoming. I will keep the post relatively short to give your brains time to relax.

I would like to make one simple point. For Death Knights, Toughness is NOT a DPS talent.

Now, don't get me wrong, Toughness is a fantastic talent, both for tanking and PVP. However, taking this talent solely for the DPS boost through synergy with Bladed Armor is a mistake.

Let's assume your Death Knight has 10,000 armor. High-end gear with buffs will allow you to go well past this number, but it's a nice one to work with.

Bladed Armor, when maxed, increases your Attack Power by 5 for every 180 Armor.

10,000 / 180 = 56-ish
56 x 5 = 280

280 Attack Power is a very nice stat increase for 5 talent points. 14 Attack Power translates into 1 DPS. This is a 20 DPS increase for white damage, which is 60 extra weapon damage, assuming 3.0 attack speed. Many Death Knight abilities scale off weapon damage, and those that don't scale with pure AP.

Now, what about the benefit of Toughness?

10,000 x .15 = 1,500
11,500 / 180 = 64-ish
64 x 5 = 320
320 - 280 = 40

Forty. Trust me, 40 Attack Power is NOT worth 5 talent points.

If you're Frost or Unholy, those 5 points will have to come out of either your core Frost/Unholy talents (a very bad idea) or Dark Conviction. Trust me, 5% crit is a much better DPS increase than 40 AP.

If you're Blood, those 5 points will have to come from various Unholy talents. (And you SHOULD be sub-specced into Unholy as Blood, if you're serious about DPS) Again, not worth 40 AP.

Now, I usually go with the "play how you want" line. However, when I see so many people making a BAD decision, I feel it is my responsibility as a member of the community to educate. I mean, what else is a blog for, but to distribute information?

Frost 3.1 (Death Knight 2-Handed DPS)

Another Tuesday, another talent build. This will be the last of my 3.1 talent posts.

Go here for my Level 71 talent build.

As always with my builds, keep in mind that this is optimized for soloing and small groups.

Tier 1
Improved Icy Touch: 3/3 The additional debuff is just a bonus. Icy Touch is a core Frost spell, so more damage is sweet.
Runic Power Mastery: 2/2 You'll be generating a great deal of Runic Power, so capping before you're through a rotation is not good. In 3.1, this talent gives the same bonus with 2 points that it used to with 3.
Toughness: 0/5 Standard Tanking/PVP talent.

Tier 2
Icy reach: 0/2 Fear PVP Frost Death Knights, even at range. 30 yard range on Chains of Ice is brutal.
Black Ice: 5/5 Changed in 3.1 to reduce the Frost bonus, but add in the Shadow. This is a nerf for 2H Frost, as the only Shadow damage we deal is Blood Plague, not even the Plague Strike itself. This is, however a buff to Dual-Wield builds, which gain major damage from Unholy talents like Necrosis. Still a mandatory talent, however.
Nerves of Cold Steel: 0/3 The only true Dual Wield talent in any Death knight tree.

Tier 3
Icy Talons: 5/5 This talent is not as great as you would think. A properly played 2-Handed build will only have roughly 20% of its damage come from auto-attacks. So, having those attacks come 20% faster isn't that amazing. That being said, it's not like you have anywhere ELSE to put these points, and it's a prerequisite for a nice buff down the tree, in addition to a small damage boost.
Lichborne: 0/1 Post-3.1, this is almost purely a PVP talent, now.
Annihilation: In addition to the glorious crit, this talent allows you to use Obliterate more than once per rotation.

Tier 4
Killing Machine: 5/5 Altered in 3.0.8 to be on a proc-per-minute basis instead of percent chance on crit. This balances the talent between Dual-Wield and 2-Handed builds.
Chill of the Grave: 2/2 Extra Runic Power is always good. It only amounts to 25 RP every 2 rotations, however. Still, every little bit helps.
Endless Winter: 0/2 Mostly a PVP talent. However, a completely free spell interrupt is a VERY nice ability.

Tier 5
Frigid Dreadplate: 0/3 Great for tanking. Good for PVP. Completely unnecessary for DPS.
Glacier Rot: 3/3 Any well-played Death Knight will ALWAYS have diseases up. 20% extra damage to 3 of your core abilities is amazing.
Deathchill: 0/1 Why don't I recommend this talent? It's pure DPS! Well, I feel Frost crits enough as is. I recommend it for tanking and PVP builds, when on-demand crits are incredibly useful.

Tier 6
Improved Icy Talons: The only constant buff in the game that can equal this is Improved Windfury Totem.
Merciless Combat: 2/2 Many DPS specs across all classes have a talent like this.
Rime: 3/3 That's a crap-ton of crit. Also, this now triggers off Obliterate instead of Icy Touch in 3.1. That's a buff to 2-Handed and a nerf to Dual-Wield.

Tier 7
Chilblains: 0/3 A Death Knight in Unholy Presence could kite mobs very well with this. Situational in PVE, but another great PVP talent. Now you're starting to see why I recommend Frost for Death Knight PVP.
Hungering Cold: 1/1 This is where I put that Deathchill point. Completely useless for DPS, but I like having an escape button while soloing.
Improved Frost Presence: 0/2 I MAY come back for this one later. Extra health in DPS mode is a nice buff.

Tier 8
Blood of the North: 5/5 Please refer to my Death Knight Guide for further explanation of Death Runes.
Unbreakable Armor: 1/1 A DPS buff and an "oh crap" button all in one talent.

Tier 9
Acclimation: 0/3 Tanking/PVP. Death Knight talent trees are incredibly versatile.
Frost Strike: 1/1 Yup. Frost's primary Runic Power ability.
Guile of Gorefiend: 3/3 You crit a ton. Extra damage is win.

Tier 10
Tundra Stalker: 5/5 15% to everything but auto-attacks is impressive. Assuming you keep Frost Fever up 100% of the time, this could grant upwards of a 12% increase in total DPS.

Tier 11
Howling Blast: 1/1 Hungering Cold used to be down here. Howling Blast was moved to reduce the amount of Unholy talents standard Dual-Wielders could take. An amazing ability for AOE situations.

Here's a look at what my "complete" future build. I'm still undecided on what to do with those extra 3 points. I may put them in Virulence or Rune Tap and the aforementioned Improved Frost Presence.

I may also look into the versatility of Death Rune Mastery.

3.1 Weekend Wrapup

Okay, I spent some time with my active characters this weekend.

First up, Tarmr the Death Knight.

This may sound insane, but even after all the balancing Bliz gave Death Knights this patch, T seems even STRONGER now. Granted, this is based upon leveling at 70.

Overall, my core abilities are about the same as they were before. The damage mechanics have been re-tuned, but for my playstyle, it seems to still be the same. I knew Diseaseless Blood and Icy Touch Spam were going to be done away with, so I played my DK "as intended."

Icy Touch is hitting for about 400 less than before. However, Plague Strike is hitting for about 600 MORE. One of Bliz's design goals with 3.1 was to get DKs to use all of their diseases. At least for Frost, that seems to have worked out.

Rime now procs off Obliterate instead of Icy Touch, which is great, since I use that skill more often.

Fallen Crusader was toned down to grant only half the Strength of before. However, it now procs much more often. Overall, I'd say this is a boost, at least in my experience. The extra healing from the more frequent procs is great for soloing. Razorice and Cinderglacier may prove to be the better option in pure-DPS scenarios, but I'm sticking with Fallen Crusader for now.

All things considered, 2-Handed Frost is a seriously solid build. I'll expand upon the tree in a future post.

Up next, Haddar the Shaman.

Not many changes to Enhancement this patch. Basically, they've just freed up a couple talent points. Unleashed Rage is now a 3-point talent instead of 5. Also, Improved Stormstrike strikes me as a PVP talent, so that's an extra 2 points to go around, as well.

Enhancement is still solid and way too much fun.

Expect a full 3.1 Enhancement post soon, as well.

Finally, Samodean, Warlock

I may be in the minority here, but I love the new Affliction. Survivability and efficiency while solo are way up.

I'd say DPS is about even. A while back, I ran a thorough DPS test. Compared to then, my DPS is up by about 200. I haven't made 200 DPS worth of upgrades in the interval, but the simpler rotation makes up for the rest. VERY happy. I could do even better with a pure-DPS talent build, but again, more on that another day.

Also, Sam hit up the tournament. Very cool, not nearly as many people there as I would have expected. There's plenty of sites out there with more in-depth coverage than I'll be able to provide, though. Very casual-friendly, however. 3 days of 3 dailies to get to Valiant, then only another 5 days for Champion. After that, the time investment merely depends on what you want out of it.

So, yeah, the big thing in this patch was Ulduar, but there's plenty for the rest of us to like, as well.

Tagged: Nomenclature

I'm quite flattered. Byaghro over at Casual WoW is so jealous of my awesomeness that he has once again tagged me for the latest meme to circle the blog community.

"Tell us how you select your character names."

Well, I put slightly more thought into my names than your average player, but not quite as much as some roleplayers do. All my names are unique, but each has its own inspiration.

Samodean - Sam was my first alt to "stick," and eventually became my main, so I'm glad I gave him a unique name. Go ahead, Google it. I dare ya. Making a Warlock, I wanted a sinister inspiration. At the time, I was reading the Wheel of time series, and one of my favorite characters was Asmodean, one of the Forsaken, powerful spellcasters that turned to the side of darkness. That seemed to fit the bill for what I was looking for, so I did a quick letter swap and there we go.

Ralken - Ral was a more original creation. Ralken was my character name back in my Final Fantasy XI days. I played a Galka, a large, beast-like race with a very intellectual side. I played a Monk, so I wanted a name that would convey fierceness, with guttural-sounding, hard consonants, but just enough vowels to make it easily pronounceable, so it could be soft and spiritual. After typing some random letters and sounding them out in my head, I reached Ralken. I thought it was a solid name for a Dwarf, so I carried it over to WoW.

Ullic - Many years ago, when I was an even larger dork than I am today, I participated in a message board-based fantasy RPG. I played twin Dwarf characters named Thor and Ull. Thor was obvious, since he wielded a warhammer. Ull was a name I picked up from another ancient God, since I wanted him to be an archer character. Well, I refused to use "Thor" for a character name, so i went with his brother. I decided to add a little to the end for flourish.

Haddar - Easy one here. Draenei = blue aliens. The first thing that came to mind was the Jem'Hadar from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Easy!

Tarmr - I wanted something menacing for my Death Knight. I had recently been playing Too Human, which rekindled my interest in Norse mythology. Garm was the guardian hound of Hel. I originally wanted Garmr, but it was taken. So, T got his name, which is good because "G's Death Knight Guide" doesn't sound right to me.

Other character names that I've used over the years:

Corrigan the Human Paladin and Araym the Night Elf and Gnome Rogues were inspired by their counterparts in Septerra Core, a fantastic game nobody played.

Valiar the Dwarf Priest was a straight rip-off of Valiar Marcus from the Codex Alera series that I was reading at the time.

Athelas the Night Elf Druid is named after the healing herb from The Lord of the Rings.

Braxis the Human Warrior, Ryaa the Gnome Mage, Morgosh the Tauren Shaman and Warrior, Okthar the Orc Shaman, Rondrey the Undead Priest and many others I've forgotten over the years were all random names I came up with.

Pay attention to some of these unused characters, those names may be showing up on this blog in the ear future.

Well, now I must tag 3 more authors.

Kim. No not how she got "Kim," I'm pretty sure I know where that came from.
Rhidach, because I'm very curious where that came from.
K, just because I want to see her justify 78 names that start with the same letter.

Goal Updates

Well, Sam reached 80. T made it to Northrend and is now able to send herbs to Sam for Inscription.

What now?

For most people, goals seem to be like this:

1: Reach level cap
2: ???
3: Epic Lootz!

However, we all know that's not how I roll.

I've got a great deal of character building planned out. After all, that's why I started this adventure.

My current priority is to "finish" Sam. This involves:

1: Finish all Northrend quests. Not just for the loot and gold, but for the fun of it all. WoW has such an amazing lore that I can't NOT do this. I am Chris Metzen's bitch.
2: Along with #1, obtain Loremaster of Northrend, as I previously explained.
3: Max Tailoring, make Ebonweave and Spellweave "sets".
4: Max Inscription
5: Finish of any Reputations I want. Wyrmrest is currently top of the list.

From there, I'm not sure where I'm going. I'll run the odd instance, but I won't actively seek out PuGs. *Shudder* Maybe a lil PVP in Wintergrasp or Battlegrounds. I'm still considering going full Loremaster.

Since I've gone through all the trouble of getting T to Northrend, I might as well get him to 80 while I'm at it.

I'm also getting back into the Shaman groove with Haddar. I'd like to get a healer leveled for when Dual-Specs go live.

Now all I need is to find the time to get all this done. I've got this "blog" thing taking up all my time...

Google Loves Me

A little under the weather, so a quickie today.

Looking over my site stats on Google Analytics, apparently, the Google search engine likes my Death Knight Guide.

Try it out! Do a semi-specific search on anything Death Knight related.

"WoW Death Knight Spell Rotation"
8th result

"Frost Death Knight Combat"
6th result

"Death Knight Hybrid Build"
6th result

"Blood Tank Talent Build"
4th result (3rd unique)

"Blood Death Knight Combat Rotation"
3rd result

"Unholy Combat Guide"
3rd result

"Basic Death Knight Spell Rotation"
1st result!

What have I created?

T's Death Knight Guide

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.



This guide, in keeping with my mission statement, is designed for casual players. If you're just starting out, or are a bit confused how to play this fancy new Hero Class, then this guide is for you. It may not be as in-depth as some other sites out there, but I feel it is a very good starting resource.

Chapter 1: Basics
1-1: Roles and Resources *3.1
1-2: Stats, Presences and Runeforging *3.1

Chapter 2: Spells
2-1: Basic Spells *3.1
2-2: Talented Spells *3.1

Chapter 3: Talents
3-1: Blood Talent Builds *3.1
3.2: Frost Talent Builds
3.3: Unholy Talent Builds
3.4: Hybrid Talent Build

Chapter 4: Combat
4.1: Basic Combat ***READ ME FIRST***
4.2: Blood Rotation
4.3: Frost Rotations
4.4: Unholy Rotation

Recognition
I'd like to thank the forum communities at WoWHead, MMO Champion and Elitist Jerks. They are excellent sources of information and were invaluable in the creation of this guide.

T's Death knight Guide 4.4: Unholy Rotation

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.

If you have not done so already, PLEASE read the Basic Combat chapter.

**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.

Here's my basic Unholy build.

This is fairly simple, as well.

Phase 1

B B F F U U
RP: 0

Apply Diseases, as normal.

B B F F U U
RP: 25

Dirge grants extra RP.

2 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 rotation, 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. Unlike Dancing Rune Weapon from Blood, which gains buffs as you do, your Gargoyle only scales with your stats at the time it is summoned, so time your buffs and trinkets accordingly.

Just like DRW, gargoyle has a 3 minute cooldown, so burn RP with Death Coil or Unholy Blight 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.

T's Death Knight Guide 4.3: Frost Rotations

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.

If you have not done so already, PLEASE read the Basic Combat chapter.

**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.

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

There's those "Ds" instead of "Bs." 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-heavy 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

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.

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.

Frost Max-DPS Rotation

This is a new rotation I just found that should give a huge increase in DPS over my standard rotation. It's insanely simple, too.

B B F F U U
RP: 0

Apply diseases, right? WRONG!

Start with a Blood Tap. Yes, this even generated Runic Power.

D B F F U U
RP: 10

Now, apply Frost Fever ONLY. Just use Icy Touch.

D B F F U U
RP: 25

Now, here's where things get interesting. Right off the bat, fire off 2 Obliterates.

B B F F U U
RP: 65

Finish up with a Blood Strike.

B D F F U U
RP: 75

Of course burn that RP with a Frost Strike.

B D F F U U
RP: 35

Now, let's reset.

B D F F U U
RP: 35

Looks similar, no? After the initial Blood Tap, the rotation is exactly the same over and over.

Icy Touch
Obliterate
Obliterate
Blood Strike
Frost Strike(s)

Very simple and VERY effective.

T's Death Knight Guide 4.2: Blood Rotation

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.

If you have not done so already, PLEASE read the Basic Combat chapter.

**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.

Here's my basic Blood build.

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 to create Death Runes and always use Death Runes for Heart Strike.

T's Death Knight Guide 4.1: Basic Combat

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.

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.

T's Death Knight Guide: 3.4 Hybrid Talent Build

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.

15/37/19 The famous Dual-Wield Tri-Spec
**Due to only one talent that increases melee hit rate, TONS of hit rating is needed.
This build relies on 4 factors:
1: Speed
Icy Talons and Improved Icy Talons are required.
2: White Damage
On average, 2-Handed builds will only have 20% of their attacks as white damage. Dual-Wielders will have far more. This is really the only time Necrosis is worth talent points for anything other than getting down to the next level.
3: Procs
Blood-Caked Blade will go off all the time.
Killing Machine is on a proc-per-minute system, but is still essential to the build.
4: Howling Blast
Unlike Obliterate and the various Strikes, Howling Blast does not scale off weapon damage. This makes it the attack of choice for Dual-Wielders.

T's Death Knight Guide 3.3: Unholy Talent Builds

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.

17/0/54Unholy DPS
Keep Bone Shield up at all times.
Don't forget your Ghoul Master of Ghouls gives you a very potent source of extra damage.

17/0/54Unholy DPS - AOE Variant
This build drops Night of the Dead for Corpse Explosion and Unholy Blight. Although, I am unsure how useful Corpse Explosion is in a group setting.

5/8/58 Unholy Tanking
Once again, keep Bone Shield up.
This build excells at higher gear levels, when Frigid Dreadplate is no longer necessary from the Frost build.

0/11/60Unholy-Bloat PVP
This build is geared toward GROUP PVP. I feel Frost is a better option for Lone Wolf PVPers. But, hey, go with what you want. I've said over and over how each tree is viable.
This is the only build where I suggest Desecration. Movement impairing effects are always great in PVP.

T's Death Knight Guide 3.2: Frost Talent Builds

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not updated to 3.1 yet. Please be patient.

17/50/0 +4 Frost DPS
This is essentially my Frost DPS build. The points in Rune Tap, Hungering Cold and Frost Aura are Wild Cards and can be spent elsewhere.
Note: Between Annihilation, Rime, Subversion and Dark Conviction, your Obliterate has an extra 32% chance to crit. That is what this build is designed around. Frost may not give the highest sustained DPS, but it has great potential.
Why only 2 points in Runic Power Mastery? Simple. 120 RP grants you 3 Frost Strikes. 130 grants you 3 Frost Strikes with 10 useless RP left over.

5/59/7 Frost Tanking
Arguably the best tanking build for early gear levels.
Excellent physical mitigation from Toughness and Frigid Dreadplate.
Acclimation and Frost Aura also help with heavy magic-dealing enemies.
Lichborne and Unbreakable Armor give Frost Tanks other skills to use while Icebound Fortitude is on cooldown.
While Hungering Cold may seem like a great AoE tanking ability, I don't feel it's necessary. A 1 minute cooldown means you can only use it once on most AoE pulls. I feel you're better off using a combination of Death and Decay, Pestilence, Howling Blast and Blood Boil for multiple mobs. Plus, that RP cost means you're more than likely only using it part way through the battle.

17/54/0 Frost PVP Build
Frost's incredible burst potential makes it perfect for PVP.
This is really the only time I suggest taking Icy Reach and Deathchill.
This is where Hungering Cold really shines. Death Knight Frost Nova FTW.

10/56/5 Dual-Wield Tanking Build
Insanity! As everyone knows, Dual-Wielding causes extra parries. Every time (most) mobs parry, their swing timer resets and the next attack comes faster. Dual-Wield tanking leads to getting Parrygibbed. Right?
First of all, read this. Long story short: A DK Dual-Wielding 2 slow 1-handers actually has LESS chance of being parried than a Warrior using a fast 1-hander, as tanking Warriors do.
I've seen DW tanking builds that weren't heavy Frost, but I don't like them. Frost Strike cannot be parried. That is essential, as far as I'm concerned.
Dual-Wielding allows you to equip 2 good, defensive 1-handers. This should give better tanking stats over a 2-hander in most situations. However, the tradeoff is slightly reduced threat generation.
Please note, this build requires VERY good gear and is not recommended for entry-level tanking.

T's Death Knight Guide 3-1: Blood Talent Builds

60/0/11 Leveling Build
This build is all about pumping out damage while staying topped off on health. It offers great survivability.
Rune Tap, Vendetta, Bloodworms and Improved Blood Presence all help keep you healed, letting Blood Gorged stay active pretty much all of the time.
Mark of Blood is a nice Panic Button for when you find yourself in trouble.

51/0/20 Group DPS Build
Standard straight-up group DPS Build. Honestly, neither Frost nor Unholy are terribly great for secondary trees, which is lame since Blood makes a great secondary tree.
Heart Strike and Dancing Rune Weapon are the core abilities of this spec.
Improved Death Strike and the change to Abomination's Might make Death Strike Blood's secondary attack in 3.1, instead of Obliterate.
Hysteria is an awesome buff. Be sure to use it as often as possible, and not necessarily on yourself. Just let the healer know.
Mark of Blood and Vampiric Blood don't really contribute much, but those 2 points really don't have anywhere better to go.

58/5/8 Tanking Build
Blood tanking got a pretty big boost in 3.1. I'm still not crazy about it, however.
Blade Barrier was altered to make it more steady, but it no longer has synergy with Spell Deflection
Subversion is still a good talent for the crit. The reduced threat does not apply to Frost Presence, which is what you should be using for tanking.
Vampiric Blood is a solid talent. When it expires, you only lose the initial health boost, not the additional gain from healing.

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T's Death Knight Guide 2-2: Talented Spells

Blood

Rune Tap - In keeping with the purpose of Blood, a heal.
Mark of Blood - Honestly only useful for soloing. Easily dispelled in PVP and most bosses will be hitting for much more than 4% of the tank's HP.
Hysteria - Use this as often as possible on yourself. A Blood Knight's healing capabilities will offset much of the damage, with healers compensating for the rest.
Vampiric Blood - This makes tanking with Blood much easier. Since it lacks the mitigation of other specs, it's easier to end up in those dire moments after a lucky string of crits.
Heart Strike - Amazing damage, will replace Blood Strike in every rotation.
Dancing Rune Weapon - The whole point of Blood DPS. DRW will match not just your strikes, but any spells you cast, as well. It will also gain any buffs you do during its duration.

Frost

Lichborne - Great for avoiding CC in PVP, in addition to the usual Trinket. Just don't go up against any Priests or Paladins, since you're officially Undead.
Deathchill - Use this just before a Howling Blast while AOE tanking to make sure those mobs don't budge. Great for DPS, as well, but Frost already crits like crazy.
Hungering Cold - While this is a nice talent for tanking, I would not rely on it due to the cooldown. However, this is wonderful for PVP.
Unbreakable Armor - Every Frost Knight, tank or DPS, should be hitting this button every 2 minutes.
Frost Strike - This thing hits like a truck and bypasses armor, since it's Frost damage. I consider this the reason Frost Knights are the best spec for main tanking, since this attack is unavoidable.
Howling Blast - A fantastic skill. This is the staple attack of Frost Dual-Wield builds, since it is one of the few attacks that does not scale off weapon damage.

Unholy

Corpse Explosion - Fun spell. Use it on your summoned Ghoul for massive damage.
Unholy Blight - Great AOE damage. Also nice DPS when Gargoyle is on cooldown. This follows you around, so great for rounding up mobs.
Anti-Magic Zone - Unholy Knights have the best spell defenses, and this only increases it. Unconfirmed by myself, but I believe the damage limit is shared if multiple people are in the zone. It will not absorb 10k per person.
Ghoul Frenzy - New talent in 3.1. Honestly, not that great for DPS. Using this will goof up your rotation for a small increase in Ghoul DPS. Best used if your pet really needs healing, or if you're in a situation where you are unable to attack.
Bone Shield - A great tanking talent, necessary for Unholy tanks. With the longer cooldown in 3.1, save this for when you know you're going to need it. With the buffs elsewhere, it's no longer vital to keep up 100% of the time. Nice for DPS, as well, keep this up for as much time as possible.
Scourge Strike - An Unholy Knight's primary attack.
Summon Gargoyle - Great damage and worth a point in any Unholy build.

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I Promised her I'd Post it

Syla, the Snow Princess of Death.

She wants a horn to toot.

T's Death Knight Guide 2-1: Basic Spells

Basic, non-talented spells by level, leaving out utility spells and previously discussed Presences:

Blood Strike, 55: Rotation attack. Best used after Icy Touch and Plague Strike for maximum effect.
Icy Touch, 55: Rotation attack. Applies the Frost Fever disease.
Plague Strike, 55: Rotation attack. Applies the Blood Plague disease.
Death Coil, 55: Rotation attack. The first Runic Power skill Death Knights have access to. Will heal Ghouls, Gargoyles and Lichborne Frost Knights.
Death Grip, 55: The coolest ability in the game. Great for pulling, saving healers and full of Awesome in PVP.
Death Strike, 56: Rotation Attack. Will be replaced in the basic rotation with more powerful attacks. However, you will still want to mix this in to keep yourself alive when necessary.
Pestilence, 56: Useful for fighting multiple mobs. Very useful when combined with Blood Boil and other disease-based AOEs.
Raise Dead, 56:Unholy Knights have a talent that will make the Ghoul a permanent pet.
Mind Freeze, 57: Spell interrupt.
Chains of Ice, 58: Short-term CC. Useful for PVP or giving the tank a few extra seconds to regain aggro on a squishie-rushing mob.
Blood Boil, 58: Good AOE spell, best used with Pestilence.
Strangulate, 59: Another, more effective spell interrupt.
Death and Decay, 60: Death Knight Consecrate, for AOE tanking and great AOE DPS after the tank has a strong threat lead.
Obliterate, 61: Rotation attack. Does it really matter what it does? How can you NOT use a spell called Obliterate. Seriously, though, this will replace Death Strike for the most part in the basic rotation. Frost Knights especially will blow things up with this.
Icebound Fortitude, 62: Strong tanking and PVP "Oh Crap!" button. Try to time it when you know a large damage spike is incoming.
Blood Tap, 64: Each talent spec already has a way of creating plenty of Death Runes. However, this is a strong component of advanced rotations.
Dark Command, 65: Taunt.
Horn of Winter, 65: If you don't have a Shaman to drop Strength of Earth, this makes a great buff.
Death Pact, 66: If you have a pet out, this will make a nice emergency heal. However, if you're keeping track of time, use this just before a non-talented Ghoul dies after its duration for free health, assuming you have the Runic Power.
Rune Strike, 67: This spell is OFF the Global Cooldown. If you have the Runic Power, there is no reason any good Death Knight should not be using this. Macro it in to other skills if you have to. This is a must for tanking, since it has an increased aggro coefficient and is unavoidable.
Anti-Magic Shell, 68: Only a 5 second duration, so watch your timing for maximum effect. Great way to piss off casters in PVP.
Raise Ally, 72: Fun spell. Awesome to raise your group members and have them play as Ghouls.
Empower Rune Weapon, 75: Properly used, this will enable Death Knights to pump out some serious damage every few minutes.
Army of the Dead, 80: For the record, I will continually refer to this spell as "Army of Darkness." This spell looks awesome and is very useful if you make a bad pull soloing. Should create beautiful chaos in PVP.

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T's Death Knight Guide 1-2: Stats, Presences and Runeforging

Stats

Death Knights want to concentrate on the same stats all melee classes do: Strength, Stamina, Hit and Crit.

Strength is your primary DPS stat. All Death Knight spells and abilities scale off Attack Power. Spellpower does nothing for Death Knights.

Strength is also very important for tanking Death Knights, thanks to the Forceful Deflection ability. Of course, Death Knight tanks will still want to focus on Stamina, Defense and Dodge.

Presences

Presences are what allow Death Knights of all specs to excel at each situation they find themselves in. They function much like Warrior Stances or Druid Forms.

Blood Presence is for basic damage dealing and excellent for soloing thanks to the healing effect.

Frost Presence is the default tanking Presence.

Unholy Presence is geared more towards PVP. However, with the increased attack and casting speed, it may be able to outpace Blood Presence for damage over a short period of time. However, after blowing all your skills with reduced GCD, you will still have to wait for Rune cooldowns.

Runeforging

Blizzard has given Death Knights the ability to enchant their own weapons with special Runes. These Runes enhance the Death Knight's offensive and defensive capabilities. Runes can only be applied at the Runeforges in Archerus.

Cinderglacier - The best for 2-Handed Frost prior to level 70. I would also recommend it for Unholy builds.

Razorice - The best for Frost Dual-Wield builds. Even after level 70, an excellent option for Main Hand. Since 2-Handed builds, if played properly, will only have 20% of their damage come from auto-attacks, this is not a great option.

Lichbane - For non-Frost Dual-Wielding. Also, pretty much the only option for 2-Handed Blood prior to 70, since almost all their damage is physical.

Spellbreaking and Spellshattering - Basic anti-magic defensive enchants. Great for PVP.

Swordbreaking and Swordshattering - Basic anti-melee defensive enchants.

Fallen Crusader - THE DPS enchant. Post 3.1, it's Strength buff has been decreased by half, but it's proc rate increased. Your DPS should stay similar, but more steady instead of bursty.

Stoneskin Gargoyle - This is to make up for the fact that very few 2-Handed weapons have tanking stats on them. This is meant to be the "entry level" tanking enchant, with Swordshattering being a better option once you are otherwise defense-capped.

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T's Death Knight Guide 1-1: Roles and Resources

I'll spare the backstory. I assume everyone knows that Death Knights are the game's first Hero Class, etc. Plate, 2-handers, dual-wield, blah blah blah.

Roles

Death Knights are capable of tanking, damage dealing and PVP, regardless of talent spec. Do not listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. This is a new design direction for Blizzard. Your spec will not determine your role, but rather HOW you perform it. Of course, some builds will be optimal in certain situations.

Here's the general breakdown.

Blood Knights will have very high, sustained damage against single targets, as well as increased survivability and group utility through healing mechanics and buffs.

Frost Knights offer the best mitigation against melee attacks, very high, bursty, crit-based damage potential, limited AOE and extra Crowd Control. Frost is probably the "best" tanking spec. Also, Death Knights looking to Dual-Wield will most likely want a Frost-heavy build.

Unholy Knights are best at AOE attacks, diseases and magical defense, as well as pet usage. Unholy Knights also gain speed increases that will pay off in PVP.

Resources

Death Knights use 2 different resources, Runes and Runic Power.

There are 3 basic types of Runes.

Blood
Frost
Unholy

There are also special Death Runes.

Runes are used up by various spells and then recharge after ten seconds. For example, Blood Strike will use 1 Blood Rune, while Death Strike will burn 1 Frost and 1 Unholy. This gives the Death Knight a playstyle similar to Rogue, with the ability to be at "full power" at the beginning of an encounter, then using skills and quickly recharging to fire them off again.

Death Runes are granted by certain talents, such as Blood of the North, and will take the place of the other Runes. Death Runes are "wild cards" and can be used in the place of any of the basic three. This encourages Death Knights of all specs to use their off-spec attacks.

Runic Power functions almost identically to a Warrior's Rage mechanic. Each skill that the Death Knight uses that consumes one Rune grants 10 Runic Power. Those that consume multiple Runes will generate 15 Runic Power. This can be increased via talents. Runic Power can then be used for attacks. For example, Death Coil is a basic Death Knight ability that can only be used once the Death Knight has accumulated 40 Runic Power. Just like Rage, Runic Power degenerates over time outside of battle.

This is what makes the Death Knight a Hero Class. They are no more powerful than any other class, but rather, are more difficult to play and thus not suitable for beginners.

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