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.

Enhancement 3.1

Time for Enhancement this week. Raising a few baby Enhancers in Denarian.

Again, 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
Enhancing Totems: 3/3 Strength of Earth and Flametongue are two of our best buff totems. Making them better is standard. You'll need these for soloing tough Elites, as well as group situations. Sure your offensive Fire Totems will grant more DPS for yourself, but as I always say, Group DPS > Personal DPS.
Earth's Grasp: 0/2 A must for PVP. Not for this build, though.
Ancestral Knowledge: 5/5 Despite being a melee-heavy spec, mana is very important to Enhancement. Why Intellect and not straight MP boost? We'll see later.

Tier 2
Guardian Totems: 0/2 The buff to Stoneskin is minimal. However, the lower cooldown on Grounding is very handy. Not a bad talent, just better uses for these points at the moment.
Thundering Strikes: 5/5 Enhancement is all about the crit. Please note that this effects spells as well as melee.
Improved Ghost Wolf: 0/2 2 Points makes Ghost Wolf instant cast. While this is indeed nice, it becomes slightly irrelevant after you get your mount. You'll have points left to spend to get to later tiers, so if you want to drop them here instead of Enhancing Totems temporarily then respec later, that's a solid plan. Also, this is cool for PVP. Take that, Droods!
Improved Shields: 1/3 Nothing wrong here. I'll come back to max this later. One option is to drop the 2 points from Improved Windfury Totem here.

Tier 3
Elemental Weapons: 3/3 A Mandatory talent for Enhancement. Windfury is a large chunk of your damage.
Shamanistic Focus: 1/1 So nice that this is a passive effect instead of the old on-crit effect.
Anticipation: 0/3 While increased dodge is nice, you're better served killing enemies faster. Really more effective for PVP.

Tier 4
Flurry: 5/5 You'll be critting a LOT, so this will be up often.
Toughness: 0/5 See Anticipation.

Tier 5
Improved Windfury Totem: 2/2 Enhancement's third big totem.
Spirit Weapons: 1/1 Parry is good. Shamans cannot train that skill like other melee classes. You'll be very thankful for the threat reduction. This was modified in 3.1 to effect all threat, not just melee.
Mental Dexteroity: 3/3 Remember that Intellect back at the beginning? Here's where it comes in handy. This allows Enhancement Shamans to gear for more mana for attacks while still maintaining their offensive capabilities.

Tier 6
Unleashed Rage: 3/3 Again, you'll be critting often. 10% is a lot of Attack Power to be up almost constantly. Changed in 3.1 to give the same effect for 3 points instead of 5.
Weapon Mastery: 3/3 Well... yeah.
Frozen Power: 0/2 New talent in 3.1 Enhancement is becoming increasingly viable for serious PVP.

Tier 7
Dual Wield: 1/1 When Shamans learned to Dual Wield in Burning Crusade, I was sold. 2 big scary weapons are better than 1.
Dual Wield Specialization: 3/3 Dual Wield has a 24% increased chance to miss to compensate for the extra damage, so this is mandatory.
Stormstrike: 1/1 The damage is massive. The debuff is ridiculous. In 3.1, the extra 2 charges and 2 second cooldown reduction from the old Improved Stormstrike have been rolled into the base skill.

Tier 8
Static Shock: 0/3 A very nice talent for DPS. I prefer to level with Water Shield, but I will almost definitely come back for this later in an endgame build.
Lava Lash: 1/1 This doesn't really do much damage on its own. What is DOES do is make Enhancement Shamans want to use Flametongue in their offhands instead of the old Windfury selection. Why Flametongue? More damage here, Fire Damage on each swing and MORE SPELLPOWER! We're a true hybrid, here.
Improved Stormstrike: 0/2 I raised someone's Shaman-sense with this one. While I still stand by my statement that I feel this is more useful for PVP, I have to admit it's allure for PVE. While I never experienced mana issues with Shamanistic Rage, extra mana is always good. However, my current priorities are to max out Enhancement as quickly as possible, and get into those delicious Elemental talents.

Tier 9
Mental Quickness: 3/3 AP -> SP Brilliant. THIS is the talent that makes us the only true hybrid in the game.
Shamanistic Rage: 1/1 Kiss your mana issues goodbye. Once every 2 minutes, you can get it alllll back.
Earthen Power: 0/2 More PVP.

Tier 10
Maelstrom Weapon: 5/5 Okay, that's a heck of a tooltip to take in. When you hit with melee, you have a chance to gain the Maelstrom buff. This happens often. You will quickly gain 5 stacks of this. 5 x 20% = 100% So, basically instant-cast Lightning Bolts. Or Heals for those nasty Elites you'll be soloing with this talent.

Tier 11
Feral Spirit: 1/1 I love Fen and Gar. (That's right, you're only a true Enhancer if you name your wolves!) Their attacks regain my health and stun my enemies. Also, the Spirit Walking speed boost is AWESOME.

Here's a look at what my build will look like at level 80. As usual with me, it's not the optimal OMG build. However, it gives me everything I want for what I do.

Mr. Gnow-it-all

Tuesday, I posted my 3.1 Affliction build. I also said it's FAIL, raising a few eyebrows.

Allow me to explain.

Here I am, a few days after the patch, sitting in Ironforge, blowing the bejeesus out of a testing dummy. I'm not here trying to rock uber-pwn DPS. All I'm doing is testing out the new Affliction and comparing it's damage potential to a previous test I had run.

Some random Destro-Gnome is fwooshing the dummy next to me. Suddenly, he starts inviting me and telling me that he can help my DPS.

Here's a brief paraphrasing of the conversation.

Gnowitall: I can give you advice.
Me: No thanks, I'm just here trying to get a rough estimate of Affliction's potential.
Gnowitall: Your spec is broken.
Me: I wouldn't say it's broken. Not optimal, to be sure, but it works best for my purposes.
Me: I mostly solo with some small group situations.
Gnowitall: No, it's broken. Those points in Demo are useless.
Me: I wouldn't say they're USELESS. I find Demonic Aegis very useful.
Gnowitall: Aegis is crap. You want your points in Ruin.
Me: Yeah, because I cast Shadow Bolt soooooo often while solo.
Gnowitall: Your DPS will be bad. Groups will not want you.
Me: My DPS is just fine. I'd say 1800 self-buffed in mostly greens is fairly nice.
Me: I'm fully aware of what the "optimal" builds are. I like this one.
Gnowitall: Your broken without Ruin. Get it.
Gnowitall: Trust me.
Me: Teach me, Obi-Wan. PLEASE explain to me how great Ruin is with 7% crit.

Of course, the Gnome mounted up and ran off before he could see my witty retort. frakking Gnomes.

Okay, let's discuss this.

I KNOW Haunt/Ruin is the best DPS for Affliction. I ALSO know what's best for me.

First of all, as I said previously, I'm mostly solo. I'm starting to try to get back into some PUGs, but I'm in no hurry. As such, I like the extra survivability and utility my build gives me.

Here's what I'd be missing with a cookie-cutter build:

Dark Pact helps when I don't want to Life Tap.
Improved Felpuppy helps with that, as well as a nicer group buff.
There are very few specs who can bring the equivalent of my Elements debuff, so I rarely use Agony. Group DPS > Personal DPS
Better Healthstones for bad healers.
More Health and Mana for myself and my pet, plus pet healing.
Fel Concentration is essential for solo.

Okay, we've established that my build works for me, what about the loss in DPS this causes?

Secondly, Let's examine what I'd get from a Ruin build.

Okay I prioritize my stats like this:

Spellpower (including Spirit calculations)
Glorious, wonderful HASTE
Allthatothercrap


With that in mind, I have a hair under 7% Spell Crit. Right now, with my 2 points in Imp Shadow Bolt (I'm REALLY trying to free up 3 more points), I have roughly 9%.

Over a 2-minute window, I cast Shadow Bolt in a full Affliction rotation an average of 42 times, including Nightfall procs. (I still use Glyph of Corruption)

42 x .09 = 3.78

Let's round up and assume 4 crits.

Now, my Shadow Bolts hit for approximately 2800 each. Spell crits inflict 50% additional damage, so each crit added 1400, for a total of 4200.

Here's Ruin's tooltip: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%.

So, with ruin, each crit would total 5600, with an additional 1400 damage each.

1400 x 4 = 5600

5600 more damage over 2 minutes.

5600/120 = 46.6666666666666666

46.67 additonal DPS.

Is Demonic Aegis worth 47 DPS?

Talented, Demonic Aegis gives me an additonal 54 spell power, plus an extra 9% from Spirit, which is 511 in my current gear.

511 x .09 = 46

46 + 54 = 100

Is 100 spellpower worth 47 DPS?

Using ElitistJerk's calculations, 10 SP = 11.33 DPS

100/10 = 10 (duh)

10 x 11.33 = 113.3 DPS

113.3 > 47

Not to mention all of that aforementioned utility.

I win.

Now, once my gear improves, when the crit outweighs Aegis, I'll definitely respec. Additionally, I'll also pick up Bane, which reduces my Shadow Bolt cast time slightly, which will increase my DPS. However, there is currently no way bane will make up that distance right now.

Now, I am in no way saying my build is better. All I'm saying is my build is better FOR ME.

Affliction 3.1

Okay, let's get this patch going!

First of all, here's my build.

Yes, it's full of fail, but it's what I'm rolling with right now, and it works WONDERFULLY for my purposes.

Tier 1
Improved Curse of Agony: 0/2 I prefer CoElements, so these points are better spent elsewhere. Great talent for full-DPS, though.
Suppression: 3/3 Now affects all schools of magic, not just Affliction. Extra efficiency is icing.
Improved Corruption: 5/5 Duh. Corruption is Affliction's best spell.

Tier 2
Improved Curse of Weakness: 0/2 If this is your dedicated Curse in a raid, go for it. Otherwise, unnecessary.
Improved Drain Soul: 2/2 More mana is always a plus. Threat isn't as much of an issue as it used to be, but it never hurts to have threat-reduction in PUGs.
Improved Life Tap: 0/2 Nothing wrong with this talent. I just don't have any need for it, currently.
Soul Siphon: 2/2 A must-have for Drain Tanking. Also big DPS win for Drain Soul on mobs under 25%.

Tier 3
Improved Fear: 0/2 PVP talent.
Fel Concentration: 3/3 Another must-have for Drain Tanking.
Amplify Curse: 0/1 More of a PVP talent, in my opinion. PVE Warlocks will have enough haste to make this not worth a point.

Tier 4
Grim Reach: 0/2 I never understood this talent. Why would I want extra range on my Affliction spells, but have to run in to fire Shadow Bolts?
Nightfall: 2/2 My favorite talent in the game. SHADOW TRANCE
Empowered Corruption: 3/3 More Corruption damage is always good.

Tier 5
Shadow Embrace: 5/5 NOW is when Affliction starts to get really good.
Siphon Life: 1/1 No longer a castable spell, but rather rolled in to Corruption. Extra healing + more Corruption damage + easier rotation. I support this change.
Curse of Exhaustion: 0/1 More PVP. Didn't get the prerequisite, so obviously not taking this.

Tier 6
Improved Felhunter: 2/2 Your Felhunter becomes a great mana battery. Also juices up his tasty buff. Granted, in a group with a Mage/Priest, this talent becomes less useful.
Shadow Mastery: 5/5 Get those Fire spells out of here!

Tier 7
Eradication: 3/3 This was nerfed in 3.1 to proc less and for a shorter duration. I still love it, though. When it procs, it's a huge DPS boost.
Contagion: 5/5 Affliction just keeps stacking damage buff on top of damage buff.
Dark Pact: 1/1 Sure, Life Tap scales and is better overall. However, I still like keeping this around for situation when you don't want to sacrifice health.

Tier 8
Improved Howl of Terror: 0/2 Again, PVP.
Malediction: 3/3 Spell damage? Okay. CRIT?! We'll get to that in a second.

Tier 9
Death's Embrace: 5/5 Many specs have a talent like this, now. Affliction really benefits from it, since we haven't been strong finishers, traditionally. Other classes can blow their mana at the end of a fight, but Affliction just keeps steady.
Unstable Affliction: 1/1 MORE DOTS!!!
Pandemic: 1/1 Here's that crit! This talent was overly complicated in 3.0, but now it makes sense. I never noticed the boost before, but now you KNOW when it procs. Favorite change of the patch.

Tier 10
Everlasting Affliction: 5/5 One of the coolest new talents of the Wrath Era.

Tier 11
Haunt: 1/1 There are still Warlocks out there that skip this because it doesn't do much damage. The debuff is what this is all about. 20% extra DoT damage. Duh.

From here, I prefer to go Demonology for the stat boosts and Demonic Aegis. Yes, this makes my build very FAIL.

I will explain my decision... THURSDAY.

Edit: Thursday has come and gone. Please read this post. I'm not really that fail.