The Glade 4.0

So..

I haven't spent much on gems, but what should I be looking for as a DK? I've seen some melee DPS going almost all armor pen, with a smattering of other, and some tanks with nothing but Stamina. As for PVP... all resilience? Is it really wise to put all your gems on one stat for a build or should you mix it across all the stats important to that build?

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I believe that current theorycrafting favors stacking +str.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

For what? Everything?

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Are you Blood, Frost, or Unholy, and what role are you performing?

_________________


Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

Tank spec is Blood, DPS/pvp is Frost, and I have (more or less) a gear set for each. I DPS far more than tank.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

DPS should favor gemming Strength, except to activate a meta or if you have something ridiculous like a +12 Strength bonus. Assuming you're hit capped (8%), of course.

Get a separate gear set for PvP, and you'll probably cap out Resil before you even worry about gemming, then str from there.*

For tanking, people generally try to fill everything with Stamina. I, personally, generally fill gem slots with Stamina, Hit/Stamina, or Dodge/Stamina, if the socket bonus is stamina itself. I'm odd, however, and not hit capped.

*=Warning, I know nothing of PvP, so a high likelihood that I'm wrong.

_________________


Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

No idea what you mean here other than the hit cap. What do you mean, activate a meta? How is a +12 STR bonus ridiculous

I've already got almost a full PVP set but I have no idea what the cap on resilience is.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Most Strength bonuses I've seen range from 6 to 8. 12 would be ridiculous, because I've never seen it. >_> <_<

In order to activate your Meta Gem, the one in your hat (I'd recommend looking into the ones with the secondary effect of +3% Critical Damage), you have to have sufficient colors of gems in your armor. Usually, a single Nightmare Tear tossed in somewhere with your best socket bonus is sufficient, but you may need to get a str/sta gem somewhere, if you decide to go with the 2 blue meta.

_________________


Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

I'd say slam strength in all your slots for frost spec dps. Stamina for your tank set. Activate the meta with a nightmare tear as mentioned by Dal.

You can get away with using other gems if you need some defense on your tank, or hit/expertise on your dps. But try to stick to the basics of str and sta if you can.

The only ones messing with much ArP are usually blood dps specs, since they focus on physical damage a great deal. Much akin to MM hunters who use steady shots.....and even then, you really need to hit a certain threshold in gear ArP before messing with gemming for it.

My DK is in badge gear and only does 5 man stuff, but I've tried all 3 specs at some point. I settled on blood dps, and the difference is minimal across the board with like weapons. The only thing I like more about blood, is it's a bit easier to play and has survivability. Frost DW dps was around the same dps, but more tedious to play as I had to watch procs and such.....although I did play that spec for quite a while and it was fun to a degree. I just got tired of it.

Death Knight Gemming 101

Tanking:

Meta: Austere Earth Siege Diamond (32 Stamina, 2% Armor From Items) 2 Blue, 1 Red
Blue Slots: Solid Zircon (30 STA)
Red Slots: Sovereign Dreadstone (10 STR, 15 STA), Shifting Dreadstone (10 AGI, 15 STA), Guardian's Dreadstone (10 EXP, 15 STA)
Yellow Slots: Enduring Eye of Zul (10 DEF, 15 STA), Vivid Eye of Zul (10 HIT, 15 STA)

These are the gems you can and should use when trying to figure out how to gem your DK for tanking. Solid Zircon (30 STA) is the best Effective Health Gem. However, Expertise and Hit Caps Matter, Threat Matters, and Avoidance Matters. As such, Death Knight tanks are very rarely well served by simply dumping 30 STA gems for effective health.

DPS:

Meta: Relentless Earth Siege Diamond (21 AGI 3% Critical Strike Damage)
Red Slots: Bold Cardinal Ruby (20 STR)
Yellow Slots: Inscribed Ametrine (10 STR 10 CRIT)
Blue Slots: Sovereign Dreadstone (10 STR 15 STA) or Nightmare Tear (10 All Stats)

The rules for gemming DPS DKs are simple, very simple.

All Red Slots are Bold Cardinal Rubies.
If the 2nd slot on a 2 slot piece is yellow and the socket bonus is 6 strength or more, then use an Inscribed Ametrine. If the socket bonus is less than 6 strength or some other stat, then use a Bold Cardinal Ruby.
If the 2nd slot on a 2 slot piece is blue and you have not activated your Meta Gem, put your Nightmare Tear in the highest strength socket bonus piece.
If you have a 3 slot piece with 1 of each socket type and the strength bonus is 8 Strength or higher, you can use it instead of a 2 slot piece to activate your meta.

_________________

Thanks guys.. but I still don't get what this "Activate your meta" buisness is.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

http://www.wowhead.com/item=41380



In order to make the meta gem actually give you the listed bonus, you have to have the specified combination of gems socketed in your armor. If you have all blue gems, for example, the gem bonus will be greyed out and you won't get anything. Multicolor gems are ok, so in this case, 2 purple gems should be sufficient to activate this meta gem.

_________________

Khross's post is considerably more in-depth than mine, and undoubtedly more accurate re: DPS.

I will point out that if you're reliant on pickup groups as a tank, for some reason, people will scream at you that you're pants on head retarded if you dare to gem anything that isn't Stamina.

_________________


Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

Oh crap... did I have my webcam on again? Sorry.

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

That's ok. If they want to sit there and wait another 15 minutes for the next tank they can go right ahead.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Majestros

My DK is currently in tank gear. I'm swapping between two different non-rep Rings at the moment, but will likely switch my Exalted Ring to a DPS ring for my Unholy Spec. That said, you'll notice I have 28 Expertise (slightly low for ICC) but above the dodge cap), 273 hit rating (I need about 10 more to be comfortable for spell hit), and a whole bunch of Green and Purple Gems. While I can easily pick up another 3k health, it won't mean much to me if I can't hit the target with Howling Blast or Icy Touch, or I get gibbed by a crit. DK ICC Tanking Gear is light on Defense, and we have to make it up somehow. It's also pretty light on expertise.

By the way, I'm defense light for ICC25. I need at least 6 more defense skill there.

_________________

EXP cap is 26. And you need tier tokens badly

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Gileas

I tend to log out in tank gear as well. My hit rating is considerably lower, but I've never had actual problems establishing initial threat - but most of my stuff is more connected to Melee Threat, even given Icy Touch's threat bonus.

_________________


Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

It's not. You're not standing in front of the mob, so you don't see parries. 26 is the Dodge Cap. Parry for Ulduar and TOC Mobs is 17%. Parry for ICC25 Mobs as minimum of 20%. Some go as high as 27%.That's an alt ...

_________________

Yeh, but your primary threat generation is IT and Rune Strike yes? Neither of which can be parried if I'm not mistaken. Granted, I don't know a heck of a lot about DKs in general, but parries don't affect as much as say missing a taunt or something yeah?

And I know its an alt, I was just busting your balls. But yeah, Tier tokens :p

Here,
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... ash&cn=Fys
You can make fun of my off hand

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Arafys:

I need to avoid something to proc a Rune Strike and Icy Touch shouldn't be used as a crutch. In fact, my survivability has more to do with judicious and proper use of runes than anything else.

_________________

wait a minute ... I thought everyone quit WoW

_________________
“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.” - Pearl S. Buck

So that explains the dodge trinks. The -20% dodge thing in ICC was unfair to DK and bear tanks I thought.

And what do you mean using IT as a crutch?

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Nah, they reverted the change they had planned that caused us to be all up in arms.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Eh, they're both stamina trinkets. They're just better than the Corroded Skeleton Key as far as on use abilities goes.Icy Touch was changed because we don't proc Rune Strikes in ICC. And spam dumps or Double Touch rotations build threat at the cost of DPS and flexibility.

_________________