• Stack Armor Penetration. Blood DKs actually do physical damage versus spell damage, so ArP helps. I didn't switch over until I had > 200 ArP. If you go Blood early, your DPS won't be amazing. (Mine still isn't where it could be with more ArP.)
• Heart Strike. Heart Strike some more.
• You want to Death Strike to generate Death Runes, with which you can execute - wait for it - Heart Strikes.
• Watch your diseases. You won't have the simple reapplication of Frost Fever and Blood Plague that Unholy DKs have, so watch for it. Heart Strike does more damage when you have more diseases on the target.
• Fire off Death Coil only when your DRW is on cooldown. This means you should be building Runic Power leading up to every 90s. You also want to keep your RP up for Death Strikes. (Read below)
• Don't be afraid to call a ghoul during a boss fight. You won't have control over it but once the fight starts you should be good to go.
• I glyphed for Dancing Rune Weapon, Death Strike, and Dark Death. You want a longer lasting DRW (esp. come 3.2), more damage and healing from your Death Rune generator, and with Sudden Doom the Dark Death glyph pushes your DPS.
• Speaking of Death Strike glyph - the glyph will increase your damage by 2% for every 2 runic power you currently have (up to a maximum of 25%). The runic power is not consumed by this effect. Keep your RP up for this, but dump whenever DRW is ready.
• Use Hysteria on yourself. You want to pop it right before you trigger DRW.
• Make sure you talent for Virulence. Why you don't have the spell needs of an Unholy DK, you still need to ensure you hit a lot.
• Stay in Blood Presence.
• Heart Strike.
Pat just wondering where you are getting your armor penetration number from. Is it from adding up all the armor penetration in the gear that you get? I have 4 pieces of armor now that have armor penetration on them.
pendant of the Dragonsworn http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44659
Band of Draconic Guile http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45303
Decimators Armguards http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45264
and
Chestplate of Vicious Potency
When adding up all the armor penetration from that gear the number is 162 so do I need to wait to change over to Blood DPS or go ahead and switch now?
If you mouse over your hit rating number on the melee stats of your character sheet it should tell you how much armor pen you have
Ok I put on all my armor penetration gear and then moused over the hit rating number on my melee stats and I am sitting at 162 with enemy armor reduced up to 13.5%. So taking into consideration pats first post I need to wait till I get a little more armor and have 200 ArP before I switch my spec is that right?
Yeah, I thought you had more. Stick with Unholy.
Timing on Blood is a lot tighter, so be sure you have your on the fly rotation down pat.
Thanks Pat. Right now I am working on keeping my diseases up on the target and then sourge striking as much as possible and then runic dumping with death coil. As soon as the cool downs are over I hit the scourge strike again so I am working on the rotation to keep the diseases on the target if you have any other helpful information please let me know.
More Scourge Strike, less Blood Strike. For any Unholy DK right now, your overall Scourge Strike damage should be higher than your melee swing damage. Only use Blood strike when there is a blood rune. If there is a Death Rune, save it for Scourge Strike.
So are you saying I should have more Scourge Strike than white damage? Just asking so that I can work on it.
Thats Basically it Sherri. Scourge Strike should be your most damaging ability. When possible, apply your diseases, then SS, then blood strike to activate death runes. Runic power dump after that. When your abilities/runes come back off cooldown, you should immediately Scourge Strike several times in a row...you can probably get away with doing 3 scourge strikes. With any luck, it will have refreshed your diseases, though if it hasn't, you need to reapply them the next time a frost and unholy rune are up. Also at this point, you'll have your blood runes as blood runes again, so you are going to need to use blood strike again. Make sure your Blood Strikes are actually hitting the mob though, and check to see if the blood rune will be cooling down into a death rune.
Just remember that you can't always stick to a set rotation, but you just have to keep certain things in mind. Scourge Strike whenever possible, keep diseases stacked, have death runes, runic power dump.