It’s not often that I do a major overhaul to one of my characters but when you are in position of making character desirable (to your own guild or otherwise) you will find that there is lots of room for improvement. My main raider at the moment is not Aurdon my Mage. It is my Death Knight named Raze. Up until 3.2 he had 4 pieces of 8.5 DPS gear as well as some various other Ulduar gear with a bit of Naxx left over (2 pieces). I ran as Blood spec with a few enchants here and there along with my profession of Jewel Crafting to help put up higher numbers on the board. I didn’t do too badly in my opinion. Always seeming to land somewhere in the top 8 or so DPS according to my records. After missing the first month of 3.2, I have found out the hard way that new gear goes a long way in claiming a spot at the top of the meters. Now with my current issue of not being second string, I’m forced with the options of making every effort to squeeze out the maximum my character can do outside of new raid gear drops. This will hopefully make a definite impact on my numbers next time I raid and/or make my raid performance desirable to other guilds. This is also what I found most helpful for anyone wanting to join up with a guild with the purpose to raid with them.
Regemming – My guild MOTD once said “If your gems are blue, obviously your skill must match”. If you want to be Epic, you have to raid with Epic gems. Lucky for me I’m a jewel crafter so I get the benefit form Bold Dragon’s Eyes in my gear as well as cut my own epic gems. DK’s feed off of red +Strength gems no matter what the socket color asks for. The only time you need to be concerned otherwise is to meet the requirements of your meta gem. With the addition of 3.2’s Nightmare Tear, this is now makes a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond the choice over the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond which I have now. I can replace my 2 Sovereign Dreadstones with oneNightmare Tear and another Bold Cardinal Ruby which should edge out a bit more strength.
Professions – Unfortunately to maximize the DPS potential of your character, you have to take the best two professions for your characters. As stated, my career path of Jewel Crafting was chosen to boost dps and I didn’t have a JC yet. This took me about two or three days to level up because I had most of the materials already. Others have said they did the grind completely off the AH through buying materials and it only cost them 3-4000g. Your mileage may vary on your server. If this is the route you choose try and do it over time and when you find good prices on the gems you need. I may have already had JC done but the next step for a DK is to pick up blacksmithing. Leveling blacksmithing to 400 for 2 additional gem slots is something that takes dedication. This was a huge investment just to gain 40 strength from two gems. I managed to do it in just one day but it cost me a pretty penny on the auction house. I had to buy close to 250 mithril and probably around 350 thorium. Those two are super expensive (70g for 20 thorium on my sever) because it takes FOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEVEEEEEERRR to mine it. Riding on a land mount doing circuits around EPL or Winterspring is not exactly fun. It will probably drop in price with the addition of flying mounts come cataclysm as well as Blizzard had mentioned grinding through these professions is something they are reviewing.
Enchants – Every piece of gear needs to be enchanted the best it can. Know what enchants best suit your character. I mistakenly had +Agility to my cloak where the better solution was +Haste to my cloak. I’m still not sure if I need attack power on my gloves or should I go with strength…I’m hearing different things from different sources. I had +8 to stats on my chest and had to convert to +10 stats at a cost of around 300g. Kind of expensive to add just another +2 to stats but considering I’m doing all I can outside of new raid gear drops. I have to raid my bank first before I can raid instance bosses.
Knowledge – Once you start pouring over things that need to be changed to your character, you start to learn from your mistakes. Rely on the input of others who are outperforming you as well as the knowledge of the intertubes. Check popular forums posts like Elitist Jerks and watch video boss strategies from TankSpot. Look up your character on websites like wow-heroes.com or be.imba.hu. Download tools like rawr to evaluate what your best gear set is and what your upgrades might be in your raiding future (Gear Wishlist is also good for this). I’ve found some helpful tools in the DK community on Elitistjerks that will take a staggering amount of input from what you feed it and either help your gear set and gemming or will actually simulate an hour worth of solid DPS (to try and minimalize RNG issues). All will help you realize things you might have overlooked.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Good luck getting all shinied up.
I'll sell you stone any time.
Sounds like you're on the right track!
Only caveat that I'd add to what you have here is that gemming for str, while usually optimal, may not always be. Typically, if you're below the hit or expertise cap, it may be worth throwing in a +20 hit/exp to get you there.
Other raiding tips include using indestructible potion right before the pull (if you have Bladed Armor), and farming/buying your own Dragonfin Filet.
Good luck with your new main!