5 Boxing DK's - hit a wall in UK

[Stealthy]

Hi all,

Seeking some advice from others who have run all dk groups...

My guys hit 70 so I thought I'd run them through UK...got them all equipped with the cobalt set and off i went. While the trash wasn't a problem, I cannot for the life of me down the 1st boss, and I usually lose a couple of toons on the 4-pull just before him...

Armory for my toons here.

Is it my gear? Is it my spec?

This is my main DPS macro...could it be this?

#showtooltip
/cast Rune Strike
/castsequence reset=target icy touch, plague strike, blood strike, death strike, Death Coil

I more or less just mash this button after I pull...

Any ideas?

Cheers,

S.

[Hachoo]

I haven't instanced with a group of DKs before but heres a couple questions:

Are you dropping 4x (5x?) death and decay? Massive aoe damage.

Why aren't you using pestilence in your cast sequence? Thats more massive AoE (spreads diseases to everything in the area).

Not sure about the boss - start off using anti magic shell to prevent all of his damage - if you were unholy x5 you could just rotate anti magic zones - that would be super OP. Someone else can chime in better on the boss though I'm sure.

[Souca]

There are a couple tricks with DKs and their cast sequencing. The are a few abilities that will get you stuck if you aren't careful. Deathcoil is one of these abilities. Since you have Rune Strike in the macro, it is possible that the DK will not have 40 RP when they get to the Death Coil step. They will sit there doing nothing. Unless you have some really good RP5, you aren't going to get to 40 RP without using runes. Blood Boil is another catchy ability. If you don't have any diseases up, then it will sit there. You also have to be careful with reset conditions. If you are downing things quickly and you reset on target, or you change targets a lot, you could find yourself waiting on rune cooldowns. While it's preferable to start a new rotation, I'd prefer to get two Blood Strikes off than wait for a frost rune so I can Icy Touch.

I would change your macro to the following:

#showtooltip
/startattack
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Death Strike, Blood Strike, Blood Strike
/cast !Rune Strike

The ! tells it to only turn Rune Strike on, it does nothing if it is already on. Without the ! you will just toggle it everytime. Another thing is that this is a short rotation. You should always look at DK rotations in 20 second blocks. Since diseases last mroe than 10 seconds, its a waste to reapply them too early. Also, if you have any Death Rune talents, you need to extend teh rotation to take those into account. You were only using 1 of your Blood runes in the above rotation, btw.

Not sure on specific strats, as I haven't started instancing on my DK group, 71 but no gear. Just thought I'd chime in on the macro. I'll try and add more when I get home.

- Souca -

[blast3r]

I had the same problem with my DKs. That cobalt set felt like paper on the first boss.

I have plague strike in front of icy touch in my rotation. I read somewhere that was best. Can't remember where.

Maybe try adding some heavy borean leather and some enchants to them. My dks are still sitting at lvl 70 and probably won't pick them up for a while. Think I'll get my locks to 80 then grab my druids and get them leveled.

I am currently at level 446 in enchanting. Let me know if you need any. Just bring mats.
Enchanting

[Stealthy]

I haven't instanced with a group of DKs before but heres a couple questions:

Are you dropping 4x (5x?) death and decay? Massive aoe damage.

Why aren't you using pestilence in your cast sequence? Thats more massive AoE (spreads diseases to everything in the area).

Not sure about the boss - start off using anti magic shell to prevent all of his damage - if you were unholy x5 you could just rotate anti magic zones - that would be super OP. Someone else can chime in better on the boss though I'm sure.

I have pestilence & blood boil mapped to a separate macro - since you don't always go up against multiple targets every fight, it's not always needed.

I use D&D usually right after I pull...

Cheers,

S.

[Souca]

Enchanting[/url]

I open with Icy since it is ranged and if you glyph Plague strike it will get a bonus to its damage with a disease up. There really isn't any difference though if you don't use the ranged or the glyph.

I might respecc my group tonight and take pokes at UK or Nexus. Any one have suggestions on which they think is a better instance for a starting? I'll let you guys know what I come up with specc and rotation wise if it works for me. I will be only using quest gear and no crafted as I don't have any profs high enough on my ally chars. My girls are 71 now, but I might quest up to 72 before I go charging in.

- Souca -

[Multibocks]

Most bosses in Nexus are easier than UK. That 4 pull in front of prince is BRUTAL and will most likely wipe you. Remember to move around a lot as they drop grenades on the ground and try (heh) to take out the Runecasters first as they drop shields on everyone. I havent tried this instance on heroic since a few weeks ago, but that *(&(*& prince kept tombing my healer and it wiped my group. I didnt even get him to 50% so I figured he was probably more work than hes worth. Also this instance has WAY too much trash. I mean like double some other instances. What I do to alleviate the low RP /castsequence is I split my macro (thanks to Fury I believe... or was it Zerocool?) I do all the RP generating stuff first i.e. IT, PS, Blood strike (?) and then have a second button I mash for RP abilities and then I just watch my RP and switch back and forth. It's not the best solution, but eh it works.

Maybe someday I will start testing what would be best for DKs being MB'd, but for now I can't be axed.

[Souca]

Yea, I'll likely go Nexus first just because I've run it more solo. I'm not looking forward to the dwarf... err I mean orc that does the whirlwind with all the frozen mobs; whirlwinds make melee sad. Hmm, more I think about it, the more I wonder how fun Nexus will be without a healer. Meh, worst case I try them both. It's all learning anyway.

I keep my RP buttons separate as well, though I rarely find I have enough RP to do more than a Death Coil. I imagine this will change as I get to mobs that last more than a GCD or two. One thing I highly reccommend for any group with more than one DK is putting Death Grip on round robin. I can't count the number of times I have yanked an 80 out of the sky only to do it a second time when they didn't get far enough away. People aren't used to Death Grip being able to affect flying mounts, so you get some really good surprise when you have an opponent that wants to hover just out of melee range on their epic flier. Here is hoping they don't nerf this.

Grr. Wish work would be over already.

- Souca -

[Stealthy]

There are a couple tricks with DKs and their cast sequencing. The are a few abilities that will get you stuck if you aren't careful. Deathcoil is one of these abilities. Since you have Rune Strike in the macro, it is possible that the DK will not have 40 RP when they get to the Death Coil step. They will sit there doing nothing. Unless you have some really good RP5, you aren't going to get to 40 RP without using runes. Blood Boil is another catchy ability. If you don't have any diseases up, then it will sit there. You also have to be careful with reset conditions. If you are downing things quickly and you reset on target, or you change targets a lot, you could find yourself waiting on rune cooldowns. While it's preferable to start a new rotation, I'd prefer to get two Blood Strikes off than wait for a frost rune so I can Icy Touch.

I would change your macro to the following:

 
#showtooltip 
/startattack 
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Death Strike, Blood Strike, Blood Strike 
/cast !Rune Strike

The ! tells it to only turn Rune Strike on, it does nothing if it is already on. Without the ! you will just toggle it everytime. Another thing is that this is a short rotation. You should always look at DK rotations in 20 second blocks. Since diseases last mroe than 10 seconds, its a waste to reapply them too early. Also, if you have any Death Rune talents, you need to extend teh rotation to take those into account. You were only using 1 of your Blood runes in the above rotation, btw.

Not sure on specific strats, as I haven't started instancing on my DK group, 71 but no gear. Just thought I'd chime in on the macro. I'll try and add more when I get home.

- Souca -

So I take it that without the ! in front of Rune Strike, it will be using up RP if Rune Strike procs a 2nd time before I actually swing - becuase of the bug with it where it consumes RP upon activation and not on the actual swing? Woudn't it be better to have it before the castsequence in the macro though? Otherwise you need to go through the whole macro before it will activate?

I was deliberately only using 1 blood rune becuase I wanted to have 1 blood available in case I need to Rune Tap in a hurry - but upon reflection, I'm missing out on the extra 10% parry from Blade Barrier, so this is probably not a good idea...will have another play with the macros tonight...

Cheers,

S.

[pinotnoir]

i didnt think about all the bosses that whirl. That will suck. Skadi will blow as well. It will be interesting to see how it works out with all the dps bunched up.