So how do you fight against this new class? A class with so many defensive mechanics yet at the same time can put out a beastly amount of dps on the battlefield. Since a majority of DK’s are unholy, I will give a more thorough aspect of the unholy DK powers…because if DK’s are any other spec you can just sit on them. There’s a few things you should learn when you face a DK. I will explain it from my point of view. Click “read full article” for the details.

-Bone Shield

Pro: I cast this right when I enter arena so the CD is up when the gates fall down. This will allow me to basically have 8 bones when I enter the battle because I can raise another set of bones when I want to.

Counter: I will try to auto swing and use all weak possible direct damage abilities I can to waste and consume the charge on the DK’s bone shield. This cannot be purged so if you have casters you can have them try to wand it/ice lance etc. This combined with IBF makes a DK very hard to take down. For mutilate rogues, don’t muta right after you stun, wait for your white hits to consume the bones then use muta. The muta is practically wasted when you muta against a charge of bone shield. 40% damage reduction is pretty big.

-Icebound Fortitude

Pro: I use this when heavy fire is coming towards me or when a rogue is trying to set up a devastating kidney shot. When a BM hunter uses Beast Within you should use this ability because he will try to burst you down when his pet stuns you with intimidate. Being able to be immune to the intimidate and cut his super saiyen power damage in half will save you from dying.

Counter: While the DK is immune to stun, he is not immune to other cc’s… remember DK’s are vulnerable to CC’s so blind, sheep, freeze, fear etc while you see IBF up. I know for me, it makes me angry when I’m cc’d while I have IBF up because when I have IBF I go very offensive because that’s when they also let down their guard to try to burst you down so their defense is open.

-Magic Supression

Pro: This will make you immune to magic damage while under the effect of anti magic shield… so from 75% -> 100% so even if the pom pyro was going to crit for 10k, it would initially hit you for 2.5k damage…but with this talent maxed out you are immune. You can use AMS instead of combining AMS and IBF to survive super spell damage.

Counter: there isn’t much you can do when a DK is running around with 10 second spell immunity unless you are physical DPS. Other than that, just try to heal up and keep topped off.

-Desecration

Pro: Usually I would throw out 2 icy chains and then plague strike 2 targets. Why? Because I snare them and I increase the area of slow, so instead of trying to scourge strike try to setup the field to your advantage. 50% slow is very nice because it’s like an on demand frost trap. And on top of that you do 5% more damage. Even a druid will hafta crawl through this aoe slow effect.

Counter: GET OUT OF IT! If you are in this that means the DK is landing a lot of hits and will boost his sustained damage by a lot. Disengage, blink out, or cc the DK and move. Try to keep your distance

-Gargoyle

Pro: This is when the DK dps shoot up the foot, basically a flying moonkin just spamming wrath on the DK’s target. A good DK would know how to use his garg. There are a few tactics, one where you just try to train 1 person down and go all out on it, or you can launch the garg at the DPS and work on the healer. The 2^nd tactic will put the healer in a tough spot because he needs to decide who to heal. The garg can hit from 1.5 to 3-4k per shot depending on the DK’s ap atm. To make this more potent, summon the garg out and if you have a shaman blood lusting it will yield an awesome result. Presences also have an effect on the gargoyles damage. With blood out it will shoot for 15% more damage and with unholy its normal damage but shoots 15% faster. But shooting faster also drains runic power at a faster rate.

Counter: Currently it is bugged and comes out with half health around 5.5k hp. If you are ranged then you should shoot it down asap to mitigate a lot of incoming damage. As a moonkin I turn around and throw a moonfire and 2 wraths and it’s dead. If you are melee then you are screwed and you will hafta live with the garg out shooting at you or your teammate for a minute. Or you can stall the DK long enough so he runs out of runic power.

-Anti-Magic Zone

Pro: I drop this around a pillar or on top of the teams healer. This helps the healer survive against current arena matches where mages do ridiculous damage etc.

Counter: Try to AoE the people inside because it only absorbs about 15k~ damage (10,000+ 2XAP). Or try to pull the playing field away from AMZ. If you are the other DK pull out the target that’s trying to turtle under the field and then commence your attack.

Misc.

Learning how to control your bone shield charges and cool down will greatly increase your chance to survive. Being able to feel and time the enemies big strikes like blade storm/execute/aimed shot/arcane barrage etc will keep you in the game longer. Night of the Dead will probably be a necessary talent later on because smart people will kill ghouls early on to avoid prolonged damage and well timed stuns.

Tags: Death Knight, strategies, world of warcraft