DKs, playing one or working along side one

Hey all, I'm just going to write down a few things I've learn bout this class. With it being my main toon and all I hope it helps some of you. Feel free to correct anything I say, I am drunk alot, so I can give bad advice at times, lol.

Tanking....not really my gig...but I've done it and think this could help ppl running with a dk tank more then those of you that tank your dks. Death and Decay(the red shit we put on the floor) is one of the biggest threat builders in the game. I lead my tanking rotation with this and pop it every chance I get. Add and spread your diseases next and you should hold groups of mobs pretty well. For those of you running with a dk tank, hold back untill you see him spread his diseases with pestilence (looks like a bunch of black crap spreading from mob to mob). Ofcourse Death Grip is a great single target pull and can start a fight very well if used with other classes CCs. And something I dont see many dks doing is, if you see a ranged mob hurling fireballs from across the room, I found that Strangulate will stop him from being able to cast and he will, by nature, run to you and melee you. Making this just as usefull as death grip for pulling mobs to you. My rotation is normally Dark Command to pull and start the fight, pop DnD where you want the fight to take place (away from CC'ed mobs), Icy touch, Plague strike, pestilence (to spread diseases ofcource), then use Death strike, Heart strike and Rune strike(a huge threat builder and massive damage) as needed to keep busy. Once again I'm not the tank I should be, so just use this as a start till you find your own style of play.

DPS...ok, now this is my cup of tea. I still run frost even though some websites say unholy can out dps it. Mainly cuz I have yet to see an equally geared unholy dk beat frost dps (not to say it cant happen, just what I think to be true). First thing first, with frost duel wield the real key is slow weapons. This is because if you compare a slow weapon to a fast one, both with the same dps rating, you will see the slow one has higher damage (not dps). Example, if both weapons say like 409 dps, one with a speed of 2.6 and the other at 1.8, the slow one will be like 800-1000 damage at a speed of 2.6 to equal 409 dps. The fast one will say something like 400-800 damage at a speed of 1.8 to equal 409 dps. The faster one doesn't hit as hard, but more often to equal the same dps rating as a slower but harder hitting weapon. Now, having said that, heres why that matters. All your abilities scale damage off of the damage a weapon does, not the dps rating. So the slower, but equal, weapon will make all your abilities hit for much more than fast weapons. We clear so far? Next. My rotation is as follows, Howling blast(with the right glyph this adds your desease), Plague strike, plestilence, blood strike (for the death rune), then I rotate frost strike, howling blast and Obliterate. I have choosen not to use the pestilence glyph because I found that the extra distance your deseases spread can hit CC'ed mobs. Howling blast can be a problem too, so you must make sure the tank your running with pulls the active mobs atleast ten yards away from anything thats been CC'ed. If Killing Machine procs always use obliterate instead of frost strike if possible because it hits like a Mac truck and is a guaranteed crit at that point. 25-30k with my main hand and 15-20k with my off hand isn't uncommon for me to see when I do this. For big groups of lesser mobs you can rotate howling blast and frost strike without any other skills, mainly because of the skill runic empowerment, frost strike has a 45% chance to refresh a random rune for free. With death runes up, I've been able to use these two skills 5-10 times in a row without running out of runes or runic power. That equals big recount numbers for those of you looking to link crazy 30k dps reports to your friends. I will say this though, frost dks are aggro whores in their finest form. You must always be ready to heal yourself with potions or by raising a ghoul and sacrificing him with Death Pact. I also make sure to have alot of bandages and cheap food so i can self heal in between fights without having to hear the healer complaining that I'm eating up their mana (bunch of crybabies).

Having said all that, I'm tried of typing and of even thinking about this anymore. Anyone who plays an Unholy dk , plz add some input because I'v only messed around with that tree a very little bit. My next post will talk about pvping with your dk. Once again I use frost for that even though the websites say unholy is better. I just change my skills around some so I have mind freeze and strangulate more often. ......till next time....use horn of winter alot and cap hit and expertise....later