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Hey Guys and welcome to my In-Depth Death Knight PvP Guide!

VIDEO GUIDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4YTWep7P0g

This Guide contains:
1. What Spec?
2. Stats
3. Reforge
4. Enchants
5. Gems
6. Talent Trees
7. Glyphs
8. Presence
9. Pet Control
10. Macros
11. Useful tips

1. Unholy? Master Frost or Regular Frost?

"Should I go Unholy or Frost? What weapons should I use?

Here are some basic minds about both Specs:

Unholy DK Pros:

Mobility
Death's Advance

Survivability
100% Resisting Anti-Magic Shell
Anti-Magic Zone for Support
More Deathcoil Selfheal

Unholy DK Cons:

No Burst Class

Frost DK Pros:

Constant High Dmg
Hungering Cold
Chains of Ice Freeze

Frost DK Cons:

Mobility

Survivability
75% Absorb Anti Magic Shell
Less Heal trough Death Coil

Frost DW or Frost 2H?

Frost DW Pros:
Less Hit = More Mastery
A bit extra Burst with Frost Strikes
10% More Frost Damage (Rune of Razorice)
Higher Uptime of Killing Machine
Higher White Damage

Frost DW Cons:
Huge Amounts of Downtime
Low Runic Power gain
Lower Survivability because of Missing Runic Power
Can't use Necrotic Strikes that much to stay above the Damage of Frost 2H

Frost 2H Pros:
High Runic Power gain
Higher Survivability
Better Constant Damage

Frost 2H Cons:
More Hit = Less Mastery
Missing 2nd Runeforge for 10% more Frost Damage

Both Frost and Unholy Specs are viable to play, also above 2,2k Arena.
It depends on the Setup of your Team. If you play a Tripple DPS Comp or comps with Burst dmg you will most likely go Regular Frost. If you have a non-breakable CC combo like TSG or others you can go Master Frost for insane AOE pressure. If you play with any Casters you will most likely play Unholy. In my opinion, Frost is nice to play but a well played Unholy DK is more viable.

2. Stats

Okay now lets start with our Character.

Note that the stats, gems and enchants stay the same, doesn't matter if you have Vicious, Ruthless or Cataclysmic PvP Gear.

First of all we are going to take a closer look at the Death Knight Stats and Stat Prioritys.
In General you will need 5% Hit wich is about 600.63 Hit Raiting and 195 Spell Penetration (Spell Penetration stops important abilities like Death Grip and Chains of Ice from getting resisted). The rest of our Stats depends on the following:

As a Unholy DK you will need:
5% Hit > 195 Spell Penetration > Resilience | Strength > Haste > Mastery > Crit

As a Master Frost DK you will need:
5% Hit > 195 Spell Penetration > Resilience | Strength > Mastery > Haste > Crit

As a Regular Frost DK you will need:
5% Hit > 195 Spell Penetration > Resilience | Strength > Haste > Mastery > Crit

The difference between Master Frost and Regular Frost Death Knights:

As a Master Frost Death Knight you will mainly use Howling Blast / Frost Strike and Necrotic Strike. It's a badass AOE Spec and mainly used in Rated Battlegrounds or non-breakable CC Setups in Arena.

As a Regular Frost Death Knight you will mainly use Obliterate / Frost Strike for Single Target Burst.

To reach those caps you will have to buy:

Neck: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Choker of Accuracy
wich gives you Hit Rating

Ring: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Signet of Accuracy
wich gives you Hit Rating

The rest of the Gear depends if you play Unholy or Frost.

3. Reforge

Like explained above, the Stat Priority depends on your Spec.
If you play Unholy you will have to reforge all Mastery, Crit and Expertise into Haste.
If you play Master Frost you will have to reforge all Haste, Crit and Expertise into Mastery.
If you play Regular Frost you will have to reforge all Mastery, Crit and Expertise into Haste.

Feel free to take a look at my Character:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/nathrezim/Valacar/advanced

4. Enchants

Head: 60 Strength and 35 Resilience (Arcanum of Vicious Strength)
Shoulders: 50 Strength and 25 Resilience (Greater Inscription of Vicious Strength)
Cloak: 70 Spell Penetration (Greater Spell Piercing)
Chest: 40 Resilience (Mighty Resilience)
Bracers: 50 Strength (Major Strength)
Gloves: 50 Strength (Mighty Strength)
Waist: Free Socket (Ebonsteel Belt Buckle)
Legs: 190 Attack Power and 55 Critical Strike Rating (Dragonscale Leg Armor)
Feet: 50 Haste (Haste) as Unholy or Master Frost, 50 Mastery (Mastery) as Frost
Weapon: Rune of the Fallen Crusader

Arcanum of Vicious Strength and the Greater Inscription of Vicious Strength: PvP Vendor
Dragonscale Leg Armor: Leatherworker or Auction House
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle: Blacksmither or Auction House
Rune of Fallen Crusader: Runeforging
All other Enchants: Enchanter

5. Gems

Now we are going to take a look at our Gems:

Red: Strength (Bold Queens Garnet / Inferno Ruby)
Yellow: Strength and Resilience (Resplendet Lava Coral / Ember Topaz)
Blue: Spell Penetration (Stormy Deepholm Lolit / Ocean Sapphire)
Meta: Strength and Crit Effect (Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond)

If you cannot afford the 2 epic Stormy Gems you will have to take 3 Stormy Ocean Sapphires into the Gloves, Waist and Legs. If you have the option to take Stormy Deepholm Lolits you will place them into the Gloves and the Legs because you want the 10 Strength Socket Bonus of the Waist. If you lack Resilience you can place it into the Legs to get the 20 Resilience Socket Bonus.

6. Talent Trees

You can adjust them for your own Playstyle for example instead of Bladed Amor you could use Blade Barrier and so on but this are the Specs i am currently using:

As a Unholy Death Knight you will use the 0/8/33 Spec:

LINK (Including Glyphs):
www.wowhead.com/talent#jZG0obZfMcdcfuRkd:sVk0VczMm

As a Master Frost Death Knight you will use the 3/31/7 Spec:

LINK (Including Glyphs):
www.wowhead.com/talent#j0hZGzRrfzRdbufM:Mac0VqzMm

As a Regular Frost Death Knight you will use the 3/31/7 Spec:

LINK (Including Glyphs):
www.wowhead.com/talent#jZGcRrfuRd0ufM:Mma0VqzMm

7. Glpyhs

As a Unholy Death Knight you will use:

Prime Glyphs:
Glyph of Death Coil
Glyph of Raise Dead
Glyph of Scourge Strike or Glyph of Icy Touch

Major Glpyhs:
Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell
Glyph of Strangulate
Glyph of Death Grip

Minor Glyphs:
Glyph of Death's Embrace
Glyph of Resilent Grip
Glyph of Horn of Winter

As a Frost Death Knight you will use:

Prime Glyphs:
Glyph of Frost Strike
Glyph of Howling Blast
Glyph of Icy Touch < for Master Frost
Glpyh of Obliterate < for Regular Frost

Major Glyphs:
Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell
Glyph of Strangulate
Glyph of Hungering Cold

Minor Glyphs:
Glyph of Death's Embrace
Glyph of Resilent Grip
Glyph of Horn of Winter

8. Presence

You will play Unholy, Master Frost and Regular Frost in Unholy Presence.
The only Spec you will not play in Unholy Presence is Blood.

9. Pet Control

Another important step to become a better PvPer is the manual control of you pet. That means that you control wich target it's going to attack and also when it's going to use Gnaw or Leap.

10. Macros

To play your Death Knight even more effective you should write some Macros.
Here is a list of Macros i am currently using:

All in One Death Coil Macro:

#showtooltip Death Coil
/cast [nomod] Death Coil
/cast [mod:alt, @pet] Death Coil
/cast [mod:shift] Lichborne
/cast [mod:shift, @YOURNAME] Death Coil

Use:
Death Coil at Target

Shift + Use:
Activate Lichborne, Death Coil on Yourself

Alt + Use:
Death Coil at Pet

This also works perfectly in the Frost Version with Frost Strike:

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] [color=#88ffff]Frost[/color] Strike
/cast [mod:alt, @pet] Death Coil
/cast [mod:shift] Lichborne
/cast [mod:shift, @YOURNAME] Death Coil

Sacrifice Macro:

#showtooltip Death Pact
/target Ebon Gargoyle
/cast Death Pact
/targetlasttarget
/cast [mod:shift, @Pet] Death Pact

This Macro will use Death Pact on your Gargoyle if he is activated, on your Ghoul if your Gargoyle is not up. If Both are up it will Sacrifice the Gargoyle or with Shift + Use the Ghoul (if you have Summon Ghoul ready it's better to Sacrifice your Ghoul then)

Pet Gnaw Macro:

#showtooltip Gnaw
/petattack
/petattack [mod:shift, @focus]
/petautocaston [nomod] Claw
/petautocastoff [mod:alt] Claw
/petautocastoff [mod:shift] Claw
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Leap
/cast [mod:alt] Gnaw
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Gnaw

Use:
Claw on, Attack Target

Alt + Use:
Claw off, Gnaw at Target

Shift + Use:
Claw off, Leap at Focus, Gnaw at Focus

Cancelaura Macro:

/cancelaura Lichborne
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/cancelaura Ice Block
/cancelaura Divine Shield

Yes, Ice Block and Divine Shield because of Dark Simulacrum.
Feel free to add every Spell you want to cancel!

Unholy Frenzy Macro:

#showtooltip Unholy Frenzy
/cast [nomod, @YOURNAME] Unholy Frenzy
/use [nomod] Cataclysmic Gladiator's Badge of Victory
/cast [mod:shift, @HEALERNAME] Unholy Frenzy

Use:
Unholy Frenzy on yourself

Shift + Use:
Unholy Frenzy on your Healer

Focus Macros:

/focus

Focus Strangulate (with Blood Tap)

#showtooltip Strangulate
/cast Blood Tap
/cast [nomod] Strangulate
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Strangulate

Focus Death Grip

#showtooltip Death Grip
/cast [nomod] Death Grip
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Death Grip

Focus Chains of Ice

#showtooltip Chains of Ice
/cast [nomod] Chains of Ice
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Chains of Ice

Focus Mind Freeze

#showtooltip Mind Freeze
/cast [nomod] Mind Freeze
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Mind Freeze

11. Other Useful Tips and Tricks:

Dark Simulacrum:
Push the opponent to blow a big CD - for example: I like to grip a Mage and use Dark Simulacrum because every Mage knows when a DK death grips, it's safe to blink. This actually makes them blink, gives you a blink, and you're right on top of them again.

Taunt:
Using Taunt on Healers to keep them Infight and prevent them from Drinking and also to Prevent Damage on the Main Target of the Opponents team by taunting water elementals, gargoyles and other Pets. It is also worth to mention if for example a Mage casts Polymorph on you and you taunt another Pet (Death Knight Ghoul, ...) right before it to hit you out of the sheep.

Dark Transformation:
The Transformed Ghoul will interrupt the Target and immobilize it for 2 Seconds when Leaping / Charging to it. This is also pretty nice to set up a awesome CC Chain: Dark Transformation Charge - Gnaw - Strangulate

Death Grip:
Use this on warriors while Bladestorm is up, it's the only thing you can really do to relieve pressure during these abilities. Its important that you dont waste a Death Grip on small distances.

Hungering Cold:
Match Hungering Cold with Aura Mastery (or you have a sexy tauren like me to warstomp) - Aura Mastery works for you aswell since its a Raid Cooldown. For example: Death Grip - Chains of Ice - Aura Mastery - Hungering Cold

Lichborne:
Lichborne is more then just a fear-breaker. You can prevent Seduce, Sap, Polymoph, Hex, Fears and also Mind Control. If you are in Seduce, Fear or Mindcontrol you can also use it to break it. But be carefull! always make sure that you cancel the Lichborne by making a "/cancelaura Lichborne" macro to prevent shackle of priests and turn evil from paladins.Thx for reading my Guide,
I hope you enjoyed it and also learnd one or two things.

Have Fun!

If you have anything to add, please let me know so i can keep it up2date :)

/discuss

Taunt:
Using Taunt on Healers to keep them Infight and prevent them from Drinking and also to Prevent Damage on the Main Target of the Opponents team by taunting water elementals, gargoyles and other Pets. It is also worth to mention if for example a Mage casts Polymorph on you and you taunt the another Pet (Death Knight Ghoul, ...) right before it to hit you out of the sheep.

You should also add that Dark Command can procc your runeforges like Fallen Crusader etc.

Dark Transformation:
The Transformed Ghoul will silence the Target for 2 Seconds when Leaping / Charging to it. This is also pretty nice to set up a awesome CC Chain: Dark Transformation Charge - Gnaw - Strangulate

Correction: It does not silence, altho it >Interrupts< a casting/channeling spell.

True that:

Dark Transformation: Charge an enemy, interrupting spellcasting and immobilizing them for 2 sec.

/changed

Thanks!

Dark Command no longer proc's Rune of Fallen Crusader (@Keeft)

I would add about switching weapons when fighting someone who can disarm (between Sword-Shattering and Rune of Fallen Crusader)

Also maybe add the Hand of Doom spec, I personally find it preferable in non-rated BG's.

Good guide though, deserves a sticky.

Dark Command no longer proc's Rune of Fallen Crusader (@Keeft)

I would add about switching weapons when fighting someone who can disarm (between Sword-Shattering and Rune of Fallen Crusader)

Also maybe add the Hand of Doom spec, I personally find it preferable in non-rated BG's.

Good guide though, deserves a sticky.

Oh my bad, thought it still did, never saw any patch notes about it.

Should be added about multiply weapons yes, but should also be pointed out that its not neccesary. Since the requirement to have 2 equal 2h weapons can be quite hard (4 weeks straight of 1650 Conq capping for 2 PvP weapons is quite alot.).

Edit: Requested it sticky aswell, would be awesome to see some more work and discussion about this. And this might end the constant new threads about Frost/Unholy/Blood/2h/DW threads that pop ups (atleast the PvP related ones).

Added Video-Guide!

Great guide, should help many people.
I did spot a couple of things that you could change, as frost dw you can make hit cap with only two pieces, gloves and ring, the gloves can also be reforged out of hit a little into either haste or mastery depending on which way you play your frostie.

Ring: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Signet of Cruelty
wich gives you Hit Rating

This should read Ring: Cataclysmic Gladiator's Signet of Accuracy
which gives you Hit Rating, Cruelty is crit.

Damnit ;x

/changed