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So you have reached level 80 and found a raid group, the question becomes “Now what?”  Many players focus on gearing up as they level and through some of the instances found in the game, however are unsure where to go once they reach the level cap.  Which stats are better for which build and what are the best pieces of gear to get to progress up the DPS ladder or to survive longer while tanking?

Gear and gear progression is what ends up keeping most players in the game long past reaching the level cap.  Understanding what is the best piece available at any given time takes a considerable bit of knowledge and skill.  You should start by reviewing the basic gearing up plan shown in our Gearing up a Death Knight article and then come back here for raid specifics.

Where to Go for Gear

Where you should actually raid for your next upgrade piece is really determined by your raiding group.  Even if you are ready for the gear from the next level raid, if your raiding group is not geared to handle it, you will not be able to go.  Stick with your group, help everyone gear to the level required and then move on as a group.  Too many players get lucky, get what they need in a raid the first time through, then just raid with groups or guilds to get the next pieces they need since they passed the other groups gearing.  This is not how you get ahead in the long run, stick with a group and work with them.

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The best way to get gear is to kill raid bosses

The other determining factor is whether you are running with a 10 man or 25 man raid group.  Obviously, if you only have 10 players to raid with you shouldn’t care that there is a better piece in a 25 man raid, since you do not have access to it.  Focus on what you can get, not what you can’t.

When you first reach level cap and are ready to start raiding you have several options.  The first tier of raiding is the first boss in Vault of Archavon (VoA), the Obsidian Sanctum, and several wings in Naxxramas.  This is the standard opening progression for both 10 and 25 man raids, with gear obviously being better (in general) in the 25 man version.  Next in gearing is the remainder of Naxxramas, and then the Eye of Eternity.  Once you have items from there you are ready to move on to the second boss in VoA and Ulduar.  Since the raid tier 7 and 7.5 items drop in everything previous to Ulduar, I refer to those raids as Tier 7 raiding.  Ulduar and the second boss in VoA drops Tier 8 and 8.5 items so are referred to as Tier 8 raiding.

One item to note with raiding is that there are split opinions on the VoA bosses counting towards raiding or even being filled into a raiding schedule.  I for one, tend to skip them when planning a raid schedule for the simple fact that roughly ½ the loot they drop will be PvP loot and not required for a raid.  Especially on 10 man though, I have seen far too many times a tier piece drop for a class that is not even in the raid.  Therefore, I generally find it better to devote the time to full raids where players are guaranteed raid loot.  Both fights are fairly easy though, and you could get lucky and get some much needed gear, so it really is your call. 

Gear for Damage Builds

While all three talent trees are capable of DPS builds and have roughly the same item requirements, there are slight differences.  For example when specced Blood, armour penetration ranks higher than hit in your priority list, however when specced unholy armor penetration ranks much further down the list, to the point of almost being useless. This means that each build will be looking for slightly different pieces of gear. 

While Frost has been gaining some popularity as a DPS spec, it is still far outpaced by Blood and Unholy, therefore those are the two I will focus on here.

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This is an example of a nearly perfectly itemized piece of Death Knight Tanking gear.

Blood is generally viewed as a slightly higher single target build, while Unholy is a more AOE based build.  This is not always the case though as the boundaries continue to blur with each patch.  A lot of how the build plays depends on playstyle.  What is true, and can be seen by the stat prioritization of each build, is that Blood is more physical damage based (seen by it’s reliance on armour penetration), while Unholy does more damage through their spells.

The biggest stat requirement, as you can see in the above table, is Strength.  Strength is the single biggest addition you can get for your damage output.  It is important however to keep in mind that the other stats are important to.  +Hit for example, is required as a key stat until you get to the melee hit cap of 8%. Once you are above that it is still a good stat until you reach the spell hit cap, but it is much less of a priority.  The same can be said about the expertise rating, it is important until you reach the expertise cap of 21, but past that it is useless.

Gear for Tanking Builds

As a Death Knight tank you do not use a shield, so your health, avoidance (Dodge and Parry), and mitigation (damage reduction due to armour value) are all critically important. There are several key stats that you focus on while raiding, and they all fall into a priority list.

The most important thing that you require as a tank is to reach what is called the defense cap.  It is not really a cap as in a hard limit, but the amount of defense that you need to be immune to critical hits from raid bosses.  You still gain benefit from defense above the cap, but at a much lower level, once at the cap you should focus on other stats.  The defense cap is 540 as displayed on your character screen, not from item bonuses. To reach this cap you need +690 defense from items.

Next in your priority list as a tank is stamina.  Many healers want their tanks to have huge health pools so that they have some room for forgiveness when healing them.  Stamina is what provides that health pool.  Luckily any tanking item will have huge amounts of stamina on them by default.  Each point of stamina provides 10 health, pre bonuses.  This means many of the end game tanking items that have 100+ stamina are providing over 1,000 health.

Behind defense and stamina, the next priority gets a little less clear.  Many players will push for you to focus on strength for its threat generation, others will say focus on dodge and parry for avoidance and your personal survival.  Avoidance keeps you alive, threat keeps you on top of the aggro list.  My personal suggestion is that you should focus on dodge and parry, and that enough strength comes on tanking items that you will be ok.  If you decide otherwise and need more threat, that’s ok, just realize that it is a trade off and that healers will have a harder time keeping you alive.  When focussing on dodge and parry, remember that both are affected by diminishing returns so it is best to balance them to get the most effect. 

The last stats that you really need to watch for when tanking are you +hit and +expertise.  Both of these greatly assist your threat generation, however no where near as much as strength will help.  However you really should try to get to the 8% melee hit cap and the 21 expertise rating cap to remove misses, dodges and parries from your hit table.

Gear Juggling

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This is an example of a having a +hit piece and a damage piece.

One of the things that any good raider does is juggle their gear.  No, I don’t mean taking it off and literally juggling it.  I mean getting more than you are required to wear in an effort to have the ideal pieces for each situation, or to handle your next upgrade.  Let me explain using two examples that come up all the time.

Example 1 – DPS: As DPS in a raid it is critical that you keep hit capped so that you are not missing the boss and losing DPS.  However many times the next piece you need for a big DPS upgrade will not have +hit on it, while your current piece in that slot does.  This often means players need to keep a +hit piece and a DPS piece for each slot so that they can “juggle” gear with each upgrade to ensure they stay at hit cap and continue to upgrade other gear as you get it.

Example 2 – Tanking: The most common issue with tanks is fighting to maintain their defense rating.  As with DPS pieces, that next tanking piece all too often has less defense than the one you already had, but has significantly more avoidance and stamina than your current one.  This leads to juggling to equip it and gain its benefit while maintaining your defense cap.

The examples above are all too commonly ignored.  I have seen many players get too excited about that newest piece of raid gear, equip it, and then several fights later realize they are not +hit or defense capped.  I have also seen many players simply using the best item they have for each slot, not paying attention to the overall picture and balancing stats for the best effect.

For this reason, do not ignore what are commonly referred to as “side grades” for gear, keeping both equal level items for different situations.  Even when not needed for hit or defense cap juggling you may need it for other things, after all many fights demand different things.  A good example of this is the Patchwerk fight in Naxxramas where it is critical that the hateful bolt tank have as much health as possible, or the Loatheb fight where Block Value can allow a Warrior or Paladin to take almost zero melee damage.  Many tanks keep gear just for fights like those that maximize a singe stat such as health, avoidance, block (obviously not Death Knights), or any other useful stat.

Tier Sets

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Dëspair in Tier 7.5 Gear

As a Death Knight when you get your tier tokens you can turn them in for one of two possible sets, the tanking set or the DPS set.  While these pieces are very good, in fact they are some of the best in slot pieces for most situations.  However, a lot of their bonus comes from their set bonuses.  This means that sometimes you will want to keep using other pieces that may be better individually until you get a second or fourth piece for the appropriate set bonus.

Currently there are 4 different sets of tier gear in the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion for each DPS and Tanking.  There is a heroic tier 7 set and a Valorious tier 7 set, commonly referred to as tier 7 and tier 7.5 respectively.  There is also a Valorous set which is tier 8 and a Conqueror’s set referred to as tier 8.5.

Gemming and Enchants

When you are raiding and getting and replacing gear, it is expected that you get the best gems and enchants possible on an item before you use it.  Many times the item will not even be equal to the item you are replacing until it is gemmed or enchanted.  Make sure you get this done as soon as you are finished with the current raid so that you are ready for the next time.

Review

As you can probably see by now, gearing up, even while raiding is not a simple thing.  You need to constantly look at and review what you have, need, and want, so that you can continue to improve.  You should never be content to sit on your laurels and wait for that perfect piece, get in there, start digging, and find what you need to keep improving.  Sometimes that will not be one giant upgrade, it will be several small upgrades or side grades that allow you to do more by meshing together perfectly.