Rune-of-Swordshattering

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  • Lichborne: Mists of Pandaria gems and enchants for death knights

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    09.18.2012

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. Mists of Pandaria is now barely a week away, and within two to three weeks, many of us will be getting those first few pieces of end game gear. With that in mind, it seems like a good idea today to help you figure out how to get that gear kitted out with the best gems and enchants to get you that edge going into dungeons or raids. This guide will, when possible, suggest lower cost alternatives, but if you are serious about raiding or challenge modes, it will generally be a good idea to go for the epic or rare level options. Certainly, you'll want to do that once you get up to valor gear and raid drops. You will also want to be aware of when your profession offers better alternatives for a given slot. Blacksmiths, of course, will want to add those extra sockets, and engineers those extra glove enchants as well.

  • Lichborne: You can tank your way to level 70 as a death knight

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    06.14.2011

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. I've actually seen more than a few questions lately about tanking as a lowbie death knight. People want to know if it's possible, how to gear, and if there's any special tips or tricks you should watch out for. Combine this with Alison Robert's resurrection of her lowbie tank project, and I have to admit, lowbie tanking has been on my mind. There's no denying that tanking at level 60 is an entirely different beast than tanking at level 85, but there are enough similarities that practicing at 60 can help you develop a lot of the tools you'll need to soldier through those level 85 heroic PuGs on the way to those Satchels of Exotic Mysteries. This week, we'll take a look at the average level 58 death knight (58 being the level your average death knight is upon leaving the starting experience), and figure what you can do to get in gear and get yourself tanking all the way through to level 70.

  • Lichborne: PvE Enchantments for Death Knights

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    02.08.2009

    Welcome to Lichborne, WoW Insider's weekly stop for Death Knight news, analysis, and guides. Fresh on the heels of last week's gemming guide, we have an enchanting guide. Like gemming, enchanting is an easy way to go the extra mile to get your gear the best it can be so you can properly keep aggro without dying and/or top the damage meters in your next Naxxramas raid. Since there's so few enchants available, it's a lot less complicated than gemming too. DPS will just want hit to the cap and attack power (Sorry, there's not many strength enchants), while tanks will want defense to 540 and stamina. It's also worth noting that almost every slot with an enchant has a weaker version and a more powerful version. Although it's usually frowned upon to go weak when can go strong, in the case of enchants, it's probably okay at the entry level to go with the weaker version of an enchant. The more powerful ones generally take Abyss Crystals and the like, and may be a bit steep. In addition, there's a few other quirks and special enchantments to watch out for. Let's take a look, by slot, at some of the best choices for enchanting for both DPS and Tanking.

  • Lichborne: Gearing up to tank Naxxramas

    by 
    Daniel Whitcomb
    Daniel Whitcomb
    01.18.2009

    Welcome to Lichborne, The weekly Death Knight column, where your host is recruiting only the most pro critters for his raiding team. So by now, I'm sure many of you Death Knights have managed to follow our last tanking gear guide and have put together a pretty decent tank set that's gotten them through a few heroics, but now it's time for the next step: Getting ready to tank Naxxramas. You'll find that while a lot of your gear is probably "good enough," you'll still want to look for a few important upgrades to kick you up another notch so you can be at your best coming into Naxxramas to tank. Let's look at a few heroic upgrades that you can grab to be the best tank you can be heading into 10 man Naxxramas content.Before we start, there's two things you should remember: One, I'm pretty much following the logic I laid down in the Death Knight statistics primer a few weeks back, so if you want to know why I picked a certain item, the answer is probably there, and two, whatever you do, remember to hit 540 defense skill. You'll need that to survive against the bosses.