Concerns about my DPS

[Zenso 0]

Greetings!

I am posting with the hope that I can solicit some feedback on what I may not be doing correctly on my DK. My DK has been my main for about the last two months (took some time off from WoW for grad school) but have always dabbled with and played this character since Wrath. For my current item level I feel I should be doing more than the 100K (or just above) that I am doing on boss fights. I've been using Mr. Robot religiously for all of my reforging and do this promptly after raiding and getting upgrades.

Here are 2 parses from fights we did this past week (we didn't get much of a raid in that night due to events)

Iron Qon:

http://www.worldoflo.../?s=2537&e=3230

Twin Consorts:

http://www.worldoflo.../?s=3643&e=4135

I used CLC DK alot when I first started out playing my DK, but don't find myself relying on it much now. I mainly use it to see timers at this point. I do use Tell Me When so that I can see when Obliterates are becoming available and will hold a Killing Machine proc if Obliterate will be coming available soon. One concern I have is that I'm eating Killing Machine procs with Frost Strike, but I have read that the DPS gain by waiting to use Obliterate with a Killing Machine proc is on par or nearly dead even with just going ahead and using it on Frost Strike and moving on. Should I look at dumping CLC DK altogether as I might be using it as a crutch and not realizing it? I don't really monitor my rune usage, but rather use Tell Me When with timers and such so that I can know when abilities are coming available.

I have read the guide here on IcyVeins, at Noxxic, on the WoW forums, etc. and can't really see what I am doing wrong. I am a competitive person by nature and to be lagging (20-30k behind sometimes) my guildies is frustrating. Not because I want to top the meters, but because I don't feel I am holding up my end of what needs to happen in a raid.

I come here hoping to get some sage advice from more veteran DK's than myself. If more information is needed I would gladly provide it. Thanks in advance!!!

Edit: I forgot to mention that at the time of those logs I didn't have the normal mode t15 shoulders, but rather the LFR version. I also picked up: Rein-Binder's Fists. I haven't equipped those as I don't have better legs and don't want to break my 4 pc.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Zenso

[Storm 426]

There are a few things I noticed looking over your logs and your gear.

- You only gained 37 runic power from AMS during the Iron Qon fight, but there are a ton of places where you can take magic damage and use AMS to max out your RP. you should easily be able to get 100RP at least once, and if you really try you can easily get 300+ RP over the course of the fight from AMS. Although after looking at Twins you did make much better use of AMS there

- Similarly for Blood plague, your uptime on Iron Qon was only 85% while on twins your uptime was 96%

- Most frost DK's are stacking str gems instead of haste gems

- Your LFR weapon is holding you back. I know this is basically out of your control, but the difference between a 510 2h and a 530 2h is at least 10-15k dps

Edited July 15, 2013 by Storm

[Zenso 0]

Thank you very much for the reply. One question I have about your response is with regards to the haste thing. I've been following pretty much verbatim what Mr. Robot has been telling me. Should I be disregarding some of its suggestions with regards to gemming the haste as heavily as I have been? It was starting to become a growing concern in the back of my mind and I even posted for clarification on the WoW forums in another users thread, but the results of the discussion came across as inconclusive to me.

I really wish there was more I could do with regards to the LFR weapon. I was really worried it was source of some of my woes, and it would appear that is somewhat correct.

I will make a monitor to more closely gauge how I am using AMS and be sure to get it off more often during phases of the fight.

Should I still continue to not worry about Frost Strike eating up Killing Machine Procs?

And again, thank you very much for the reply. It is greatly appreciated.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Zenso

[Storm 426]

The haste vs Str gemming really comes down to what logs/simulations you're looking at. What I have generally noticed is that haste wins by a small margin in simulations. Mostly in sim's that are calculating for little movement and a rotation that is perfect to the point that you're aren't even wasting milliseconds between global cooldowns. In practice though strength comes out ahead for most DK's, especially when you can get to 60%+ haste without even gemming for it. It probably won't be a huge difference, maybe 2-3k more dps, but every little bit counts.

I didn't check your crits before because I was just on a break during raid, but it does look like you're using a lot of killing machine procs on frost strike. You have a slightly higher crit% for froststrike than obliterate both are right around 35-40% crit in both encounters. Most DK's that are using killing machine well will be closer to 50% crit on obliterate, and 30% on frost strike. It's ok to use a killing machine proc on frost strike if you need to wait for runes to obliterate, but you should try to use as many killing machine procs on obliterate as possible. The biggest thing that helped me was just slowing down on my rotation. I started wow playing a rogue and used to mash buttons like 5 times a second, even though that obviously doesn't make it go faster. With a Frost DK though you really need patience to make sure you don't waste procs. Instead of spamming your next attack, wait out most of the GCD before you hit your next ability, that way if you get a killing machine proc you have time to react.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Storm

[Zenso 0]

Thank you again for the reply. I will admit I'm a bit of a button masher, so I think slowing down is good advice. It was something I hadn't thought a ton about. I've played a rogue pretty extensively (mainly PvP) so I know where you are coming from there. I also changed out a couple of talent choices to pick up Plague Leech and Blood Tap. I'm hoping to get more control over my Killing Machine's that way. Thanks again for the help!

Edit: I also see that at 83% haste I can probably adjust many of my gems to pure str and come out ahead.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Zenso