Could DW be made viable for DPS?

Post by 123609

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Post by visas

I just posted this response to another topic with the same question:

for DPS, dual wield isnt that bad an option - most of the controversy here comes from DW tanking.. You need to go with a spec that benefits DW instead of 2handers, and you need to gear differently than you normally would - hit rating is far more important than crit or AP up past 15% or so. Ideally, you'll manage around 20% +hit, 20% crit, and 2500-3k AP minimum with dual wielding.

A build like this would work fairly well for DW DPS:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfV0VZG0exIxdohoZfM0hxco

You want to use howling blast for your frost/unholy runes, not obliterate. the 3 points in annihilation is for extra crit, not for the disease removal portion - you'll always do more damage with howling blast than you will with obliterate while dual wielding.

Blood runes... not much of a choice on those. You could switch some points over into blood of the north to get your blood runes turned into death runes, but you'd have to give up other valuable dps talents for that. I'd probably use up blood runes on pestilence (aoe pulls to spread frost fever for howling blast) and blood boil - since with most 1handers your blood boil, being based on AP instead of weapon damage, is going to out-damage blood strike. With subversion you do have a higher crit chance with blood strike, however - that's up to you.

One other note, when dual wielding for DPS purposes, you might be better off using unholy presence for an extra 15% melee haste than blood presence, due to so much of your damage being based on autoattacks instead of strikes or spells. Unholy presence does stack with icy talons, so you can get up to around 40% haste before gear with those both active.

Post by Caesura

Frost strike is normalized at 2.5 from what I understand. Might make it viable for the DW crowd.

Post by 146010

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Post by 278167

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Post by daboss40

I see what you're saying, but think of the sacrifices that DW builds need to make that 2h builds don't:

- Since most of your damage is white damage, you need to come packing haste like a mofo! More haste itemization usually means less strength, which is your main attribute.
- DW also means more hit is Required. Again, more hit = less strength.
- Since you'll be a tri-spec build, you won't have the luxury of getting the 51-point talents of any of the builds. After seeing what DRW can do once you're geared well, that's not a good move...
- Weapon damage will undoubtedly be lower, meaning all those melee strikes won't be as effective.

Essentially, in going DW, you are handicapping yourself for the sake of wielding two weapons. I mean, you could get by, but your gear would be unconventional to say the least. Even then, It would need to be that much better than everyone else's just to compete.

The $64,000 question you hafta ask yourself is this: is the coolness worth it? I mean, who just wants to be 'ok', right?

Post by Croz730

I currently DW for raids. I have a Tri-spec with most of the points in frost just up to HB. I can consistently get around 2.5-2.9k DPS which is always in the top 3 for my guilds raids. I do not have my hit capped, nor is it something you HAVE to do before going DW, you simply need enough to cap out your specials and your spells. Then just stack as much as you can above that. Plus, on the nights when we only have 1 shaman in the raid my Imp Icy Talons is very nice for our melee. In Heroics, it is Very rare I am not first in DPS, there are a few locks i run with that can keep right there with me if not pass me.

Over all I very much consider DW a viable spec for DK, anyone who says different either has not tried it or has not been in a group with a DW DK that know what he/she is doing.

Post by 267204

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Could DW be made viable for DPS?

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