UNHOLY DK BIS PLUS

They're a very nice option for DPSing, with plenty of strength and hit rating and even some agility. The Cast Iron Shackles drop off random trash in heroic Violet Hold, and can apparently be looted from a chest with a key fished up from the waters around Violet Hold.

UNHOLY DK BIS PLUS

It replaces the hit rating with critical strike rating, and does have 2 gem slots, so you can even slot of plus hit gems in there if you need to. If you don't need hit rating, consider the Bonegrinder Breastplate from Prince Taldaram in Heroic Ahn'kahet. The Engraved Chestplate of Eck from Eck the Ferocious in Heroic Gundrak has lots of hit rating to start out with, and 2 gems slots, perfect for more hit rating, as well as a good chunk of strength. Two choices for a DPS chest pre-Naxxramas stand out. Those of you who read our earlier guide to reputation rewards for Death Knights already know about this one, but it's also worth mentioning: As long as you don't need the hit rating off the pauldrons of the lightning revenant, you may just want to grind revered Sons of Hodir for the Spaulders of the Giant Lords, which are better overall for a Death Knight than the Snake Den Spaulders anyway. If you have no need of hit rating, they do edge out the Pauldrons of the Lightning Revenant though. If you can't get back to normal dungeons for some reason, you could also go for the Snake Den Spaulders from Heroic Gundrak, but they have haste rating instead of hit rating, making them less desirable. Pauldrons of the Lightning Revenant off Ionar in Normal Halls of Lightning, as strange as it may seem, are probably your best bet for a pre-raid shoulder DPS slot, with hit rating, strength, and a red gem slot. The agility isn't optimal for a Death Knight since it only gives melee critical strike rating, and it doesn't come with any gem slots, but it's still a solid DPS choice. It has lots of strength and agility and hit rating. In addition, Loken in Heroic Halls of Lightning can drop the Planetary Helm. From heroic Azjol-Nerub comes the Chitin Shell Greathelm, which doesn't have any hit rating and has less strength than the above, but does have the 2 gem slots. If you don't want to drop the gold on that, You have a couple of options in Heroics. The Spiked Titansteel Helm will definitely cost you a pretty penny, but the stat spread, which includes strength, critical strike rating, and hit rating, can't be beat for a DPS Death Knight, and it includes a Metagem slot, perfect for a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond.

If you're looking to put a good helm on your shoulders, go find a Blacksmith. I myself like to hit that expertise dodge cap if I can, but expertise gear for Death Knight DPS is actually rather rare in 5-man content, so you can probably fudge it a bit for now and just focus on making the gap with Naxxramas gear.ДЄll that said, let's check out some of our best choices for gearing up to hit Naxxramas. But a good amount of our attacks are spell-like, and thus cannot be dodged at all, making one wonder if it's really worth it to get to the expertise cap. Of course, every time you get dodged, you lose DPS. The jury is still out on exactly how much hit a Death Knight needs beyond that 8%, but I tend to err on the side of caution and generally try to get as close as I can to the spell hit cap as possible without sacrificing too much strength.Д®xpertise is another sticky subject for Death Knight DPS. The problem becomes when you consider that we need more hit so our spell-like effects won't miss, and dual wielders need still more hit so their offhand won't miss. 8% hit rating is definitely the absolute minimum any build will have, as this prevents misses on special attacks and main hand attacks. For the most part, I'm going to be following the statistical information I outlined in the Death Knight statistics primer, which means the gear I pick out will follow this basic rule for stat choice: Hit rating to the 8% cap > strength/attack power > critical strike rating > expertise > everything else.An additional note on hit rating and expertise is probably in order here. To prove it to you, this week's edition of Lichborne is all about gearing up to hit 10-man Naxxramas as a DPS.ДЇor the most part, your gearing choices as a DPSer are going to be more or less the same no matter what your spec.

Ok, I know I've been focusing on tank quite a lot lately, but I'm here to say that I swear I haven't forgotten about the DPS. Welcome to Lichborne, the weekly class column for Warcraft's newest class, the Death Knight.

Unholy dk bis