Here’s a collection of specialisations, cycles to use and glyphs needed for WoW’s next DPS Death Knight. This is a community project.
Note: Builds are not listed in any order to note rank in DPS.

Frost #1
2H – Fallen Crusader or Cinderglacier
17/51/3 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZG0xxAbckf0Vostc:sakmVM

Cycle [FFO-BT];
IT – Ob – Ob – BS – FSx

Alternate Cycle [Double Disease];
IT – PS – Ob – BS – BS – FSx
IT – PS – Ob – Ob – FSx

Alternate Cycle [PS-BT];
PS – HB – Ob – BS – FSx

Presence: Blood
Unholy, for those unable to burn all available RP before reapplying diseases.

Glyphs;
* Obliterate
* Frost Strike
* Icy Touch (Howling Blast for PS-BT)

Additional Notes;
* This build revolves around the previous Frost cycles seen prior to 3.1.0. As such it works the same way with only Frost Fever on the target.
* Generally competitive with high end Naxx (ilvl 213+) gear.
* Sigil of the Vengeful Heart > Sigil of Awareness.
* Rime procs are used after Blood Strike. If KM is up at this time, use FS then HB.
* Alternate Cycle (PS-BT) is a port of the typical FFO-BT Cycle, but has two Diseases running for Obliterate and Blood Strike.

Frost #2
2H – Fallen Crusader or Cinderglacier
13/51/7 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMzZG0xxAbckf0VostfM:ksaVmM

Cycle;
IT – PS – Ob – BS – BS – FS
Ob – Ob – Ob – FS

Alternate Cycle [Howling Fever];
HB – Ob – BS – BS – FSx
Ob – Ob – Ob – FSx

Presence: Blood
Unholy, for those unable to burn all available RP before reapplying diseases.

Glyphs;
* Obliterate
* Frost Strike
* Icy Touch (Howling Blast for ‘Howling Fever’)

Additional Notes;
* Generally competitive with high end Naxx (ilvl 213+) gear.
* Sigil of the Vengeful Heart > Sigil of Awareness.
* Rime procs can be stored til normal refresh time, add in an additional Obliterate for the recovered runes. For the alternate build, use them once runes are on cooldown, provided no buffs like KM or CG are up. (Howling Fever only)

Frost #3
2H – Fallen Crusader or Cinderglacier
17/51/3 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZG0xxAbckf0Vostc:sakmVM

Cycle [NEDD];
IT – PS – Ob – BS – BS – FS – FS
Ob – Ob – HB – FSx

Presence: Blood

Glyphs;
* Obliterate
* Frost Strike
* Howling Blast

Additional Notes;
* Generally competitive with high end Naxx (ilvl 213+) gear.
* Sigil of the Vengeful Heart > Sigil of Awareness.
* Build uses Blood Plague once per double cycle, the 15 sec. duration allows it to cover all possible Obliterate in the cycle.
* If Freezing Fog procs, add a third Obliterate in the second stanza, then use HB and continue as normal.

Blood – Unholy Blight
2H – Fallen Crusader
50/0/21 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMqI0Icbof0sxZfMhhx0d:LGAMVm

Cycle;
IT – PS – HS – HS – DS – UB/DC
DS – HS – HS – HS – HS – UB/DC

Presence: Blood

Glyphs;
* Death Strike
* Dark Death
* Unholy Blight

Additional Notes;
* Generally competitive with high end Naxx (ilvl 213+) gear, 10 – 20% ArP from gear is also a good starting point.
* While Strength is the best avenue (after hit cap) for raw DPS, Armor Penetration is a close second.
* Use Hysteria when on the second part of your cycle and continue as normal.
* Points in Night of the Dead can be transferred to Blood Caked Blade if one feels the Ghoul is not pulling their weight.

Blood – Dancing Rune Weapon
2H – Fallen Crusader
51/2/18 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMqI0Icbof0stMZfMhhx:GILVMm
51/0/20 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMqI0Icbof0stZfMhhx0b:LGIVmM

Cycle;
IT – PS – HS – HS – DS – DC
DS – HS – HS – HS – HS – DC

Presence: Blood

Glyphs;
* Death Strike
* Dancing Rune Weapon
* Dark Death

Additional Notes;
* Generally competitive with high end Naxx (ilvl 213+) gear, 10 – 20% ArP from gear is also a good starting point.
* While Strength is the best avenue (after hit cap) for raw DPS, Armor Penetration is a close second.
* Use Dancing Rune Weapon when at max RP for maximum uptime. Use Hysteria before summoning.
* While DRW is active and all runes are on cooldown, refresh them with Empower Rune Weapon and unleash a flurry of Heart Strikes and Death Strikes in a traditional ‘Diseaseless’ method. Once Runes are on cooldown for good, follow up with Death Coil.
* Points in Night of the Dead can be transferred to Blood Caked Blade if one feels the Ghoul is not pulling their weight.

Blood – Basics
2H – Fallen Crusader
50/0/21 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMqI0Icbof0sxZfMhhxc:LGZVmM

Cycle;
IT – PS – HS – HS – DS – DC
DS – HS – HS – HS – HS – DC

Presence: Blood

Glyphs;
* Dark Death
* Death Strike
* Disease / Ghoul / Plague Strike / Icy Touch

Additional Notes;
* This setup has neither DRW or UB.
* Generally competitive with high end Naxx (ilvl 213+) gear, 10 – 20% ArP from gear is also a good starting point.
* If using Disease Glyph, replace one Heart Strike with Pestilence every 15 – 17 seconds.
* This build has the absolute requirement: Sigil of the Vengeful Heart. Those without it should look at either Unholy Blight or Dancing Rune Weapon variants.
* Thanks to a high Physical damage percentage, Armor Penetration is greatly valued. As such, it’s ranked significantly higher than crit, but still ranked under Strength. Do note that Necrosis deals Shadow damage but is based off the melee swing, thus making ArP valuable in this regard.

Unholy
2H – Fallen Crusader
0/10/61 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jZG0xZfMhIhcdgcqMssut:LrAVMm
12/0/59 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMZZfMhIocdgcqMssut:rAbVMm

Cycle;
IT – PS – BS – BS – SS – UB/DC
SS – SS – SS – UB/DC

Presence: Blood or Unholy

Glyphs;
* Scourge Strike
* Dark Death
* Unholy Blight or Ghoul

Additional Notes;
* To maximise Scourge Strike use, one can continue to Scourge Strike until diseases are about to fall off, once this happens you replace one SS slot with IT – PS. Make sure to continue to Blood Strike to convert Death runes though. This requires the Glyph of SS and a watchful eye.
* Use Blood Tap with Ghoul Frenzy, when Blood Tap is on CD, force a ‘disease renewal’ phase and omit the Plague Strike to use Ghoul Frenzy. A luck SS glyph proc can minimize the damage loss incurred by lacking Blood Plague.
* Gargoyle is best used when Hero/’lust is up combined with personal buffs and procs.

Unholy – Dual Wield
DW – Fallen Crusader / Fallen Crusader
0/13/58 – http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jZG0eZfMoIxcdgcq0csut:LrbVMm

Cycle;
IT – PS – BS – BS – SS – UB/DC
SS – SS – SS – UB/DC

Presence: Blood

Glyphs;
* Scourge Strike
* Dark Death
* Unholy Blight or Ghoul

Additional Notes;
* To maximise Scourge Strike use, one can continue to Scourge Strike until diseases are about to fall off, once this happens you replace one SS slot with IT – PS. Make sure to continue to Blood Strike to convert Death runes though. This requires the Glyph of SS and a watchful eye.
* Gargoyle is best used when Hero/’lust is up combined with personal buffs and procs.
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Tags: blood, death-knight, frost, holy, world-of-warcraft, wotlk, wow, wow-guide