Newbie DK question

[rokku]

Hi all

Ok, am levelling up my new DK and have him just over 60 (so just arrived in Hellfire). Obviously the DK enters the main worlds with a full set of blue armor etc, however I've been receiving drops in quests, etc, of greens with better armor stats. Should I just keep wearing these blues until I can get better blue pieces, or should I swap them out for the greens?

I don't know if the colour means anything other than the pieces being rarer?

[cabby]

For now use whichever gear gives you the most benefit and ignore the color.

[koshea69]

Yes, people who were in raiding epics started trading out for green gear when they hit outlands. The color just means it's a better version of a lower level item. You generally want to get the highest item levels you can before worrying about if a green is better than a blue or not.

[rokku]

Ok, thanks both. The armor doesn't look as cool as the DK stuff, so I was worried about being mismatched, but I guess at this level I should worry mostly about the stats, aye?

Thanks again

[urugnek]

gear info..

When you mouse over the item you loot, there should be an info-drop-down-thing that tells you about the stats. On my screen it tells me if I will increase or decrease my armor, agility, attack power etc... .

just a tip, in case you did not know :-)

Kill'em all!!!

-Uru-

[rokku]

Yes have seen that before So really the colour of an item has no bearing on its effectiveness at all, right? I might just look a little mismatched?

[Asgari]

The color is basically, and a bit simplified, just an indicator as to how good it is at the level you get it. After a few levels, a green item will be better than the blue item you got 5-10 levels back. Unless the item is part of a "set", and you have several of the parts in said "set", being mismatched doesn't matter. If you have a set, you'll have to take the set bonuses into account

If it's just a slight upgrade, the fashion sensible people might decide to keep the good looking equipment, hehehe. I know my wife sometimes does

[Werderx]

Outland gear focuses on Stamina where WotLK gear (including DK newbie area) will focus more on Strength. Strength is the DKs bread and butter in terms of getting the most out of a stat.

I have taken two DKs through Outlands, the first one i traded armor as i saw it gave better stam, and the second i tried to stick with strength. By far the second run through was much much harder with the decrease in stam/armor.

So in short, while in outlands ignore strength because it wasn't a focus and go with what gives more stam. (and yes, you are going to look stupid throughout your Outlands experience)
As soon as you hit Northrend you will start seeing lots of strength on stuff and then start looking for a balance. When you hit 80, only look at getting more strength if you are going to be DPS. Hope this helps.

[rokku]

That helps a great deal - thanks!!

[Kamchak]

The gear you get as a new DK is good, but I will agree to change out your gear for better stats.
Your focus is on rank (shoulder armor 121 vs shoulder armor 152) and on stats given. You want better ranking status, of course, but you also need to focus on strength and stamina stats.
My advise, if you get a drop item that will increase your armor rank a few points, but will remove a strength or stamina for, say, spirit... I pass on that item.
Also, if you want to know how well you are performing, get the addon recount and set it to DPS reporting. The gear you have on will help you in your DPS stats. For example... you can have an epic weapon equiped with minimal strength / stamina stats. Your DPS will be considerably lower with that weapon than if you had better strength / stamina stats. You have the capability to weild that weapon, but not the power to use it effectivly.
The only problem I came up to with the green vs blue was the repairs. Greens take more damage than blues. But you go to towns enough to get repaired, so that wasn't too much a problem.
Also keep this in mind... the cost of repairs increases with the color/quality of said gear; or epic > rare > uncommon. My repair costs were 4g xxs xxc and are now pushing into 30g - 80g. So getting to lvl 80 matters in your ability to get gold to pay for these repairs. Epic gear for a lvl 60 is a bad idea, imo. All you could afford then would be repair costs LOL.
Worry about gear color when you hit 80 and can run heroics. There are lots of things to do after 80 to get amazing quality stuff.
Hope this helps out a bit.

[Werderx]

To correct the post above, the cost of your repair bill does not come from the fact that it is green/blue/purple. It comes from the "item level" (ilvl) of that piece of gear (and obviously how much dmg it has received).

You could have a ilvl 60 purple and it would cost far less to repair than a ilvl 173 green.

Also, armor is the last stat you should be concerned with. It is going to come naturally as a plate wearer... just stick with stamina until you get to Northrend. And don't get anything with stats that do you no good... such as intelligence, spirit, mp5, etc... that is just silly.

[Kamchak]

Agreed with slight correction.

However, rolling blues on the DK then changing out for greens increased the number of times I had to visit the repair NPC, ergo, my statement was correct.

[rokku]

Thanks both, that's immensely helpful info

I added the recount add-on, since I've never tracked DPS before I'm a little confused. I assume the second number of the three (I'm seeing: 976 (172.7, 72.8%)) is the DPS and not the first? It went up to 300-ish at its highest. Is this normal for a lvl 60 DK? Or should I not worry too much about it, and instead just continue levelling?

Thanks again!

[Kamchak]

Right-click the white words in the red portion of the box that says 'Damage' and change that to DPS. This will tell you what your DPS number is, and the amount of damage you are doing, if reset durring a dungeon run.
I also created two macros to use with this;
/recount show
and
/recount reset
When you accept going into a group or get sent to a dungeon it will ask you if you want to reset recount anyway, but if you get an additional player after one drops out, resetting puts them into the report.
if your DPS rocks, you can hit the buggle looking icon and select 'guild' to post your results for all to envy.
If your DPS sucks, tell them you hit reset to fast... oops (LOL).

[Kamchak]

One more thing about 80 DK's...

The talent setup from Zygor is outstanding for leveling, as it provides you with healing attributes from the blood spec... however....

Now that you are an 80, I strongly recomend respecing to unholy.
My DPS increased 1000 by changing to dual wield weapons and the other attributes given under the unholy talent tree.
I got this from elitistjerks.com searching DK DPS.

The line-up of spells they give, however, I do not use. I use what they suggest to place in the hotbar, but the use of runes is innefficient imo.

Take that lineup and go to the dummy trainer in the pit (unworthy apponent quest in DK starter area, by the rune forges) and work on your line-up.

Id post mine, but I cant log into WoW while at work LOL.