I like to comment on original thinking. When I see a Death Knight that has a non-standard spec, I’m interested. Usually random Death Knights are using a spec that they’ve found on my site, or on the Elitist Jerks forums. When I see something totally different, I like to take the time to consider it.

This latest tidbit comes from Faine of Aerie Peak. In PvE, there aren’t many hybrid specs, but his spec is about as hybrid as you can get. He’s running with 24/8/39. It takes Blood down to VotTW and Unholy down to CF.

I’m trying to figure out this build’s rotation, and the relative benefits of splitting your points up to heavily between the two outer trees. I guess this gives you some versatility between magic and melee damage, and some regeneration via rune tap; and of course the ghoul; Bone Shield is nice too.

This build lacks either Death Rune Mastery or Reaping, so it’s not going to generate Death Runes. This limits the rotation possibilities. Seeing as it doesn’t have Scourge Strike, it’s going to be either Obliterate or Death Strike-based. He’s taken Glyph of Death Strike, so I’m guessing he tries to use Death Strike.

This build doesn’t take any of the raid buff or improvement talents in the lower end of the Blood tree, so it’s almost a waste to use Death Strike. He’s also forgone points in Necrosis and BCB, which will lower overall melee dps.

As advantages, I could maybe see this build as a decent OT \AoE build. It seems to balance between melee and spell-based dps. It has some avoidance; in the form of Bone Shield. It also benefits from perma-ghoul.

However, I think that this build is going to suffer in both dps and threat by not having Death Runes and because it doesn’t delve deeply enough into the bottom of any of the trees. I’d compare this to an Unholy DPS no-DR build, but even that uses SS for DPS and threat. It also lacks much if any raid utility.

This appears to be a versatile build; it has its benefits, and also its problems. Every build has its strengths and weaknesses. It may not be something that I’d consider using in a bleeding-edge raid, but I like to reward individual thinking, and choosing not to just pick the token build from your favorite Death Knight blog.

What do you all think about this spec? Do you think that independence is important in the Death Knight community? As always, send me comments via email or post a comment right here on the site using our new comment feature.