Death Knight
Death Knight's gameplay is based around Rune management, Disease, and Runic Power abilities.Resource Sites:
http://elitistjerks.com/f72/
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=13673870&sid=1
Runes:2 Blood, 2 Unholy, 2 Frost, your Diseases and Strikes use either one or a combination of Runes, the Runes CoolDown at an interval of 8 seconds, certain Talents will cause used Runes to repop and Death Runes, these can be used for any type of Rune, so if your core ability is a Blood strike you can use an Unholy/Frost Rune that repopped as a Death Rune to use it.
Your rotations are based around this Rune management and the rate and order in which they repop.
Runic Power:This is generated by using your abilities that consume your Runes, it is a fixed rate based on the number of Runes consumed by the ability. Several of the DK's very powerful abilities are based on using Runic Power (Death Coil, Rune Strike etc). Normally you will attempt to consume all of your Runic Power at the end of your first Rune rotation so that you have zero wasted GCD's while your Runes repop.
Diseases:There are 2 main Disease that the initial strikes DK's use cause, talents will elongate the duration and if properly talented you will have a 3rd disease, the application and maintenance of these diseases is crucial to a DK causing the maximum amount of damage possible as well getting the most threat while tanking.
General Info: DK's DO NOT use spell power! The damage on their disease as well as their "magical abilities" is based off of talents and Attack Power, they are first and foremost a melee class!
Death Knight's gameplay is based around Rune management, Disease, and Runic Power abilities.