So you’re a DPS death knight, eh? Rejoice! The good news is, you won’t be doing much rep grinding for gear! The bad news is, it’s because most of the factions don’t have anything worth grinding for!

Hurray!

Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition: [rating:0/5]
The only reason to bother to grind reputation with these factions is if you’re a PvPer who wants the Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator, or an engineer getting the plans for the Mechano-Hog or Mekgineer’s Chopper.

Kirin Tor: [rating:0/5]
As you may have guessed, a city full of mages really doesn’t have much for a two-handed-weapon-swingin’ walkin’ talkin’ ecological disaster like yourself. Just as useless as your side’s faction, the Kirin Tor only offer one item a Death Knight DPS would even be using at all, and that’s a fire resist head enchant. There’s better options.

Argent Crusade: [rating:2/5]
The Argent Crusade distinguish themselves amongst the other factions by actually having two items a Death Knight DPS might consider using, both available at revered. However, I really hope you like armor penetration, because those two items are the Argent Skeleton Crusher and the Fang-Deflecting Faceguard. The Crusher is a great pickup if you haven’t gotten, for example, the Sword of Justice to drop in Heroic Halls of Stone yet; people are definitely reporting an increase in DPS with the crusher over the Ebon Blade’s closest offering (see next part) despite its lack of melee crit.

Knights of the Ebon Blade: [rating:3/5]
I only have one reason to even recommend these guys at all, and that is that they are the source for the Arcanum of Torment, aka the DPS head enchant. That alone gives them a 3/5, and you should probably consider grinding with them first and foremost. In fact, you may as well take it to exalted and pick up a pair of Death-Inured Sabatons; that’s a healthy chunk of three of our favorite stats, plus two open gem slots.

If you’re a dual-wielder, you could always pick up two Reapers of Dark Souls; despite the lack of Strength, two of them could hold you over until you can get something better. However, and this is the part I know I’m going to have a lot of falling-out over other Death Knights with: do not buy a Runeblade of Demonstrable Power. It is a hunter weapon. You do not need haste. You do not need agility. You can find crit and AP elsewhere. Do not buy it.

The end.

The Sons of Hodir: [rating:3/5]
There is nothing to not like about the Sons of Hodir. On top of having the most epic daily ever, they also have quite a bit to offer melee Death Knights. Spaulders of the Giant Lords is a great fit for the shoulder slot, and, oh yeah, would you like fries an enchantment with that? (Unless you’ve got Inscription, of course, in which case you’ll want to use your own enchant. The rest of us will be working for the giants for a while.) DPSers who happen to be higher with the Sons of Hodie than the Ebon Blade and like dual-wielding can pick up a pair of Stalactite Choppers; however, I’d go with the reapers if you’ve got nothing else. The DPS is identical, the attack power on the Reapers is double the Choppers, and the Reapers have hit rating over the not-optimal armor penetration.

The Wyrmrest Accord: [rating:2/5]
The main reason to grind with these guys is if you want to tank someday. Or if you want to tank offspec. Either way, you’re not going to be looking at these guys as a primary source of goods as a DPS DK. Dual-wielding the Fang of Truth is… ehhhhh. Just go get the Reapers. Yes, the Sabatons of Draconic Vigor have hit, but not much of it and not much else. The Legplates of Bloody Reprisal are okay, but they’ve got the again less-than-optimal armor penetration, with no other stats to go along ith it (but sheesh that is a huge chunk of Strength and Stamina). I figure everyone’ll be grinding exalted with them eventually for the mount anyhow, so if that’s your plan and you need new pants, pick up the legplates till you find something else, I s’pose.

Frenzyheart Tribe: [rating:0/5]
Apparently Blizzard created the Frenzyheart Tribe with the intention that no one would want to grind rep with them ever, by making their rewards so utterly craptastical that we have to go work for a bunch of gorlocs. VERY FUNNY, BLIZZARD. The Frenzyheart Tribe offer one (that’s 1, uno, ein, ichi) item that you can even find halfway worthwhile as a DPS DK, and you have to work your way to exalted to get it, and even when you get there it’s got a suboptimal stat: the Frenzyheart Insignia of Fury. Say it with me: haste is dumb for DKs. All you’re doing is upping your white damage, since haste doesn’t lower any of our global cooldowns. A little bonus crit the rest of the time is not worth it. Skip the puppy-men.

The Oracles: [rating:2/5]
The big-tongued bastards do have a nice array of items, I’ll give you that, but I’m not sure it’s worth diverting your attention from the Sons of Hodir or the Knights of the Ebon Blade to work with these guys. Still, if you don’t have the Spaulders of the Giant Lords, you could start off with the Gold Star Spaulders, maybe to do two levels if you’re leveling in the Basin… the Spaulders of the Giant Lords are stat-for-stat an upgrade from the Gold Star Spaulders. Depends on how easy revered is to get with the Oracles, I suppose. And at exalted? They offer an actual useful trinket (though there are better +crit trinkets, unless you find yourself constantly low on Runic Power, I suppose…). Most people will end up exalted with these guys anyway, for the egg with a chance of a sweet mount inside.

The Kalu’ak: [rating:2/5]
Most of you, if you were diligent in doing quests for the Tuskarr while leveling in Borean Tundra and/or Howling Fjord, will have gotten up to at least revered with the Tuskarr before hitting, say, level 73. (I did, anyway.) Awesome. Stop there. At 76, unless you’ve picked up something better, you’ll want to grab a Whalebone Carapace; you’ll probably be using it for a while. Avoid the Whale-Stick Harpoon; it is, once again, a hunter weapon (you should probably go get a De-Raged Waraxe instead). But hey, you’ll be hitting exalted with them sooner or later, because you’ll probably want the benef its of the epic fishing pole… and what else does your death machine need but an adorable baby penguin following it around?