13 Follow Up with Rune Tap

Last time we talked about using Festering Strike to extend your diseases in case you couldn’t spec enough into Epidemic for the 29 second disease duration. Unfortunately, the Blood and Frost Rune cost of Festering Strike means you loose a Death Strike until the Frost Rune cools down.

Blood Tap converts one of your Blood Runes to a Death Rune. The Death Rune is a wildcard that can be used as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune. Using Blood Tap after an Outbreak and Festering Strike combination leaves you with one Death Rune, one Frost Rune and two Unholy Runes, which is enough for two Death Strikes at the expense of a Heart Strike.

Next time, we’ll talk about chaining abilities together with macros to reduce some of the complexity and maximize the uptime of racial abilities, healing cooldowns and more.

12 Extend with Festering Strike

Last time we talked about spec’ing 2 points into Epidemic to increase your disease duration to 29 seconds. But what if you can’t spec 2 points into Epidemic? What if you need to bring Abominations Might to the fight or if you need to be a designated interrupter?

Festering Strike can fill the gap, especially at the start of a fight. With only 1 point in Epidemic, a Festering Strike extends the total duration of your diseases to 30 seconds, but be aware – nothing comes for free. Festering Strike will cost you a Blood and Frost Rune, which will starve you of a Death Strike for the duration of the Frost Rune cooldown.

Next time, we’ll talk about adding Blood Tap to the combination to convert a Blood Rune into a Death Rune and get back that missing Death Strike.

11 Outbreak in 4.3

Outbreak’s cooldown has been reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds, and enables you reapply your diseases sooner without having to use Frost or Unholy Runes. And let’s face it … having more Frost Runes means you have more Runes available to Death Strike.

The default duration of your Frost Fever and Blood Plague is 21 seconds, but 2 points in Epidemic in the Unholy tree increases that duration to 29 seconds. So just as your diseases are falling off, Outbreak is finishing it’s cooldown and you can reapply all of your diseases without having to resort to Icy Touch and Plague Strike.

Next time, we’ll talk about what to do if your raid composition doesn’t allow for two points into Epidemic and how to compromise with Festering Strike and Blood Tap to make up for it.