I'll start off by saying I had no intention of playing a Death Knight immediately but once I saw one I had to play it, and I'm 68 now and haven't logged on any of my toons since. Its so diverse with so many ways to play. I prefer to play with a mainly Frost build with some Blood. I really don't care for Unholy even though that seems to be extremely popular early on.
This is the spec I have as of 68.
This is the spec I intend to use as of 80.
I have a few questions though or things I'd like confirmed, because sometimes I think I know something and I learn something new changing my opinion of a talent or ability.
Frost Strike - Initially I was using it, I liked it, but then once I got Obliterate I stopped using it much, so I respeced at that point to get rid of it. At later levels does it have it's uses? I especially stopped using it once I got Rune Strike.
Howling Blast - I used to use this more but I found better things to spam my Frost Rune on, like Obliterate or Death Strike. The only use I had for this was to use Icy Touch then spread it with Pestilence in an instance, then Howling Blast for the double damage to keep hate. I really have no trouble keeping hate though while tanking instances, so I thought I was wasting a point here.
Acclimation - I don't have this yet but if you checked out my planned build I was going to try this out. Exactly how effective is this? How much resistance does it give you? I figured with Frost Aura giving 80 resistance, and Spell Deflection in the Blood tree I could be a pain in the *** to casters in PvP and hopefully a better tank in instances.
While fighting either grinding or in a PvP fight, I start with an Icy Chill, Plague Strike, two Blood Strikes, Rune Strike when available, Obliterate when other things are on cooldown and I have extra runes I don't need for other things. Then I start over again reapplying the diseases, Death Strike for some curing. I took the 3 Frost Talents to get 130 Runic Power because of the Death Strike glyph, that for every 5 Runic Power you have you do an extra 2% damage and healing with Death Strike.
Anyway, this post is brought to you by a ridiculous long Queue on my server, I've been waiting for 30 minutes and it still says I have 35 to go. Dexter is coming on so I'll go watch that. Let the discussion begin!
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Viseziox wrote:
Frost Strike - Initially I was using it, I liked it, but then once I got Obliterate I stopped using it much, so I respeced at that point to get rid of it. At later levels does it have it's uses? I especially stopped using it once I got Rune Strike.
Frost strike is frost's RP dump, oblit is frost's single-target FU ability. They're apples and oranges, there is ZERO reason not to take AND use it. Almost all of the talents in the tree increase frost strike damage.
Quote:
Howling Blast - I used to use this more but I found better things to spam my Frost Rune on, like Obliterate or Death Strike. The only use I had for this was to use Icy Touch then spread it with Pestilence in an instance, then Howling Blast for the double damage to keep hate. I really have no trouble keeping hate though while tanking instances, so I thought I was wasting a point here.
Yes on single targets obliterate is better. However you use icy touch, hit pestilence, then howling blast when you're tanking 2-3 mobs and you do a TON of damage to all 3.
Quote:
Acclimation - I don't have this yet but if you checked out my planned build I was going to try this out. Exactly how effective is this? How much resistance does it give you? I figured with Frost Aura giving 80 resistance, and Spell Deflection in the Blood tree I could be a pain in the *** to casters in PvP and hopefully a better tank in instances.
It's crap, except MAYBE in PvP. Frost isn't the strongest PvP build for death knights, but even the ones that do PvP, only some actually take it. In PvE it's a proc so you can't rely on it enough to bring less resistance gear, but if you're capped on resistances, this goes to waste.
To be honest, I've been reviewing specs for a few months now, and this is quite probably one of the worst frost specs I've ever seen. Sorry, just have to be brutally honest. Let's get specific:
A.) Glacier Rot: increased damage to 3 of frost's CORE moves, the moves EVERY FROST SPEC SHOULD USE IN EVERY FIGHT. You can't get much better than that
B.) Runic Power Mastery: You should never need the extra 30. Dump your RP and then it will never get a chance to use that extra 30. Waste of points.
C.) Howling Blast: Oblit may be good for a single target, but how often are you 1v1 in PvP compared to fighting 2 or more? Get it.
D.) Frost Strike: Correctly talented this hits WAY harder than death coil, or any other possible RP dump available to you. Not having this gives me understanding of how you're able to use the 30 RP in runic power mastery
E.) PvP spec this deep in blood without mark of blood? I've won PvP fights with this single talent alone.
F.) No black Ice? Hi 30% damage to EVERYTHING frost?
G.) Annihilation is all but worthless in PvP, your diseases are going to be dispelled anyway
H.) PvP build without rune tap? Seriously?
Yes I know you're trying to have some talents for PvE, but let's be real here. If you were in an instance with me as a PvE frost, I'd BLOW YOU AWAY in damage done, and if I were fighting you 1v1 with a true PvP frost spec, I'd destroy you. You're trying too hard to have some of both, and ended up making both kinda crappy.
Thanks for your input, I've only been playing a few days now so obviously I'm unsure of what I'm doing a bit still which is why I come and ask =) I'll look over my spec again.
Scholar
27 posts
I can confirm that Dlbrt is correct about Acclimation. I tried it for a while in PvE and absolutely hated it. It's three talent points flushed down the toilet. The low 30% proc rate rarely kicks in before the mob is dead, and doesn't last long enough to matter. As an experiment I tried pulling 3 casters at once and deliberately avoiding interrupts. Even in that worst case scenario it just didn't prevent much damage.
Also, it only procs at most ONE TIME for spells like magic missiles which you would think it was designed to counter. That is, it should proc on every spell hit but it only procs once when the spell is cast.
In my opinion this talent should be changed to:
Automatically proc, adding +15 school resist (+5 per talent point) every time magic damage is taken, (not when the spell lands), and stacking up to 10 times lasting 30 sec.
By way of contrast I am much happier with 2 points into Frost Aura. It might seem like a waste of points, since it doesn't yield dps. But it consistently shaves about 1/3 of incoming magic damage, which quickly adds up. For solo grinding this helps keep the pace up when facing multiple casters. As for instancing, I can think of many wipes due to aoe burning everyone down, and this auro would make a significant dent in that.
Also, it only procs at most ONE TIME for spells like magic missiles which you would think it was designed to counter. That is, it should proc on every spell hit but it only procs once when the spell is cast.
In my opinion this talent should be changed to:
Automatically proc, adding +15 school resist (+5 per talent point) every time magic damage is taken, (not when the spell lands), and stacking up to 10 times lasting 30 sec.
By way of contrast I am much happier with 2 points into Frost Aura. It might seem like a waste of points, since it doesn't yield dps. But it consistently shaves about 1/3 of incoming magic damage, which quickly adds up. For solo grinding this helps keep the pace up when facing multiple casters. As for instancing, I can think of many wipes due to aoe burning everyone down, and this auro would make a significant dent in that.
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