Once you go Frost...Follow

I've been leveling up several Death Knights, trying to find the race for me. I've settled on a Human which is now in the process of leveling up his mining skill before venturing further into Outland. Now, he's level 63 and has been a mix of Blood and Unholy since level 55.

I remember being in love with the ghoul, focusing on an Unholy build and feeling like the illegit offspring of a Hunter and Warrior relationship. Life was good and having a pet only added to the fun. Stuff died when I got near. However, intrigued by the rumors of Blood being so uber and all, I switched to Blood and stayed Blood for the better part of the first fifty levels. I loved that most of my attacks focused on Blood Runes (which are otherwise scarcely used), allowing me to unleash my diseases and open up a can of kickass on the mobs with Heart Strike.

Then, two days ago, I saw some threads discussing Frost builds for PvP use in BGs and such. I know all three talent trees can fulfill the roles of tank and DPS, but I'll admit I've always considered the Frost tree the tank tree, thus I've never explored it. I hooked myself up with a selfmade build, based on input from players here and other places.

This is my build.

And now I can't go back...

I've tried going back to Unholy after reading that it was the best leveling build. The pet and the playstyle just seems so alien to me now. I've only played Frost for three levels, but it's like I've found home. I went back to Blood, thinking that maybe it was the crits and survivability, but I realized that it was the entire Frost tree and not just parts of it.

The way my fingers move across the keyboard to hit the Icy Touch key, moving to the Blood Strike key while quickly brushing Obliterate. Watching Killing Machine go off and feeling the comfort of knowing that Frost Strike will deliver a solid crit for a mere 32 runic power. Gathering up a bunch of mobs, getting a Killing Machine proc, hitting Howling Blast and Hungering Cold followed by Deathchill and another Howling Blast, killing them off in a heartbeat. It's probably difficult to understand, and all of this might seem dramatically poetic, if you haven't felt it yourself.

My only concern with the build is the lack of healing. Or rather, was the lack of healing. You see, I didn't realize that Death Coil could be used on yourself with Lichborne. Getting Glyph of Death's Embrace, I can toss four of them on me with full runic power (if I use a cool little macro, I don't even have to change targets to avoid wasting the Coils on my target). At level 63, four Coils return roughly 2000 health, provided none of them crit.

Basically, I've found the right mix of spell casting, healing and damage dealing. Player's nirvana.

Edited, Apr 10th 2009 8:58pm by Mazra

I know what Marza means. I leveled up my DK unholy, also thinking "frost is for tanks".

One day at level... 75ish, I dont remember well, I spec'ed blood and I didn't like it much (I honestly didnt know what I was doing), so I headed to Ebon hold to re-spec. There, an 80 Orc DK was going at it with the heroic dummy. I inspected him and when I noticed he was frost I said to myself "lulz, he tryin' to dee-pee-ess". I asked him "whats your dps?", and he said 3k. I didn't believend him so I invited him to a group and started my DPS meter and he was indeed doing over 3k dps. After a few tips from him and a little chat with my trainer he turned me into a frost freak.

It really is (in my opinion) an exelent tree for PvE dps or grinding, I don't PvP so don't ask me about that. Now at 80 I'm still a frost DK and every time I re-spec, I find myself going back to frost within a day. Tru storie dawg...

this is what I'm working towards. Lvl 62 atm.

I have an Unholy DK too @ lv70. I play it with a friend who does a frost spec (not sure if it is this, or one he made). I see why he likes it.

Every time I play the new Frost DK, I find my self liking it more and more. So many buttons (i cast about 6 things, if i make it to them all before mob(s) die) but oh so fun.

well i guess the 6-7 buttons I use really isn't that many.
iirc (my hotkeys)

1: Not sure, may be blank (or it could be DnD).
2: IT
3: PS
4: Blood Strike
5: Obli
6: Frost Strike
7: Howling Blast

I pretty much build RP and then spam FS.
But this is for a 1 vs 1

For multi I spread my love, and use howling blast.

And for boss/need to tank. . . im still learning how to tank :p

RS should be macro'd with your regular rotation abilities (it doesn't trigger the GCD).

Newb DK here, could you explain this. Is it only when you use the Lichborne ability that you can DC yourself or can you DC yourself anytime? I thought I've tried to heal myself with a DC but I always got invalid target.

omg, I don't know how many times I've read that tool tip and missed that "undead" part. Thanks!! Now I wish I choose undead for my race, but my big bad orc looks so cool. Thank Neithan

Edited, Apr 14th 2009 3:20pm by zebug

Yes, they were perma-immune to fear and charm which was imba.

Edited, Apr 18th 2009 3:26am by xorq