For those DK's wondering...a subject on Frost DPSFollow

I just figured that I would post since many might be wondering like I was. DW Frost dps. I see so many DK's out there who shoot a question into general or trade chat, "What's the best build for DK right now?". Almost instantly you have ppl yelling back either L2P noob, roll another class, or something just generally unhelpful. Then you have the mature people and the answer comes up 98% of the time blood spec.

I used to be a believer of this too. Have been blood for nearly all of my Wrath raiding experience. I loved my Blood DK swinging around his big 2 hander seeing big crits and topping damage charts with my guild and pugs. Then I started to do a little more research into the class I love so much from WoW. Now I know I don't have the absolute best gear that I possibly can. But I am a decently geared DPS.
htt//www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormscale&n=Areth

From what I found and playing around with talent points and rotation I respecced into a DW Frost dps. While I do say Blood puts out some nice DPS, I am having way too much fun as frost to go back. I went from 3.5-4k dps in 10 man raids to 4.5k and up. It took me a while to get my rotation down pact but once I settled into it and learned what all these new buff and proc icons were and did...numbers started flying.

And lets face it...every raid is gonna have more than one DK in it nowadays. Now I love at least 1 more DK in the group for abominations might because I bring a haste buff to the raid now instead of overlapping. I no longer have to contend with other melee heavy classes for weapons because I use 1 hand maces.

To end my rambling I have to say. If you have ever wondered what kind of damage frost can put out...it's a lot. Especially when played correctly. It's always nice to be invited into a pug and have the one idiot say something to the affect of "ROLF1 DW dk...l2p". And then make them eat their words by completely destroying them on the damage meters. Has happened a few times to me already. :)

Yea...haha...I can explain. The reason I didnt take Subversion is because my Meta gem in my helmet takes care of my obliterate and attack crits. As frost I dont use heartstrike and I know how to manage my threat so there's no reason for me to lower it.

I took chill of the grave because those are the 3 abilities I use the most. The more you use them the more runic power you want to generate and means more RP dump means more damage output.

And I didn't max out Killing Machine because just like the old Unholy spec no one ever took 5/5 desecration because 4/5 procs un ungodly amount of the time. 5/5 would just be overkill on a talent that procs so much. One talent point better spent elsewhere.

While you make a good point about subversion being a threat reduction it's true. I mostly raid with guildmates. We do have a kickass tank who puts out about 4.5-5k tps so hate is almost a non-issue. As far as pugs go for heroics while I may have to hold back a bit on damage if tanks can't hold against me...I still do about 3k. If a tank cant hold against 3k in heroics where things die obscenely fast anyways then they shouldn't be tanking.

As far as the crit % on subversion, the only thing i really use BS for is to create a death rune. And if you'll notice in my tree 3/3 Blood of the North gives me a %10 increase in damage to BS and FS anyway. Again...since I only use BS to create death runes it doesn't matter if it crits really since killing machine proc is a guaranteed crit on one of my most damaging attacks. Single target KM proc will be Frost Strike. Multi target KM proc will be Howling Blast.

As far as rotation goes...lead off with IT and PS to get diseases up asap. Follow with BS and Pestilence to create death runes. Oblit, Oblit, FS, FS, and runic dump. The main thing you have to watch for is when you get your Rime and KM procs to throw in your FS, HB, or whatever your most damaging attack is thats up at the moment. It doesnt really have a set rotation like blood. Which makes it more challenging but also more rewarding when you see your numbers start flying.

I belief it's becoz DW frost hits so often, KM procs a lot, so it might feel like there is no need to max it.

DKs are fun, there are many ways to play DKs. Even AMS can become an RP generating tool (not just defensive).

Eh...people will think what they want. If raid leaders want to kick me for being dual wield frost and say my spec is crap then let them do it. But I do agree with one thing you said. As a DK you do have to give %110 percent in any raid, pug, or anything you do. Unless I group with someone who is a better player AND clearly out gears me then I am always number 1 or 2 on the damage meters. I off tanked our guilds 10 man Uld run the other night and on the one tank bosses they asked me to switch to my dps gear and spec. Still with flask of stoneblood up I decimated the damage charts. 4.8k dps is not too bad in my opinion for a switch on the fly. If you still wonder about the spec check me out on wow heroes. For some reason people seem to believe the stats on there. If you look at my profile it shows a little star in my spec. It's clearly been tested and is a cookie cutter build for DW frost dps. I'm not arguing that blood hits hard. I was blood spec for a long time. All I'm doing is trying to say that there are other very viable specs for raids.

Here's a big question. Is dual-wield frost better than two-hander? I know before Threat of Thassarian dual-wield was definitely inferior; did ToT change that?

A question on your choice of weapon enchant, Sandinmygum. I see you use double Fallen Crusader, but isn't that overkill? Would Fallen Crusader + Cinderglacier be better since you're rolling with a Frost build?

About the weapon enchant...double fallen crusader is good if you only do pugs and heroics for the chance to not miss the added strength proc. Fallen crusader + cinderglacier is superior in raid setups when you dont move from mob to mob so quickly so you get both to proc quite a bit. 20% increase on next attack that deal frost dmg plus 15% increase in strength puts up some big numbers...especially when you get a mainhand crit and an offhand crit.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2009 2:21am by ArethOnStormscale

What's a dual-wield DK look for in weapons? I know rogues look for a slow main hand and a fast off-hand. Do death knights want the same?

Also a great alternative if you don't want to spend too much gold farm H ToC for Aledair's Battlestar x2 or I believe 25 champions seals at the Argent Tourney for the dps maces.

What's the name of this quest/questchain? My roomate told me about it but I havent been able to find it.

Hmm. Either someone from the Ship (I play Horde) or from the E.B Camp up north sends you to a NPC down south.
I started the chain a few weeks ago...

Opportunity was my start. iirc, my ending quest was to return to one of the NPCs on the ship, then go to Tirion to do this quest (it is a nice chain in the story).



This is true. But I'm working on getting better weapons.

My armory is Memorte in my signature.

With those stats I do a solid 2.8k on single targets (if I don't ***** up the rotation) and can spike quite a bit on packs. My record so far was 10k on about 9 mobs in TotC Heroic. Getting a Killing Machine and Rime proc just as you've used Pestilence to spread your diseases can cause quite a nice DPS boost. Especially if you get two in a row

As you might've noticed, my gear is a bit lackluster. I need some better one-handed weapons, but I don't want to sacrifice the +hit on them. To be honest, I don't really know where to get the items I need, other than buying two Tankard O' Terror off the AH, but they lack hit rating. And I still need to find a better trinket (would like the banner from TotC Normal) and a better shoulder item (the shoulders from TotC Heroic would be nice.

I have a lot of haste and I've noticed that it actually adds a decent chunk of DPS due to Necrosis and Blood-Caked Blade working off of auto-attacks. Without the trinket proc and Icy Talons up, I have a swing time of 1.4 or so, I believe. I get a lot of BCB procs.

Something I have been meaning to discuss with you guys is Cinderglacier and diseases. Cinder should increase the damage of your next frost/shadow attack by 20% and it does seem to expend a charge on Icy Touch, increasing the initial damage by 20%. However, have you guys noticed that Plague Strike doesn't expend a charge? Unless I've been lucky and gained Cinder on Plague Strike, Plague Strike doesn't seem to expend a charge since it's physical damage.

Here's the bonus though - and I used target dummies and zero proc trinkets/buffs to test it - Icy Touch uses one charge and does 20% more damage, but Frost Fever damage is also increased by 20%. Plague Strike does not use any charges due to being physical damage, but Blood Plague still gets a 20% damage bonus!

So you could use Plague Strike, get 20% extra damage on Blood Plague and still have two Cinderglacier charges left for Icy Touch and Howling Blast/Frost Strike.

Glitch, most likely, but if you know how to take advantage of it, you can actually get some pretty decent DPS numbers. Having Cinderglacier up when you cast that Howling Blast/Frost Strike crit can mean a lot.