DW Frost DK DPS - A Real Guide to High DPS

[KravenLupei]

Kraven's Guide to Dual Wield Frost Death Knight DPS

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Hardware
3. Talent Spec / Glyphs
4. Rotation
5. Gemming
6. Special Use Abilities / Macros
7. A Note on Gear
8. Ending Notes / Credits / Future Research


1. Introduction

Ok, after seeing the monstrosity that is http://www.mmowned.com/forums/world-...ml#post1921921 I just had to make a new MMOwned account after so long and repost a guide so no one makes the mistake of following this guy.

In this guide I will attempt to correct his points with my own personal knowledge of the class and spec.

In a little background - Hi, my name is Kraven, and I've played a DW Frost DK since they went on live servers. I have followed them throughout all of their changes and, like all good WoW players, have went on a few breaks here and there, but have recently been back and raiding again. Due to my recent return, I do not have any combat logs with which to prove the dps in this guide, so take it how you will, but I can state without issue that I have done over 11.5k DPS in ICC10 and 13.4k DPS in ICC25 (without optimal buffs at times, IE no Unholy DK). So here is the guide, I hope you all enjoy and learn something from it!


2. Hardware

This is going to be one of the shorter sections, but still important none-the-less. Hardware matters, to a degree, for any class.

There are only 2 major points to have here, the first of which... you want to make sure, if you can help it, that you're not on a WiFi connection and instead on a wired connection. WiFi can have many issues regarding lag to the server, as well as disconnections, both harmful when you're trying to raid. This hits Frost DK's sort of hard because of our reliance on Pestilence (further down) means we need to make a few be very close on timing at times, and a high lag will cause you to miss refreshing your diseases.

Secondly... Mods. I'm not going to go out and tell you what mods to get, but besides the obviousness of the required raiding mods (Raid Frames, Threat meter, etc), you'll want to use a Rune Tracker mod instead of Blizzard's rune trackers. Personally, I use one called "Magic Runes" but what you use is entirely up to you and what might suit you most. Just make sure you use one, it'll make your life MUCH easier. I also like using an Addon called TellMeWhen, which is a good addon for monitoring cooldowns of abilities / etc. I have it set to show when Killing Machine procs, when Rime Procs, Unbreakable Armor cooldown, and Blood Tap cooldown / duration.

On the final note, system hardware itself is not a huge issue. I myself run on a 2-3 year old laptop, but there is nothing wrong with that. I run on somewhat lower visual specs, but that's just fine for me. You don't need a super powerful gaming rig to play, don't let anyone fool you into thinking that. It might help a bit, but it's not necessary. On top of that, I prefer to use the Razer Naga mouse. It's a special mouse that has 17 buttons on it, the thumb controlling "1" to "=". I have all my keybinds set in a way that I may ALWAYS be able to use just about every ability on my bars, a very helpful tool if you need to use Icebound Fortitude, Anti-Magic Shell, Death Pact, etc in a pinch. Again, I'm not telling you you need this, but once you get used to this mouse you'll never want to give it up.


3. Talent Spec / Glyphs

Talent spec is a BIT of a discussion.

Personally, my talent spec is WoWHead Link / Armory Link

Some things up for discussion in this build:

Subversion? - Depending on how well you do / what your gear is like, you need a threat reduction. It may suck sacrificing what you may consider a "DPS Talent" to pick it up, but personally I still pull threat almost all the time in ICC10, and in 25 I get very close / sometimes have to stop myself for a moment / ask a pally for a Hand of Salv. But this is all dependent on how geared your tanks are.

2/5 Black Ice!? - After exclusive research, Black Ice is found to be one of Frost's less important talents, giving low dps returns per talent point, so it's ok to short-shit it a bit. It's also the same reason I'm 4/5 Killing Machine. After the changes to Frost that made us gain another 20% melee haste from talents (for a total of 40%), Killing Machine will always proc often, and there are times you may miss a proc, so 4/5 is enough, though this may be up for discussion.

Chill of the Grave? - This is another one of those "Do you need it?" talents. If your raid has a resto druid specced in Revitalize (their heals restore runic power), you may not need this. Personally though, I raid with druids who don't pick it up for whatever reason, so I can use the extra runic power from CotG. If you find you raid often with resto druids who pick up that talent, feel free to put the other 2 points in KM / Black Ice.

Everything else talent-wise shouldn't be brought up to question, nor the glyphs linked in my spec really. Glyph of Frost Strike, Glyph of Obliterate, Glyph of Disease. (We'll get to that last one in a moment when we discuss rotation / priority).


4. Rotation

Ok, first off, as stated, there IS NO ROTATION. It is a priority system... Although what the other guide failed to mention is what the priority actually is.

At the bottom of the guide I'll post an attachment of the priority to easier understand, or simply click this link -> .

In short, you'll want to follow this priority system for Single Target fights:
1) Killing Machine up? Frost Strike
2) Keep Frost Fever up
3) Keep Blood Plague up
4) Obliterate
5) Blood Strike
6) Frost Strike
7) Rime Proc'd Howling Blast
Horn of Winter

If you're AoE'ing.... Just replace the top priority with Howling Blast, making sure to pestilence to keep your diseases spread to all applicable targets, and Obliterate if you can't Howling Blast in hopes of a Rime Proc. When to AoE? If there is more then 1 target, use Howling Blast when you can. If there is more then 3-4 targets, use Death and Decay in there as well.

To start up a fight, you're going to roughly start as follows ::: Icy Touch , Plague Strike, Obliterate, Blood Strike, Pestilence, then Frost Strike until runes come off cooldown, Obliterate, Obliterate, Frost Strike, Obliterate, Frost strike til runes come off cooldown, repeat.... But again, this would be meaning you have a rotation. That's wrong. This is just a simple way to start up the fight so you are able to refresh your diseases with pestilence in the first few moments of combat. Remember the priority above and you'll find it sort of falls into this rotation anyway.


5. Gemming

This should be simple.

In every socket, use a Red +Str gem (Bold Cardinal Ruby), the exception being if there is a yellow socket in a piece of gear in where the socket bonus will give you a +Str bonus, use an orange +Str / +Crit gem (Inscribed Ametrine). As for your meta gem, you should use Relentless Earthsiege Diamond, because while it may not give you the same +Crit as Chaotic Skyflare Diamond, it only requires one blue gem, as opposed to 2. To fulfill the blue gem requirement, stick a +10 to all Stats gem (Nightmare Tear) somewhere in your gear where it'll give you the most benefit.

I won't get into Enchanting either. This should be obvious to you. If it isn't, I may come back and edit that in, if it's entirely necessary.

A Note: If/when you get to ICC25 heroic gear (High gear levels) you should start switching and gemming ArP until cap rather than strength.


6. Special Use Abilities / Macros

In this section I'll go over the abilities I consider "Special Use" or things most death knights simply don't use enough, as well as a macro or 2.

Anti-Magic Shell - Most death knights simply don't use this ability enough... I'm not going to go into every encounter, and EVERY detail of when to use it, but don't forget about this ability, as it can literally be a lifesaver. You can use it on MANY MANY encounters in MANY situations. Never forget about this ability, experiment in every encounter and find where it'll help you, because using it right will let you stay in range to DPS longer, gain extra runic power, or just plain survive an attack / ability that would otherwise destroy you.

Icebound Fortitude - Same as Anti-Magic Shell. This is an ability that WILL be a life saver. I tend to use it less then AMS because it costs Runic Power and doesn't return any like AMS, but all the same it will save your life in tough situations. If you use it on Putricide P3 as he starts ramping up raid damage, it can mean you'll be alive while others are dead and might be able to squeeze out that last bit of damage to complete the encounter. Find when you need to mitigate a lot of damage and use this ability.

Death Pact - This is another lesser-used ability, if only because I tend to use the Ghoul for dps when it's off cooldown, but this is another MAJOR lifesaver. Do not put an ability that can heal you 40% of your max life to shame, as it can definitely save you. Same as I used Icebound Fort during Putricide P3, you can use Death Pact at the same time to make up a bit extra life and survive one more tick of damage without causing the healers stress. Just make sure you use Ghoul THEN Death Pact.

Blood Tap / Unbreakable Armor - For some reason DK's will take UA and not use it everytime it's off cooldown. Don't do this. If you do, you're cutting your dps by a lot. The problem I see with most DK's is that they don't know WHEN to use UA, and the correct answer...? When you're in your round of Death Runes, just before you do your 3rd Obliterate, use one death rune for UA, then immediately pop Blood Tap and go back to Obliterate. Both Blood Tap and UA are off the GCD, so if you're fast you won't even SLIGHTLY mess up your rotation, and this is again why I like my Razer Naga mouse, because I have it set for Alt + 8 / Alt + = and just roll my thumb backwards, hitting the 2 necessary buttons.

Some people also don't like Blood Tap because when the duration of the buff (That's right, it's a 20 second buff) runs off, it may skew your rotation for various reasons... Because of this, instead of JUST using Blood Tap, I make a Blood Tap macro:
/cast Blood Tap
/Cancelaura Blood Tap

(This macro may be wrong actually... I'll edit it if it's wrong when I get a chance to get in the game and confirm my own macro)

What this does is you press it once to use Blood Tap for the Death Rune for Obliterate / the ability to cast UA, then after you get those done you use it again and kill the aura / buff so it doesn't mess with your rotation in the future.


7. A Note on Gear

One thing I forgot to mention, gear.

1) Always go for slow/slow weapons.
2) Always have at LEAST 11% Hit, it is the minimum.
3) Priority for stats should be as follows::: Hit to Cap (11%), Expertise to Cap (26), Strength, Crit, Armor Pen, Haste. Haste is a very "meh" stat. Personally, go for more hit then haste, as more white hits will benefit you then more haste. More damage, more BCB procs, more KM procs. If you can help it, NEVER wear haste.
4) Sigils. Sigil of the Hanged Man is best for single target fights where you are able to keep the buff up and stacked, if you are not able to... resort to Sigil of Virulence. Also, use SoV on AoE fights, the extra Str buffs AoE from Howling blast to the sky.


8. Ending Notes / Credits / Future Research

First off - Feel free to post questions / comments / concerns in the thread, and I will either respond or edit them into this main post. I will be happy to respond to all queries.

Secondly - I gathered most of this information through lots of research / experience. Get out there and find information! Elitist Jerks is ALWAYS a good source of information and discussion for your class, and if you really want to be at the top of your game, you should always read the thread on their site and keep up to date for changes on your class ---> Death Knights - Elitist Jerks

Thirdly - Did you enjoy this guide? Feel free to let me know if there's anything you feel needs to be changed / modified for easier reading. I put a lot more work into this then I thought I would, especially since I'm on a road trip / vacation right now.

Enjoy!


~Kraven



Edit: Credit for picture for the Priority chart goes to Elitist Jerks poster Kroot.

[HunterHero]

I like your guide, thought i'm not going to use it. I do 11k dps Frost on Deathbringer with 5.3k GS & 23k dps aoe. (:

[KravenLupei]

I like your guide, thought i'm not going to use it. I do 11k dps Frost on Deathbringer with 5.3k GS & 23k dps aoe. (:

Just remember, gearscore < skill.

This guide is mainly for beginners / people who are lacking.

[LindeCutah]

Leveling a deathknight as last class to 80 right now so thanks for this guide, i'll read it through when I hit 80.

[ohmaigawd]

Sounds promising... Ill try it and +Rep if I get at least 100 more dps with this spec

[KravenLupei]

Bumping incase anyone else wants to make use of this guide.

[Grif]

Its a nicely writen guide, and even tho i still didnt read it ( i will ) i appriciate allot when its nice to the eye. I might be trying frost after being 24/7 Unholy so im probably gonna use it to help me out a bit. Good work +Rep

[Mr.JellyBelly]

You forgot to mention something, if the arp cap is possible to reach with your current gear, then its arp > strenght as frost. As for gemming that is.

[KravenLupei]

You forgot to mention something, if the arp cap is possible to reach with your current gear, then its arp > strenght as frost. As for gemming that is.

At the time of writing the ArP was still up for discussion and not set in stone yet. I may edit it into the guide when I get some free time.

[KravenLupei]

Bumping because another shoddy guide was written for frost.

[jmack21]

actually its been shown in most sims that str/haste in yellow sockets shows a slight dps increase over str/crit. I also wouldn't avoid haste unless you're gemming ArP, and even then, if you're at the cap, it couldn't hurt.

Also, you may want to add in your guide, that due to the talent Threat of Thassarian(OH has a 100% chance to hit on most special attacks) that putting razorice on your main hand, and fallen crusader on your offhand would be more beneficial, since your offhand will never miss. Although the uptime difference is minimal, it could help out slightly, and any extra DPS is always a good thing.

[RazU2]

Nice! I'm leveling my DK Rajt now

[KravenLupei]

actually its been shown in most sims that str/haste in yellow sockets shows a slight dps increase over str/crit. I also wouldn't avoid haste unless you're gemming ArP, and even then, if you're at the cap, it couldn't hurt.

Also, you may want to add in your guide, that due to the talent Threat of Thassarian(OH has a 100% chance to hit on most special attacks) that putting razorice on your main hand, and fallen crusader on your offhand would be more beneficial, since your offhand will never miss. Although the uptime difference is minimal, it could help out slightly, and any extra DPS is always a good thing.

Sims don't always translate well to real world fights. There may be one or 2 fights were haste/str will be better than crit/str, but that is not the majority case. It's still under review in my book, ArP at high gear levels however needs to be added in.

Where do you get your information that offhand weapon strikes will never miss? I've never heard this or experienced it myself.

[gangstajosh55]

im pulling about 3800-4000 dps with a gear score of 4864 on the boss dummy, im gemmed,glyphed,and talented right....is this any good or am i not doing it corrrect?

[XSilentiumX]

I can only see 1 flaw in this guide:Linking EJ in it because it is almost always completely wrong on most classes