[Archived] Frost Death Knight 5.4

[Damien 1,476]

This thread is for comments about our Frost Death Knight guide.

[Valyk 0]

Rotation, Cooldowns and Abilities:

The frost 2h rotation is incomplete as regards to Frost Strike, it leaves off at: Cast Frost Strike if

Raise Dead is listed as 1 minute duration and 3 minute cooldown, it is actually a 2 minute cooldown.

Buffs, Debuffs, Useful Abilities:

Necrotic strike is listed as a -25% casting speed debuff, that is only v. players. Against bosses it is -50%.

[Vlad 382]

Rotation, Cooldowns and Abilities:

The frost 2h rotation is incomplete as regards to Frost Strike, it leaves off at: Cast Frost Strike if

Raise Dead is listed as 1 minute duration and 3 minute cooldown, it is actually a 2 minute cooldown.

Buffs, Debuffs, Useful Abilities:

Necrotic strike is listed as a -25% casting speed debuff, that is only v. players. Against bosses it is -50%.

Thanks for reporting! We've fixed it.

[Tyrven 0]

For DW on mr robot it gives a much different stat priority then what is listed here. I know they are different sites but ppl being suggested to go there to look at their toons will not recieve similiar info as they were given here. The base settings they have has haste set up ahead of everything including hit past 5% much like a pre 5.0 set up.

[MadMonk 154]

For DW on mr robot it gives a much different stat priority then what is listed here. I know they are different sites but ppl being suggested to go there to look at their toons will not recieve similiar info as they were given here. The base settings they have has haste set up ahead of everything including hit past 5% much like a pre 5.0 set up.

There currently are inconsistenties between askmrrobot and icy-veins as mrrobot is currently transitioning to MoP stat weights. If you are looking for 5.0.4 stat priorities, pre-mop then you can sefely use the guides on our website. Both website will have consistent priorities once Mists of Pandaria is released.

[Guest Niklas]

For Dw Frost dk reforge is it Haste>Mastery? as I've heard its mastery>haste but my friend tells me Im wrong lol ?

[Vlad 382]

For Dw Frost dk reforge is it Haste>Mastery? as I've heard its mastery>haste but my friend tells me Im wrong lol ?

This depends on whether you are dual-wielding or using a two-handed weapon.

For dual wielding, it is Mastery > Haste.

For two-handed weapons, it is Haste > Crit > Mastery.

[GepThaMan 0]

Hi, Im Frost DW Dk, I use HoM Hc in Mainhand and Elements of Death(normal) as off-hand.. is that good? as I've heard the proc from EoD is better Dps wise if u do Mastery>haste witch are the reforge prio for Dw, so is it better to use EoD(normal) as offhand or is Souldrinker(normal) still better?

[Guest Proterozoi]

Hey Vlad,

you wrote in the singletarget rotation DW

Cast Obliterate if

Both Frost/Unholy runes or both Death runes are available OR

You have a Killing Machine proc AND you have less than 10 runic power (not enough to cast Frost Strike).

Why does it only costs 10 rp? Is that a mistake? With my dk it costs 20 rp...

Greetings Proterozoi

[Tehstool 10]

Hey Vlad,

you wrote in the singletarget rotation DW

Cast Obliterate if

Both Frost/Unholy runes or both Death runes are available OR

You have a Killing Machine proc AND you have less than 10 runic power (not enough to cast Frost Strike).

Why does it only costs 10 rp? Is that a mistake? With my dk it costs 20 rp...

Greetings Proterozoi

The guide states that if you have insufficient runic power for frost strike, you cast obliterate. But you are right it appears that frost strike does cost 20 runic power. Edited September 11, 2012 by Tehstool

[Vlad 382]

Hey Vlad,

you wrote in the singletarget rotation DW

Cast Obliterate if

Both Frost/Unholy runes or both Death runes are available OR

You have a Killing Machine proc AND you have less than 10 runic power (not enough to cast Frost Strike).

Why does it only costs 10 rp? Is that a mistake? With my dk it costs 20 rp...

Greetings Proterozoi

The guide states that if you have insufficient runic power for frost strike, you cast obliterate. But you are right it appears that frost strike does cost 20 runic power.

This is indeed a mistake. Most likely a typo. Either that or I wasn't seeing clearly when I wrote it. I'll fix it in a moment :)

Thank you both!

[Guest Proterozoi]

Too bad...

i don't know what is my mistake, but i have serveral times in a fight, where i can only stand there, autoattacking the boss, because i have no runes oder rp... i use exactly the same rotation recommend in your guide.

Sorry for my bad english, i hope you understand my problem

[Guest Cardra]

no pestilence for AOE?

[Guest JohnnyP]

2H is better than DW in MoP

[Guest Mnethses]

2H is better than DW in MoP

This is a point I'd like to raise, albiet in a slightly more constructive way. Simulationcraft currently ranks deathkinght_frost_2h as the 5th highest dps in game at 57k, and deathknight_frost_1h as 19th dps in game at just under 52K.

This guide however (which I find WAY more helpful than raw simulcraft numbers) says dual wielding gives higher dps as a frost DK right now. Now as much as I love these guides, I feel I'd be remiss to ignore simulcraft, so who's right?

[Vlad 382]

This is a point I'd like to raise, albiet in a slightly more constructive way. Simulationcraft currently ranks deathkinght_frost_2h as the 5th highest dps in game at 57k, and deathknight_frost_1h as 19th dps in game at just under 52K.

This guide however (which I find WAY more helpful than raw simulcraft numbers) says dual wielding gives higher dps as a frost DK right now. Now as much as I love these guides, I feel I'd be remiss to ignore simulcraft, so who's right?

Thank you for your compliments, and your excellent post. The evaluation of 2H vs DW in our guide was indeed out of date. We have now fixed it!

[Douglaum 0]

Thank you for your compliments, and your excellent post. The evaluation of 2H vs DW in our guide was indeed out of date. We have now fixed it!

Not quite, the introduction page still states:

Both the dual wielding and the two-handed playstyles are viable, although dual wielding currently does more DPS.

Edited October 7, 2012 by Douglaum

[Guest Alex]

i was reading ur guide (which is very well written, gz to all) but got confused about dw or 2h.

in the 1st page of the guide "Introduction" u say

Both the dual wielding and the two-handed playstyles are viable, although dual wielding currently does more DPS.

but in the "Rotation, cooldown and abilities" section u say

4.1. Dual-Wielding Versus Two-Handed

Currently, the Two-Handed playstyle provides considerably more DPS than the dual-wielding one.

which one is correct? i think that 2h is performing better, but is this the case?

[Earlknight 0]

I been a DW frost for years and loved it so much I always said it would take a lot to make me change. Well change is here and as much as I love your site and have been sending everyone I know here I was shocked to see it still saying DW has a dps edge. Not only is a 2 hander better its leaps and bounds better IMO and my testing resuilts has been a 10k increase over DW. My IL 462 all weapons in test were 463 s. My avg dw dps was 52 to 55k. Reforged to haste and crit and was lucky to have a spare 2h with haste n crit stats and avg dps went up to 65 to 69k. Oblit crits are insane about 188k and it crits a lot. Took this in a heroic and checked meters after to find some max crits at 333k. Goodby DW.

[Vlad 382]

I'd like to thank the last 3 posters for pointing out this inconsistency. Truthfully, I had forgotten that the introduction page still contained such a mention, so I only updated the rotation page :)

I've fixed it now, hopefully for good.

[Earlknight 0]

Thanks Vlad and I would like to know if you tested 2h over dw as well? 2 days after my testing we had a long maintence and I have now noticed a decrease in my 2hander dps. It still seems better than dw but not the insane gains i was getting.

I would also like to know if more dks are having issues with the way tanks are either pulling trash mobs in heroics or the fact the mobs are just jumping around like crazy. I joke to my guild that blizz should a gave us a new spell called ridlin shot. I go in HB PS and just as i'm about to hit pestilance poof my target has jumped clear out to the range or healer. My point to all this is even though I know were suppose to take Plague Leech in T1 I am now using Unholy Blight to compensate and it seems to suit me better.

[Vlad 382]

Thanks Vlad and I would like to know if you tested 2h over dw as well? 2 days after my testing we had a long maintence and I have now noticed a decrease in my 2hander dps. It still seems better than dw but not the insane gains i was getting.

I would also like to know if more dks are having issues with the way tanks are either pulling trash mobs in heroics or the fact the mobs are just jumping around like crazy. I joke to my guild that blizz should a gave us a new spell called ridlin shot. I go in HB PS and just as i'm about to hit pestilance poof my target has jumped clear out to the range or healer. My point to all this is even though I know were suppose to take Plague Leech in T1 I am now using Unholy Blight to compensate and it seems to suit me better.

In current levels of gear, and for a good while still, 2H is above DW.

About your second issue, I can't really comment.

[Guest Fletch]

I would like to carry on the conversation about T1. I'm running a DW Unholy currently and I'm very confused about the T1 talent Unholy Blight and the difference between Pestilence. I am posting here in the Frost section as I have debated about switching to Frost 2H as my pet is nice - but seems to be a distraction for the most part and maybe I just need a change in play style. Am i misunderstanding how UB and Pest work? I see them as easy ways to spread disease and hit Blood Boil. Is this easier for an Unholy to do, or is UB just another way to do Pest? And does it change the overall rotation?

It may have to do with me not being 90 yet as well, so sorry if this is remedial.

[Vlad 382]

I would like to carry on the conversation about T1. I'm running a DW Unholy currently and I'm very confused about the T1 talent Unholy Blight and the difference between Pestilence. I am posting here in the Frost section as I have debated about switching to Frost 2H as my pet is nice - but seems to be a distraction for the most part and maybe I just need a change in play style. Am i misunderstanding how UB and Pest work? I see them as easy ways to spread disease and hit Blood Boil. Is this easier for an Unholy to do, or is UB just another way to do Pest? And does it change the overall rotation?

It may have to do with me not being 90 yet as well, so sorry if this is remedial.

Well, first of all, Unholy DW is not viable at all at level 90, so you should certainly look into alternatives (Unholy 2H, or Frost 2H/DW).

Regarding your main question, Unholy Blight is basically a "special" Pestilence. A much improved version you could say. It's much improved because it has no resource cost, does not require the diseases to be up on any target beforehand, and also lasts for 10 seconds.

Its real draw-back is the high, 90-second cooldown. It would be ideal on raid fights where a large number of adds enter the fight at some point, but they don't all enter at the same time, or they aren't very well stacked together to allow proper Pestilence usage. You would essentially turn

Unholy Blight on and just run through the adds to spread your diseases.

The only fight I can think of where you'd want something like this, for now, is Elegon in Mogu'shan Vaults, for the Stage Two add spawns. Sadly, though, those adds spawn in repeated waves some 15 seconds apart - and while it would help getting your diseases up on the first wave, it would be on cooldown for all the others.

[Guest Fletch]

That actually makes more sense to me now. Took me a minute to go back and re-read the descriptions. Thank you very much.