There are a few basic ideas that are very similar with their DKs. I know moz was blood and kylie was unholy and blood, so DK play isnt that new. but frost brings two things that you wont be able to get from the other two specs: dual wield and procs. All dk's start off with the basic (IT+PS) to start their diseases going. what they do from there depends on spec. even tanks often start off with IT+PS, or use IT+PS right after they drop their Death and Decay. This is the back bone of every DK. and like all backbones, it supports your other spells and attacks. you dont use your backbone when hitting someone, you use your arms, so the backbone only supports your arm. if you have a broken backbone, your arms do not swing for as high of damage as with a healthy backbone. sound like preaching, but IT+PS is not your damaging abilities. they are the backbone-- the backbone for all specs, for that matter.
One very important thing to watch out for is Death Runes. like unholy spec, frost spec'ed dk's produce deathrunes by using blood strike, blood boil, or pestilence. any of those spells will use up a blood rune and will cause the blood rune to refresh as a death rune (so you can use it for a better attack, like obliterate). managing deathrunes is another fun factor in playing a dk. first you have your basic runes, then you have your runic power, then you have this "deathrune" thing going. what more do you want to watch? well with frost spec dk's, you get to watch "killing machine" and "rime".
what the hell is that? Well killing machine is a talent in the frost tree that procs while you're attacking. when killing machine does proc, your next icy touch, frost strike or howling blast becomes a guaranteed critical hit. yep. sexy.
and rime? when this procs, you get a free howling blast (costs no runes, and cooldown resets so you can use it right away). and look at the killing machine description above, it says that if that procs, you get as one of three spells, howling blast, to proc. so rime+killing machine = USE HOWLING BLAST NAO!!!
There ya go. thats all there is to frost dps. yep. easy peasy lemon squeezy.
The Nitty:
Ok. to go a little futher into the art of frost dps. i've explained almost nothing above. except that you get two juicy spells to play react to. lets go and see what the differences are.
1. Frost uses Blood Strike to convert blood runes to death runes (Blood uses deathstrikes to convernt frost/unholy runes to death runes; Unholy uses blood strikes to convert blood runes to death runes).
2. Frost uses Frost strike as their primary rune dump spell (Blood and Unholy use Death Coil). as frost, use Frost strike always. Heck, take death coil off your bar and use it only during ranged encounters.
3. Use Howling Blast often when in AoE situations. Death and Decay is less of a factor in dps, so dont use it as often as you would if you were another spec. now if there were 4 mobs in a group... you may want to use it. but you have better aoe abilities with howling blast anyway, especially with the two procs going off at once. i am not saying do not use DnD. just saying that you have another option that's not so expensive.
4. Use two 1handers. two maces, swords or axes. do not use a 2-hander, even if it looks good. even if the stats are a lot better. the reason for this is that you have three or four different talents that buff up your dual wielding damage and also, you have the benefit of two runeforge enchants processing.
4a. In terms of weapons, use slow 1handers if you can. fast 1handers are fine if the dps increase on the weapon is significant (say, you're upgrading from a 90 dps mace to a 130 dps mace). try to avoid fast tanking weapons, as you're not only gimping your dps with the speed of the weapon, but also with the secondary stats the weapon may have (like +defense rating, +dodge, +shield block).
4b. In terms of stats, weapons with Agi are meant for hunters and rogues, but can be used by the DK as well. Agi will add to your physical crit rating but you will benefit less from that than if you picked a weapon with +Str. Most 1handed weapons, however, have +agi so go with that if there are no other alternatives. you can always get more weapons. Devyn has two Black Icicles from H. Halls of Reflection, which have +Agi. so although we prefer str, agi is fine.
5. Use Obliterate (Blood dks use Hearth Strike. Unholy dks use Scourge Strike) as your major attack. no folks, do not think that two icy touches and two plague strikes will equal two obliterates. They do not. Dont waste your time using icy touch or plague strike unless you're going to refresh your diseases. use it ONLY to refresh diseases. Use Obliterate. (blood strike to make death runes and then use the deathrunes to do more obliterates).
Note: if you're low on health, you can use deathstrike to regain health instead of using obliterate. you trade a little dps since deathstrike will do a lot less damage than obliterate. if you have runic power, summon your ghoul and kill it for about 50% health back to you. personally, i'll summon my ghoul and sacrifice it. its "cheaper" to me, ie. i'd rather use runic power than runes to regain health.
The Gritty:
Now that we understand a little bit of the differences between the three DK specs and what frost should be focusing on, lets move on to how a battle should be played out. There are always two types of battles. The multi-mob battles and the single-boss battles. Lets start with the single-boss variety.
---Single target stuffs in BLUE.
---Multi target stuffs in RED.
Single? Why hello nurse!! (single-mob)Every instance has boss encounters and most of them are basic tank-and-spank. some require a little running, but all will focus on you, the dk, dps-ing down a boss (not the orbs ala Toravon).
What to look for when encountering a boss:
1. Know your rotation. Know where your buttons are. Know where in your HUD your runes cooldowns/runic power displays are so you know what you will be needing to do next. Efficiency is key as a frost dk. so always be on the lookout.
2. Stay behind the boss. Always.
3. Stay out of flames, fires, ooze, void zones and other bad things. (Strafe left and right to avoid it, easy). 4. Watch for Killing Machine procs and Rime Procs. using Mik's or any other scrolling battle text addon really helps with this. Also, there's Quartz procs and Power Auras Classic. They do more than show procs. they will show procs as long as its active and give you a big fat icon covering everything until you use it up. So instead of looking at your fist for a white glow (killing machine) or at your character for small shiney rays of light (rime), you can have a more noticable message when your procs do proc. seriously, the in-game indicators that you have rime/killing machine processed is hard to see. and during any instance, i see my fists turn red, blue, yellow, orange, green, etc. so figuring out if the glow means "killing machine" is kinda tough. use addons for this.
Quadruple Grande Americano for Tri at the bar! (multi-mobs)
What i love about frost dps is that i get choices. choices to use DnD or Howling Blast, or if i should use howling blast without rime procs, or if i should spread diseases now, or refresh diseases on my main target, depending on remaining health, ofc.
When encountering multiple mobs, like say, four mobs. the priority shifts a little. of course, we'll always start out with the same, icy touch and plague strike. the rest is a big mess.
Again, always stand behind the mobs. and stand clear of bad things.
Since there isnt an obvious target, you'll have to target the same mob the tank is targeting. that's the best choice since you probably will not pull aggro if you attack the tank's mob. let the other three mobs get a pestilence, and maybe a blood boil or howling blast. if you get a killing machine proc, you can use howling blast, as this will cause more damage than an obliterate or frost strike. that's basically the only difference in rotation between a single target and multiple targets.
ROTATION:
(rotation is subject to priority. read this first, then read priorities. they'll make sense one day)
A-single. Always start out with Icy Touch and Plague Strike. (there are people who say do PS first, you get 10 more dps. gimme a break) But always start with those two. doesnt matter which comes first.
A-multi. Start with IT/PS. Then pestilence + Blood boil. then follow the rest.
B. Then use Obliterate.
C-single. Then use Blood Strike to use up your blood runes (to change them to death runes).C-multi. you should have already used your blood runes. skip C.
D. Use Frost Strike for your runic dump. never use deathcoil--it doesnt hit for that much anyway.
E-single. When "Killing Machine" procs, use frost strike as soon as you can. yes, delay your other attacks and just use frost strike to "use up" the proc. you want to use up the proc because you want it to proc again as soon as possible so you can do another juicy crit frost strike. saving it up makes no sense. just use it. you'll get it again later anyway.
E-multi. When "Killing Machine" procs, use Howling Blast if you have enough runes. sometimes its better to wait for the runes to cooldown and use howling blast than it is to use the KM proc on frost strike or icy touch. just wait it out. its only a few seconds anyway. when the mobs start to die off tho, like when you're down to two mobs, use the KM proc on a frost strike instead.
F. When "Rime" procs, use Howling Blast. This is a free attack. so use it even if howling blast is an AoE attack. It still does damage to one boss, and its free. do not use it if it will cost your runes (aka, no rime proc). use your runes for Obliterate. never use your runes for Howling Blast. always use your "Rime" for howling blast. get that? hope its not confusing.
G. Refresh Diseases. when your frost fever and plague strike nears its end, or ended, use icy touch and plague strike once again.
Rotation Priority:
1. STAY ALIVE (even if this means running away for a few seconds).
2. Always keep your Diseases up. unless your mob is almost dead.3. Rime (if you see it, use howling blast).
4. Killing Machine (if you see it, use Frost Strike/if you see it, use Howling Blast)
5. Obliterate
6. Blood Strike (to covert runes)
7. Frost Strike (without Killing Machine Procs)
Stat priorty:
Again from earlier on about the weapons, prioritize Strength above all else. gem for strength as much as you can. if you need to activate a meta gem, use a prismatic gem (it counts for all gem colors).
Primary Stat priority:
1. Strength
2. Agility
(stamina will come with just about everything. dont worry about it much. int will come with some gear, dont trash it, just evaluate if the STR or AGI will give you better results. same with armor, etc... in outland, i had some mail drops where i can gem that tripled by STR for that slot (gloves, helm, pants) and i used that instead. gear becomes more defined for classes in northrend, but in outland, its fine to use mail gear or paladin plate gear so long as the STR is higher, or that you can socket some bold bloodstones, bold scarlet rubies or whatevers)
Secondary Stat priority:
1. Hit to 8% at 80. if you're leveling, dont worry too much about this.
2. Attack power. its great to have. although str is preferred, attack power should never be scoffed at.
3a. Crit from crit rating. it is very important to understand that crit rating increases the critical strike percentage of your physical attacks and spells. Agility only increases the critical strike percentage of your physical attacks.
3b. Expertise to 26. I think its 26. but make sure you get that up at level 80. while leveling tho, dont worry about it; gem strength only.3c. Haste rating. although your attacks are dependent on your runes and not your global cooldown, having haste will help late in the game, when you're maxed out with Hit, Expertise, and ripping at the seams with crit.
One last last thing... about howling blast. It will apply damage to specific mobs individually. there is not "cap" i dont think, and the more mobs you have within range, the more damage you will do.
lets say you have three mobs and each howling blast you do will deal 2k damage to each mob. that means your howling blast will do 6k damage to three mobs. if its one mob, you only do 2k damage. lets say. what if you crit? you'll do 150% more damage. so that's 9k damage total, or 3k to each mob. now lets say you're killing those man crystals running around halls of stone. there's 10 of them, and you get a killing machine proc. 3k x 10 mobs = 30,000 damage.
major dps boost there huh? probably. although i've only seen my crit howling blast do 30k damage at most (see ss above), im sure it can do more if you have enough mobs together in one place.last last last note: runeforge the main hand with fallen crusader. if you dont have it yet, use cinderglacier. for the offhand, use razorice.
excited yet??? go respec already!! lol go leave me questions if you have any. hopefully i've explained enough to get you guys started. hope i was clear. sorry, no pictures. =[
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