Depending on the stat weights we end up with this tier, something to consider once we get our 4p and when it procs its going to put mastery at a higher rating than haste. Because of that Apparatus of Khaz'goroth is going to proc mastery.

It's a question of either Backbreaker Spaulders or Grimfist Crushers really.
I gemmed the items to look at the set bonuses, and Backbreaker Spaulders gives 43 more strenght than Necrotic Boneplate Pauldrons at the expence of 257 mastery instead of 294 haste. That's a pretty decent haste loss.
Using 391 DW stat weights, the dps difference between Necrotic Boneplate Pauldrons and Backbreaker Spaulders is 63 dps.
The dps difference between Necrotic Boneplate Gauntlets and Grimfist Crushers is 138 dps.
Now, the stat weights are completely off for these items, but the calculations does show that in the off piece departement it could be a close call between Backbreaker Spaulders and Grimfist Crushers.

It's not close at all because those gloves are not going to be made available if 4.2 is any indication. They're the HC version of a VP item.

How is the simulator best maximizing H AoK? Does it wait for it to line up with PoF? Does it fire it off as soon as it hits 5 stacks even if PoF is on CD? I can't find anything that suggests how best to use this trinket. Unlike EotEF or HoR or VoA, it actually takes management to use.

Does anyone have any feedback on this: Simulationcraft Results

It's the HB-centric mastery stacking priority I theorycrafted months ago (discussed back on pages 3/4 I think), Cort finally got simcraft to follow it and it did indeed turn out to be a DPS increase, or at least DPS neutral on single target fights.

Simcraft is using 7/31/3 to test it though, so the real world results playing 5/31/5 or 4/31/6 will probably be slightly lower as it's nigh-impossible to play imp BT spec as optimally as the sim can.

Also not sure if it sims as a DPS increase/neutral in T12H BiS but I suspect it does since my real-world results on patchwerk/baleroc were just as good when I was playing it. I switched back to haste/OB priority for heroic rag progression as it was frankly the easier spec to play while trying to avoid fire and such.

Reading Simulationcraft Results , I tried to drop plague strike and replace it with 2 extra obliterates per minute thinking it might be even a bigger dps gain, and just run with only frost fever and Outbreak on CD. I made a typo (I had 3 extra obliterates per minute instead of 2) that ruined the whole math thing and with 3 obliterates obviously that would have been alot better...

You will basically be gaining ~2 obliterates more per minute (making it a total 11 from 9), but you will lose Blood Plague, Plague Strike and 12% extra obliterate damage because of running 1 disease ~65% of the time when both diseases caused by Outbreak fall off, 1 Howling blast (assuming 2 Obliterates give 1 Rime) and 8 runic power (as howling blast gives more RP than Obliterate per rune).

So far my napkin math on that shows this:

9 obliterates per minute each doing 51900 damage + blood plague doing 1220 per second + 2 plague strikes per minute doing 10900 each makes up for a total of 561000 damage per minute.

11 obliterates per minute, 35% of those running 2 diseases (51900 per obliterate) because of using Outbreak on CD and 65% with 1 disease (that's 45672 per obliterate) + blood plague doing 35% of 1220 per second, minus 1 Howling blast (33200 without counting extra frost fever obviously), - 1/4 frost strike (12500) make up for a total of ~462000 damage per minute.

So all in all, at that level of mastery and because howling blast gives more RP than Rime and Obliterate per rune, going with single disease is a dps loss. So that theory goes down the drain...

Credit where credit is due. Libretto made reference to a suggestion he had found in another forum for gaming unholy runes. The method he was using (it's on page 3 of this thread) was proven by Azhe to be impossible to be more dps than the normal rotation, and that was in fact true. It's simply a matter of being resource capped too often.

It was my work that came up with the linked rotation.

You can't just game unholy runes and follow shadowfrost priority and expect more dps. It will be much less. You need the following extra:

*Switch to OBL priority when having high resources due to fortunate procs
* currently regulated by prioritising OBL when you can't benefit from an RE proc, or prioritising OBl when you have 80 or more RP but would benefit from an RE proc. The balance is very hard to get, even in the sim.
*Use KMs on OBL. it's way more dps than FS or wasting a rune on a HB
* Keep frost runes around to use on an OBL so you don't waste time capped with 2 unholy runes

It's very different to shadowfrost (which isn't even an accurate name since DnD is out of it). Obliterate damage drops only to about 15%, from 30%. It's still regularly used.

I forget who it was, but several threads back someone discovered using HB to fill in with the normal priority was a dps gain. This is really an extension of that.

So it's not so much a discovery, but combined work of several people. I just did the hard hards at the end to get it all working and fine tune the priority. It's really a mashup of shadow frost and standard obl priority.

But the bottom line is it's extremely fault intolerant and requires a lot of focus. I think it would be silly to play that priority or reforge entirely into mastery. But 2000 haste is quite comfortable to play this way.

What it does do is emphasize the importance of using HB as a filler when low in resources due to bad RNG. It is a fantastic way to pull through those lulls. HB priority generates more resources, OBL priority uses resources faster. The more focus you have spare, the more you can use that mechanism.

For the BiS list, why wouldn't you take the tier shoulders too? Since haste is our best stat and the current gloves or shoulders have that secondary stat on them.

Syk, It's not really shadow frost. It just only uses obliterate for unholy runes, or if having high resources as HB priority takes more GCDs, or for KM procs. OBL is still highly used at around 15% damage contribution, down from 30% in a more normal priority. Rime is still useful.

I don't think anyone will be capable of putting out more dps on a pure mastery build with this priority. It's too error prone and requires too much focus. However, when resource starved in a more normal rotation you can very easily fill with HB and even game some unholy runes. And that alone is a significant dps increase. And in doing that you can easily get by with around 2000 haste.

Unspoonybard, because they are ilvl 416 and have more str which outweighs the secondary stat difference. Also at the top end of gear haste rounds off to be no more valuable than mastery.

No doubt more tweaks can be made. I stopped once it beat unholy simming because that seemed like a good benchmark to reach. Feel free to do them and submit proof of a dps increase.

Having logged in on patch day I got a few gear upgrades in the new content. Might be related to those upgrades and a new haste level, but I felt like my frost DK had significantly better dps, much more than I expected. Maybe it was just a really lucky string of procs but I felt as if there was more room for error in the rotation.

With the way RE works and the internal delay on Rime procs, I couldn't immediately discount my experience. Was there a bug fix that I didn't hear about?

EDIT: I went and checked on the dummy. As it turns out, this was related to a new level of haste. I was getting more obliterates into the rotation as my runes were regenerating faster during unlucky periods. The difference was about 200 haste, which apparently made a big difference.