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Piston Honda
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Frost DPS 5.3 - Winter is Still Here
Last Updated 5/21/2013 By Mendenbarr
3/16/13 | Mists of Pandaria 5.3
[top]IntroductionWelcome to the frost death knight guide for both fast attacking dual-wielder, and the mighty two-hander. This guide should cover all of the basics, and serve as a reference for both new players to the class and veterans. The sim work and item lists are accurate to 5.3, unless otherwise specified. If you find any errors in this guide, broken links, or items you feel have been omitted that would help to understand the class please PM me. Please leave the thread for discussion. [top]Note-worthy Changes at a Glance
[top]Abbreviations and Keywords
[top]Talents and Glyphs[top]TalentsTalents will change often between bosses so for most talent tiers there is never one right choice for all fights [top]Tier 1Roiling Blood – Your Blood Boil ability now also triggers Pestilence if it strikes a diseased target *Blood Boil is not part of our single target or multi-target rotation so this talent appears rather useless for Frost. This is purely an AoE talent and will not benefit you in single target situations. Plague Leech 25 sec – Draw forth the infection from an enemy, consuming both your Blood Plague and Frost Fever diseases on a target to activate a random fully-depleted rune as a Death Rune. *This refunds a death rune every 25-30 seconds and is currently simming as our best choice in this tier by about 3500 DPS in ideal circumstances as dual-wield, and 2400 DPS as two-hand. Ideally this is used once every 27-30 seconds when diseases are about to expire to get the most ticks out of your diseases while getting the maximum number of death runes from this talent. It can also be used by DW to turn an unholy rune into a fresh disease application and a death rune every 25 seconds. Unholy Blight 1.5 minutes – Surrounds the Death Knight with a vile swarm of unholy insects for 10 sec, stinging all enemies within 10 yards every 1 sec, infecting them with Blood Plague and Frost Fever. *This is a slight DPS loss compared to Plague Leech but still a viable option. With this we only need to use Plague Strike once every two minutes to keep up full diseases on a single target and can instantly spread full diseases in AoE situations. Tier 1 ranking single target The point of the ranking is to demonstrate how close the three talents are, don't blindly pick the highest one, as the one you're the most comfortable with will likely do the best.   [top]Tier 2Lichborne 2 minutes – Draw upon unholy energy to become undead for 10 sec. While undead, you are immune to Charm, Fear and Sleep effects. *This will be good for any fight where you face CC and useful for any phases of heavy burst magic damage where sustaining yourself with Death Coil and Anti-Magic Shell may be the best course of action. This does cut into your damage if you need to heal yourself with Death Coils so this may not be the optimal choice if your healers can keep you up. Anti-Magic Zone 2 minutes – Places a large, stationary Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party or raid members inside it by 75%. The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 10 sec or until it absorbs 136800 spell damage. *One of the best cooldowns in the game for strong single hits of magic damage. This will absorb 75% of the hit that breaks it making this an important raid cooldown if the fight calls for it. Stopping damage from happening is better than being able to heal it up. Your healers will thank you if you can use this effectively. The amount absorbed scales with strength. On fights with constant, small magic damage, it's very weak. Purgatory – An unholy pacts grants you the ability to fight on through damage that would kill mere mortals. When you would sustain fatal damage, you instead are wrapped in a Shroud of Purgatory, absorbing incoming healing equal to the amount of damage prevented, lasting 3 sec. If any healing absorption remains when Shroud of Purgatory expires, you die. Otherwise, you survive. This effect may only occur every 3 min. *Saves you from death for 3 sec once every 3 minutes. This counts as an absorb effect so moves that go through other absorbs can still kill you. As soon as the absorb shield is healed off, the effect is removed regardless of when during the 3 seconds that happens. Purgatory can save your life, but it can also be next to useless. If you are healed up to 1% from a HoT half a second after the proc, the next hit will still kill you. However, when combined with healers who are good at using lay on hands and void shift, this talent will save your life many times. [top]Tier 3Death’s Advance 30 sec – You passively move 10% faster, and movement-impairing effects may not reduce you below 70% of normal movement speed. When activated, you gain 30% movement speed and may not be slowed below 100% of normal movement speed for 6 seconds. *This is the go-to talent for this tier when none of the others are necessary. 10% runspeed passively and a 30% boost every 30 seconds will increase uptime on bosses with target switching or lots of movement mechanics. This does stack with the movespeed enchants for boots, and pretty much every other run speed buff. Chilblains – Victims of your Frost Fever disease are Chilled, reducing movement speed by 50% for 10 sec, and your Chains of Ice immobilize targets for 3 sec. *Good for kiting and slowing adds from getting to their target. The root effect for Chains of Ice is nice but few bosses or adds can be rooted. Asphyxiate 30 sec – Lifts an enemy target off the ground and crushes their throat with dark energy, stunning them for 5 sec. Functions as a silence if the target is immune to stuns. Replaces Strangulate. *Replaces our Strangulate with a stun with half the cooldown time. Again, pretty fight dependent as most bosses cannot be stunned or silenced. [top]Tier 4Death Pact 2 minutes – Drain vitality from an undead minion, healing the Death Knight for 50% of his maximum health and causing the minion to suffer damage equal to 50% of its maximum health. *Only useful if your ghoul is active for Frost DKs, but offers a large amount of healing on command. Ideally this is the choice in this tier, as it does not impede our damage at all in most cases. You can use this on your risen ghoul, army of the dead ghouls, and the tier 15 2-set trolls. Death Siphon (1 Death) – Deal 4985 shadow damage to an enemy, healing the Death Knight for 150% of damage dealt. *A ranged death strike in essence. This can be useful during times of target switching and heavy incoming damage but uses runes that can be used for stronger hitting moves. Conversion (5 Runic Power + 5 Runic Power per second) – Converts Runic Power to 3% max health every second. *If there are periods of heavy AoE damage this could be useful . This is going to make it easier for healers to keep you up rather than ensuring you keep yourself up but this will cut into our ability to do damage effectively. [top]Tier 5Blood Tap – Each damaging Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike generates 2 Blood Charges, up to a maximum of 12 charges. Blood Tap consumes 5 Blood Charges to activate a random fully-depleted rune as a Death Rune. *A guaranteed Death Rune from fully depleted runes when you want it as long as you have at least 5 Blood Charges. Runic Empowerment – When you land a damaging Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike, you have a 45% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune. *Able to game runes with this to get back certain runes. Keep in mind you must have a fully depleted rune for this to do anything. Runic Corruption – When you land a damaging Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike, you have a 45% chance to activate Runic Corruption, increasing your rune regeneration rate by 100% for 3 sec. *Returns 30% of 3 runes. This will not actually last for 3 seconds unless you have 0 haste but will last for shorter amounts of time as your haste goes up so that you are always getting 30% of each rune regardless of your haste. Tier 5 ranking single target The point of the ranking is to demonstrate how close the three talents are, don't blindly pick the highest one, as the one you're the most comfortable with will likely do the best.   [top]Tier 6Gorefiend’s Grasp 1 minute – Shadowy tendrils coil around all enemies within 20 yards of a target (hostile or friendly), pulling them to the target’s location. *A fantastic talent for add control and positioning, useful for stacking adds to make them die to AE faster, for getting a group of adds on top of a tank, and for getting a group of adds away from someone kiting them, or giving a tank some breathing room. However, unless a fight calls for this, it isn’t the best choice. Remorseless Winter 1 minute – Surrounds the Death Knight with a swirling tempest of frigid air, every 1 sec for 8 sec. Each time Remorseless Winter hits, it reduces enemy movement speed by 15%, stacking up to 5 times. Upon receiving a fifth application, an enemy will be stunned for 6 sec. *This has some great utility for add kiting, both a slow and a stun. Also useful as a cooldown for your tanks, being one of the longest stuns in the game. Desecrated Ground 2 minute – Corrupts the ground in a 8 yard radius beneath the Death Knight for 10 sec. While standing in this corruption, the Death Knight is immune to crowd control effects. *There are a few fights where CC breaks are helpful, and this talent takes the cake for them. However, on a patchwerk fight, none of the T6 talents are useful, and it is suggested you take whichever one suits the fight best, there really is no default option. [top]Innate SkillsFrost Death Knights gain some pretty nice passive skills which are important to know about and have an effect on the way we play. Blood of the North Your Blood Runes are permanently transformed into Death Runes giving you plenty of opportunities to get in more Obliterates and eliminating Blood Strike from our priority list. Icy Talons Increases your melee attack speed by 30%. Not much to say here. It is a completely passive bonus so just be aware of it. This does not increase our Rune Regeneration rate but does increase our ghoul’s attack speed, and increases the proc rate of rppm trinkets, and KM. Killing Machine Your auto-attacks have a chance to grant your next Obliterate or Frost Strike (or soul reaper if you have the t15 4-set) a 100% Critical Strike chance bonus. This will proc more often for DW than 2H, for obvious reasons hopefully and DW and 2H will want to use it differently due to the next two skills. This has 6 PPM meaning that before any haste is applied or dual wield affects take place auto attacks will proc this 6 times a minute on average. Thanks to haste and if you are dual wielding to will see more than 6 PPM. Might of the Frozen Wastes When wielding a two-handed weapon, your Obliterate deals 40% more damage, and all melee attacks deal an additional 20% damage. This includes both white hits and anything that takes weapon damage. Threat of Thassarian When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, and Frost Strikes also deal damage with your off-hand weapon, and your Frost Strike damage is increased by 50%. Improved Frost Presence While in Frost Presence, your Frost Strike ability costs 15 less Runic Power. Rime Your Obliterate has a 45% chance to cause your next Howling Blast or Icy Touch to consume no runes. [top]Raid Buffs and Debuffs[top]BuffsHorn of Winter - Increases attack power of all party and raid members within 100 yards by 10%. Lasts 5 min. Unholy Aura - Increases the melee and ranged attack speed of all party and raid members within 100 yards by 10%. [top]DebuffsPhysical Vulnerability - Increases physical damage taken by 4%. This is applied by your Frost Fever due to Brittle Bones. [top]GlyphsMajor Major glyphs are all fairly situational and the ideal ones to use may change from fight to fight. This lists contains all the major glyphs although there are some that are not applicable for Frost.
Suggested glyphs: [Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell] is useful for any fight with magic damage. [Glyph of Dark Simulacrum] is great for anytime you use Dark Simulacrum. [Glyph of Dark Succor] is good for dailies, and any fights where you can get killing blows. Most of the glyphs have a niche where they are useful, and none of them increase damage by a noticeable amount. Try them out and see which ones fit best with play-style, and whatever fight you are trying to beat. Minor Minor glyphs are mostly cosmetic in MoP but a handful can be helpful in some situations. Army of the Dead, Death’s Embrace, Path of Frost, Resilient Grip, Tranquil Grip can all be useful when needed.
[top]PresencesOur presences have changed around with the release of MoP and all DKs now have a 1 second GCD rather than 1.5 seconds base GCD. Blood Presence - You assume the presence of Blood, increasing Stamina by 25% and base armor increased by 55%, and reducing damage taken by 10%. Threat generation is also significantly increased. Frost Presence - Strengthens you with the presence of Frost, increasing Runic Power generation by 20%, and reducing the duration of effects that remove control of your character by 20%. Unholy Presence - You are infused with unholy fury, increasing attack speed and rune regeneration by 10%, and movement speed by 15%. Due to Frost’s skill Improved Frost Presence all Frost DKs will dps in Frost Presence. [top]Priority[top]Single Target
The new Soul Reaper hits like a truck. Use it as often as you can when the target is under 35%. It’s good to save a Frost or Death rune so you can use Soul Reaper immediately when it comes off of cooldown. Try to line it up with killing machine if you have the tier 15 4-set. DW in Mists plays similar to how “Masterfrost" did at the end of Cataclysm. This is due to the large emphasis on frost damage and mastery thanks to the Threat of Thassarian skill. This means outside of execute range and before applying diseases, spending Runic Power on Frost Strike, with killing machine up, is the top priority when possible. When you are not in execute range, and don't have a KM proc, diseases are always top priority. Howling Blast and Plague Strike/Outbreak will cover those. Frost Fever should rarely ever be a problem thanks to Howling Blast applying Frost Fever for us. Blood Plague is simple enough to manage between Plague Strike and Outbreak. Try to reapply Blood Plague while there is under 3 seconds remaining on the current debuff, but try to use an unholy rune, not a death rune, to reapply it. You will only be using Death and Decay and Obliterate to make sure one Unholy rune is recharging so that Runic Empowerment is returning Frost and Death runes as often as possible. However, if you are using Blood Tap, you can just use unholy runes as you get them. Your other runes will be spent on Howling Blast.
The new Soul Reaper hits like a truck. Use it as often as you can when the target is under 35%. It’s good to save a Frost or Death rune so you can use Soul Reaper immediately when it comes off of cooldown. Try to line it up with killing machine if you have the tier 15 4-set. 2H in Mists plays almost the same as it did in Cataclysm. After diseases and when not in execute range, spending runes on Obliterate, with killing machine, is the top of the order. Thanks to Might of the Frozen Wastes, Obliterate hits extremely hard for 2H Frost. This means using Obliterate when both Frost and Unholy sets are up or two Death runes. This is followed by Frost Strike to keep you from reaching your max RP and wasting extra Runic Power and using any Rime procs you may have. Next, Frost Strike; Make sure you're not Frost Striking when you don't actually have the correct number of runes of the same pair on cooldown. This will depend on which tier 5 talent you choose. You need to have runes fully depleted in order for Runic Empowerment to proc so at least one pair of runes must be on cooldown. Runic Corruption will get the maximum benefit when at least one rune from each pair is on cooldown. Blood Tap will always be used to its maximum potential as long as you don’t let it go over its 12 stack cap or let the buff fall off. Lastly, obliterating without a KM proc to fill GCDs. Unlike DW, 2H will not use single Frost or Death runes on Howling Blast. Save them until another rune is available to Obliterate with. Fill any remaining downtime with Horn of Winter. [top]Multiple Target
A very similar case to single target where you’ll want to make sure Frost Fever and Blood Plague is up on every target and you will be using Howling Blast and Death and Decay when possible. You'll no longer use obliterate, instead spending unholy runes on DnD and plague strike. If you are using Runic Empowerment, you will try to keep one Unholy rune available at all times so your Runic Empowerment will refund a Frost or Death rune that can be used for more Howling Blasts. If you are using runic corruption or blood tap, you don't need to leave one unholy rune up. Finally, use Frost Strike to regain runes when possible. Death Coil will be used in place of Frost Strike when you are kiting adds or cannot be in melee range. This leads to a gain over single target with 3 or more targets.
Nearly identical to DW, the only change is using obliterate if KM procs. This leads to a gain over single target with 3 or more targets. [top]Runic Power ManagementIn general, Runic Power gains correspond directly to the number runes spent on abilities. Each depleted rune will give you 10 Runic Power but being in Frost Presence will give you 20% more Runic Power. Here’s a table showing how much each ability will generate depending on if you are in Frost Presence or not.
[top]CooldownsPillar of Frost 1 Frost 1 minute The only unique cooldown for Frost DKs, this is an absolutely amazing talent. Granting 20% strength for 20 seconds on a 60 second cooldown, this should be used on cooldown as often as possible or lined up with phases where bosses take more damage. If you have an on-use trinket, make sure to macro it in with Pillar of Frost to get the most out of it. It also provides immunity to knockback effects. Raise Dead 2 minutes As close as we get to being an Unholy DK - Raise Dead summons a ghoul to fight for you for 1 minute. Your Ghoul scales with your attack power, haste, crit and hit continuously throughout its duration. This will line up nicely with Pillar of Frost giving your ghoul a bigger punch for the price, as will using it during bloodlust or heroism. Army of the Dead 1 Blood 1 Unholy 1 Frost 10 minutes Army of the Dead will channel over 4 seconds to summon a gaggle of ghouls to fight for you swarming any enemies that stand in your way. Like Raise Dead, Army of the Dead will scale with your AP, haste, and hit throughout its duration. The best time to use Army of the Dead will vary from boss to boss, but it is typically best to use right before the beginning of an encounter or in any phase transition where you will not be and cannot be on the boss and no DPS will be lost. One note about Army of the Dead is that although the summoned ghouls will not taunt a raid boss, they will taunt most adds present on boss encounters. The corresponding glyph can stop your ghouls from taunting when needed. Empower Rune Weapon 5 minutes Activates all your runes and provides 25 Runic Power (30 in Frost Presence) once every 5 minutes. Ideally you’ll want to use this any time when you need some heavy burst. As well, try to line it up with all your Runes being on cooldown and having low amounts of Runic Power. This will reset your whole priority, which can throw people off when they find themselves with 6 runes off cooldown and high Runic Power. You’ll likely cap your Runic Power when you use Empower Rune Weapon. Don’t worry about it; continue the priority as you would normally. Depending on the length of the fight you may be able to use this more than once by using it early in the fight. Outbreak 1 minute Outbreak will apply both Frost Fever and Blood Plague to your target once a minute. As Frost DKs, we will mainly use this to reapply Blood Plague without expending an unholy rune when we can on a single target. In some situations, like fights with heavy target switching, it is best to save Outbreak for quickly applying your diseases to a target that needs to be burned down. Dark Simulacrum 1 minute Dark Simulacrum allows a Death Knight to place a debuff on a target that will grant the DK the ability to copy the next spell the target casts that costs mana. There are few to no encounters where this comes into play in PvE, unfortunately. You can glyph this cooldown down to 30 seconds with [Glyph of Dark Simulacrum]. Icebound Fortitude 20 Runic Power 3 minutes Our standard defensive ability. A 20% damage taken reduction for 12 seconds as well as making you immune to stun effects. Use this when you know heavy damage is incoming. Don't make the easy mistake of using it after you've already taken a good chunk of damage; anticipate damage to get the most out of this ability. Mind Freeze 15 seconds This is our basic interrupt. It is off the global cooldown and you must be in melee range to use it. Strangulate 1 Blood 1 minute Mind Freeze’s big brother, Strangulate interrupts and silences a player target for 5 seconds and can interrupt non-player spell casting for 3 seconds. Unlike Mind Freeze, Strangulate is a 30 yard ranged silence, and costs a Blood Rune to use. This is a last resort in a PvE context. It will slow down your damage by expending one of your runes. As such, this is going to sit in your back pocket for most fights, but can really save the day when it is needed. Raise Ally 30 Runic Power 10 minutes You can resurrect one of your fallen brethren once every 10 minutes to 60% health and 20% mana. Control Undead 1 Unholy Take control of an Undead enemy for up to 5 minutes to act as your minion. [top]SymbiosisDruid’s new skill Symbiosis grants Frost and Unholy Death Knights the Wild Mushroom: Plague skill. This is the only skill that druids give via symbiosis that is a direct DPS increase for the receiver. Although it is only a small gain in single target fights, it will prove to be quite useful on fights with lengthy stationary AoE or when a ranged AoE snare needs to be repeatedly applied. Since this last for 30 seconds it can cover a minute worth of diseases every 3 minutes. Feral Druids can benefit from using Symbiosis on us as they receive Death Coil in return, giving them something to do when they can’t be in melee range. [top]Stats and Gearing[top]Stat Priorities
[top]Specific Stat WeightsStat weights are as follows relative to damage gained for 5.3 Please keep in mind these stat weights use BiS gear, and the default simcraft profile, which includes the legendary meta, and 2 rppm trinkets. This means a changed race, talent, or gear, in particular trinkets and weapon, will change the stat values. I've seen far too many people trying to use these weights for characters that are 50 ilvls under BiS. I highly recommend running the sim with your own character to see stat weights for your character. Even though for some setups, haste will surpass mastery for DW, it's still suggested to gear towards mastery for actual raiding. Even though, for some setups, crit will surpass haste for 2hand, it's still suggested to gear towards haste for actual raiding. Realistic sims*:
Patchwerk sims:
Note: Realistic sims contain light movement, occasional, but rare mistakes, and AMS soaking once per minute. [top]Specific Stat Caps[top]Level 93 Boss Avoidance
DW Frost no longer has access to Nerves of Cold Steel so both DW and 2H will need 7.5% hit and 7.5% expertise to reach cap. [top]Combat RatingsRatings needed to gain 1% of the stat
[top]ReforgingReforging takes 40% of a secondary stat already on an item and converts it into another secondary stat not already on an item. This gives you a lot more flexibility in trying to hit both the hit and expertise cap while maximizing your desired secondary stats. You will want to reforge following your specs stat weights above while making sure to keep your hit and expertise capped. Sometimes this will mean reforging out of hit on one item and reforging into hit on another item to get the most of your desired stats. This is a tricky and complicated task which I encourage you to do, if for no other reason than to work on some math problems. [top]5.2 lootItems listed in a rough order of how good they are, top to bottom. If I'm missing anything, please PM me and I'll add it. Note: Some of the drops labeled as trash are actually shared boss loot. If you've seen one of them drop from a boss, please PM me so I can change the source. Also, if you see one drop from trash, PM me that as well! [top]DW ← Click Here[top]2-hand ← Click Here[top]Best in Slot 5.3[DW] [2H] [top]Best in Slot 5.1[DW] [2H] [top]TrinketsDW trinket combo rankings: All trinkets used 522 ilevel gear, with T15 4-set, and 4804 haste (not including haste added if using spark or LSFO); 10k iterations. Profile used posted as a reply. Spoilers due to the large size of the list, working on unholy and heroic mode, among other lists. Please note in the case of feather and shadopan, for every hit or expertise point you are over the cap because of them, the ranking goes down by about 2 dps. (1.2 for hit) Suggested ranking: HFeather > Feather > LFRFeather > HSpark > Shadopan > HRage >HGaze > HLSFO2 > HDMV2 > Spark > HLSFO > Rage > Relic2 > HDMV > Gaze > Relic > LFRSpark > LFRRage > LFRGaze ← Click Here2-hand trinket combo rankings: All trinkets used 522 ilevel gear, with T15 4-set, and 8445 haste (not including haste added if using spark or LSFO); 10k iterations. Profile used posted as a reply. Spoilers due to the large size of the list, working on unholy and heroic mode, among other lists. Please note in the case of feather and shadopan, for every hit or expertise point you are over the cap because of them, the ranking goes down by about 2 dps. Suggested ranking: HFeather > Feather > HRage > LFRFeather > HSpark > Shadopan > Rage > HGaze > Spark > HDMV2 > HLSFO2 > HLSFO > HDMV > Gaze > LFRSpark > Relic2 > LFRRage > Relic > LFRGaze ← Click Here[top]Set BonusesT15
T14
[top]ConsumablesFlask: [Flask of Winter's Bite] gives 1000 Strength Potion: [Potion of Mogu Power] gives 4000 Strength for 25 seconds Food:
[top]Gemming, Enchanting, Professions, and Race[top]Gemming
Currently the best gems for each socket color:
[top]Meta-Gems[Capacitive Primal Diamond] [Reverberating Primal Diamond] [top]Enchants
[top]RuneforgesDual wielding will use Rune of the Fallen Crusader on their main hand with Rune of Razorice on their offhand. If able, keep a third weapon enchanted with Rune of Cinderglacier to swap for your off hand weapon to use in AoE scenarios. These are the correct runeforging, and are further explained in the FAQ. 2H will use Rune of the Fallen Crusader. [top]ProfessionsEngineering is the top profession due to its 1920 Strength bonus to gloves for 10 seconds every minute (320 strength average passive) which lines up nicely with Pillar of Frost, and frag belt, which is a 500 dps increase per target. Leatherworking, Alchemy, Enchanting, Blacksmithing, and Inscription are all on par giving 320 Strength.
[top]RacesAll the races are listed below with all their racial traits. Death Knights are available to all races except the Pandaren. This is in a vague order of best to worst choice for Frost Death Knights. [top]Alliance
[top]Horde
[top]Advanced Races InformationWith the new raid introduced in 5.2, the throne of thunder, comes 4 beast bosses. The question many of you are asking, "Is it worth $25 to go troll for beast slaying?", is a good one. Here is the comparison, with t15 4-set, 522 gear, no professions, and no legendary meta gem. DW: On a normal boss:  On a beast boss:  2-hand: On a normal boss:  On a beast boss:  Frankly, if the change was free, and didn't effect the way your character looked, I would expect most people to change to troll. 5% is a significant amount, after all. However, when choosing the right race for you, looks and price are more important factors, generally. Weigh the small gain against how much you like the animations on your current character, or your new one, and also weigh the hefty price attached to the race change. It is also unlikely we will see many beasts in the next raid. In the end, the choice is up to you. [top]Mechanics, Mods, Macros, and More[top]Current Raiding MechanicsRaiding mechanics section can be found here. [top]ModsRune Addons The default rune UI doesn’t tend to work as well as most Death Knights would like and most use an addon for displaying runes in a clearer, easier to view way. Here are a few mods that do a good job of showing you what you need to know about your runes and runic power. Of utmost importance is to find what mod works best for you. There are many more than the ones listed but these are some of the more common ones. DKi Runes DocsDebugRunes Magic Runes Acherus Runes Compact Runes Boss Addons Many bosses have timers for moves you need to be aware of. These addons let you know what they are and when they are coming. DBM Big Wigs Cooldowns and Buffs Trackers Keeping track of the cooldowns of your abilities and trinkets and buffs will allow you to maximize their use. Power Auras Classic WeakAuras TellMeWhen [top]MacrosNot many macros are essential for Frost DKs and only one is truly recommended
Pillar of Frost has a 1 minute cooldown and Raise Dead has a 2 minute cooldown. You can also add any on-use items into this macro. For reference, gloves are item slot 10 and trinkets are slots 13 and 14. You can also add in racials like blood fury and berserking here. [top]FAQQ: Which is stronger: Dual Wield or 2-Hand Frost? A: Both are very, very close in single target situations, with 2-hand about 3% ahead, and you'll generally do better with whatever you have a better weapon for. Dual wield tends to excel at cleave scenarios and AoE, of which there are many. 2-Hand tends to excel at burst damage due to its extremely strong Obliterates, as well as raw single target damage. Q: What is the best race in 5.3? A: Please take a look at the race section here. Q: Feather is BiS? Even with all of that hit rating? A: It is very easy to overcap hit this tier, the BiS profiles are about 400 over the cap. However, while being over the cap is a loss, feather's strength effect is so good it makes up for it. Q: Why is Rune of the Fallen Crusader on the main hand and Rune of Razorice on the off-hand for DW? A: In most situations it won’t matter which enchant is on which weapon, but when you reach execute range, soul reaper attacks with the main-hand only, and so having Rune of the Fallen Crusader on the main-hand will lead to a slightly higher uptime on Rune of the Fallen Crusader Q: I want to dual wield but I don’t like this “masterfrost" priority. What can I do? A: It is entirely possible to dual wield and not use the “masterfrost" priority and instead use a more 2H-esque priority by using most of your runes for Obliterate rather than Howling Blast. This is a slight DPS loss (between 1-2%) and favors more haste over mastery (Strength > Hit/Exp > Haste > Mastery > Crit). Q: Our tank died. My group needs me to offtank. What do I do? A: Non-blood Death Knights have lost their taunt ability, Dark Command, which makes us rather inefficient at quickly grabbing threat on more than one target. You can, however, taunt with Death Grip, if need be. If you must offtank, switch over to Blood Presence and use Icebound Fortitude, Army of the Dead as best you can to stop as much incoming damage as you can while someone (Perhaps you) resurrects the tank. Q: We need a kiter. Should it be me? What do I need to know? A: Frost Death Knights make excellent kiters. Howling Blast is a spammable ranged AoE spell that can quickly pick up targets. Talenting into Chilblains will stop most adds in their tracks and prevent them from ever catching up to you. Consider switching to Blood Presence if adds are getting away from you or to Unholy Presence if you find that adds are catching up with you. Death and Decay and Death Coil will both be helpful at holding aggro while keeping at distance. [top]Upcoming Changes on the PTR
[top]Corrections and UpdatesIf you find any errors in this guide or items you feel have been omitted that would help to understand the class please PM me. Let’s leave the thread for discussion. [top]Planned ChangesCurrently working on: Updating 2-hand BiS list. (It's done, but I need to format it in) Going over the value of leaving up juked up diseases with feather as frost. [top]Special Thanks
[top]Change Log02/25/13: Created, using Frost DPS 5.0.4 - The Cold Hand of Death as a framework, and updated to be current. 02/28/13: Updated quite a few typos and mistakes, added a planned changes section, and updated note next to stat weights. 03/05/13: 5.2 is here! proofread through guide, and made the following changes: updated dates and thread name with 5.2, updated sim note in introduction, removed all "as of 5.2", and updated abilities to latest changes, split up multiple target into both specs, added new stat weights and finished full loot list for 5.2. Added BiS list 5.2. 03/05/13: Added abbreviation list, thanks to Heartless 03/06/13: Added T5 numbers for 5.2 03/07/13: Added race analysis for 5.2 03/07/13: Added a bunch of stuff, stat weights, t1 ranking, t5 rankings, and changed great-sword of frozen hells source to shared boss, instead of trash. 03/08/13: Added realistic stat weights next to the patchwerk ones. 03/11/13: Added trinket note and legendary meta gem. 03/13/13: Added more trinket info and frost nerf. 03/16/13: Added trinket rankings for normal mode gear; and updated BiS for DW significantly, as well as updated FAQ. Added some frost abbreviations to the list. 03/30/13: Fixed a few broken links, thanks Jessamy. 05/21/13: Updated for 5.3 Nothing to see here. Last edited by mendenbarr : 05/21/13 at 2:16 PM. |
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<Divide> - 10/13 HM -25m - W/Th/Sun/Mon 8-12 EST LF exceptional raiders
http://divideguild.net/content/ |
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02/26/13, 1:27 AM
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#2 |
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Piston Honda
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Last edited by Jessamy : 03/05/13 at 9:56 AM. |
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02/26/13, 7:03 AM
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#3 |
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Glass Joe
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02/26/13, 12:25 PM
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Piston Honda
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As stated in the section, it's a very rough best to worst list, and whether or not you benefit from weapon expertise racials, as well as being DW/2-hand, change around the exact order of the races. IIRC, there are only 4 beast bosses out of 12 in throne of thunder. However, I will take another look at races and try to revamp the section a bit. Stat weights were simmed with 510-10 of simcraft, using default 509 profiles, yesterday. Don't get much fresher results then that. Haste and mastery have a little dance where one jumps ahead of the other depending on the amount of the other, as well as crit and AP, but that's why it's suggested to run your own sims for your own values, the ones listed are right for 509 gear. Last edited by mendenbarr : 02/26/13 at 1:26 PM. |
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02/28/13, 11:45 AM
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#8 | ||
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Von Kaiser
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This is the results I get when I sim out the stats for DW, using my own gear, 507ilvl; Bloodtap/Unholy Blight.
Parkwayy @ Arthas - Community - World of Warcraft ← Click HereUsing the Reforge plotting, I got to the point where Haste is just ahead of Mastery, about 8000 Haste and 3700 Mastery. The reforge plotting points to me that if I lower Haste for Mastery, it's a loss; ← Click HereAm I missing something? I don't see Mastery ahead at all, definitely not by the large margin shown in the stat weight section. Maybe if there are multiple targets, but the fights in which that happens (in 5.1 at least) are few in number. |
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02/28/13, 12:27 PM
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#9 | |
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Piston Honda
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As for your specifics - if you just switch to Plague Leech you'd see rankings very similar to the op (I just checked with your character). And, even if you stick with Unholy Blight, your assertion that multi-target fights are "few in number" doesn't really make any sense to me. Zorlok - no adds but substantial downtime or time spent at range during double attentuation in phase 2 de-values haste. Garalon - Tons of cleave, obvious advantage to mastery Wind Lord - Tons of AOE Amber Shaper - Tons of cleave opportunities Empress - Half the fight is Cleave/AOE. Protectors - Cleave on Corrupted Waters Tsulong - Tons of aoe on adds Sha - Hello? The above, coupled with the fact that sims don't account for AMS soaking or different timing of BL, means that even with your your current stat-weights, I would value mastery above haste. |
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03/01/13, 3:51 PM
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#11 |
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Piston Honda
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03/02/13, 5:07 PM
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#12 |
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Glass Joe
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03/05/13, 9:06 AM
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#13 | |
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Von Kaiser
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Is there any chance the Soul Reaper change to have interaction with Killing Machine will add in a condition to hold onto it until you get a KM Proc (instead of SR use on cooldown)? That was the one thing in the latest SimC build that would change as far as priority model, and makes me nervous that the T15 bis charts with us in the gutter seem fairly plausible. Though, I did see one of the code commits was an AMS introduction, but I hope that isn't expected for us to do well in a fight. Last edited by fangless : 03/05/13 at 10:17 AM. |
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03/05/13, 6:07 PM
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#14 | |
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Glass Joe
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