Read my above posts....

PS rotations dropped my dps by about 200.

PS: On live im doing less DPS on the dummy. So i would say that 2h got a buff not a nurf.

Quoted from the OP.

I have been reading these DK threads for a while now and picked up a few tips, so I thought I'd lend some help with 3.1 Frost DPS. For the past few days I've been testing several dps specs in EACH of the three trees and have found Deep frost to be overwhelmingly better than both Unholy and Blood... by a margin of nearly 600 dps. Partially because I have been raiding 21/50/0 for ages.

Rotation: IT, OB, BS, BS, Blood Tap + OB
FSx4, BS
ITx4, FSx2, ITx2, FSx2
After that it's Priority to keep Death Runes up.

I used this same rotation for ALL of the following tests, Minus a FS here and there from Buggy RP.

Here is a Screenie of the normal Frost (Now 20 / 51 with moved HB) build I use to raid. Glyphs are Frost Strike, Icy Touch and Obliterate.




Rotation: IT, OB, BS, BS, Blood Tap + OB
FSx4, BS
ITx4, FSx2, ITx2, FSx2
After that it's Priority to keep Death Runes up.

** Note that BotN seemed a bit buggy and didn't always give me a Death rune. In addition, Glyph of Icy Touch and the 4 piece set bonus for Obliterate were not awarding the proper RP so I was getting one, sometimes two less FS per rotation. **


I also tested a Frost / Unholy spec to include Necrosis, Ghoul and Blood-Caked weapons. Glyphs were Obliterate, Frost Strike and Ghoul.



I had recount show pet also, separated from my own dps. Add the two for total. Without DRM from blood I found I was waiting too much on rune cooldowns in Unholy Presence. Here is the same spec (with pet) in Blood Presence:



Combined DPS is much better in Blood and the Runes seems to be available when needed much better.

Overall, Frost still seems pretty powerful to me and I will continue raiding this spec when 3.1 is live. As for Pet / No Pet, that comes down to how fast will that sucker die without NotD. Also, with RP bug from 4 piece Set bonus, IT glyph and BotN not working 100%, I think the actual dps will be HIGHER than what I tested since there will be less downtime and more specials being spammed! Hope this info helps some of you in testing more Frosties.

Why do you use IT so often in your rotations, arent they eating your KM procs away?
Wouldnt it be smarter to use Obliberate more to spare the KM procs for FS?

I think he is on to something with that rotation. IT hits so hard for one rune, it seems worth the KM. In a way, it's our HS. The only problem is I can't seem to maintain a consistent DPS range trying to keep it up as he has written. Can you clarify your priority system? I've had dummy DPS range from 2200 to 3300 on 6 min tests and I'm still trying to tease out what leads to the higher range.

I hope all tests have been conducted under the same conditions. You can't test spec vs spec with things like Icy Talons (hastebuff) that would be available to all specs in a raid setting. Also Merciless Combat on lowhp dummies messes up all tests. Furthermore, spell-heavy rotations/specs are not penalized by bossdummy-parry as much as strike-heavy rotations. A problem that wouldn't occur on real bosses when striking from behind. Since you said you raided as frost for ages, your gear is probably optimized for that spec too.

Very few people posting frost dummy numbers are clarifying: (1) merciless combat (2) other debuffs on the dummy. These are not irrelevant factors -- they can easily neutralize 700 dps. Numbers provided without them mean we have to speculate about their validity before we can even begin speculating about what they mean.

I have no picture for my DPS Test, but i tryed a 21 50 0 build without HB in unholy pres.
I used the old simple Rotation like this:

#1: OB, OB, BS, BS, BT+uA (macro), 3x FS
#2: 6x IT, 3x FS

Sigil: the "new" IT sigil

My test was over 3min with a result of 3k DPS.
My RP growth(hope the right english word ) wasn't normal. I couldn't use 3 FS after 1 cycle.

/edit:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...5&version=9614

Main reason I don't use oblit as much is for 2 runes it crits for 6-7k, whereas the combo of 2 IT is 6k-11k (Depending on how many crit). So say I hit Oblit for 5k followed by crit (KM) FS for 7.5k I've done just under 13k. Instead I throw two IT, one crits from KM totaling about 8.5k, then a FS non crit for 4.5k I'm still at 13k, maybe a little higher or lower depending on how many total crits I get while using the same runes as Ob + FS.

The main difference I see here is not having to worry about saving abilities, instead just getting in a smooth cycle, knowing exactly when to hit my FS / Rune based abilities. Then I have zero hesitation and zero downtime on specials. It may not be the best way to play, but it's a VERY forgiving rotation for those fights when you have to move a lot and might not be in range when you need to hit FS / OB.


Also, since I am new to posting here, please go easy on me and my ignorance Buffs I had at the time were Merciless Combat (Dummy was at 1%) so I did get the bonus damage which I know would have added a great deal of damage. Also, blood and Unholy would get Icy Talons / WF totems so they would see an increase in DPS as well. However, since I raid with a blood Dk (usually) we try to get an even spread on buffs so our Shaman doesn't need to spend all 7 talents to make up for buffs the two of us include in normal builds.

I tested out this spec 18/51/2 and found it to be insanely powerful. I am wearing full PVP gear since I don't PVE much on my DK, and I still managed to do 3350 DPS over 16 minutes on the level 80 dummy without merciless combat or any other other debuffs. I was in Unholy Presence and used Rune of FC.


I basically did:

OBL over everything when I had F + U active
FS over IT during the IT spam when I was over 90 RP, make sure you dump all RP before IT spam starts.
HB when Rime procs but only if all runes on CD
UA+Blood Tap for 6 UA'd ITs + UA'd FS's

One thing you have to watch for is not to IT when F rune is active or it will screw up your OBL rotation. Also I didn't try to use my KM procs on FS since this spec is all about keeping the Death runes flowing and that would mess up the rotation pretty badly.

I can't even imagine how much damage I would do if OBL gave me more than 5 RP or if I had some PVE gear><

Your glyphs?