3/31/2 - Frost AoE PvP

Since my last post that discussed specific spec/rotations really left a whole lot more questions than answers, I decided to throw up a more in-depth run-through of the spec I've been playing basically since 4.0.1 dropped.  No credit goes to me for creating this spec, or this rotation- I heard about it from Felandis (Also on The Venture Co. US), but I'm not sure he invented it either.  At any rate- let me dive right in.

The spec, done out nice and clearly in the WoWhead talent calculator is this.  Glyphs aren't a huge deal, the same standards apply to this spec as to any other frost DK spec.  If there's any confusion about what glyphs work for Frost PvP, I may discuss that in a future post.  For the time being, allow me to explain a little bit.

Howling Blast

It's your new best friend.  This spec takes advantage of the new mastery system, introduced with the patch- which essentially gives you an extra 2% frost damage for every point of mastery rating you can get (Note:  mastery RATING, and you overall mastery are different things.  For example, my master is around 140, but my Mastery Rating is 14, giving me a 28% increase to all frost damage).  I'd recommend reforging crit on all your gear to mastery (since if you're in PvP gear, crit is really the only thing you can drop), since the bonus from mastery is better than pure crit.

What all this means, is that basically ALL your frost abilities are going to be hitting a lot harder.  And for the purpose of WPvP and BGs (which is really the only kind of PvP you can do until cata drops, since the arena season is done), being able to hit a LOT of enemies, really hard is a very nice thing indeed.  Howling blast with reforged mastery and my wrathful 1800 weapon hits for around 3.5-4k ish, (not including crits, obviously- those are exponentially higher) on every target.  This means assuming healing support, it's not impossible for you to AoE down an entire pack of allies (or horde, if you're on THAT side) with this spec.

The Rotation


I discussed this a little bit in my first post, but managed to confuse more people than I helped, so let me lay it down right here, very simply.  First, this spec does not use obliterate.  The reason being that obliterate ties up a frost rune, which eliminates one howling blast each time you use it.  One very important thing to keep in mind is that this is an AoE build.  Obviously in 1v1 situations, using the normal frost rotation makes a lot more sense (more on that later).
So with all that in mind, the way the rotation for AoE basically works is you start off with HB/HB then while your frost are on CD hit a couple PS (to get up another disease) then two BS.  As soon as your frost are off cooldown use HB x4 (since you should now have two death runes), then ERW, and rinse and repeat.  When Killing Machine procs, use FS (since OB ties up that sneaky frost rune).  Eventually you'll either be bursted down, or everything in sight will be dead.
Let's shoot for the later.
Single Target?  I know the question is going to be asked, so let me explain right here- that rotation makes less sense for single target dps.  Single target frost is a whole other animal.  It's a priority-based system which boils down to this:  1.  Get diseases up2.  Obliterate if both frost and unholy runes are all up (Or if both Death runes are up, OR if Killing Machine procs).3.  Blood Strike (if you've got two blood runes up)4.  Frost Strike5.  Rime (= HB)6.  Obliterate7.  Blood Strike (if only one rune is up)8.  Horn of Winter (a buff is better than doing absolutely nothing- and this should be kept up as much as you can).  This chart is a priority chart (for those who haven't seen one before), tier 1 is more important than tier 2 which is > than tier 3 etc. etc.  Conclusion:  AoE>Single Target  Here's the thing though, in a Battleground or in WPvP, 1 on 1 combat is pretty rare.  So, you're not going to find yourself single-target dpsing very often.  With that in mind, this spec really focuses more on AoE, and contributing a lot of dps to a lot of targets at once.  If you're totally new to frost dps post 4.0.1, and are planning to PvP extensively, I'd recommend learning to understand the standard AoE rotation before you worry about learning single-target dps (which is what you're going to have to understand if you raid a lot, obviously). Anyways, that basically covers AoE frost PvP.  Expect to top out damage frequently, but probably not get as many killing blows as other classes/specs might, since they go after one character at a time.  Used properly though, you can be a huge asset to your team with this tactic.  Bombing all the enemies down makes picking them off much easier for the rest of your dps. That's it for today folks! Practice safe death! ~Onike

4.0.1 Death Knight Round Up - The Dawn of Frost

This is not my first kick at the can.

What you're looking at right now, staring imperiously at your from across the internet and the little pixels on your computer screen, is the result of more failed blog attempts than I can count. It's been almost a full year that I've been kicking around the concept of making a blog about WoW, but everytime I start, I never seem to get far.

Why?

Because I get bored with it.  See, I've been writing under the weird impression that if I don't write about "accepted" topics- raiding, theorycrafting... whatever all those "real" bloggers do, I won't get any readers.  But A) it's ridiculous to write a blog because you want readers, you should do it because you enjoy it, and B) there are a lot more topics that I had originally considered.

See, I'm not a raider.   I never have been, and unless it changes significantly from the way it is now, I probably never will be.  Oh, sure, I've raided.  I even have a druid dedicated pretty much exclusively to PvE.  I'll probably raid once cataclysm comes out too, but that's not the reason I play the game.

I play the game for PvP.  For epic campaigns spread out across my server (The Venture Co. US happens to have one of the best WPvP communities around, since the act of fighting outside of combat zones is almost dead elsewhere).  For pitched battles in the battlegrounds, for skirmishes in the arenas, for facerolling alliance in Wintergrasp... I play the game for PvP.

So I'm going to write a blog about it.

Patch 4.0.1

That's where the latest patch comes in.  See, not only do I PvP, but I do so with a Death Knight.  And I've noticed that there is a sad amount of Death Knight bloggery going on in the WoW blogging community.  I'm not sure why exactly, since we're arguably a lot better than everyone else.  But, there it is.  There are not enough DK bloggers.  And, as far as I know, none of the few DK bloggers out there, write mostly about PvP.  So I'm filling a niche which, to my knowledge, has not yet been filled.

So.  With fun little intros out of the way, let me hop right into the meat of the blog.  Content.  Information.  All that jazz.

Please note, that this post is NOT about specific talents.  It's about my feeling for the class in general, since the patch.  It's been out long enough now, that I'm assuming anyone reading this blog has already had a chance to go through all their own talents, so I'm not going through everything new talent by new talent.

Unholy = Disease 'n Stuff

UH remains a powerhouse of a spec, with damage focused even more on disease than before.  Although I haven't had a chance to play around with this too much (frost has taken most of my time since the patch), with transforming ghouls, undead minions, and disease, what more could our necromancy-happy friends want?  I'll post a more in-depth look at the tree once I've experimented a little bit more.

This spec remains very viable for PvP, BUT (as I'm about to discuss), at least until cataclysm, frost may have actually become the "it" spec, something we haven't seen ever, throughout the whole expansion, in the world of PvP.

Frost = OMGBBQ (But in a cold way)

Some wizened, veteran DKs may remember when WotLK was just a beta,  and DKs hadn't been released on live realms yet.  The talk of the whole town, with the coming expansion- was DKs.  How will they play?  What will the mechanics be like?  Et cetera, et cetera.  In those early days of the class, frost was originally meant to be the tanking spec, with frost presence providing the tanking bonuses, and a lot of defensive abilities tied to the spec.  Blizzard eventually denounced the idea, decided that "any spec can tank", but the idea sort of stuck.  Frost has been largely outshone by it's ghouly counterpart throughout wrath.

No longer.  Frost has come into it's own in a big way since 4.0.1.  Yes, it is pretty much ridiculously overpowered with Wrath's low health pools, and since I'm not in the beta, I can't comment on how things are going to play out come cata.  But, for the time being, I'm enjoying being OP for a change.

Frost PvP has actually been simplified in some ways, it's still a LOT about proc watching, but it's also about a new mechanic for DKs.  The concept of always wanting runes on CD for the RP generation boost.  As a result, while priority based, it almost seems a little spammy to me.  The spec/rotation I'm currently using, uses a very dumbed-down version of our old rotation.  You no longer need Obliterate, and even our new and shiny Festering Strike, doesn't get any use either.  The basic idea, is to specialize in Howling Blast as much as possible, then make use of it.  It basically goes:  HB x2, PS x2, BS x2, and then HB x4.  Mix in frost strikes for Killing Machine procs, and Runic Empowerment if you get to the end and everything in sight isn't dead.

Sound simple?  It is.  Like  I said, frost is very OP right now.  I  can't wait to see if we remain competitive throughout cataclysm.  It would be nice to have an option to play something beyond ONE UH spec for serious PvP.

Blood = Tanks

Blood is now our dedicated tanking tree, if you didn't already know.  Frost presence now includes a damage boost, and blood is the new frost.  All our defensive cooldownsPvP in their tanking trees with a lot of success (because they're damn near impossible to kill), But I don't know if that's the case for blood, I really haven't touched it since 4.0 dropped.  Once I've figured out UH, I'll get back to you on blood in PvP.

The Conclusion?

We're at a good place right now.  Frost is OP, but Blizz has stated numerous times that we are now balanced for level 85, not level 80.  Who knows what the PvP game is gonna look like come Cataclysm.  I know one thing for sure, though.

I can't wait.