70 Guide to Frost Death Knights

[Splosion]

Assuming you're not referring to any of my statements, for I did not disagree.

It was meant at the people yelling how unholy is so much better (when it hardly is), and pointing out the already obvious.

Why not? I absolutely see nothing wrong with using either potions, elixirs, or flasks in BGs.

Flasks - fine. But given the required resources for the elixir, I'm not to fond of using them in bgs much, even if I can afford it ^^

 

[Dreams]

As for spec, irrelevant info is irrelevant. only thing you gain from being UH is cheaper death coils.

Apparently you guys are not aware just how much better for PvP unholy is, which kinda explains the backlash when I questioned the fact that this was a PvP guide using frost spec.

I don't know how much any of you play your death knights in PvP, but in case It's not that much, I can tell you that death knights primary burst ability is Death Siphon.
Death siphon out-damages any other ability death knights have significantly. Death siphon is in other words the best way by far to spend a global while bursting.

Now, frost death knights has two permanent death runes (instead of blood runes) due to Blood of the North. Which limits the maximum amount of siphons they can cast in a row to two.
Unholy death knights gain access to Reaping which allows them to set up 4 death runes at a time, and do a much more significant burst.

And I won't even go into the details of how much being able to control your ghoul helps in PvP.

 

[Splosion]

Apparently you guys are not aware just how much better for PvP unholy is, which kinda explains the backlash when I questioned the fact that this was a PvP guide using frost spec.

I don't know how much any of you play your death knights in PvP, but in case It's not that much, I can tell you that death knights primary burst ability is Death Siphon.
Death siphon out-damages any other ability death knights have significantly. Death siphon is in other words the best way by far to spend a global while bursting.

Now, frost death knights has two permanent death runes (instead of blood runes) due to Blood of the North. Which limits the maximum amount of siphons they can cast in a row to two.
Unholy death knights gain access to Reaping which allows them to set up 4 death runes at a time, and do a much more significant burst.

And I won't even go into the details of how much being able to control your ghoul helps in PvP.

It's not as significant of a damage buff as you might think, given how hard howling blast hits.

Aaaand blood gets access to the same runes, plus more defensive cooldowns. Your ghoul has a whopping 6k hp in PvP gear, explain how the easily 1shottable 2min cd is going to help your control.

Oh, and then there's PoF damage added to the death siphon damage. 1 (2 with rime) howling blast plus two death siphons buffed with pillar (which prevents knockbacks by our druid & shaman friends) will cost you a couple thousand damage at most in PvP burst.

The window is much, much smaller.

 

[Dreams]

It's not as significant of a damage buff as you might think

Actually it is.

blood gets access to the same runes, plus more defensive cooldowns

Yeah I guess they gain Rune Tap. But I think in terms of self-healing, unholy makes up for that with Sudden Doom.

Your ghoul has a whopping 6k hp in PvP gear

This is definitely a weakness, but don't forget that death knights have the best pet-healing in the game. Also do not forget about Huddle as well as Shadow Infusion / Dark Transformation

explain how the easily 1shottable 2min cd is going to help your control.

Unholy ghoul can stun and interrupt, which is extremely useful.

1 (2 with rime) howling blast plus two death siphons buffed with pillar (which prevents knockbacks by our druid & shaman friends) will cost you a couple thousand damage at most in PvP burst.

Howling blast actually does quite a lot less damage than death siphon. Not to mention that any smart opponents would abuse howling blast to break cc

I don't know what you're trying to argue here. Unholy is definitely the best spec for PvP. And while I agree that blood is almost as strong, let's not forget that the guide in question uses frost spec.

 

[Chokedsoul]

only thing you gain from being UH is cheaper death coils.

fuck off

Unholy is definitely the best spec for PvP. And while I agree that blood is almost as strong, let's not forget that the guide in question uses frost spec.

this

 

[Splosion]

Yeah I guess they gain Rune Tap. But I think in terms of self-healing, unholy makes up for that with Sudden Doom.

Will of the Necropolis - Spell - World of Warcraft, and I'm going to point out the obvious with Sudden doom -> It doesn't work in your survival presence. I can't see DKs sitting in UH presence all that much at 70, given how easily gibbable anything is at this level.

This is definitely a weakness, but don't forget that death knights have the best pet-healing in the game. Also do not forget about Huddle as well as Shadow Infusion / Dark Transformation

How long is shadow infusion going to take given that you have 6 runes (60 RP) plus some Sudden doom (not playing in blood presence much eh?), with no l75 talent? Your pet will likely die in the time it takes you to generate 32*5 = 160 RP.

Unholy ghoul can stun and interrupt, which is extremely useful.

It can stun (which is extremely short, and DRs with Asphyxiate) on 1 min cd, and can root if it's empowered. It hasn't been able to interrupt since wotlk beta iirc.

Howling blast actually does quite a lot less damage than death siphon. Not to mention that any smart opponents would abuse howling blast to break cc

How much CC do dks have? But 3.5k vs 4.5k on dummies in my PvP gear, not nearly as much as the difference between SS and DSi, especially since PoF is extremely good.

I don't know what you're trying to argue here. Unholy is definitely the best spec for PvP. And while I agree that blood is almost as strong, let's not forget that the guide in question uses frost spec.

You have a point, but it's not so far ahead that you can't play any other specs. The original point on UH being better should never have been posted in the first place.

 

[artonkn]

Would it not be wiser to put your 34 PvP Power gems in a gear piece rather than a weapon, otherwise if you switch to 1-Handers for whatever reason (e.g Glaives) you won't be loosing as much.

 

[Splosion]

Would it not be wiser to put your 34 PvP Power gems in a gear piece rather than a weapon, otherwise if you switch to 1-Handers for whatever reason (e.g Glaives) you won't be loosing as much.

DW frost isn't a thing at level 70.

 

[artonkn]

DW frost isn't a thing at level 70.

But glaives.

Glaives

 

[shanker]

But glaives.

Glaives

too many are glaive blind, imo 2h is better at 70, and if you really want to DW, the fist weapons from SWP are far superior to glaives due to adding 4 more gem slots

Hand of the Deceiver - Item - World of Warcraft
Mounting Vengeance - Item - World of Warcraft

 

[artonkn]

too many are glaive blind, imo 2h is better at 70, and if you really want to DW, the fist weapons from SWP are far superior to glaives due to adding 4 more gem slots

Hand of the Deceiver - Item - World of Warcraft
Mounting Vengeance - Item - World of Warcraft

glaives

 

[Annabelle]

Your arena stats: less than 50% win ratio, less than 1900 PR after over 1000 arenas played, etc. do not make this guide look very authoritative.

Good effort, nonetheless.

 

[Gozruhk]

Being new, I do not want to make waves, but I have to question the quality of this guide. There is nothing in this guide that stands out from what I would call generic info. A guide generally gives informative explainations as to the whats and whys. This guide seems to be more of a opinion piece. Hopefully the O.P. continues to maintain the thread and can go more in depth into exactly why certain choices are better than others, otherwise this thread does nothing to educate people on the class and spec.

As for the people filling this thread with comments like "but UH is better", please go find a UH guide. Anyone who can read the title can see that it is supposed to be a guide for Frost, not DKs in general.

 

[Awze]

Your arena stats: less than 50% win ratio, less than 1900 PR after over 1000 arenas played, etc. do not make this guide look very authoritative.

Good effort, nonetheless.

The reason I lost is because one Disc/Rogue comp and the rest are prot pally Discs. Both of those comps are far superior than a DK, I run with people I like, seeing that I don't really lose games until I hit 1750 which I've been on 3 teams of with in the lasts two months. DKs in this bracket are one of the lesser classes so many comps can obliterate me.

 

[forthenoobs]

was worried you had quit while i was gone. dont worry ill be back soon to come and show you all how to realy play a frost dk... as soon as i can figure it out myself

edit: any information i post here is most likely outdated
from my personal experience DW frost is worse than 2H frost simply because the reduced pvp power (3 sockets from apolyon). as frost pvp you are squishy enough that if you try and play a warrior on your dk you will die usualy the combat log looks like this
Valencia Harsh Words hit you 14015 (critical) (861 Overkill)
so if we get 1 shotted so easily how are we playable? well theres a couple things to stop this mainly taking the point in perdition then using anti magic shield and icebound then using your 2 siphons to heal for 8k or so at which point val finishes me off with something else..... anyway as a frost dk you will be kiting almost anything you can. you will be spamming howling blast/chains and death siphon until someone is low enough that you can combo asphyxiate +killing machine+death siphons to kill them in the stun usualy i wait till all my runes are up i have the killing machine proc and they are at 40~% before i try and blow everything. i played frost in unholy pres for the increased move speed for kiting but mainly the rune cd reduction because frost does its damage with death siphon or howling blast.

 

[TWG]

Worgen you have a 3% crit increase and Increased speed ability.

Only 1%

 

[forthenoobs]

as far as stats go i realy dont think the haste gems are a good idea, my haste set was for pve i just used it for trolling bgs. i couldnt kill anything but with the reduced resilience that came in 5.3 its possible that haste is viable. when i get off my ass and get some account time ill test out what my haste set is like in bgs. anyway the reason i say haste isnt viable is because it gives you more sustained damage at the cost of removing all your burst potential.

 

[forthenoobs]

The reason I lost is because one Disc/Rogue comp and the rest are prot pally Discs. Both of those comps are far superior than a DK, I run with people I like, seeing that I don't really lose games until I hit 1750 which I've been on 3 teams of with in the lasts two months. DKs in this bracket are one of the lesser classes so many comps can obliterate me.

last time i was on awze was one of the only decent death knights. also a dk getting anywhere in arena has to have someone else carrying them. the only comp that works is dk priest. sadly unlike rogues priest dks only have just the 1 stun and also have less burst than rogues, less defensive cds than rogues, less effective defensive cds than rogues, less sustained damage than rogues, less sexy xmogs than rogues...... you probably get the point. so in conclusion anything a dk can do in arena a rogue can do better meaning for a dk to get anywhere in arena you have to get put against terrible players. mania wanted to try out disc one time so him and my dk did some arenas and did fairly well for our first few games, something like 9-0 and then we got put against 4 rogue shadow priest teams and our score was 9-4 we then stopped for a bit and tried again later and guess what.... more rogue shadow priest teams therefore more losses.

since i added more after my first tl:dr heres a second one awze is the only dk i can remember who i would trust to write a frost guide also rogues>dks

 

[Awze]

last time i was on awze was one of the only decent death knights. also a dk getting anywhere in arena has to have someone else carrying them. the only comp that works is dk priest. sadly unlike rogues priest dks only have just the 1 stun and also have less burst than rogues, less defensive cds than rogues, less effective defensive cds than rogues, less sustained damage than rogues, less sexy xmogs than rogues...... you probably get the point. so in conclusion anything a dk can do in arena a rogue can do better meaning for a dk to get anywhere in arena you have to get put against terrible players. mania wanted to try out disc one time so him and my dk did some arenas and did fairly well for our first few games, something like 9-0 and then we got put against 4 rogue shadow priest teams and our score was 9-4 we then stopped for a bit and tried again later and guess what.... more rogue shadow priest teams therefore more losses.

since i added more after my first tl:dr heres a second one awze is the only dk i can remember who i would trust to write a frost guide also rogues>dks

Forthenoobs <3 Where you been anyways?

 

[Meat]

dks have a lot of potential