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4.2 Frost 2h DPS
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Post by
apocalypsa
<on 4.3: Not much changed, except a new experimental idea where you stack mastery and forget OB. If youre interested, check EJ, but for 99% of the people it wont lead to better results(quite the opposite). DW owns 2h even more, thats all.>
4.2 Frost 2h dps
What you’re currently reading is a frost dps guide for 4.2. There has been a certain lack of dps guides lately, causing many people to recommend EJ to those who are new to the DK class and are looking for information. While EJ is very in-depth and provides a lot of information, wowhead is known for its easier accessible format and generally more to-the-point approach to a class. This will be my goal in this guide; don’t expect anything new or revolutionairy, but expect a decent readability and clear statements that, if followed, will get your dps to a new level.
Notable 4.2 changes for 2h Frost:
Obliterate base damage has been reduced to 150% weapon damage, down from 160%.
Hungering Cold now has a 1.5-second cast time.
Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases two-handed weapon damage by 3/7/10%, down from 4/8/12%.
Aka a nerf to our cc(not to big of a deal in pve) and a damage nerf.
Table of content
Introduction
Some frost info
Spec/glyphs
Priority System
Stat priorities, caps and gearing
Gemming
Reforging
Enchanting
Consumables
Cooldowns
Notes
The frost spec is a very versatile dps spec. It allows for both DW and 2h, and it can utilize both to great effect. It offers a few utility talents, like free interrupts and an aoe cc, and there are somepoints to fit in as you like. Its mastery is
Mastery: Frozen Heart
.
is what makes Frost Dual Wield viable,
Might of the Frozen Wastes
is 2h’s special talent. Dual Wielding currently offers better dps than 2h. DW frost>2h unholy>2h frost, although frosts proccy nature may smooth it out a little in reality.
Spec
There are two ways you can spec:
the Epidemic build
and
the Improved Blood Tap build
. Both are viable, but the IBT spec comes ahead by a few hundred dps.
With the Improved Blood Tap build you will use Unholy Presence. Because your diseases have a shorter duration, keeping them up will require more use of PS. Rime-HB's will still take care of the frost fever.
Because of the extra runes generated, this spec is theoretically the best dps option, but it is quite a bit harder to play.
The Epidemic build is a little bit safer as it has a longer duration on its diseases, and its dps is almost as good. It has a few free global cooldowns, so it allows for small slips, and because of the less tight disease duration they wont fall off as easy.
The 2 points in EW are still free to put wherever you want.
Priority System
Frost dps uses a priority system, which means that different abilitys are more important and should be hit sooner. The priority system for frost is:
Diseases > Ob if both Frost/Unholy pairs and/or both Death runes are up, or if KM is procced > FS if RP capped > Rime > Ob > BS > FS > HoW.
Diseases always are top priority. Howling Blast and Plague Strike/Outbreak will cover those. As stated above, Frost Fever should rarely ever be a problem thanks to Glyph of Howling Blast applying Frost Fever for us. Blood Plague is simple enough to manage between Plague Strike and Outbreak. Try to reapply Blood Plague as close as possible with the end of the current application but anywhere under 6 seconds or less is acceptable.
Keeping runes on cooldown is next on priority. This means getting one of each rune on cooldown before starting on the other set of runes. This is largely due to how our rune system works as of 4.0. Each pair of runes shares a internal cooldown where neither can be refilling at the same time so having one of each rune available is the same as having used all your runes in terms of when all your runes will next be available again and gives some flexibility for our procs to fit in our priority.
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. Then Obliterating again to put as many of your runes on cooldown.
Lastly, Frost Strike; Make sure you're not Frost Striking when you don't actually have at least two runes of the same pair on cooldown. You need to have runes fully depleted in order for Runic Empowerment to proc. That is the reason why Frost Strike is prioritized last. Although, under the new rune system you aren't inherently punished for sitting on a single rune of a pair, you will lose benefit from Runic Empowerment, and thus rune abilities must come first.
Fill any remaining downtime with Horn of Winter.
Be aware that the loss of Blood Strike from our priority is going to leave you with an extra GCD every two cycles* of your runes so you may be seeing more downtime than in 4.0.6. Take advantage of this downtime to line up Killing Machine procs with your Obliterates when possible. It’s hard to put an exact number on it but if you have a Killing Machine proc waiting a sec or two to get runes to Obliterate rather than using Killing Machine on Frost Strike will show an increase of DPS.
*A cycle is the complete depletion and re-activation of your six runes. Due to Runic Empowerment, this is more of a theoretical idea than one that will always occur.
Stat priorities, caps and gearing
The general stat priority for 2h is Strength > Hit to Cap > Expertise to Cap > Haste > Mastery > Crit > Agility. As you can see strength is still king, with the caps following close second and then the ratings. Haste is great as it increases our melee attack speed, and thus
Killing Machine
procs,
Might of the Frozen Wastes
procs, rune regeneration, and because of the extra globals
Death's Advance
offers us, 2h frost can actually use those extra abilities. With the high amounts of frost strikes(through MotFW and extra
Runic Empowerment
procs) mastery comes in as a close second. Crit isn’t that amazing because KM already provides a decent load, but it’s still better than agility.
8% hit chance is needed to always hit on your special attacks and white swings, and because of
youre automatically spellcapped aswell. It takes 960 rating for the special hit cap, and because spell it is calculated differently, only 816 for that. 960 is your goal though.
Your attacks have a 6.50 % chance to get dodged, so you want 26 expertise which reduces that to 0. It takes 780 rating to get there. Your attacks also have a chance to get parried, but only from up front: thus, you want to attack from behind.(also avoiding cleave ability’s). In the case of tailswipes or likewise annoying things, stand at the sides.
Gemming
The most important stat to gem is strength. Why? Because it’s the biggest dps increase per point, and because all other stats can be reforged. You want to gem all strength, except when theres a socket bonus that gives +20 str, +30 of any other stat for one blue/yellow socket, and +30 strength for two.
Bold Inferno Ruby
Fierce Ember Topaz
Etched Demonseye
And as meta,
Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond
ofcourse. If you can’t get that,
Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond
is also fine.(but quite a bit worse!)
Reforging
Reforging is a new concept added with Cataclysm. What it does is take 40% of a secondary stat(all ratings but resilience, and spirit) and add it to another stat of your choice that isn’t currently on the item. Reforging can be quite difficult to do properly on the first try, as “take the least worthwhile stat and turn it into something better”. Especially the hit and expertise caps can be a problem. What you want to do is sit as close to those caps as possible, and then reforge to a desired stat. Example:
You have an item with crit and haste and an item with mastery and crit. Now, you should reforge the first crit into hit and the second into haste, instead of the first crit into mastery and the second into hit, because haste>mastery.
You may also want to sometimes reforge hit OFF an item. For example, you are overcapped on hit so you reforge a ton of hit off your chest into haste, but that leaves you undercapped. So then you want to reforge, for example, some crit off your boots into hit.
Note that you will also have some hit from purple gems, so don’t forget to gem before reforging.
Enchanting
Head:
Arcanum of the Wildhammer
Shoulders:
Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone
, or if you’re a scribe,
Lionsmane Inscription
Cloak:
Greater Critical Strike
Cheaper alternative:
Critical Strike
Chest:
Peerless Stats
Cheaper alternative:
Mighty Stats
Bracers:
Major Strength
, or
if you’re a leatherworker. Cheaper alternative:
Precision
/
Critical Strike
Gloves:
Mighty Strength
Cheaper alternative:
Exceptional Strength
Legs:
Dragonscale Leg Armor
Cheaper alternative:
Scorched Leg Armor
Boots:
Mastery
/
Haste
, or
Precision
if problems with reforging to exact hit cap. Cheaper alternative: These are cheap already.
Weapon:
Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Consumables
Flask of Titanic Strength
Golemblood Potion
Beer-Basted Crocolisk
Fortune Cookie
Post by
apocalypsa
Seafood Magnifique Feast
The “useful stat” is strength. Not much else to say here.
Note that prepotting with armor potions is no longer viable because they last just as long as normal potions now.
Cooldowns
As frost you have three cooldowns: Pillar of Frost, Raise Dead and Army of the Dead.
Pillar of Frost
20% extra strength for 20 seconds on a 1 minute cooldown. Use it as much as possible, preferably with a blood tap or frost Runic Empowerment proc. Use it alongside other things such as trinket procs/cooldowns, raid buffs like hero and your ghoul.
Raise Dead
The ghoul takes a snapshot of your AP, haste and hit when it is summoned and does not benefit from any buffs used after its summon. It gains expertise from hit, so if you’re hitcapped he is hit and exp capped. Again, try to line it up with other cooldowns, but don’t wait too long – using it 3 times is always better than 2.
Army of the Dead
Practically the same as the ghoul. Use it at the start of a fight to prevent dps loss from channelling and interruptions, and don’t use it just before a boss aoe. If you have to use them mid-fight, try doing so during phase transitions or otherwise dead(pun not intended) time. They will not taunt raid bosses, but they will taunt dungeon bosses and adds, wiping(or saving if correctly used) your raid.
Refreshes a blood rune and turns it into a death rune. This can be used for a variety of things, but its main use is to supplement RE procs. For example, if an unholy rune procs, you can use this and Obliterate. Best used while your blood runes are blood runes(and not already death), but the refreshment alone is worth it.
It can also be used to deal additional AoE damage or refresh your diseases if they decide to run out when you just unloaded a couple OB's(although that'd be bad planning)
Empower Rune Weapon
Refreshes all your runes and grants RP. Has gained a lot of value with the 4.0.1 changes(which basically improved the value of 1 rune by 100%) and is thus a very powerful, although lengthy, cooldown. Best used alongside other dmg-increasing stuff, like shattering throw - NOT during heroism/BL, however, as your already increased rune regeneration will diminish its value quite a bit. Instead use it on another nice occasion.
The general consensus with cooldowns: use them together, during +dmg moments(
time,
Heroism
or encounter-specific moments of free damage or burn phases)
Notes
Do you guys prefer the setup with item/spell links as it is now or the old system?
And report any inconsistencies/lies/something else thats not good. I may appear perfect, and I am, but Word 2000 isnt.
Happy frost dpsing!
Post by
apocalypsa
reserved for future use and cool looks
Post by
Necrodaemon
Nice guide. Reported for sticky. The only thing I can think of that might improve the guide is to maybe mention some of the cheaper enchants. Some like Peerless stats are prohibitivey expensive on some realms.
Post by
MrSCH
Fantastic as usual. Spell links look great as they are, easily accessible to all.
Post by
apocalypsa
Nice guide. Reported for sticky. The only thing I can think of that might improve the guide is to maybe mention some of the cheaper enchants. Some like Peerless stats are prohibitivey expensive on some realms.
Done.
Post by
491667
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
apocalypsa
ERW is right there. HoW isnt really a cooldown; it wouldnt work with your macro anyway as its on the GCD.
HoW is just the lowest priority on the prio list.
Post by
491667
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
142889
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Orranis
Really... Razor Ice? I'm so happy that my favorite rune is finally useful.
I don't think it is, umless you're Dual Wielding.
I'm pretty sure Fallen Crusader is better.
EJ agrees too.
Post by
142889
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
apocalypsa
Lawl, how did RI end up there?
Seriously, I need you guys to point out stupid stuff like that. And sorry wolfxiii, Dual Wield uses RI though :)
Post by
d3cadance
Very..... VERY nice post, 2 thumbs up for a clean/smooth written guide <3
Post by
Sujezz
Why there are points to move in frost tree ? It's pretty straight forward that
>
On a Pale Horse
, being able to interrupt for free is a dps gain.
Post by
apocalypsa
Not if you never interrupt. Also, less movement slowing effect can be a dps gain(and a pretty large one) in some fights. The dps gain from EW, even if you're on interrupt duty, is pretty negligible.
Post by
Cryptorchild
Apocalypsa, what fights toss slows on you for long enough periods that the reduction would be worthwhile? Only ones I could think of is the blast wave from the trash in BWD, and it lasts 10s anyway, you'd be closing the gap to them in under 7s, so it didn't really help. Only other slows that come to mind are area based, like the Grounding zone in Council. Am I forgetting any? Cause it would follow you'd be better off having the interupt to be a non-scrub and help interupts on Arcano, Maloriak, p2 Nef, Council, and Cho'gall adds. I'd say it's always better to help save your raids ass if an interupter dies somehow.
Post by
Orranis
Not if you never interrupt. Also, less movement slowing effect can be a dps gain(and a pretty large one) in some fights. The dps gain from EW, even if you're on interrupt duty, is pretty negligible.
1. Which fights, do tell.
2. 20 RP per interrupt 32 RP Rune Strikes means that it's more then half a Rune Strike saved, and no risk of ever not having enough RP to get an interrupt.
On a Pale Horse is for selfish people who think getting from one Arch site to another will benefit their raid.
Post by
apocalypsa
Not if you never interrupt. Also, less movement slowing effect can be a dps gain(and a pretty large one) in some fights. The dps gain from EW, even if you're on interrupt duty, is pretty negligible.
1. Which fights, do tell.
2. 20 RP per interrupt 32 RP Rune Strikes means that it's more then half a Rune Strike saved, and no risk of ever not having enough RP to get an interrupt.
On a Pale Horse is for selfish people who think getting from one Arch site to another will benefit their raid.
You probably mean Frost Strikes. And yeah, EW is the biggest dps gain if you even interrupt once a fight - however, that may not happen(especially in 25m raids), and most raids have specific persons on interrupt duty which may not be you. Ofcourse, for an allround spec EW is the best option, but taking OaPH isnt a big dps loss(talking about 2, maybe 3 digits here) and can be very useful in other situations, which is why I'm listing it.
However, I have changed the standart build to EW. Because of great demand :)
Post by
dervasavred
Because of great demand :)
For great justice!
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