Burst damage with Frost for old content: DW or 2H?

[shazor 0]

Im playing my frost DW dk http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/alleria/Vylenia/simple mostly as a twink to farm old content and old raids or doing dailies so especially for some cata bosses good burst damage is pretty nice but with the recommended opener plus rotation i only do about 500-600k dps which is pretty crappy compared to my 704 affli with 1M dps and my 696 assassination rogue with 700-800k dps. So before rerolling my dk to 2H or even Unholy i just wanted hear some opinions which spec would be best.

[demonardvark 556]

Im playing my frost DW dk http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/alleria/Vylenia/simple mostly as a twink to farm old content and old raids or doing dailies so especially for some cata bosses good burst damage is pretty nice but with the recommended opener plus rotation i only do about 500-600k dps which is pretty crappy compared to my 704 affli with 1M dps and my 696 assassination rogue with 700-800k dps. So before rerolling my dk to 2H or even Unholy i just wanted hear some opinions which spec would be best.

 

well you must look at overall tuning right now. Affliction locks and Ass Rogues are some of the top DPS period while frost is in an okay spot (really not great). You character showed a 2H weapon not dual wielding. So, run up to baws, pop pillar, defile, obliterate obliterate (howling blast if you get rime). Burn RP on frost strike. Empowered runic, more obliterate, soul reaper when possible, profit. Most things at your ilvl in old raids should die from your burst. If you want to duel wield do same rotation just howling blast instead of obliterate. Defile best talent for burst. Beyond that you should be able to gun down all old content (non mop) pretty easily solo. 

[Zayele 0]

Unholy has the highest opening burst of any DK spec; you take Breath of Sindragosa, not Defile or Necrotic Plague - the latter two are not burst talents at all. Of course BoS is not usable as DW Frost, but 2H Frost makes good use of it especially if you lack tier bonuses and such. 

 

DW Frost does not have very much opening burst, and it cannot take advantage of our strongest burst talent.

 

This said, Cataclysm 25H content is totally trivial on any class, so it shouldn't matter too much. 

Edited October 9, 2015 by Zayele

[simpetar 12]

Unholy has the highest opening burst of any DK spec; you take Breath of Sindragosa.

BoS is big burst, but definitely not for opening, for any spec. In order to maintain long BoS, you need to prepare for it: have high RP, enough runes to get more RP, and optimally ERW at the ready. UH is even less suited for opening with a high burst, because Big Timmy is a great part of it and it takes time to prepare (3-5 Death Coils).

 

But other than that, you can easily roflstomp and Cata 25HC with any spec and if you are at 700+, also most MoP raids.

[Zayele 0]

 

Unholy has the highest opening burst of any DK spec; you take Breath of Sindragosa.

BoS is big burst, but definitely not for opening, for any spec. In order to maintain long BoS, you need to prepare for it: have high RP, enough runes to get more RP, and optimally ERW at the ready. UH is even less suited for opening with a high burst, because Big Timmy is a great part of it and it takes time to prepare (3-5 Death Coils).

 

But other than that, you can easily roflstomp and Cata 25HC with any spec and if you are at 700+, also most MoP raids.

 

Two specs use BoS predominantly - Blood and Unholy. In old content specifically, you will almost always be able to start encounters with full RP - for example, on Ultraxion, leave a drake alive to stay in combat as Unholy. This is also true of Dark Transformation - with a proper setup you can very well enter a fight with ~15 seconds of DT remaining. 

 

Blood can start BoS 2-3 seconds after pull with sufficient multistrike. 

Edited October 27, 2015 by Zayele