Frost DK rotation - blood runes?

[Griezz 0]

I feel like a noob for asking this, but in all the years of playing DKs, I've never played a Frost DK before. It's always been either Unholy or Blood for me.

 

In looking over the Frost DK rotation, I got confused because of something that seemed to be lacking. Here is the two-handed rotation:

 

- Keep diseases up, using Outbreak (free) or Plague Strike (1 Unholy)

- Use Soul Reaper (1 Unholy) if target below 35% health

- Use Howling Blast (1 Frost) if Rime procs

- Use Obliterate (1 Frost, 1 Unholy) if Killing Machine procs OR if Runic Power

     not yet capped

- Cast Frost Strike (35 Runic Power)

- Use Horn of Winter (free)

 

So... Frost and Unholy runes get used, but not Blood? Shouldn't they be used up and turned into Death Runes? True, there is always Blood Boil, but the Talents/Builds page says specifically that Frost DKs should NEVER use Blood Boil. So just what are Frost DKs supposed to do with Blood Runes?

[ragebarr 153]

Frost DK's passive turns their Blood Runes into Death Runes permanently, so FDK's don't have blood runes proper.

 

They have 2 frost, 2 unholy and 2 death.

[Griezz 0]

<sighs> Nevermind. I just found the entry describing the Frost DK passive, "Blood of the North" (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=54637), which turns all the Frost DK's Blood Runes into Death Runes.

[Storm 426]

The death runes make the rotation rather simple. Most of the rotation is just maintaining diseases and then switching off between obliterate and frost strike, while trying to line up most of your rime procs with obliterate.

[Griezz 0]

The death runes make the rotation rather simple. Most of the rotation is just maintaining diseases and then switching off between obliterate and frost strike, while trying to line up most of your rime procs with obliterate.

Ok, so just to be clear on attack priority....

To open, use my FRST macro, which consists of:

/cast Pillar of Frost

/cast Horn of Winter

/cast Blood Fury (I'm an orc)

/use 13

That would be the best time to Raise Dead AND cast Army of the Dead, I believe. After which, normal priority rules apply...

- Cast or renew diseases through Outbreak or Plague Strike

- When enemy is 35% or lower, cast Soul Reaper

- When Rime procs, cast Howling Blast

- When Killing Machine procs, cast Obliterate

If none of those rules are in effect, then cast Obliterate if you have the runes. If you don't, cast Frost Strike.

Do I have that right?

Edited September 4, 2013 by Griezz

[Griezz 0]

Oops... regular rotation section should have read:

 

- Cast or renew diseases through Outbreak or Plague Strike

- When enemy is 35% or lower, cast Soul Reaper

- When Rime procs, cast Howling Blast

- When Killing Machine procs, cast Obliterate

- If you have the runes for it, cast Obliterate. If not, cast Frost Strike.

- If you can't cast anything else, renew Horn of Winter.

[Storm 426]

Ya, that's pretty much it.

 

The only other thing you really need to do is develop a feel for timing the obliterates with your rune regen so you can maximize your killing machine procs. Every killing machine that goes toward a frost strike is a dps loss. My best advice there is try not to spam all of your obliterates at once. save your last obliterate until the next set of runes is about to regen. or you can burn all your runes if you have high RP because you'll most likely regen 1-2 runes from frost strikes. Also don't just spam abilities, because very often killing machine will proc just before you hit frost strike,and you'll waste it. wait until the global cooldown is up before you hit the next ability. But once you get a good steady rhythm down it's a pretty easy spec to play.