Frost DK, Alternative talent build and rotation

[Catcher 0]

Hello everyone, long time reader, first time poster,

Now just some context first, I main a DH, but my Girlfriend mains a Frost DK (which I have a good bit of experience with)

Saerwens

Additionally apart from the Legendary helm and boots that are on there, she currently has Consorts Cold Core, and Prydaz

I'm currently trying to experiment with talents and rotations to get the most damage while having the least complicated rotation,

I know you will say the BoS provides the best DPS, but it is a slight bit on the complicated side for my GF to get the hang of and get the best results from.

Currently the Talent build is as follow: 

Tier 1 - ME

Tier 2 - FF

Tier 3 - Avalanche

Tier 6 - GS

Tier 7 - Obliteration

Rotation - the current idea is the usual of pop Remorseless Winter, Obliterate to make use of Gathering Storms as much as possible, Howling Blast on every Rime proc and Frost Strike whenever needed to avoid capping on Runic Power

Then when Remorseless Winter drops, dump all Runic Power with Frost Strike in preparation for the next round of Remorseless Winter, rinse and repeat as above, while as usual making use of all major cooldowns when the are available

With this build I usually can go for between 480k DPS and 540k DPS when using pots, flasks and food on single target fights

I prefer this over the machine gun rotation as you dont have to constantly worry about watching and keeping the Icy Talons buff up

Am I completely crazy with this build and rotation or would anyone make any recommendations on improving it?

[Browed 19]

I use a similar build (see armory in signature) built mainly for M+ but I also use it fairly successfully in raids (several logs in the 90+% bracket for ilvl and I raid with an extremely casual guild so tactics and execution are rarely conducive to high performing dps).

 https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/ghdm2CyR6QB3avND#fight=5&type=damage-done <-- example from last night

If you have the helm you want to take Freezing Fog 100% so that's the right choice, however lining up Remorseless Winter with Pillar of Frost is far better if you take Icecap, I would go for that over Avalanche. Played properly you'll get Pillar on every second cast of RW.

With Obliteration you can also worry less about overcapping RP for it's duration with a focus on manufacturing the buffed Rimes. ( with the T19 x 4 you WILL overcap.. it's not a problem )

The gear and stats are good apart from haste... I would aim to funnel all the versatility into haste as new gear comes.

When you have the new gold trait, swap legendary feet for the legs. If bracers drop use that instead of either of those.

Try to get 3 x blast radius relics too.. ( easier now that you can farm Nethershards > Relinquished Relic ) replace anything that is not Ambidexterity )

** Make sure you swap the weapon enchants around too, it's optimal to apply Razorice on the mainhand and Fallen Crusader with offhand. **

Do you have any logs for recent raids?

Edited April 12, 2017 by Browed

[Matster 5]

Looking at what you are saying I would almost say this spec could be viable, but will have a fairly low cap on your top end dps.  From what I see, your dps is what the BOS spec dps relies on when breath is down since we still rely on HB procs and GS to carry us until the next breath phase.  Breath takes a little bit of time to get the hang of, but it is far from complicated tbh.  Spending 30-45 min on a dummy working with how you are sustaining you breath should be enough to grasp it well enough.  The downside is getting to know when the best time to breathe is.  You can really burn yourself bad with casting breathe and having the boss run away or being targeted with a mechanic.  However, once you see the damage, the tradeoff is amazing.

I would say your best bet if you don't want to run BoS would be to run Obliteration spec with icy talons and ice pulse helping you get more attacks in with the increase in haste for more obliterates.  I would normally just weave FS in between my OB attacks to maintain my uptime of icy talons.  Might even synergize well with new golden trait for Frost.  Possibility of swapping to Frostscythe on certain fights with a lot of adds can help you pad a bit more damage also.  Other than that, get rid of a couple pieces of versa/mastery gear on your toon, catcher, and replace with haste/crit until you are over 20% haste and 25 crit i would say is a comfortable amount

 

 

 

[Catcher 0]

Thanks for all the tips,

I tried going with BoS last night and managed to push out an extra 20k DPS on the target dummy,

How long should the uptime on it be? I was able to get around 30 seconds on it

[Matster 5]

If you time it all right, breath can last around 30-45s.  Just takes time to master it, when ever possible try and plan out your moves trying to only use HRW when you are about to lose breath at about 30RP as a safe zone for now.  The longer the breath, the more damage you sustain on target.  Keep in mind also that you will see a much larger DPS increase on Cleave bosses, Tich and Botanist are great for Frost.