1H Frost Rotation Questions

[Wsfdk 0]

Hello,

 

I have some questions regarding the rotation this website recommends for 1H Frost Death Knights.

 

To start with, in general, whenever a rune is mentioned, is it referring to the rune slot, or actual rune? For example, to try and explain my question better, there are only ever 2 death rune slots but there can potentially be more than 2 actual death runes thanks to Blood Tap talent.

 

 

Cast Obliterate if

You have 1 Unholy rune available (when using Blood Tap or Runic Corruption) OR

Both Unholy runes are available (when using Runic Empowerment)

 

I do not understand exactly what these conditions entail. Is the first condition telling you to use Obliterate if you happen to fill one of the Unholy rune slots with a Death Rune while there was no Unholy runes available? And then does the second condition imply to only use Obliterate when there are 2 actual unholy runes available, or to only use it after using Runic Empowerment?

And now for a completely unrelated question, what priority should I be giving casts of Plague Leech?

Edited July 14, 2014 by Wsfdk

[Storm 426]

When a rune is mentioned it refers to the actual, active rune.

 

If the unholy slot is currently a death rune then you'll want to howling blast instead. the only time to use unholy runes is to a.) always keep one refreshing. and b.) when you need to put both unholy slots on cooldown before using blood tap or plague leech. that way one of the unholy slots will definitely become a death rune.

 

As for the exact time to use plague leech optimally it's hard to pinpoint exactly. The easy answer is to just use plague leech as often as you can, as long as it's in a situation where both unholy runes are on cooldown, and 2 of another rune slot are also on cooldown. That way it will turn 1 unholy rune and 1 other rune into death runes.

 

The more advanced answer is that you also need to take into account RP and blood tap. using plague leech will often mean you need to use at least 3-4 more howling blasts or 2 obliterates before you can put your unholy rune slots on cooldown to blood tap correctly. This is because, annoyingly, an unholy rune transformed into a death rune will always be the last rune used. So what can happen is sometimes you'll plague leech, and then you'll either cap your RP trying to put runes on CD, or you'll waste blood tap charges.

 

So I guess the best answer is, the optimal time to use plague leech is when you have 2 unholy runes, and 2 of another rune on cooldown, and you also have less than 50 Runic Power, and aren't sitting on a lot of blood tap charges.

[Wsfdk 0]

Thanks for the answer, but just to make sure I understand I will rephrase some of what you said.

Use Obliterate or Plague Strike on rotation only when an Unholy Rune is available.

Use Howling Blast to consume Death Runes in the Unholy slots.

Use Plague Leech when one of the two fully depleted slots is Unholy.

Did I understand correctly?

Currently I have Blood Tap macro'd with Frost Strike to make my life easier but I will take into consideration what you've mentioned about usage on Blood Tap.

Sorry but this statement has me confused:

When a rune is mentioned it refers to the actual, active rune.

Does this refer to rune type or rune slot?

Edited July 14, 2014 by Wsfdk

[Storm 426]

- Yes, you have it correct.

 

- I also macro Blood tap because most of the time it is easier to manage that way. But often after plague leeching I find it's hard to deplete all the right runes again without either capping RP or having my BT macro go off on a frost or death rune, which isn't the end of the world, but it's a small dps loss every time it happens.

 

- Rune type. Rune slot only matters in regards to needing one fully depleted (2 runes on cooldown) for Blood Tap and two fully depleted (4 runes on cooldown) for Plague Leech. Other than that the Rune type currently in the slot is what matters for your rotation.

 

Sometimes, although it's rare, you'll consume a death rune in the unholy slot, and it will remain a death rune through the full regen cycle and you'll get to use it again. In that situation it should be treated as a death rune the whole time. although you may still need to blood tap or plague leech for runes in that time, gaming the rune that is already a death rune isn't important.