Frost DW Dps 3.3.3

I’ve decided to make a Frost Dps Guide for anyone that wants to try it out. It is imo the best scaling DK Dps spec currently in game and everyone seems to know so little about it.

The topics I’m going to be covering are:

Acronyms
Spec
Rotation
Hit/Exp
Stat Priority
Gemming
Enchanting

But first a quick point, this dps spec only, and I mean only works with 2 Slow 1H weapons. No 2H, no quick weapons, just slow 1H’s. The reason for this is with a 2H you get a lot less damage from things like necrosis and BCB as well as half as many KM procs. And the reason for slow 1H’s and not quick is all of your strikes, e.g. FS, BS, Ob are based on top end weapon damage rather than weapon dps.

Acronyms

The Acronym’s I’m going to be using a lot are:
IT – Icy Touch
PS – Plague Strike
BS – Blood Strike
FF – Freezing Fog
KM – Killing Machine
Ob – Obliterate
FS – Frost Strike
Pest – Pestilence
BB – Blood Boil
BCB – Blood-Caked Blade

Spec

There is no 1 ideal spec for frost, there is simply what works for you, and what works for me is shown below:

0/53/18

In terms of glyphs there’s only 1 decision to make, glyph of disease or glyph of IT. The other 2 will always be Glyph of Ob and Glyph of FS. The dps difference between glyph of disease and glyph of IT is minimal and its all about which rotation feels smoother to you. If you do decide to use disease after the first rotation below replace IT PS Ob BS BS with Pest BS Ob Ob.

Disclaimer – Only a few points can be moved around and still be a good spec, when I say what works for you, I ofc mean, what works for you within certain tiny limits

Rotation

This is what makes frost dps harder than unholy or (god forbid) blood dps. Although a rotation is sort of inevitable in any dk spec frost dw is much more proc dependant than rotation based.

Single Target:

IT – PS – Ob – BS – BS – FS Dump
Ob – Ob – Ob – FS Dump

But its more complicated than that. Ideally as soon as you get a KM proc you should FS so the next proc you get won’t overwrite it and waste it. But this isn’t always possible. The most important thing is to not waste KM procs on HB or IT.
Another proc to watch out for is Freezing Fog; this comes from the rime talent in the frost tree and gives you a free HB. This is pretty low in terms of a dps gain and should only be used when everything else is on cd.

So to sum up the priorities are as follows:

1. FS when KM is procced
2. Keep Frost Fever up
3. Keep Blood Plague up
4. Obliterate
5. Blood Strike
6. Frost Strike when KM isn’t procced
7. HB when FF is procced

6 and 7 are very much interchangeable as long as you don’t reach the runic power cap at which point 6 jumps up the priority list to no.1.

AoE:

IT – PS – Pest – HB – BB

Then just use HB whenever its off cd, use all your blood runes on BB and weave in Ob’s and FS’s when HB is on cd and all your diseases are up on everything, ideally leave enough runes for HB whenever its off cd and use KM procs on HB. This is sort of messy and you just end up doing what feels best at the time.

Hit/Exp

Hit Cap is 5% for yellow attacks due to the 3% gained from talents and 1% from a draenei. Only ever aim for this percentage as both caps below are pointless.

Melee White Damage Hit Cap is 23%, this is the normal 27% - 3% from talents – 1% from draenei.

Spell Hit Cap is 16%, normal 17% - 1% from draenei. Nb. The 3% hit from talents only applies to physical attacks.

Expertise Cap is 26, this is almost as important as the 5% hit cap and should be reached as soon as possible (but never gemmed for)

Stat Priority

Hit (until cap) > Strength > Exp (until cap) > Crit=Armp > Haste > More Hit > More Exp

Gemming

Meta – 21 Agi, 3% crit damage
Red – 20 Str
Blue – Nightmare tear in 1st, 20 Str in rest
Yellow - If socket bonus is 5 or more strength then socket with 10 crit/10 str, otherwise 20 str.

N.b. Socket with hit up till cap, but your cap is only 5% so you shouldn’t have to.

Enchanting

Head: Arcanum of Torment
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe
Chest: +10 Stats
Cloak: Agi or Haste, personal preferencem I use Agi
Wrist: 50 AP
Hands: 44 AP
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
Boots: Icewalker, 32 AP or tuskarr’s, personal preference, I use 32 AP
MH: Rune of the fallen Crusader
OH: Rune of Razorice

And always always use Blood Presence.

Feel free to ask any questions about anything you would like to know or feel I haven’t covered.

Still to do:
Sigils
Addons
Macros
Strengths/Weaknesses

Thank you so much for this contribution =)

Think ill switch my off spec when I get 2 swords

Good guide m8

May I ask why u dont have a point in unbreakable armor?

the 20% increased str. with a 1 min cd is just insane + if you put some points in bladed armor u get a massive
str boost for 20 seconds! Thats only 40 more seconds cool down :O

I don't know how to play frost as i'm not a dk but i have to say that i love it.... for the 20% haste increase. Buffs my threat or dps so much.

Just wondering if anyone has noticed which is yielding more dps at the moment in raids? I am currently 2h unholy and been so for quite awhile. I used to DW quite a few months ago but gave it up due to unholy's superiority. How is DW dps faring now against Unholy 2h with patch 3.3.3 on single target dps?

I've been meaning to test it out myself, but i can't even find a good spec/glyph to even begin because outa the 3 sites ive looked at theyre all different.