What must I watch for on my runes? New Frost DK

[Deleted]

I just dinged 85 around 1 week ago. I have used Elitist jerks and WoW reforger to do all my gear and stuff.

I also copied anothers UI to get started but I wonder one thing.

Why must I watch my runes on Hastefrost spec exactly? I read that I must always FS when a rune is on full cooldown (Like 14 seconds?), I understand this is so you get the most out of that proc when it comes back, but won't you be doing that most of the time anyway following the rotation? Since Obliterate is Prioritised over FS unless 90+ RP?

All a bit confusing for me, hope someone can clear it up.

[Valyk]

You need to watch your runes so that you can play with Runic Empowerment procs. It's less important for Hastefrost than for Blood (the other spec that uses Runic Empowerment), since all of our abilities have the potential to contribute to Obliterate. Blood spec has to play Rune Tetris to keep one Blood Rune on cooldown so that their Runic Empowerment procs always contribute to their Death Striking.

The way Runic Empowerment works is that you have a 45% chance of instantly refreshing one rune that is fully depleted (so not one recharging). You should use Frost Strike only when you have at least one fully depleted rune. If you open up in combat with one Obliterate, do not follow it up with a Frost Strike immediately, for example (even though you would probably have the Runic Power to do so), because you would only have two runes recharging, and you might waste a Runic Empowerment proc.

It's also good to watch your Runic Power, so that you don't cap out on it and miss out on runic power. If you are full on Runic Power, prioritize Frost Strike above Obliterate, because if you Obliterate with full Runic Power, you're basically wasting a potential Frost Strike.

The other case where it is useful to watch your runes (i have heard) is when you have only one single frost rune available, and casting Howling Blast would give you the RP to use Frost Strike. In that case you should use Howling Blast, get the RP, and follow it with a Frost Strike, since you have a chance of getting that Frost Rune back, and a HB+Frost Strike combined is more DPS than an Obliterate.

tl;dr; You watch them to make sure you can benefit from the Runic Empowerment proc before you use Frost Strike, you watch to make sure you don't overflow with Runic Power, and you make sure to take advantage of the occasional stray Frost rune. It's not all that important for Frost.

[Deleted]

So in essence you don't really have to look at your runes at all? As long as you make SURE you prioritise OB over FS (Therefore runes will always be depleted), and FS when >90 RP?

[Valyk]

You still want to be aware of them so you can make intelligent decisions.

For example, say you have a Killing Machine proc and you have the Runic Power for Frost Strike -- if you have 1 second or less before a rune will come off cooldown and enable you to Obliterate, you should not Frost Strike, you should wait to use the KM proc on Obliterate... It's things like that, which you can't know unless you're watching your runes or using some other addon that tracks runes for you, etc.

You won't be a terrible Frost DK if you don't pay any attention -- so long as you are following the priorities and are aware of your surroundings and such -- but someone else who does pay attention and reacts intelligently will be a noticeably better Frost DK than you.

For me, I have conditionals set up in a few Power Auras to show me when important combinations of runes happen, to make it more obvious when my RP levels get too high, etc. But addons like those are really just another way of watching your runes without actually staring at the Blizzard UI Rune Bar.

[Kaosbringer]

So in essence you don't really have to look at your runes at all? As long as you make SURE you prioritise OB over FS (Therefore runes will always be depleted), and FS when >90 RP?

That's not quite correct. You have to be careful not to spam FS when you have full or close to full runes. This is to ensure that you have as few resource dry spells then necessary. Of course there is room for error or random spikes in resource generation that might make it impossible to balance properly.