Unholy vs Frost - Ease of Play/Fun

[Nnyco]

unholy for fun,frost for easy basically

[Mirishka]

Do either of the specs have GCD downtime where you are waiting for runes to recharge or anything?

Yes, they both do. Frost has a spell to refresh them instantly, along with a legendary that gives 2 charges of said spell.

Mind you I'm no expert on UH, only having recently picked up on playing it (for the Artifact challenge). I like it quite a bit but Frost is more fun IMO. It really feels like you're just utterly destroying stuff with massive Obliterate crits, the awesome Sindragosa spells, etc. UH doesn't really have anything like that, IMO.

What it has, is this odd 'pop festering wounds' mechanic that just seems weird to me. Also, Corpse Explosion (best spell ever in Wrath) is garbage these days. :/

[Caaethil]

Frost is easier. I main frost but I think both are fun and might main unholy in BfA for some variety.

Frost has some procs for a fast-paced, reactive playstyle. Unholy is a bit slower and more about ramping up, but is very visually impressive with all the undead and such. Frost is really good in the open world and is good at AoE-ing masses of mobs, whereas Unholy is going to be most fun in boss fights, especially single-target.

To be honest, if anyone tells you that either is super boring, that's probably an edge case of someone who, for whatever reason, doesn't like that playstyle. Neither has any glaring playstyle issues and neither are the most simple/complex spec in the game. So the simple answer is that frost is the easiest, and which is more fun is pretty controversial, but both are well enough designed that you should try them out. Neither is objectively boring/broken.

[Alanar]

Unhoky frenzy makes thr whole thing so much smoother and it duration stacks.. its not bad.

[Deleted]

However, Uh allows for more mistakes because of Diseases and pets while Frost you can fall behind if you miss a proc of the two main spells.

I would suggest Uh since its easier to learn and if you get it right, you will do really well.

This statement is so incorrect and i feel sorry for you if you made a DK with the expectation that you would do well to start off with unholy rather then Frost.

Frost is bar FAR the easier and more forgiven out of the two specs and really straight forward to pick up and be effective(Both pve and pvp).
If you have already started your dk as unholy then more respect to you as i play death knight since release and can tell you that it is the more complex mele spec out there to date and to be effective you need to manage multiple resources E.G:

Runic power
Runic Corruption
Death coil Procs
VP 100% update
Pet Positioning and macros to min max
AMS to maximise RP generation on certain bosses
Rune rotation
Dark transformation timings to ensure you get your pet back into DT as soon as possible
Banking up runic power and DC procs for Arbiter.

Hopefully this isn't to late of a comment and i hope you enjoy unholy.

[Deleted]

I'm still leveling my DK, started out as UH since that's the kind of class fantasy I enjoy, and not just that.. Even when WOTLK was released I tried out DK but as always.. UH.
Come to think of it I used to dislike DK's, for some reason I decided to give them a try just a few days ago and I am having a blast, don't think I've had this much fun playing a melee class

[Deleted]

True, but what i meant it was less punishing playing Unholy.

Movement for example, while all Dks suffer from movement, the UH suffers less due to Clawing Shadow being ranged, plus diseases that are constantly dealing damage.

im not saying that UH isn't hard to master, but its definetly less punishing then Frost.

an example.Uh dks talent allows for a Death coil that deals more damage, but if you don't use that Death coil is not that big of a problem because you have other damage sourcers on the boss/npc.
While Frost if you don't use Killing Machine/Rime procs well you are really affecting your dps because those are your primary ways of dealing damage.

What? lool

one no one plays clawing shadows in high end mythic so that is completely irrelevant.

And your example is an odd one as we don't have a talent that increases our DC damage that is any different to your HB damage increase which is both ranged.
If your talking about the proc chances from obliterate to prob rime then also that wouldn't matter as the prio is HB>Oblit because oblit procs rime.

And if we had a scourge strike proc on the boss from our DC we can a short window to deal 30% increased damage...
I don't mean to put you on blast like this but i hate it when people give false advice and information to support their own ego.
Frost is easier... plain and simple.

[Th3Scourge]

As much as I want to main UH because I love the class fantasy, I have more fun with Frost and put out far more consistent damage. I thought it would change once i got the UH shoulders but I found Frost still pulling ahead with cold heart/whiteout bracers

[garciadomain1]

Both are fun but frost is more frequently enjoyable because its aoe is competitive and unholys is simply not. Unholy has more tools to manage but frost has more procy randomness to react to. Outside of that, they're fairly interchangeable. I play whatever fits the situation and with tier 21, it more frequently means frost.

Don't be afraid of setting up both specs and playing both to some degree.

[lummiuster]

This statement is so incorrect and i feel sorry for you if you made a DK with the expectation that you would do well to start off with unholy rather then Frost.

Frost is bar FAR the easier and more forgiven out of the two specs and really straight forward to pick up and be effective(Both pve and pvp).
If you have already started your dk as unholy then more respect to you as i play death knight since release and can tell you that it is the more complex mele spec out there to date and to be effective you need to manage multiple resources E.G:

Runic power
Runic Corruption
Death coil Procs
VP 100% update
Pet Positioning and macros to min max
AMS to maximise RP generation on certain bosses
Rune rotation
Dark transformation timings to ensure you get your pet back into DT as soon as possible
Banking up runic power and DC procs for Arbiter.

Hopefully this isn't to late of a comment and i hope you enjoy unholy.

You're right. Frost is by far easyer to play. 3buttons. As Unholy often you cap festering wound (dps loss), or cast reaping soul without having 3runes, you have to watch for your dot and synchronize a lot of thing.
Frost is literally the easiest spec in the game by faaaar.

[Schmittay]

Both are fun but frost is more frequently enjoyable because its aoe is competitive and unholys is simply not. Unholy has more tools to manage but frost has more procy randomness to react to. Outside of that, they're fairly interchangeable. I play whatever fits the situation and with tier 21, it more frequently means frost.

Don't be afraid of setting up both specs and playing both to some degree.

Managed to get over 40m DPS on some Kara trash as UH but yeh requires having defile, BRW and DT off CD whereas a Frost can literally lolFrS their way to the top. It's still so much more fun and satisfying though as UH.

[Deleted]

Also for me i personally enjoy the setup play style of unholy.

[kran1um]

Frost DK - FrostScythe Spam in dungeons; great burst in raiding and sustainability - minimal buttons to push, ease of play, minimal micromanaging
UH DK - Dot uptime, depend on Brian the Belcher, festering wound, time for dots to tick, alot of micromanaging

[Kaver]

You're right. Frost is by far easyer to play. 3buttons. As Unholy often you cap festering wound (dps loss), or cast reaping soul without having 3runes, you have to watch for your dot and synchronize a lot of thing.
Frost is literally the easiest spec in the game by faaaar.

"Cast reaping soul" LOL. This ain't Emerald Nightmare anymore

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Frost DK - FrostScythe Spam in dungeons; great burst in raiding and sustainability - minimal buttons to push, ease of play, minimal micromanaging
UH DK - Dot uptime, depend on Brian the Belcher, festering wound, time for dots to tick, alot of micromanaging

Frost doesn't have great burst. It's fine but relative to other classes it's nothing special. Better than shadow priest though

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Frost is literally the easiest spec in the game by faaaar.

Then you haven't tried BM hunter. Frost is easy but BM is on a whole other level. It's so easy to dodge mechanics when you're ranged and can move all the time while you don't really have to worry about your rotation. But still, Frost is easy yes.

[ashampoo1991xd]

Like some1 said the only way to know is to try both specs out. Then you can choose da wae.

[Schmittay]

Then you can choose da wae.

Ugh really?

[Dewhead2015]

I prefer the animations of the Frost spec over the Unholy animations

[TommyWright]

unholy is really fun

[Fatmanwalking]

Was frost changed at all in current beta? I hope its not a brain dead spec anymore I love it so much

[pankrolik]

tryined frost for first time in Legion and its very fun (but easy)