Unholy vs Frost - Ease of Play/Fun

[Rylad]

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

It hasn't been changed yet, just some talents moved places.

[hellhamster]

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

AHAHAHAHA Blizzard changing frost, lol.

[skiterr]

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

Hey! Got here by googling about unholy vs frost...

I played wow (not hardcore) around end-bc and beggining of cata, and came back recently. Due to never having had a DK, I used my boost on one. However, my wife put all my points at the beggining as unholy.

For me, the spec is fun but it has a bit too many things to track.
1 - DA cooldown (needs preparation - SD and RP and Outbreak duration)
2 - Apoc cooldown (needs a different preparation - at least 6 FS, careful if the pet is on DT)
3 - Outbreak
4 - Festering wounds
5 - Scourge of worlds
6 - Sudden doom procs (and sometimes feel to me like a waste to double-triple DC because of the tier debuff wasted dmg)
7 - DT

Then you add in whatever trinkets AND boss fight mechanics. I know, I must be getting old. If I have mostly just DPS, I can usually get good dps (lfr/normal). On heroic+, I start to have issues.

Is frost more forgiving? Would I have less things to track / more fun (for me) playing frost? Is DPS too lower (or same, or compared) to DPS?

What would you say are the strengths and weaknesses?

EX: better cleave, lower ST damage, lower skillcap but lower damage overall. Also more forgiving if you mess up you wont lose so much.

[Ange]

Is frost more forgiving? Would I have less things to track / more fun (for me) playing frost? [Is DPS too lower (or same, or compared) to DPS?

4 abilitys (RIME-Howling Blast _ Obliterate _ FrostStrike _ RemorselessWinter )
1 cooldown (SindragosasFury)
+ rotational cooldowns Pillar of Frost (~35 second cooldown) and Obliteration can be macroed into your 4 majory abilitys = no keybinds needed

It plays like this in ST AND AoE situations:



You press what ever is available in this order RemorselessWinter > RIME-Howling Blast > Obliterate > FrostStrike
NO DoT tracking
NO Debuff tracking
You align your buffs/procs with SindragosasFury and allways try to cleave with it for the maximal impact. If you don't, well it doesnt matter that much.
(I place all relevant buffs in the same ROW as SindragosasFury (GIF) and just use it when I see a full/near full line)

What would you say are the strengths and weaknesses?

Frost has a very high primary target DPS (low burst) and a decent passive cleave, much more than unholy does with ST spec.
You can use the talent Frostscythe for a high AoE DPS (low burst) and outdo unholy with any cleave/aoe legendary/talent setup.
Unholy can compete in pure ST, but for ST+Cleave or AoE Frost doesnt have a competition.

On the other side, you major DPS cooldown - Pillar of Frost - is available every ~35 seconds, so you can't really missuse it.

I am a casual mythic raider (979+) and just do casual M+ (~4k raider.io) while pressing 4+1 keybinds.

Is it fun?
YES

Is it competitive even agains 980+ classes/specs?
YES

Is it easy? The easiest?
YES

Is DPS too lower (or same, or compared) to DPS?

If you got the best legendarys for both specs, your highest simDPS will be decided by the gear your have.

I got around 2.323.713 DPS as Frost with my best frost-gear and 2.238.789 DPS as Unholy with my best unholy-gear.
In my case the simDPS is higher for Frost.
https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/repo...C9puasAdzHCu5q
https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/repo...Q8VZUtuqjKpciA

[Deleted]

Why is Frost survivability so much better then Unholy in both pve and pvp? As Frost you have way stronger Deathstrike every 3 minutes + bubble on every autoattack. Unholy feels a bit squishy compared to Frost.

[Garkanh]

Both specs are fun in their own way, but i would say frost if you want an easy spec, where you don't have to manage a whole lot of mechanics, and unholy if you want a bit more challenging and engaging style of gameplay.

[Raiz]

Hey! Got here by googling about unholy vs frost...

I played wow (not hardcore) around end-bc and beggining of cata, and came back recently. Due to never having had a DK, I used my boost on one. However, my wife put all my points at the beggining as unholy.

For me, the spec is fun but it has a bit too many things to track.
1 - DA cooldown (needs preparation - SD and RP and Outbreak duration)
2 - Apoc cooldown (needs a different preparation - at least 6 FS, careful if the pet is on DT)
3 - Outbreak
4 - Festering wounds
5 - Scourge of worlds
6 - Sudden doom procs (and sometimes feel to me like a waste to double-triple DC because of the tier debuff wasted dmg)
7 - DT

Then you add in whatever trinkets AND boss fight mechanics. I know, I must be getting old. If I have mostly just DPS, I can usually get good dps (lfr/normal). On heroic+, I start to have issues.

Is frost more forgiving? Would I have less things to track / more fun (for me) playing frost? Is DPS too lower (or same, or compared) to DPS?

What would you say are the strengths and weaknesses?

EX: better cleave, lower ST damage, lower skillcap but lower damage overall. Also more forgiving if you mess up you wont lose so much.

There's an addon (can't stress it enough) that do all this job for you : compact runes. You can download it at wowace. Seems like it doesn't exist anymore at curse-gaming. Dunno why, but the addon still works and I really can't live without it.
You really don't have anything to do, and if there's some icons that bother you, you can easily disable them, or put them in order of priority.
There are a lot of pros using it aswell.

[Deleted]

There's an addon (can't stress it enough) that do all this job for you : compact runes. You can download it at wowace. Seems like it doesn't exist anymore at curse-gaming. Dunno why, but the addon still works and I really can't live without it.
You really don't have anything to do, and if there's some icons that bother you, you can easily disable them, or put them in order of priority.
There are a lot of pros using it aswell.

TellMeWhen and WeakAuras work quite well.

[Grusalugg]

I leveled my DK to 110 one month ago to prepare for bfa. Because I wanted to commit 1 class and I chose DK. I am a player who raids mythic with different classes and specs (tank and dps) This helped me to gain the habit of getting into classes and see their patterns easier.

But I had very little knowledge on DK. It was the only class I haven't experienced. So I chose only to play DK in Bfa.

I think you can trust my objectivity on both specs. I am totally neutral. Here is my short observation:

Equally bad gear to see their naked playstyle:

Frost:
-reminded me frost mage a lot. You play depending your procs. And you can't miss them unless you have some sight problem.
-felt like less buttons to use and if you press the proc you are supposed to, it's rewarding.
-can go boring easily if you are a person who experienced more fun to play specs. Solid but can go boring.

Unholy:
-felt like more buttons to press
-even it was, it required a setup. Setup process is limited by your rune regen which can be faster if you play correctly.
-had more rng (besides the obvious ones, trying to balance waiting for Scourge of the worlds proc to use good scourge strikes while managing your resources, not wasting a GCD )
-because it needed a setup, it required durable enemies. At least 4-5 globals to really get it going.
-but if you are done with the setup phase it feels so satisfying and fun. Feels like you are really doing some unholy things. And your damage goes boom.

My choice: if specs goes like this I will be playing unholy in bfa.
Note: I haven't done high content with dk. It may not be 100% accurate. It's just the impression of a player who played other classes.

[Deleted]

Unholy feels more complete but frost is blowing unholy out of the water in damage at 110 8.0.

[Raiz]

TellMeWhen and WeakAuras work quite well.

I don't doubt it. I'm using WAs for every class but DK. I have some WAs for that DK but it's mostly for aethestics. Or to better keep track the long CD abilities (DRW comes to mind. Or Cold Heart when I'm not playing Blood).