DW PVE Frost Deathknight rotation

[Dragonslices]

I wanted to post this thread for 2 reasons, to give new players an idea on the rotation and to see if anyone had suggestions to help improve my rotation.

I have ranked in ToT on Tortos, Council, Horridon, and Jin'rokh so i guess that im doing something right

If hero is pop'ed at the start i will exhaust my runes and pop runic empowerment for some extra burst
Army ~6ish seconds to pull
Pre-pot, icebound, Ghoul, Outbreak, and Death and decay (cause I can do it from ranged and it starts unholy rune regen)

Then I go into my rotation, howling blast when frost runes are available and frost strike when KM proc's or when over 76 runic. I rotate DnD, Obliterate and plague strike (when blood plague drops) into my rotation when i have 1 recharging unholy rune and one full unholy rune (this is key and i will tell you why). I also use Soul Reaper on cool down when the boss is under 35%(I dont have the 4 set yet). I try and use Horn of Winter, Pillar of frost and ghoul on cool-down so that they match up and give my ghoul a damage increase(around 70k damage). Situationally I use AMS for free runic power gains, Dark Simulacrum to spell steal ability's (only on Protectors of the endless right now), and Glyph of Dark Succor for free damage/runic if i kill and add.

I'm running Plague Leech and Blood Tap dps talents
For these 2 talents I make sure that I only refresh Frost and Death runes. Refreshing Unholy runes would be a dps loss and force the use of Obliterate, DnD, or plague strike. To make this happen I only use Oblit, DnD and PS when i have more than 1 Unholy rune and the 2nd unholy rune is almost finish recharging. the frost runes are used to howling blast more often.
Plague Leech needs to be used with ~1-2 seconds left on Dots
an Blood tap is just to fill global's in the rotation


As far as addons to keep track I use:
Tell me when: for ghoul/pillar of Frost/Horn of winter/Runic empowerment to show when they come off cool down
Weak Auras: to track runic power and Rune regeneration


For good Runic Power and rune regeneration Weak Auras go to orranthrall.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/dk-weak-auras/ its just a world press that someone was nice enough to put up. The trackers are easy to use and very easy to modify.

[Murdos]

We've already got a lot of guides, a thread specifically for newbies with issues, and links to multiple other guides written far more in depth then this one.

If you want to help out more then show off, monitor our 'Fix my DK DPS' sticky at the top of the forum there, and answer questions related to DW Frost.

[russelmiller]

I'm running Plague Leech and Blood Tap dps talents
For these 2 talents I make sure that I only refresh Frost and Death runes. Refreshing Unholy runes would be a dps loss and force the use of Obliterate, DnD, or plague strike.

Apparently there is room for everyone to improve. With blood tap you would actually prefer to regenerate unholy runes with blood tap since it turns them into death runes, not unholy runes. Leaving a fully generated unholy rune is hurting ur deeps brah!

[Nyanmaru]

Apparently there is room for everyone to improve. With blood tap you would actually prefer to regenerate unholy runes with blood tap since it turns them into death runes, not unholy runes. Leaving a fully generated unholy rune is hurting ur deeps brah!

1. It's not hurting his DpS the slightest as long as he keeps one unholy rune regenerating all the time.
2. It doesn't matter which rune you return with Blood Tap or Plague Leech as it will always be a death rune. If you use Runic Empowerment on the other hand you wouldn't want it to be an unholy rune.

[russelmiller]

1. It's not hurting his DpS the slightest as long as he keeps one unholy rune regenerating all the time.
2. It doesn't matter which rune you return with Blood Tap or Plague Leech as it will always be a death rune. If you use Runic Empowerment on the other hand you wouldn't want it to be an unholy rune.

1 is correct, however he says he leaves an unholy rune full at all times, so in order to keep the unholy rune regenerating he would need to spend an unholy rune the instant the regenerating one is full, any delay would be a potential dps loss. He also states he is using blood tap, so unless he just doesn't have a gcd to spend it for some reason, no real reason to let an unholy rune sit there.

[Dragonslices]

He also states he is using blood tap, so unless he just doesn't have a gcd to spend it for some reason, no real reason to let an unholy rune sit there.

The reason I leave 1 Unholy rune up at all time is that Blood tap and Plague leach will cause me to regenerate either a Frost or Death rune. Allowing me to use more howling blasts/Soul reapers and reducing the number of Oblits or Dnd's I have to use

Howling blast currently hits harder than Obliterate and cost only 1 rune, so timing my consumption of Unholy runes I can almost guarantee that I will have a howling blast or rune strike for every global

[bals]

PS and IBT give you death runes.
Leaving that 1 unholy rune up is leaving damage on the table.
honestly your post has a lot of things that are pretty poor. you icebound on the pull?
using ERW during bloodlust isn't a good idea.

[Deleted]

The reason I leave 1 Unholy rune up at all time is that Blood tap and Plague leach will cause me to regenerate either a Frost or Death rune. Allowing me to use more howling blasts/Soul reapers and reducing the number of Oblits or Dnd's I have to use

Howling blast currently hits harder than Obliterate and cost only 1 rune, so timing my consumption of Unholy runes I can almost guarantee that I will have a howling blast or rune strike for every global

If you were using Runic Empowerment then this would be the case.

Blood tap regenerates Death Runes, they can be used on anything... Using that unholy rune is better than not using it.

[Soisoisoi]

If hero is pop'ed at the start i will exhaust my runes and pop runic empowerment for some extra burst
Army ~6ish seconds to pull
Pre-pot, icebound, Ghoul, Outbreak, and Death and decay (cause I can do it from ranged and it starts unholy rune regen)

I assume you mean Pillar of Frost instead of Icebound? Also, you should use Ghoul before PoF, as you're wasting a GCD during buffs.

As for the priority and the rest (really, we need to stop calling it a Rotation - too many people take it literally!), that looks fine besides what the above pointed out - If you're using Blood Tap you don't need to "game" runes.

[Nyanmaru]

I assume you mean Pillar of Frost instead of Icebound? Also, you should use Ghoul before PoF, as you're wasting a GCD during buffs.

As for the priority and the rest (really, we need to stop calling it a Rotation - too many people take it literally!), that looks fine besides what the above pointed out - If you're using Blood Tap you don't need to "game" runes.

Yeap, ghoul doesn't snapshot but updates dynamically with your strength values, so it'd be "optimal" to pop him so that you activate your strength buffs when he's already on target.

In regards of "rotation": It should really be called "routine" if it's something you do every time or "priority" if it's about on-the-fly decision, but just as people call it "rolling blood" instead of "roiling blood" it won't stick.