What to do as Frost 2h when you have nothing to press!

[Vlarkin]

So I am fairly new ish to the class. And I am having a TON of trouble dpsing. The main issue I am having, is sometimes, I end up having times where I literally have absolutely nothing to press.. not even Horn of Winter.. for a good few seconds.. Which makes my dps drops a lot. In those instances, should I press that Howling Blast even if it means I might not get off an Obliterate for a few more seconds? Or press a Plague Strike? because whenever I do do that, that just delays Obliterates or Soul Reapers even more!! So what do! Just sit and auto attack?

ALSO! Another question. When during boss fights should I use Dark Sim? I do not know if it works on bosses or not.. I just know how it works in PvP.

Oh and also, a quite nooby question.. my first xpack playing Melee so not sure on this one.. But exp cap is 7.5% right? But, then on 93 bosses, they still have a huge chance to parry my attacks.. That seems really odd.. right? I mean.. being capped at 7.5% should mean I do not every miss at attack right? By miss I mean generally.

[Schizoide]

Don't press anything in those gaps. As Frost, you won't have that problem for long. Both DW and 2H frost are GCD-locked around 500 itemlvl. Unholy has ~15% wait time at that itemlvl.

I'm not aware of dark sim being useful on many boss fights. I'm sure it works on Horridon adds, etc. It's not a particularly useful ability in general.

7.5% expertise eliminates dodges. Mobs do not parry from the back, which is why you should be behind your target.

[staart]

Nothing of course

[Vlarkin]

Don't press anything in those gaps. As Frost, you won't have that problem for long. Both DW and 2H frost are GCD-locked around 500 itemlvl. Unholy has ~15% wait time at that itemlvl.

I see. I am 480 at the moment. Still gearing obviously so hopefully soon I won't have this problem!

7.5% expertise eliminates dodges. Mobs do not parry from the back, which is why you should be behind your target.

Ahh I see. I still need to get used to raiding again. Thanks for the answers.

[Shiira]

It gets better when you have more haste, and you need to get used finding something you can safely stand in with anti magic shell for resources.

Dark sim isn't great in this tier. You can get some spells from horridon and lei shen adds but that's about it.

[Part]

Try to wait out KM procs if you know you are able going to end up with a lull and it wont interfere with your resources.
Find something bad to stand in with AMS.

Do nothing :P

[Evil Inside]

Sit there and look pretty.

[glycerethe]

During those few seconds, just dream of better gears you'll be getting in the future to eliminate this problem.

The reason why this 'nothing-to-do' period is so apparent now is because they removed the runic power gain from free howling blasts from procs. More haste more haste and more haste is what you want.

[Vlarkin]

So from what I have gathered here. I need to stack tons of haste. Would it be better to use Str+haste gems in my red slots over just Str?

[Varyk]

So from what I have gathered here. I need to stack tons of haste. Would it be better to use Str+haste gems in my red slots over just Str?

No, Strength would still be preferred.

[Shiira]

Gem strength, let your haste come from gear.

Sims will tell you that gemming straight haste is optimal, which is technically correct in sim conditions, but in real encounters you don't need to because you can get enough resources from anti magic shell.

[Jack Bauer]

Gem strength, let your haste come from gear.

Sims will tell you that gemming straight haste is optimal, which is technically correct in sim conditions, but in real encounters you don't need to because you can get enough resources from anti magic shell.

Depends on ilvl. At low ilvl's (~460-470's, possible 480) gemming haste is needed due to low haste from gear in general and not being able to reforge into haste as much as possible.

[Shiira]

Depending on which content you are doing you can often get enough runic power from anti magic shell regardless.

[delyian]

Nothing is generally the correct answer, but Don't forget to make sure you're using all of your abilities

Empower Rune Weapon - You have to use your judgement here on when the best time to use it is. With the haste gain from bloodlust, it's almost a waste to use it during that (note, I said almost)
Horn of Winter - Free runic power
Anti-magic Shell - On Magic damage, massive runic power boost
Pillar of Frost on cooldown
Raise Dead on cooldown (after using PoF)
Trinkets - Most seem to be proc lately, but you might still have an on-use one

Despite all of these things that we can use - There still are occasional dead-spots. Like everyone else said... Just do nothing. Maybe jump? Move around to double check you're in the right position?