Hello! I just finished leveling my first ever DK to 120 not too long ago. It’s something I had on the back-burner ever since wrath (mained paladin for pretty much the entire game). From a lot of the topics I see here, it looks like DK dps isn’t where it used to be/where it should be? That all being said I like wanted to try dps DK. I tried unholy and followed all the guides and tips as best I could, but I just couldn’t get the hang of it, so I went to try out Frost. For me it feels like it flows a little better, like just managing procs similar to a frost mage? I also enjoy the flavor of the spec more.
Anyway, not to make this super huge, I wanted to get the general consensus on talents and rotations? When I should be using certain abilities to maximize my damage? I’m sure there are other topics on the forums, but the last one I saw was from October, just wanted to know if there were any updates.
reroll. frost/uh is lackluster at best in pve. and frost is literally so bad in pvp i get enraged thinking about it. there is absolutely no redeemable quality about the spec. every single nuanced or interesting thing about frost pvp and dynamic damage got removed in the prepatch to legion and its been absolute garbage ever since then. no burst, no mobility, no cc, no utility, no pressure, nothing. absolutely not worth playing. UH dk in pvp is “great” if you think doing an absurd amount of damage without actually pressing an attack outside of necrotic strike qualifies as “fun”. ive played dk above 2300 mmr since wrath and i can tell you from experience this is the most boring and useless dk has ever EVER felt. frost is boring/ineffective and doesnt compete with any other melee, and unholy is just as boring but viable with some pigeonhole comps. i give dk’s status right now 2/10. if you dont believe me, go watch some windwalker monks or assassination rogue arena. or fire mage (4 buttons = 2500 rating)
As a FDK main since wrath, Reroll. I put my DK on the shelf for the first time ever this expansion. They feel awful, and they don’t perform well. I can handle not performing well, I played frost at the start of Legion, but the way they feel just killed it for me. I’m a Pally main now.
Don’t know what these others are on about but i love my Frost DK and feel it is very fun in BfA. If you’re only goal is to showoff your epeen by being at the top of recount, then, yeah, maybe Frost isn’t for you but personally, i have always been the top dps in my dungeon groups with my main, even though Frost is supposedly horrible right now. If you just want to have fun with it though, DK and Frost is a hoot though i do wish it was a hair more complex of a rotation. Make sure you are using Pillar of Frost a lot, stack Haste and Mastery, and use Breath of Sindragosa because it feels great and is fun to watch, imo. I do love Windwalker Monk gameplay a lot too but Frost DK is still a bit better. If you are having fun with a given spec, never let someone convince you it sucks. I honestly didnt think Frost DK had any issues until i saw people raging at it on the forums because i have always held my own well with it in current content and i only have middling gear (ilevel 380-ish).
iirc haste is the worst stat for the BoS spec. Seems to sim the lowest value for me as well. Focus on Mastery/Crit followed by Vers if you go breath.
I’ve got so bored of BoS (using it since Nighthold on my DK). I’ve been using Oblit just cause. Priority changes to Mastery>>haste=crit for me. It’s honestly not near as bad as I thought it would overall at the end of my M+ runs, and it does feel better to play for me personally.
As a whole, nothing (classes) feels good for me to play personally this expansion; perfomance aside. BFA really dropped the ball in that regard imo.
I main’d Frost up until this season, when I finally had to swap Unholy. Trying to push 2400 in 3v3 arena and Uh is just that much stronger atm.
Frost is still fun, and def viable if you’re not trying to push higher rating. DKs were even worse off last season and I still pushed Duelist/2100 as Frost.
Breath build is the way to go. Takes some practice to get the most out of it but has huge burst damage potential. Standard opener I use:
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=115 !Breath of Sindragosa
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Blood Fury (optional/racial)
/use 14 (optional/trinket)
/cast [mod:ctrl] Breath of Sindragosa
The macro is designed so BoS doesn’t cancel if you accidentally double tap it. (Or if you pop it while PoF is on GCD and need to tap it again.) You can manually cancel using the modifier.
Pretty much just spam Obliterates and Rime procs during Breath. Pop Frostwyrm’s Fury and Cold Heart/Chains of Ice before Pillar of Frost ends.
Thank you! I really like that macro, it has helped a ton. Even if Frost isn’t in a good place I am still having fun with it, I mean it can only get better from here right?
NOOO!!! so much wrong with this and u should cast Chains of Ice with 20 stacks of Cold Heart with Pillars of Frost up (near the end of Pillars or if u have3 Icey Citadels then after Pillars expires). This will give u the most “bang for the buck” for Cold Heart. And Frost Wryms Fury at the end of Pillars and after Chains of Ice or again during Icey Citadel and u have 3 traits of Icey Citadel.
People seem to have mis-interpreted the point of my macro. It is not for you to just be able to sit through a boss pressing one button, it’s just a Breath macro, haven’t any of you seen one before? Smh.
Breath Macros are bad. To maximize your potential DPS requires many variables that a Macro does not/cannot take into factor.
So if you want to be a shlub, sure, go ahead and use a breath macro…
Want a real Breath Macro? #showtooltip Breath of Sindragosa
/cast Pillar of Frost
/use Battle Potion of Strength
/use TRINKET HERE
/cast Breath of Sindragosa