My thoughts about the DK Frost Spec

or: With a corn cob pipe, a button nose, and two eyes made out of coal.

I won't lie, I have really enjoyed playing the Death Knight class. I have to add that there is just something really cool about watching a Tauren use a 2 handed weapon to beat down an enemy.

Melee with Berthold has been up front and in your face, which is a switch from the ranged Hunter and stealthy Druid Kitty classes I leveled before.

The blatent OP of the class has been a fun way of quickly moving through the Burning Crusade content...yet again. Solo'ing the group quests in Nagrand was a lot of fun, and gave me an idea of how an extended PvE fight will go.

Leveling Bert has been fast with the new streamlined system. I completed 98% of the Hellfire Penninsula quests and when I was done I was level 64. This time around I gave Zangarmarsh and Terrokar Forest a miss and went straight into Nagrand. My plan is to skip Blades Edge, do a nice chunk of Netherstorm and then level halfway through 70 in Shadowmoon Valley.

I would like to do this to get some good quest reward armor to take into Northrend, and it never hurts to be half at least half a level ahead of any new zone you are starting.

I started out in the Unholy Tree from 58 - 61, then switched to Blood until level 66. Now I am test driving the Frost spec and find it solid for play. I like being able to have my diseases up throughout the entire fight, and the added armor from Frost Presence adequately covers the lack of self healing.

Here is my current spec.

Current spell/attack rotation is:
Plague Strike ->Icy Touch->Blood Strike->Blood Strike->Obliterate->Frost Strike

I got this rotation from Nicolai on Elitist Jerks, along with the dps spec.

The rotation starts by getting up two DoT spells and then uses strikes that create Death Runes and give a bonus for each disease you have ticking on the mob. By the time you hit Obliterate all your Runes are on cooldown, and this is easily covered with Frost Strike which uses the Runic Power that your melee had built up.

Other notable skills that I will use situational:
Unbreakable Armor, Howling Blast, Lichborne, Death Chill, Death Strike

Lichborne and Unbreakable Armor are buffs to armor and help to resist movement impairing spells.

Death Chill will force your next Icy Touch, Obliterate, or Frost Strike to crit. I personally like to use it with Obliterate.

In all it seems all three Talent Trees are well designed, and from what I have read each is viable to tank with. Blood was enjoyable, I liked all the self healing; Frost is going well, but I had the most fun with Unholy I think.

When I hit 69 I think I will swap back to the Unholy Tree to see if I still like it best and then make my decision about my Talent spec just prior to hopping the Zeppelin to Northrend.