Lichborne: Talents for catching up - Frost spec
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 9th 2008 at 10:05PM
Frost
I'll admit, Frost is probably my shakiest tree, if only because I had way too much fun with Unholy and Blood to tear myself away from them too long. Since Blood brings heightened healing and Unholy brings nice AE DPS, Frost also seems to fall behind a bit in the solo department. Still, there are some Death Knights who swear by it, and if you're thinking of leveling Frost, consider a build something like this 18/53/0 Build -- Once again, you'll probably want to focus primarily on the Frost Tree before filling out Blood.
This build allows you to switch very nicely between AE and Single-target DPS. You'll essentially replace Obliterate with Howling Blast and vice-versa to move between the two. You'll also have Frost Strike to dump your runic power, so building up and unloading runic power as quickly as possible is one of the keys to this build's damage. Scent of Blood will help your runic power generation, while Dark Conviction provides some nice synergy with Killing Machine. If you're looking for a quick burst of power, don't forget to use Deathchill.
You can convert this build to a dual wield build in a pinch as well, as long as you can find 3 talent points to put into Nerves of Cold Steel, possibly by dumping Unbreakable Armor and Lichborne, which are nice emergency survival talents, but not absolutely needful if you're focused on grinding and DPS.
Since Obliterate receives so many nice bonuses from this build, getting the Glyph of Obliterate is a good idea for the same reasons it is in the Blood tree, only moreso. Glyph of Frost Strike might be useful if you plan to do a little PvP or AEing, but the chance to freeze is a little too random for my tastes.
Go forth and conquer
We're less than a week away from Wrath, and hopefully all of you my fellow Death Knights are getting strapped in and ready. No matter what method of leveling or what talent spec you go with, I wish you all good speed, and I'll see you at the foot of Icecrown Glacier along with all the other classes -- hopefully sooner rather than later.
Welcome to Lichborne, the new class column on the new WoW class, the Death Knight, where we discuss getting ready for Wrath, Burning Crusade leveling factions, and gearing choices for Death Knights. You might also want to check all the other articles in our Death Knight category.
I'll admit, Frost is probably my shakiest tree, if only because I had way too much fun with Unholy and Blood to tear myself away from them too long. Since Blood brings heightened healing and Unholy brings nice AE DPS, Frost also seems to fall behind a bit in the solo department. Still, there are some Death Knights who swear by it, and if you're thinking of leveling Frost, consider a build something like this 18/53/0 Build -- Once again, you'll probably want to focus primarily on the Frost Tree before filling out Blood.
This build allows you to switch very nicely between AE and Single-target DPS. You'll essentially replace Obliterate with Howling Blast and vice-versa to move between the two. You'll also have Frost Strike to dump your runic power, so building up and unloading runic power as quickly as possible is one of the keys to this build's damage. Scent of Blood will help your runic power generation, while Dark Conviction provides some nice synergy with Killing Machine. If you're looking for a quick burst of power, don't forget to use Deathchill.
You can convert this build to a dual wield build in a pinch as well, as long as you can find 3 talent points to put into Nerves of Cold Steel, possibly by dumping Unbreakable Armor and Lichborne, which are nice emergency survival talents, but not absolutely needful if you're focused on grinding and DPS.
Since Obliterate receives so many nice bonuses from this build, getting the Glyph of Obliterate is a good idea for the same reasons it is in the Blood tree, only moreso. Glyph of Frost Strike might be useful if you plan to do a little PvP or AEing, but the chance to freeze is a little too random for my tastes.
Go forth and conquer
We're less than a week away from Wrath, and hopefully all of you my fellow Death Knights are getting strapped in and ready. No matter what method of leveling or what talent spec you go with, I wish you all good speed, and I'll see you at the foot of Icecrown Glacier along with all the other classes -- hopefully sooner rather than later.
Welcome to Lichborne, the new class column on the new WoW class, the Death Knight, where we discuss getting ready for Wrath, Burning Crusade leveling factions, and gearing choices for Death Knights. You might also want to check all the other articles in our Death Knight category.Filed under: Talents, Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jonathon Clark Nov 10th 2008 12:06AM
Wouldn't it be better to show levelling builds (55th Level) as opposed to 80th Level Builds?
Daniel Whitcomb Nov 10th 2008 12:09AM
My idea with these builds is to give you a framework to work with as you move from level 55 to level 80. I've tried as much as possible in describing the builds to give you an idea of what makes the build work and what you should go for first in taking the build up through 80.
Tildy Nov 10th 2008 1:17AM
I enjoyed using Frost through the few levels I gained on my DK in beta. I suspect that if I started a DK again, I would stick to frost.
HumanTargetJoe Nov 10th 2008 7:32AM
I'm surprised how many survival talents people leave out of leveling builds. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be without Improved Rune Tap, Vampiric Blood, or Blade Barrier leveling up as Blood.
Being able to heal 30% of your max HP and increasing your parry by 10%. That extra mitigation was the difference between completing all those 2 and 3 man elite quests solo, and having to wait for some help.
Personally, I don't think the AP gains from Bladed Armor are worth it until you're in at least Heroic Blues - which is about when I'd switch over from a leveling build.
HumanTargetJoe Nov 10th 2008 7:36AM
Oh, and I almost forgot: Sudden Doom is nice for the crits, but the "Free" aspect is almost useless, as you'll almost always have more Runic power than you can use anyway, as the only skill you can generally expect to spend it on is the 40 RP Death Coil.
Rune Strike's only 10 (So using any ability that uses at least one rune will give you enough to use it) and if/once you get Dancing Rune weapon, it's generally better to build up to 100% for massive initial burst, just wait to summon it until your runes are all of cooldown so you get the most potential out of it by having it mimic your Heartstrikes and Obliterates.
Herb Nov 10th 2008 7:50AM
Thanks for this very helpful, been reading around a bit for my dk. This has solidified my choice in leveling as unholy!
Angus Nov 10th 2008 8:05AM
HUH?
You talk about leveling builds but you don't give us a level by level build telling us exactly how to spend our points?!?!?
Thanks.
Yeesh. People complaining about this need to actually read. You clearly state where to concentrate your points as you go.
Good stuff. I'll be looking it up when I decide to do a death knight.
Dez Nov 10th 2008 8:45AM
Nice writeup to give us noob DKs a fair insight of the class. Quick question by me, what would be the tank based spec? First I thought Unholy for some reason, now I heard it's Frost? Being a tank means it's easier to run instances, and that means more upgrades, more fun and less tiresome questing (by that possibly faster lvls gained as you don't get that worn out by the endless questing).
Also the reason I'm making DK is to try tanking, from what I've tried on my retired 35ish prot paly and 68 dps war, the style of tanking seems fun. Then again I've played as DPS for 3 years, and healing isn't for me, so go figure :P. Thus it should benefit me to lvl with tank spec to get used to abilities, rotations and tank management. (As well as gear).
If i'm not mistaken you mentioned Frost was a bit weak as solo, that bothers me as I'm kind of a soloer and I excel at that.. be that as it may I will group as well but I hope it isn't that weak for solo play. Any little tips as how to play as Frost and tank, and how it plays out in solo/group would be appreciated. I will make this chara on other server where my friend has a imba guild, and I need to catch up and "L2P" swiftly XD
Thanks in advance. :)
Daniel Whitcomb Nov 10th 2008 9:55AM
Frost itself isn't really a "weak" solo tree as much as I personally think it's not as suited for soloing as the other two trees. It's still a good solid tree.
As far as tank specs, I'm going to write an article that is more focused toward DK tanking specs and procedures in the next few days which should hopefully answer some of your questions.
Mark Nov 10th 2008 9:20AM
Since starting to play World of Warcraft it's been the best online game ever. I have seen many different worlds, raids, instances, and doing things solo. I haven't enter many contests which I never new where around until I started reading WOW Insider. I wanted to got to BlizzCon but to far away from me since I live on the East Coast. In our guild last night we where talking that how it will be so cool to work together in leveling a Death Knight since we work together in leveling our other characters. I may wait alittle bit to start one, because everyone will be out there trying to do all the same quests. I will build one but not start it right away. Since everyone is going to build one what is the respawn rate going to be in killing or doing the objective in a quest.
SINisterWyvern Nov 10th 2008 9:28AM
That blood one is pretty much exactly what I was working towards (I got to 71 on beta) and it was going great for me. Although I moved the 3 points in blood worms to blood aura and vampiric blood for the grouping/harder kills but either one will work out quite well.
I really should try out the other specs but I chose blood before I even got into beta and love it, so we'll see.
Naix Nov 10th 2008 10:32AM
Frost sounds interesting and so does blood. I have an affliction warlock so unholy seams very "warlock in plate" to me. I want to do something unique so I will be leveling as frost.
I can't wait.
Miste Nov 10th 2008 11:23AM
You're blood spec is missing either vendetta or imp rune tap. I suggest vendetta for leveling since it will really help you stay above the 75% health threshold. Glacier rot is terrible for anyone who doesn't go deep in frost. Most 51/13/7 go 5/5 Tougness, 3/3 Imp IT, 2/5 Black Ice and 3/3 Annihilation. That gives you great synergy between Toughness and Bladed Armor and focuses on improving the only frost damage spell you will use as a Blood DK.
For leveling to 80, I don't think it is necessary to get all the way to Annihilation. 51/13/7 is more of a grouping build than a leveling build. When soloing, you don't really need to worry about the diseases as you'll usually kill a single target after the first rotation and RP dump.
For solo leevling as a blood DK, I recommend 51/5/3 at level 68. Don't take Hysteria or Dancing Rune Weapon. Hysteria and DRW are not good leveling talents. Take Toughness in frost for synergy with bladed armor. Take Morbidity in Unholy to improve death coil. This build is meant for fast leveling through Outlands, not tackling group quests as a solo player. It should look something like this: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMVhcIcf0xzAZ0xZc
Fill in the blood talents first. At 58, when you head to Outlands you should have 2/3 Bloodworms and 4/5 Blood Gorged. Fill in blood gorged then bloodworms. Then fill in 3/3 Morbidity. Dump the next 5 points in toughness. Now you are 68 and ready for Northrend. At that point, you can continue the self healing theme and pickup Imp Rune Tap+Mark of Blood. Then 2/2 Viscious Strikes.
That should put you at 75 with a great solo leveling build that will allow you to solo almost any group quest in Northrend. With this build, I was able to solo level 82 elites at 79. It took some time, but I rarely dropped below 45% health.
Ikarus Nov 10th 2008 6:57PM
Conerning Glyph of frost strike: I was never able to get my hands on it in beta. When it procs does the ice block break on damage? If so it seems kind of useless useless. On the other hand, it it doesnt break on damage, that would kind of be a bit op in PvP wouldn't it?
Ikarus Nov 10th 2008 6:57PM
doh! *Concerning
Roland Nov 20th 2008 12:44PM
Very helpful, thx for taking the time to post your thoughts about the Talent build.
Looks interesting and fun...I think I'll give it a try ;)
Regards & Good Hunting!