Death Knight: Thoughts on Frost

So, I got my Death Knight Kymurii through the starting quests for the Death Knights, and I won't do much commenting on the quests themselves here, as that's not the reason for this. This is for my thoughts on the only tree so far that I've played around some with, the Frost Tree.

Initial Thoughts

Its interesting, and between the three, the most likely choice for tanking Death Knights. Most of the skills are designed to help you survive, aside from helping you kill. The key ones being Lichborne, Unbreakable Armor, Toughness, and Frigid Dreadplate. It also has Frost Aura and Acclimation, both solid tanking skills to help reduce magic damage to you and your allies.

The most interesting part of it is, actually, having to deal with Icy Touch. While I don't really do any number crunching, the Frost Fever effect that it imparts will most likely be one of the biggest ways for the Death Knight to mitigate damage. Coupled with Pestilence from the Blood skills, you should be able to AoE tank rather nicely.

I personally like, though, the talents Icy Talons and Improved Icy Talons. Both increase your attack speed, and I theorize will be among the keys needed for Dual Wielding Tanking. Those and Nerves of Cold Steel.

While I'm only 58 still, and haven't tried it out yet, Hungering Cold seems like a very powerful emergency skill, provided that your allies know you're going to use it. If you pop it as one of them unleashes an AoE, then all you've done is placed Frost Fever on all the enemies around you. The other case could be that they go and attack something just as you use it, but its not as bad as one of them using an AoE.

In Action

Honestly, I really like just how Frost seems to play out. Not just from a tanking standpoint, but just a general AoE point. Icy Touch into Pestilence into Howling Blast and you've done a good amount of damage on multiple targets right off the bat. Throw in a Plague Strike before the Pestilence to spread the diseases out even more, but it won't double up the damage on Howling Blast any.

Frost Strike is a very nice skill to dump excess Runic Power into, which you should have plenty to spare. I haven't gotten an attack cycle going, beyond what I've mentioned before, but Frost Strike easily will fit into most any spot where needed.

Single target DPS isn't too bad either, generally replacing Howling Blast with Obliterate, especially thanks to Annhilation. Just use all the rest of your skills and it'll be easy.

Final Thoughts

Well, in the end here, I really like the Frost tree, if it wasn't obvious. While I doubt it'll have the damage output of Blood, nor the interesting mechanics and additional damage that Unholy has, Frost is still a very nice little tree. It is and most likely will be my tree of choice, but I have yet to actually try out Blood or Unholy, so it might change.

(RP) Kymurii's Awakening

Its cold.

Not just any cold. It isn't the kind of cold that feels like it could be fixed just by bundling up. No. This feels like it goes down to my very soul. A chill that makes blood freeze up instantly.

But why is it so cold? I can feel the weight of armor on me, and yet it doesn't seem to do a thing to protect against this cold.

Come to me, my knight...

This voice, its so... compelling. I'm... I'm somewhere. High up I think, judging from what I can see. And... that large imposing figure.

He's not looking at me but... I think, no. I know he wants my attention, wants to talk to me. I walked up to him, little realizing what I was doing, kneeling down once behind him.

"Yes, my master?"

It takes a moment for me to realize that I just heard my own voice. That I just called him master, and that my voice has an odd sound to it.

He didn't say anything else, and yet, I knew what I had to do somehow. Standing back up, I head back the way I came, to get my weapon that I was to use.

I had died prior to that day. The coldness inside of me was the proof. The fact that I was doing this now was the proof. I had awoken as a Death Knight, my will bent to that of the Lich King's.

Hello World!

Hey all! Welcome to my little corner of the world. I suppose I should introduce myself now, huh?

I am, if you haven't gathered by now, a player of the MMO, World of Warcraft. If you haven't figured it out yet either, I tend to play Paladins. Death Knights are new, and I like them and want to get in on being a solid player as one. One you can count on to do things and all.

Kind of like how I feel I am with my Paladin. She's a level 70 Protection Paladin who's mostly done 5-man instances. As much as it urks me, Lariqe (the name of my paladin) just never got a chance to go into Karazhan at the very least. And trust me, that urks me to no end.

But now things are different, and hopefully I'll be able to do the 10-man raids at the least. 25-man... we'll see. I should, hopefully, be able to tank those and all.

But as for my Death Knight, Kymurii, well... we'll just have to wait and see what's in store for her now, shouldn't we?