Death Knights
Frost Rotation
Single Target
In order to be able to play effectively as a frost Death Knight you have to become comfortable with priority based ability use, rather than static rotations:
Diseases > Obliterate when all frost and unholy runes are available or both death runes are up or if Killing Machine has procced > Blood Strike when both blood runes are up > Frost Strike > Rime > Obliterate > Blood Strike > Horn of Winter
This rotation is the same for both dual wield and 2H frost. The only difference being that dual wield frost will be in Frost Presence while 2H frost Death Knights will be playing in Unholy Presence. The reason for this revolves around the 2H frost talent Might of the Frozen Wastes. Firstly, your increased attack speed will generate more procs. Secondly, you will have issues with the global cooldown preventing you from using your abilities fast enough to burn off your resources. Everything else however is the same for both dual wield and 2H frost.
As usual, diseases must be applied first. Howling Blast will apply Frost Fever while you will need to Plague Strike to apply Blood Plague. This is where it gets a little messy with diseases. Rime will keep your Frost Fever up easily. You will need to Plague Strike though to refresh Blood Plague. This will however leave you with one left frost rune over. The best choice is to either simply let it sit or cast Howling Blast after the Plague Strike.
After your diseases are up, you need to check that you are not sitting on two full runes of one type (which means missing out on the rune regeneration). Check that both pairs of runes for Obliterate are not up (all frost and unholy runes) and that both blood runes are not up (for Blood Strike). Also, if Killing Machine has procced and you are able to cast Obliterate, now is the time to do it (if you have a frost rune and an unholy rune up). If you can't cast Obliterate and Killing Machine is up, then simply move on in the priority system and let Frost Strike take the Killing Machine (it is never worth delaying Frost Strike to save Killing Machine for an Obliterate that is not yet ready).
After that the rotation is simple. Simply move through your abilities. Cast Frost Strike if you can, if not then check if there is a Rime to burn off. After that try to use Obliterate then Blood Strike. If you still have nothing to do, then you cast Horn of Winter.
This may seem a bit daunting at first, but the best thing to do is hit the target dummies and get the priority system under your belt. Lining your abilities up on your spell bar in the order in which you need to check them can also help, especially with the second half of the rotation which is nothing more than a list.
Multiple Target
The rotation for AoE is considerably different than the single target rotation:
Howling Blast when both frost runes or both death runes are available > Death and Decay > Plague Strike when both Unholy Runes are available > Blood Strike if both Blood Runes are available > Frost Strike if Runic Power is at maximum > Howling Blast > Blood Strike > Death and Decay/Plague Strike > Frost Strike > Horn of Winter
Since your rotation is different, all frost Death Knights will be in Frost Presence for AoE; this means 2H frost Death Knights will swap over.
Firstly a note about diseases. Howling Blast will ensure that all the mobs are suffering from your Frost Fever disease. To get Blood Plague up, you will need to tab target and spread it round with Plague Strike. You will only want to Pestilence if the group of mobs is truely large (ten or more).
If both your frost runes or two death runes are available then cast Howling Blast. After this you cast either Death and Decay or Plague Strike if both of the unholy runes are available (when Death and Decay is not on cooldown it always takes priority over Plague Strike). The same applies to Blood Strike, if both Blood Runes are up then you need to use one to benefit from the potential regeneration on Blood Runes. Next you will Frost Strike if you are in danger or hitting the cap for Runic Power.
The rest of the priority system is simple. Use Howling Blast if you can. Blood Strike is next on your list (Blood Strike will give you death runes which means you can cast Howling Blast more often, which is superior to Blood Boil). If you cannot use any of those abilities you cast Death and Decay/Plague Strike. Next comes Frost Strike. Horn of Winter is your final ability to use if you can do nothing else.
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