Frost: Group-Only, No Solo?Follow

So I'm trying to solo level my DK now that Cataclysm is live, and I went to Vash'jir and I'm noticing that Frost seems ridiculously hard to solo with.

They removed 99% of our self-heal, and when I first saw that, I thought "well, they're trying to make things a little interesting, the old blood was a bit overpowered".

But now that I actually try to see it in action, I'm thinking the spec is so utterly broken, that the only feasible way you're going to use this, is in groups when you have a healer following you around pumping heals into you.

Seriously, now that I've done Vash'jir long enough to get almost a whole set of armor (minus shoulders, I'm still wearing Triumph shoulders and one trinket), I'm seeing that I can *only* heal 2500 with Death Strike, and that is only available every, I dunno, 6-8 seconds or so?

I'm taking way more damage than 2500 every 8 seconds. In fact, I've only survived battle with a naga hunter+crab pet (like the ones you see in that first large creature you go inside of, I forget her name, Nashira or something?) once and that was only because I had Army of the Dead available, and even then I had <3000HP left. Then, another one respawned ontop of it and I died immediately.

Which is another little pet peeve of mine -- I played Wrath during the first 3 days of launch. You didn't see mobs repop ontop of you like I'm seeing several days after Cataclysm's release. There wasn't even very many people there, and mobs are insta-respawning ontop of me and sometimes I can't get out of an area, or even find a place to stand so I can eat something until I get something else attacking me.

Anyways, back on topic...

How the heck are we supposed to solo with no self-healing? If I wanted to be a Warrior, I'd roll one. And from what I saw, even they get more survivability than this, and they aren't limited by runes and runic power, but by rage which is almost full at all times unless they are spamming abilities left-and-right.

Oh, and...

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/moon-guard/xaelai/simple

So what am I doing wrong, exactly? I've been trying to pump more Stam in hopes of actually getting decent heals on Death Strike, which has worked to some extent (started out healing 1400 now heals 2500), but honestly, I'm starting to lose patience with this, as my pet peeve is having to sit down to eat every few kills (which is why I don't often solo with my warrior).

I've been soloing as frost and it hasn't been bad. Faster than my ret pally.

I've been using blood presence for the extra survivability. If you haven't yet, get some of the new level 80 vendor food. It heals for ridiculous amounts, usually 2-3 ticks and I'm full.

Try moving out to Hyjal. I hated Vash'jir and am starting to move my second 80 to Hyjal. You are going to run into the same insta-respawm problem but it does seem a little easier, and you aren't swimming the entire time (note to Blizzard, we like land). Land gives you much more options and you don't have to worry about z-axis mobs as much. I might go back there and finish those quests later when I'm 83+, but it was a pain running my Shaman through Vash.

Using Unholy presence instead of Frost does make rune regen a bit quicker. Oblit and Frost Strike are hitting so hard, mobs out in Hyjal only last a few seconds so I'm not taking that much damage. Don't forget to level up your First Aid as well as they lower level bandages heal for sick amounts.

Now if I could just figure out healing on my Shaman again...




Edited, Dec 10th 2010 11:25am by Jornam

I'm leveling as frost and I haven't seen these problems so far...my death strikes seem to be keeping me topped off. I don't use obliterate at all outside of dungeons though. I'm at lvl 83 and have only used four food items so far.

Nowhere does it say you can't either, though.

And Death Coil tooltip states that it heals friendly undead. Lichborne tooltip states that you become undead for 10 seconds.



And with the minor glyph called Death's Embrace, your healing Death Coils refund 20 RP. If you're 2/3 Runic Power Mastery, you can afford five Death Coils with a full RP bar, and you'd have 20 RP left afterwards.

Well, given that I don't PvP and that I leveled from 55 to 80 as Blood in 3.x, I never read anything about using Lichborne and Death Coil in that fashion.

I suppose if you had i245+ starting Hyjal or Vash'jir, your Death Strikes would keep you topped off, but I was wearing 187s and 200s, my only 245 was a pair of shoulders.

After I finished Vash'jir, I found a vast, and absolutely huge increase to survivability; I can now take on 3-4 mobs at once (at least Hyjal mobs) and survive with at least half HP left, and that's without using Lichborne and Death Coil.

It is pretty rough starting out tho; now that I know the large difference between Hyjal and Vash'jir, I'll be starting my characters in Hyjal from now on lol.

I was expecting them to be similar to each other like Borean Tundra is vs Howling Fjord.

I highly recommend DW Frost if you haven't tried it yet. I was impressed with the damage I was doing using a nice big 2 hander, but figured I would give DW a try. It has been nothing short of astounding.

KM Oblit crits were ~22k when using my 2 hander, but DW'ing I'm getting 19k mainhand crits with 10k offhand crits. I've been amazed by the numbers I'm seeing. I'm going to try and see if I can get into some instances tonight and see what sort of numbers Recount spits out at me.

One recommendation Lyrailis, run back out to Hyjal and buy the Honored Ring. It's the one I'm wearing and is pretty nice. I'm having a hard time myself keeping track of all of the new reps and remembering to run back and purchase new gear when it becomes available.

In case anyone was wondering how the DW Frost experiment went, I have been hitting between 9k and 9.6k DPS in instances. I just picked up some nice new weapons last night, so will try and push through a couple more instances to see if that increases it a bit.


Edited, Dec 22nd 2010 9:28am by Jornam

With the new Death Strike glyph, I suppose Frost and Unholy gained a wee bit of survivability.

Causes Death Strike to always heal for 20% health when in Frost/Unholy Presence.

That's the same as an unglyphed Victory Rush, except, you don't have to kill something to use it.

Those numbers were posted well before I got most of the heroic gear I now have. I've been consistently pulling 11k+ depending on instance.

I'm pretty sure that might drop a little with the upcoming Howling Blast nerf, but you're usually not hitting as many groups as you used to be, so it shouldn't be too significant. Main hand Oblit crits usually around 30k, Offhands 15k with Howling Blast critting 20k. It was a little over powered when hitting for the full amount on all mobs. The Death Strike upgrade in Frost/Unholy is going to be a big help with AoEs and if I happen to pull threat. WTB Aggro Dump...

All in all, quite a bit of fun.

Edited, Jan 13th 2011 1:02pm by Jornam

I haven't played anything but Frost since Cata released and haven't any issues soloing. I don't use Death Strike at all unless I'm fightingmultiple mobs and my health starts getting low.

Frost and Unholy are DPS specs not survivability specs, use your highest damaging abilities and kill stuff fast. I can take on 3-4 mobs at the same time pretty easily. I do however keep a small supply of potions on me at all time incase stuff goes bad or I encounter the insta-pop respawns you're talking about, which happen pretty frequently.

In any case, do your normal DPS rotation, or as much of it as you can on stuff and you should be fine.

For us the best defense is a good offense.