Heya guys!! So 3.0.8 hits live today, and I’m sure there are a ton of things you’re curious about. So I’ll start you off with the top end Frost DPS spec and rotation. Interesed yet? 
So if you noticed an earlier post I talked about how I did about 3k DPS on PTR in a Frost Spec. What is relevant to this? I also did the same as Unholy on PTR and Live (pre-patch) 3k DPS on a test dummy as well.
Now while raid results will vary with buffs, debuffs, encounters, and more…this is indicative that the end game dps potential of both Frost and Unholy similar.
17/50/0
This is the base spec that I used. This leaves 4 points that you can honestly spend however you like.
I personally dropped the rest into Blood so that I could pick up 1/3 Veteran of the Third War. How you spend the 3 points to get there is up to you, but the best choice is probably into a tanking talent (if you do so) or into Rune Tap for healing (which is probably a more effective choice for dps’ing).
Now the interesting thing to note is that my dps results are skewed. Merciless Combat icreases your damage when the target is under 35% health, and as it so happens the target dummy was at 1% health the entire time. So once you calculate that in, it means my real damage would have resulted in roughly 2800 DPS. Still, more than close enough to 3k DPS to be noteworthy.
Where is the upside? I never used ERW once, I did not upkeep HoW, nor did I ever use Unbreakable Armor. So in actuality the DPS should have been slighly above 3k because I was not even self-buffed like I should have been.
The only true downside to the spec and rotation available to Frost is that there is no way to truly “ramp up” your damage outside of using Raise Dead. Your damage will be consistent and constant the entire way through, and then get some bonus damage from Merciless Combat when the target becomes low health. Whereas Unholy and Blood have Dancing Rune Weapon and Summon Gargoyle as well to ramp their damage up in certain encounters.
Rotation
(Use Blood Tap before the encounter starts to gain a Death Rune)
IT -> OB -> OB -> BS
That’s it. I’m serious. When you get to the end of your rotation you fire off Howling Blast if Rime is up, and then fire off Frost Strikes. Remember that if a Rune comes off of CD and you then activate it 1-2 seconds just after it becomes available, it will start it’s CD count at that number. Meaning, if it becomes active and you fire off a FS at that second, and then use that Rune the moment after, the Rune will begin it’s cooldown at 8 or 9 seconds, not 10. Feel free to test this out on a dummy and you will quickly learn how to use this to your advantage.
Never change the rotation order. If you do, it will possibly use the one Death Rune you will have per rotation on a Blood Strike instead of on an Obliterate like you need. If you ever mess up your Runes you can do one of two things. You can either pop Empower Rune Weapon to bring everything back online and start over, or just use a IT -> PS – > BS -> BS -> OB rotation to get it to where you can use your Runes as needed on the next go around.
Also it is important to note that Unbreakable Armor will give you +10% Strength for 20 seconds every minute. This is not just a tanking ability, but a DPS one as well. Every minute (or 6 rotations) make sure you fire this off during the FS phase of a rotation. This will give you a DPS boost.
You always want to burn off enough RP that you will not hit your RP cap (120 for this spec) during your rotation. So if you messed up your rotation and you only have time for one FS, that is ok so long as you won’t go over your RP cap when you finish your new rotation. Delay the new rotation if you have to so that you will not break 120 RP.
- IT will generate 25 RP (from Glyph and Talent)
- BS will generate 10 RP
- OB will generate 20 RP (from Talent)
- OB will generate 30 RP if you have 4/5 T7 set bonus.
- Butchery will generate 4 RP
A standard rotation should then generate 79 RP, or 99 RP per rotation (10 seconds). This means that you need to either be under 41 RP without 4/5 T7, or under 21 RP with 4/5 T7 before you begin your new rotation. It is important to note that this spec makes your FS cost 32 RP. So if you have 4/5 T7 and you fall into a 22 to 31 RP range (where you cannot use FS) that you will lose some RP.
If you chose not to spec into Blood for Veteran of the Third War and you instead put a 3rd point into Runic Power Mastery then you can increase these values by 10 RP for more leeway (making it possible to never “waste” any RP). In the end however VoTW is a an overall DPS increase over RPM. It is only worthwhile to pick up RPM if you really wanted to spec into other talents such as Hungering Cold for PvP or farming related reasons and don’t have the gold for constant respecs.
Now the big question you are probably asking this entire time is:
“WTF IS PLAGUE STRIKE!?!?!”
You will never use this ability or Blood Plague in a top end Frost build. The rotation is very tight to begin with, as you’ll see when you try to fire off HB and use up all of your RP with FS’s at the end of a rotation. On top of that, working in PS’s will lead to less total OB’s being used. In the end, working in the PS will cause an overall net dps loss. Weird I know, but true. So as a Frost Knight, you will avoid this attack entirely for Boss DPS.
AoE
Now as far as AoE is concerned everything changes of course. While Obliterate and IT are the clear winners in a ST DPS race, AoE brings Plague Strike and HB back into contention.
IT -> PS -> Pest -> DnD (Spend Rime proc/RP on FS if possible)
HB -> BB -> BB -> HB (sub OB when HB is on CD/RP on FS if possible)
You get the idea from here on out…
Other Specs
Are there other viable Frost Specs? Sure. But I’ve not listed them here because this is a post about the “Best Frost Spec and Rotation in 3.0.8″. 
And I will be putting out more “Best Spec” posts for 3.0.8 before I ever work on sub-specs available out there. Raid viable specs for buffing and debuffing count as sub-specs. This is just about the top end dps here. I still have to get back to BISI posts, so posts about sub-specs will come later. But for now, it’s time to get ready for work. Catch you on the flip side.
-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters.
