World of Warcraft™

/|
/ |
|
|
-------

Others may find that their blade responds most eagerly when infused with the power of an icy chill. In this way, even the sharpest of runeblades will find themselves made even more potent. The same power that permeates our glorious citadel of Icecrown is yours to command, death knight. Should you choose to master this discipline, there shall be no escape for your enemies, as they find their actions slowed and made impossible by the cold.

-Lady Blaumeux

SO TELL ME WHY I SHOULD PLAY FROST.

• You like to level fast. 2H Frost is one of the fastest specs for leveling to 85 (with the exception of the survivability and chain-dungeon-running of Blood) due to a combination of factors, mainly the talent On a Pale Horse and the use of Unholy Presence. This is an excellent leveling spec as 2H Frost:
  http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#dc01!gj!kYbbSQeZgQ!gj!beVUkoL
  (Note: I'm not saying here that you can't level as one of the other trees, or as DW Frost. You totally can, and you won't be crippling yourself either. But if you want to level quickly via questing, 2H Frost isn't a bad choice.)
• You like to dual-wield. Frost is the only DK tree that can dual-wield competitively. It is true that DW Unholy used to be good, back at the start of Cataclysm, but now DW Unholy DPS is so far down the toilet it's currently draining into the Atlantic Ocean.


• You didn't sign up to play a pet class. Unholy is required to keep control of its little permanent undead buddy in order to work, while Frost only summons a ghoul every couple of minutes and it's not under our direct control.
• You like big numbers. Frost deals a lot with random procs that provide sudden boosts to our DPS, and big numbers fly across our screen. If you like seeing how much damage you can deal in a single blow, Frost might be for you.

SOUNDS GREAT! IS THERE A DOWNSIDE?

Yes there is, and it has to do with those random procs we rely on. If they don't proc for whatever reason, or if we can't react to them quickly enough for whatever reason, our DPS will drop compared to our Unholy brethren's steadier output. This is especially apparent when we only have limited time to attack a boss, and the RNG either lines up in our favor or it really, really doesn't. You will likely notice your DPS drop when you're on an fight with lots of movement, versus when you're beating up on a static target dummy or a boss that just stands still and lets you hurt it (which isn't many nowadays). It's not enough to hurt us significantly, but it is noticeable.

SO DOES FROST OR UNHOLY DO MORE DPS RIGHT NOW?

It's always difficult to tell how much of a DPS difference is due to the spec, and not to one's gear, or the stats one stacks, or the particular boss fight, or one's lag, or one's reaction time, or one's skill level, or the bad day one had at work, or simple RNG. The current information shows Frost pretty much equal with Unholy, depending on all the factors I just mentioned and whether a fight plays to the strengths of one spec or another.
Of course, a player of any spec who knows what they're doing (remember to keep up Horn of Winter, fellas!) will easily beat a player who doesn't. And remember what I just said about the downsides to Frost: if our random procs don't proc for whatever reason, our DPS will sag slightly.

SHOULD I GO 2H or DW?
(Acronym explanation time: 2H means you use one weapon and carry it in both hands, while DW means you carry two weapons, one in each hand.)
Assuming your weapons are of roughly the same quality, DW will do more damage than 2H over an extended duration.
The playstyle difference between DW and 2H is very small: the rotation is exactly the same, and so are the stats you try to maximize. There are only four differences: the weapons themselves, the location of six talent points, a slightly different hit cap, and the fact that DW gets more procs than 2H and 2H gets more resources than DW.
One thing to keep in mind is how hard or easy it's going to be to get your weapons. DW has to grab twice as many weapons, of course, but only one-half of one other spec is trying to get the same weapons, while every other plate DPS spec, plus the Blood tanks, wants those two-handers. Also, if you ever change your mind and want to go Unholy, it will be far easier if you have the weapon to go with it.

__
/ \
/ /
/
/
-----

In life we were hated enemies - this is true... But in death... We are the children of the damned. The bastard sons and daughters of the Scourge. In death we are brothers.

-Thassarian

WHAT RACE IS THE BEST?

The simplest answer is, whichever one you can stand to look at the backside of for 30 levels. :P
The DPS gain is minimal, but if you really want to min-max, go Worgen or Goblin. They give you the biggest DPS boost. Below them are Draenei (which gives you the additional benefit of always being elegant and well-groomed) and Orc.

WHAT ABOUT PROFESSIONS?

The biggest DPS increase you can get from a profession is 80 Strength, which seven professions provide: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Inscription, Jewelcrafting (technically 81 strength from this one), and Leatherworking. Below that, in order, is Herbalism, Skinning, Tailoring, and Mining.
For you true min-maxers, Engineering is slightly better than other professions, because the strength it provides comes in the form of a cooldown that you can line up with other strength-increasing cooldowns such as Pillar of Frost.

SO HOW DO I SPEC FOR MAXIMUM LEET DEEPS?

Here's your 2H spec:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#dc01!dj!kYahSQeZgQ!Yj!beVUko

And here's your DW spec:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#dc01!dj!gPahSQeZSZ!Yj!beVUko

SO I SHOULD JUST BLINDLY FOLLOW THIS COOKIE CUTTER BUILD?

Mostly, yes, except for two points at the very beginning. Each spec has two points left to their discretion to place in the second tier of Frost (the ones I put in Endless Winter). DW can also put them in the first tier, since they left some perhaps-useful talents unfilled there.

• Runic Power Mastery (DW only):
  DW should have at least two points in Runic Power Mastery to prevent maxing out your runic power (I'll tell you later why this is such a bad thing). If you want a third point in order to have that extra leeway, it's up to you.
• Icy Reach (DW only):
  There might be a few situations where this talent could be useful. Kinda. Maybe. An additional 10 yards range on your AoE or your slow might be appreciated in a few places.
• Lichborne:
  The breaking of charms/fears/sleeps can be useful, but only when there's actually a fight out there that involves them. Lichborne has a second use, though: when it's active, you can target yourself with Death Coil to heal yourself. It can be useful when leveling, but once you hit 85 I would prefer to use Death Strike if I absolutely had to, since you're likely to have a better healing-for-DPS tradeoff and have a bit more flexibility.
• On A Pale Horse:
  If you're leveling, this talent becomes near-mandatory for all the time it will save you. If you're already max-level, ask yourself how much you'll appreciate 492% mount speed, which depends on what your DK is used for. Someone who does a lot of dailies or spends a lot of time on a gathering profession will appreciate it more than the guy who just hangs out in Stormwind/Orgrimmar between raids. If all you care about are raids or other PvE thingies, it's practically useless.
• Endless Winter:
  If you spend a lot of time interrupting, then this talent can save you RP, which gives you additional Frost Strikes. If you're not interrupting a lot, or if interrupt duty is on some other member of the raid, this talent is a lot less useful. Still, if all you do is heroics or raiding, or you like to show how hardcore your min-maxing is, this is the best option.

Bonus option: down in tier 5 is a talent called Chillblains. It obviously doesn't offer any DPS benefit, but it becomes very useful on any encounter where kiting is important. If your raid needs you to get it, I'd take the points out of Improved Frost Presence to do so.

Side note: some DKs prefer to take the three talent points out of Epidemic in the Unholy tree and put them over in Butchery and Improved Blood Tap in the Blood tree. I personally don't recommend this, especially for newer characters, because if you go the Blood route over the Unholy route, you need to spend an additional Unholy rune every minute to keep diseases up, have a much smaller window in which to apply that disease, and have to stay right on top of your Blood Tap cooldown. However, you do get the benefit of an additional Death rune to replace the Unholy rune you spent, plus the (slight) damage bonus from the additional Plague Strike and the second point in Butchery. Epidemic gives you a (slight) DPS decrease but with slightly increased convenience and room for error.

Chapter 2 (continued)

WHAT ABOUT MY SIX EMPTY GLYPH SLOTS?

For Prime glyphs, these three are the best, no question:
Glyph of Obliterate
Glyph of Frost Strike
Glyph of Howling Blast

Major and Minor glyphs are for you to decide what you want and what you think you'll use. None are mandatory, though the most convenient ones are Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell for the extra defensive power, Glyph of Dark Succor for the healing when available, and Glyph of Hungering Cold for the convenience. Glyph of Pillar of Frost is so situational, I haven't found a PvE use for it yet.
Over on the Minor side, the only ones that are even kinda useful are Glyph of Blood Tap, Glyph of Horn of Winter, and Glyph of Path of Frost.

ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BEFORE I GO PEWPEWING?

This may seem counterintuitive, but both 2H and DW Frost will run in Unholy Presence.

(Why Unholy Presence for a Frost DK? Because if you run in Frost Presence, you'll run into what we call the "GCD cap" as you get more haste on your gear. That haste will make you gain runes and runic power faster than you can spend them if you're limited to one attack every 1.5 seconds, and if you can't spend them in time, it's a DPS loss. And if there's any time during a fight when you can't attack, your resources will start piling up and you really won't be able to spend them in time. You need the reduction in your global cooldown that Unholy Presence provides.)

As for runeforges, 2H will use Rune of the Fallen Crusader. DW will use Rune of Razorice on their mainhand weapon and Rune of the Fallen Crusader on their offhand. (Bonus points for DW: if you happen to have a third weapon laying around that isn't much worse than your other ones, enchant it with Rune of Cinderglacier and pull it out for use in AoE scenarios instead of the Razorice weapon. The DPS increase will be substantial.)

____
|
|
-----
|
____|

The endless hunger will soon take hold of you, death knight. When it does, you will feel pain immeasurable. There is only one remedy for the suffering: the hunger must be sated.

I give you the key to your salvation.

-Instructor Razuvious

SO MANY BUTTONS…. WHICH ONES ARE FROST?

Don't be fooled by the fact that Festering Strike and Rune Strike are Frost skills, you'll never be using them.

Our rotation is not technically a rotation in the sense that we push the same buttons in the same order over and over. It's a priority system, which means at every moment you need to choose the ability available to you that's furthest up on this list:

-Diseases (if not on target or about to fall off target)
-Killing Machine procs (used on Obliterate if possible)
-Obliterate (if all four Frost/Unholy runes or both Death runes are available)
-Frost Strike (if runic power is full)
-Rime procs (used on Howling Blast)
-Obliterate
-Frost Strike
-Howling Blast
-Horn of Winter

Let's break it up, then break it down:
DISEASES: You need them up constantly, not so much for the damage they do but for the fact that they boost your Obliterate damage by 25%, and for the 4% additional physical damage your target takes when Frost Fever is on it. At the start of the fight and every minute afterwards, you should use Outbreak to do this. Frost Fever will take care of itself via Rime procs (I'll explain that later) but you will need to use Plague Strike in between each Outbreak to keep Blood Plague around. If you didn't spec into Epidemic, you'll need to use Plague Strike twice in between each Outbreak.

KILLING MACHINE: Your auto-attacks have a chance to trigger Killing Machine, which will make the next Obliterate or Frost Strike you use a guaranteed critical strike. You'll know when it's triggered, because your Obliterate and Frost Strike abilities will light up and two bars of ice will appear to the sides of your character. Obliterate will always hit harder than Frost Strike in every non-contrived situation, so you should always use KM procs on Obliterate if possible. Now, it's not always possible, and if Killing Machine appears in the split second before you hit Frost Strike….welcome to the world of Frost DPS. :P If KM procs when Obliterate is available or will become available in the next couple of seconds, it's worth waiting for it, otherwise just use the proc on Frost Strike.

THE NEXT TWO LINES: Always keep your runes recharging, and never let your runic power bar hit maximum. You don't want to have two runes of the same type that are both fully recharged, because any time a rune spends not recharging now just means it will have to spend more time recharging later, which means you lose DPS. Likewise, you don't want to have a runic power bar that's completely full, because any runic power you gain after that just vanishes into nothing, which also means lost DPS. If either of those happens, getting rid of it becomes your first priority.

RIME: When you use Obliterate, you have a 45% chance that your next Howling Blast or Icy Touch will consume no runes. You'll know when it's triggered, because your Howling Blast and Icy Touch abilities will light up, and a bar of ice will appear above your character. Howling Blast will always hit much harder than Icy Touch, so use it in any situation where the 10 yard AoE isn't dangerous (which should hardly ever be the case, and if it is, tell your tanks to move the mobs at least a little ways away from the CC). If you grabbed the Glyph of Howling Blast like I told you to, your Rime procs will keep Frost Fever up on your target perpetually, without you having to worry about it.

OBLITERATE: Your hardest hitting ability, and the one that should take precedence.

FROST STRIKE: Make sure that, unless your runic power is capped, you're only using Frost Strike when at least two runes of the same type are both on cooldown. The reason for this is your Runic Empowerment passive ability: Frost Strike has a chance to instantly reactivate fully depleted runes, which can only occur when some runes are at zero, which means both runes of that pair need to be on cooldown.

HOWLING BLAST: If all you have left is a Death or Frost rune, with not enough runic power, firing off a Howling Blast will give you 20 runic power, hopefully enough for a Frost Strike to get your rotation back in gear. I wouldn't recommend using Howling Blast at any other time, unless you have a Rime proc.

HORN OF WINTER: Every now and then, all of your DPS abilities are unavailable at the same time. In that case, don't forget about Horn of Winter, which gives an important buff for you and your buddies and gives you a bit of RP as well. It's better than doing nothing.

Chapter 3 (continued)

WHAT ABOUT WHEN I JUST WANT TO AOE FACEROLL?

In a true AoE situation (as opposed to your standard dungeon pull, where you should be using your single-target rotation), your priority system will change dramatically:

-Howling Blast (if both Frost runes or both Death runes are available)
-Death and Decay or Plague Strike (if both Unholy runes are available)
-Frost Strike (if runic power is full)
-Howling Blast
-Death and Decay or Plague Strike
-Frost Strike
-Horn of Winter

In periods of prolonged AoE, it is best to switch to Frost Presence.

I didn't bother to mention diseases, because they're going to be all over the place with the Glyph of Howling Blast and all the Plague Striking you'll be doing with your leftover Unholy runes. (Remember to put those Plague Strikes on different targets.)
Oh, and don't bother with Pestilence. The damage done by those half-strength diseases does not add up, when you consider all the full-strength diseases floating around, unless you got like a dozen adds or more.
DW Frost, don't forget what I told you earlier about switching out your mainhand weapon for one that's runeforged with Rune of Cinderglacier in these situations.


I'M NOT 85 YET! WHAT ABOUT MY ROTATION?

Your rotation isn't that different, actually! Once you get Obliterate at level 61, the basics of your rotation are all in place. Fill in the start of the talent tree I posted earlier (and make sure to grab On A Pale Horse!). Your rotation is still a priority system, which means at every moment you need to use the ability or proc that's highest up on the list I'm about to provide. Here's how your rotation will be different at low levels:

-Diseases:
Before you get Outbreak (level 81), you'll have to use Icy Touch and Plague Strike at the start of a fight to apply diseases. Frost Fever will remain active via Rime procs, but you'll have to keep using Plague Strike when Blood Plague is about to fall off. I really don't think you need to bother with Blood Plague on anything less than a boss fight.

-Killing Machine procs:
As I said above, Killing Machine makes the next Obliterate or Frost Strike that you use be a guaranteed crit for double damage, and is indicated by those two abilities lighting up on your bar and two bars of ice appearing to the sides of your character. Try to use KM on Obliterate whenever possible. Some KM procs will go to Frost Strike if Obliterate isn't available at the moment or if your reaction time is less than perfect (which it will be).

-Obliterate (if all four Frost/Unholy runes are available or both Death runes are available)
Always keep your runes recharging. If they're not recharging now, they'll just have to spend more time recharging later, and that's a DPS loss.

-Frost Strike (if runic power is full)
If you use Obliterate when your runic power is full, the 30+ runic power it generated is gone forever, and you can't use it on Frost Strike. If your runic power bar is full, empty it out a little before you keep using rune abilities.

-Rime procs:
As I said above, Rime procs make your next Howling Blast or Icy Touch free of cost, and are indicated by those two abilities lighting up on your bar and a bar of ice appearing above your character. Until you unlock Howling Blast (level 69) and glyph for it, just use Rime procs on Icy Touch. Rime procs will always be your method for keeping up Frost Fever.

-Obliterate:
As the name would indicate, this is your hardest-hitting ability.

-Frost Strike:
Using Frost Strike will not recharge runes until you get Runic Empowerment (level 68), but it still hits for less than Obliterate and so is less important.

-Horn of Winter:
Once you have it (level 65), you should get in the habit of keeping it up constantly, and using it during any downtime during a fight. The strength buff it gives is enormous. Bear in mind that the same buff is also provided by warriors using Battle Shout, shamans using Strength of Earth Totem, and hunters with cat or spirit beast pets who use Roar of Courage.

/|
/ |
/ |
------
|
|

The Scourge is infinite in potential. We are not, however, infallible by any means. Always be well aware of your limits, and the resources at your disposal. Always have an exit strategy.

-Kel'thuzad

WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE OTHER INTERESTING BUTTONS?

I'll divide them up into three basic categories: defensive, utility, and offensive.

DEFENSIVE? LOL IM NOT A TANK!

And if you do twice as much DPS as everyone else, but die a third of the way through the fight, you lost the DPS race.

Anti-Magic Shell:
Everyone says it because it's true: using AMS properly separates the okay DKs from the great ones. For Frost, the ability is defensive only - pop it to absorb 75% of all magic damage that hits you, up to a total of 50% of your health, and prevent the application of harmful magical effects. This means when AMS is up, you become immune to any debuff classified as "Magic." Remember to pop AMS slightly before the boss tries to slap the debuff on you.

Lichborne:
For those of you who chose to get this talent, it has two uses. The first is to make yourself immune to charms, fears, and sleeps, if there is any fight out there that involves them. The second is to turn Death Coil on yourself to heal yourself for Lichborne's duration. As I said before, I would personally prefer to use Death Strike instead, making this talent situational at best.

Death Strike, Icebound Fortitude, Death Pact:
I'm going to trust that you can read these and judge when to best use them. Each of them is a loss of resources you could use for DPSing, but then again, if they keep you alive and allow you to keep DPSing...

UTILITY

Blood Tap:
"But Taruun," you might say, "my Blood runes are permanently Death runes anyways!" This is true, but Blood Tap still instantly grants you one of your Death runes, and is always useful whenever you need a rune at that very moment - Pillar of Frost is probably the best example, or any moment where you need to recover from a mistake you made. If nothing else, it can give you an Obliterate a little quicker.

Empower Rune Weapon:
Blood Tap's big brother, but with a five minute cooldown, so you probably won't have the chance to use it more than once in any boss fight. Back-to-back-to-back Obliterates with a chaser of Frost Strikes fit nicely with any burst phase, especially when you/the raid have popped all your other cooldowns.

Necrotic Strike:
It's harder to fit into a Frost rotation (the Unholy DKs have it a lot easier), and its uses are limited. If you have a mob that's healing constantly or casting constantly, it could be useful, but you should also consider whether it's worth delaying an Obliterate for.

Dark Simulacrum:
Blizzard says that after 4.1, there are actually some boss abilities in PvE that you can use Dark Simulacrum to steal. There are three things to remember: 1) if the ability scales with spellpower, remember that you don't have any, 2) the ability needs to cost your enemy some amount of mana for you to duplicate it, 3) the cast needs to be completed and not interrupted for Dark Simulacrum to work.

Hungering Cold:
All of you have this ability, although most of you probably only took it because it was required to get Howling Blast. It does have its uses, especially when a pull goes south (ten seconds of AoE CC can be an eternity under the right circumstances). You won't use it often, but do remember that you have it.

Mind Freeze:
Our basic interrupt, costing only a little runic power unless you spec out of its cost.

Strangulate:
Much more powerful than Mind Freeze, but with a far longer cooldown. Remember that unlike Mind Freeze, it can be used at up to 30 yards range.

Raise Ally:
Why look, it's our raid utility! For the cost of 50 runic power, you can bring a fellow group member back to life, with only a slight hunger for brains. There are only a few things to consider: first, they're only going to have 20% health and 20% mana when they return, so make sure there's nothing around that could kill them again, and that the healer is ready to fill them up. Second, they will rez at the location you were at when you cast the spell, so make sure there's nothing dangerous there to kill them… again. Third, remember that in Cataclysm raids, you're limited to one battle-rez per boss attempt in 10-man (that includes you, the druids, and the warlock soulstones), and three per boss attempt in 25-man.

Chapter 4 (continued)

OFFENSIVE

Pillar of Frost:
Did….did you look at it? This is an absolutely amazing cooldown that you should use whenever you possibly can. Pair it together with Blood Tap if you want to make it even easier to cast. The amount of strength given by Pillar of Frost will update every second as the rest of your strength changes from short-term buffs, procs, etc.
Oh, and don't forget that you gain immunity to knockbacks when it's up, although thus far there's really only one PvE use for it: the Al'Akir fight in Throne of the Four Winds.

Raise Dead:
"But Taruun," you might say, "I'm not Unholy! What will I do with a ghoul?"
Well, for starters, I'm getting a little annoyed by these hypothetical interruptions. At any rate, your temporary ghoul is still very, very powerful, and it is a DPS drop to ignore it. Just think of it as a slightly more fragile cooldown.
There are two things to remember about your ghoul buddy. The first is that you should wait to summon him until just after the boss casts his big kablooey spell, because you have no way of giving commands to your ghoul (such as GET OUT), and if he croaks only a few seconds into his cast, you've just wasted that much DPS.
The second thing to remember is that the ghoul gains additional attack power, haste, crit, and hit for its entire minute of existence based on how much you have at the moment you summoned it. This means you should wait to use it until after your trinkets have procced, you've used Pillar of Frost and any other cooldowns, and the raid popped Heroism or the equivalent. However, don't wait for the Absolute Perfect Moment, either - three summons of the ghoul will always beat any two Perfect Moments.

Army of the Dead:
On behalf of every DK who isn't a noob: please, please, please think before you use this ability. The ghouls you summon will continuously taunt anything that isn't skull level, which is absolutely everything in dungeons and heroics, and most adds in raids. Now, this can be useful - for example, if the tank is gonna die and you need only a few more seconds to kill the boss. But if the dragon is breathing fire, and the army is taunting the dragon to face in every direction, where is the fire going? Onto the entire group, instead of just on the tank like it should be. How mad will the healer be? Very mad.
Keeping all this in mind, if you do summon the army, the best time to do so is when you won't be losing any time to DPS the boss, either right before the pull or when the boss is immune to attacks anyways for whatever reason, such as a phase change. Like your other ghoul, the army will gain additional attack power, haste, and hit for its entire existence based on how much you have at the moment you began to summon it.

------
|
|___
\
|
__/

Kneel, champion. I place this helm upon your head to complete your terrifying visage. Any that dare look upon your dark countenance will know that death comes. Let none stand so boldly against your king so as to face your merciless wrath.

-Arthas Menethil, Former Lich King

WHAT'S MY BEST STAT? SPIRIT, RESILIENCE, OR AGILITY?

Strength. At level 85, one point of strength is more than twice as good as one point of any other stat. Shun all gear with Intellect or Agility, plate gear with Strength is what you want. (Why our starter gear still has some Agility on it is something I will not understand.)

You may see Strength's little brother, attack power, on some pieces of gear as you level. One Strength equals two attack power, but don't think that the two of them are equivalent. All your boosts to Strength (such as Rune of the Fallen Crusader and Pillar of Frost) don't apply to attack power. Always go for Strength if you can.

YEAH, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF MY STATS?

Your first priority upon reaching 85 should be reaching the hit and expertise caps. For each of these stats, you're aiming to get as close to a special number as you can (being a little under or a little over is okay, but not too far).

HIT

2H Frost needs to reach 8% hit from gear, or 961 hit rating, at which point none of their spells or auto-attacks should miss. Any hit beyond that point is completely useless. Draenei, the sophisticated and virile race, need only 841 hit rating from gear.

DW Frost needs to reach 601 hit rating, which is 5% from your gear and 3% from the Nerves of Cold Steel talent. Draenei, being cultured and refined, need only 481 hit rating from gear. Be warned that this doesn't technically make you completely hit capped, although once you reach this point it's a DPS increase to focus on other stats. I'll explain why in the next paragraph, which you should feel free to skip if you want.

There are actually three hit caps in the game, which 2H Frost hits at exactly the same time, but which DW Frost hits at three separate moments. The first comes at 5%, when all your special melee attacks will always hit (Obliterate, Frost Strike). The second comes at 820 hit rating, or 718 for the suave Draenei, where all spells-that-don't-require-weapons will always hit (Howling Blast, Outbreak). And the third comes at a whopping 27% hit, when all of your auto-attacks will always hit. You are not expected to go for those last two hit caps, and while DW will gain some DPS by stacking hit past 5%, you'll gain more DPS from practically any other stat, so stop at 5%.
That being said, if you find you just can't get rid of enough hit, it's no biggie for DW to be at the spells-that-don't-require-weapons cap (820 rating).

EXPERTISE

Both 2H and DW also need to reach 26 expertise from gear, or 781 expertise rating, at which point your attacks become undodgable. Any expertise after that point is completely useless in most situations. Unlike Unholy, nearly all of our attacks can be dodged, which makes expertise very important. For those who don't know, you don't have to worry about making your attacks unparryable (I'm almost certain that's not actually a word), because attacks made from behind a target cannot be parried. You are attacking from behind, aren't you?

Some races gain 3 additional expertise when using specific weapon types. The following races only need 690 expertise rating from gear when using the following weapons:
Humans: Maces and Swords (DW and 2H)
Orcs: Axes (DW and 2H)
Dwarves: Maces (DW and 2H)
Gnomes: Swords (DW only)

If you're not raiding at the moment, you can get away with being hit and expertise capped for level 87 mobs, which is all of the 5-man bosses. This is 6% hit for 2H (721 rating), 3% for DW (361 rating), and 24 expertise (721 rating). However, once raiding you must go the full distance.

Chapter 5 (continued)

CRIT, HASTE, AND MASTERY

After you've reached your hit and expertise caps, follow this order:
DW: haste>mastery>crit
2H: mastery>haste>crit

Haste is a good stat for a couple of reasons, but the big one is the fact that it increases our Killing Machine procs by giving us more auto-attacks. For 2H Frost, Might of the Frozen Wastes is the second big one - more runic power means more Frost Strikes! Plus, it increases our rune regeneration speed, which helps us fill the inevitable gaps where our procs didn't proc and we have nothing to do.

Mastery increases our frost damage done (Icy Touch, Frost Fever, Frost Strike, Howling Blast) which ends up being about 40% of our damage or so, which isn't too shabby.

Crit isn't that good because of Killing Machine - the two of them will just end up competing with each other, and you don't get a double-double crit if Killing Machine and your regular crit percentage pick the same Obliterate to boost.

Unlike hit and expertise, crit/haste/mastery don't have a "cap" where they offer less or no additional DPS boost.

You may come across a couple of PvP stats on some pieces of gear: resilience and spell penetration. The only thing resilience does nowadays is reduce the damage other players deal to you. Spell penetration only matters if the target has some kind of resistance to Frost spells, which players may have but mobs nearly never do. There might be enough strength, etc. on the gear to justify it as an upgrade, but don't try to do any serious PvEing with it.

For those of you who are curious, these are the preliminary stat weights for ilvl 359 and ilvl 378 items (i.e., Tier 11 and Tier 12 gear respectively). Bear in mind that the precise stat weights for a specific character will differ slightly.

359 378
DW 2H DW 2H
Strength 2.91 2.71 3.10 2.64
Hit 1.76 1.64 2.29 2.01
Expertise 1.18 1.32 1.64 1.63
Haste 1.23 1.24 1.47 1.29
Mastery 1.11 1.12 1.44 1.26
Crit 1.07 1.02 1.16 1.15

Side note: there is a more advanced gear/playstyle method out there known as "masterfrost." If you pull it off perfectly, it does more DPS than the method I've described, but it's more complex and the DPS loss if you screw it up is much worse. I won't get into it here, but if you're interested, check this link out: http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t125291-frost_dps_winter_discontent_4_3_a/#Masterfrost

WHAT ABOUT GEMMING?

Okay, here's what you need to remember: strength is your most powerful stat. Yes, even more powerful than hit and expertise before their caps. This means that you will want to gem for strength (via Bold Inferno Ruby) in nearly all circumstances. Your meta gem should be Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond, which only has red gems as a requirement anyways. The only exception is if the socket bonus from using different gems passes certain thresholds:

One yellow/blue socket: 20 strength or 30 of anything else
Two yellow/blue sockets: 30 strength

In those cases, you'll put Etched Demonseye in your blue sockets, and Fierce Ember Topaz in your yellow sockets.

If you haven't reached the hit or expertise caps from gear, don't miss out on the strength you get from gemming. Use reforging to get it instead.

WHAT ABOUT ENCHANTING?

Going down the list, and ignoring profession enchants:
Arcanum of the Wildhammer/Arcanum of the Dragonmaw
Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone
Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike
Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats
Enchant Bracer - Major Strength
Enchant Gloves - Mighty Strength
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Dragonscale Leg Armor
Enchant Boots - Haste

Remember, the runeforges I mentioned earlier are far superior to any other weapon enchant. And they're free!

WHAT ABOUT REFORGING?

Reforging allows you to take 40% of any secondary stat (for our purposes, that's anything other than Strength or Stamina) and turn it into another secondary stat that's not already on the item.
It sounds kinda simple, doesn't it? Just take all your most worthless stats and turn them into your best stats. But reforging is far more complex than that, especially when you try to work around your hit and expertise caps. It may work out, for example, that you turn crit on one item into hit, and hit on another item into haste. To figure out the most optimal way to reforge, I'd recommend going to askmrrobot.com, where you can import the gear you have and be instructed on the best way to go. Mr. Robot will automatically calculate the best reforging method to keep you close to the hit and expertise caps and maximize your other stats.

_
/
/__
/ \
| |
\___/

Though they carry with them the stench of death and the look of the Scourge, they have the soul of a champion. A soul that has only recently been reunited with the body.

-Highlord Tirion Fordring

MODS

Some of you may not care for mods (truth be told, I'm one of you) but there are a few out there which can make your life easier. First, the two biggies:

Deadly Boss Mods:
This wonderful thing contains all sorts of warnings for the abilities of individual dungeon and raid bosses, and can prevent your little DK bacon from standing in the fire many times over.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/deadly-boss-mods.aspx

Recount:
The source of the (in)famous DPS meters, Recount can provide a stunning level of detail on how much damage you're doing and of what kind. An excellent tool for analysis.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/recount.aspx

Now, we turn our attention to the rune display mods out there.

BUT TARUUN, THE DEFAULT RUNE DISPLAY IS JUST FINE FOR ME!

Then you don't know what you're missing. Maybe it is, and maybe you'll be okay with just moving the rune display to the center of the screen (because really, how can you pay attention to the fight if you need to keep glancing up in the corner?), but I would suggest at least trying one of these mods out:

DocsDebugRunes: Keeps track of runes, runic power, disease durations, and KM procs. Not very customizable, but it doesn't matter to all the people who love it just the way it is, including me. dr_AllCom3 hasn't been updating this in a while, but it should still be functional.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/docsdebugrunes.aspx

Acherus Runes: Keeps track of runes, runic power, disease durations, and KM procs. Highly customizable, with an incredible number of ways to show you how long until your runes come back. And it even has animations!
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/acherus.aspx

CLCDK: Keeps track of runes, runic power, disease durations, procs, and longer cooldowns. It also comes with a suggestion box reminding you what you should do next, but if you try to have this add-on play the game for you, instead of just give you reminders, I will be sad.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/clc-dk.aspx

If you have another useful add-on which I missed, please let me know and I'll add it to the list.

MACROS

These little bits of code allow you to string several abilities together. Again, they're not mandatory, but you may find one or two of them useful.

"The Lichborne Self-Heal"
If you have Lichborne in your spec, this macro will cast it and cast Death Coil at yourself with one button press.

#showtooltip Lichborne
/cast Lichborne;
/cast [@player] Death Coil

"No Really, Start the Auto-Attack"
When you use Howling Blast or Outbreak, unlike most other abilities, your auto-attack will not automatically activate...

(Taruun has earned the achievement 'Alliteration!')

…unless you use a macro like this. (Replace Howling Blast with Outbreak if necessary.)

#showtooltip Howling Blast
/Startattack
/cast Howling Blast

"Mr. Chekov, Fire All Phasers" (thanks to Joolz)
This macro pops everything at once: Pillar of Frost, Raise Dead, and both your trinkets (which the macro language simply calls 13 and 14). If you want to add more spells - such as Blood Tap or Empower Rune Weapon - simply add another line starting with "/cast" in the order you want.

/use 13
/use 14
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Raise Dead


"The Bird's Eye View"
Thanks to Heartless:

This isn't so much of a macro as it is a one-time slash command. The following script will increase the allowable threshold of your camera's distance. This is wonderful for fights like Al'Akir where there are large scale effects and far away enemies. Just type the script into your chat window and scroll your wheel to experience the amazing new birds-eye view.

/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",30)

"Two Buttons in One" (thanks to Derriere)
With this macro, you can cast one ability when you push the button (in this case, Mind Freeze), but holding down the Shift key and pushing the button will cast another ability (in this case, Strangulate). You can also use this macro to cast Death Coil with Shift when you can't attack in melee range.
#showtooltip [modifier:shift] strangulate; mind freeze
/cast [modifier:shift] strangulate; mind freeze
#showtooltip [modifier:shift] death coil; frost strike
/cast [modifier:shift] death coil; frost strike

"Another Silence Macro" (thanks to Hipho)

I found this really helpful, it will cast Strangulate on your current MOUSE-OVER target, if you have no MOUSE-OVER target, it will cast on your current SELECTED target; if Strangulate is on cooldown it will perform the SAME EXACT function using Mind Freeze.

#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover, exists] Strangulate; Strangulate
/cast [target=mouseover, exists] Mind Freeze; Mind Freeze

If you have another macro which you think is useful, please let me know and I'll add it to the list.

(reserved for future changes)
------------------------

Reserved for expansion, though that should be everything for now.

WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU EDITED THIS GUIDE?
4/5/2011 - thread creation
4/6/2011 - added macros, clarified use of UP for 2H, general sprucing-up and error correction
4/10/2011 - added camera zoom macro and a brief note on resilience
4/13/2011 - yet more macros added
4/19/2011 - added a snippet on Necrotic Strike
4/26/2011 - first pass for updating to 4.1
4/26/2011 - added a section on patch changes, reupdated the stat weights and talent tree
5/27/2011 - another pass for clarity and a few wording changes
6/3/2011 - corrected a few embarrassing errors, added a section on 4.2
6/8/2011 - one more pass for clarity, added a bit to professions and cleaned up the 4.2 section
6/10/2011 - STICKY WOOOOO
6/18/2011 - added a section on low-level rotation, guide should be ready for 4.2
7/26/2011 - enchanting list finally added, another pass for clarity
8/24/2011 - rewrote the section on low-level rotation, another pass for clarity
10/25/2011 - dusted off the cobwebs and put in a better talent tree link
11/28/2011 - first pass for updating to 4.3
12/4/2011 - retired the section on Frost Presence and replaced it with a brief bit on masterfrost
3/26/2012 - RP added

good stuff mate, helped me out a lot.
thanks

Nice, a PvE Frost guide. The forums certainly have a tangible need for Frost DW/2H guidance which I think will, in all likelihood, only increase come 4.1.

I did a quick read through pre-lunch break here and only noticed one technical thing which may need to be changed.

04/05/2011 07:20 AMPosted by Taruun

26 expertise from gear, or 780 expertise rating

I want to say that this will actually be closer to 781. Blizzard's character sheet makes some rounding errors when it comes to displaying stats which is a little misleading. Expertise point to rating value is 30.0272 [1] so 26 * 30.0272 = 780.7072.

[1] http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t29453-combat_ratings_level_85_cataclysm/

04/05/2011 07:23 AMPosted by Taruun

Reserved for expansion.

Have you thought about adding Macros? You may get some requests for the Licborne Self-Heal, Pillar/Trinket and things like that. I'm sure a true-blue Frost player could rattle them off quickly or make suggestions for the most efficient iterations of code.

04/05/2011 07:10 AMPosted by Taruun

Thanks also to Heartless, who wrote the stickied Unholy guide, for providing a basic structure for this guide and some info in that thread which applies to Frost as well as Unholy. Her guide's professionalism and clarity is something I aspire to.

/cheer!
Thanks a bunch and I appreciate the kind words. Please feel free to hit me up on Twitter @heartless_dk. Some of the BNET/EJ forum folks keep up with PTR and game changes there. It's also a helpful sounding board for ideas and thoughts too.

Quite a nice guide! I think if you can add some visual separation in a few places, you'll have a very navigable and easy to read piece. Maybe bold, underline or style the chapters and their headings in some way to make it easy to scroll through. BNET didn't exactly trust the forums with much BBCode (I know it's a pain!), but you may be able to do a little ASCII and make lines, brackets, or something of that nature. Some of the other class forum stickies have variations that you might like to borrow from.

Overall I really enjoyed the casual tone and the humor you added to the text. I think it's approachable and includes a lot of information that will tackle common questions that are being asked daily via new threads.

Ah. I found this fairly helpful as I am still learning my DK. (always learning, perfecting) However you claim 2h frost is the best for quest leveling, Yet I think its worth noting that questing as blood is ridiculously easy.

Spell hit cap isn't really necessary for DW Frost. The stat loses a lot of value after you reach yellow hit cap.

That reminds me...Nijeak, where's my EJ Frost guide, eh eh? :)

04/05/2011 12:30 PMPosted by Nijeak

Spell hit cap isn't really necessary for DW Frost. The stat loses a lot of value after you reach yellow hit cap.

Yeah, I was about to mention that.

Anyway, sticky requested. Good guide.

04/05/2011 12:50 PMPosted by Heartless

That reminds me...Nijeak, where's my EJ Frost guide, eh eh? :)

I actually just finished a rough draft and sent a PM to Tehax to see what I need to do. I figure 4.1 is going to happen in a week or two so I should expect that no one else has offered to do it and bite the bullet.