Ding 85 and now for some gearing

In the Twilight Highlands I dinged Pys the deathknight up to 85. Immediately I thought what gear do I need and what reputations to grind, to gear up for heroics and normal instances. What Cataclysm factions are there and what do they offer?

Luckily Wow Insider have a Death Knight DPS reputation guide and a Death Knight Tank reputation guide. well I say reputation, but those guides cover gear from other sources too.

Faction / tank rep / dps rep
Dragonmaw E R
Hyjal E E
Earthen ring R -
Ramkahen E R
Therazane R R
(If not a scribe, Therazane E E)

On that evidence, Hyjal Exalted then Dragonmaw Revered and Ramkahen Revered and Therazane Revered get a good spread of gear for both specs.

Hyjal can be quested to Revered in Mount Hyjal, but they have no dailies so I would tabard them.

Dragonmaw have 5 dailies, so I intend on doing those when I can. Really Dragonmaw can be dailied to exalted.

Ramkahen have 2 dailies, so those should be done. However, since my aim is revered initially, I will tabard them in preference to Hyjal, to Revered at least. Then it will be between Hyjal and Ramkahen and I think Hyjal have the tank items and Ramkahen have the dps item at exalted.

Therazane can almost be quested to Revered in Deepholm, just 1 or 2 sets of their dailies are needed to hit Revered, so ignore their tabard and grind on dailies to exalted if you need to. My DK is a scribe so I can stop at revered.

Finally ER offer nothing for dps but the head arcanum for tanks. I think a half or quarter of honoured to revered is left once you finish Vashj'ir and Deepholm, but they have no dailies, so this rep should be tabarded to revered. I will likely do ER once Ramkahen and Hyjal are revered.

Death Knight Frost DPS leveling build and how to

Having taken the Frost 2H leveling spec for the trip from 80 to 85, it occurs to me that nowhere could I find a guide about how to play such a spec. Sure the places I read about it vaguely mention what you're meant to do, but having played it a bit I thought it would be useful to write down what to do.

Presence
You play this in Unholy Presence, to decrease the GCD so you can mash spells faster, and increase rune regeneration so those abilities come off cooldown faster. Now if you face an AOE situation, you can use Frost Presence for more actual damage while spamming Blood Boil and Howling Blast.

Priority
For single target:
First off is Howling Blast which uses a Frost rune. With the Glyph of HB the target gets Frost Fever, so you've damaged them and diseased them in one hit. I tend to only use Howling Blast (when it consumes a Frost rune) once a fight for a single mob.

Next use Obliterate. This uses one Unholy and one Frost rune. With the Glyph of Obliterate, it does 20% more damage.

Next if nothing else is up, use those Blood runes on 2 Blood Strikes. The talent Blood of the North which you get for speccing Frost, makes Blood runes come back as Death runes, which you can use for Obliterate when they refresh.

Finally you can burn the extra Unholy rune on Plague strike, or if you have it, use Blood Tap to get a Death rune, then Obliterate using the Death and Unholy rune.

All these abilities are generating Runic Power thanks to Chill of the Grave, Might of the Frozen Wastes and Improved Frost Presence. Which you use on Frost Strike generally when there is nothing else to press.

Once the runes regenerate, you continue to hit Obliterate to use the Frost and Unholy or Death runes, filling with Blood Strikes to use the Blood runes.

However, this spec seems to be all about watching for procs from Killing Machine and Rime.

Killing Machine makes your next Obliterate or Frost Strike a crit, and will highlight the spells on the toolbar and put two curved frost graphics around your toon (if you have spell alerts on). This should be used asap on Obliterate, or Frost Strike if Obliterate is not up.

Rime causes Obliterate to give a 45% chance that you get the Freezing Fog buff, which makes Howling Blast free. When Rime procs, HB will be highlighted and a curved frost graphic will appear above your toon. Mash Howling Blast when this happens! Of course, Rime can trigger from a Killing Machined Obliterate.

Sometimes Killing Machine and Rime come up at the same time, in which case I tend to use the Rime effect on a Howling Blast if I cannot Obliterate, then either Obliterate or Frost Strike if Obliterate is still not up. If I can Obliterate straight away, I use Obliterate then HB.

In practice I seem to attack with Howling Blast, Obliterate, Frost Strike and then either Rime or Killing Machine are highlighting a spell which needs pressing, then by the time I've done that, Obliterate is ready again or I have too much Runic power and need to use Frost Strike. Sometimes I can use a Blood rune or two with Blood Strike.

AOE:
For AOE, not that I have done this much, but I suspect its Howling Blast to damage a lot of targets, and put Frost Fever on them, then Blood Boil for the AOE then Death and Decay. Use the other unholy rune on Plague strike. Watch for Rime to do a free HB.

These priorities work fine for soloing, for actual instances, check out EJ for more details of what to do when for optimal DPS.

Healing
If low on health, you can use Lichborne to turn yourself undead, then self-target and spam Death Coil for some self-heals.

You can also use Death Strike in place of Obliterate to self-heal.

Given the massive amount of Runic Power this spec generates, you can summon a Ghoul then sacrifice it with Death Pact for a 25% health heal.

Escape
Hungering Cold will trap enemies in 10 yards in ice, allowing you to make your escape.

Conclusion
Frost leveling is a lot of fun. Sure I miss the days of Blood tank spec being both big damage and lots of self-heals, but the sheer speed that things die in Frost means its very good. I plan on keeping the spec for grinding dailies as well!