Furburglar wrote:
The tradeoff in damage is about 100 more damage per Frostbolt and 500+ per critical with Arcane for about 3% more crits with Frost (at least according to my charts).
Assuming 700 +dmg(modest number); 20% base crit chance; and 400 int(about what I'm rocking right now):
Based on my spreadsheet, you have a base rate to crit of 25% with the full frost(18/0/43) and 26.86% from arcane frost(40/0/21).
Full frost damage numbers:
Total FB Dmg: 1317.20
FB Crit Dmg: 2634.40
Arcane frost damage numbers:
Total FB Dmg: 1374.37
FB Crit Dmg: 3092.34
Here's where the numbers get interesting Full frost DPS on a mob when winter's chill is stacked(boss fights, where DPS matters most): 746.85
Arcane/frost DPS on a mob with no winter's chill up(Again matters most on boss fights): 756.39
Now, and here's the question, is the survivability of full frost worth giving up for less than 10 dps? Not to mention the fact that the gap shrinks more as you gain more +dmg(assuming crit rate and int are fairly static, they become equal DPS at a little more than 800 +dmg). And then we add in that you're buffing the overall damage of all arcane/frosties in your raid(not a biggie in Kara, but might be in Gruul's/Magtheridon's Lairs and further).
However, if all you're worried about is the damage meters, then you'll find that the good overall damage the 40/0/21 gives on trash mobs as well as bosses to be more to your liking.