Suggestion: Icy Touch change

I play frost 2H. That being said, in many encounters my 31 point talent, Howling Blast, is completely useless to me. I'll use Lich King as an example. If I use HB in phase 1, I'll pull aggro on the ghouls, which the offtank is trying to gather as they spawn with whatever minimal taunts and talents he has available. So during the entire first phase I'll be using Icy Touch instead on Rime procs. Two things are wrong with this. One, IT hits for about 8k crits, vs. 20k HB. Two, IT burns Killing Machine procs, HB does not. This combines into a fairly significant dps decrease. It's been repeatedly beaten into our heads in Beta via articles, blogs and testing that threat is going to be an issue in Cata - and many tanks are having significant issues with AOE threat in current content - which means I might as well just ignore HB and get used to using IT for most encounters. There's a simple solution to this: Buff IT. Put some kind of IT buff in the same talent as HB so that the other DK specs aren't affected, and remove it from KM procs. This levels the playing field with regard to single target vs. multi target DPS abilities and doesn't change anything in pvp. If the future of PVE dps is single target, we need to be empowered to do so.
That's sorta an isolated occurrence and I personally think that problem will largely be solved in the cata instances since there won't be much mt/ot interplay and groups will be pulled farther away from CCed mobs.

Your example is pretty much a statistical outlier and IMO isn't representative of what will be the norm in Cataclysm. It's a situation where you pretty much do whatever you have to to survive because straight DPS without situational modifications would be bad.
Keep both on your action bar use icy touch first so the tank can build aggro then let howling blast rip, also with glyph of howling blast and chillbanes, it makes it really useful for aoe CC, something where really going to need in cata dungeons.
I understand the KM reasoning: HB auto-critting a group of mobs - or more likely a group of players in pvp - is OP. This is why HB is no longer on the KM list of abilities. However since IT is so low of a dps move, I would rather use KM procs on *ANYTHING* else. To the point where I'd ignore a Rime proc and wait for runes\RP to regen so I could get a OB\FS crit. Let's take it a step further. Rime is a 3 point talent - to get free IT occasionally? If there were other DPS talents, I'd reallocate the points elsewhere. If HB is relegated to single target fights.... what's the point of the ability being AOE? I suppose this isn't horribly broken, but I bet more of you will be agreeing with me in Cata. Right now we run in and pull aggro on all 50 whelps in front of Sindy\all mobs in front of Lady DW\huge packs in front of Marrow and let the AOE fly. This ain't gonna work any more. Single target skull. Get used to it.

@ Mightylink: If I don't give the tank 100k head start in threat, I WILL pull off of him. How long do you think it takes to build 100k threat on 3 mobs? 4? Not going to stand around for 5 minutes per pull to start hammering the HB button.
I agree superb. Why make a class spec so largly AOE when that's just going to cause them to have to cut back or never use one of their best abilities? Here's the other thing though, tanks should be able to hold aggro enough in cata, that we won't be pulling off. Crit is nerfed like crazy, (at least chance to crit) and dps with howling blast will be much less then now im comparison because its not a weapon strike. With most new tanks doing weapon damage or having high threat abilities, there is a chance we will be fine using HB as normal.
People act like this is the first time AoE abilities have been incorporated into a single target rotation. Whirlwind, Div Storm, Living Bomb.

People act like this is the first time AoE abilities have been incorporated into a single target rotation. Whirlwind, Div Storm, Living Bomb.

And this situation still exists, oh wait no Whirlwind and Div Storm specifically had their damage reduced to not be included in the single target rotation. Not sure about Living Bomb.

AoE abilites are not supposed to be in the single target rotation anymore, HB is because Frost went untouched in Beta. IT is a massive loss in dps if used in place of HB.

But its not like we have been beating this horse for 6 months to no avail, it'll hopefully get dealt with in 4.1.
I feel sorry for warriors, they're in the same boat. Bladestorm = dead warrior. All classes with AoE as a core ability are going to have issues. My suggestion only applies to frost, however. Let the warriors figure it out on their own ;-)

@Kage: incorrect. Mastery will be on more items and is a very good secondary stat for frost DK and strength is scaling very high on items. HB will hit like a cannon, and IT will hit like a squirt gun.

Tanks can't hold aggro now when I HB, this isn't going to change.

People act like this is the first time AoE abilities have been incorporated into a single target rotation. Whirlwind, Div Storm, Living Bomb.

And this situation still exists, oh wait no Whirlwind and Div Storm specifically had their damage reduced to not be included in the single target rotation. Not sure about Living Bomb.

AoE abilites are not supposed to be in the single target rotation anymore, HB is because Frost went untouched in Beta. IT is a massive loss in dps if used in place of HB.

But its not like we have been beating this horse for 6 months to no avail, it'll hopefully get dealt with in 4.1.

LB is still very much part of the single target setup. It's a 31 point talent, just like HB. Div Storm and WW are not. My point, aside from your little tirade, is that people managed those abilities in CC situations before. It's not that serious, especially when you're essentially talking about trash damage.
Icy Touch should have been removed a long time ago from KM, but doesn't need to do HB levels of damage.