Frost Death Knight DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.0.5)

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

For those who are new to Frost Death Knight and are not sure what each ability does and how they interact with the Frost toolkit, we recommend checking out our Spell Summary guide linked below.

Frost Death Knights are a melee DPS specialization with strong single-target and AoE damage and a fairly simple and approachable play style. They can use either 2-Handed or 1-Handed weapons.

Your main goal throughout fights will be to maximize your Obliterate usage while keeping an eye out for your two procs, Rime and Killing Machine.

Furthermore, if running the Breath build, you want to maximize your uptime of Breath of Sindragosa by generating your Runic Power efficiently and leveraging your cooldowns, such as Empower Rune Weapon and Horn of Winter in a smart way. If you are running Shattering Blade, you instead keep track of your Razorice stacks on your enemy, bursting them with big Frost Strikes!

For a detailed breakdown of Frost Death Knight talent choices, please read out Frost Death Knight Talent Guide!

1. Critical Strike;
2. Mastery;
3. Haste;
4. Versatility.

This can be different depending on your character's gear, so make sure you sim yourself to find what your stat priority is. Critical Strike is generally a great stat, though, and you generally want to get as much of it as possible. Remember that ilvl generally trumps any specific secondary stat distribution.

Note that the rotations listed below are not fully optimized for the highest possible output, instead making some sacrifices to ensure their ease of use. If you wish to put out the most DPS you possibly can, you should check out our dedicated Rotation page instead.

1. Spend your procs of Killing Machine on Obliterate.
2. Spend your procs of Rime on Howling Blast.
3. Spend your Runic Power on Frost Strike (single target) or Glacial Advance (AoE and if you have picked the talent).
4. Use Remorseless Winter on cooldown.
5. Spend leftover Runes on Obliterate.

When your Breath of Sindragosa is active, do not spend Runic Power on anything else!

As a Frost Death Knight, you have potentially 10 total cooldowns. Below, we explain how they are best used.

• Reaper's Mark should be used on cooldown before each Pillar of Frost window. We pick up Icecap to make sure both Pillar and Reapers Mark have a 45-second cooldown, allowing you to align them every time.
• Remorseless Winter should be used on cooldown. However, refrain from using it during your Pillar of Frost when running Obliteration builds.
• Chill Streak should be used on cooldown. Use it before each Pillar of Frost (they align when you pick up Icecap).
• Pillar of Frost should be used on cooldown, stacking it with potions or any on-use trinkets you have.
• Empower Rune Weapon should be paired with your Pillar of Frost windows. For Breath of Sindragosa, try to hold the cooldown until you start to feel starved. Do not wait too long, though, since you need to plan for your next window as well! If you wait 30 seconds with Bloodlust active, you cannot use the next one until 30 seconds into your next Breath.
• Frostwyrm's Fury should be used in synergy with Pillar of Frost and on as many targets as possible. For Single Target, you ideally do not use it in Pillar, unless you cannot generate or consume a Killing Machine proc during the GCD. It is safe to wait until just after Pillar to send it. When using Rider of the Apocalypse, use with your Pillar of Frost press to summon your Riders for the duration of Pillar!
• Cold Heart governs your Chains of Ice usage. Generally, use Chains of Ice at 16+ stacks of Cold Heart. With Icecap, simply use it with each window of Pillar of Frost.
• Breath of Sindragosa should be used on cooldown in synergy with your other cooldowns. Make sure to pool resources before you use it, and time abilities such as Horn of Winter and Empower Rune Weapon for when you start to starve your Breath. Try to space them out evenly.
• Obliteration alters your Pillar of Frost. Once active, spend every GCD generating procs of Killing Machine or consuming said procs. Use Empower Rune Weapon 0-2 seconds before your Pillar of Frost. If you are running both Breath of Sindragosa and Obliteration, only use Obliterate and consume procs of Rime in your Pillar of Frost window.
• Abomination Limb should generally be used on cooldown. Hold it for add waves that need grouping up.
• Horn of Winter should be used to generate Resources when needed. In Breath, that means pressing it when you cannot cast Obliterate in a GCD and you will not overcap Runic Power by using the CD! For Obliteration builds, use it ahead of your Pillar of Frost window when you are low on resources.
• Death and Decay should be used to enable cleave in AoE (with Cleaving Strikes). Time it with your Pillar of Frost windows, using it after you have generated two stacks of Killing Machine.