Frost Death Knight DPS Stat Priority — The War Within (11.0.5)

The Frost Death Knight has a stat priority that is quite constant regardless of build. Critical Strike is simply such a powerful stat for us and will be our top priority in all cases. We have a number of abilities that directly benefit from the number of Critical Strike autos we can generate. You should be careful focusing too much on that fact, however, as we scale well with main stat and other secondaries as well. The general stat priority is the following:

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

Haste and Crit have good synergy with the Frost Death Knight kit due to several abilities being based off Critical Auto Attacks (which themselves scale via Critical Strike and Haste). Killing Machine, Icy Death Torrent and The Long Winter, to name a few, are all scaled with the number of critical autos you can get off. Due to this, Crit work really well for us! There are no specific breakpoints or % numbers to aim for; instead, simulate your character with the gear you have available to you to find your best personal upgrades.

Strength is your primary statistic. You should look for it in all of your upgrades. It provides you with Attack Power, which determines the damage your abilities do.

Haste increases your attack speed and your Rune regeneration rate while decreasing the global cooldown. It increases the number of Killing Machine procs via the increased attack speed.

Critical Strike increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and abilities. Crits deal double damage by default, but several effects can increase your crit damage, and make crits even stronger.

Crit also increases the number of Killing Machine procs since it increases the number of critical auto attacks you do!

Mastery, through Mastery: Frozen Heart, increases your Frost damage. Frost damage makes up a great part of your total damage.

Versatility increases all your damage and healing done, and decreases all damage taken.

The gems, enchants, and consumables that you choose are directly affected by your stat priority. To find the best mix of these, we recommend that you simulate yourself using a program like Raidbots or Simulationcraft. However, we have a page linked below that will give you advice on this topic.