Frost Death Knight DPS Easy Mode — Season 4

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.

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

1. Critical Strike;
2. Haste;
3. Mastery;
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. Breath of Sindragosa wants quite a lot more Crit compared to Haste and Mastery. Obliteration prefers a lot more balanced stats, having roughly equal raw amounts of Haste, Mastery , and Crit. Try and stay at a bit above 25% Haste for both builds for the Pillar of Frost breakpoint.

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 Runes 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). Try to keep up your Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy buffs.
4. Use Remorseless Winter on cooldown.

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

As a Frost Death Knight, you have potentially 9 total Cooldowns. Below, we explain how they are best used.

• Chill Streak should be used on cooldown if you have the Death Knight Frost 10.2 Class Set 2pc tier set. If not, only use in AoE, but still on Cooldown in that case.
• Pillar of Frost should be used on cooldown, stacking it with potions or any on-use trinkets you have. Alternatively, you can save it for moments when you need increased damage, but remember that the cooldown is really short, making it easy to waste uses!
• Empower Rune Weapon should be paired with your Pillar of Frost windows. For Breath of Sindragosa, use the first charge 3-7 seconds after you pop Breath of Sindragosa to boost your initial burst. For the second charge, save it for when you start to feel starved in your rotation (around 60 seconds into the Breath). For Breaths with only a single charge, save it until you need it. For Obliteration, use it 3-7 seconds before casting your Pillar of Frost. This ensures you get full uptime of the Haste buff as well as helping pooling for the cooldown window. When running double charges, use the second charge with your second pillar window.
• Frostwyrm's Fury should be used in synergy with Pillar of Frost (at the end of the cooldown window when your Strength buff is the highest) and on as many targets as possible. With Obliteration in Single Target, wait until your Pillar of Frost finishes before you use the spell!
• Cold Heart governs your Chains of Ice usage. Generally, use Chains of Ice at 16+ stacks of Cold Heart. Ideally, time it with procs of Unholy Strength. You can also use it with 20 stacks in your Pillar window and then 10 stacks outside of it. This ensures you time the stacks nicely with each Pillar window.
• Breath of Sindragosa should be used on cooldown in synergy with your other cooldowns. Due to its long duration, a major part of using this is planning ahead and allocating your resource-generating talents ( Empower Rune Weapon and Horn of Winter) in a good way. First of all, ensure to pool at least 60 Runic Power before using the talent (100 without Bloodlust). Use Horn of Winter relatively early (as soon as you cannot cast Obliterate in a GCD, and you won't overcap Runic Power by using the CD) so that you get good value from it (holding too long will lose you casts overall). Empower Rune Weapon should ideally be used relatively early to boost your burst and then have its second charge used later when you really need it for keeping up your Breath. Use Pillar of Frost ASAP when it comes off CD in the window.
• Obliteration alters your Pillar of Frost. Once active, spend every GCD generating procs of Killing Machine or consuming said procs. Use Empower Rune Weapon 3-7 seconds before your Pillar of Frost. For AoE, use Death and Decay once you have generated two charges of Killing Machine.
• 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 won't overcap Runic Power by using the CD!