Frost Death Knight DPS Spell List and Glossary — Season 4

Last updated on Apr 22, 2024 at 12:50 by Bicepspump 42 comments
General Information

On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as a Frost Death Knight in World of Warcraft — Season 4.

1.

Introduction

If you are new to Frost, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Frost and are comfortable with it in the current expansion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2.

Main Resources of Frost Death Knights

Runic Power and Runes are your two primary resources. We have 6 Runes in total that passively generate over time, taking 10 seconds to recharge (decreased by haste). Runes are the most common resource we use for our abilities, which include Obliterate Icon Obliterate and Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter. Spending Runes generates 10 Runic Power per Rune used. We use Runic Power as our spender on abilities such as Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike and Glacial Advance Icon Glacial Advance

3.

Unlocking Abilities

Spells and passive abilities are unlocked as you level up and spend talent points. This page will simply list every single ability you can obtain, not recommending any specific talent setups or rotations to use. If you want to understand which abilities are best to pick up when leveling, please follow the below link.

4.

Frost Death Knight Baseline Abilities

These are the abilities that you obtain without selecting anything in the talent trees.

Ability Abbreviation Description/Effect
Death Coil Icon Death Coil DC Costs 30 Runic Power to cast, dealing Shadow damage to the target. Can be cast on an Undead ally (including yourself) to heal it. Works to heal Afflicted affix!
Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay DnD Costs 1 Rune and places a damaging area at the target location, which persists for 10 seconds. If you have selected Cleaving Strikes Icon Cleaving Strikes also makes your Obliterate Icon Obliterate cleave 1 additional target.
Death's Advance Icon Death's Advance DA Death's Advance Icon Death's Advance when activated, increases your movement speed by 35% and prevents you from being slowed below 100% of your movement speed for 10 seconds. It also grants you immunity from knockbacks. It has a passive ability that prevents your movement speed from being reduced below 70%.
Rune Strike Icon Rune Strike - Costs 1 Rune and deals moderate damage. Is replaced once we choose a specialisation (Obliterate Icon Obliterate for Frost).
Runic Empowerment Icon Runic Empowerment RC A passive that gives you a 2% chance per Runic Power spent to instantly regenerate a Rune. Always picks a fully depleted Rune if possible, or the least depleted one if possible.
Dark Succor Icon Dark Succor - A passive that grants you a free Death Strike Icon Death Strike whenever you kill an enemy that grants honor or experience. Also increases the healing of the Death Strike Icon Death Strike by 10%. Importantly, you need to land the killing blow to retrieve the buff, meaning you will not get that many procs in Raids and Mythic+.
On a Pale Horse Icon On a Pale Horse - A passive that grants 20% mounted movement speed.
Death Grip Icon Death Grip - Pulls your target towards you. Also has a shorter GCD compared to normal spells at 0.5 seconds. This means that you can quickly use another ability after gripping something.
Raise Ally Icon Raise Ally - Costs 30 Runic Power and battle resses a targeted dead ally, bringing them back to life (even in combat).
Lichborne Icon Lichborne - Turns you undead for 10 seconds. This makes you immune to charm, fear, and sleep, and grants you 10% leech. You can also activate this ability to break any of these CCs, making it a useful tool if you are accidentally hit a mechanic that applies such a CC.
Dark Command Icon Dark Command - Taunts the targeted enemy, forcing them to attack you.
Runeforging Icon Runeforging - Allows you to apply a powerful Runeforge to your weapon, acting as a (usually) better enchant. You do this in the Acherus Hold at the Runeforges.
Death Gate Icon Death Gate - Summons a gate that will teleport you to Acherus. Here you can Runeforge your weapon and practice your rotation on target dummies. Using the Death Gate Icon Death Gate again will bring you back to your original location.
Path of Frost Icon Path of Frost - Costs 1 Rune and grants everyone in your group the ability to walk on water. Breaks on any damage taken.
Mastery: Frozen Heart Icon Mastery: Frozen Heart - Our Mastery, increasing all Frost damage we do. Doesn't work on damage sources from items.
Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter RW Costs 1 Rune, dealing AoE Frost damage around you for 8 seconds. It also slows all enemies affected by 20%. Our primary non-cooldown ability for AoE damage that is also worthwhile to press in Single Target. It can be significantly buffed with talents such as Gathering Storm Icon Gathering Storm, Biting Cold Icon Biting Cold and Everfrost Icon Everfrost. Learned at level 19.
Might of the Frozen Wastes Icon Might of the Frozen Wastes MotFW Increases the damage of Obliterate Icon Obliterate by 30% when wielding a 2-handed weapon. It also makes your auto-attack critical strikes guarantee procs of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine. This doubles the proc rate of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine for a 2-handed build. This is still less than a dual-wield build would generate by 28%. Learned at level 25.
Frostreaper Icon Frostreaper - Turns your Obliterate Icon Obliterates that consume procs of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine into Frost damage. This is a significant damage boost due to multiple effects. No damage reduction from armor, damage increases from Mastery: Frozen Heart Icon Mastery: Frozen Heart as well as damage increase from Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice. Synergizes well with all spells that increase the proc rate of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine, such as Obliteration Icon Obliteration and Icy Talons Icon Icy Talons. Learned at level 28.
5.

Frost Death Knight Class Tree Active Abilities

Ability Abbreviation Description/Effect
Chains of Ice Icon Chains of Ice Chains Costs 1 Rune and slows your target by 70% for 8 seconds. This is generally your primary way of slowing any given target. Great for when you need to kite dangerous mobs in the open-world, or kill a fleeing enemy.
Death Strike Icon Death Strike DS Costs 45 Runic Power and constitutes our primary mean of healing ourselves. The amount heal increases with the damage we've taken in the last 5 seconds, making it excellent to use after you have taken a big hit. It heals for 25% of the damage taken with a minimum of 7% max hp healed every time.
Raise Dead Icon Raise Dead - Summons a ghoul to fight with us for 1 minute.
Mind Freeze Icon Mind Freeze - Interrupts your target. Has a 15 yards range, a benefit over other melee interrupts that often require melee range.
Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell AMS Absorbs up to 30% of your maximum health in magic damage over 5 seconds, generating Runic Power based on the damage absorbed (up to 30 Runic Power maximum). This should be used to mitigate magic damage throughout the fight, while the added Runic Power will help increase your DPS. It also prevents any magical debuffs from being applied to you. This can be very useful to dodge mechanics! The Runic Power gain is also especially useful when running Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa since it can be used to increase its duration.
Blinding Sleet Icon Blinding Sleet Sleet Blinds all targets in a cone in front of you for 5 seconds. When the enemies are broken out of the sleep via damage, or if the duration finishes, they are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. Great ability to stop a group of enemies from casting, as well as controlling them efficiently. Your tank will love this ability whenever they need to kite.
Sacrificial Pact Icon Sacrificial Pact SacPact Costs 30 Runic Power and sacrifices your primary ghoul, dealing AoE damage (linearly to 8 targets, square root afterward) and healing you for 25% of your maximum hp. Primarily used as an emergency heal but can also be used at the end of the 1-minute ghoul duration to gain a bit of extra AoE damage.
Control Undead Icon Control Undead - Costs 1 Rune and controls the targeted Undead enemy for 2 minutes. This requires that the enemy is sufficiently low-level (does not work on bosses and certain mobs in dungeons). You can use the abilities of the dominated undead at reduced effectiveness. Overall, a good ability to leverage whenever you can.
Icebound Fortitude Icon Icebound Fortitude IBF Provides a 30% damage reduction for 8 seconds, additionally making you immune to stuns. Can be used when stunned as well to break out of the CC. Primary defensive cooldown for us with the added benefit of the stun break!
Anti-Magic Zone Icon Anti-Magic Zone AMZ Places a zone on the ground that reduces magic damage taken by 20% for 10 seconds for everyone standing in it. The maximum amount that can be absorbed is equal to 1.5 times your Maximum Health, increased by your Versatility.
Asphyxiate Icon Asphyxiate Asphyx Stuns your target for 5 seconds. Simple single-target stun with a range of 20-yard range.
Death Pact Icon Death Pact - Heals you for 50% of your maximum health, as well as putting a healing absorption heal for 30% of your maximum health. A panic-button heal with a downside. The effective healing is only 20%, but you still find a lot of instances where this provides the required breathing room for your healers or you need to bring yourself back to health.
Wraith Walk Icon Wraith Walk WW Provides 70% movement speed for 4 seconds. Any ability used during the channel will break the effect. Useful as a movement speed increase in instances when you need to move between A and B without doing anything else.
Empower Rune Weapon Icon Empower Rune Weapon ERW Provides a buff for 20 seconds, increasing your haste by 15% and generating 1 Rune and 5 Runic Power every 5 seconds. Provides a good amount of extra resources in your rotation, as well as a haste boost to synergize with your other cooldowns. Synergizes well with Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa due to the haste and resource generation.
Abomination Limb Icon Abomination Limb Limb/AL Grows an extra arm for you for 12 seconds, dealing AoE damage around you, as well as pulling a random enemy towards you every second. The enemy must be outside melee range to be liable to grip. Great utility tool that will help your party group up any pack of mobs. Also provides three procs of Rime Icon Rime.
Soul Reaper Icon Soul Reaper SR Costs 1 Rune, deals low damage, and applies a debuff to your enemy. After 5 seconds, if the target is below 35% health, this debuff explodes, dealing heavy ShadowFrost damage. If the target dies while under the effect of Soul Reaper, you gain Runic Corruption Icon Runic Corruption.
6.

Frost Death Knight Spec Tree Active Abilities

Ability Abbreviation Description/Effect
Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike FS Costs 25 Runic Power, dealing Frost damage to your target. This is our primary Runic Power spender in Single Target, forming part of our Core rotation.
Obliterate Icon Obliterate Oblit Costs 2 Runes, dealing Physical damage (or Frost damage if talented). Our primary Rune spender! It can be significantly buffed through a variety of procs and talents such as Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine, Frostreaper Icon Frostreaper and Obliteration Icon Obliteration. A major part of our Core rotation.
Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast HB Costs 1 Rune, dealing frost damage to your target and nearby enemies. The damage scales as square-root, meaning the damage per target decreases as you add additional targets. The total damage always increases. This spell also applies our DoT Frost Fever Icon Frost Fever to all targets hit. Frost Fever Icon Frost Fever deals Frost damage over 24 seconds and has a chance to grant you 5 Runic Power every time it ticks. The chance of gaining Runic Power is increased the more target that has the DoT on them. Generally only used with procs of Rime Icon Rime.
Glacial Advance Icon Glacial Advance GA Costs 30 Runic and deals Frost damage to enemies in a line, in the direction you are facing. Also applies Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice to all targets hit. A great way of spending Runic Power in AoE, as well as applying Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice to enemies. Useful with 2-handed builds to help build Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice in all situations.
Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost Pillar/ PoF Increases your strength by 25% for 12 seconds. Additionally, every Rune you spend when the buff is active increases your strength by an additional 2%. Iconic Frost DK cooldown that we leverage to boost our other cooldowns. It has multiple talents that directly interact with it, such as Enduring Strength Icon Enduring Strength, Frostwhelp's Aid Icon Frostwhelp's Aid and Obliteration Icon Obliteration.
Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe FsC Costs 1 Rune and deals Frost damage in a cone in front of you. Additionally, any crits with this ability deal 400% damage instead of 200%. If you have Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice on your mainhand weapon, this ability also applies a stack of the debuff to all targets hit. Good Rune-spending AoE ability at high target counts.
Horn of Winter Icon Horn of Winter HoW Instantly grants you 2 Runes and 25 Runic Power. Good addition of resources to the rotation and especially good with Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa since it can be used to extend its duration. Unfortunately on the GCD, making it a bit tricky to use.
Chill Streak Icon Chill Streak CS Costs 1 Rune and throws a snowball at your enemy. This ball will bounce to the closest enemy within 6 yards for a total of 9 bounces. Very powerful cooldown for 2-target stacked encounters. It still does great damage at larger target counts as well. Good boost in Single Target as well with our Death Knight Frost 10.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Death Knight Frost 10.2 Class Set 2pc!
Empower Rune Weapon Icon Empower Rune Weapon ERW Either grants the Empower Rune Weapon Icon Empower Rune Weapon ability or provides an extra charge.
Frostwyrm's Fury Icon Frostwyrm's Fury FwF Calls down a dragon to breath frost damage to all enemies in a line in front of you, traveling 40 yards. Huge burst AoE cooldown that can be leveraged well on extra-large packs in Mythic+ or add spawns in Raid.
Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa Breath/ BoS Deals Frost damage in a cone in front of you dealing full damage to your primary target and 1/ sqrt(n) times as much on all secondary targets (n is the number of total targets). The ability will drain 16 Runic Power per second, stopping once you reach below 16. Alters your rotation significantly and presents an optimization problem to maximize its duration. Great cooldown both for Cleave, Single Target, and AoE, which great Frost Death Knights can leverage to excel!
7.

Frost Death Knight Class Tree Passive Abilities

Ability Abbreviation Description/Effect
Cleaving Strikes Icon Cleaving Strikes - Makes your Obliterate Icon Obliterate cleave to 1 additional target when standing in your Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay, hitting 2 total. Important to note is that the cleave is based off you yourself standing in the Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay, not your enemy. Doesn't matter too much for us, but there are still cases where you can stand at the edge of your Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay and still cleave off targets outside of it.
Permafrost Icon Permafrost - Provides a shield on yourself based on 40% of your auto attack damage. Provides a good deal of tankiness, both from passive healing but also as prevention to one-shot mechanics.
Coldthirst Icon Coldthirst - Grants you 10 Runic power and reduces the cooldown of Mind Freeze Icon Mind Freeze whenever you successfully interrupt using the ability. A nice additional to our resource generation, as well as providing overall more interrupt opportunities in any situation.
Improved Death Strike Icon Improved Death Strike - Increases the healing of Death Strike Icon Death Strike by 60% and lowers its cost by 10 Runic Power. Effectively makes Death Strike Icon Death Strike a 35 Runic Power ability that heals for a minimum of 11% max health, or 40% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, whichever is greatest.
Anti-Magic Barrier Icon Anti-Magic Barrier - Lowers the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell to 40 seconds and increases the amount absorbed by 40%. Useful for any situation with heavy magic damage or frequent magic debuff applications (that you can then ignore).
March of Darkness Icon March of Darkness - Grants you an extra 25% movement speed during the first 3 seconds of activating Death's Advance Icon Death's Advance.
Enfeeble Icon Enfeeble - Gives your ghoul from Raise Dead Icon Raise Dead a chance to apply a debuff to its target, reducing its movement speed by 30% and making it deal 15% less damage to you.
Blood Scent Icon Blood Scent - Passively increases your Leech by 3%.
Suppression Icon Suppression - Passively increases your Avoidance by 3%.
Veteran of the Third War Icon Veteran of the Third War VoTW Increases your stamina by 10/20%, making you significantly more tanky overall.
Brittle Icon Brittle - Grants your diseases a chance to apply a debuff to your enemy, increasing the damage you do against them by 6% for 5 seconds.
Acclimation Icon Acclimation - Reduces the cooldown of Icebound Fortitude Icon Icebound Fortitude from 3 minutes to 2 minutes, allowing us to use it significantly more often.
Merciless Strikes Icon Merciless Strikes - Increases your critical hit chance by 2%. A strong throughput talent overall.
Might of Thassarian Icon Might of Thassarian - Increases your strength by 2%. A strong throughput talent overall.
Clenching Grasp Icon Clenching Grasp - Slows any enemy that you Death Grip Icon Death Grip by 50% for 6 seconds, allowing you to further control its movement.
Proliferating Chill Icon Proliferating Chill - Increases the number of targets hit by your Chains of Ice Icon Chains of Ice from 1 to 2. Only affects additional enemies in close proximity of your primary target. Synergizes well with Cold Heart Icon Cold Heart since both target will take the damage!
Gloom Ward Icon Gloom Ward GW Increases the effectiveness of all absorbs on you by 15%. Big survivability increase both from empowering our own abilities, such as Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell and Anti-Magic Zone Icon Anti-Magic Zone, as well as any healing coming in the form of absorbs. Especially good with Disc Priests!
Assimilation Icon Assimilation - Increases the amount absorbed by Anti-Magic Zone Icon Anti-Magic Zone by 10%, as well as granting you up to 100 Runic Power based on the damage absorbed. Both a nice small buff to the overall healing you can do with this ability, as well as a big injection of Runic Power in your rotation whenever there is big Raid or party magic damage incoming. Good synergy with Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa since it can significantly extend your breath!
Death's Reach Icon Death's Reach - Increases the range of Death Grip Icon Death Grip by 10 yards and resets its cooldown whenever you kill an enemy granting experience or honor. Useful in any situation where you need to grip adds as the extra range both helps with the distance you can move them, as well as lowering how far you need to run yourself. The cooldown reset is mostly useful during leveling as you need to land the killing blow to gain the effect.
Grip of the Dead Icon Grip of the Dead - Adds a 90% slow to your Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay, reducing by 10% for every second. A great tool to help your tank kite and manage any trash pack. Also helps to prevent targets from running away from you as you begin your AoE burst, something that can otherwise be very frustrating.
Unholy Endurance Icon Unholy Endurance - Converts your Lichborne Icon Lichborne into a proper defensive cooldown, granting it 2 extra seconds of duration as well as a 15% damage reduction for you. Adds to our already extensive kit of defensives!
Runic Attenuation Icon Runic Attenuation RA Gives your auto attacks a chance to grant you 5 Runic Power. This provides around 50 Runic Power per minute, adding a significant amount of resources to our rotation. This is one of the major factors to why our rotation feels smooth in Dragonflight.
Unholy Ground Icon Unholy Ground - Provides a 5% Haste buff whenever you stand in your Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay. Does not make the ability worthwhile to use in pure Single Target but does present a nice boost to our AoE burst window.
Insidious Chill Icon Insidious Chill - Applies a stacking debuff with your auto attacks, reducing the enemy's attack speed by 5% per stack up to 20% at 4 stacks. Helps your tanks survive in a scenario (or yourself when doing open-world content). Stacks with similar abilities that also reduce attack speed!
Blood Draw Icon Blood Draw - Heals you for a moderate amount if you drop below 30% health. Can only occur once every 3 minutes. Does provide some protection from dying but generally occurs too infrequently and with too little healed to be that useful in PvE.
Will of the Necropolis Icon Will of the Necropolis WotN Reduces the damage you take below 30% by 20/35%. Big boost to our survivability since the damage we take below 30% is by far the most useful to mitigate.
Death's Echo Icon Death's Echo - Provides an extra charge to Death's Advance Icon Death's Advance, Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay and Death Grip Icon Death Grip. Nice increase in utility with the extra mobility and the additional grip. Also a solid buff in AoE since we have more freedom to enter multiple Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay burst windows in any given pull.
Icy Talons Icon Icy Talons IT Provides a 3/6% increase in attack speed for 10 seconds every time we spend Runic Power, stacking up to 3 times. Gives us a nice boost to the number of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine procs we generate.
Rune Mastery Icon Rune Mastery - Makes spending Runes give a chance to increase our strength by 3/6% for 8 seconds.
Unholy Bond Icon Unholy Bond - Increases the effectiveness of our Runeforges by 10/20%. This includes every aspect of the Runeforge, making Rune of the Fallen Crusader Icon Rune of the Fallen Crusader both increase its healing and strength gain, for instance.
8.

Frost Death Knight Spec Tree Passive Abilities

Ability Abbreviation Description/Effect
Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine KM Gives your critical auto-attacks a chance to make your next Obliterate Icon Obliterate or Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe a guaranteed critical strike. It has built-in bad-luck-protection with an increasing probability of getting a proc every time you fail to get one. The chance scales as 30% -> 60% -> 90% -> 100%, meaning you cannot have more than 3 crit auto-attacks in a row without getting a proc!
Rime Icon Rime - Provides a 45% chance for Obliterate Icon Obliterate and a 22.5% chance for Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe to make your next Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast cost no Runes and deal 150% more damage. It still counts as spending a Rune for abilities such as Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost and Gathering Storm Icon Gathering Storm.
Unleashed Frenzy Icon Unleashed Frenzy - Gives a 2% stacking strength buff every time you deal damage to an enemy with an ability that costs Runic Power. Lasts for 6 seconds and stacks up to 3 times. Provides an ability to track in your core rotation where you need to prioritise Runic Power abilities every so often to maintain it at full uptime.
Improved Frost Strike Icon Improved Frost Strike - Increases the damage of your Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike ability by 10/20%.
Runic Command Icon Runic Command - Increases your maximum Runic Power by 10/20, bringing the total to 110/120. This stacks with our Hysteria Icon Hysteria Runeforge, bringing the total up to a potential 140.
Improved Obliterate Icon Improved Obliterate - Increases the damage of our Obliterate Icon Obliterate ability by 20%.
Improved Rime Icon Improved Rime - Increases the damage increase of Rime Icon Rime from 150% to 300%.
Frigid Executioner Icon Frigid Executioner - Increases the damage of Obliterate Icon Obliterate by 15% and gives the ability a 15% chance to refund its cost when used. Good boost for builds that focus heavily on Obliterate Icon Obliterate damage and provides a nice amount of extra resources to the rotation.
Rage of the Frozen Champion Icon Rage of the Frozen Champion RotFC Increases the chance for Obliterate Icon Obliterate to generate a proc of Rime Icon Rime by 15%. Also makes your Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast that consumes a proc of Rime Icon Rime generate 8 Runic Power. Brings a significant amount of resources to our rotation. Both from more GCDs being used on free Howling Blast Icon Howling Blasts as well as more Runic Power being generated overall. Specifically synergizes well with Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa!
Cold Heart Icon Cold Heart CH Gives a stacking buff every 2 seconds that makes your next Chains of Ice Icon Chains of Ice deal magic damage. Stacks up to 20 times (over 40 seconds) and deals damage for every stack consumed. Synergizes with Proliferating Chill Icon Proliferating Chill as the damage is applied to both enemies that are hit with Chains of Ice Icon Chains of Ice.
Fatal Fixation Icon Fatal Fixation - Allows Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine to stack up to two times. This greatly reduces the number of procs you will waste in a fight, making it a very powerful talent.
Enduring Strength Icon Enduring Strength - Provides a 10/20% strength buff after your Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost buff fades. The base duration is 6 seconds, and every Obliterate Icon Obliterate and Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe critical strike extends this by 2 seconds. Extends the buff window and synergises well with our longer cooldowns such as Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa.
Frostwhelp's Aid Icon Frostwhelp's Aid Whelp Summons a mini dragon when we use Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost, dealing damage in a straight line ahead of us up to 40 yards away. Also gives a 2/4% Mastery buff for every target hit, stacking up to 5 times. Great boost for our Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost window in AoE, but does ninja pull a lot if you are not careful.
Biting Cold Icon Biting Cold BC Increases the damage of Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter by 35% and generates a proc of Rime Icon Rime when Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter has dealt damage to three unique targets. Big boost overall with the most impact in AoE. Both from the raw damage as well as the guaranteed Rime Icon Rime proc!
Murderous Efficiency Icon Murderous Efficiency ME Gives a 50% chance to generate a Rune when you consume a proc of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine with Obliterate Icon Obliterate. Good synergy with any build that generates a lot of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine procs, especially Obliteration Icon Obliteration.
Inexorable Assault Icon Inexorable Assault IA Provides a stacking buff on yourself every 8 seconds. Obliterate Icon Obliterate and Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe consume a proc to deal additional Frost Damage. Stacks up to 5 times. Importantly, the extra Frost damage is independent of whether Obliterate Icon Obliterate or Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe crits and does not synergizes with any procs of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine. For Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe, it only hits your primary target, not gaining any benefit from the AoE part of the ability.
Icecap Icon Icecap - Reduces the cooldown by Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost by 2 seconds whenever you critical strike with Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike, Obliterate Icon Obliterate, or Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe. Has strong synergy with spells that work off your Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost casts such as Obliteration Icon Obliteration, Enduring Strength Icon Enduring Strength and Frostwhelp's Aid Icon Frostwhelp's Aid. Also works especially well with Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe since its attacks have independent probabilities of critting when striking multiple targets. There is an internal cooldown, so you cannot get multiple procs at once. However, you still get the benefit of only needing one hit to crit, making the chance of triggering the passive high as you increase the target count.
Gathering Storm Icon Gathering Storm GS Increases the duration of Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter by 0.5 seconds, and its damage by 10% for every Rune you consume. This stacks to 10. With sufficient Rune use, you can extend this buff for 20 seconds when your Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter becomes available. Recasting the ability with retain the stacks and reset the duration to 8. This is a significant DPS increase and is something you should aim to do when possible.
Piercing Chill Icon Piercing Chill - Makes your Chill Streak Icon Chill Streak apply a debuff whenever it hits a target, increasing the damage of Chill Streak Icon Chill Streak by 10%, stacking. This is a good damage increase whenever you have low target counts, being the most efficient with 2 stacked targets. Loses power with large target counts as the debuffs are unlikely to stack up very high.
Enduring Chill Icon Enduring Chill EC A 20% chance to increase the total amount of bounces by 1 every time Chill Streak Icon Chill Streak bounces. This will increase the total amount of bounces from 9 to 11.25 (in an infinite duration case) on average. This will be roughly 2 extra bounces in real scenarios. Requires the pack to live for the initial 9 bounces before it takes effect.
Bonegrinder Icon Bonegrinder - Provides a stacking 1% critical strike buff whenever you consume a proc of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine. The buff lasts for 10 seconds. Using a proc of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine at 5 stacks consumed the buff, granting 10/20% increased Frost damage for 10 seconds. Great synergy with Obliteration Icon Obliteration that is almost guaranteed to trigger this buff after each Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost window.
Shattering Blade Icon Shattering Blade SB Makes your Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike consume your Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice debuff at 5 stacks, increasing its damage by 100%. Makes Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike sometimes hit hard, but does give us a period of Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice downtime whenever we utilize this effect. Essentially requires us to Runeforge Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice to be useful.
Avalanche Icon Avalanche - Provides some extra AoE damage whenever we consume a proc of Rime Icon Rime, as well as applying a stack of Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice to all targets hit. Opens up for multiple builds to pick up another Runeforge that is not Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice, indirectly making this talent very powerful.
Icebreaker Icon Icebreaker - Makes your Rime Icon Rime also grant 30/60% increased damage to your primary target. Makes Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast hit hard on single-target and increases the priority of not overlapping procs of Rime Icon Rime.
Everfrost Icon Everfrost EF Applies a debuff to any enemy damaged by your Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter, increasing the damage they take from Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter by 6% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. In a similar way to Gathering Storm Icon Gathering Storm, this debuff can be extended at 10 stacks with sufficient extension of Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter. You have slightly more leeway here and only need to extend Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter by 5 seconds to roll the debuff.
Cold-Blooded Rage Icon Cold-Blooded Rage - Gives your Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike critical hits a 10/20% to generate a proc of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine. This does not add that many overall procs throughout a fight, but it is still nice to get some.
Invigorating Freeze Icon Invigorating Freeze - Increases the chance to generate Runic Power from Frost Fever Icon Frost Fever by 5/10% whenever the DoT crits. Makes your rotation receive even more resources as you increase your Critical Strike stat. Synergises well with Breath of Sindragosa Icon Breath of Sindragosa.
Obliteration Icon Obliteration Oblit Makes your Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike, Glacial Advance Icon Glacial Advance and Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast generate a proc of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine if used during your Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost. Overall, it adds a significant amount of procs to your rotation and converts your Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost window into a big damage cooldown. Introduces a "weaving" game style where you alternate between generating and consuming procs of Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine.
Absolute Zero Icon Absolute Zero AZ Reduces the cooldown of Frostwyrm's Fury Icon Frostwyrm's Fury to 90 seconds and adds a 4-second stun to any target you hit with the ability. Overall a nice boost to our AoE burst potential where we can leverage our burst significantly more often.
9.

Changelog

  • 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
  • 22 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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