Frost Death Knight PvP Stat Priority, Gear, and Trinkets (Season 4)

Last updated on Apr 22, 2024 at 12:50 by Keator 6 comments

Choosing your gear carefully is important for your Frost Death Knight in PvP. We give you a stat priority to help you choose items with the right stats, followed by advice on how to choose the rest of your gear and your trinkets.

This page is part of our Frost Death Knight PvP Guide.

1.

Stat Priority for Frost Death Knights in PvP

The stat priority for Frost Death Knights in PvP is as follows:

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

Versatility is the best stat by far. Versatility, in PvP, has the highest contribution to output while also heavily increasing survivability through healing and damage mitigation. No other stat can compete with Versatility in value in PvP.

Mastery and Haste are both very valuable stats, and a combination of both should be used. Mastery drastically improves output to important abilities like Chill Streak Icon Chill Streak and Obliterate Icon Obliterate during Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine while Haste improves your ability to use your important burst windows by increasing resource generation and reducing the global cooldown.

Critical Strike is purely an output stat and does not do as much for our class as the other stats. Furthermore, during Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost using the talent Obliteration Icon Obliteration, all of our Obliterate Icon Obliterate presses will already crit, making the stat much less worthwhile during those windows.

2.

Gear Recommendations

2.1.

General Guidelines

As for gearing, there are no pieces you truly need to target for slots like legs or boots; you are just looking for the proper stats on them, which will come from honor, conquest, professions, and the weekly cache. Due to the introduction of Spark of Dreams Icon Spark of Dreams, you are able to craft Versatility and Mastery in every slot, allowing for maximum burst potential. Embellishments can vary. For more sustain, you can play Verdant Conduit Icon Verdant Conduit on the Chest and Belt. A more defensive option is the Flourishing Dream Helm Icon Flourishing Dream Helm. It is recommended that wrists, rings, and legs be crafted with Versatility and Mastery.

2.2.

Draconic Gladiator's Emblem Icon Draconic Gladiator's Emblem can be an option if you need to play particularly defensive against a comp you have not been able to survive against (probably Rogue/Hunter comps). Death Knights scale very well with increased health effects because their heals are based on a percentage of your maximum health.

Draconic Gladiator's Insignia of Alacrity Icon Draconic Gladiator's Insignia of Alacrity is a viable option. The trinket provides a main stat proc along with static Haste. Early on, there will be low haste values, so this trinket will prove to be useful.

Draconic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity Icon Draconic Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity is best used with your damage cooldowns. Badge has a higher value later into the season and is generally used over Insignia.

2.3.

Gems and Enchants

Fill every gem socket you have with Zen Neltharite Icon Zen Neltharite.

These are the best Frost Death Knight enchants by slot:

  • Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Leech Icon Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Leech or Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Leech Icon Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Leech
  • Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Regenerative Leech Icon Enchant Cloak - Regenerative Leech or Enchant Cloak - Homebound Speed Icon Enchant Cloak - Homebound Speed
  • Chest: Enchant Chest - Sustained Strength Icon Enchant Chest - Sustained Strength
  • Legs: Fierce Armor Kit Icon Fierce Armor Kit
  • Rings: Enchant Ring - Devotion of Mastery Icon Enchant Ring - Devotion of Mastery
  • Neck: Tiered Medallion Setting Icon Tiered Medallion Setting
  • Boots: Enchant Boots - Watcher's Loam Icon Enchant Boots - Watcher's Loam

Death Knights get a special weapon enchant called Runeforges. Runeforging is done by using your Death Gate Icon Death Gate to get back to Acherus, the Ebon Hold. Rune of the Fallen Crusader Icon Rune of the Fallen Crusader, Rune of Razorice Icon Rune of Razorice, Rune of Sanguination Icon Rune of Sanguination and Rune of Spellwarding Icon Rune of Spellwarding all have value in a PvP setting. Fallen Crusader and Razorice are the standard output-increasing Runeforges. However, Sanguination provides increased survivability against all comps, and Spellwarding provides heavily increased survivability against spell-cleaves. You can have multiple weapon sets in your bag and switch them based on the enemy team composition.

3.

Changelog

  • 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
  • 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.0.
  • 01 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 05 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
  • 21 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
  • 31 Jul. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
  • 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
  • 02 Mar. 2022: Page updated for Patch 9.2.
  • 11 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
  • 02 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
  • 05 Dec. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands Season 1.
  • 12 Nov. 2020: Updates made by new writer.
  • 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
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