Cataclysm Classic Frost Death Knight Stat Priority

The stat priority for Frost Death Knight is as follows:

1. Strength
2. Hit Rating (to 8%)
3. Expertise Rating (26 Expertise Cap)
4. Haste Rating
5. Critical Strike Rating
6. Mastery

Strength is your primary source of Attack Power which all of your damaging abilities scale off of. We will rarely if ever have to choose between Strength and other stats as it is a Primary stat. Frost scales incredibly with Strength compared to many other classes because of our Pillar of Frost and Brittle Bones talents and also benefits greatly from buffs like Blessing of Kings.

At Level 85:

• 1 Strength = 2 Attack Power

Hit Rating is crucial as a Death Knight as your Runes can at times be quite limited so making sure every attack lands is crucial. Landing auto attacks is a giant part of your DPS as Frost as you need to be consistently landing melee attacks to maximize your Killing Machine procs. Nerves of Cold Steel however helps with this when using one-handed weapons which is recommended. Do note that any Hit rating past the 8% cap is entirely useless as a Death Knight. If you find yourself playing Draenei be aware that your Heroic Presence racial grants an additional 1% Hit Rating passively.

At Level 85:

• 120.1 Hit Rating = 1% Hit Chance

Expertise Rating reduces the chance that the target will Dodge or Parry At 26 Rating which is what we are aiming for you will have completely remove any boss level mobs ability to Dodge your attacks, while attacking from behind boss mobs will not be able to Parry so we have no real reason to add anymore Expertise past the cap of 26 as we will rarely if ever be attacking from in front of the mob.

Rating	Skill	Percent	Information
30.02	1	0.25%	1 Expertise Skill
691	23	5.75%	Dodge cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization.
781	26	6.5%	Dodge cap on bosses without racial
1592	53	13.25%	Parry cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization.
1682	56	14%	Parry cap on bosses without racial

Haste rating is our most highly sought-after secondary once we have reached our Hit and Expertise Caps. The main value added from Haste is the increased Attack Speed, the more auto-attacks the more likely we are to proc Killing Machine which causes our next Obliterate or Frost Strike ability to be a guaranteed Critical Strike which also slightly reduces the value of Critical Strike rating. Haste rating also causes your Runes to regenerate faster allowing us to cast more Rune spending abilities like Obliterate throughout the course of a fight.

At Level 85:

• 128.05 Haste Rating = 1% Haste

Critical Strike rating is a massive benefit to our DPS even with talents like Killing Machine removing some of the value found in Critical Strike as Obliterate and Frost Strike serve as our primary Rune and Runic Power spenders. Critical Strike pulls slightly ahead of Mastery due to our ability Runic Focus which causes our Critical Strikes to deal double damage.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Crit Rating = 1% Crit

Mastery is the new stat added in during Cataclysm and provides a different, unique benefit for every single specialization in the game. For Frost DeathKnights, Mastery gives Frozen Heart, which increases your Frost damage dealt based on the amount of Mastery you have. This is an entirely passive DPS increase to the majority of your damage dealing abilities as a Frost Death Knight and while Haste is still a bit more valuable this is another great choice though it performs worse than the other available options. Reforge this stat into a higher priority stat like Haste or Critical Strike Rating

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1% Mastery