Frost Death Knight DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Season 1

Frost Death Knight Explained

Frost Death Knight relies on a dual-resource system with Runes and Runic Power. Runes passively recharge over time and are spent on abilities such as Obliterate and Frostscythe. Spending Runes generates Runic Power that we spend on abilities such as Frost Strike and Glacial Advance.

We have two powerful procs in our rotation that we play around: Rime and Killing Machine. Rime is triggered from using Frost Strike and Glacial Advance. It significantly empowers our Howling Blast ability which is also the only time when we use this ability. Killing Machine primarily triggers from our critical auto-attacks or the active Empower Rune Weapon ability. We also gain procs via the Obliteration and Exterminate ( Deathbringer) talents. The proc empowers our Obliterate and Frostscythe abilities, making them do significantly more damage.

The core rotation boils down to managing your resources properly as well as generating and spending your procs as much as possible:

• Spend procs of Killing Machine on Obliterate (Single Target) or Frostscythe (AoE)
• Spend procs of Rime on Howling Blast
• Use Empower Rune Weapon to generate procs of Killing Machine to avoid using no-JM Obliterate/ Frostscythe
• Spend your generated Runic Power on Frost Strike (Single Target) or Glacial Advance (AoE)

Multi-Target Rotation for Frost Death Knight

The multi-target rotation mirrors the single-target one in many ways. You simply replace Obliterate with Frostscythe and Frost Strike with Glacial Advance. The one thing to consider is Frostbane which introduces Frost Strikes in the AoE rotation (as procs of Frostbane). We swap to Frostscythe and Glacial Advance at 3+ targets.

Multi-Target Opener

1. Empower Rune Weapon
2. Frostscythe
3. Frostscythe
4. Frostscythe
5. Obliterate
6. Obliterate
7. Obliterate
8. Empower Rune Weapon
9. Frostscythe
10. Obliterate
11. Remorseless Winter
12. Pillar of Frost + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Frostwyrm's Fury
13. Pillar of Frost + Empower Rune Weapon + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Frostwyrm's Fury
14. Pillar of Frost + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Frostwyrm's Fury
15. Pillar of Frost + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Obliterate
16. Pillar of Frost + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Frostscythe
17. Pillar of Frost + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Reaper's Mark
18. Pillar of Frost + Empower Rune Weapon + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Reaper's Mark
19. Pillar of Frost + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Reaper's Mark
20. Pillar of Frost + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Frostscythe
21. Pillar of Frost + Empower Rune Weapon + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Frostscythe
22. Pillar of Frost + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Obliterate
23. Pillar of Frost + Empower Rune Weapon + Breath of Sindragosa + Potion + Trinket + Raise Dead + Obliterate
24. Empower Rune Weapon
25. Empower Rune Weapon
26. Obliterate
27. Obliterate
28. Obliterate
29. Frostscythe
30. Frostscythe
31. Frostscythe
32. Howling Blast
33. Frostscythe
34. Obliterate
35. Empower Rune Weapon
36. Frostwyrm's Fury after you have consumed both procs of Exterminate

1. Use Obliterate if you have a proc of Killing Machine
2. Use Frostscythe if you have a proc of Killing Machine
3. Use Frostbane on a target with 5 stacks of Razorice when Frostbane procs.
4. Use Remorseless Winter
5. Use Howling Blast if you have a proc of Rime
6. Use Glacial Advance
7. Use Empower Rune Weapon to generate a charge of Killing Machine and 40 Runic Power.
8. Use a no-KM Obliterate
9. Use a no-KM Frostscythe

The same nuance around consuming Killing Machine vs spending Runic Power exists in AoE. If you are healthy on Runes (3+), consume the Killing Machine always. If low on Runes, use Howling Blast with procs of Rime or Glacial Advance first. If at two stacks of Killing Machine, always consume Killing Machine ASAP.

Reaper's Mark is the active ability you gain from the Deathbringer tree. With a 45-second cooldown, you can align it with every Pillar of Frost window! Simply macro it with your Pillar of Frost every time.

The main aspect to consider with Reaper's Mark is the amount of Killing Machines it generates through the consumption of the Exterminate procs. Once Reaper's Mark pops, you get two Exterminates which give two procs of Killing Machine. Keep track of the proc so you know when you generate Killing Machines, and avoid double-stacking or overcapping unnecessarily.

Pillar of Frost grants you 30% Strength for 12 seconds. With a 45-seconds Cooldown it aligns well with Reaper's Mark, Frostwyrm's Fury and Breath of Sindragosa, whichever combination of the talents we pick up.

You should use this ability on cooldown and ideally couple it with any potions or on-use trinkets you may have. That said, it can sometimes be better to save it for a few seconds until a high-priority target becomes available.

Maximising the number of GCDs that you use within Pillar of Frost is important to maximise your DPS. Due to this, we leverage Macros whenever we use Pillar, combining the off-GCD ability with an on-GCD ability to instantly cast your first spell within the window. This requires you to start off on an empty GCD before you use the macro! You can read more about it in the Macro section of the guide.

Note that the Season 1 tier set adds a charge of Empower Rune Weapon when you use Pillar of Frost. Make sure to always have one or zero charges when you press Pillar to avoid overcapping. Furthermore, when running Breath of Sindragosa you will get two charges whenever you use Pillar and Breath. Either start at zero, or macro a use after Pillar (but before Breath) when you start at one.

Remorseless Winter deals damage and slows by 20% to all targets around you over 8 seconds. The value and usage of the talent changes significantly depending on the talent setup you use.

Frozen Dominion completely removes the active part of the talent, simply casting it automatically whenever you use Pillar of Frost. This is the most common situation, making a lot easier to deal with the usage.

Without Frozen Dominion, the situation becomes more complicated. In Single Target, we use Remorseless on Cooldown if we pick up the buffing talents starting with Gathering Storm. Ideally try and align it with every Pillar of Frost, so delay it slightly to keep it synced to a 45 seconds Cooldown cycle. In this scenario, you should aim to extend your Everfrost debuff on enemies when possible. Furthermore, if you can refresh your Remorseless Winter while it is running still (extending it significantly with Gathering Storm), you refresh its duration while keeping the buff stacks, a big DPS increase!

The final Single Target use-case is when you have only talented Cryogenic Chamber. In this case, make sure to use Remorseless Winter to consume the stacks whenever you reach 20!

For AoE, we always use this ability as much as possible (without Frozen Dominion) to deal AoE damage and buff your Frostscythe use with Cleaving Strikes.

Empower Rune Weapon is an off-gcd Killing Machine and Runic Power generator. It helps us reduce the number of no-KM Obliterates we cast in a fight, as well as providing a ton of resources. Furthermore, during Pillar of Frost with Obliteration, it gives a lot of free casts of Obliterate which is a lot of value.

We want to use this ability whenever we are about to reach two stacks of it, so we do not overcap. Otherwise we use it when we cannot use Frost Strike and we do not already have a proc of Killing Machine. Finally, we use it during Pillar of Frost to gain Killing Machines and help us maintain a healthy Resource level!

Breath of Sindragosa costs 60 Runic power and lasts for 8 seconds, dealing AoE damage in front of you. The duration can be increased by consuming procs of Killing Machine and Rime, extending it up to 30 seconds!

To maximise this ability, we use it in combination with Obliteration. Obliteration is all about the generation and consumption of Killing Machine, synergising very well with Breath of Sindragosa! As we already prioritise our procs at the top of our list, our rotation does not actively change during Breath, we just keep going with our standard Single Target rotation!

Make sure to pool Runic Power for every Pillar of Frost that you are planning to use Breath for, to make sure you have the required 60 to initiate the window!

Note that Breath of Sindragosa grants a charge of Empower Rune Weapon when you use it. Make sure to never have two charges available before you press Breath. Furthermore, with the Season 1 tier set, Pillar of Frost also grants a charge, giving you two total when you use Breath and Pillar together. Either start at zero charges, or macro a use after Pillar (but before Breath) when you start at one.

Frostwyrm's Fury is a strong Single Target and AoE Cooldown buffed significantly by our Apex Talents. Whenever you use it, you will be able to press the button once again within a 45 seconds window to recall the dragon at 50% effectiveness. Use the Frostwyrm's Fury with each Pillar of Frost widow (first GCD with Rider of the Apocalypse, after you consume your Exterminate procs with Deathbringer). Use the second charge ~12 seconds later still within your Pillar of Frost with the Haste buff having elapsed.

You have the option of saving the second cast of Frostwyrm's Fury to the next Pillar of Frost window. This is generally not recommended as it gets really tight to pull off right, since Pillar and the recall timer has the same duration.

Obliteration is not a Cooldown on its own but it does significantly alter how Pillar of Frost works and deserves a mention. With this talent and when Pillar is active, Frost Strike, Glacial Advance and Howling Blast all generate procs of Killing Machine. Due to this, we end up in a "weaving" rotation where we generate and consume procs of Killing Machine every GCD.

The weaving nature enables you to easily predict your actions within the window, optimising your spell usage and GCD utilisation. You know that the Frost Strike/ Glacial Advance will generate a Killing Machine that you then consume with Obliterate/ Frostscythe. If you got a proc of Rime you know that you then press Howling Blast followed by another Obliterate/ Frostscythe and so on. Leverage this deterministic nature of the Cooldown to maximise your ability use!

Finally, you want to enter the window with sufficient resources to execute it without any downtime. Empower Rune Weapon helps a lot to prevent this but you should still avoid consuming no-KM Obliterates within 5 seconds or so before the window starts (as long as you are below 4 Runes).

Death Knights use a dual resource system of runes and Runic Power. While it is quite straightforward in how it works, we will explain it here for the sake of completion.

You have a total of 6 Runes, which are available by default. Some of your abilities have Rune costs, and whenever you use an ability that consumes one or more Runes, those Runes will immediately begin recharging. The exact amount of time it takes a Rune to recharge depends on how much Haste you have.

Whenever a Rune is consumed, you gain 10 Runic Power (more on that below).

At most, 3 of your runes can be charging up at the same time. It is therefore optimal to keep at least 3 runes on cooldown to maximise the recharge rate over the course of the fight.

Runic Power is a resource that resembles Rage, in the sense that it decays when out of combat, but does not decay during combat. As mentioned above, consuming Runes generates 10 Runic Power per Rune spent, and this is the primary means of generating Runic Power, although some abilities also help with this. You can have a maximum of 100 Runic Power.

In general, spending Runic Power should be done when you are low on Runes or if you do not have a Rime proc of a Killing Machine proc. There are cases where you will overcap on Runic Power but that is completely fine.

Since Death Knights have multiple resources that they need to track, it is very helpful to customize your UI to easily track your resources. Being able to easily focus on your rotation and resources can help you maximize your damage and positioning.

Frost Death Knight has a number of spells, both active and passive, that hit enemies in front of your character. Breath of Sindragosa, Glacial Advance and Icy Death Torrent being the main ones. Due to this, positioning your character to face as many enemies as possible is crucial when doing AoE damage. Always stand at the edge of a pack of enemies and face inward to maximise your DPS.

Frost Death Knight gets access to Chosen of Frostbrood Apex Talents as you level up from 80 to 90 in Midnight. The first rank buffs Frostwyrm's Fury by 100% and provides a Haste buff when you use the ability. The second rank Chosen of Frostbrood extends your active Pillar of Frost by 2/4 seconds when you cast Frostwyrm's Fury in it, and improves the power of Enduring Strength. The final rank Chosen of Frostbrood provides a flat 10% Frost damage buff, an additional 100% increase to Frostwyrm's Fury damage and allows you to recast the ability at 50% effectiveness for 45 seconds after the first use.

The Apex Talents significantly incentivise picking up Frostwyrm's Fury and additionally using it in our Pillar of Frost windows. We send both charges in our first window to avoid missing the next one, making sure to spread them out to not overlap the buffs.

Death Knights use a dual resource system of runes and Runic Power. While it is quite straightforward in how it works, we will explain it here for the sake of completion.

You have a total of 6 Runes, which are available by default. Some of your abilities have Rune costs, and whenever you use an ability that consumes one or more Runes, those Runes will immediately begin recharging. The exact amount of time it takes a Rune to recharge depends on how much Haste you have.

Whenever a Rune is consumed, you gain 10 Runic Power (more on that below).

At most, 3 of your runes can be charging up at the same time. It is therefore optimal to keep at least 3 runes on cooldown to maximise the recharge rate over the course of the fight.

Runic Power is a resource that resembles Rage, in the sense that it decays when out of combat, but does not decay during combat. As mentioned above, consuming Runes generates 10 Runic Power per Rune spent, and this is the primary means of generating Runic Power, although some abilities also help with this. You can have a maximum of 100 Runic Power.

Mastery: Frozen Heart increases all Frost damage dealt.

Frost Death Knight has two types of procs that will happen regularly throughout its rotation. The sections below will help you to understand both of them.

Your auto-attack critical strikes have a chance to make your next Obliterate a guaranteed critical strike and deal Frost Damage, meaning it will scale off your Mastery and ignore armor. It also makes your Frostscythe crit for 4x the normal damage, up from the standard 2x amount. Killing Machine works based on the number of auto-attack critical strikes you have had since the last proc. For dual wield, the first time you get an auto-attack critical strike after your previous proc, you have a 30% chance to get a new proc. If this fails, the next auto attack has a 60% chance. If this also fails, you get a 90% proc chance and then a 100% proc chance if 3 auto-attack critical strikes have failed in a row.

Wielding a Two-Handed weapon (and via the Might of the Frozen Wastes spell) increases these proc chances. You simply have a 100% chance to trigger a proc every time you get a critical auto-attack. Still, due to the lower attack speed of a Two-Handed weapon, and since you only have one weapon to attack with, you still get 28% fewer procs when with Two-Handed builds.

Generally, these procs should be used right away to ensure that no procs are overwritten.

If you have the Obliteration talent, then this ability causes each Frost Strike, Glacial Advance and Howling Blast to trigger Killing Machine (for the duration of Pillar of Frost). Aim to never overcap Killing Machine, never actively generating one if you are already at two charges.

Your Frost Strike / Glacial Advance has a 45% chance of causing your next Howling Blast to be free of cost and deal additional damage, thanks to Rime. Make sure to consume these procs before you use the next Frost Strike/ Glacial Advance!