Mists of Pandaria Classic Frost Death Knight Rotation and Cooldowns
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Frost Death Knight in both single-target and multi-target PvE situations in Mists of Pandaria Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS.
Frost Death Knight Rotations
If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.
Frost Death Knight in Mists of Pandaria works off of a priority system that aims to deal as much damage as possible with a constantly changing
list of rules to follow in order to make most effective use of your next global cooldown. This guide assumes you are dual-wielding and playing the Master Frost
version of the spec which puts a much larger emphasis on Mastery and how it increases the damage done by our abilities like Soul Reaper.
Single-Target Rotation
As mentioned above, the goal of this priority order is to maximize the value of each of our Runes by utilizing powerful procs like Killing Machine
to increase the damage of our abilities. While following this do remember that your Blood Runes will be Death Runes in Mists of Pandaria thanks to
Blood of the North.
The priority order is as follows:
- Make sure you are in
Frost Presence;
- Cast
Army of the Dead before the pull;
- Make sure to prepot your
Potion of Mogu Power;
- Cast
Pillar of Frost;
- If
Raise Dead is available make sure to use it;
- If you have 11 or more stacks of
Blood Tap and a Rune inactive, use it to refresh your Rune;
- If the target is below 35%, cast
Soul Reaper;
- With a
Killing Machine proc or 89 Runic Power or more cast
Frost Strike;
- With a
Killing Machine proc and both
Blood Plague and
Frost Fever active cast
Obliterate;
- If you have both Frost or both Death Runes available, cast
Howling Blast. This will be your primary way of applying
Frost Fever;
- If
Blood Plague is not active on the target use
Outbreak to reapply it, if Outbreak is in cooldown use
Plague Strike;
- With a
Rime proc cast
Howling Blast;
- If you have 40 Runic Power or more cast
Frost Strike;
- Cast
Obliterate;
- Cast
Howling Blast;
- Cast
Blood Tap assuming a Rune is inactive;
- Cast
Horn of Winter to generate Runic Power;
- Use
Empower Rune Weapon to refresh all of your Runes and gain 25 Runic Power.
It is important to note that while Plague Leech will be our default talent choice but there is a bit of nuance
on how it is optimally used. Ideally you will cast
Plague Leech as your diseases are about to expire and two of your
Runes are inactive. Placing this in your priority list can be a bit difficult as we will be constantly refreshing out
Frost Fever
with
Howling Blast but your goal should be to cast this to get an extra cast of a hard hitting ability like
Obliterate.
AoE Rotation
Your AoE rotation follows a similar list of priorities as what is recommended for single target with some slight changes, we will be casting
as many Howling Blasts as possible so do not worry about casting
Soul Reaper unless there is an incredibly high priority
target in the group you are AoEing. With Howling Blast applying
Frost Fever to all the targets it hits this devalues
Pestilence
a bit as it will only be spreading one disease and our Blood Runes will already be Death Runes thanks to
Blood of the North and should ideally be spent
on
Howling Blasts. Your Unholy Runes should be spent on
Plague Strike to apply
Blood Plague to as many targets as possible, but
only when
Death and Decay is already down and on cooldown.
Cooldowns
Frost Death Knight damage can be bolstered considerably
if used correctly so its important to understand how each of your cooldowns functions and how to best utilize them. A well timed
Pillar of Frost can be the difference between cleaving down that group of enemies or being overrun.
Empower Rune Weapon instantly refreshes all of your Runes and grants you 25 Runic Power. The ability to instantly
reset all of your Runes can be a make or break difference if you find yourself challenged with a tight DPS check. This should
ideally be used rotationally in any situation where you find yourself without any Runic Power or Runes meaning you do not have
a damaging ability to press.
Pillar of Frost increases your Strength by 20% and makes you immune to knockbacks and similar effects. Pillar of
Frost is a massive damage increase and scales incredibly with your gear, the more Strength you have the more effective this cooldown
will be so as we progress through the expansion this will only become more powerful. This should ideally be used every minute as soon as
the cooldown is finished but make sure to pair it with any other procs you may have if possible and that you will be able to remain active
on your target for its entire 20 second duration.
Raise Dead summons a ghoul to fight by your side for 1 minute. This is a great way to deal some additional damage and should be used
on cooldown as it is a single global cooldown for a minute of passive damage to your target. Do note that this ghouls stat update dynamically so
there is no need to wait for any kind of procs or any on uses to increase your stats before pressing this.
Army of the Dead summons a large group of ghouls to help deal with your enemies. This should ideally be cast pre-pull or in any situation
where you are unable to hit your current target. It is important to note that these ghouls update dynamically so you do not need to worry about
waiting for a
Rune of the Fallen Crusader proc or anything like that to cast this ability. This can also be used as a defensive cooldown
in an emergency as it will grant you damage reduction equal to your Dodge + Parry chance.
Changelog
- 19 Jun. 2025: Guide created.