Mists of Pandaria Classic Frost Death Knight Stat Priority

The stat priority for Frost Death Knight is as follows:

1. Strength
2. Hit Rating to cap (7.5%)
3. Expertise Rating to cap (7.5%)
4. Mastery
5. Critical Strike
6. Haste

There are multiple ways to play Frost Death Knight in Mists of Pandaria, the recommendations in this guide assume you are playing the dual-wield masterfrost build so a much larger emphasis is put on Mastery rating. If you find yourself wanting to play the two-handed variant of Frost you will prioritize Critical Strike over Mastery but otherwise the your priority order for secondary stats remains the same.

Strength is your best stat as a Frost Death Knight. Strength increases our Attack Power causing all of our abilites and even our ghoul to deal extra damage. Frost scales incredibly with Strength thanks to abilities like Pillar of Frost which increases our strength by 20% for 20 seconds, the more Strength we have the more potent this cooldown will become and a key part of playing Frost Death Knight is maximizing the effectiveness of your Pillar of Frost windows.

Hit and Expertise are your most important secondary stats as a Frost Death Knight with hit rating being slightly higher priority than Expertise but reaching the 7.5% recommended cap for both of these is very important. Hit rating increases your chance to hit the target, at 7.5% this will ensure that all of your abilities hit the target though as any dual-wielding class your auto-attacks still have a chance to miss up until 27% Hit which we do not recommend gearing towards as our other secondary stats offer a much larger benefit after the inintial 7.5% cap is achieved. Expertise reduces your chance of your attacks being Dodged or Parried, at 7.5% we have completely removed the targets ability to dodge but they can still parry, you can avoid having your attacks Parried by standing behind the target.

Your Mastery as an Unholy Death Knight is Mastery: Frozen Heart which increases your Frost damage done based on the amount of Mastery rating you have. Your Frost Strike and Howling Blast will make up the majority of your damage done as Frost so any chance to increase the potency of these abilities should be taken.

Critical Strike is another great way to increase your damage done as a Frost Death Knight. Critical Strikes deal 200% the damage of a normal attack and increasing the potency of your attacks makes each of your Runes spent even more efficient. In Mists of Pandaria your diseases and summoned minions like Army of the Dead also benefit from your Critical Strike rating, so while procs like Killing Machine do reduce its value slightly its still a great choice when we are unable to choose Mastery.

Haste increases your Attack Speed and the rate at which your Runes regenerate. While we have more access to Runes than ever before in Mists of Pandaria the increased passive Rune generation will lead to being able to cast more Howling Blasts throughout an encounter leading to us dealing more damage. The increased Attack Speed also helps proc Rune of Razorice and Killing Machine more often throughout a fight. Razorice acts as an entirely passive increase to the damage done of your attacks and Killing Machine greatly increases the potency of your next Obliterate or Frost Strike.