Frost Death Knight Leveling Guide from 8 to 80 — The War Within (11.2)
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Frost Death Knight leveling guide for The War Within. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Death Knight leveling guide.
Runeforge Choice
When you get the option to Runeforge, make sure you apply
Rune of Unending Thirst to your main hand and
Rune of the Fallen Crusader
to your off-hand. If you are using a Two-Handed weapon, then use
Rune of the Fallen Crusader. You can also choose to run
Rune of Unending Thirst
instead of Fallen Crusader for heal and speed boost after you kill mobs. We recommend using
a 2H weapon when leveling.
Gear Options
When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level.
Level by Level Rotation and Talents
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Until you pick up Obliterate, your primary
means of spending Runes is through
Rune Strike.
Depending on which race you picked, you will start at a different level, and have a slightly different intro:
- If you picked an Allied Race then you start at level 10.
- On the other hand, if you started with a non-allied race, you start at level 8.
You will start selecting talents at level 10, building your character as you gain one point per level to spend.
Talents to Level Up as a Frost Death Knight
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
Your talent set up should be as follows.
Rotation to Level Up as a Frost Death Knight
Pillar of Frost when you open on a pack.
Frostwyrm's Fury should be paired with
Pillar of Frost and used on big packs, elites, or boss mobs.
Breath of Sindragosa when fighting difficult enemies or big packs!
Rune Strike is your main damaging ability and Rune spender.
Howling Blast to consume procs of
Rime.
Obliterate is your main Single Target Rune spender and a big damage ability once you start generating
Killing Machine procs at level 17.
Frostscythe over
Obliterate when fighting 2+ enemies.
- Use
Death Coil when you have 80+ Runic Power or no available Runes. You won't use this ability once you pick up
Frost Strike and
Glacial Advance.
Raise Dead should be used off cooldown or for bosses/elite mobs.
- Use
Glacial Advance to consume your Runic Power whenever there are 2+ targets.
- Use
Frost Strike to consume your Runic Power.
- Use
Death Strike to heal yourself.
Remorseless Winter whenever there are 2+ targets or the target will last the duration.
Empower Rune Weapon to generate Runic Power and procs of
Killing Machine.
There are several passive abilities that you unlock through the leveling process that can change your play style and rotation.
Rime makes your
Howling Blast deal significantly more damage. This is generally the only time you want to use
Howling Blast.
Killing Machine is a passive ability that gives your auto attack Critical Strikes the chance to make your next
Obliterate critically strike and deal frost damage, significantly increasing its damage. It also makes your
Frostscythe crit for 4x its normal damage.
Dark Succor is incredible for leveling, allowing you to easily heal and stay at high health while chain-pulling packs and mobs.
Frost Death Knight Defensive and Utility Abilities while Leveling
Anti-Magic Shell is a very strong magic shield that also generates Runic Power when it absorbs magic damage. This should be used whenever magic damage is present to take advantage of the Runic Power generation.
Lichborne is a relatively powerful ability for leveling, as it provides you with a good chunk of Leech. Use this cooldown to take advantage of the healing and try to pair it with high AoE or burst combinations.
Icebound Fortitude is an amazing defensive cooldown that should be used whenever necessary in order to keep you moving from pack to pack.
Raise Ally cannot be used when solo leveling, however, it is fantastic in dungeon groups if you decide to level that way.
Death's Advance is one of your only movement speed cooldowns making it incredibly useful when leveling. The secondary effects of this are not too useful in leveling scenarios, except for the passive that prevents you from being slowed past a certain point.
Death Grip grips your target towards you, allowing you to start fighting it straight away. Really useful to speed up the leveling process.
Mind Freeze is your interrupt which is great to use against casting mobs, significantly reducing the damage they deal to you!
Frost Death Knight War Mode Talents for Leveling
Bloodforged Armor is a solid defensive upgrade and
Deathchill helps to control your enemies. All other talents are not
very impactful or simply worse for our damage throughput!
Changelog
- 04 Aug. 2025: Updated leveling after 11.2 rework.
- 25 Jun. 2025: Removed unnecessary razorice line.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Clarified Killing Machine importance for Obliterate damage.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Removed "Congratulations for hitting level 80" bit.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Reviewed and updated for Patch 11.1.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Reviewed and update for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 22 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Death Knight Guides
Guides from Other Classes

This guide has been written by Bicepspump, a semi-hardcore player raiding with Pixelbased Lifeforms on Kazzak. He is heavily involved in the DK DPS theorycrafting community, testing hyoptheses and investigating the correct priority to use. He produces guide content on YouTube and frequently streams on Twitch.
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