Frost Death Knight Leveling Guide from 8 to 80 — The War Within (11.1.7)

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 intead of Fallen Crusader for heal and speed boost after you kill mobs. We recommend using a 2H weapon when leveling.

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level but two secondary stats on it instead of one.

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Until you pick up Obliterate, your primary means of spending Runes is through Rune Strike.

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Your talent set up should be as follows.

1. Death and Decay when fighting more than one enemy, to make your Obliterates cleave.
2. Rune Strike is your main damaging ability and Rune spender.
3. Obliterate is your main damaging ability and Rune spender.
4. 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.
5. Raise Dead should be used off cooldown or for bosses/elite mobs.
6. Use Frost Strike when you have 80+ Runic Power or no available Runes.
7. Use Frost Strike when your target has 5 stacks of Razorice
8. Use Death Strike to heal yourself.
9. Remorseless Winter whenever there are 2+ targets or the target will last the duration.
10. Abomination Limb to quickly group up and AoE down groups of mobs.
11. Pillar of Frost when you open on a pack.
12. Frostwyrm's Fury should be paired with Pillar of Frost and used on big packs, elites, or boss mobs.
13. Empower Rune Weapon should be paired with Pillar of Frost and used on big packs, elites, or boss mobs.
14. Howling Blast to consume procs of Rime.
15. Use Frost Strike to consume your Runic Power.

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, making it worthwhile to use at any target count when you gain this buff.
• 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.
• Dark Succor is incredible for leveling, allowing you to easily heal and stay at high health while chain-pulling packs and mobs.

• Anti-Magic Shell is a very strong magic shield that also generates Runic Power. This should be used whenever magic damage is present to take advantage of the Runic Power generation.
• Lichborne is a 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.

This section will go over the PvP talents for leveling content for Frost Death Knights.

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!