Frost Death Knight DPS Easy Mode — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, we explain how to easily play Frost Death Knight in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7, using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.
Foreword
This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.
The Basics of Frost Death Knights
For those who are new to Frost Death Knight and are not sure what each ability does and how they interact with the Frost toolkit, we recommend checking out our Spell Summary guide linked below.
Frost Death Knights are a melee DPS specialization with strong single-target and AoE damage and a fairly simple and approachable play style. They can use either 2-Handed or 1-Handed weapons.
Talent Choice for Frost Death Knights
Your main goal throughout fights will be to maximize your Obliterate
usage while keeping an eye out for your two procs,
Rime and
Killing Machine.
Furthermore, if running the Breath build, you want to
maximize your uptime of Breath of Sindragosa by generating your
Runic Power efficiently and leveraging your cooldowns, such as
Empower Rune Weapon in a smart way.
There are three distinct builds that you can choose to run in a raiding
environment,
as each one is good in a specific scenario. The Breath of Sindragosa
build is a high-risk, high-reward build that requires you to fully stick to the boss for
the entire fight to leverage its Power. It is great when there is constant
cleave, or you can safely maintain it for over a minute. Furthermore,
you can greatly increase its potential by soaking magic damage spells with
Anti-Magic Shell and
Assimilation.
Breath of Sindragosa is by far the best talent to run in raiding environments.
Furthermore, two builds leverage Obliteration
to deal significant damage. They have much smaller burst windows (12 seconds) and
are more versatile when mechanics force you out of range. First of
all, the 2H version is the burstiest version with excellent damage every 30-40
seconds. You can import it using this string:
- BsPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAICAikkQiIREikECJSSEJIIRkERSSSSaJBAAAAAAAAAAAA
DW Obliteration is the other choice.
This leverages
Shattering Blade with the
Rune of Razorice
Runeforge deals very consistent damage. Its burst windows are good, but it overall deals
nice damage all the time. It does have a ton of procs and is a fun build
to play if you like a "wack a mole" playstyle.
- BsPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAICAikkQiIREikECJSSEJASSkERSSSSaJBAAAAAAAAAAAA
Finally, for Mythic+ we run a 2H Obliteration version:
- BsPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAICgIkkQiIREJSSIkISEJhARkERSSSSaJBAAAAAAAAAAAA
Stat Choice for Frost Death Knights
- Critical Strike;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Versatility.
This can be different depending on your character's gear, so make sure you
sim
yourself, to find what your stat priority is.
Breath of Sindragosa
wants quite a lot more Crit compared to Haste.
Obliteration prefers
a lot more Haste, usually around 26-27%.
Basic Rotations for Frost Death Knights
Note that the rotations listed below are not fully optimized for the highest possible output, instead making some sacrifices to ensure their ease of use. If you wish to put out the most DPS you possibly can, you should check out our dedicated Rotation page instead.
Generic Rotation
- Spend your Runes on
Obliterate
- Spend your procs of
Rime on
Howling Blast
- Spend your Runic Power on
Frost Strike (Single Target) or
Glacial Advance (AoE and if you have picked the talent). Try to keep up your
Icy Talons and
Unleashed Frenzy buffs.
- Use
Remorseless Winter on cooldown.
Cooldowns for Frost Death Knights
As a Frost Death Knight, you have potentially 8 total Cooldowns. Below, we explain how they are best used.
Pillar of Frost should be used on cooldown, stacking it with potions or any on-use trinkets you have. Alternatively, you can save it for moments when you need increased damage.
Empower Rune Weapon should be paired with your
Pillar of Frost windows. For
Breath of Sindragosa, use it 5-10 seconds after you pop Breath of Sindragosa, and ensure you start to starve slightly before using it. For
Obliteration, use it 3 seconds before casting your Pillar of Frost. This ensures you get full uptime of the Haste buff as well as helping pooling for the cooldown window.
Frostwyrm's Fury should be used in synergy with
Pillar of Frost (at the end of the cooldown window when your Strength buff is the highest) and on as many targets as possible. If you are running
Obliteration, only use
Frostwyrm's Fury in your
Pillar of Frost window in AoE scenarios.
Cold Heart governs your
Chains of Ice usage. Generally, use
Frost Strike at 16+ stacks of
Cold Heart. Ideally, time it with procs of
Unholy Strength. You can also use it with 20 stacks in your Pillar window and then 10 stacks outside of it. This ensures you time the stacks nicely with each Pillar window.
Breath of Sindragosa should be used on cooldown. Always use in conjunction with
Pillar of Frost and
Empower Rune Weapon. Always be aware of any mechanics that could force you out of melee, so you do not need to run away right after using this cooldown. Once active, do not spend Runic Power on anything else. Ensure you have at least 60 Runic Power saved up before you use your Breath!
Obliteration alters your
Pillar of Frost. Once active, spend every GCD generating procs of
Killing Machine or consuming said procs. Use
Empower Rune Weapon 3 seconds before your Pillar of Frost.
Abomination Limb should generally be used on cooldown. Hold it for add waves that need grouping up.
Horn of Winter should be used to generate Resources when needed.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talent builds for 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 Pescorus on Kazzak. He is heavily involved in the DK DPS theorycrafting community, testing hyoptheses and investigating the correct priority to use. He is also a moderator in the Acherus Death Knight Discord, frequently answering questions and discussing optimisations (do not hesitate to reach out). He produces guide content on YouTube and frequently streams on Twitch.
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