Frost Death Knight DPS Easy Mode — Dragonflight 10.0.7

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.

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.

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:

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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.

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Finally, for Mythic+ we run a 2H Obliteration version:

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1. Critical Strike;
2. Mastery;
3. Haste;
4. 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%.

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.

1. Spend your Runes on Obliterate
2. Spend your procs of Rime on Howling Blast
3. 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.
4. Use Remorseless Winter on cooldown.

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.