Frost Death Knight DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Frost Death Knight in World of Warcraft Dragonflight 10.2.
BiS Gear Guide for Frost Death Knight
Welcome to our Gear and BiS Page for Frost Death Knight for Dragonflight 10.2. Check this page learn everything you need to know about gearing a Frost Death Knight, including the BiS Gear from all sources, Raiding, and Mythic+, information on the best Trinkets, Tier Sets, and much more.
The BiS lists below run Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch on a
Vibrant Wildercloth Shawl. However,
Elemental Lariat is the
true BiS second embellishment. It becomes stronger after you have picked up
a couple of sockets, so make sure to sim yourself to know when to switch.
BiS Gear for Breath of Sindragosa Frost Death Knight
Breath of Sindragosa BiS List for Frost Death Knight
Below, you will find the theoretical BiS set of gear for Season 3 for the
Breath of Sindragosa talent build.
Slot | Item | Boss/ Dungeon/ Source |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Tindral Sageswift |
Neck | ![]() |
Nymue, Weaver of the Cycle |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Smolderon |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Tailoring |
Chest | ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing |
Bracers | ![]() |
Blacksmithing |
Gloves | ![]() |
Igira the Cruel |
Belt | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Legs | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Boots | ![]() |
Volcoross |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Council of Dreams |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Smolderon |
1-handed Weapon | ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing |
1-handed Weapon | ![]() |
Volcoross |
Breath of Sindragosa Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Frost Death Knight
This list contains the highest DPS setup, with farmable gear from Mythic+ Dungeons. This is a great place to start on a relatively new character, as you can infinitely grind out these items from Mythic+.
Slot | Item | Boss/ Dungeon/ Source |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Neck | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Tailoring |
Chest | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Bracers | ![]() |
Blacksmithing |
Gloves | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Belt | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall |
Legs | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Boots | ![]() |
Atal'Dazar |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Throne of the Tides |
1-handed Weapon | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise |
1-handed Weapon | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise |
Breath of Sindragosa Raid Gear BiS List for Frost Death Knight
This list contains the highest DPS setup, only using gear from the Amirdrassil Raid.
This list is mostly useful for informing your organized guild of what loot is optimal for you, for loot distribution purposes.
Slot | Item | Boss/ Dungeon/ Source |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Tindral Sageswift |
Neck | ![]() |
Nymue, Weaver of the Cycle |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Smolderon |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Tailoring |
Chest | ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing |
Bracers | ![]() |
Blacksmithing |
Gloves | ![]() |
Igira the Cruel |
Belt | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Legs | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Boots | ![]() |
Volcoross |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Igira the Cruel |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Council of Dreams |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Smolderon |
1-handed Weapon | ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing |
1-handed Weapon | ![]() |
Volcoross |
BiS Gear for Obliteration Frost Death Knight
Obliteration BiS List for Frost Death Knight
Below you will find the theoretical BiS set of gear for Season 3.
Slot | Item | Boss/ Dungeon/ Source |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Tindral Sageswift |
Neck | ![]() |
Nymue, Weaver of the Cycle |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Smolderon |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Tailoring |
Chest | ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing |
Bracers | ![]() |
Blacksmithing |
Gloves | ![]() |
Igira the Cruel |
Belt | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall |
Legs | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Boots | ![]() |
Volcoross |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Council of Dreams |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Smolderon |
2-handed Weapon | ![]() ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing (Gnarlroot) |
Obliteration Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Frost Death Knight
This list contains the highest DPS setup, with farmable gear from Mythic+ Dungeons. This is a great place to start on a relatively new character, as you can infinitely grind out these items from Mythic+.
Slot | Item | Boss/ Dungeon/ Source |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Neck | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Tailoring |
Chest | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise |
Bracers | ![]() |
Blacksmithing |
Gloves | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Belt | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall |
Legs | ![]() |
Revival Catalyst |
Boots | ![]() |
Atal'Dazar |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Atal'Dazar |
2-handed Weapon | ![]() |
Throne of the Tides |
Raid Gear BiS List for Frost Death Knight
This list contains the highest DPS setup, only using gear from the Amirdrassil Raid.
This list is mostly useful for informing your organized guild of what loot is optimal for you, for loot distribution purposes.
Slot | Item | Boss/ Dungeon/ Source |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Tindral Sageswift |
Neck | ![]() |
Nymue, Weaver of the Cycle |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Smolderon |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Tailoring |
Chest | ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing |
Bracers | ![]() |
Blacksmithing |
Gloves | ![]() |
Igira the Cruel |
Belt | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Legs | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Boots | ![]() |
Volcoross |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Larodar, Keeper of the Flame |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Igira the Cruel |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Council of Dreams |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Smolderon |
2-handed Weapon | ![]() ![]() |
Fyrakk, the Blazing (Gnarlroot) |
Gearing a Frost Death Knight
If you have a new piece of gear for which you need gems and enchant advice, you can find everything on our dedicated page below.
While gearing up, item level will be your primary target. Strength is our best stat, and you shouldn't focus too much on your secondaries at first. Once you start to receive gear pieces with the same ilvl but different stats, that is when you want to start optimizing your stat distribution. Generally, Frost Death Knights want to prioritize Crit and then Mastery and Haste! We recommend simming your character to determine what upgrade is best for you! For a more detailed explanation, you can read the Simulations page.
Simming your character is far and beyond the best way to determine if a piece of gear is, in fact, an upgrade. The trick is knowing how to do it in a way that produces reliable results. If you follow the Simulations guide page, you can use this to have a more practical gearing guide than simply following a BiS list.
Frost Death Knight Gear Upgrades in Dragonflight Season 3
Dragonflight Season 3 has two currencies that can upgrade items all the way
to 489 (for Mythic track items). This requires two currencies: Flightstones
and Shadowflame Crests that can be obtained from pretty much all content!
For more information on the Gear Upgrades system, check out our dedicated page for it below.
Best Items to Upgrade for Frost Death Knight in Dragonflight Season 2
We want to upgrade our most valuable slots at first, since it provides the best DPS per unit of currency. This includes the Weapon, as well as our trinkets. After this point, aim to upgrade slots with as many stats as possible, such as Helm, Shoulder, Chest, and Legs.
- Weapon (unless you have Legendary)
Cataclysmic Signet Brand
Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge or
Accelerating Sandglass
- Helm, Shoulder, Chest and Legs
Weapon and Trinkets are just great for upgrading since they provide a lot of power for the price you pay. After this point, make sure to simulate your character to find the upgrade that gives the most DPS per unit of upgrade currency possible.
You can make an argument for upgrading your embellishments as a high priority
as well. Once at their max ilvl, you will simply never replace them, reducing the
risk of wasting crests down to 0. However, since we get free Enchanted Wyrm's Dreaming Crest
, you will reach 476 ilvl already (10 ilvls lower than max). The 60 crests
that it takes to craft to 486 therefore only give you 10 more ilvls. Even if these
items are embellishments that will scale with ilvl, the DPS per crest is generally
much less than what you could get elsewhere (2-7x more DPS by upgrading other pieces).
It is up to you how much you value a guaranteed gain vs a gain that you might replace
shortly in the future!
Overall Top Trinkets
Frost generally favors two passive trinkets in a raiding environment due
due to our flat damage profile. The one exception is Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows
that works relatively well with
Breath of Sindragosa, boosting the opening burst. Proccing
Crit is also something Breath loves!
The best passives are Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge
and
Cataclysmic Signet Brand. The Signet Brand does deal a significant amount
of self-damage and can be changed for
Accelerating Sandglass for a trinket
that deals good damage but without the negative aspect. Other really good passive
trinkets are
Rezan's Gleaming Eye and
Porcelain Crab.
For Mythic+, we really want passive trinkets that actually give secondary stats.
Porcelain Crab,
Accelerating Sandglass and
Gore-Crusted Butcher's Block
are your primary alternatives.
Might of the Ocean is a potential on-use
option that synergise really well with
Absolute Zero if you pick up this talent!
I have listed the best trinkets below
Best Trinkets
Cataclysmic Signet Brand
Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge
Accelerating Sandglass
Alternative Trinkets
Porcelain Crab
Coiled Serpent Idol
Branch of the Tormented Ancient
Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows
Might of the Ocean
Gore-Crusted Butcher's Block
Stats
Many people overthink the distribution of their secondary stats. An important thing to remember is that a higher quantity of stats is nearly always better than a better quality of stats. Because of this, wearing higher item-level gear with worse stats tends to be better than lower item-level gear with great stats. Keep this in mind when considering gear. For more stats information, please refer to our dedicated page.
Jewelry
For neck and ring pieces, you can afford to drop 5-10 ilevels in most cases to get our preferred stat: Crit. That said, you should always sim yourself to see what is better as the secondary stat diminishing returns can still change your ideal setup. Remember that you aim for a balance in stats; just stacking Crit above else, for instance, is a bad idea!
Weapons
For Season 2, the Legendary will most likely be our best Weapon by far! Once you obtain
this Weapon, you are likely to run Obliteration in all content. Until then,
Gholak, the Final Conflagration and
Volcoross's Barbed Fang are great
Dual-Wield weapons. For our 2H Weapon, anything at the highest ilvl is best until
you get your Legendary,
Gnarlroot's Bonecrusher being good because it is
relatively easy to obtain at a high ilvl.
Tier Set Bonus
With Season 3, we have a Forst Death Knight Tier set bonus that buffs how we play.
- 2-piece set bonus:
Death Knight Frost 10.2 Class Set 2pc
- 4-piece set bonus:
Death Knight Frost 10.2 Class Set 4pc
The ideal 4 items to use here are Head, Shoulder, Legs, and Hands. Any combination of the 4 is very much viable however, you can always just swap around your gems and enchants to balance out your stats! You want to break your old set as soon as you get 2-set on your old one, as 2p-2p is an upgrade compared to old 4p!
The tier set impacts our rotation since it forces us to pick up the
Chill Streak talent. We will use this ability as much as possible,
sending it on Cooldown to get as much value as possible! For more information
on how to use it, see the dedicated Rotation Page.
Notable Crafted Gear and Embellishments
Crafting in Season 3 is slightly different compared to Season 2. The max ilvl is 3 ilvls lower than max mythic (486 vs 489). This means that you are much less likely to be wearing multiple crafted pieces! Furthermore, our embellishments are best on slots with low stat budget to not lose out on DPS due to the ilvl difference. We want to equip two embellishment pieces, and then fill in any gaps in our current gear where we get the best temporary upgrade!
The best embellishments in Season 3 are Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch and
Allied Wristguard of Companionship.
Blue Silken Lining is a very strong
alternative that is better than
Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch at between 20 and 30% uptime.
They are also is distinctly better in Mythic+ since you are at max HP quite a lot of the time.
However, in Raid, you will not always be able to keep enough uptime on the buff.
For Farm kills with low damage intake, or specific bosses with little damage intake you could justify it.
It is simply safer to run
Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch in the majority of cases, though!
With multiple sockets in your gear, Elemental Lariat becomes your best choice
in combination with the
Allied Wristguard of Companionship. To figure out when the switch
is best for you, simply simulate yourself!
Allied Chestplate of Generosity
is another alternative to consider. It provides solid group DPS gain and
can be better than your other embellishments. However, it does occupy a tier
slot, making it difficult to justify early in progression when you do not
have a lot of available tier items to choose from.
Finally, crafting a weapon is generally always a solid idea. The Weapon provides the most "bang for your buck" and will be your best DPS upgrade early on. However, you will replace it eventually once you get a better weapon , making the investment "wasted" in a sense. Still, if you need that extra DPS early to meet a DPS check for a particularly difficult boss, do consider it!
Changelog
- 29 Nov. 2023: Added Legendary with proper link to bis.
- 22 Nov. 2023: Updated drop location from dawn upper and lower and changed Breath m+ bis trinkets to mirror and porcelain.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Updated BiS Lists and Embellishment recommendations after Sporecloak nerfs.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for patch 10.2. Added new bis lists, trinkets and embellishment.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Added 10.1.5 dungeon recommendation.
- 01 Jun. 2023: Added m+ embellishment recommendation.
- 31 May 2023: Added neltharion trinket as new bis for frost 2H oblit.
- 08 May 2023: Updated after trinket tuning.
- 01 May 2023: Updated all gear 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: Updated 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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