Frost Death Knight DPS Guide — The War Within Pre-Patch

The Frost Death Knight has received significant changes in their class tree. There are new talents, reworked talents as well as removed talents! Some talents have also been moved around to facilitate better build variety.

• New Talent: Ice Prison — Chains of Ice now also roots enemies for 4 sec but its cooldown is increased to 12 sec.
• New Talent: Blood Scent — increases Leech by 3%
• New Talent: Osmosis — Anti-Magic Shell increases healing received by 15%.
• New Talent: Runic Protection — your chance to be critically struck is reduced by 3% and your Armor is increased by 6%.
• New Talent: Subduing Grasp — when you pull an enemy, the damage they deal to you is reduced by 6% for 6 sec.
• New Talent: Null Magic — Magic damage taken is reduced by 10% and the duration of harmful Magic effects against you are reduced by 35%.
• New Talent: Unyielding Will — Anti-Magic Shell's cooldown is increased by 20 sec, and it now also removes all harmful magic effects, when activated.
• New Talent: Vestigial Shell — casting Anti-Magic Shell grants 2 nearby allies a Lesser Anti-Magic Shell that Absorbs magic damage and reduces the duration of harmful Magic effects against them by 50%.
• The following talents/spells have been removed:
  • Might of Thassarian
  • Merciless Strikes
  • Clenching Grasp
  • Empower Rune Weapon
  • Rune of Hysteria (Runeforge)
• The following talents/spell have been changed:
  • Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle can now be used on one-handed weapons.
  • Cleaving Strikes cleave effect now lingers for 4 seconds after exiting your Death and Decay. This effectively increases the max buff duration from 10 seconds to 14 seconds.
  • Icebound Fortitude cooldown reduced by 60 seconds.
  • Veteran of the Third War now grants 20% stamina (was 10%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
  • Icy Talons now increases attack per stack by 6% (was 3%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
  • Unholy Bond now increases effectiveness of Runeforge effects by 20% (was 10%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
  • Assimilation now reduces the cooldown of Anti-Magic Zone by 30 seconds. No longer provides Runic Power when absorbing damage.
  • Suppression now grants an additional 6% damage reduction to area of effects when suffering a loss of control effect. Moved to gate 3.
  • Blood Draw now also grants a buff reducing damage taken by 10% and reducing Death Strike cost by 10 for 8 seconds when falling below 30% health. Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).

Frost's Talent Tree has been reworked. New talents, removed talents, changed talents and moved talents have quite a large impact on our talent builds and gameplay.

• New Talent: Shattered Frost — When Frost Strike consumes 5 Rune of Razorice stacks, it deals 65% of the damage dealt to nearby enemies. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
• New Talent: Cryogenic Chamber — Each time Frost Fever deals damage, 15% of the damage dealt is gathered into the next cast of Remorseless Winter, up to 20 times.
• New Talent: Arctic Assault — Consuming Killing Machine fires a Glacial Advance through your target.
• New Talent: Smothering Offense — Your auto attack critical strikes have a chance to send out a sleet of ice dealing Frost damage to enemies in front of you.
• New Talent: The Long Winter — While Pillar of Frost is active, your auto-attack critical strikes increase its duration by 2 seconds, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
• New Talent: Hyperpyrexia — Your Runic Power spending abilities have a chance to additionally deal 30% of the damage dealt over 4 seconds.
• The following talents have been removed:
  • Fatal Fixation (now baseline part of Killing Machine)
  • Cold-Blooded Rage
  • Invigorating Freeze
• The following talents have been changed:
  • Rime is now learned by default at lvl 21.
  • Chill Streak can bounce off you if no additional enemy is nearby.
  • Enduring Strength and Frostwhelp's Aid are now 1-point talents (with the power of the previous 2-point version).
  • Icecap now reduces the cooldown of Pillar of Frost by a flat 15 seconds.
  • Breath of Sindragosa damage has been decreased and cost per second reduced to 17 Runic Power (was 18).
  • Rage of the Frozen Champion, Murderous Efficiency and Runic Attenuation have all been nerfed.