Frost Death Knight DPS Mythic+ Tips in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 8.0.1 Changes for Frost Death Knights
  • 3. Frost Death Knight Strengths
  • 4. Frost Death Knight Weaknesses
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. Foreword
  • 2. The Basics of Frost Death Knights
  • 3. Stat Choice for Frost Death Knights
  • 4. Basic Rotations for Frost Death Knights
    • 4.1. Rotation During Breath of Sindragosa
    • 4.2. Rotation outside Breath of Sindragosa
  • 5. Cooldowns for Frost Death Knights
  • 6. Azerite Traits
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resources of Frost Death Knights
  • 3. Frost Death Knight Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs for Frost Death Knights
  • 5. Cooldowns for Frost Death Knights
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices for Frost Death Knight
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 56) Talents for Frost Death Knights
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 57) Talents for Frost Death Knights
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 58) Talents for Frost Death Knights
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Frost Death Knights
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Frost Death Knights
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Frost Death Knights
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Frost Death Knights
  • 9. PvP Talents (War Mode)
    • 9.1. Frost Death Knight War Mode Talents
      • 9.1.1. General PvP Talents
      • 9.1.2. Frost Death Knight PvP Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Azerite Traits and Armor
  • 1. Disclaimer
  • 2. Azerite Traits for Frost Death Knight
  • 3. Recommended Traits
    • 3.1. Dungeons, Mythic+, and Raids
  • 4. Recommended Dungeon Azerite Gear
  • 5. Azerite Traits Rotation Changes and Details for Frost Death Knight
  • 6. Relative Strength of Azerite Traits for Frost Death Knight
  • 7. Azerite Trait Ranking for Frost Death Knight
    • 7.1. Single-Target
    • 7.2. 3 Targets (Mythic+, etc)
  • 8. Find Azerite Armor By Trait/Power
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation for Frost Death Knights
    • 1.1. Breath of Sindragosa Rotation
      • 1.1.1. Rotation during Breath of Sindragosa
      • 1.1.2. Rotation outside Breath of Sindragosa
    • 1.2. Obliteration Rotation
      • 1.2.1. Rotation During Pillar of Frost
      • 1.2.2. Rotation Outside Pillar of Frost
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation for Frost Death Knights
  • 3. Cooldown Usage for Frost Death Knights
  • 4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Frost Death Knight
    • 4.1. Runes and Runic Power
      • 4.1.1. Runes
      • 4.1.2. Runic Power
    • 4.2. Dual-Wielding Versus Two-Handed
    • 4.3. Mastery: Frozen Heart
    • 4.4. Procs
      • 4.4.1. Killing Machine Procs
      • 4.4.2. Rime Procs
    • 4.5. Advanced Cooldown Usage
      • 4.5.1. Pillar of Frost
      • 4.5.2. Empower Rune Weapon
      • 4.5.3. Horn of Winter
  • 5. ChangeLog
• ×Mythic+ Tips
  • 1. Frost Death Knight in Mythic+
    • 1.1. Frost Death Knight Mythic+ Rotation
    • 1.2. Frost Death Knight Utility
    • 1.3. Mythic+ Talents for Frost Death Knights
    • 1.4. Tier One Affixes
    • 1.5. Tier Two Affixes
    • 1.6. Tier Three Affixes
    • 1.7. Seasonal Affix
  • 2. Mythic+ Azerite Traits
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Common and Worst Mistakes
  • 1. Capping Runes or Runic Power
  • 2. Not pooling Runes for Gathering Storm
  • 3. Low Icy Talons Uptime
  • 4. Not Pooling Resources for Breath of Sindragosa
  • 5. Using Anti-Magic Shell on Non-Magical Damage
• +Frequently Asked Questions
  • 1. Battle for Azeroth Frequently Asked Questions
    • 1.1. Should I Have a Lot of Downtime When Playing Breath of Sindragosa?
    • 1.2. Does the Downtime of Breath of Sindragosa Decrease with Higher Haste?
    • 1.3. Why Was Frost So Powerful in the Pre-patch Compared to Now
    • 1.4. Should You Hold Pillar of Frost for Breath of Sindragosa or the Other Way Around?
  • 2. ChangeLog
• +Boss by Boss Strategies
  • 1. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. The Basics of Stats for Frost Death Knight
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding of Frost Death Knight Stats
    • 2.1. Statistics Priority
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems for Frost Death Knights
  • 2. Enchants for Frost Death Knights
  • 3. Consumables for Frost Death Knights
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Death Knights
      • 1.1.1. Raise Ally
      • 1.1.2. Mind Freeze
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Frost Death Knights
      • 1.2.1. Death Grip Mouseover Macro
      • 1.2.2. Howling Blast
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Death Knights
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.7. mRunes
      • 2.1.8. Omen Threat Meter
      • 2.1.9. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Frost Death Knights
• +Gear and Best in Slot
  • 1. The Importance of "Simming Yourself" as a Frost Death Knight
  • 2. Best in Slot Azerite Items for Frost Death Knight
  • 3. Stats
  • 4. Trinket Simulation for Frost Death Knight
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Simulations
  • 1. Disclaimer Page
  • 2. Frost Death Knight Racial Bonus Simulation
  • 3. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, you will various tips and pieces of advice for clearing high Mythic+ content with your Frost Death Knight.

The other pages of our Frost Death Knight guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Abyssalwave, a top level Death Knight player. He is a former US #2 hardcore raider who currently raids with Club Camel. You can also check out his YouTube channel.

1. Frost Death Knight in Mythic+

Frost Death Knight is a very powerful melee in Mythic+ offering high burst AoE damage, it can also offer good consistent AoE damage. Frost Death Knights do not have strong damage mitigation making it difficult to survive certain encounters in high Mythic+ keystones.

1.1. Frost Death Knight Mythic+ Rotation

The single target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. For more information about the Frost Death Knight rotation, refer to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.

1.2. Frost Death Knight Utility

• Death Grip is an iconic Death Knight spell that pulls an enemy that you are targeting to you. Use this to stack enemies that are far apart together to maximize cleave damage. This can also be used as an extra interrupt or to interrupt casts that cannot be interrupted by Mind Freeze. Another great application of this ability is to pull mobs out of Sanguine pools.
• Mind Freeze is Death Knight's interrupt ability. This should be used to interrupt near the end of the target's cast time as they do not attack while casting a spell so it will minimize damage on the tanks. It is recommended you communicate your interrupts with the rest of your group so you do not end up overlapping interrupts.
• Anti-Magic Shell is your magic soaking ability. This ability can be used to generate Runic Power by soaking magic damage. If you cast Anti-Magic Shell before a magical debuff would be applied to you such as Bursting, the Anti-Magic Shell will prevent the application of the debuff.
• Wraith Walk is a movement talent ability that increases your movement speed by 70% for 4 seconds and removes all root effects. This talent should be taken if you are expecting to be slowed or rooted multiple times in a short period of time. This talent has lost some of the value it had due to Death's Advance being baseline and having close to the same effect.
• Dark Succor is a proc that occurs whenever you kill an enemy, and grants you a free cast of Death Strike. This can be very useful if your group is taking high amounts of AoE damage.
• Death Pact is an utility talent that provides you a heal for 50% of your maximum health. This is incredibly useful in Grievous or Bursting where sometimes the damage your group is taking can overwhelm your healer.

1.3. Mythic+ Talents for Frost Death Knights

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. These talents are recommended for all affixes and keystone levels. For more information on particular talents and when to use them, refer to the Builds and Talents page.

Level	Choices
56	✘ Inexorable Assault	? Icy Talons	✔ Cold Heart
57	✔ Runic Attenuation	✔ Murderous Efficiency	? Horn of Winter
58	? Death's Reach	✔ Asphyxiate	? Blinding Sleet
60	✘ Avalanche	? Frozen Pulse	✔ Frostscythe
75	? Permafrost	? Wraith Walk	? Death Pact
90	✔ Gathering Storm	✔ Glacial Advance	✔ Frostwyrm's Fury
100	✘ Icecap	? Obliteration	✔ Breath of Sindragosa

In Battle for Azeroth, there are three tiers of affixes, and one seasonal affix. Every keystone will have at least one affix, with new affixes being added at keystone levels 4 and 7, and the season affix being added at level 10.

1.4. Tier One Affixes

• Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.
• Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40% and their damage dealt by 15%.

Fortified and Tyrannical are the two affixes that every player will see. These affixes shift the focus of Mythic+ from boss to trash depending on the week. Frost Death Knights have a much easier time with Fortified due to their high burst AoE damage however they struggle with high level Mythic+ Tyrannical bosses due to their lack of mitigation.

1.5. Tier Two Affixes

• Bolstering causes dying enemies to increase the maximum health and damage of other nearby enemies by 20%. To counter this affix, DPS all mobs down evenly and focus on the highest health pool enemies first. You should stick to Frostscythe, Frostwyrm's Fury, and Remorseless Winter to evenly cleave down packs of mobs. If you stagger the health of each mob in a trash pack too much that can lead to the last few mobs having a lot of health and will deal too much damage to your tank.
• Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% health by 100% until they die. This affix is the opposite to Bolstering; when a non-boss target falls below 30% health remaining you want to switch your attention towards that mob and minimize damage on any other mobs that are close to Raging threshold. If there are multiple enemies that are raging you should maximize your AoE damage onto them to minimize damage onto your tank.
• Teeming adds additional trash mobs to certain packs throughout each dungeon.
• Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when a mob is slain. This pool will heal remaining enemies who stay inside the zone and also damage players. Positioning yourself around these pools while maintaining uptime onto your target is very important. Death Knights also have an utility cooldown in Death Grip which you can use to pull mobs out of Sanguine. Make sure to tell your group when you are Death Gripping a mob so you do not overlay it with another cooldown such as Shining Force or Typhoon.
• Bursting causes enemies to detonate when slain, afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer 10% of their maximum health in damage every four seconds. This affix will require you to control your AoE. You want to try to stay below 5 stacks of Bursting as any more will most likely kill you. Anti-Magic Shell does absorb the damage from Bursting, and if you cast Anti-Magic Shell before the Bursting is applied it will prevent the application of the magic debuff.

1.6. Tier Three Affixes

• Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer 50% of their maximum health in damage. The more enemies you are in combat with, the more volcanic plumes will spawn.
• Grievous afflicts players with a stacking damage over time effect when they fall below 90%. You can use Anti-Magic Shell or Death Pact to prevent the damage from this debuff. It is recommended that you save Death Pact for higher stacks of Grievous due to how much it heals.
• Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by creating a damaging zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone forms, it will deal 20% maximum health in damage to each player caught in the zone and interrupt any casts being finished during the shockwave.
• Explosive will occasionally spawn Explosive Orbs that need to be targeted and burned down within a short period of time or they will deal significant damage to the party. Explosive Orbs are not cleavable and the amount of orbs that spawn scales with the amount of enemies pulled. If your group does not have a good composition to handle explosive orbs then you can use abilities such as Obliterate, Frost Strike, or Chains of Ice with the talent Cold Heart in order to kill the orbs.
• Necrotic debuffs the target of enemy melee swings with stacking healing reduction and a minor damage over time effect. You can use Remorseless Winter in order to slow mob packs for your tank or Death Grip/ Asphyxiate to prevent single mobs from refreshing Necrotic stacks on your tank.
• Skittish reduces the amount of threat generated by tanks throughout the dungeon.

1.7. Seasonal Affix

Infested is the seasonal affix for the launch of Battle for Azeroth. Enemies afflicted with the Infested debuff will be scattered throughout each dungeon once you reach key level ten. These mobs will heal enemies around them and, when slain, will spawn two Spawn of G'huun that will attempt to infest remaining enemies.

There are several ways to handle Infested mobs depending on pack size, which mob is infested, and group composition. The first way to handle an Infested enemy is to burn down the infested target and the subsequently spawning Spawn of G'huun while either crowd controlling or ignoring the other mobs in the pack. The second way is to crowd control the Infested mob and burn down all the other enemies. After you kill an infested mob and the Spawns of G'huun spawn, Frost Death Knights can use Death Grip to grip the Spawn of G'huun away from the other mobs to prevent it from infesting other enemies.

2. Mythic+ Azerite Traits

The best Mythic+ Azerite trait for Frost Death Knights is also their best single target trait making it very convenient for you. There is also one other trait that are very strong in heavy AoE situations but weak in single target situations.

• Frozen Tempest causes your Remorseless Winter to deal additional damage and you gain a Rime proc the first time it hits 3 different enemies. The Rime proc is very easy to gain in Mythic+ due to packs of mobs usually having at least 3 mobs. This trait also synergizes very well with the trait Echoing Howl.
• Echoing Howl causes your Rime empowered Howling Blast to surround you in an icy wind dealing Frost damage to nearby enemies. This trait synergizes very well with Frozen Tempest however by itself it is still a very powerful AoE trait.

3. ChangeLog

• 12 Aug. 2018: Page added for Battle for Azeroth launch.

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