Frost Death Knight DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.5)

Welcome to our Rotation page for Frost Death Knights. Here we will go over everything you will need to know to optimally play your spec for Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

I have broken up the rotation into your core rotation as well as your cooldown usage. You can find the core rotation as well as openers below, and then the usage of Cooldowns further down the page.

• Shattering Blade Talented

1. Use Obliterate if you have a Killing Machine proc.
2. Use Frost Strike to stack up your Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy or if the buffs are about to fall off.
3. Use Remorseless Winter on cooldown.
4. Use Frost Strike if you have 5 stacks of Rune of Razorice.
5. Use Howling Blast, if you have a Rime proc.
6. Use Frost Strike, if you have 70+ Runic Power.
7. Use Obliterate.
8. Use Frost Strike.

Now, we will translate this into something a bit more readable!

• Use Obliterate to consume procs of Killing Machine. Killing Machine procs are triggered off your critical auto attacks, so we must spend them relatively quickly to avoid wasting any procs (remember that you can stack Killing Machine two times!). It also helps maintain your buffs via the Arctic Assault talent.
• Use Frost Strike to stack and maintain our Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy buffs. These will almost always be part of your talent setup and should be maintained. At the start of the encounter, this means prioritizing Frost Strike over procs of Rime until you reach 5 stacks. Generally, Killing Machine will maintain our stacks as Arctic Assault acts as if you casted Glacial Advance for the buffs. We also use it as a high priority when we want to consume Rune of Razorice stacks with the Shattering Blade talent.
• Spend your procs of Rime on Howling Blast. We have this relatively high in our priority since we want to avoid "overcapping" procs. This is when you generate a proc when you already have one, wasting one use. Casting a naked Howling Blast (without Rime) is only ever worthwhile to maintain your Frost Fever. We also sometimes do this at the start of an encounter when we enter our first Obliteration window with insufficient Runic Power to use Frost Strike.
• Use Remorseless Winter on cooldown. The power of this ability varies with the talents you use, but it is still always a DPS upgrade to use on cooldown. We pretty much always pick up most of the talents for it anyway.
• Use Frost Strike to avoid capping Runic Power. This priority comes after managing your Killing Machine procs and Runes. You would rather overcap on Runic Power than sit on 4+ Runes.
• Use Obliterate to spend Runes and generate Runic Power. Use Frost Strike to spend the Runic Power you generate. This is the majority of your rotation where you build and spend your resources.

If you are using Glacial Advance, then use instead of Frost Strike whenever you would have used Frost Strike. With Frostwyrm's Fury, it is recommended that you synergize with Pillar of Frost and as many targets as possible.

The multiple target rotation is as follows.

• Glacial Advance Talented

1. Use Death and Decay.
2. Use Obliterate, if you have a Killing Machine proc.
3. Use Remorseless Winter.
4. Use Glacial Advance if your Unleashed Frenzy/ Icy Talons is not at max stacks, or the buffs are about to fall off.
5. Use Frost Strike if your @ Unleashed Frenzy/ Icy Talons is not at max stacks, or the buffs are about to fall off, or if you have 5 stacks of Rune of Razorice and Shattered Frost talented. Tab through enemies to burst your Rune of Razorice stacks on them.
6. Use Howling Blast, only if you have a Rime proc.
7. Use Obliterate.
8. Use Glacial Advance.
9. Use Frost Strike.

Your AoE rotation is almost identical to your single-target rotation, primarily being different when Glacial Advance is your Runic Power spender. Death and Decay is also used in a new way, being your primary source of cleave to due Obliterate hitting up to three targets when you are standing in it. You generally do not care as much about Runic Power, and it is fine to cap it when prioritizing Rune Spenders.

Optimising your AoE damage is generally all about leveraging your Death and Decay in your Obliteration windows properly! See the Obliteration priority in AoE further down this page for a more detailed discussion!

As a Frost Death Knight, you have 10 Core DPS cooldowns. Below, we explain how they are best used.

• Reaper's Mark should be used on cooldown with each Pillar of Frost window (you should macro the two of them). We pick up Icecap to make sure both Pillar and Reapers Mark have a 45-second cooldown, allowing you to align them every time. You can end up in situations where you might delay Reapers Mark into Pillar if you lack the resources to send it right at the start. Ideally, dump Runic Power around 5 seconds before each Pillar to gain sufficient Runes to send it with it.
• Remorseless Winter should be used on cooldown. However, refrain from using it during your Pillar of Frost when running Obliteration builds.
• Chill Streak should be used on cooldown. Use it before each Pillar of Frost (they align when you pick up Icecap).
• Pillar of Frost should be used on cooldown, stacking it with potions or any on-use trinkets you have. Using this as soon as it comes up is very important for maximising your DPS.
• Empower Rune Weapon should be paired with your Pillar of Frost windows. Even for Breath of Sindragosa, you use it with the first Pillar window to boost the damage fully. Always save for 2min 15 seconds where you get your third Pillar window.
• Frostwyrm's Fury should be used in synergy with Pillar of Frost and on as many targets as possible. For Single Target, you ideally do not use it in Pillar unless you cannot generate or consume a Killing Machine proc during the GCD. It is safe to wait until just after Pillar to send it. When using Rider of the Apocalypse, use with your Pillar of Frost press to summon your Riders for the duration of Pillar! For advanced use, wait until you proc Bonegrinder in your Pillar before you send it.
• Cold Heart governs your Chains of Ice usage. Generally, use Chains of Ice at 16+ stacks of Cold Heart. With Icecap, simply use it with each window of Pillar of Frost.
• Breath of Sindragosa should be used with your Pillar of Frost windows, using it on pull and then after 2min 15 seconds. Make sure to pool resources before you use it, and time abilities such as Horn of Winter and Anti-Magic Shell for when you start to starve in your Breath. Try to space them out evenly.
• Obliteration alters your Pillar of Frost. Once active, spend every GCD generating procs of Killing Machine or consuming said procs. Use Empower Rune Weapon 0-2 seconds before your Pillar of Frost. If you are running both Breath of Sindragosa and Obliteration, only use Obliterate and consume procs of Rime in your Pillar of Frost window.
• 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. In Breath, that means pressing it when you cannot cast Obliterate in a GCD and you will not overcap Runic Power by using the CD! For Obliteration builds, use it ahead of your Pillar of Frost window when you are low on resources.
• Death and Decay should be used to enable cleave in AoE (with Cleaving Strikes). Time it with your Pillar of Frost windows, using it after you have generated two stacks of Killing Machine.
• Frostscythe should be used on Cooldown outside of your Pillar of Frost windows.

You can read more about these cooldowns, as well as about any cooldowns you gain from talents in our dedicated section.

Following the guide up to this point will allow you to play a Frost Death Knight at a very high level. That said, below, we go into a bit more detail about some aspects of the specialization.

The Frost Death Knight has a number of spells, both active and passive, that hit enemies in front of your character. Breath of Sindragosa, Glacial Advance and Icy Death Torrent being the main ones. Due to this, positioning your character to face as many enemies as possible is crucial when doing AoE damage. Always stand at the edge of a pack of enemies and face inward to maximise your DPS.

Death Knights use a dual resource system of runes and Runic Power. While it is quite straightforward in how it works, we will explain it here for the sake of completion.

You have a total of 6 Runes, which are available by default. Some of your abilities have Rune costs, and whenever you use an ability that consumes one or more Runes, those Runes will immediately begin recharging. The exact amount of time it takes a Rune to recharge depends on how much Haste you have.

Whenever a Rune is consumed, you gain 10 Runic Power (more on that below).

At most, 3 of your runes can be charging up at the same time. It is therefore optimal to keep at least 3 runes on cooldown to maximise the recharge rate over the course of the fight.

Runic Power is a resource that resembles Rage, in the sense that it decays when out of combat, but does not decay during combat. As mentioned above, consuming Runes generates 10 Runic Power per Rune spent, and this is the primary means of generating Runic Power, although some abilities also help with this. You can have a maximum of 100 Runic Power.

Two-handed builds are viable in The War Within. They do viable damage and have a damage profile that does okay in certain scenarios.

Mastery: Frozen Heart increases all Frost damage that you do.

Frost Death Knights have two procs that will regularly show up in the rotation, so you must understand them.

Your auto-attack critical strikes have a chance to make your next Obliterate a guaranteed critical strike and deal Frost Damage, meaning it will scale off your Mastery and ignore armor. Killing Machine works based on the number of auto-attack critical strikes you have had since the last proc. For dual wield, the first time you get an auto-attack critical strike after your previous proc, you have a 30% chance to get a new proc. If this fails, the next auto attack has a 60% chance. If this also fails, you get a 90% proc chance and then a 100% proc chance if 3 auto-attack critical strikes have failed in a row.

Wielding a Two-Handed weapon and talenting into Might of the Frozen Wastes increases these proc chances. You simply have a 100% chance to trigger a proc every time you get a critical auto-attack. Still, due to the lower attack speed of a Two-Handed weapon, and since you only have one weapon to attack with, you still get 28% fewer procs when with Two-Handed builds.

Generally, these procs should be used right away to ensure that no procs are overwritten.

If you have the Obliteration talent, then this ability causes each Frost Strike, Glacial Advance, Soul Reaper and Howling Blast to trigger Killing Machine (for the duration of Pillar of Frost). Aim to never overcap Killing Machine, never actively generating one if you are already at 2 charges.

Your Obliterate has a 45% chance of causing your next Howling Blast to be free of cost and deal additional damage, thanks to Rime. These procs should be used quickly, most importantly generally, before Obliterate is used again to prevent the buff from being overwritten. It is not always the highest priority, but you should still try and prevent overwrites where possible.

Reaper's Mark is the active ability you gain from the Deathbringer tree. With a 45-second cooldown, you can align it with every Pillar of Frost window! Simply cast it with your Pillar macro every time.

Throws a snowball at your enemy that bounces to nearby enemies, dealing damage each time. Can bounce off yourself if no enemies are nearby. Good synergy with Pillar of Frost with Icecap as you can send Chill Streak before each Pillar window, allowing the bounces to overlap with the Strength buff. Use Chill Streak the GCD before Pillar of Frost when running both these talents.

Pillar of Frost grants you 30% Strength for 12 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown. The cooldown can be reduced to 45 seconds with Icecap, and the duration can be increased to 18 seconds with The Long Winter.

You should use this ability on cooldown and ideally couple it with any potions or on-use trinkets you may have. That said, it can sometimes be better to save it for a few seconds until a high-priority target becomes available.

Empower Rune Weapon grants you 15% haste and generates 1 Rune and 5 Runic Power instantly and every 5 seconds for 20 seconds. It has a 120-second cooldown.

Empower Rune Weapon should generally be used in conjunction with Pillar of Frost. The extra haste and resources help to make the most of these damage windows. This means saving it for 15 seconds after it comes up to use with Pillar at 2min 15seconds.

If you are using the Breath of Sindragosa talent, Empower Rune Weapon is crucial to extending its duration. Generally, use it after 10-15 seconds, depending on how quickly you starve.

With Obliteration, it is ideal to use Empower Rune Weapon a couple of seconds before your Pillar window. With The Long Winter, wait until 0-2 seconds. Without, use it 2-7 seconds before. In AoE, always use it with Pillar of Frost to boost your damage after the Pillar window ends.

Remorseless Winter deals damage and slows by 20% to all targets around you over 8 seconds. The damage and duration can be significantly increased with Gathering Storm, Biting Cold, and Everfrost.

Generally use this spell on cooldown. An important part of this cooldown, when talented into Gathering Storm, is that you can refresh its duration with the maximum of 10 stacks rolling. If you can spend enough Runes to increase the duration by 10 seconds, you can then recast Remorseless Winter and keep the 10 stacks. This is a huge damage increase and should always be aimed for. In some scenarios, you even have multiple seconds left on the buff once the cooldown comes off. In this case, wait until there is less than 2 seconds remaining on the buff before you recast it.

Everfrost works similarly, but you instead refresh a debuff on your enemies. It does not require quite as many Runes to be used as Gathering Storm to be extended.

Do not use Remorseless Winter inside of Pillar of Frost when running Obliteration builds, the GCD is not worth it.

There is further optimisation to be done with this talent if you really want to get into it. Since it has a 20 seconds cooldown, it does not quite line up with every Pillar of Frost window. When possible, delay your next cast every so slightly to help align it. During Bloodlust, you will extend it far enough that you can misalign it in the other direction. Try and make sure to not wait more than 5 seconds before your refresh Remorseless Winter, even if you could extend it a bit further! In most cases, delay 2-3 seconds both times so you don't drop your Everfrost stacks.

The huge AoE burst of this spell warrants saving it for any potential add phases. As the value grows linearly with added targets, one use of this spell on three targets is better than three overall uses. Do always try to time it with your Pillar of Frost in AoE. For pure single target with Obliteration, wait until just after your Pillar of Frost to use it. If you are running Rider of the Apocalypse, use it with your Pillar press instead to summon the Horsemen for the duration of your Pillar!

Cold Heart turns your Chains of Ice slow into a powerful nuke that ramps over 40 seconds. As a rule of thumb, use Chains of Ice when above 16 stacks of Cold Heart. Do try to time it with procs of Unholy Strength, using Chains of Ice if this proc is about to fall off and you are above 16 stacks. It is also a good idea to use Chains of Ice in your Pillar of Frost window, as long as you have not specced into Obliteration. With Icecap, you can hold it for each Pillar of Frost window.

If you are using Breath of Sindragosa, make sure to use Horn of Winter when you are low on Runes within the Breath of Sindragosa window. It is important not to hold on to it for too long as you will end up losing casts overall. Use it as soon as you cannot use Obliterate and it will not overcap Runic Power for you. Around 15-25 seconds into your Breath. With Obliteration, use it before your Pillar window to boost your resources for the burst.

We have already covered the opener and priority when running this talent, but let us put it in words. Before using Breath of Sindragosa, you want to pool some Runic Power (60+ with Bloodlust, 80+ without). Do not worry too much about pooling any Runes. Breath of Sindragosa provides 2 Runes on activation, which is generally sufficient to get going. Once you have activated your Breath of Sindragosa, your highest priority is to prolong it as much as possible. This means using Obliterate to consume Runes and generate Runic Power. You should not simply mash this button as much as possible, though.

At the start of your Breath of Sindragosa, you will most likely have a lot of Runic Power, making it important to not overcap on Runic Power as you hit your Obliterates. Only use Obliterate if you have more than 3 Runes (avoiding overcapping on Runes) or if your Runic Power deficit is greater than 20.

There are other spells to use within your Breath of Sindragosa window. Howling Blast should be used with procs of Rime (as long as you are at a healthy level of Runic Power, 60+ or so). Remorseless Winter should also be used when available (your Breath of Sindragosa window is the easiest time to extend your Gathering Storm stacks).

Using your resource-generating cooldowns smartly in your Breath of Sindragosa window is also crucial. Empower Rune Weapon and Horn of Winter will give you the resources needed to maximize your Breath duration. Use Empower Rune Weapon when you cast your Breath and save Horn of Winter for later, using it when you run out of Runes. After your Breath finishes, save Horn for before your Pillar of Frost windows, to optimise your Obliteration damage.

This talent can either be used as a single-target moderate damage cooldown, a big AoE burst cooldown, or as a utility tool to help grip adds together. For any fight that has adds, you should save this cooldown for when they spawn. Both to maximize your own damage as well as the damage of your party. For pure single target, you simply use this spell on cooldown.

Frostscythe is quite similar to Frostwyrm's Fury for its use. We simply press it as it comes up as long as we are not in our Pillar of Frost window (the opportunity cost of using it during Pillar tends to be too high).