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Homepage/World of Warcraft/Classes/Frost Death Knight/Spell Summary

Frost Death Knight DPS Spell Summary in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1

Last updated on Jul 16, 2018 at 21:14 by Abyssalwave 38 comments

Table of Contents

General Information

On this page, we list the spells that you will often use as a 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. Introduction

If you are new to Frost, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialisation, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Frost and are comfortable with it in Legion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2. Main Resources of Frost Death Knights

Runic Power and Runes are your two resources. Throughout the fight, you will look to spend as many Runes as possible and generate as much Runic Power as you can, which you will then use to help you deal more damage.

3. Frost Death Knight Basic Abilities

These are your core skills that are available regardless of talents, and form the core gameplay of the specialisation.

Frost Fever Icon Frost Fever is a DoT that is applied by Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast, and which you should aim to have up on the target(s) essentially at all times.

Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast costs 1 Rune (although its cost is removed when you have a Rime Icon Rime proc), deals Frost damage to the target and all other enemies within 10 yards of them, and affects all targets it hits with Frost Fever Icon Frost Fever.

Obliterate Icon Obliterate costs 2 Runes and deals a high amount of Physical damage to the target, and using it has a 45% chance to grant you a Rime Icon Rime proc.

Frost Strike Icon Frost Strike costs 25 Runic Power, and this is your only means to dump Runic Power and deal damage throughout the fight.

Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter costs 1 Rune and deals Frost damage over time to all enemies in a radius around you, also slowing their movement speed by 50% for the duration.

Death's Advance Icon Death's Advance is a useful movement ability that has a 45-second cooldown which increases your movement speed by 30% and prevents you from being slowed below 100% of your baseline movement speed. It also passively prevents you from being slowed below 70% of your baseline movement speed.

Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell absorbs up to 30% of your maximum health in magic damage over 5 seconds, and generates Runic Power based on the damage absorbed. This should be used to mitigate magic damage throughout the fight, while the added Runic Power will help increase your DPS.

4. Important Procs for Frost Death Knights

Frost Death Knights have two important procs.

Rime Icon Rime is a proc that can be triggered by either your Obliterate Icon Obliterate (with a 45% chance) or your Frostscythe Icon Frostscythe (with a 22.5% chance), and it causes the next Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast to cost no Runes and deal 300% increased damage. Using these procs before re-casting Obliterate is a very high priority.

Killing Machine Icon Killing Machine grants your auto-attacks a chance to cause your next Obliterate Icon Obliterate to be a guaranteed critical hit.

5. Cooldowns for Frost Death Knights

Frost Death Knights have two important offensive cooldowns.

  • Pillar of Frost Icon Pillar of Frost increases your Strength by 20% for 15 seconds, also making you immune to "external movement effects", such as knockbacks, for the duration. It has a 45-second cooldown. Each Rune spent during Pillar of Frost increases your Strength by 1%.
  • Empower Rune Weapon Icon Empower Rune Weapon increases your Haste by 15% and generates 1 Rune and 5 Runic Power instantly and every 5 seconds for 20 seconds. It has a 2-minute cooldown.
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