Frost Death Knight DPS Spell List and Glossary — Dragonflight 10.0.7

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 specialization, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Frost and are comfortable with it in the current expansion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

Runic Power and Runes are your two primary resources. We have 6 Runes in total that passively generate over time, taking 10 seconds to recharge (decreased by haste). Runes are the most common resource we use for our abilities which include Obliterate and Remorseless Winter. Spending Runes generates 10 Runic Power per Rune used. We use Runic Power as our spender on abilities such as Frost Strike and Glacial Advance

Spells and passive abilities are unlocked as you level up and spend talent points. This page will simply list every single ability you can obtain, not recommending any specific talent setups or rotations to use. If you want to understand which abilities are best to pick up when leveling, please follow the below link.

These are the abilities that you obtain without selecting anything in the talent trees.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Death Coil	DC	Costs 30 Runic Power to cast dealing Shadow damage to the target. Can be cast on an Undead ally (including yourself) to heal it.
Death and Decay	DnD	Costs 1 Rune and places a damaging area at the target location, which persists for 10 seconds. If you have selected Cleaving Strikes also makes your Obliterate cleave 1 additional target.
Death's Advance	DA	Death's Advance when activated increases your movement speed by 35% and prevents you from being slowed below 100% of your movement speed for 10 seconds. It also grants you immunity from knockbacks. It has a passive ability that prevents your movement speed from being reduced below 70%.
Rune Strike	-	Costs 1 Rune and deals moderate damage. Is replaced once we choose a specialisation ( Obliterate for Frost).
Runic Empowerment	RC	A passive that gives you a 2% chance per Runic Power spent to instantly regenerate a Rune. Always picks a fully depleted Rune if possible, or the least depleted one if possible.
Dark Succor	-	A passive that grants you a free Death Strike whenever you kill an enemy that grants honor or experience. Also increases the healing of the Death Strike by 10%. Importantly, you need to land the killing blow to retrieve the buff, meaning you will not get that many procs in Raids and Mythic+.
On a Pale Horse	-	A passive that grants 20% mounted movement speed.
Death Grip	-	Pulls your target towards you. Also has a shorter GCD compared to normal spells at 0.5 seconds. This means that you can quickly use another ability after gripping something.
Raise Ally	-	Costs 30 Runic Power and battle resses a targeted dead ally, bringing them back to life (even in combat).
Lichborne	-	Turns you undead for 10 seconds. This makes you immune to charm, fear and sleep, and grants you 10% leech. You can also activate this ability to break any of these CCs, making it a useful tool if you are accidentally hit a mechanic that applies such a CC.
Dark Command	-	Taunts the targeted enemy, forcing them to attack you.
Runeforging	-	Allows you to apply a powerful Runeforge to your weapon, acting as a (usually) better enchant. You do this in the Acherus Hold at the Runeforges.
Death Gate	-	Summons a gate that will teleport you to Acherus. Here you can Runeforge your weapon and practice your rotation on target dummies. Using the Death Gate again will bring you back to your original location.
Path of Frost	-	Costs 1 Rune and grants everyone in your group the ability to walk on water. Breaks on any damage taken.
Mastery: Frozen Heart	-	Our Mastery, increasing all Frost damage we do. Doesn't work on damage sources from items.
Remorseless Winter	RW	Costs 1 Rune, dealing AoE Frost damage around you for 8 seconds. It also slows all enemies affected by 20%. Our primary non-cooldown ability for AoE damage that is also worthwhile to press in Single Target. It can be significantly buffed with talents such as Gathering Storm, Biting Cold and Everfrost. Learned at level 19.
Might of the Frozen Wastes	MotFW	Increases the damage of Obliterate by 30% when wielding a 2-handed weapon. It also makes your auto-attack critical strikes guarantee procs of Killing Machine. This doubles the proc rate of Killing Machine for a 2-handed build. This is still less than a dual-wield build would generate by 28%. Learned at level 25.
Frostreaper	-	Turns your Obliterates that consume procs of Killing Machine into Frost damage. This is a significant damage boost due to multiple effects. No damage reduction from armor, damage increases from Mastery: Frozen Heart as well as damage increase from Rune of Razorice. Synergizes well with all spells that increase the proc rate of Killing Machine, such as Obliteration and Icy Talons. Learned at level 28.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Chains of Ice	Chains	Costs 1 Rune and slows your target by 70% for 8 seconds. This is generally your primary way of slowing any given target. Great for when you need to kite dangerous mobs in the open-world, or kill a fleeing enemy.
Death Strike	DS	Costs 45 Runic Power and constitutes our primary mean of healing ourselves. The amount heal increases with the damage we've taken in the last 5 seconds, making it excellent to use after you have taken a big hit. It heals for 25% of the damage taken with a minimum of 7% max hp healed every time.
Raise Dead	-	Summons a ghoul to fight with us for 1 minute.
Mind Freeze	-	Interrupts your target. Has a 15 yards range, a benefit over other melee interrupts that often require melee range.
Anti-Magic Shell	AMS	Absorbs up to 30% of your maximum health in magic damage over 5 seconds, generating Runic Power based on the damage absorbed (up to 30 Runic Power maximum). This should be used to mitigate magic damage throughout the fight, while the added Runic Power will help increase your DPS. It also prevents any magical debuffs from being applied to you. This can be very useful to dodge mechanics! The Runic Power gain is also especially useful when running Breath of Sindragosa since it can be used to increase its duration.
Blinding Sleet	Sleet	Blinds all targets in a cone in front of you for 5 seconds. When the enemies are broken out of the sleep via damage, or if the duration finishes, they are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. Great ability to stop a group of enemies from casting, as well as controlling them efficiently. Your tank will love this ability whenever they need to kite.
Sacrificial Pact	SacPact	Costs 30 Runic Power and sacrifices your primary ghoul, dealing AoE damage (linearly to 8 targets, square root afterwards) and healing you for 25% of your maximum hp. Primarily used as an emergency heal but can also be used at the end of the 1-minute ghoul duration to gain a bit of extra AoE damage.
Control Undead	-	Costs 1 Rune and controls the targeted Undead enemy for 2 minutes. This requires that the enemy is sufficiently low lvl (does not work on bosses and certain mobs in dungeons). You can use the abilities of the dominated undead at reduced effectiveness. Overall a good ability to leverage whenever you can.
Icebound Fortitude	IBF	Provides a 30% damage reduction for 8 seconds, additionally making you immune to stuns. Can be used when stunned as well to break out of the CC. Primary defensive cooldown for us with the added benefit of the stun break!
Anti-Magic Zone	AMZ	Places a zone on the ground that reduces magic damage taken by 20% for 10 seconds for everyone standing in it. The maximum amount that can be absorbed is equal to 1.5 times your Maximum Health, increased by your Versatility.
Asphyxiate	Asphyx	Stuns your target for 5 seconds. Simple single-target stun with a range of 20-yard range.
Death Pact	-	Heals you for 50% of your maximum health, as well as putting a healing absorption heal for 30% of your maximum health. A panic-button heal with a downside. The effective healing is only 20% but you still find a lot of instances where this provides the required breathing room for your healers or you need to bring yourself back to health.
Wraith Walk	WW	Provides 70% movement speed for 4 seconds. Any ability used during the channel will break the effect. Useful as a movement speed increase in instances when you need to move between A and B without doing anything else.
Empower Rune Weapon	ERW	Provides a buff for 20 seconds, increasing your haste by 15% and generating 1 Rune and 5 Runic Power every 5 seconds. Provides a good amount of extra resources in your rotation, as well as a haste boost to synergise with your other cooldowns. Synergises well with Breath of Sindragosa due to the haste and resource generation.
Abomination Limb	Limb/AL	Grows an extra arm for you for 12 seconds, dealing AoE damage around you as well as pulling a random enemy towards you every second. The enemy must be outside melee range to be liable to grip. Great utility tool that will help your party group up any pack of mobs. Also provides three procs of Rime.
Soul Reaper	SR	Costs 1 Rune, deals low damage and applies a debuff to your enemy. After 5 seconds, if the target is below 35% health, this debuff explodes dealing heavy ShadowFrost damage. If the target dies while under the effect of Soul Reaper, you gain Runic Corruption.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Frost Strike	FS	Costs 25 Runic Power, dealing Frost damage to your target. This is our primary Runic Power spender in Single Target, forming part of our Core rotation.
Obliterate	Oblit	Costs 2 Runes, dealing Physical damage (or Frost damage if talented). Our primary Rune spender! It can be significantly buffed through a variety of procs and talents such as Killing Machine, Frostreaper and Obliteration. A major part of our Core rotation.
Howling Blast	HB	Costs 1 Rune, dealing frost damage to your target and nearby enemies. The damage scales as square-root, meaning the damage per target decreases as you add additional targets. The total damage always increases. This spell also applies our DoT Frost Fever to all targets hit. Frost Fever deals Frost damage over 24 seconds and has a chance to grant you 5 Runic Power every time it ticks. The chance of gaining Runic Power is increased the more target that has the DoT on them. Generally only used with procs of Rime.
Glacial Advance	GA	Costs 30 Runic and deals Frost damage to enemies in a line, in the direction you are facing. Also applies Rune of Razorice to all targets hit. A great way of spending Runic Power in AoE, as well as applying Rune of Razorice to enemies. Useful with 2-handed builds to help build Rune of Razorice in all situations.
Pillar of Frost	Pillar/ PoF	Increases your strength by 25% for 12 seconds. Additionally, every Rune you spend when the buff is active increases your strength by an additional 2%. Iconic Frost DK cooldown that we leverage to boost our other cooldowns. Has multiple talents that directly interact with it such as Enduring Strength, Frostwhelp's Aid and Obliteration.
Frostscythe	FsC	Costs 1 Rune and deals Frost damage in a cone in front of you. Additionally, any crits with this ability deal 400% damage instead of 200%. If you have Rune of Razorice on your mainhand weapon, this ability also applies a stack of the debuff to all targets hit. Good Rune-spending AoE ability at high target counts.
Horn of Winter	HoW	Instantly grants you 2 Runes and 25 Runic Power. Good addition of resources to the rotation and especially good with Breath of Sindragosa since it can be used to extend its duration. Unfortunately on the GCD making it a bit tricky to use.
Chill Streak	CS	Costs 1 Rune and throws a snowball at your enemy. This ball will bounce to the closest enemy within 6 yards for a total of 9 bounces. Very powerful cooldown for 2-target stacked encounters. It still does great damage at larger target counts as well, it simply does not scale in its total damage compared to 2 targets.
Empower Rune Weapon	ERW	Either grants the Empower Rune Weapon ability or provides an extra charge.
Frostwyrm's Fury	FwF	Calls down a dragon to breath frost damage to all enemies in a line in front of you, travelling 40 yards. Huge burst AoE cooldown that can be leveraged well on extra-large packs in Mythic+ or add spawns in Raid.
Breath of Sindragosa	Breath/ BoS	Deals Frost damage in a cone in front of you dealing full damage to your primary target and 1/ sqrt(n) times as much on all secondary targets (n is the number of total targets). The ability will drain 16 Runic Power per second, stopping once you reach below 16. Alters your rotation significantly and presents an optimisation problem to maximise its duration. Great cooldown both for Cleave, Single Target and AoE which great Frost Death Knights can leverage to excel!

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Cleaving Strikes	-	Makes your Obliterate cleave to 1 additional target when standing in your Death and Decay, hitting 2 total. Important to note is that the cleave is based off you yourself standing in the Death and Decay, not your enemy. Doesn't matter too much for us but there are still cases where you can stand at the edge of your Death and Decay and still cleave off targets outside of it.
Permafrost	-	Provides a shield on yourself based on 40% of your auto attack damage. Provides a good deal of tankiness, both from passive healing but also as prevention to one-shot mechanics.
Coldthirst	-	Grants you 10 Runic power and reduces the cooldown of Mind Freeze whenever you successfully interrupt using the ability. A nice additional to our resource generation, as well as providing overall more interrupt opportunities in any situation.
Improved Death Strike	-	Increases the healing of Death Strike by 60% and lowers its cost by 10 Runic Power. Effectively makes Death Strike a 35 Runic Power ability that heals for a minimum of 11% max health, or 40% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, whichever is greatest.
Anti-Magic Barrier	-	Lowers the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell to 40 seconds and increases the amount absorbed by 40%. Useful for any situation with heavy magic damage or frequent magic debuff applications (that you can then ignore).
March of Darkness	-	Grants you an extra 25% movement speed during the first 3 seconds of activating Death's Advance.
Enfeeble	-	Gives your ghoul from Raise Dead a chance to apply a debuff to its target, reducing its movement speed by 30% and making it deal 15% less damage to you.
Blood Scent	-	Passively increases your Leech by 3%.
Suppression	-	Passively increases your Avoidance by 3%.
Veteran of the Third War	VoTW	Increases your stamina by 10/20%, making you significantly more tanky overall.
Brittle	-	Grants your diseases a chance to apply a debuff to your enemy, increasing the damage you do against them by 6% for 5 seconds.
Acclimation	-	Reduces the cooldown of Icebound Fortitude from 3 minutes to 2 minutes, allowing us to use it significantly more often.
Merciless Strikes	-	Increases your critical hit chance by 2%. A strong throughput talent overall.
Might of Thassarian	-	Increases your strength by 2%. A strong throughput talent overall.
Clenching Grasp	-	Slows any enemy that you Death Grip by 50% for 6 seconds, allowing you to further control its movement.
Proliferating Chill	-	Increases the number of targets hit by your Chains of Ice from 1 to 2. Only affects additional enemies in close proximity of your primary target. Synergises well with Cold Heart since both target will take the damage!
Gloom Ward	GW	Increases the effectiveness of all absorbs on you by 15%. Big survivability increase both from empowering our own abilities such as Anti-Magic Shell and Anti-Magic Zone as well as any healing coming in the form of absorbs. Especially good with Disc Priests!
Assimilation	-	Increases the amount absorbed by Anti-Magic Zone by 10%, as well as granting you up to 100 Runic Power based on the damage absorbed. Both a nice small buff to the overall healing you can do with this ability, as well as a big injection of Runic Power in your rotation whenever there is big raid or party magic damage incoming. Good synergy with Breath of Sindragosa since it can significantly extend your breath!
Death's Reach	-	Increases the range of Death Grip by 10 yards and resets its cooldown whenever you kill an enemy granting experience or honor. Useful in any situation where you need to grip adds as the extra range both helps with the distance you can move them, as well as lowering how far you need to run yourself. The cooldown reset is mostly useful during leveling as you need to land the killing blow to gain the effect.
Grip of the Dead	-	Adds a 90% slow to your Death and Decay, reducing by 10% for every second. A great tool to help your tank kite and manage any trash pack. Also helps to prevent targets from running away from you as you begin your AoE burst, something that can otherwise be very frustrating.
Unholy Endurance	-	Converts your Lichborne into a proper defensive cooldown, granting it 2 extra seconds of duration as well as a 15% damage reduction for you. Adds to our already extensive kit of defensives!
Runic Attenuation	RA	Gives your auto attacks a chance to grant you 5 Runic Power. This provides around 50 Runic Power per minute, adding a significant amount of resources to our rotation. This is one of the major factors to why our rotation feels smooth in Dragonflight.
Unholy Ground	-	Provides a 5% Haste buff whenever you stand in your Death and Decay. Does not make the ability worthwhile to use in pure Single Target but does present a nice boost to our AoE burst window.
Insidious Chill	-	Applies a stacking debuff with your auto attacks, reducing the enemy's attack speed by 5% per stack up to 20% at 4 stacks. Helps your tanks survive in a scenario (or yourself when doing open-world content). Does not stack with Curse of Weakness but does stack with Rogue poison.
Blood Draw	-	Heals you for a moderate amount if you drop below 30% health. Can only occur once every 3 minutes. Does provide some protection from dying but generally occurs too infrequently and with too little healed to be that useful in PvE.
Will of the Necropolis	WotN	Reduces the damage you take below 30% by 20/35%. Big boost to our survivability since the damage we take below 30% is by far the most useful to mitigate.
Death's Echo	-	Provides an extra charge to Death's Advance, Death and Decay and Death Grip. Nice increase in utility with the extra mobility and the additional grip. Also a solid buff in AoE since we have more freedom to enter multiple Death and Decay burst windows in any given pull.
Icy Talons	IT	Provides a 3/6% increase in attack speed for 10 seconds every time we spend Runic Power, stacking up to 3 times. Gives us a nice boost to the number of Killing Machine procs we generate.
Rune Mastery	-	Makes spending Runes give a chance to increase our strength by 3/6% for 8 seconds.
Unholy Bond	-	Increases the effectiveness of our Runeforges by 10/20%. This includes every aspect of the Runeforge, making Rune of the Fallen Crusader both increase its healing and strength gain for instance.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Killing Machine	KM	Gives your critical auto-attacks a chance to make your next Obliterate or Frostscythe a guaranteed critical strike. It has built-in bad-luck-protection with an increasing probability of getting a proc every time you fail to get one. The chance scales as 30% -> 60% -> 90% -> 100%, meaning you cannot have more than 3 crit auto-attacks in a row without getting a proc!
Rime	-	Provides a 45% chance for Obliterate and a 22.5% chance for Frostscythe to make your next Howling Blast cost no Runes and deal 150% more damage. It still counts as spending a Rune for abilities such as Pillar of Frost and Gathering Storm.
Unleashed Frenzy	-	Gives a 2% stacking strength buff every time you deal damage to an enemy with an ability that costs Runic Power. Lasts for 6 seconds and stacks up to 3 times. Provides an ability to track in your core rotation where you need to prioritise Runic Power abilities every so often to maintain it at full uptime.
Improved Frost Strike	-	Increases the damage of your Frost Strike ability by 10/20%.
Runic Command	-	Increases your maximum Runic Power by 10/20, bringing the total to 110/120. This stacks with our Hysteria Runeforge, bringing the total up to a potential 140.
Improved Obliterate	-	Increases the damage of our Obliterate ability by 20%.
Improved Rime	-	Increases the damage increase of Rime from 150% to 300%.
Frigid Executioner	-	Increases the damage of Obliterate by 15% and gives the ability a 15% chance to refund its cost when used. Good boost for builds that focus heavily on Obliterate damage and provides a nice amount of extra resources to the rotation.
Rage of the Frozen Champion	RotFC	Increases the chance for Obliterate to generate a proc of Rime by 15%. Also makes your Howling Blast that consumes a proc of Rime generate 8 Runic Power. Brings a significant amount of resources to our rotation. Both from more GCDs being used on free Howling Blasts as well as more Runic Power being generated overall. Specifically synergises well with Breath of Sindragosa!
Cold Heart	CH	Gives a stacking buff every 2 seconds that makes your next Chains of Ice deal magic damage. Stacks up to 20 times (over 40 seconds) and deals damage for every stack consumed. Synergises with Proliferating Chill as the damage is applied to both enemies that are hit with Chains of Ice.	Fatal Fixation	-	Allows Killing Machine to stack up to two times. This greatly reduces the number of procs you will waste in a fight, making it a very powerful talent.
Enduring Strength	-	Provides a 10/20% strength buff after your Pillar of Frost buff fades. The base duration is 6 seconds and every Obliterate and Frostscythe critical strike extends this by 2 seconds. Extends the buff window and synergises well with our longer cooldowns such as Breath of Sindragosa.
Frostwhelp's Aid	Whelp	Summons a mini dragon when we use Pillar of Frost, dealing damage in a straight line ahead of us up to 40 yards away. Also gives a 2/4% Mastery buff for every target hit, stacking up to 5 times. Great boost for our Pillar of Frost window in AoE, but does ninja pull a lot if you are not careful.
Biting Cold	BC	Increases the damage of Remorseless Winter by 35% and generates a proc of Rime when Remorseless Winter has dealt damage to three unique targets. Big boost overall with the most impact in AoE. Both from the raw damage as well as the guaranteed Rime proc!
Murderous Efficiency	ME	Gives a 50% chance to generate a Rune when you consume a proc of Killing Machine with Obliterate. Good synergy with any build that generates a lot of Killing Machine procs, especially Obliteration.
Inexorable Assault	IA	Provides a stacking buff on yourself every 8 seconds. Obliterate and Frostscythe consume a proc to deal additional Frost Damage. Stacks up to 5 times. Importantly, the extra Frost damage is independent of whether Obliterate or Frostscythe crits and does not synergises with any procs of Killing Machine. For Frostscythe, it only hits your primary target, not gaining any benefit from the AoE part of the ability.
Icecap	-	Reduces the cooldown by Pillar of Frost by 2 seconds whenever you critical strike with Frost Strike, Obliterate or Frostscythe. Has strong synergy with spells that work off your Pillar of Frost casts such as Obliteration, Enduring Strength and Frostwhelp's Aid. Also works especially well with Frostscythe since its attacks have independent probabilities of critting when striking multiple targets. There is an internal cooldown so you cannot get multiple procs at once. However, you still get the benefit of only needing one hit to crit, making the chance of triggering the passive high as you increase the target count.
Gathering Storm	GS	Increases the duration of Remorseless Winter by 0.5 seconds, and its damage by 10% for every Rune you consume. This stacks to 10. With sufficient Rune use, you can extend this buff for 20 seconds when your Remorseless Winter becomes available. Recasting the ability with retain the stacks and reset the duration to 8. This is a significant DPS increase and is something you should aim to do when possible.
Piercing Chill	-	Makes your Chill Streak apply a debuff whenever it hits a target, increasing the damage of Chill Streak by 10%, stacking. This is a good damage increase whenever you have low target counts, being the most efficient with 2 stacked targets. Loses power with large target counts as the debuffs are unlikely to stack up very high.
Enduring Chill	EC	A 20% chance to increase the total amount of bounces by 1 every time Chill Streak bounces. This will increase the total amount of bounces from 9 to 11.25 (in an infinite duration case) on average. This will be roughly 2 extra bounces in real scenarios. Requires the pack to live for the initial 9 bounces before it takes effect, meaning it loses value whenever a pack dies too quickly.
Bonegrinder	-	Provides a stacking 1% critical strike buff whenever you consume a proc of Killing Machine. The buff lasts for 10 seconds. Using a proc of Killing Machine at 5 stacks consumed the buff, granting 10/20% increased Frost damage for 10 seconds. Great synergy with Obliteration that is almost guaranteed to trigger this buff after each Pillar of Frost window.
Shattering Blade	SB	Makes your Frost Strike consume your Rune of Razorice debuff at 5 stacks, increasing its damage by 100%. Makes Frost Strike sometimes hit hard, but does give us a period of Rune of Razorice downtime whenever we utilise this effect. Essentially requires us to Runeforge Rune of Razorice to be useful.
Avalanche	-	Provides some extra AoE damage whenever we consume a proc of Rime, as well as applying a stack of Rune of Razorice to all targets hit. Opens up for multiple builds to pick up another Runeforge that is not Rune of Razorice, indirectly making this talent very powerful.
Icebreaker	-	Makes your Rime also grant 30/60% increased damage to your primary target. Makes Howling Blast hit hard on single-target and increases the priority of not overlapping procs of Rime.
Everfrost	EF	Applies a debuff to any enemy damaged by your Remorseless Winter, increasing the damage they take from Remorseless Winter by 6% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. In a similar way to Gathering Storm, this debuff can be extended at 10 stacks with sufficient extension of Remorseless Winter. You have slightly more leeway here and only need to extend Remorseless Winter by 5 seconds to roll the debuff.
Cold-Blooded Rage	-	Gives your Frost Strike critical hits a 10/20% to generate a proc of Killing Machine. This does not add that many overall procs throughout a fight, but it is still nice to get some.
Invigorating Freeze	-	Increases the chance to generate Runic Power from Frost Fever by 5/10% whenever the DoT crits. Makes your rotation receive even more resources as you increase your Critical Strike stat. Synergises well with Breath of Sindragosa.
Obliteration	Oblit	Makes your Frost Strike, Glacial Advance and Howling Blast generate a proc of Killing Machine if used during your Pillar of Frost. Overall adds a significant amount of procs to your rotation and converts your Pillar of Frost window into a big damage cooldown. Introduces a "weaving" game style where you alternate between generating and consuming procs of Killing Machine.
Absolute Zero	AZ	Reduces the cooldown of Frostwyrm's Fury to 90 seconds and adds a 4-second stun to any target you hit with the ability. Overall a nice boost to our AoE burst potential where we can leverage our burst significantly more often.