How To Improve As Frost Death Knight — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, you will find out how you can improve at playing Frost Death Knight in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7. We list the common mistakes that you should try to avoid and the small details that can greatly improve your performance.
Not Capping Runes or Runic Power
Because you can have 3 Runes recharging at the same time, any time you are holding 4 or more Runes, you are effectively capped on Runes and wasting potential Rune regeneration. There is never a point in your play where it would be valuable to not cast anything, or where you need more than 3 Runes saved up; always keep 3 Runes on cooldown.
Similarly, every point of Runic Power you generate when already at maximum
Runic Power is a fraction of a lost Frost Strike. There are instances
when you will overcap Runic Power because you are prioritising not overcapping
on Runes, especially in AoE. This is fine and expected behaviour.
Not Managing Your GCDs in Your Obliteration Window
When playing the Obliteration talent, your damage is highly
dependent
on your
Pillar of Frost windows. If you mess these up ever so slightly,
it will have a significant impact on your DPS.
It is crucial that you only use the correct abilities in your Pillar window.
Using Remorseless Winter for instance must be done before you enter your
Pillar of Frost window! The only exception to this is in AoE where
Death and Decay is used the GCD after your
Pillar of Frost!
It is also important that you trigger your first Killing Machine as
soon as possible. We recommend creating a macro that casts
Pillar of Frost
and then immediately uses
Howling Blast,
Frost Strike or
Glacial Advance (one
macro for each). This ensures you generate the maximum number of Killing Machine
procs as possible.
Making Sure not to Accidentally Cancel Breath of Sindragosa
There is a macro that will prevent this from occurring, which is provided in the Macros and Addons section.
Pooling Runes for Gathering Storm
Gathering Storm requires you to spend Runes to increase
the strength of your
Remorseless Winter. It is generally a good idea
to spend your Runic Power just before
Remorseless Winter comes off
cooldown.
This passively pools Runes which helps empower your Remorseless Winter!
High Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy Uptime
If you are running the talents Icy Talons or
Unleashed Frenzy,
then you want to make sure to use your Runic Power frequently. One way of
doing this more easily is to naturally weave your abilities. Don't press
multiple
Frost Strike in a row, instead use an ability in-between
to better keep up your buffs!
Pooling Resources for Breath of Sindragosa
If you are running the talent Breath of Sindragosa, then you have
noticed it draining your Runic Power fairly quickly. To maximize the
duration of your Breath of Sindragosa, you want to start pooling
Runic Power about 8-10 seconds before your Breath of Sindragosa comes off
cooldown. We recommend you pool about about 60+ Runic Power.
Using Anti-Magic Shell on Non-Magical Damage
The defensive cooldown Anti-Magic Shell only absorbs magical damage,
therefore making it useless when it comes to physical damage. A common mistake
is people casting it to protect against physical damage and not gaining the
benefit of a defensive absorb or the Runic Power generation. Make sure you know
if an ability from a boss is a physical or magical ability.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Death Knight Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Bicepspump, a semi-hardcore player raiding with Pescorus on Kazzak. He is heavily involved in the DK DPS theorycrafting community, testing hyoptheses and investigating the correct priority to use. He is also a moderator in the Acherus Death Knight Discord, frequently answering questions and discussing optimisations (do not hesitate to reach out). He produces guide content on YouTube and frequently streams on Twitch.
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