Frost Death Knights were some of the strongest damage specializations in the game back inWrath of the Lich King.It will be interesting to see how well they perform inWoW Classic: WotLK. Many tier lists out thererank them as number oneor two just behind the other DPS spec available to Death Knights, Unholy.
This guide will give players an understanding of how to optimally play the Frost Death Knight inend-game PvE contentat level 80, specifically how they can best contribute to group content such as Dungeons and Raids.
Best Talent Build For Frost Death Knight
There are two main talent builds for Frost Death Knights. The image below shows both of these builds.
Best Glyphs For Frost Death Knight
Major Glyphs
The three best Major Glyphs for Frost Death Knights areGlyph of Frost Strike,Glyph of Obliterate, andGlyph of Disease. Each of these glyphs are very important to increasing overall damage.
Minor Glyphs
The two Minor Glyphs that are almost always seen for Frost Death Knights areGlyph of Raise Deadfor a minor improvement in inventory management, andGlyph of Pestilencefor a significant range increase toPestilence.
Stat Priority For Frost Death Knight
The stat priority listed below will help guide players to know which stats to look for on gear. In general, if a piece of gear has more stats overall it would be the better choice. Players need to verify that they achieve specific stat thresholds, such as Hit Rating and Expertise, and then they can focus on increasing other stats.
For Frost Death Knights263 Hit Rating(8%)is the minimum amount required to ensure attacks with skills always hit. The talentNerves of Cold Steeland the Draenei passiveHeroic Presencereduce the hit rating needed from gear by 3% and 1% respectively.
Hit Rating is still an important stat above the special attack cap, increasing it to higher thresholds will also improve damage.
TheExpertise Capthat Frost Death Knights need in order to never have a skill be dodged or parried is26(6.5% or 214 Expertise Rating). Wielding the weapon that corresponds with the below racial traits will reduce the amount of expertise needed:
CriticalStrike Rating,ArmorPenetration, andHasteRating are all fairly equal in terms of power, with crit increasing spell and melee damage, ArPen increasing melee damage, and Haste improving melee damage and increasing the frequency of activatingKilling Machine.
Agilitydoes not provide Attack Power; it only increases Critical Strike Chance.
Skill Rotation For Frost Death Knight
To start, Frost Death Knights should be inBlood PresenceforSingle-Targetencounters for a flat 15% damage boost.
Burst Damage
When the situation calls for burst damage or to maximize damage at the beginning of an encounter players can castBlood Tapto useUnbreakable Armorand then castEmpower Rune Weaponfollowed by castingObliterate3 times (preferably after diseases have been applied and are active on the target).
Using trinkets,Potion of Speed, and racial traits likeBlood FuryorBerserkingat the same time as well as castingRaise Deadto benefit from all the buffs will offer a significant period of burst damage.
Multi-Target
ForMulti-Target(greater than 3) encounters, useHowling BlastwhenKilling Machineactivates instead ofFrost Strike. Players may also want to be inUnholy Presencein order to spread diseases faster and to activateKilling MachineandRimemore often.
Scrolls:
Best In Slot Pre-Raid BiS Gear For Frost Death Knight
The gear that is often sought after for both of the Death Knight DPS specializations, Frost and Unholy, is largely the same. The exception is that sometimes Unholy can have flexibility by wielding a 2-handed weapon. For this reason, we’ve chosen to place theBiS Gear options for both specs on one page:
