Best In Slot Frost Dk Bfa
- Best in Slot Items for Unholy Death Knight If you have read the previous section, you should now understand that static Best in Slot lists are always misleading, and it is best to use the tools at your disposal, notably Raidbots Top Gear and its new Droptimizer options.
- The Death Knight as a whole has a lot of themes going on with it and if lore and RP is your thing there are a LOT of ways to take a DK. I suggest reading the Death Knight comics that came out during wrath, also the DK order hall story is debated to be the best in Legion.
This Frost Death Knight guide will get you started and familiar with the spec regardless of the content you're planning on doing. I will cover talent builds, rotation, and optimal gearing.
You can find all our Pocket Guides for other World of Warcraft classes right here: Best WoW Builds
Spec Overview
Frost Death Knights are a melee Damage Dealers that chill their enemies to the bone and then Obliterate them. They are the True Death Knights, the Lich King himself was using Frost powers after all (and his fortress was named ICEcrown Citadel, located in ICEcrown... ok, I'll try to be professional from now on). Frost DK's have potent AoE Burst Damage and don't have to sacrifice their Single Target DPS to achieve it, but are a bit slow on their feet which makes reacting to some Raid Mechanics problematic.
Pros | Cons |
Great AoE Damage without Sacrificing Single Target DPS | Low Mobility |
Very High Burst AoE Damage potential | Not much Utility in Mythic+ |
Easy-to-play | Maximizing your Damage output can get a bit tricky in rapidly changing engagements |
The True DK Spec (Not like those Blood and Unholy imposters) |
Best In Slot Frost Dk Bfa 8 3
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Statistics Priority
Best In Slot Frost Dk Bfa Build
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Please note that weights of those stats are pretty close together, and you should run simulations in order to determine if a certain item will be an upgrade over what you already have |
The Best Talent Choices
Unholy Dk
Level 56: Recommended choice - Cold Heart | |
Cold Heart - A passive ability that stacks up to 20 times, each stack causes your next Chains of Ice to deal more Frost Damage to your target; the single stack is gained every 2 seconds, all stacks are consumed while casting Chains of Ice. This gives you a very powerful Damaging Ability every 40 seconds, it is the best used in combination with the Pillar of Frost, which has a 45s cooldown, so combining them does not pose any challenge. | |
Icy Talons increase your Melee Attack Speed by 5% for 6 seconds after you use Frost Strike, Breath of Sindragosa or the Glacial Advance, this effect stacks up to 3 times, for a maximum of 15% Bonus Attack Speed for 6s. This currently gives you the lowest DPS boost, and should not be considered. Inexorable Assault works similarly to Cold Heart, you gain a stack every 8 seconds, for a maximum of 5 stacks; your next Obliterate consumes all stacks to deal extra damage. This is a decent choice, but it gets outperformed by Cold Heart, as it deals more damage and Chains of Ice have the added benefit of having a 30yd Range. | |
Level 57: Recommended choice - Runic Attenuation | |
Runic Attenuation - Your Auto Attacks now have a chance to generate 3 Runic Power. This will boost your AoE and Single Target Damage by a visible margin, it works very well with the Breath of Sindragosa. | |
With Murderous Efficiency, you will have a 50% chance to gain a Rune after using a Killing Machine proc. This provides a good DPS boost, but is RNG-dependant and therefore not recommended, unless your simulations clearly state otherwise. Horn of Winter gives you 2 Runes and 25 Runic Power instantly on a 45-second Cooldown. This works well with Breath of Sindragosa and should be picked if you need some extra Burst AoE Damage potential at the expense of consistent damage output. | |
Level 58: Recommended choice - Asphyxiate | |
Asphyxiate - A 4 seconds stun; it has 40-second Cooldown and the 20yd Range. This is a Strong single-target Crowd Control spell, but other two choices in this row have their own merits to them and should be chosen instead if a situation warrants it. | |
Death's Reach increases the range of your Death Grip to 40 yards and resets its Cooldown whenever you kill an enemy that yields Experience or Honor. This Talent is a great choice for Farming and Leveling, as it lets you Grip new mobs constantly. Blinding Sleet is a mass 5 second disorient spell with a 60s cooldown, which is great for Controlling large groups of mobs in Dungeons. | |
Level 60: Recommended choice - Frozen Pulse | |
Frozen Pulse - Your Auto Attacks also deal AoE Frost Damage, as long as you have 2 or fewer full Runes. This increases Single Target Damage while also providing some extra AoE potential, but requires slight changes in Ability Prioritizing (you want to keep that Runes burned) in order to maximize its potential. | |
Frost Scythe is an active ability that deals Frost Damage to all Targets in your Front Cone, it benefits from Killing Machine procs, and its Critical Damage has 4x modifier (instead of standard 2x). This is the best AoE Talent in this row and should be picked for Multi-target heavy encounters, the main downside of the Frost Scythe is that it forces great changes in your standard rotation. The Avalanche is a passive ability that causes your Howling Blast to deal increased AoE damage while it is empowered by Rime. This is a middle-ground Talent, and it is generally better to swap between the Frozen Pulse and the Frost Scythe as the situation demands it. | |
Level 75: Recommended choice - Wraith Walk | |
Wraith Walk - Removes Root effects and increases your movement speed by 70% for 4 seconds, your movement speed cannot be reduced below 170% during uptime of the ability. This ability will greatly help you with Frost's mobility problems, as the Death's Advance may not be enough in some encounters. We recommend this pick as it gives you the most flexibility. | |
Permafrost shields you for 40% of the Damage Done by your Auto Attacks, this effect stacks up to a maximum absorption value of 20% of your Max HP, this largely improves your ability to mitigate constant incoming damage, but will generally not save you from a nuke. Death Pact is an emergency healing spell, that restores 50% of your max HP instantly, but then absorbs healing equal to 30% of your max HP for the next 15 seconds; it has 2-minute Cooldown. This can save you in an emergency situation or when your Healers just derp around while they should be paying attention (it's always the Healers fault, I know, I know...). | |
Level 90: Recommended choice - Frostwyrm's Fury | |
Frostwyrm's Fury - Summons a Frostwyrm that breaths on all Targets in a 40-yard lane in front of You, dealing High amounts of Frost Damage and slowing all affected enemies by 50% for 10s; it has 3-minute Cooldown. This is a great addition to Frost DK's AoE Toolkit that also increases Single Target Burst Damage potential, making it the best choice for Mythic+ progression. | |
Gathering Storm causes each Rune spent during Remorseless Winter to extend its duration by 0.5s and boost its Damage by 10%. This greatly increases the effectiveness of the Remorseless Winter and provides Single Target and AoE Damage Boost that is very similar to Frostwyrm's Fury's but its usage is much more complicated. Glacial Advance creates Spikes of Ice that shoot out of the ground in a straight line in front of you, Spikes deal Frost Damage and apply Razorice to all damaged Targets; it has 6-second Cooldown and costs 30 Runic Power. This ability is a good choice for dumping Runic Power in AoE heavy encounters but lacks Single-Target Damage potential. | |
Level 100: Recommended choice - Breath of Sindragosa | |
Breath of Sindragosa - A strong Active ability, that constantly deals high amounts of AoE Damage to Targets in front of you, and drains your Runic Power in the process; it lasts until canceled or till you run out of Runic Power. This is a great choice for a Single-Target and the AoE Burst Damage but requires some setup. It works well with Runic Attenuation and Horn of Winter. | |
Icecap causes your Obliterate, Frostscythe and Frost Strike Criticals to reduce the remaining Cooldown of Pillar of Frost by 1 second. This increases uptime of the Pillar of Frost, and has synergy with Cold Heart, but does not provide Damage Boost as significant as the Breath of Sindragosadoes. Obliteration makes your Frost Strikes, Glacial Advances, and Howling Blasts, cast during the Pilar of Frost uptime, trigger Killing Machine procs 100% of the time and generate a Rune 30% of the time. This provides a significant boost to Single-Target and AoE damage but is currently much weaker than the Breath of Sindragosa. |
The Basic Rotation
Frost Death Knight's Rotation revolves around Spending Runes and Generating/Dumping Runic Power. It is worth noting that DK's Priority list differs greatly during Major Cooldowns uptimes and outside of them.
Use the following Priority List for the optimal Single Target Damage output:
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Use the following Priority List for the optimal AoE Damage output: (Using this Rotation will require some Talent changes) | |
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If Breath of Sindragosa is coming back up, please setup like this: | |
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Please follow the Priority list below in order to maintain the Breath of Sindragosa for as long as possible: | |
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Tips and Tricks for Improving your Gameplay
Frost Death Knight Bis
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END NOTE This is an early version of our guide, we plan to upgrade upon it, and add further sections. So please leave your suggestions in the comments section below. We would also like to state that this is meant as a pocket guide and therefore we will not go into too much detail (please visit more specialized sites for a much more in-depth build/stat/gear/rotation analyses). |
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