PvE Frost Death Knight DPS Guide

If you're here, you probably want to learn how to play a frost death knight. Frost death knights are an easy class to learn, and great DpSers, not to mention fun! Frost death knights perform best on single target dps and therefore aren't as proficient as UH DKs on AoE fights such as Lich King Phase 1. Frost death knights bring a +20% melee haste buff to raids. It's useful towards raid dps and always a must in a good raid! Frost DKs are also fairly versatile depending on what you stack. The two main frost dps specs are arp and strength. Arp does outperform strength, but mainly in heroic geared situations. Arp also requires a much higher uptime on the target to sustain its dps. In my guide, I'll be teaching you the strength spec, as that is the one I have more experience in. A word of warning, it's also fairly in depth compared to the other quick guides.* I hope you find it useful. Now let's dive in!

*If you only want to skim through and not read the entire thing, I have all the main points bolded. :)

Table of Contents:

• Abbreviations
• Talents and Glyphs
• Basic Rotation and Procs, when to use them?
• Maximizing your DpS, utilizing defensive cooldowns.
• Stat Priority
• Gems
• BiS List (includes enchants & runeforging)
• Professions
• Macros
• Addons
• Preparing for Raids (Flasks/Food)
• Credits

Abbreviations:

AMS = Anti-Magic Shell
AoE = Area of Effect
Arp = Armor Penetration
AP = Attack Power
BiS = Best in Slot
BT = Blood Tap
BCB = Blood Cake Blade
CD = Cooldown
DK = Death Knight
ERW = Empowered Rune Weapon
FS = Frost Strike
GCD = Global Cooldown
Horn = Horn of Winter
HB = Howling Blast
HA = Hyperspeed Accelerators
IBF = Icebound Fortitude
ICD = Internal Cool Down (for trinkets)
IT = Icy Touch
KM = Killing Machine
OB = Obliterate
Pest = Pestilence
PS = Plague Strike
PvE = Player versus Environment
PvP = Player versus Player
Str = Strength
UA = Unbreakable Armor
UH = Unholy

Talents & Glyphs


The talent specialization that I use (0/55/16) can be found here!

This spec is geared for complete end game, so you'll notice that Killing Machine only has 4/5. This is because when your crit is around 35-40% you can easily get by with only 4/5. I placed the extra talent in Blood-Caked Blade. This leftover point is very controversial. If it was working as intended, BCB would be the talent you'd want no question. But seeing as it's bugged, Subversion becomes a very popular alternative. Especially good if your guild's tank is having trouble keeping aggro through your burst. Finally, you can take a point out of Chill of the Grave and put it into Blood-Caked Blade if you find yourself getting TOO MUCH RUNIC POWER and only then. However, these are all trivial differences. Until you're around....6.2k+ gs, keep 5/5 in KM. 

For your 3 major glyphs, you should have Glyph of Disease, Glyph of Frost Strike, and Glyph of Obliterate (in order of importance (high to low)). This is not optional, and it will never change. So feel free to buy them early into the gearing of your character. 

Minor glyphs: Glyph of Horn of Winter, and maybe Glyph of Blood Tap if you don't like hurting yourself. (You don't need any minor glyphs and the only one of mild convenience is horn of winter.)

Finally, use Blood Presence when dpsing.

Basic Rotation and Procs, when to use them?

When you start any boss fight, your first spell is going to be Horn of Winter (refresh as needed during fight, after the RP dump is optimal). Rotation is then divided into two parts. 

One thing you need to know is to never drop your diseases. This is one of the two most crucial elements of a frost rotation. 

The other thing you need to know is the RP dump. The RP dump is where you siphon off all your RP through Frost Strike. It is also where you use your Rime Procs. 

The first part of your "rotation" will be the starter rotation:

Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Obliterate -> Blood Strike -> Blood Tap -> Unbreakable Armor (& Hyperspeed Accelerators if you're an Engineer) -> Howling Blast*(Proc) -> Frost Strike (until out of RP or frost/uh runes reset).

*Note that Howling Blast should never be used before Frost Strike if you have Killing Machine procced as well. A critical Frost Strike > critical Howling Blast. HB has been fixed, so it's not as horrible an alternative, but still stick to this priority system. If Killing Machine isn't procced, Howling first.*

If you want to incorporate ERW into this rotation, here's how you'd do it:

IT -> PS -> BS -> BT -> UA/HA -> OB -> FS dump -> ERW -> OB x2/3 -> more FS + HB

This gives you a ****load of consecutive FS + OB. Alternatively you could just save it for in case you mess up your rune cds. 

In this starter segment of the rotation, you see that it has you popping all of your CDs. This is because when you have high crit chance and the BiS trinkets, it becomes almost certain that said trinkets will proc within the first 15 seconds of the fight. You then want to stack all the CDs you have. This will maximize your dps more than say, waiting till you have an RP dump later in the fight but not having your trinkets up. Always stack your damage buffs. If you can get Hysteria + Heroism/Bloodlust as well, then have it activate with everything else. You WILL have higher numbers!

I'm not saying, however, that you should wait for your trinkets to proc again in the middle of the fight before you activate your CDs again. Hit your **** as soon as it becomes available. The ICD of your trinkets will generally be in line with UA anyway.

This is the standard rotation afterwards:

Obliterate x3 -> RP dump & Horn -> Obliterate x2 -> Pest -> Blood Strike (replacing Blood Strike with Blood Tap -> UA when cooldown resets.) -> RP dump

^ Repeat until the fight ends. 

This rotation set/priority system maximizes your ability to use runes efficiently and with a minimum global rune cooldown. You'll notice that all Frost/Unholy Runes are used consecutively, with blood runes having a lower priority. This is because the Frost/UH runes will be the main source of your dps. If you use half your frost/uh runes and then some blood runes before switching back to frost/uh, the drop in dps will be considerable!

Maximizing your DPS, utilizing defensive cooldowns.

The first things I will mention here are some molten exploits, some commonly known, some not. For example, if you have two frost death knights in the raid, you can switch to a secondary spec and then back to your main one. This will result in you having double Icy Talons. Confirmed. 

Also, switching to an Unholy spec, summoning your ghoul, and then switching back to your Frost spec will have you retain the Unholy ghoul, who will remain with you until killed. Confirmed. 

Next, we'll talk about how to maximize your dps by editing rotation*. There isn't much change, just start with Army of the Dead seconds before the start of the fight, have your ghoul if you're using the UH ghoul bug, pop Horn and run in screaming LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRROOOOOOOOOOYYYYYY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNKIIIIINNNNSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!111* * After that, it's standard rotation. If you're not using the UH ghoul bug, you'll want to raise your ghoul after you pop your cds in the starter rotation because the ghoul will take the stats you have up when you summon it. 

*Only Recommended on certain bosses, aka DBS/Festergut.

**PROVEN to maximize DpS! But wait for the tank to get aggro. 

Finally, I'll point out some of the death knights DEFENSIVE cooldowns, which can have unanticipated dps boosts. You'll see that Anti-Magic Shield (AMS) causes you to gain runic power went struck by an effect. A common usage for this is to pop it, then deliberately step into the zone you're supposed to avoid (Marrow: Fire) (Lady: DnD) (Rotface: Sticky Slime Spray) (PP: ....too many to name) (BQL: Air Phase/Bloodbolt Whirl) (Sindragosa: Blistering Cold for us slow ones) (Lich King: Remorseless Winter ONLY...defile = GG) These are the main ones and I don't usually bother popping it in other situations. Another defensive cooldown is Icebound Fortitude: only to be used in BQL air phase, Rotface's Explosion, or something similar. There is no DpS boost from it.

Stat Priority

A Death Knight's main attribute is Strength. Of course, first you should be hit capped, and I would call the hit cap between 7-8% although it can go down to as low as 5% with your talents, but I don't recommend it. Expertise cap is: 24, not hard to reach. And make sure to factor in racial passives accordingly! (Draenei: 1% hit, Human: + 3 expertise with maces, Troll: +20% haste I believe, Orc: + pet damage and ap)

After hit is strength, stack as much of this as you can. Haste follows closely behind strength, faster global cooldowns, auto attacks more often, and more chance of Killing Machine. Then you have Crit Rating. You should have 30% or more in end-game gear. But because of KM, you really don't need to bother actively going for crit. Finally, armor penetration. I'm drawn to it, dunno why. However, you should never stack it in a strength spec because you will get all the arp you need from your gear. 

So to refresh: Hit/Expertise -> Strength -> Haste -> Arp -> Crit.


Gems! Precious valuables!

I try to match all my gems to the socket color so that I can get the socket bonus, only do this when your gear is pretty high level (i264+). At this point, it's pretty much even to stacking full strength.

However if your gear isn't i264+, you should probably stack full strength, siding in hit/expertise gems as needed. Gem to your needs! When you're hit and expertise capped, go full out strength.

Meta Socket: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (+21 agility, +3% increased damage)

Red Socket: Bold Cardinal Ruby (+20 strength)

Yellow Socket: Fierce Ametrine (+10 strength +10 haste)

Blue: Nightmare tear 1, then stack str, str and expertise, or hit and expertise*

*In full BiS gear, you will only have 1 blue socket.


BiS Gear & how to enchant it.

*Note that all items are HC, and I'm not responsible for any unintentional drooling that might happen to your keyboard*

Set-up is as follows:

Slot: Item: Enchant

Head: Sanctified Scourgelord Helmet: +50 attack power, +20 crit rating
Neck: Penumbra Pendant
Shoulders: Sanctified Scourgelord Shoulderplates: +40 attack power, +15 crit rating
Cloak: Winding Sheet: +23 Haste
Chest: Sanctified Scourgelord Battleplate: +10 all stats
Shirt: Precious's Ribbon? Idk...
Tabard: Tabard of Frost (cause you're a frost DK) or Tabard of the Lightbringer
To be honest, I think Tabard of the Achiever looks the nicest with this set.

Bracers: Polar Bear Claw Bracers: + 50 attack power
Hands: Fleshrending Gauntlets: +44 attack power/+340 haste (engineer)
Belt: Coldwraith Links: + Eternal Belt Buckle (+20 strength)
Legs: Sanctified Scourgelord Legplates: +75 attack power, +22 crit rating
Feet: Apocalypse's Advance: +32 attack power/ ap + minor run speed increase/nitro boosts (passive crit) I really recommend getting something with a movement speed buff here. The survivability is nice, and your dps will be the same.

Ring 1: Ashen Band of Endless Might
Ring 2: Skeleton Lord's Circle
Trinket 1: Sharpened Twilight Scale
Trinket 2: Deathbringer's Will
Weapons: Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings x 2
Sigil: Sigil of the Hanged Man/Sigil of Virulence (Depends on the fight. High movement = Virulence. Burst = Hanged Man)

Runeforging: 

Honestly it doesn't matter which weapon you put the runeforges on. Razorice on your mainhand has been proven to have a higher DpS output then Fallen Crusader, but the increase is so infinitesimally small that it doesn't really matter. 

Main hand weapon slot: Rune of Razorice on Havoc

Offhand weapon slot: Rune of the Fallen Crusader on Havoc

Professions:

There are a variety of profession combinations that you can learn. The most popular is Blacksmithing + Jewelcrafting, but I personally have Engineering and Blacksmithing because I'm a gnome and I pvp sometimes, and I think works quite well. These are the best 3 professions. If you have a goblin engineering specialization, you can even link Saronite Bombs or the Global Sapper thing into a Frost Strike macro. 

Macros:

Unbreakable Armor + Hyperspeed Accelerators:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Sanctified Scourgelord Gauntlets
/startattack
/castsequence reset=60 Blood Tap, Unbreakable Armor, Sanctified Scourgelord Gauntlets


^ This macro activates Blood Tap, then UA, and finally the HA. However, you do need to press it 3 times.

All the following macros are simply autoattack macros that reset your autoattack when you cast the ability, in essence allowing you an extra weapon swing in addition to your ability.

Icy Touch:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Icy Touch
/startattack
/cast Icy Touch


Plague Strike:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Plague Strike
/startattack
/cast Plague Strike


Obliterate:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Obliterate
/startattack
/cast Obliterate


Blood Strike:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Blood Strike
/startattack
/cast Blood Strike


Pestilence:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Pestilence
/autoattack
/cast Pestilence


Frost Strike:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Frost Strike
/startattack
/cast Frost Strike


Howling Blast:

Spoiler:  

#showtooltip Howling Blast
/startattack
/cast Howling Blast

Addons:

I only use 1 DK specific addon, but I think there are a couple that all DKs should have:

Power Auras

DKI: Runes/Diseases

Deadly Boss Mods

Here is a picture of my UI:

Spoiler:

If you'd like to know what addons I use, feel free to send me a PM or post on this thread.

Raid Preparation:

When you're going to a raid, all you really need is food, flasks, and scrolls. Get the Scroll of Strength ( +30? str), Flasks of Endless Rage ( +180 ap), and Dragonfin Filet (+40 str). If you're really hardcore, you can also invest in StormChops (mainly visual effect), which stack with Dragonfin Filet.

Credits:

Creds to the following people for being awesome and for teaching me almost everything i know: 

Abra - Dude, you're the most knowledgeable DK I've ever met, and I've enjoyed having you as a friend here on forums and occasionally Deathwing as well. Thanks for everything. <3

Dethey - another beast DK that knows his ****. One of my favorite Bulgarians'. Thanks man. Look forward to seeing you on Lord. ^^

Eat - Thanks for the macros and everything else. I know everyone in <Fidelity> was rough with each other, but I appreciate it all, especially the carry to 2k rating. :)

Reknilador - men wurst DK in Difracshun, caried by all. But thanks for giving me tips, and congratz again on Invincible's reins. Best DK Deathwing? ;D

Timetopwn - one of the first DKs I met, gifted at beating all expectations, pulling sick DpS despite buggy blood specs and crappy gear. You see DKs from another perspective entirely. c:

And thanks to everyone that posted below as well! You guys are great at catching mistakes. <3 Thanks for reading my guide and helping me improve it.

This is a copied post from Warmane Official Forum

Credits to: Grymninja