Cataclysm Classic Frost Death Knight Rotation and Cooldowns

Death Knights have three different Presences though as an Frost Death Knight we will only really be using two of them, mostly Unholy Presence and Frost Presence in a situation where you are AoEing consistently over a period of time.

• Blood Presence — increases your Stamina by 8%, the contribution from Armor by 55% and reduces all incoming damage by 8%. It also increases threat generation considerably.
• Frost Presence — increases your damage dealt by 10% and increases Runic Power generated by 10%.
• Unholy Presence — increases Attack Speed and Rune regeneration by 10% and movement speed by 15% while also reducing your global cooldown on abilities by 0.5 seconds.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

Frost Death Knight's rotation is a constantly updating set of priorities based off of Runes available and what proc you find yourself with active at any given time. Knowing in which order these need to be prioritized will allow you to deal maximum DPS in what feels like a constantly changing, high action-per-minute rotation.

1. Apply both your disease Frost Fever and Blood Plague and keep them active active, this should be done with Outbreak as often as possible but if not possible use Howling Blast and Plague Strike;
2. Cast Obliterate If both Frost and Unholy Runes or Death Runes are active or you have a Killing Machine proc;
3. Cast Frost Strike if you are at risk of reaching maximum Runic Power;
4. Cast Howling Blast if you have a Rime proc;
5. Cast Obliterate;
6. Cast Frost Strike when two Runes of the same type are inactive;
7. Cast Howling Blast;
8. Cast Horn of Winter.

You will typically follow the Single-Target rotation highlighted above but it is important to understand how to initiate combat with the boss as it will be rare you find yourself with all of your Runes and cooldowns available beyond the start of a pull.

1. Use your Golemblood Potion pre-pull;
2. Cast Howling Blast and Outbreak to apply diseases and get your Frost Rune on on cooldown;
3. Cast Pillar of Frost as soon as you are in melee range of your target;
4. Cast Obliterate to get your Unholy Runes on cooldown;
5. Cast Frost Strike to spend your Runic Power while waiting for your Unholy and Frost Runes to regenerate.

Your AoE rotation starts at two targets and acts somewhat similarly as your single-target rotation, putting a large emphasis on maintaining diseases and maximizing the amount of Howling Blast casts we are able to use. The addition of Outbreak has made the initial application of diseases much easier though we will only really be using Pestilence in a situation where you expect the mobs to live for an extended period of time.

1. Cast Howling Blast if both Frost or Death Runes are active;
2. Cast Death and Decay or Plague Strike if both Unholy Runes are active;
3. Cast Frost Strike if you are at risk of reaching maximum Runic Power;
4. Cast Howling Blast;
5. Cast Death and Decay;
6. Cast Frost Strike;
7. Cast Horn of Winter.

Frost Death Knights have five incredibly powerful cooldowns and properly utilizing these will make a massive difference in your DPS as it will allow you access to additional Runes as well as just being flat damage increases.

Pillar of Frost is your single largest DPS cooldown and increases your Strength by 20% for 20 seconds. This is best paired with anything that increases the frequency of your attacks such as Bloodlust or Heroism.

Raise Dead summons a single ghoul to fight for you for one minute. This ghoul benefits from your stats at the time of summoning it so always try to pair it with your Pillar of Frost if possible and any haste effects like Bloodlust or Heroism.

Empower Rune Weapon instantly refreshes all of your Runes and grants you 25 Runic Power. This ability is ideally used when all of your Runes are on cooldown. Due to its long cooldown, try to use it early as you are unlikely to get more than one or two casts of it per fight. If the encounter is unlikely to last longer than the 5 minutes it would take to come back off cooldown, use it whenever you feel you need the most burst damage.

Army of the Dead summons an army of ghouls to attack your primary target. This is best used right before combat starts before casting your pre-pot or during an intermission where you are otherwise not able to attack.

Blood Tap turns one of your Blood Runes into an available Death Rune. This should be used on cooldown assuming one of your blood Runes is already on cooldown.