Frost Death Knight Leveling Guide From 55 to 80 for WotLK Classic

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Unlike other classes Death Knights start at level 55 so they have a considerable amount of talent points unlocked as soon as you create your character and progress through the Death Knight starting area. While you gain the points much faster than other classes it is important to have an idea of how you should spend them to avoid having to respec to take an important talent you may have missed because of how quickly you acquired the points.

1. — 3 points in Improved Icy Touch
2. — 2 points in Runic Power Mastery
3. — 3 points in Nerves of Cold Steel
4. — 2 points in Black Ice
5. — 3 points in Annihilation
6. — 2 points in Black Ice
7. — 2 points in Endless Winter
8. — 1 point in Black Ice
9. — 5 points in Icy Talons
10. — 5 points in Killing Machine
11. — 3 points in Rime
12. — 1 point in Improved Icy Talons
13. — 3 points in Glacier Rot
14. — 3 points in Threat of Thassarian
15. — 1 point in Unbreakable Armor
16. — 1 point in Hungering Cold
17. — 1 point in Frost Strike
18. — 3 points in Guile of Gorefiend
19. — 3 points in Chilblains
20. — 1 point in Lichborne
21. — 2 points in Merciless Combat
22. — 1 point in Frost Strike

The talents you have taken so far are mostly passive damage increases to dual-wielding or procs that will make the spells you already have much more powerful as well as some like Annihilation that will completely change your rotation as you will no longer need to refresh diseases after casting Obliterate which is your primary spender of Frost and Unholy runes. Chilblains will allow you to kite almost indefinitely as the massive slow will allow you time for cooldowns or just to stay at range against an enemy may not have been able to kill if you had to constantly stay in melee range of it. Frost Strike will act as your primary spender of Runic Power and almost entirely replaces Death Coil. Death Coil can be used with Lichborne to heal yourself, but should not be used to deal damage unless you have no way of reaching your target. Unbreakable Armor acts as both a huge personal defensive and offensive cooldown, greatly increasing your survivability against Physical damage while also increasing your Strength, giving you more Attack Power and Critical strike rating.

1. Level 60 — 1 point in Howling Blast
2. Level 61 to 65 — 5 points in Tundra Stalker
3. Level 66 to 67 — 2 points in Butchery
4. Level 68 to 69 — 2 points in Blade Barrier

Howling Blast will become a massive part of your rotation when fighting more than one mob and will be used in single-target with Rime procs. Tundra Stalker will allow you to deal even more damage and make the added Expertise increase the power of dual-wielding. Butchery continues to incentivize high uptime by granting you Runic Power every time you kill an enemy and for time spent in combat.

1. Level 70 — 1 point in Blade Barrier
2. Level 71 to 75 — 5 points in Bladed Armor/
3. Level 76 to 78 — 3 points in Death Rune Mastery
4. Level 77 to 80 — 2 points in Icy Reach

Finishing out the leveling tree you will pick up Bladed Armor which is a nice personal DPS increase as well as grabbing Death Rune Mastery which will allow you a bit more freedom with your runes.

1. Apply and maintain diseases using Icy Touch and Plague Strike
2. Use Pestilence to spread your diseases in any situation you are fighting more than one target.
3. Use Blood Strike as your primary spender of Blood Runes against up to two targets, when fighting more than two targets you should be using Blood Boil as your primary spender of Blood runes.
4. Use Obliterate as your primary spender of Frost and Unholy Runes. Make sure to constantly keep your Runes on cooldown to maximize your ability usage.
5. cast Howling Blast when fighting 2+ mobs or in single-target if you get a Rime proc.
6. cast Frost Strike as your primary spender of Runic Power.
7. cast Death and Decay when fighting 3+ mobs and you are confident they will survive most of its duration.
8. Make sure you are auto-attacking at all times.

It is important to buy all abilities as you level as they are cheap and Death Knights have quite a few abilities that are extremely powerful in certain situations; you never know when you will need them.

Setting up an user interface and macros early on you will greatly improve the quality of your leveling experience. Check out the Frost Death Knight Macros and Addons guides in the links below for the full list.

Once you achieve Level 80 we suggest you check out Frost Death Knight Guide, which goes more in detail of how to play your Level 80 Frost Death Knight.

Some of the most relevant pages to dive deeper into are:

• The Frost Death Knight Talent builds guide offers a default build to maximize your damage and survivability as a Frost Death Knight;
• Our Frost Death Knight Rotation guide teaches you how to actually deal damage and survive in a variety of situations. It also includes tips on how to utilize your cooldowns and utility.
• Check out the Frost Death Knight Stats guide if you would like to learn how each stat effects your survivability and threat;
• The Gear guide for Frost Death Knight includes a list of gear to for you to acquire and where to find it;