Frost Death Knight DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.1.7)

There are generally two distinct playstyles as a Frost Death Knight: Shattering Blade and Breath of Sindragosa. Out of these three, I recommend the DW Shattering Blade build with Deathbringer for raid. It is straight-forward and works well on the majority of encounters.

For Mythic+, you want to run the DW Shattering Blade build with Deathbringer.

Your main goal throughout fights will be to maximize your Obliterate usage while keeping an eye out for your two procs, Rime and Killing Machine.

Furthermore, when running the Breath build, you want to maximize your uptime of Breath of Sindragosa by generating your Runic Power efficiently and leveraging your cooldowns, such as Empower Rune Weapon and Horn of Winter in a smart way. If you are running Shattering Blade, you instead keep track of your Razorice stacks on your enemy, bursting them with big Frost Strikes!

Note that the rotations listed below are not fully optimized for the highest possible output, instead making some sacrifices to ensure their ease of use. If you wish to put out the most DPS you possibly can, you should check out our dedicated Rotation page instead.

1. Use Death and Decay when fighting multiple enemies to make your Obliterates cleave.
2. Use Pillar of Frost on Cooldown. Combine it with Reaper's Mark when running Deathbringer or Frostwyrm's Fury (when available) when running Rider of the Apocalypse.
3. Spend your procs of Killing Machine on Obliterate.
4. Spend your procs of Rime on Howling Blast.
5. Spend your Runic Power on Frost Strike (single target) or Glacial Advance (AoE and if you have picked the talent).
6. Use Remorseless Winter on cooldown.
7. Spend leftover Runes on Obliterate.

When your Breath of Sindragosa is active, do not spend Runic Power on anything else!

As a Frost Death Knight, you have potentially 10 total cooldowns. Below, we explain how they are best used.

• Reaper's Mark should be used on cooldown with each Pillar of Frost window. We pick up Icecap to make sure both Pillar and Reapers Mark have a 45-second cooldown, allowing you to align them every time.
• Remorseless Winter should be used on cooldown. However, refrain from using it during your Pillar of Frost when running Obliteration builds.
• Chill Streak should be used on cooldown. Use it before each Pillar of Frost (they align when you pick up Icecap).
• Pillar of Frost should be used on cooldown, stacking it with potions or any on-use trinkets you have.
• Empower Rune Weapon should be paired with your Pillar of Frost windows.
• Frostwyrm's Fury should be used in synergy with Pillar of Frost and on as many targets as possible. For Single Target, you ideally do not use it in Pillar, unless you cannot generate or consume a Killing Machine proc during the GCD. It is safe to wait until just after Pillar to send it. When using Rider of the Apocalypse, use with your Pillar of Frost press to summon your Riders for the duration of Pillar!
• Cold Heart governs your Chains of Ice usage. Generally, use Chains of Ice at 16+ stacks of Cold Heart. With Icecap, simply use it with each window of Pillar of Frost.
• Breath of Sindragosa should be used on cooldown in synergy with your other cooldowns (hold for 15 seconds to align with Pillar). Make sure to pool resources before you use it, and time your Horn of Winter for when you start to starve your Breath.
• Obliteration alters your Pillar of Frost. Once active, spend every GCD generating procs of Killing Machine or consuming said procs. Use Empower Rune Weapon 0-2 seconds before your Pillar of Frost. If you are running both Breath of Sindragosa and Obliteration, only use Obliterate and consume procs of Rime in your Pillar of Frost window.
• Abomination Limb should generally be used on cooldown. Hold it for add waves that need grouping up.
• Horn of Winter should be used to generate Resources when needed. In Breath, that means pressing it when you cannot cast Obliterate in a GCD and you will not overcap Runic Power by using the CD! For Obliteration builds, use it ahead of your Pillar of Frost window when you are low on resources.
• Death and Decay should be used to enable cleave in AoE (with Cleaving Strikes). Time it with your Pillar of Frost windows. If you are running The Long Winter, use it after you have generated two stacks of Killing Machine. Otherwise use just before Pillar of Frost.

Patch 11.7 introduced the Combat Assistant functionality for all specs in the game. This comes in the form of two tools that you can use to assist your rotation. The Assisted Highlight feature will light up the spell that you are supposed to use next, helping you determine what button you need to press. The Single-Button Assistant will provide you with a single button that automatically pressed the appropriate spell. Importantly the Single-Button Assistant has a GCD penalty of 0.2 seconds every time you press it, artifically slowing down your rotation. This penalty means that you always will do less DPS when using the Single-Button Assistant compared to what you could have done with a perfectly executed rotation.

One major aspect to consider here is the lack of major Cooldowns in the Combat Assistant. The Assisted Highlight and Single-Button Assistant will not highlight/use your major offensive Cooldowns. Instead it is on you to ensure that you use those appropriately.

One question you might ask yourself now is: how good is the rotation I can get from these assistants? If we assume that you handle your Cooldown usage perfectly, the Assisted Highlight is roughly 5-10% less DPS on Single Target and 15-25% worse in AoE. With the Single-Button Assistant, the numbers are 15-20% in Single Target and 25-30% in AoE. Do bear in mind that this is compared to absolutely optimal play. A player with less experience with the rotation might see a significantly smaller loss, or even a gain when using the assistants.