MoP Classic Frost Death Knight — Guide (Phase 5)
viewsAbout the Class
The Frost Death Knight is a plate-wearing melee fighter who dual-wields two one-handed weapons (less often a single two-hander). It runs on two resources: four types of runes and runic power, and the whole fight comes down to never letting a rune sit idle and never letting runic power cap out.
The rotation is built around procs: 
Killing Machine makes your next 
Frost Strike or 
Obliterate a guaranteed critical, while 
Rime makes 
Howling Blast free. In raids the spec is especially strong early in the phase, while gear is still weak, and it brings a full utility toolkit with it.
Strengths
- Very strong personal survival cooldowns, first and foremost
Anti-Magic Shell. - A powerful damage cooldown,
Pillar of Frost, every minute. - Raid value:
Anti-Magic Zone and a battle rez via 
Raise Ally. 
Gorefiend's Grasp — the best pack-gathering tool in the game.- Keeps the strength and agility buff up on the raid via
Horn of Winter. - In weak gear it outpaces most other melee.
Weaknesses
- Very weak mobility: no gap-closers.
- Scales worse than Unholy as gear improves.
- Defenseless against crowd-control effects outside of cooldowns.
- Heavily proc-dependent, so its damage swings from fight to fight.
- Managing runes and runic power takes practice: mistakes show up immediately in your damage.
Stat Priority
- 1Strength
- 2Hit Rating (up to 7.5%)
- 3Expertise (up to 7.5%)
- 4Mastery
- 5Critical Strike Rating
- 6Haste
This is the order for dual-wielding one-handers. If you play with a two-hander, put Critical Strike Rating above Mastery — everything else stays the same.
Talents
Rotation (Ability Priority)
The opener is a set sequence of abilities you use as you engage an enemy. Memorising it helps initiate your rotation in the most optimal way possible.
- 1Horn of Winter
- 2
Army of the Dead - 3
Potion of Mogu Power - 4
Outbreak - 5Pillar of Frost
- 6
Raise Dead - 7
Empower Rune Weapon - 8Obliterate
- 9Howling Blast
- 10Frost Strike
- 11
Blood Tap - 12Obliterate
Frost Presence — before the pull, check that you're actually standing in it- Pillar of Frost — on cooldown, it's your main damage gain
- Raise Dead — as soon as it's available
- Blood Tap — from 11 charges, if you have an inactive rune
Soul Reaper — on targets below 35% health- Frost Strike — on a Killing Machine proc or at 89+ runic power
- Obliterate — on a Killing Machine proc, if both diseases are up
- Howling Blast — when both frost runes or both death runes are available
- Outbreak — applies
Frost Fever and 
Blood Plague 
Plague Strike — if Outbreak is on cooldown- Howling Blast — on a Rime proc
- Frost Strike — from 40 runic power
- Obliterate — as a rune dump
- Horn of Winter — when everything else is unavailable
- Empower Rune Weapon — when you've run out of both runes and runic power
Key Abilities
Blood Charge into a ready death rune
Best in Slot Gear (BiS)
Best in Slot Gear (BiS)Tier 16 Set — Battleplate of Cyclopean Dread
Tier 16 Set — Battleplate of Cyclopean DreadIn the BiS setup you wear 4 set pieces, and the legs slot is taken by
Legplates of Unthinking Strife.
Enchants, Gems, Consumables
Enchants
Gems
ConsumablesRaces
Best Professions
The best choice. 
Synapse Springs gives a burst of strength that lines up perfectly with Pillar of Frost, and Nitro Boosts solve the mobility problem.
Socket Bracer and 
Socket Gloves — two extra strength gems with no strings attached.
Up to three 
Bold Serpent's Eye give more strength than ordinary gems.
Fur Lining - Strength on the wrists is stronger than the standard enchant.
Author
Fouren
Fouren has been playing World of Warcraft for over 15 years. He is an active player with 12 Cutting Edge achievements under his belt, and has reached the top 1% and 0.1% multiple times on various classes. His main classes are healers, particularly Holy Paladin.
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