Skip to content
Wowcalc

Frost Death Knight Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

Frost damage and strikes with dual-wielded or two-handed weapons, and a tanking tree in its own right.

A plate-wearing melee fighter who spends runes and Runic Power on diseases, strikes and frost and unholy magic. Death knights start at level 55 and can tank or deal damage from any tree. More about the death knight

Class
Death Knight
Roles
Damage, Tank
Used for
Raids and dungeons
Top talent
Howling Blast
Popular builds
2
Version
WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Frost is the death knight's dual-wield damage tree, and a capable tank: Obliterate is your big hit, Frost Strike spends Runic Power, Howling Blast hits everything near the target, Killing Machine and Rime give free crits and free Howling Blasts, and Unbreakable Armor raises armour and Strength.

Keep both diseases up, Obliterate with Frost and Unholy runes, Blood Strike with Blood runes, Frost Strike to spend Runic Power, and Howling Blast whenever Rime makes it free. Frost scales very well with gear and is a top raid spec late in the expansion.

As a tank, Frost holds packs with Howling Blast and soaks hits with Unbreakable Armor.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

  1. 1Icy Touch and Plague Strike for both diseases.
  2. 2Obliterate with Frost and Unholy runes.
  3. 3Blood Strike with Blood runes.
  4. 4Frost Strike whenever you have Runic Power.
  5. 5Howling Blast when Rime makes it free.
  6. 6Unbreakable Armor, Empower Rune Weapon and Horn of Winter with trinkets.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Very high damage that scales with gear.
  • Howling Blast for packs.
  • Also a capable tank.

Weaknesses

  • Needs two good weapons.
  • Rune management.
  • Less survival than Blood.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

  1. 1

    Hitto 263 rating for melee

  2. 2

    Strength

  3. 3

    Expertise

  4. 4

    Haste

  5. 5

    Critical strike

  6. 6

    Armour penetration

What to look for

  • Two one-handed weapons, each with Rune of Razorice or Fallen Crusader.
  • Hit and expertise first, then Strength.
  • Strength gems.

Items worth chasing

  • Deathbringer's WillA trinket that procs Strength, Agility or haste.
  • Darkmoon Card: GreatnessA trinket that procs your best stat.
  • Mjolnir RunestoneA trinket that procs armour penetration.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

  • Blood
  • Frost
  • Unholy

  • Frost Raider

    DamagePvE
    15/56/0

    Raid damage with 56 points in Frost, down to Howling Blast, and 15 in Blood.

    • Unbreakable Armor 1/1
    • Frost Strike 1/1
    • Guile of Gorefiend 3/3
    • Tundra Stalker 5/5
    • Howling Blast 1/1

    Glyphs: Glyph of Obliterate (major), Glyph of Frost Strike (major), Glyph of Disease (major), Glyph of Horn of Winter (minor), Glyph of Pestilence (minor), Glyph of Raise Dead (minor)

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycrafting

  • Frost Tank

    TankPvE
    14/52/5

    Raid tanking with 52 points in Frost, down to Tundra Stalker, and 14 in Blood and 5 in Unholy.

    • Threat of Thassarian 3/3
    • Blood of the North 3/3
    • Unbreakable Armor 1/1
    • Guile of Gorefiend 3/3
    • Tundra Stalker 5/5

    Glyphs: Glyph of Disease (major), Glyph of Rune Strike (major), Glyph of Dark Command (major), Glyph of Horn of Winter (minor), Glyph of Blood Tap (minor), Glyph of Raise Dead (minor)

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycrafting

Key talents

  • Howling Blast · top talent, up to 1

    Blast the target with a frigid wind dealing 198 to 214 Frost damage to all enemies within 10 yards.

  • Improved Icy Talons · tier 6, up to 1

    Increases the melee haste of all party and raid members within 100 yds by 20% and your haste by an additional 5%.

  • Merciless Combat · tier 6, up to 2

    Your Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Obliterate and Frost Strike do an additional 12% damage when striking targets with less than 35% health.

  • Improved Frost Presence · tier 7, up to 2

    While in Blood Presence or Unholy Presence, you retain 8% stamina from Frost Presence, and damage done to you is decreased by an additional 2% in Frost Presence.

  • Threat of Thassarian · tier 8, up to 3

    When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Rune Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 100% chance to also deal damage with your offhand weapon.

  • Blood of the North · tier 8, up to 3

    Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 10%. In addition, whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence there is a 100% chance that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune.

  • Unbreakable Armor · tier 8, up to 1

    Reinforces your armor with a thick coat of ice, increasing your armor by 25% and increasing your Strength by 20% for 20 sec.

  • Frost Strike · tier 9, up to 1

    Instantly strike the enemy, causing 55% weapon damage plus 48 as Frost damage.

  • Guile of Gorefiend · tier 9, up to 3

    Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Blood Strike, Frost Strike, Howling Blast and Obliterate abilities by 45%, and increases the duration of your Icebound Fortitude by 6 secs.

  • Tundra Stalker · tier 10, up to 5

    Your spells and abilities deal 15% more damage to targets infected with Frost Fever. Also increases your expertise by 5.

Frost abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.

Related

Other death knight specs: Blood, Unholy