The icy harbingers of doom channel rune power and are true killing machines.
Only a frozen opponent is a good opponent: that’s the motto of the Frost Death Knights, who use their rune power to cast ice-cold damage spells. Alternatively, you can play the Unholy Death Knight as a damage dealer as well, or go for a tank specialization with the Blood Death Knight.
The most important changes
You can choose to fight with two one-handed weapons or one two-handed weapon. The passive ability Power of the Frozen Wasteland has been adjusted so that weapon choice makes no difference.
You now have the Death and Decay, Death Cloak, and Raise the Dead abilities available to you. The former Antimagic Field and Lich Knight honor talents are now part of your spellcasting lineup as normal abilities.
The former Frostwyrm’s Fury talent is now an ability you learn at level 44. This summons a Frost Wyrm that deals frost damage to enemies in front of you while reducing their movement speed.
Sacrifice Pact is a new ability that you learn at level 54. It lets you sacrifice your ghoul to inflict Shadow damage on eight nearby enemies and heal yourself. Extinguish now scales at 120% of your attack power instead of 60%.
New rune enchantments are available for your weapons: Rune of Eternal Thirst (level 20, for PvP), Rune of Sanguination (level 32, increases damage from Deathblow), Rune of Apocalypse (level 44, your ghoul inflicts debuff on target), Rune of Hysteria (level 48, increases Rune Power and Rune Power generation), and Rune of Spell Protection (level 48, deflects magic damage and gives an absorption shield). Hypothermic Presence is a new level 45 talent that temporarily reduces the rune power cost of your abilities.
How to play the Frost Death Knight
As a Frost Death Knight, you should prioritize your attributes like this:
- Strength
- Critical hit chance
- Mastery
- Versatility
- Speed
| Stage | Talent | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Cold Heart | Grants you a stack of Cold Heart every two seconds, causing your next use of Ice Chains to deal 144 Frost damage. Can be stacked up to 20 times. |
| 25 | Murderous Efficiency | When consuming the Killing Machine effect, there is a 50% chance that you will receive a rune. |
| 30 | Asphyxiate | Lifts the enemy target off the ground, chokes it with dark energy, and stuns it for four seconds. |
| 35 | Frostscythe | A long-ranged attack that deals 201 frost damage to up to five enemies in front of you. This attack benefits from Killing Machine. Critical hits with Frost Sickle deal four times the normal damage. |
| 40 | Death Pact | Enters a death pact that heals you 50% of your maximum health, but absorbs incoming healing equal to 30% of your maximum health for 15 seconds. |
| 45 | Gathering Storm | Each rune consumed during the effect duration of Unmerciful Winter increases the damage of the ability by 10% and extends the duration by 0.5 seconds. |
| 50 | Icecap | Critical hits from Frost Strike, Frost Sickle, and Extinguish reduce the remaining cooldown of Pillars of Frost by four seconds. |
The Frost Death Knight’s play style follows a priority list. Use Icy Chains when you have built up 20 stacks of Cold Heart. Cast Unmerciful Winter when this is available.
If you have a proc of Hoarfrost, use Howling Gust, as this now costs no runes and does 300% more damage. If you have more than four runes available, use Extinguish. Frost Blast is used when you have more than 75 rune power available.
If you have a proc of Kill Machine, use Extinguish, as it now does frost damage and hits critically. Against multiple enemies, use Frost Sickle instead of Extinguish, which can also benefit from Killing Machine procs. Offensive cooldowns include Pillars of Frost, Boost Rune Weapon, and Furor of the Frost Wyrm.
