The overall rotation of a Frost Death Knight remains mostly the same with the arrival of Cataclysm. The addition of Outbreak alongside the other minor buffs to the rest of the abilities has added an overall quality-of-life improvement to the specialization’s gameplay.
In this section of the guide, we will go over the rotation and abilities of Frost Death Knights, in both Single-Target and AoE/Cleave encounters.
Single-Target Rotation
- Use Unholy Presence if you play the Two-Handed Build
- Use Frost Presence if you play the Dual-Wield Build
- Apply and upkeep diseases with Outbreak
- Use Plague Strike and Howling Blast as an alternative for refreshing diseases if Outbreak is on cooldown
- Cast Pillar of Frost on cooldown for Burst Phases
- Cast Howling Blast on Rime procs
- Cast Frost Strike to spend Runic Power
- Cast Frost Strike to consume Killing Machine if Obliterate is on cooldown
- Cast Obliterate on cooldown (Main filler).
- Prioritize Obliterate whenever you have a Killing Machine proc.
The standard Single-Target rotation for Frost Death Knight remains completely the same, with the only change being the addition of Outbreak as a simple way of applying diseases at the beginning of the encounter. Both the consistent rotation and the burst phase of Frost Death Knight remain the same as it was in WotLK, with Obliterate acting as our main filler for our runes, Frost Strike as our main Runic Power spender, and Pillar of Frost as our main burst ability.
Howling Blast should only be used on Rime procs to maximize the damage output while Killing Machine should only be used on Obliterate, even if you have to wait for your runes to recover.
AoE/Cleave Rotation
- Use Unholy Presence if you play the Two-Handed Build
- Use Frost Presence if you play the Dual-Wield Build
- Cast Death and Decay
- Cast Outbreak to apply diseases
- Use Plague Strike and Howling Blast as an alternative for applying diseases
- Cast Pestilence to spread Diseases and refresh them by casting it on different targets
- Cast Frost Strike to spend Runic Power
- Cast Frost Strike to consume Killing Machine
- Spam Howling Blast whenever you have Frost Runes and Death Runes
- Cast Howling Blast on Rime procs
The AoE rotation for Frost Death Knight remains absolutely the same when compared to its WotLk version, having close to no change in it. The only change is the addition of Outbreak as a convenient initial way of applying diseases. The rest remains absolutely the same with Pestilence being used to spread the diseases and refresh their duration by swapping between targets while Howling Blast remains our main filler ability, being spammed on cooldown and Rime procs. Frost Strike is used as a main Runic Spender, especially on Killing Machine procs.
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