Frost Death Knight Mythic+ Guide

Offensive Nodes

• Rider's Champion - Each Rune spent gives you a 10% chance to summon one of the following Four Horsemen:
  • Mograine
    • Puts up a Death and Decay that follows him.
      • You gain the benefit of Mograine's Might and Unholy Ground if you are standing in this.
  • Whitemane
    • Undeath is a disease with a 24 second duration that spreads and gains 1 stack every time you use Scourge Strike on the infected target.
  • Trollbane
    • Repeatedly casts Chains of Ice over his duration that gets shattered by Obliterate with Trollbane's Icy Fury.
  • Nazgrim
    • Grants you 5% Strength, increasing by 1% for every Rune spent while Nazgrim is active.
• Apocalypse Now
  • Summons all 4 Horsemen for 20 seconds after casting Frostwyrm's Fury making Absolute Zero mandatory to line this up with every other use of Pillar of Frost allowing for huge burst every 1m30s.
    • If a Horsemen is already out, it extends the current duration by 20 seconds instead.
      • Mograine does not recast his Death and Decay but all other Horsemen recast their abilities.
• Hungering Thirst
  • Passively increases Frost Fever and Frost Strike damage.
• Mawsworn Menace
  • Increases Obliterate damage by 10% and reduces the cooldown of Death and Decay by 10 seconds allowing you to use 2 charges of Death and Decay during Pillar of Frost in AoE.

Offensive Choice Nodes

• Fury of the Horsemen or A Feast of Souls
  • Fury of the Horsemen increases the duration of your Horsemen while they are up but A Feast of Souls enables massive Frost Strikes periodically and is prolonged during Apocalypse Now. When combined with Shattering Blade and Shattered Frost this is especially powerful. As this is purely a numbers difference, A Feast of Souls currently wins when paired with Shattering Blade.

Defensive Choice Nodes

• Death Charge or On a Paler Horse
  • On a Paler Horse does not work at all in this raid so you always choose Death Charge which is not a bad thing as this greatly increases your mobility and allows you to break roots and slows.
• Horsemen's Aid or Pact of the Apocalypse
  • Horsemen's Aid depends on the value of Anti-Magic Shell during the fight as this can be incredibly potent allowing you to pre-immune debuffs or randomly absorb high amounts of magic damage. On the other hand, Pact of the Apocalypse grants you 5% damage reduction per Horsemen out or a 20% damage reduction during your cooldowns with Apocalypse Now. Due to the situational value of both of these, there is no auto pick for this as it just depends on the fight.

When to Play This Build

This is mainly a build to play in higher keys as pulls and bosses last long enough in these key levels to take full advantage of the Breath of Sindragosa damage profile.

Talent Adjustments

Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.

Spec Tree

• Added
  • Icebreaker
    • Increases the damage of Howling Blast when empowered by Rime.
  • Hyperpyrexia
    • A passive damage increase.
  • Breath of Sindragosa
    • Transforms you in to a burstier, more cooldown focused spec that is pulled around to extract the maximum benefit from playing this build.
• Removed
  • Absolute Zero
  • Avalanche
  • Shattering Blade
  • Shattered Frost

Swappable Talents

• Horn of Winter for Murderous Efficiency
• Frostwyrm's Fury for Inexorable Assault

This build is more rng as you no longer have an on demand rune generator during Breath but will likely do more overall damage as Frostwyrm's Fury is considerably stronger than Inexorable Assault.

Runeforges

• Main-Hand
  • Rune of the Fallen Crusader
• Off-Hand
  • Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle

Opener

• Your goal during the opener is to use abilities that both gain power and grant benefits during Pillar, making it your burstiest window when combined with Treacherous Transmitter (or a different on-use trinket), Tempered Potion, Reaper's Mark, and Breath.

• In the Breath of Sindragosa opener, how fast you get in to Breath of Sindragosa depends on what procs you get. If you get a lot of procs you can delay up until the point where you are capped on Runic Power or when Reaper's Mark is about to explode as you want to get that in to Pillar of Frost.

During Breath Priority List

• Cast Reaper's Mark when it is ready.
• Cast Pillar of Frost when it is ready.
• Cast Remorseless Winter if you are not in Pillar of Frost.
  • While in Pillar, if you are above 60 Runic Power, do not have a Killing Machine or Rime proc, and Remorseless Winter is already stacked, you can refresh Remorseless Winter.
• Cast Soul Reaper if the enemy is below 35% health and you have more than 50 Runic Power.
• Cast Obliterate if you are not above 80 Runic Power and have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime and you have more than 60 Runic Power.
• Cast Obliterate if you are not above 80 Runic Power.
• Cast Horn of Winter if you are not wasting Runic Power and Runes.
• Cast Death and Decay.

Priority While not in Breath

• Cast Frost Strike if Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy are about to expire.
• Cast Remorseless Winter.
• Cast Reaper's Mark when it is ready.
• Cast Pillar of Frost when it is available.
• Cast Soul Reaper if the enemy is below 35% health or will be when this expires.
• Cast Obliterate when you have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime.
• Cast Frost Strike.
• Cast Obliterate.
• Cast Horn of Winter if you are not wasting Runic Power and Breath of Sindragosa has more than 30 seconds remaining on its' cooldown.
• Cast Abomination Limb if you have nothing else.

During Pillar of Frost Priority

This priority is used during Pillar of Frost while not in Breath.

• Cast Obliterate when you have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Soul Reaper if the enemy is below 35% health and you do not have a Killing Machine as well as having at least 2 Runes.
• Cast Howling Blast if Frost Fever is missing.
• Cast Frost Strike if you have 5 Razorice stacks on your target.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime.
• Cast Frost Strike.
• Cast Howling Blast if you do not have a Killing Machine.

Opener

• This is an example of an opener on AoE when talented into Breath of Sindragosa.

• In the Breath of Sindragosa opener, how fast you get in to Breath of Sindragosa depends on what procs you get. If you get a lot of procs you can delay up until the point where you are capped on Runic Power or when Reaper's Mark is about to explode as you want to get that in Pillar of Frost.
• In a sense, the same thing goes for Empower Rune Weapon. This can be delayed if you end up going in to Breath with high amounts of resources, but it is very normal to have to use it right with Pillar on pull as it is not normal to get an excessive amount of procs.

During Breath Priority List

• Cast Reaper's Mark when it is ready.
• Cast Pillar of Frost when it is ready.
• Cast Remorseless Winter if you are not in Pillar of Frost.
  • While in Pillar, if you are above 60 Runic Power, do not have a Killing Machine or Rime proc, and Remorseless Winter is already stacked, you can refresh Remorseless Winter.
• Cast Death and Decay.
• Cast Soul Reaper if the enemy is below 35% health and you have more than 50 Runic Power.
  • This is only cast if you have 1 or 2 targets, never 3 or above.
• Cast Obliterate if you are not above 80 Runic Power and have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime and you have more than 60 Runic Power.
• Cast Obliterate if you are not above 80 Runic Power.
• Cast Horn of Winter if you are not wasting Runic Power and Runes.

Priority While not in Breath

• Cast Frost Strike if Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy are about to expire.
• Cast Remorseless Winter.
• Cast Reaper's Mark when it is ready.
• Cast Pillar of Frost when it is available.
• Cast Death and Decay if you have 2 charges.
• Cast Soul Reaper if the enemy is below 35% health or will be when this expires.
  • This is only cast if you have 1 or 2 targets, never above 3.
• Cast Obliterate when you have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime.
• Cast Frost Strike.
• Cast Obliterate.
• Cast Horn of Winter if you are not wasting Runic Power and Breath of Sindragosa has more than 30 seconds remaining on its' cooldown.
• Cast Abomination Limb if you have nothing else.

During Pillar of Frost Priority

This priority is used during Pillar of Frost while not in Breath.

• Cast Death and Decay
  • Ideally this is cast before Pillar as in this spec Pillar only lasts for 12 seconds and Death and Decay lasts for 14 seconds assuming you are standing in it the entire time.
• Cast Obliterate when you have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Soul Reaper if the enemy is below 35% health and you do not have a Killing Machine as well as having at least 2 Runes.
• Cast Howling Blast if Frost Fever is missing.
• Cast Frost Strike if you have 5 Razorice stacks on your target.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime.
• Cast Frost Strike.
• Cast Howling Blast if you do not have a Killing Machine.

Use this as a filler global when you have nothing else to press as it does not deal enough damage to be worth pressing otherwise. If you can, try to use it when you can get the most value going in to Pillar of Frost or after with Enduring Strength.

During Breath of Sindragosa, Horn of Winter is used when you do not waste Runes and Runic Power when used.

Outside of Breath of Sindragosa, this is ideally not used during Pillar of Frost but it does happen as you can run out of resources due to not getting procs.

Combined with the setup for Reaper's Mark and Pillar of Frost, it is utilized well there due to the high rune cost of the setup.

You should macro this in with either Pillar of Frost or Empower Rune Weapon as this does not do enough to offset from either of these.

If you are playing High Keys, copy the 10+ build instead!

Boss Tips

Orator Krix'vizk

• Use your defensives during Vociferous Indoctrination.
• Make sure to be on top of the tank when the boss casts ‍Vociferous Indoctrination to not get cut off from the group.
• If you pre Anti-Magic Shell Shadows of Doubt, it removes a set of balls to dodge.
• Angle your camera so you can see the people with ‍Shadows of Doubt to be able to dodge their orbs easily when removed.
• If you are playing Null Magic, your Shadows of Doubt expires before the rest of your group's debuffs.

Fangs of the Queen

• Watch out for Knife Throw. Use Icebound Fortitude or Lichborne if you're targeted by this ability.
• You can pre-immune Ice Sickles with Anti-Magic Shell.
• Your tank will get afflicted by Freezing Blood, be close to the tank so he can drop his stacks quickly.

The Coaglamation

• Anti-Magic Shell allows you to soak multiple orbs that spawn from Viscous Darkness.
• If you have taken any damage recently, use Death Strike to heal off the absorb on yourself if you have nothing better to do.

Izo, the Grand Splicer

• Use Anti-Magic Shell for every other cast of Splice and rotate between Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, and using Death Strike to heal yourself for this since it's the highest damage event during this fight.
• Use Anti-Magic Zone on the overlap between Splice and Tremor Slam.
  • Tremor Slam looks like a physical effect but is actually nature damage.

Trash Tips

• Important abilities to interrupt in this dungeon are:
  • Web Bolt from Sureki Silkbinder.
  • Grimweave Blast from Covert Webmancer.
  • Mending Web from Covert Webmancer.
  • Twist Thoughts from Herald of Anurek.
  • Void Wave from Sureki Unnaturaler.

If you are playing High Keys, copy the 10+ build instead!

Boss Tips

E.D.N.A.

• Always stack in a line to spawn Volatile Spikes close together to ensure you can detonate them all with 1 Refracting Beam.
  • Use Anti-Magic Shell to pre-immune the stacks before they are cleared with Refracting Beam.
• Use Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, or Anti-Magic Zone for Earth Shatterer.

Skarmorak

• Use Anti-Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, or Anti-Magic Zone before Unstable Crash happens or while you have multiple stacks of Unstable Energy.
  • You can Death Strike between ticks of Unstable Energy as well.

Master Machinists Brokk and Dorlita

• Put Speaker Brokk in focus, so you can use Mind Freeze easily.
• During Exhaust Vents, 3 out of the 4 vents in the intercardinal directions are active. Look around and locate the safe vent, go there quickly to not get cut off by puddles on the ground.
• The Magma Wave from the cube will always traverse in the cardinal directions so as long as you are on a vent you are in a safespot.
• Use your defensives during Exhaust Vents and Blazing Crescendo.
• Killing both bosses at the same time is a must to avoid Silenced Speaker.

Void Speaker Eirich

• Void Corruption applies a debuff to you that you need to clear with ‍Void Rift.
  • Immune the application of it with ‍Anti-Magic Shell whenever possible.
• Use defensives on Entropic Reckoning to allow you to drop it on top of another zone.

Trash Tips

• Focus down Earth Burst Totem from Cursedforge Stoneshaper. They have a low amount of health but are not affected by AoE abilities.
• It is very important to focus the Rock Smashers before the group has too many Smash Rock stacks.
• Important abilities to interrupt in this dungeon are:
  • Howling Fear from Ghastly Voidsoul.
  • Censoring Gear from Turned Speaker.
  • Piercing Wail from Void Bound Howler.
  • Restoring Metals from Forgebound Mender and Cursedforge Mender.
  • Arcing Void from Cursedheart Invader.

If you are playing High Keys, copy the 10+ build instead!

Boss Tips

Speaker Shadowcrown

• Consider using a defensive if you're affected by Collapsing Night.
  • As a melee, unless you are playing with less than 2 ranged or people are dead, you should not get this.
• InterruptShadow Bolt whenever cast.

Anub'ikkaj

• Use Anti-Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, or Anti-Magic Zone for the Dark Orb and Shadowy Decay.

Rasha'nan

• Erosive Spray applies Lingering Erosion which can be immuned with Anti-Magic Shell.
• If Arathi Bomb is about to explode, its damage can be immuned with Anti-Magic Shell.
• Use Death's Advance to quickly break Spinneret's Strands.

Trash Tips

• Important abilities to interrupt in this dungeon are:
  • Night Bolt from Nightfall Shadowmage.
  • Ensnaring Shadows from Nightfall Shadowmage.
  • Tormenting Beam from Nightfall Darkcaster.
  • Umbral Barrier from Nightfall Darkcaster.

If you are playing High Keys, copy the 10+ build instead!

Boss Tips

Ingra Maloch

• Interrupt Spirit Bolt every time a non-tank player is targeted unless it is a warrior that has Spell Reflect ready.
• Use Anti-Magic Shell or Lichborne on Repulsive Visage to immune the fear.
• Try to line up your big cooldowns with Droman Oulfarran's Droman's Wrath to gain a huge DPS boost. This happens when Droman Oulfarran reaches 20% health.

Mistcaller

• Chains of Ice the Illusionary Vulpins to prevent them from reaching their target.
  • If you or your group has nothing for Illusionary Vulpins, you can Death Grip and Anti-Magic Shell it. Careful as it still does the aoe stun and will hit other people, but you will not get stunned!
• Use defensives during the Guessing Game as it is the only time damage is dealt during this fight.

Tred'ova

• The Mind Link is always cast on the tank, make sure you are on the opposite side of the boss and run away with Death's Advance to break it as fast as possible.
• Immune the pull in of Coalescing Poison with Death's Advance.
• Kill the Gormling Larva if you are not the Marked Prey target.

Trash Tips

• Focusing down one of the two Drust Boughbreaker desyncs Furious Thrashing, they start casting it when they reach 50% hp.
• Make sure to hit the Overgrowth from the Tirnenn Villager's as it stuns a party member for 6 seconds if they can not get out.
• Important abilities to interrupt in this dungeon are:
  • Spirit Bolt from Drust Harvester.
  • Harvest Essence from Drust Harvester.
  • Nourish the Forest from Mistveil Tender.
  • Bramblethorn Coat from Mistveil Shaper.
  • Stimulate Regeneration from Spinemaw Staghorn.
  • Stimulate Resistance from Spinemaw Staghorn.

If you are playing High Keys, copy the 10+ build instead!

Boss Tips

Blightbone

• Use Anti-Magic Shell on Heaving Retch or other defensives if you are targeted back to back.
• Cleave down the Carrion Worms if you are not being targeted.

Amarth, The Harvester

• Use both charges of Death Grip and Abomination Limb to bring in the Reanimated Crosbowman or Reanimated Mages.
• Interrupt Necrotic Bolt as much as possible.

Surgeon Stitchflesh

• Make sure you always have a charge of Death's Advance to easily get to the center of the room for the Meat Hooks.

Nalthor the Rimebinder

• If you are targeted by Frozen Binds, you can use Anti-Magic Shell before the cast ends to not get rooted.
• While Icebound Aegis is up use Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, or Anti-Magic Zone to prevent damage.
• Drop Frigid Cold in a corner to ensure you have enough space on the boss.
• For Dark Exile when you have an Evoker or Priest in your group, you can be Rescued or Leap of Faith out of being sent down. If you Anti-Magic Shell up, you will not receive the debuff that kills you at the end of the duration.
  • To know when to Anti-Magic Shell, the boss targets you as he is casting. It is a 1 second cast so you need to be quick but this is an extremely high damage gain if you are able to be grabbed out of the animation.

Trash Tips

• You can stop the Drain Fluids from Corpse Harvester and Corpse Collectors with ‍Death Grip and other cc's.
• Be wary of the Skeletal Marauder's ‍Gruesome Cleave as it is a fast frontal.
• It is very important to aim the ‍Throw Cleaver from the Flesh Crafter's on the high health targets in the pack to kill them faster.

• Important abilities to interrupt in this dungeon are:
  • Drain Fluids from Corpse Harvester and Corpse Collector.
  • Necrotic Bolt from Zolramus Sorceror & Zolarmus Necromancer.
  • Rasping Scream from Skeletal Marauder.
  • Frostbolt Volley from Reanimted Mage.
  • Goresplatter from Corpse Collector.
  • Repair Flesh from Flesh Crafter.

If you are playing High Keys, copy the 10+ build instead!

Boss Tips

Chopper Redhook

• Line up your cooldowns with the boss walking over Bombs which afflict him with Heavy Ordnance.
• Irontide Powdershots are standing still in range and the majority of the time are casting ‍Molten Slug, use Death Grip or Abomination Limb to bring them in.
• Use Anti-Magic Shell if you are targeted by Molten Slug.
• Always watch where the tank is facing the Irontide Cleavers to dodge the ‍Heavy Slash especially when kiting the boss.

Dread Captain Lockwood

• You can pre Anti-Magic Shell Mass Bombardment to not drop any Sighted Artillery.
• Focus down the Ashvane Cannoneer during the phase change to quickly use Unstable Ordnance to get the boss down from the ship.
• Always be standing behind Dread Captain Lockwood as ‍Clear the Deck is a very fast frontal cone.
• The Ashvane Canoneer casts Broadside which is another frontal cone to dodge.

Hadal Darkfathom

• Always use a charge of Death's Advance when Tidal Surge happens to dodge the waves and be in a decent position for Break Water.
• Use Anti-Magic Shell on every other Break Water and rotate a defensive for the other one.

Viq'Goth

• You can pre ‍Anti-Magic Shell on Putrid Waters but it is never a 100% immune since only 2 people get affected by this debuff.
  • If you are standing in a different position than anyone else you can see the animation come from the boss towards you and use use ‍Anti-Magic Shell well before it hits you but it is quite fast and affects you from farther away than you expect.

Trash Tips

• Important abilities to interrupt in this dungeon are:
  • Brackish Bolt from Irontide Waveshaper.
  • Watertight Shell from Irontide Waveshaper.
  • Water Bolt from Bilge Rat Tempest.
  • Choking Waters from Bilge Rat Tempest.
  • Bolstering Shout from Ashvane Commander.

If you are playing High Keys, copy the 10+ build instead!

Boss Tips

General Umbriss

• Death's Advance is useful for helping you dodge Shadowflame Breath.
• Rotate Icebound Fortitude and Lichborne on Commanding Roar.

Forgemaster Throngus

• Use Anti-Magic Shell during Blistering Heat.
• Bait Fiery Cleave close towards the edge to save as much space as possible.

Drahga Shadowburner

• Use Death's Advance and Anti-Magic Shell for Twilight Buffet to immune the knockback and prevent damage.
• Help slow the Shadowflame Spirits with Chains of Ice, especially once they are under the boss.
• You can Death Grip the Shadowflame Spirits if they are not on you to help with kiting, this does not cause them to refixate.

Erudax, the Duke of Below

• Anti-Magic Shell allows you to clear multiple Void Tendrils. Careful as this does damage still so you need to watch the amount of Anti-Magic Shell absorb you have remaining!
• Icebound Fortitude also allows you to clear Void Tendrils but is not up for every wave.
• Rotate Lichborne and Anti-Magic Zone for Abyssal Corruption.

Trash Tips

• Important abilities to interrupt in this dungeon are:
  • Earth Bolt from Twilight Earthcaller.
  • Mass Tremor from Twilight Earthcaller.
  • Shadowflame Bolt from Twilight Beguiler.
  • Sear Mind from Twilight Beguiler.

• Pay extra attention to these casts:
  • Umbral Wind from Twilight Destroyer
    • You can LoS this cast.
    • If you are not hiding from it, make sure you use Death Charge or you are not facing towards the edge to not fall down.
  • Reckless Tactic from Twilight Overseer
  • Molten Wake from Molten Giant
  • Ascension and Dark Eruption from Twilight Lavabender
    • ‍Ascension triggers at 50% HP and starts pulsing ‍Scorching Heat group damage, make sure to focus it as it does an immense amount of damage.
  • Corrupt and Mind Piercer from Faceless Corruptor
    • Be aware especially when you have stacks of ‍Shadow Wound from Mutated Hatchlings.

Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.