Frost Death Knight Raid 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 use this Spec

There is not exactly a set place where you would currently use this spec as this is very fight dependent based on timers and the ability to stay in melee as well as capitalizing on the Runic Power gained from Anti-Magic Shell. Check out the Nerub-ar Palace section below to see if this is played on any bosses!

Talent Adjustments

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

Spec Tree

• Added
  • Shattering Blade
    • When Dual-Wielding, you gain the benefit of being able to apply 2 Runeforges to your weapons. As this build, putting Rune of Razorice on your main-hand weapon allows Razorice to stack up very quickly because your main-hand hits of Auto Attack, Obliterate and Frost Strike now apply a stack of Razorice to the target.
  • Avalanche
  • The Long Winter
  • Chill Streak
• Removed
  • Breath of Sindragosa
  • Hyperpyrexia
  • Icebreaker
  • Horn of Winter

Runeforges

• Main-Hand
  • Rune of Razorice
• Off-Hand
  • Rune of the Fallen Crusader

Opener

• Your goal is to activate your high powered cooldowns before Pillar of Frost and then cast as many Killing Machine empowered Obliterates during your Pillar of Frost. Below, you see an example of how your opener should look.

During Pillar of Frost Priority

• 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.

Standard Priority

This is the priority list you follow while Pillar of Frost is not active.

• Cast Frost Strike if Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy are about to expire.
• Cast Remorseless Winter.
• Cast Reaper's Mark.
  • This should only be used a global or 2 before Pillar of Frost as they have the same cooldown.
• Cast Pillar of Frost.
• Cast Soul Reaper if the enemy is below 35% health.
• Cast Obliterate when you have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Frost Strike if you have 5 Razorice stacks on your target.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime.
• Cast Frost Strike.
• Cast Obliterate.
• Cast Abomination Limb.

Notes

• There is a decent amount of holding you need to do and downtime that happens right before using Pillar of Frost. This is because you want to hold both Runes and Runic Power so you are able to cast all of your pre-Pillar abilities and go in to Pillar with enough resources.

In this Raid, there are no fights with AoE directly in the opener, because of that, it will not be focused on in this guide.

Opener

• Your goal is to activate your high powered cooldowns before Pillar of Frost and then cast as many Killing Machine empowered Obliterates during your Pillar of Frost. Below, you see an example of how your opener should look.

During Pillar of Frost Priority

• Cast Frostwyrm's Fury on as many targets as possible.
  • This is worth holding to hit as many targets as possible.
• Cast Death and Decay if Pillar of Frost has more than 5 seconds remaining and it is not already down.
• Cast Obliterate when you have a Killing Machine.
• Cast Soul Reaper and the enemy is below 35% health, you do not have a Killing Machine, and you have at least 2 Runes.
  • This is only cast if you have 1 or 2 targets, never 3 or above.
• 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.

Standard Priority

This is the priority list you follow while Pillar of Frost is not active.

• Cast Frost Strike if Icy Talons and Unleashed Frenzy are about to expire.
• Cast Remorseless Winter.
• Cast Reaper's Mark.
  • This should only be used a global or 2 before Pillar of Frost as they have the same cooldown.
• Cast Pillar of Frost.
• 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 Frost Strike if you have 5 Razorice stacks on your target.
• Cast Howling Blast when you have Rime.
• Cast Frost Strike.
• Cast Obliterate.
• Cast Abomination Limb.

Notes

• There is a decent amount of holding you need to do and downtime that happens right before using Pillar of Frost. This is because you want to hold both Runes and Runic Power so you are able to cast all of your pre-Pillar abilities and go in to Pillar with enough resources.
• Death and Decay essentially has a 14 second duration as you gain 4 seconds of the buff after it expires so watch out for that before refreshing during Pillar of Frost!

Breath of Sindragosa

As you usually only talent into this with Breath of Sindragosa, this is only used when you do not have Runes to spend on an Obliterate, or a Rime empowered Howling Blast when talented in to Rage of the Frozen Champion and you do not overcap on Runic Power and Runes when casting.

You can use this once outside of Breath of Sindragosa and is generally used well around the time you cast Reaper's Mark as you are regularly running out of resources around that time.

Obliteration and Breath of Sindragosa

Chill Streak should be used on cooldown, but ideally right before Pillar of Frost and after Remorseless Winter as it gains you the most damage. Doing it this way, you do not lose a valuable global during your Pillar windows and it gains the benefits of the Pillar buffs as it takes awhile to do its damage.

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 value going in to Pillar of Frost or after with Enduring Strength.

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

Boss Tips

• Anti-Magic Shell prevents the application of Black Blood when walking over the "water".
• Utilize Abomination Limb, Chains of Ice, and Death Grip for the inside phase to grip and slow the small adds spawned from Manifest Horror together.
• If you have all cooldowns and are reasonably geared, around 620+, Anti-Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, and Anti-Magic Zone, you can stand in the circle and live Goresplatter.

Boss Tips

• Use Anti-Magic Shell right before Decimate goes off to immune the Cosmic Shards debuff.
  • If you are playing Unyielding Will you can also do it afterwards if necessary.
• Phase Blades deal physical damage so use Icebound Fortitude or Lichborne when targeted.

Boss Tips

• Using Anti-Magic Shell allows you to immune stacks of Lingering Erosion from Erosive Spray.
• When soaking Web Reave use Death's Advance to prevent the pull.

Boss Tips

• Using Reaper's Mark and Pillar of Frost on pull is extremely important as the first wave of adds spawns roughly 45 seconds but take a few seconds to stack up. You want to use them on every egg set and hold them for egg breaks when he goes for the intermission.
• Use Breath of Sindragosa combined with your other cooldowns on the first set of egg breaks each phase.
• Use Chains of Ice and Death Grip to help control the Blood Parasites that are close to your ranged.
  • Grip of the Dead is also an incredibly powerful slow for the ones that spawn in melee if necessary.
• Interrupt the Voracious Worm that you are assigned to, ideally ones outside of melee since you have a kick with 15 yard range. Let the actual melee kicks do the ones under the boss.
• You can pre-immune the application of Sticky Web with Anti-Magic Shell preventing you from having to leave melee and get rooted. This is extremely important for your damage as they can overlap with egg breaks.
  • If you end up getting rooted by Sticky Web, use Wraith Walk to clear the debuff.

Boss Tips

• Use Death's Advance to avoid the suck in from Nether Rift.
• You are extremely durable against all of the damage on this fight due to the passive defensives you have. Anti-Magic Shell can be used as an offensive cooldown to give you Runic Power during Breath of Sindragosa as you do not need it elsewhere. If you get Queensbane, use either Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, or Anti-Magic Shell if it is up.
• If you get hit by an extra Regicide in the intermission, you can either pop a cooldown, Icebound Fortitude or Lichborne, or simply Death Strike back up if you feel unsafe.
• Unyielding Will or pre-using Anti-Magic Shell does not work on any debuffs on this fight, use it purely to absorb damage.

Boss Tips

• Offensive cooldown usage in this fight is quite annoying as you want to have Reaper's Mark and Pillar of Frost for every single damage amp, meaning you need to hold them a considerable amount.
  • In Phase 1, use Reaper's Mark and Pillar of Frost on pull as you get them back for the first damage amp to use with Breath if you use them as your first 2 globals in the fight. For the second damage amp, use Reaper's Mark before Anub'arash burrows and use Pillar of Frost when he comes back.
  • In the first intermission, use them as soon as it comes back up.
  • In Phase 2, you hold damage cooldowns until the first damage amp on Skeinspinner Takazj where you send everything, including Breath. For the second damage amp, you have Mark and Pillar.
  • In the second intermission, save your cooldowns as you want to immediately pop everything at the start of the phase 3. This is due to later timings.
  • In the last phase, pop everything at the very start of Phase 3 as this allows you to get both Mark and Pillar up for the next 2 damage amps. On the last part of the fight, there is an overlap where both Anub'arash and Skeinspinner Takazj get back to back damage amps. This is where you send everything to do the most possible damage as the fight ends after this.
  • In the first 2 phases, try to aim Pillar of Frost so Frostwhelp's Aid hits all of the Shattershell Scarabs so you get 40% additional Mastery for your burst windows. This isn't always possible as they are sometimes dead but do your best as this is a huge amount of damage gained.
• Right after Call of the Swarm use Death Grip on one Shattershell Scarab and stand right under it to bait the Fixate on you. You should not be able to die in this fight unless you get hit by avoidable damage so the damage taken increase does not really matter.
• During the first intermission, if you mess up dodging you can Death's Advance to immune the knockback and Anti-Magic Shell to prevent getting the debuff from getting hit.

Notes

• Unyielding Will does not remove Stinging Swarm.
• Death's Advance does not prevent the pull of Web Vortex.
• You are able to Icebound Fortitude out of Spike Storm's Impaled if you get hit.

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.