The Frost Death Knight specialization offers three distinct playstyles for endgame PvE content in World of Warcraft: The War Within. Players can choose between the Dual-Wield (DW) Obliteration build, the 2-Hand (2H) Obliteration build, and the Dual-Wield Breath build for Raids. In Mythic+ content, however, players should typically focus on the two Obliteration builds.
The DW Obliteration build offers fast-paced gameplay, leveraging frequent Killing Machine procs, Razorice-consuming Frost Strikes, and other Auto-Attack-focused talents. In contrast, the 2-Hand version of the Obliteration build is slower, but emphasizes powerful Obliterates to deliver most of its damage. Finally, the DW Breath build centers around the Breath of Sindragosa talent, aiming to maximize its uptime for high burst damage every two minutes. Here are the best talent builds for these three playstyles in Raid and Mythic+ in The War Within.
Blizzard is expected to implement tuning changes across the board during Heroic Raid week and the launch of Season 1. This guide will be updated to reflect any changes that may affect Frost Death Knights.
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TWW Frost Death Knight Raid Build: Dual-Wield Obliteration
- Frost DW Obliteration Raid Import String: CsPAtbMOTHlnKIwUyAn+DK70SzAYGjZMzYYGzMzMzMmZmJGDDGmZGzMMzMzMzMLzMAAAAAAAAAAAAbmtZzsMDjFGWmZbaoZsgZMjZA
The DW Obliteration Raid build is recommended over the other two playstyles due to its ease of execution and ability to excel in all situations. This build features a fast-paced and proc-heavy playstyle, driven by its fast Auto-Attack speed from using two 1-Hand weapons.
The main damage window revolves around the Pillar of Frost talent, which provides substantial Strength and Mastery while guaranteeing Killing Machine procs through the Obliteration talent. This synergy enables Arctic Assault, in combination with Avalanche and the Rune of Razorice enchantment, to quickly generate five stacks of Razorice. Frost Strike can then consume these stacks with Shattering Blade. Dual-Wield also takes advantage of the Icy Death Torrent and The Long Winter talents due to more frequent Auto-Attack critical strikes. Faster Auto-Attacks also result in more consistent Killing Machine procs outside of Pillar of Frost and more frequent applications of Razorice.
Flex Points
There are two flex points in the Frost specialization tree that players can adjust based on the encounter. The first choice is between Inexorable Assault and Frostwyrm's Fury. While Frostwrym's Fury lags a bit behind Inexorable Assault in single-target situations, it offers great AoE burst for fights where that is needed. The second choice is between Chill Streak and Shattered Frost. Chill Streak excels in pure single-target encounters, while Shattered Frost is superior in fights with two or more targets.
Talent Choices
Currently, Deathbringer is the preferred Hero Talent tree for DW Obliteration, as Rider of the Apocalypse falls behind in output and requires sacrificing a talent point for Absolute Zero. Rune Carved Plates, Painful Death, and Death's Messenger are essential talent choices, as their alternatives are weaker. The main decision for players lies between Dark Talons and Wither Away. While Dark Talons is slightly ahead of Wither Away, it requires maintaining a high uptime on Icy Talons to be the better choice. For encounters with significant downtime, Wither Away becomes the better talent option.
The class tree has a wider range of flexible talent choices that players can swap around based on the situation. While Crowd Controls (CC) and Interrupts are generally unnecessary in most Raid encounters, Blinding Sleet, Asphyxiate, and Mind Freeze can be valuable when needed. Anti-Magic Zone and its upgrade, Assimilation, are great choices when a defensive raid cooldown is required. March of Darkness and Wraith Walk are both optional mobility talents that can be swapped out if other utilities are more beneficial. Null Magic and Runic Protection are flexible talents that can be swapped out for encounters with little to no magic or physical damage intake. Soul Reaper can also be replaced, since its DPS increase is minimal in the DW Obliteration build.
TWW Frost Death Knight Raid Build: 2-Hand Obliteration
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The 2-Hand Obliteration build falls slightly behind the DW version overall, but remains a viable option. This build relies on Obliterate as its primary damage source due to much slower applications of Razorice. The talent setup is almost identical to the DW version, but replaces Shattering Blade with Enduring Chill, as the 2H build will be less dependent on Frost Strike for damage.
Once again, Inexorable Assault and Frostwyrm's Fury can be interchanged depending on the encounter. Players also have the option to use Cryogenic Chamber in place of Enduring Chill, and swapping to Wither Away during fights with AoE. Glacial Advance is another talent that can be taken instead of Enduring Chill during heavy AoE situations and used in place of Frost Strike.
Just like Dual-Wield, players can swap around class tree talent points to suit their needs. Deathbringer also remains the best Hero Talent choice due to its superior output compared to Rider of the Apocalypse.
TWW Frost Death Knight Raid Build: Dual-Wield Breath
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The DW Breath build centers around the Breath of Sindragosa talent, which delivers high burst damage every two minutes. This playstyle is quite challenging and may not suit every type of encounter due to the need to maintain high uptime on Breath of Sindragosa whenever it's active. However, in the right hands and situations, the Breath build can achieve very high damage output.
In the past, Breath builds have struggled with damage outside of their Breath of Sindragosa windows. However, unlike previous expansions, Breath builds now also have access to talents like Obliteration, which improves performance when Breath is on cooldown. Apart from the usual choices between Inexorable Assault and Frostwyrm's Fury, the main decision for this build is between Arctic Assault and The Long Winter. While the damage difference is negligible, The Long Winter marginally outperforms Arctic Assault in pure single-target fights. On the other hand, Arctic Assault gains an advantage with each additional target, so it's recommended to default to Arctic Assault if players prefer not to constantly swap talents between encounters.
The class and Hero Talent tree setups remain the same as the other two Raid builds, but March of Darkness gains added value in helping to maintain uptime of Breath of Sindragosa during high-movement fights.
TWW Frost Death Knight Mythic+ Build: Dual-Wield Obliteration
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The DW Obliteration build is the best performer for Mythic+, and resembles the Frost tree setup used in the Raid version. Shattered Frost and Frostwyrm's Fury are taken in place of Chill Streak and Inexorable Assault respectively. This ensures that the Frost Death Knight can excel in both multi- and single-target situations, which is crucial for Mythic+. Unfortunately, there is no wiggle room in the Frost tree, as every point is mandatory for DW Obliteration.
The Hero Talent situation remains the same as the rest, with Deathbringer as the best choice. Rune Carved Plates and Death's Messenger are better defensive talents than their alternatives, while Painful Death allows Reaper's Mark to align with Pillar of Frost's cooldown. Unlike in Raid, Wither Away becomes the default option due to its advantage in AoE scenarios.
Mythic+ places a heavy emphasis on Interrupts and CCs, making Mind Freeze and Blind Sleet default picks in the class tree. Asphyxiate can be added if the team requires additional stuns, while Anti-Magic Zone serves as a solid team defensive option. Control Undead sees limited uses in Season 1 of The War Within, but can be valuable for The Necrotic Wake. If Asphyxiate and AMZ are not needed, mobility nodes like March of Darkness and Wraith Walk can be used to help with high-movement fights. Blood Scent is also an option for survivability if no other utility is needed.
TWW Frost Death Knight Mythic+ Build: 2-Hand Obliteration
- Frost 2H Obliteration M+ Import String: CsPAtbMOTHlnKIwUyAn+DK70SDgZGjZMzYYmZmZmZGGmJzYYGgZGzMmZmZmZmZZmBAAAAAAAAAAAYzsNbmlZYsww2MbTDNjFMzMjZA
The 2-Hand Obliteration build has slightly lower damage output than Dual-Wield, but remains a viable option. Players can opt to run the exact same build as DW, relying on Arctic Assault and Avalanche to set up their Razorice consumption. Compared to DW, the majority of the damage contributions will shift from Icy Death Torrent, Arctic Assault, Shattering Blade, and Shattered Frost toward Obliterate.
The recommended approach is to replace Shattering Blade and Shattered Frost with Glacial Advance and Cryogenic Chamber. In this setup, players will substitute Frost Strike with Glacial Advance in the rotation when facing multiple targets. Another option is to use Absolute Zero instead of Cryogenic Chamber, which provides more frequent burst AoE and CC at the cost of slightly lower overall damage.
The class and Hero Talent tree setup remains the same as in the DW version.
DW Breath build is not recommended for Mythic+ due to difficulties maintaining Breath of Sindragosa uptime in a dungeon environment.
- Released
- August 26, 2024
- Base Game
- World of Warcraft
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Publisher(s)
- Blizzard
