Best in Slot Items for Frost Death Knight If you have read the previous section, you should now understand that static Best in Slot lists are always misleading, and it is best to use the tools at your disposal, notably Raidbots Top Gear and its new Droptimizer options. On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Frost Mage in World of Warcraft Shadowlands 9.0.2. If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic DPS Mage gear and best in slot. Arcane; Frost; Frost; Top Relics. Let it Go - Increases the critical strike damage of Ice Lance by 4%. Frozen Veins - Frostbolt critical strikes reduce the remaining cooldown of Icy Veins by 0.5 seconds. Ice Age - Increases damage of Flurry by 5%. Monk Brewmaster Relics. Iron; Life; Storm; Top Relics. Home / World of Warcraft / Classes / Blood Death Knight / Gear and Best in Slot Blood Death Knight Tank Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.0.2 Last updated on Nov 23, 2020 at 16:40 by Mandl and Panthea 10 comments.
General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent and glyph choices forFrost Death Knights in World of Warcraft MoP 5.4. We detail what each of the talents andglyphs do and in which situations they should be taken.
The other pages of our Frost Death Knight guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.
1. Talent Choices↑top
Level | Choices | ||
---|---|---|---|
56 | Roiling Blood | Plague Leech | Unholy Blight |
57 | Lichborne | Anti-Magic Zone | Purgatory |
58 | Death's Advance | Chilblains | Asphyxiate |
60 | Death Pact | Death Siphon | Conversion |
75 | Blood Tap | Runic Empowerment | Runic Corruption |
90 | Gorefiend's Grasp | Remorseless Winter | Desecrated Ground |
- Performance-enhancing
- Survival
- Crowd Control
- Movement
- Utility
- Situational
There is no longer such a thing as a default build. Most of the talents arenow viable. They can easily be changed, thanks to Dust of Disappearance(and Tomes of the Clear Mind from level 86 to 90).You will frequently find yourself changing talents and glyphs betweenencounters, in order to adapt your play style to different mechanics.Therefore, it is important to understand what each of your talents does andhow they affect your play style.
2. Tier 1 Talents↑top
Tier 1 offers you a choice between 3 talents that interact with yourdiseases.
- Roiling Blood passively causes Blood Boil to triggerPestilence if it hits a diseased target.
- Plague Leech is an active ability, with a 25-second cooldown,which consumes your diseases on the target, activating two depleted runes asDeath runes. It can only be cast if both Frost Fever andBlood Plague are on the target, and it activates the following two runes,based on your specialization.
- Blood: 1 Frost and 1 Unholy.
- Frost: 1 Frost and 1 Unholy.
- Unholy: 1 Blood and 1 Frost.
- Unholy Blight is an active ability with a 1.5-minute cooldown,which causes you to spread your diseases to all enemy targets within 10 yardsof you, for 10 seconds.
![Icy Veins Frost Dk Best In Slot Icy Veins Frost Dk Best In Slot](/uploads/1/3/4/5/134505999/835689765.jpg)
We believe that the best choice is Plague Leech, which willallow you to gain a few Death runes over the course of the fight, by using theability just as your Blood Plague is about to expire. Since you willhave to re-apply it anyway, losing one or two seconds of its duration inexchange for a Death rune is worth it (Frost Fever will be re-appliedby Howling Blast or Icy Touch).
![Icy veins frost dk best in slot and talents essences 8 3 wow Icy veins frost dk best in slot and talents essences 8 3 wow](/uploads/1/3/4/5/134505999/721029157.jpg)
If you wish to spread your diseases to new adds with ease, then werecommend taking Unholy Blight. Roiling Blood serves roughlythe same purpose, but we do not feel that it is as good as Unholy Blight,because it requires the use of Blood Boil, which Frost Death Knightsshould never use.
3. Tier 2 Talents↑top
Tier 2 talents offer you a choice between 3 abilities that improve yoursurvivability (and, in the case of Anti-Magic Zone, your raids'survivability as well).
- Lichborne is an active ability with a 2-minute cooldown. It lastsfor 10 seconds, during which time casting Death Coil on yourselfheals you.
- Anti-Magic Zone is a raid cooldown. The ability has a 2-minutecooldown, and it allows you to place a bubble at a location on the ground.The bubble reduces all damage taken by raid members inside it by 40%, and itlasts 3 seconds.
- Purgatory passively allows you to survive a killing blow, onceevery 3 minutes. The attack that would otherwise kill you places a 3-secondhealing absorption debuff on you instead. The debuff absorbs healing equal tothe amount of damage that the killing blow would have done to you. While thedebuff is active, you cannot be killed, and any damage taken is added to thehealing absorption effect. If the effect is still present when the 3 secondsrun out (meaning, if you haven't been healed for the entire amount by then),you will die.
Your choice here will depend entirely on the requirements of the encounterand on your own personal preference.
Anti-Magic Zone should be taken if there is use for it in the fight(such as predictable raid-wide magic damage), since it benefits your entireraid.
Lichborne provides a rather reliable, on-demand heal that can saveyour life. The downside is that healing yourself with Lichborne costs a largeamount of runic power. It is worth noting, however, that the fear immunity thatLichborne offers may be of use in some encounters.
Purgatory can save your life, it can allow you to overcomemistakes from your own part or from your healers, and it can help you bypassotherwise deadly encounter mechanics.
4. Tier 3 Talents↑top
Tier 3 talents offer you a choice between abilities that improve yourmovement, kiting, and crowd-control.
- Death's Advance passively increases your movement speed by 10%, andactively (with a 30-second cooldown) grants you 30% movement speed increase for6 seconds. The movement speed bonus offered by this ability stacks with othermovement speed increases (such as the one from Unholy Presence).
- Chilblains causes the targets on which you cast Frost Feverto be slowed by 50% for 10 seconds. Additionally, it causes yourChains of Ice to immobilize the target for 3 seconds.
- Asphyxiate is an improved version of Strangulate, whichit replaces. It has a 30-second cooldown, and it stuns the target for 5seconds. In the event that the target is immune to stuns, it silences theminstead.
Death's Advance is by far the best choice here, in the majority ofsituations. The other two talents could have some usefulness, although onlysituationally.
5. Tier 4 Talents↑top
Tier 4 talents offer you a choice between 3 self-healing abilities.
- Death Pact instantly drains 50% of your minion's maximum health,healing you for 50% of your own maximum health. It has a 2-minutecooldown.
- Death Siphon costs 1 Death Rune, and instantly deals a small amountof Shadowfrost damage to the target, healing you for 150% of the damage done.It can be used from as much as 40 yards away.
- Conversion is an ability that can be toggled on and off at will.Toggling it on costs 5 runic power, and keeping it on costs 5 runic power persecond. For each second that it is active, Conversion restores 3% of yourmaximum health. While Conversion is active, you can only gain runic power fromusing runes. Note that having Conversion active does not prevent you fromperforming any actions (i.e., it is not a channeled spell).
We believe that Death Pact is the best choice here, not only becauseof its nice amount of healing, but also because it has no resource cost, and,as such, does not detract from your DPS.
6. Tier 5 Talents↑top
Tier 5 talents offer you a choice between 3 means of improving your runeregeneration rate.
- Blood Tap passively causes each successful Death Coils,Frost Strikes, and Rune Strikes to generate 2Blood Charges, up to a maximum of 12 charges. Using Blood Tap consumes5 charges, activating a random fully depleted rune as a Death Rune. Blood Tapis not on the global cooldown, and it has no cooldown.
- Runic Empowerment passively gives you a 45% chance, when you dealdamage with Death Coil, Frost Strike, and Rune Strike,to activate a random fully depleted rune.
- Runic Corruption passively gives you a 45% chance, when you dealdamage with Death Coil, Frost Strike, and Rune Strike,to increase your rune regeneration rate by 100% for 3 seconds. Note that theduration of the buff decreases the more haste you have.
Blood Tap is currently the best choice for both two-handed anddual-wielding playstyles.
Runic Empowerment is the next-best choice, for players who prefer notto have to manage the Blood Charges that come with Blood Tap, but it providesless DPS.
Runic Corruption provides less DPS than the other two talents, and itis not viable in any situations.
7. Tier 6 Talents↑top
Tier 6 talents offer you a choice between 3 crowd-control abilities.
- Gorefiend's Grasp places a buff on an ally or enemy, which pullsall enemy targets (enemies of the Death Knight, not the target itself) within20 yards to the location of the target. It has a 1-minute cooldown.
- Remorseless Winter causes all enemies within 8 yards of the DeathKnight to be slowed each second for 8 seconds. Each time they are slowed, theirmovement speed is reduced by 15%. When they have been slowed 5 times, thetargets become stunned for 6 seconds. Remorseless Winter has a 1-minutecooldown.
- Desecrated Ground places a friendly void-zone under you, lasting10 seconds. While you stand in this void zone, you are immune to effects thatcause loss of control of your character.
The choice here is absolutely preference-based. It is possible that somespecific encounter mechanics will cause one talent to be favoured over theothers. Only Remorseless Winter may have some usefulness in stunningtrash mobs so that they cease to deal damage for a few seconds.
8. Major Glyphs↑top
There are several Major Glyphs that can be beneficial to you as a FrostDeath Knight.
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- Glyph of Shifting Presences allows you to retain 70% of your runicpower when switching between presences. This can be helpful if you areswitching between Frost Presence and Unholy Presence orBlood Presence. Note that you would never change out of Frost Presence forDPS purposes, but only to temporarily benefit from the increased movementspeed of Unholy Presence, or the increased survivability of Blood Presence.
- Glyph of Regenerative Magic procs each time your Anti-Magic Shellexpires from you without having been fully consumed by damage. When thishappens, the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell is reduced by an amount based onhow much damage it had absorbed (the more damage absorbed, the smaller thereduction), up to a maximum of 50%. This glyph is very beneficial in allowingyou to gain more runic power over the course of the fight.
- Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell improves your Anti-Magic Shell, byincreasing the amount of incoming damage that it absorbs to as much as 100%,up from 75%. Note that Anti-Magic Shell's absorption still remains limited by50% of your maximum health. This glyph always has the potential of beingbeneficial, so you should take it if you do not need to use anotherglyph instead.
- Glyph of Icebound Fortitude reduces the duration and the cooldown ofIcebound Fortitude. This glyph allows you to use Icebound Fortitude muchmore often, for short periods of time. It is well suited to the DPS role, wheremost times when you use Icebound Fortitude to reduce damage, the damage comesin the form of a single raid-damage spike.
- Glyph of Dark Simulacrum reduces the cooldown ofDark Simulacrum by 30 seconds and increases its duration by 4seconds. If you can find an ability in the encounter that you can useDark Simulacrum against, then this glyph could be a DPS increase.
- Glyph of Death Coil causes Death Coil to place a damageabsorption effect, if cast on an ally. This will generally not be a worthwhilething to do, but it remains a possibility in some remote situations.
- Glyph of Dark Succor gives you a cost-free Death Strike thatheals for at least 20% of your maximum health, each time you get a killingblow on an enemy that grants experience or honor (only while inFrost Presence and Unholy Presence). While it will generallynot work, this glyph can sometimes help on fights where you are killingadds and you need a self-heal.
- Glyph of Loud Horn increases the amount of runic power generated byHorn of Winter by 10, but doubles its cooldown. This glyph is a smallDPS bonus whenever you can afford to use it (that is to say, when you have afree Major Glyph slot).
9. Minor Glyphs↑top
The only two Minor Glyphs that may be of interest areGlyph of Tranquil Grip and Glyph of Army of the Dead.
Glyph of Tranquil Grip causes your Death Grip to nolonger taunt the target, making it ideal if you wish to pull an add to you(or away from the tank) and you do not wish to take aggro.
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Glyph of Army of the Dead causes your ghouls to no longer taunt theirtarget. This glyph is useful because it gives you the option of having yourtarget (an add, since bosses cannot be taunted by Army of the Dead anyway)continue attacking its tank, in case this is desirable.
10. Changelog↑top
- 10 Sep. 2013: Patch 5,4 updates.
- Updated the Plague Leech and Anti-Magic Zone descriptions anddiscussions to account for the changes to these two abilities.
- Added Glyph of Regenerative Magic and Glyph of Loud Horn.
- Updated the relative value of Tier 5 talents.
- 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: nothing to change.
- 03 Apr. 2013: Made several updates.
- Reworded a few talent explanations to improve clarity.
- Added Glyph of Icebound Fortitude and Glyph of Army of the Dead.
- Changed Desecrated Ground's category to be situational,since it allows players to avoid certain effects that cause loss of control ofthe character.
- 07 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
- Updated Asphyxiate explanation to reflect the new 30-second cooldownof the ability.
- Updated Conversion explanation to reflect the new 5 runic powercost (both initial and per second).