WoW Cataclysm Guide: Frost Duel Wielding Death Knights

This guide has been developed with the duel wielding Frost Death Knight in mind. I'll be covering stats, glyphs, recommended professions, rotation advice, and so much more. This guide has been designed for casual and hard core players in mind. However, this guide is best used by maxed level Death Knights.

In this guide I DO NOT cover PvP, 2 handed Frost, or any other Death Knight specs. This is specifically for the duel wielding PvE Frost Death Knight and no others.

Your primary stats as a DW Frost DK haven't changed much since the Wrath days. Strength is still the ultimate stat, followed closely by Haste. Haste should be no lower than 10%, with 10% even being somewhat low. The more Haste you can have the better. Have Hit till capped. Personally, I recommend Hit no lower than 15% for duel wielding.

Expertise to cap, or 25/25, should be attained. If you're not reaching your Expertise cap through your gear, try reforging out Crit or Hit (if you're hit capped) to reach Expertise cap.

Mastery is the next preferred stat after all of these others. Your mastery rating as a Frost DK provides you with an increase in frost damage by 2.0% with each point of Mastery. Having a Mastery rating of around 13%+ is recommended.

Glyphing can vary from Death Knight to Death Knight. Depending on the raid groups needs, spec, and just personal preference, each Frost DK's glyphs can look quite different. A very basic glyphing set up for a Frost DK would be:

Prime Glyphs - Glyph of Howling Blast, Glyph of Frost Strike, and Glyph of Icy Touch. Glyph of Obliterate used to be the recommended glyph instead of Howling Blast. However, with the nerf to Obliterate, and the increase damage with Howling Blast, these two spells have changed in priority and therefore have changed in glyphing.

Major Glyphs - A very basic glyph set up for major glyphs would be Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell, Glyph of Hungering Cold, and Glyph of Dark Succor. Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell should be in your major glyphs, regardless of talent set up and raid set up. Glyph of Dark Succor is the one that can be changed out, depending upon your raid's needs and set up. If extra healing is something you need, due to you being overgeared compared to your tanks, lack of powerful healers, or any other sort of things, then Glyph of Dark Succor is the best glyph for you.

Minor Glyphs - Glyph of Horn of Winter and Glyph of Path of Frost should be in your minor glyphs, regardless of talents or raid. If you're a Frost DK with a Blood Tap talent set up, Glyph of Blood Tap would be the best next choice. Otherwise, the final glyph is really up to you.

Red sockets should be filled with Strength gems. Blue sockets should have Strength/Hit gems. Yellow sockets should have Strength/Haste gems. Split gemming is the best way for a DK to gain the largest amount of Strength she can whilst still getting her two other main stats (Haste and Hit). The best Cata meta for DW Frost DK's is the +54 Strength and 3% Increased Critical Effect found from the Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond meta.

For helm enchants, the Arcanum of the Highlands (60 Strength/35 Mastery) is the best for Death Knight dps. This enchant can be obtained from Twilight Highlands from either the Dragonmaw Clan or Wildhammer Clan, depending upon your race's faction.

Your Death Knights shoulder enchant can be obtained either from max Inscription or from having exalted reputation with the Cataclysm faction Therazane. The enchant from Therazane (Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone) provides 50 Strength and 25 Critical Strike. If your Death Knight is a Scribe, her shoulder enchant will be called Lionsmane Inscription. It provides 130 Strength and 25 Critical Strike rating.

Weapon runes that should be applied to your weapons are similar to what your Death Knight used back in Wrath. On her main hand weapon, apply Rune of Razorice. On her off hand, apply Rune of the Fallen Crusader. Razorice increases your enemies vulnerability to your frost attacks, as well as causing 2% extra weapon damage as frost damage. Fallen Crusader provides your Death Knight with a chance to heal herself by 3% and a 15% increase of Strength for 15 seconds.

Your cloak should be enchanted with Greater Critical Strike, which increases your Critical Strike rating by 64. Legs should be enchanted with Dragonscale Leg Armor (obtained from Leatherworkers), which increases Attack Power by 190 and Critical Strike rating by 55. Gloves should be enchanted with the enchant Mighty Strength.

Your bracers should be enchanted with Major Strength, which provides 50 Strength rating to your bracers. This enchant is a rare drop, so you may be forced to pay quite a bit for it from an Enchanter. If you're unable to find this enchant, a suitable replacement would be the enchant Speed, which provides a Haste rating of 50.

For your boot enchant, I have seen two different enchants used. One being the Haste enchant, which provides a Haste rating of 50. The other being Lavawalker, which provides a slight increase in movement speed and a Mastery rating of 35. Either enchant is good, it's really up to the player to decide which to use. If you're in need of Haste, I would recommend the Haste enchant. However, if you have plenty, then the extra Mastery wouldn't hurt.

At the moment, Engineering is one of the best profession for a dps Death Knight. Engineering provides a 480 strength glove tinker buff for 10 seconds with a 1 minute cd. This buff also stacks with other glove enchants, making Engineering one of the best professions for a dps DK.

The next best professions are Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Inscription, and Jewelcrafting. Other professions provide some decent stats for a dps DK, such as Leatherworking's strength bracer enchant. However, Engineering and the other 4 listed are by far the best.

As a Death Knight, your rotation should almost always start off with your diseases. Your diseases will help you do a large amount of damage for a set amount of time. All you have to do is make sure you keep your diseases up. The way you inflict your disease is by casting Icy Touch and Plague Strike. Icy Touch inflicts your frost fever whilst Plague Strike inflicts blood plague (shadow damage). Howling Blast can also inflict frost fever if it's glyphed properly (Glyph of Howling Blast). Outbreak also casts your diseases however, it has a cooldown time of 1 minute. This cast is great if you're attacking a boss with no adds.

Your diseases are spread from different targets by the use of Pestilence. If you are attacking a mob, ALWAYS use Pestilence to help spread your diseases to the different targets. When you use Pestilence to spread your diseases, your diseases inflict 50% more damage than what they would if you inflicted your diseases individually.

• AoE Rotation

Here is a suggested AoE rotation for DW Frost Death Knights:

Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Pestilence, Frost Strike, Howling Blast... Obliterate if you wish, or just continue spamming Howling Blast as much as you can. Rinse and repeat.

• Single Target Rotation

Here is a suggested single target rotation for DW Frost Death Knights:

Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Pestilence (so long as you are not within range to aggro anything else), Frost Strike, Obliterate, Frost Strike, Howling Blast (so long as you are not within range to aggro anything else). Continue spamming Frost Strike and Obliterate until your disease are up. Then rinse and repeat.