Stat Priorities
Stat Ranking
Stats will always vary and change based on your gear, as stats can lose a lot of value once you reach a certain threshold. The best way to always be sure that you are using the best gear is to use Raidbots and check via the Top Gear and Stat Weights options. You can learn how to sim your character by going to the ‘How to Sim Your Character’ section at the end of this guide.
Breath of Sindragosa Single target:
Strength > Crit > Mastery > Haste = Versatility
Breath of Sindragosa AoE:
Strength > Mastery > Crit > Versatility = Haste
Obliteration Single target:
Strength > Crit >= Mastery >= Haste > Vers
Obliteration AoE:
Strength > Crit >= Mastery >= Haste > Vers
Stat Summary
Strength - is the best stat for Frost Death Knights, as it directly increases their overall throughput. This is consistent with most classes in Dragonflight, as the primary stat is typically the best option for maximizing performance.
Crit - The most important stat for Frost Death Knights is Crit. Killing Machine will proc based on auto attacks that crit, so it's a very important stat, and you should focus on getting as much as possible. It scales well in single target and aoe, although Mastery will pull slightly ahead in this scenario.
Mastery - This increases the damage of your Frost damaging abilities. This does not include Obliterate, but it is still very important for most of your other abilities, including your major cooldowns, such as Breath of Sindragosa or Frostwyrm's Fury, making Mastery a very strong stat for Frost Death Knight.
Haste - Haste is a stat that varies a lot with Frost, mainly due to build choice and certain Haste breakpoints that allow you to fit additional abilities in your Pillar of Frost window. I recommend 12.5% Haste at minimum for any Frost build (this is the first Haste breakpoint), and then check your Stat Weights and Top Gear for further Haste optimizations. Generally speaking, though, Breath of Sindragosa will require less Haste in comparison to Obliteration (which revolves around fitting as many Obliterates in Pillar of Frost as possible).
Versatility - Quite a boring stat; honestly, it just gives you a flat damage increase and some mitigation. It doesn't interact with the Frost Death Knight kit and is usually just a last resort stat to pick up.
The best way to calculate stat priorities for your character is to "sim" your character.
Races
The races are not a massive throughput gain, sometimes they are, but generally, the gain is not that big for playing ‘the best race.’ For the most part, play whatever Race you want; however, the Races listed here are the best if you want the best possible throughput.
Horde - Blood Elf / Tauren
Alliance - Dwarf / Human
Blood Elf: Provides Arcane Torrent, which is a very effective ability to use to prolong your Breath of Sindragosa by granting you 20 Runic Power. It is on a 2-minute cooldown, so it will always line up with your Breath of Sindragosa. You will also gain an additional 1% Crit from Arcane Acuity, which is also a nice bonus due to Crit being one of your best secondary stats.
Tauren: This race works very well when playing with Obliteration, as it gives you additional crit damage with Brawn, and as Obliteration crits a lot, you will get a lot of value from this racial. You also get some additional health with Endurance which is also nice.
Dwarf: In similar fashion to Tauren, Dwarves also have increased crit damage with their racial Might of the Mountain, as well as having another nice defensive ability with Stoneform.
Human: Humans are generally a solid option for all classes in the game, providing an additional 2% to all secondary stats with their racial The Human Spirit. This makes Humans a very good race for Frost Death Knights.
Enchants
Gems and Ring enchants heavily depend on your current stat weights and will often fluctuate depending on your current gear. I will list the enchants and gems you will generally want to use, but you should always check on Raidbots to see which are currently the most valuable for you.
General Enchants:
- Cloak: Graceful Avoidance
- Chest: Waking Stats
- Wrist: Devotion of Avoidance
- Belt: Shadowed Belt Clasp
- Legs: Fierce Armor Kit
- Boots: Plainrunner’s Breeze
- 2H Weapon (Obliteration) Runeforges: Rune of the Fallen Crusader
- Dual Wield Weapon (Breath of Sindragosa) Runeforges: Rune of Hysteria & Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Ring Enchants:
- Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste - +82 Haste
- Enchant Ring - Devotion of Mastery - +82 Mastery
- Enchant Ring - Devotion of Critical Strike - +82 Crit
Gems
Primalist Gems
These are very strong gems that you are able to use one of.
- Fierce Illimited Diamond - +75 Primary Stat & +66 Haste
- Skillful Illimited Diamond - +75 Primary Stat & +66 Mastery
- Inscribed Illimited Diamond - +75 Primary Stat & +Crit
Gems
- Keen Ysemerald - +70 Haste & +33 Mastery
- Sensei’s Neltharite - +70 Mastery & +33 Crit
- Keen Neltharite - +70 Mastery & + 33 Haste
Consumables
Food: The best food comes from a Grand Banquet of Kalu’ak, which will give you +76 Strength; however, these are usually placed down for an entire raid or party as they can be pretty expensive. So if you want your own food, you can eat Thousandbone Tongueslicer for a +45 Crit & Mastery buff.
Phials: Iced Phial of Corrupted Rage
Weapon Buff: Howling Rune / Hissing Rune / Buzzing Rune (depending on stats situation)
Combat Potion: Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power / Fleeting Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power (both are the same)
Other Consumables: Dreamwalkers Healing Potion & Draconic Augment Rune