Death Knight Frost Rotation & Opener

First ~12 casts of actual top-ranked kills. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 2 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 3 Raise DeadOff-GCD 4 Pillar of FrostOff-GCD 5 Reaper's Mark 6 Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD 7 Obliterate 8 ExterminateOff-GCD 9 Frostwyrm's Fury 10 ExterminateOff-GCD 11 Obliterate 12 ExterminateOff-GCD 13 Obliterate 14 ExterminateOff-GCD 15 Obliterate

1 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 2 Obliterate 3 Reaper's Mark 4 Raise DeadOff-GCD 5 Pillar of FrostOff-GCD 6 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 7 Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD 8 Frostwyrm's Fury 9 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 10 Obliterate 11 ExterminateOff-GCD 12 Frost Strike 13 ExterminateOff-GCD 14 Obliterate 15 ExterminateOff-GCD

1 Howling Blast 2 Light's PotentialOff-GCD 3 Pillar of FrostOff-GCD 4 Reaper's Mark 5 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 6 Tattered Amani War BannerOff-GCD 7 Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD 8 LichborneOff-GCD 9 Raise DeadOff-GCD 10 Battle FervorOff-GCD 11 Obliterate 12 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 13 ExterminateOff-GCD 14 Obliterate 15 ExterminateOff-GCD

#showtooltip Reaper's Mark
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Empower Rune Weapon
/cast Raise Dead
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Breath of Sindragosa
/cast Reaper's Mark

Ability	Top-player CPM
Obliterate	18.7
Frost Strike	15.1
Howling Blast	10.0
Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD	4.5
ExterminateOff-GCD	3.8
Pillar of FrostOff-GCD	1.3
Reaper's Mark	1.3
Anti-Magic ShellOff-GCD	0.9
Raise DeadOff-GCD	0.7
Frostwyrm's Fury	0.7
Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD	0.7
Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD	0.7
Frostwyrm's FuryOff-GCD	0.6
Death's AdvanceOff-GCD	0.3

CPM = median casts per minute across the sampled top kills. If you're far below on a core ability, that's usually the first thing to fix.

First ~12 casts after the pull starts, taken from actual top key runs: the AoE opener is the first pack of the run, the single-target opener is the first boss. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 2 Glacial Advance 3 Howling Blast 4 Icebound FortitudeOff-GCD 5 Frostscythe 6 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 7 Glacial Advance 8 Death GripOff-GCD 9 Reaper's Mark 10 Raise DeadOff-GCD 11 Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD 12 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 13 Pillar of FrostOff-GCD 14 Frostscythe 15 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD

1 Howling Blast 2 Wraith Walk 3 Death's AdvanceOff-GCD 4 Death GripOff-GCD 5 Anti-Magic ShellOff-GCD 6 Reaper's Mark 7 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 8 Pillar of FrostOff-GCD 9 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 10 Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD 11 Raise DeadOff-GCD 12 Frostscythe 13 ExterminateOff-GCD 14 Frostwyrm's Fury 15 ExterminateOff-GCD

1 Wraith Walk 2 Frostscythe 3 Frostscythe 4 Glacial Advance 5 Frostscythe 6 Reaper's Mark 7 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 8 Pillar of FrostOff-GCD 9 Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD 10 Raise DeadOff-GCD 11 Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD 12 Frostscythe 13 ExterminateOff-GCD 14 Frostwyrm's Fury 15 ExterminateOff-GCD

#showtooltip Glacial Advance
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Empower Rune Weapon
/cast Death Grip
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Glacial Advance

Collected from public Patch 12.1 guides and checked for this patch. Spell names follow the language you selected on this site and must match your game client. If a macro does not work on your client, report it with the button on the card.

#showtooltip Raise Ally
/cast [@mouseover,help][@target]Raise Ally

#showtooltip Mind Freeze
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Mind Freeze

#showtooltip Pillar of Frost
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Raise Dead
/cast Breath of Sindragosa

#showtooltip Pillar of Frost
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Raise Dead
/cast Breath of Sindragosa
/cast Frostwyrm's Fury

#showtooltip Pillar of Frost
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Raise Dead
/cast Obliterate

#showtooltip Death Grip
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Death Grip; Death Grip

#showtooltip Anti-Magic Zone
/cast [@cursor] Anti-Magic Zone

/cast [@focus,exists,nodead][@mouseover,exists,nodead][] Mind Freeze

/focus [@mouseover]

#showtooltip Control Undead
/target pet
/script PetDismiss()
/cast Control Undead

Keybinds are personal — this is not a layout to copy wholesale. What it does say is which abilities you press most, measured from the same top parses above: the more often an ability is cast, the less effort its key should take. Interrupts, defensives and movement are deliberately left out; they barely register in cast data yet must always be within reach, so choose those yourself.

Rows marked Passive are not pressed at all — they fire on their own (auto-attacks, procs) and get no key, even though they top the casts-per-minute table.

Key	Ability	Top-player CPM
1	Obliterate	18.7
2	Frost Strike	15.1
3	Howling Blast	10.0
4	Frostscythe	8.0
5	Glacial Advance	7.1
Z	Empower Rune WeaponOff-GCD	4.5
X	ExterminateOff-GCD	3.8
C	Pillar of FrostOff-GCD	1.3
V	Reaper's Mark	1.3
R	Anti-Magic ShellOff-GCD	0.9
F	Death's AdvanceOff-GCD	0.8
T	Raise DeadOff-GCD	0.7
G	Frostwyrm's Fury	0.7
Shift+1	Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD	0.7
Shift+2	Breath of SindragosaOff-GCD	0.7
Shift+3	Frostwyrm's FuryOff-GCD	0.6
Shift+4	Death GripOff-GCD	0.6