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Frost Death Knightfrost iconvsunholy iconUnholy Death Knight

What’s the best spec for Death Knights, Unholy or Frost? Below breaks down their current DPS potential and compares the two.

This page analyzes multiple simulations for both Unholy Death Knights and Frost Death Knights using profiles and settings intended to achieve their maximum DPS. Multiple sim environments are used to test how they perform in various conditions. Is one the AoE king? Does one scale better with gear upgrades? Is one more bursty, and more reliant on big cooldowns? Below analyzes the data to find the strengths of each.

Simulation results were created with SimulationCraft
Using game data from Patch 10.0.5 • WoW Dragonflight •

  • Frost Death Knightfrost icon
  • Best boss DPS (in realistic settings)Frost Death Knight achieved 11.67% more maximum boss DPS than Unholy Death Knight when dealing with occasional movement, lag and crowd-control.
  • Best AoE DPS (in perfect settings)Frost Death Knight achieved 31.6% more AoE DPS than Unholy Death Knight when there was no movement or lag.
  • Least affected by movement (single-target)Frost Death Knight’s single-target DPS was -71.06% less affected by increased movement compared to Unholy Death Knights.
  • Simplest GameplayFrost Death Knight has fewer damaging abilities which could indicate a simpler rotation.
  • DPS less dependant on big cooldownsFrost Death Knight’s DPS is less bursty, meaning it had more consistent damage. With 48.24% less difference in lowest and peak DPS during a fight when compared to Unholy Death Knights.
  • unholy iconUnholy Death Knight
  • Best boss DPS (in perfect settings)Unholy Death Knight achieved 8.46% more maximum boss DPS than Frost Death Knight when there was no movement or lag.
  • Best gear scalingUnholy Death Knight scaled better with increased item-levels, single-target DPS benefited 7.52% more from 372 ilvl to 422 compared to Frost Death Knights.

While the above highlights the DPS advantages between Frost and Unholy Death Knights, the DPS potential should not be the only factor in your decision. Ultimately, you should also consider the playstyle that you enjoy most while crushing it in Mythics+ and Raids!


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