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Pillar of Frost

Pillar of Frost
1 Frost

Instant	1 min cooldown

Requires Death Knight (Frost)
Requires level 68

The power of Frost increases the Death Knight's Strength by 15%, and grants immunity to external movement effects such as knockbacks. Lasts 20 sec.

Empowered Pillar of Frost (Level 92+)
Pillar of Frost provides an additional 5% Strength and no longer costs any runes.

Buff

Pillar of Frost

Strength increased by 15%.
Immune to movement from external sources.
20 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

20 seconds

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

1 Frost

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

1 minute

GCD

0 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Mod Stat - % (Strength)
Value: 15%

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Add Creature Immunity (?) (Asleep, Charmed, Disarmed, Disoriented, Distracted, Snared, Fleeing, Rooted, Silenced)

Effect #3

Apply Aura: Dummy
Server-side script

Flags

Guides

Death Knight DPS Guide
(Frost/Unholy)

Raid and Class
cooldown list.

Comments

Comment by Zerul

Easily applicable for a DPS rotation, thanks to Blood Tap.

Simply, at any given time where you consume both Death Runes and have them turned in to Blood Runes again, you pop Blood Tap -> Unbreakable Armor, both of which are off the GCD by the way. This gives a flat-out increase in AP to increase your damage.

I haven't used this too much in PVP yet. However, seeing as how Frost DKs often have trouble surviving against Double-DPS, you may want to use Unbreakable Armor along with the standard Frost Presence + Lichborne + IBF to survive long enough for them to instead focus on your partner. Still, it consumes a Frost Rune and is a waste to use in most cases. With the new PVP glove effect, however, things may be different...

Comment by hntd

This ability is going to be changing in 3.1. It will now absorb a flat amount of damage based on your armor rather then increase the death knight's armor.

Comment by Gnaeus

Any information on what the glyph will do to it now?

Comment by cyborg99

Requires Undead

Does this mean you'll have to macro it with Lichborne? :S

Comment by halostrike

Does this mean you'll have to macro it with Lichborne? :S

As of the latest PTR patch (March 04, 2009), Unbreakable Armor does not require the activation of Lichborne.

Comment by czokalapik

Armor*0,05 pert hit absorbed, increased by glyph (20%) its 0,06.
Taking 30k armor UA will absorb 1500 dmg every hit, and with glyph 1800.
For 20 seconds its 10-15 boss hits (theoretycaly), so glyphed its 18-27k dmg reduced.

For me this talent is amazing now.
IBF in frost lasts 18 secons, UA 20, thats 38 seconds per minute with7 cooldowns, really great cooldowns.
After some nerfs to DK tanking this along with IFB will be used every single cooldown.

Comment by Skullhawk13

This can break =<

Comment by Findorn

Excellent AoE tanking talent, and a damn nice boss tanking talent in general.

My gear isn't too hot but I'm still losing around 1,500 damage a hit. And yes you can absorb a whole blow. Which means on AoE pulls where you have hundreds of guys hitting you for say 1k a piece, you are taking no damage. Hell even if they hit you for 2k a piece, they is down to 500, which is much more reasonable. For bosses that 1,500 can be the difference between a healer getting the heal off, or not. Quick math

20 seconds
1,500 damage off a swing.
Assuming a boss has a 2 second swing timer the boss gets 10 hits off.
At around 50% avoidance lets assume 5 go through.
That is 7,500 damage off right there.

You may say ehhh not that much. But if say one of your two healers is out of mana and using divine plea, waiting for mana, ect this could be a god send. And the difference between death or life. In addition that was a conservative look at it. In reality most bosses have a number of instant attacks or hell even a DoT they can put on you. If that DoT is ticking for less then 1,500 you just essentially negated it right there (or at least took a lot of the power out of it)

Of course the Str increase will also=more threat (hitting harder), and more avoidance (Str->Parry Rating). In my current gear, unbuffed I get around .8 more parry from my Str. Which isn't including buffs like Kings. And that .8 could be the difference between an attack that kills you and one that doesn't.

Combined with other cooldowns this can make you essentially immune to damage. Chain comboed with a anti magic shell, Icebound Fortitude, and say a dodge trinket or something similar you will take ridiculously little damage.

For example I was OTing 10 man VoA today on the new boss. For some reason the MT tank died. I quickly taunted the boss. Now that I had all 5 mobs on me I blew every tanking CD I have. The one add reached full enrage and slaughtered everybody but me, and left me at around 60%. After around 15 seconds I was down to 50%. One of the major reasons I lasted so long with no heals against a boss and 4 adds is this spell. Each add was hitting me for around 1400. Which meant the adds were doing no damage to me! That only left the boss who was rarely hitting me, and when he did hit for a pitiful amount.

Course after they all wore off I died, but I think this helps point out the usefulness of this on and boss, or pull with a number of adds whose damage comes from multiple enemies whose damage stacks up.

Comment by Thrakin

The mitigation is equal to 5% of your total armor. (Didn't see it listed). This means that for every 20 armor you gain 1 mitigation.

Comment by Groundlord

Unbreakable Armor
1 FrostInstant 2 min cooldown

Requires Undead
Reinforces your armor with a thick coat of ice, reducing damage from all attacks by and increasing your Strength by 25% for 20 sec. The amount of damage reduced increases as your armor increases.

.........Wha?

Comment by kylex3

this spell is so strong against rogues :s basically makes a DK immune to our damage as it is all low fast hits

seriously this will negate every single amount of damage a rogue does for the full 20 seconds... so OP in group PvP

Dks version of divine shield >_>

Comment by vmega

Can it be dispelled from Tranquilizing Shot?

Comment by loik

DK: casts Pillar of Frost
Shaman: casts Thunderstorm
DK: rofl

Comment by LoreKeeperMobius

now death knights can have their own frozen throne!

Comment by Axelon9

for a frost DK to trade a frost rune for this seems way too steep a cost in pvp, although you can be pretty sure to expect a knockback when you run up to an ele shammy, thats 1/30 of your opponents, and this really feels like it should be buffed or cost runic power instead of a rune
as for pve will probably be used whenever its off cd lol

Comment by Tolki

Excellent for counter-cheesing Shaman and Druids at the Lumber mill in AB and the flag in EotS. I do the same thing on my Warlock by putting my portal on the edge and waiting for them to think I'm an easy splatter target. I swear, I can see the soul-crushing disappointment in their eyes when I show up back on the ledge.

Comment by Wowaconia

Introduced in patch 4.0.0 and great for soloing vanilla raid content before it gets erased (such as the soon to be gone ZG). For some reason raid mobs and bosses in vanilla raids love to pick you up and toss you around like a beach ball, with the mobs in AQ40 throwing you high enough to cause massive falling damage. Can counter such things as Knock Away from Broodlord Lashlayer
and Vem; Knock Away from Gurubashi Berserker and Qiraji Champion; Berserker Charge from Gurubashi Champion and Spitting Scarab; Sweep from Ouro; Surge from Lava Surger; the charge from Hive'Zara Stinger and Vekniss Stinger; Uppercut from Anubisath Warrior, Bloodaxe Warmonger, Qiraji Gladiator, and a host of others.

Presumably would also be good if you find yourself facing a dragon’s Tail Sweep.

Excellent for farming Righteous Orbs for BoA enchants to counter Crimson Guardsman's Shield Charge.

Comment by Astur

Man, anyone else feel that this ability is really...lame looking? I mean, I saw "Pillar of Frost" and was like "oh man, this is going to be sweet, a big ice pillar will shoot out of the ground and encase me in ice."

*uses ability*

"Oh...farting out a blue cloud...that's cool...I guess."

Comment by loik

I hope Blizz will make the looking of this spell more... real?
Seriously, a blue aura is pure ^&*!, they can easily make it better, but it has some good advantages. If a shammy sees 50 giant icy cristals hanging upon the DK, obviusly he'll not use Thunderstorm -.-!

And:
for a frost DK to trade a frost rune for this seems way too steep a cost in pvp, although you can be pretty sure to expect a knockback when you run up to an ele shammy, thats 1/30 of your opponents, and this really feels like it should be buffed or cost runic power instead of a rune

This will not be a problem with the new passive spell Rune Empowerment and Blood of the North. And it also increases your strength by 20%.

Comment by loik

And suddenly, 1/30 changes to : 11/50 hunters (assuming that each BM hunt has 25 pets) + all locks, 1/3 mages, 1/3 boomkins and 1/3 shammies = about 1/

. . . what?

Comment by Metatron3X

Note that this ability only negates PUSH effects, not PULL effects. I've tried it when Telestra used her Gravity Well abililty and she still tossed me around like a hacky sack. I haven't seen how it fares against another DK's Death Grip, but I'm guessing it's gonna be the same case.

Still, this is an AWESOME ability to use in areas like Vortex Pinnacle where every mob, boss, and their grandma has some sort of push back ability. Use it against Heroic Altairus and you can just run through his killer tornadoes while trying to position yourself upwind.

I absolutely love this ability. Use it every chance you get!

Comment by Vereesa

I can confirm that this ability will protect against Death Grip, but NOT Leap of Faith. I have, however not yet tested a glyphed PoF against Leap of Faith.

Comment by highwind123

This is not true

I used it right after activating my "Impatience of Youth" trinket (1605 str on use for 20 seconds) and got +20% on my total strenght, including the part which I got from the trinket.

It is best used in conjuction with procs/use effect from trinkets and fallen crusader (which normally happens after about some second after the start of a fight). This is also the time to summon your ghul because it takes a "snapshot" of your stats and fights with those for his full duration.

Comment by zethcarn

Since this spell does not activate the global cooldown a good macro for this is:

#showtooltip Pillar of Frost
/cast Blood Tap
/cast Pillar of Frost
/cast Raise Dead

The purpose of this is so you don't waste a frost rune while casting it. As mentioned above your ghoul will benefit from your extra strength and do maximum dps. Just make sure Raise Dead is last because it does activate the GCD.

Comment by goaten

Is this ability worth using every time it's ready? I.e is the 20% strength bonus worth the loss of one Frost Rune?

Comment by hellomynameis

I have a question... are you still frozen in place if you get freedom from a paladin?

Comment by Angelhearth

It's a great spell since it isn't on GCD. I macro it into all my spells together with blood tap and I use it in the macro to raise dead so at the beginning of the fight my minion has it as well.

20% of 20,000 is 4,000 strength!

You should macro all instant spels not on GCD into your spells. You see if it's on GCD by the other spells on GCD beeing unavailable for a sec or so. Flasks and potions, trinkets and many other things are instant and NOT on GDC, so they should be macroed. At least if you want to do a good job in raids.

This is a macro I use when the boss is below 35%. It costs a few gold, but as a reasonably geared lvl 90 you can easily do 2,000+ gold in a couple of hours. No I'm not telling my favorit hunting grounds. ;)

#showtooltip Soul Reaper
/cast Soul Reaper
/cast Icebound Fortitude
/cast Empower Rune Weapon
/cast Potion of Mogu Power
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Comment by Alnair

it's very straight forward to combine this ability with every Breath of Sindragosa or every other Defile, but because of the way that DoTs update dynamically in WoD (rather than snapshot) if you choose to pair this ability with Necrotic Plague you have to take into consideration that Necrotic Plague will do more damage in its last 20 seconds than it's first 20 seconds...

So rather than casting Pillar of Frost right as you apply Necrotic Plague for the first stack and/or macroing it into Outbreak, you'd rather want to stack Necrotic Plague as cheaply as possible (including using Outbreak, and/or Unholy Blight or the effect of Plaguebearer) in the first 10 seconds of its duration then activate Pillar of Frost for the last 20 seconds of its duration when it will deal the most damage.

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