A Look at the Frost DK Changes So Far on the 8.2 Rise of Azshara PTR

PTR Posted 2019/05/05 at 3:17 PM by Bicepspump

BicepspumpsFrost DK guide writerAcherus, the Death Knight class DiscordTwitchIntroduction

Blizzard

We have a few more class changes coming to the Rise of Azshara PTR. We made the initial changes and the following will be active on the PTR soon.Frost Death Knight

Runic Empowerment has a 2.0% chance to proc per Runic Power spent (from 1.5%)
Frost Fever's chance to generate Runic Power increased to 30%

Chance now diminishes on targets beyond the first

Breath of Sindragosa now has a 50% increased chance to proc Runic Empowerment
Breath of Sindragosa costs 18 Runic Power/sec (from 15)

Developers' Note: Frost was starved of resources too often, especially when using Breath of Sindragosa. This increases Frosts's Rune income baseline and includes a further change that returns many extra Runes while using Breath of Sindragosa. Breath builds will now be able to fill more global cooldowns with casts of Obliterate, to make up for the lost Frost Strikes. The cost of Breath itself is increased to keep its overall duration roughly unchanged.

Current Frost Death Knight IssuesBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaObliterateBreath of SindragosaFrost StrikeObliterateBreath of SindragosaImpact of ChangesRunic Empowerment

Runic Empowerment has a 2.0% chance to proc per Runic Power spent (from 1.5%).

Frost StrikeRunic EmpowermentObliteration

Frost Fever's chance to generate Runic Power increased to 30%.
Chance now diminishes on targets beyond the first.

Frost Fever

Breath of Sindragosa now has 50% increased chance to proc Runic Empowerment

Breath of Sindragosa costs 18 Runic Power/sec (from 15)

Runic EmpowermentBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaObliterateObliterateRimeBreath of SindragosaCold HeartFrostwyrm's FuryPillar of FrostBreath of SindragosaObliterateRimeCold HeartFrostwyrm's FuryConclusionsBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaObliterateBreath of SindragosaFrost FeverRunic EmpowermentBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaObliterateBreath of SindragosaBreath of SindragosaBreath of Sindragosa

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Comment by Tedastrasz"all classes" I don't see Ret pally on that list, I think you'll find it's pretty close to the Frost DK, maybe even lower unless you get lucky with procsComment by redfinalePersonally, I'd have preferred a buff to the other talents in that tier at least (or a nerf to BoS), so that BoS isn't the clear cut choice every time. Every time I see a talent so drastically the better choice, I'm talking every guide you read will tell you to pick said talent or you're an incompetent dumbass kind of clear cut choice, it really makes you question Blizz's ability to balance classes any more.

If I see a talent like that's "Choice A is all single target no AoE, Choice B is a mix of the two, and Choice C is pure AoE" it gives you some play at least. Do you pick A or C for the respective fight but sacrifice damage for the opposite type of damage, or do you take the middle road with B and maybe not do the best single target damage, but you can at least AoE/multi-target a bit better than if you went pure single target? But when you have talents that out perform the other two by such a significant margin...Comment by REXFURIt's just cut off on the image.
Go to http://www.simulationcraft.org/reports/T23_Raid.html and scroll down and click "Actions per Minute / DPS Variance Summary" to see the full listComment by RizbeyDisappointing. I don't like breath. Looks like this is just solidifying the build.Comment by ivantklasnicthis list is from simcraft, ret pala is at 52 apm, so way higher than those specs, full lust is here: https://www.simulationcraft.org/reports/T23_Raid.htmlComment by jaq1010The simplest solution is one they will never do; namely, replace Breath of Sindragosa with another talent. We've been doing this dance since, what, 7.1, 7.2, when Breath was easier to keep up, and all that ends up happening is tweaks that don't address the problem of resources or downtime. Rather than break the talent, they tried to make it harder to keep up for ludicrous amounts of time, and yet even with that, BoS remains the only choice from that row. An entirely new level 100 row might be the only damn thing that can fix this.Comment by CommanderFGonna play Obliteration in 8.2. I'm not hardcore raider anyway.Comment by SixtimeI'm fine with downtime. I wouldn't mind having 90% downtime on fdk, just give me more dps.Comment by ChungtaoI really like the in-depth theorycraft format of the post, keep up the good work! Looking forward to some similar stuff for other underperforming/outdated specs as well!Comment by mymy379~~You now have a whopping 54% chance of generating a Rune every time Breath of Sindragosa ticks (22.5% on live).~~
Haven't played for a while, but shouldn't it be 72% chance per tick?
Live: 15 RP * 1.5% chance = 22.5%
PTR: 18 RP * 2% chance * BoS bonus = 72%
(I assume it's additive chance scaling, and not separately calculated for each single RP point..)Comment by BicepspumpBoS only has a 50% increased chance of procing Runic Empowerment (you might've read the double chance that was in a previous change and also incorrectly displayed in an earlier version of this article).

I think we'll have to wait for further changes as well as tuning to see what will be best in 8.2.Comment by ChaserblBlizzard is totally out of touch with their playerbase of frost DKs.
Class in general is so wonky, heavily tuned every single expansion, every single patch it's just pointless.

I play DK cos I love this class (lorewise) but everything else is just horrible.Comment by FunkyoStay unholy! Melee warlock ftw XDComment by AarkanIf we can't cast rime, cold heart or fwf during breath that's going to be a real bummer. They could auto-cast rime procs during Breath and that would help with our overall damage, which I think is a lot bigger of an issue than the downtime we have. Whatever they do I really hope they keep Breath as the top, or a top, build. Breath of Sindragosa is a really fun ability though I would support changes for them to move some of our overall damage out of it and into period when it's not in use. It doesn't feel great to spike on the damage meters and then fall all the way to the bottom over the next minute.Comment by DawnriderFrost used to be a fast-paced and proc-based specComment by lolgo"This change effectively introduces more resources in our rotation. Obliterate will now have a 40% chance to proc Runic Empowerment and Remorseless Winter and Cold Heart will have a 20% chance." - maybe I am misunderstanding something here, but do Rune Spenders have to do with RE?Comment by lolgo~~You now have a whopping 54% chance of generating a Rune every time Breath of Sindragosa ticks (22.5% on live).~~
Haven't played for a while, but shouldn't it be 72% chance per tick?
Live: 15 RP * 1.5% chance = 22.5%
PTR: 18 RP * 2% chance * BoS bonus = 72%
(I assume it's additive chance scaling, and not separately calculated for each single RP point..)Comment by BicepspumpNo, Rune Spenders don't interact with RE, this was an error present in an earlier version of the article.Comment by MightylorddkThis is going to make BoS only option for frost. Removal of Artifact weapon completely Obliterated frost. It requires a massive rework which cant be done with hotfixes.Comment by NasskaPlease, make obliteration useful again. I don't even like breath of sindragosa and i only see changes for breath of sindragosa. It's not viable and not enough or that much interesting, it's a nice ability but doesn't make frost dk interesting and working properly.

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