A full list of Death Knight PvP modifiers

Classes Death Knight
1

PvP Modifiers as of 11.0.7 (Dec 17th 2024)

Baseline Abilities:
Reduced

  • Anti-Magic Shell: Absorb is 75% as big in PvP (22.5% max health instead of 30%)
  • Rune of Spellwarding: Passive damage reduction, shield absorb, and casting speed reduction are each 40% as good in PvP (1.2% passive damage reduction, 4% max health shield, 4% reduction to cast speed)

Increased

  • Death Coil: Deals 149% of normal damage in PvP

Class Talents:
Reduced

  • Improved Death Strike: Increase to Death Strike healing reduced by 50% in PvP (30% increase to healing instead of 60%)
  • Enfeeble: Damage reduction is 66% as good in PvP (8% damage reduction instead of 12%)
  • Veteran of the Third War: Stamina increase is reduced by 50% in PvP (10% bonus stamina instead of 20%)
  • Will of the Necropolis: Damage reduction is 50% as good in PvP (10%/17.5% damage reduction instead of 20%/35%)
  • Null Magic: Damage Reduction is 50% as good and duration decrease is 29% as good in PvP (4% damage reduction instead of 8% and 10% duration decrease instead of 35%)
  • Abomination Limb: Deals 50% of normal damage in PvP
  • Vestigial Shell: Duration decrease is 60% as good in PvP (15% less duration instead of 25%)

Unholy Talents:
Reduced

  • Virulent Plague/Virulent Eruption: Deals 85% of normal damage in PvP
  • Dark Transformation: Increase to pet damage is 50% as strong in PvP (pet deals double damage instead of triple damage)
  • Apocalypse: Summons 50% as many minions in PvP (2 ghouls instead of 4)
  • Magnus of the Dead: Shadowbolt deals 50% of normal damage in PvP (frost bolt appears to do regular damage)
  • Rotten Touch: Damage increase is 60% as good in PvP (36% increased damage instead of 60%)
  • Army of the Dead: Summons 50% as many minions in PvP (4 ghouls instead of 8)
  • Festermight: Increase to strength is 65% as strong in PvP (0.65% per stack instead of 1%)
  • Superstrain: Deals 85% of normal damage in PvP

Increased

  • Festering Wounds: Deals 334% of normal damage in PvP
  • Scourge Strike: Deals 130% of normal damage in PvP
  • Ruptured Viscera: Deals 200% of normal damage and has double the chance to apply a wound in PvP (both increases break even when you consider half the number of ghouls are spawned in PvP)

Frost Talents:
Reduced

  • Everfrost: Damage increase is 50% as good in PvP (3% damage increase instead of 6%)
  • Pillar of Frost: Increase to strength is 40% as strong in PvP (12% increase instead of 30%)
  • Cold Heart: Deals 33% of normal damage in PvP
  • Frostwhelp’s Aid: Increase to mastery is 50% as strong in PvP (4% instead of 8%)
  • Empower Rune Weapon: Increase to haste is 33% as strong in PvP (5% instead of 15%)
  • Frostwyrm’s Fury: Deals 33% of normal damage in PvP
  • Gathering Storm: Damage increase is 50% as strong in PvP (5% instead of 10%)
  • Bonegrinder: Damage increase is 50% as strong in PvP (5%/10% instead of 10%/20%)
  • Shattering Blade: Damage increase is 50% as strong in PvP (57.5% instead of 115%)
  • Breath of Sindragosa: Deals 66% of normal damage in PvP

Increased

  • Remorseless Winter: Deals 200% of normal damage in PvP
  • Frost Strike: Deals 207% of normal damage in PvP
  • Obliterate: Deals 207% of normal damage in PvP, deals an extra 175% damage if not consuming killing machine (for a combined total of 362.25%)
  • Howling Blast: Deals 130% of normal damage in PvP
  • Glacial Advance: Deals 166% of normal damage in PvP
  • Frostscythe: Deals 150% of normal damage in PvP
  • Icy Death Torrent: Deals 113% of normal damage in PvP

Blood Talents:
Reduced

  • Death Strike: Deals 65% of normal damage in PvP (Blood Only!)
  • Shattering Bone: Deals 75% of normal damage in PvP

Increased

  • Heart Strike: Deals 120% of normal damage in PvP

Rider of the Apocalypse Talents:
Reduced

  • On a Paler Horse: Disabled in battlegrounds and Arena
  • Death Charge: Speed increase is 80% as good in PvP (80% instead of 100%)

Deathbringer Talents:
Reduced

  • Reaper’s Mark: Deals 72% of normal damage in PvP
  • Pact of the Deathbringer: Death pact is 60% as good in PvP (30% effectiveness instead of 50%)
  • Rune Carved Plates: Damage reduction is 50% as good in PvP (0.75% instead of 1.5%)
  • Expelling Shield: Casting speed reduction is 40% as good in PvP (4% instead of 10%)
  • Exterminate: Deals 70% of normal damage in PvP

Increased

  • Wave of Souls: Deals 153% of normal damage in PvP

San’layn Talents:
No PvP changes

Other:

  • Avoidence: Pet AOE damage reduction is 0% as good in PvP (0% instead of 80%)
  • PvE Set Bonuses: All TWW PvE set bonuses are 50% as good in PvP

Commentary:
I was looking for a comprehensive list of all the PvP modifiers for DK and could not find one, though I did find several useful resources (shoutout to drustvar!) I didn’t find anything that spelled it out nice and simple, so I decided to compile everything I could find and list it all in one place on the forums so other curious players don’t have to repeat my journey. If you notice something incorrect please feel free to point it out and I will try to update it.

After compiling this list I also have some comments of my own:

  • The healing on Death Coil seems far to low to justify the usage during Lichborne, perhaps the PvP bonus to damage should also extend to healing, or the healing amount should just be increased baseline.
  • The Improved Death Strike PvP nerf seems entirely unnecessary when combined with the change in TWW where “Death Strike can now only heal the Death Knight for a percentage of damage taken from a given damage event once”. Now that it is impossible to profit health from taking damage the amount of healing we do receive, especially the minimum, should be reevaluated.
  • A successful Soul Reaper strike and explosion will deal less damage than a Doom burst talented Death Coil that pops two wounds, seeing as the damage for festering wounds is so much higher in PvP, but the damage from Soul Reaper is unchanged. Soul Reaper damage should see an increase in PvP to keep it in line with the rest of our rotational abilities.
  • It is really weird for the total strength increase of Pillar of Frost to be smaller than the strength bonus given by the Enduring Strength talent that comes into play after Pillar of Frost has expired (12% vs 15%), it’s like your real cooldown only happens after your cooldown is over.
21 Likes
2

Wonder if there is another class/spec with as numerous and severe modifiers as us DKs.

2 Likes
3

The frost modifiers are actually fine imo. It looks like a ton of nerfs but the huge increases to our main abilities such as frost strike and obliterate more than balance it out.

I do think death strike is pretty damn weak tho. Buff death strike lol.

4

It’s absolutely crazy to me that there is no way to see these in game.

I feel like we need an add-on that adds this information to the tooltip unless one exists already?

Better would be Blizzard adding this information like they do with iLvL on pvp gear. But even that is not good enough, because the stats shown are still the PVE stats unless you are in pvp combat…

4 Likes
5

Love to see you’re still around old friend, best of wishes!

signed,

Raziael (dk is pvp only now so I post mainly on Rogue/spriest)

1 Like
6

lmao Blizz really hates dks

3 Likes
7

Xeek already showed that you can burst someone down in about 3 seconds with all these modifiers for Frost.

There is clearly a reason for these modifiers.

8

I still wonder if one of the devs just really hates UHDKs.

9

Time to update your list, more just came out like 20 minutes ago.

1 Like
10

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll update the main list closer to when the next patch is going live. For those wondering, the preposed changes that will affect this list are:

  • Veteran of the Third War now increases Stamina by 12% (was 20%), and 6% in PvP combat (was 10%). (still 50% PvP Modifier, just smaller base amount)
  • Null Magic now reduces the magical damage you take by 5% (was 8%), and 3% in PvP combat (was 4%). (60% pvp modifier instead of 50%, but also a smaller base amount)
11

Death’s Cold Embrace looks… Interesting.

I don’t know, should I bother PvPing as a DK again? .-.

12

Just go blood, that’s obviously what they want. Play blitz and healer stealer.

13

A Hostage DK :joy:

1 Like