I took a break from DK and have been playing my rogue (which is a topic for another day).
Frost DK will forever be held back by the way the spec plays and is designed.
Main issue is scaling with KM, Frostreaper, and most of our skills not worth pressing. With the janky crit scaling and more, it just feels bad, even more so in pvp. Not to mention cleave, along with other issues.
To add, the rotation just feels bland, which can be easily fixed.
Easiest solution imo is to fundamentally change how KM and Frost Reaper work and change certain abilities/talents and then go from there.
What if KM was removed and just added a new buff (changed version of FrostReaper)
Have Frost Reaper Proc based on Frost Fever Ticks so the proc rate is equal between DW and Frost.
100% Crit chance removed, instead it makes your next obliterate will do 100% frost damage. To compensate for the lack of 100% crit chance, Obliterate baseline should do 50% physical, and 50% frost damage. This will allow the ability to actually scale regardless of procs and then can be balanced appropriately. And this will also allow for the bad janky crit scaling to be fixed. I think KM/frostreaper proc should also apply to Frost Scythe, but more on that later. If this is still too hard to tune, then simply make Frostreaper proc make obliterate do X% more damage so it will be balanced.
Aoe damage/cleave needs to be looked at. We have skills like GA that feel almost not worth even using when you can aoe with FS depending on talents. This needs to be worth using or at the very least baseline.
Cleaving strikes with obliterate should have never been a thing imo. We have cleave abilities already, they just feel so bad. And let’s be real, most of the dk community hates the way cleaving strikes works anyhow. No one likes being forced to stand in something.
Just have this talent changed please, at the very least for frost it needs to just change.
I think FrostScythe could be a solution. This talent has potential. I think this talent should be affected by any talent that affects obliterate. It should also be affected by the Frostreaper/KM Proc. It needs a cool down still, but I think having it slightly harder than obliterate would make it a fun ability to use in ST, and if you talent in cleaving strikes, this skill simply will do 50% of its damage in aoe. (without the need of standing in DND)
Instead make remorseless winter proc cleaving strikes since that talent would now only affect Frostscythe.
Speaking of remorseless winter. This skill should have more power baked into it baseline, without the need of some many talents. It is an iconic ability, let it actually do decent aoe damage. If you remove obliterate from cleaving strikes, you could easily make remorseless winter be used instead without it being over tuned, and still used for damage, rather than just to cleave.
I think you should either let it be 100% crit chance still only for this ability, or buff the damage up A LOT so it feels worth pressing. Maybe make it do good single target damage so it adds a fun new ability in ST rotation with a CD, and have it do less damage to other targets. (think a skill that hits only slightly harder than obliterate, but will also do 50% of the damage as cleave)
Howling Blast feels sooo weak. This really needs a buff. At the very least, I think Rime procs should make HB actually feel good to use. It really needs a damage amp imo or other ways for the talents to affect it. Anyone remember the last time they used this ability to actually do aoe damage or damage in general rather than just a frost fever application or free razorice?
Buff the damage and change talents to interact with it. I think the entire Smother offense line should be gutted. Pillar already has enough power into it, and we don’t need more damage from passives when our actual skills feel bad to use. This line should imo be all about buffing howling blast in a way.
Talents like cold heart could be redone to instead apply to your next rime proc, which I think would be fun to make HB feel a little better as well.
There is so much more I could add, but this post is already long enough. Maybe one day frost dk will feel like an actual spec again, instead of what it has become.