Deathbringer Concept

Classes Death Knight
1

Hey everyone, i just had a concept idea for the Blood/Frost hero talent tree called Deathbringer that we’ll see at some point. i had some clear themes i wanted to aim towards with this hero tree after seeing what san’layn turned out to be which i thought was quite interesting. Please don’t mind the probably horrifically bad balance.

Main themes i think deathbringer should cover:
Execute, Runeforging, Weapon Attacks, Runic Power.

Here’s the rough tree layout i made:

Header Talent:
Rune of the Deathbringer: Inscribe your weapon with the Rune of the Deathbringer (unique deathbringer-only rune that can be applied alongside your other rune(s) and doesn’t eat an enchantment slot). Dealing damage to your target with Runic Power Spending abilities has a chance per runic power spent to cast Frost Strike(frost)/ Death Strike(blood) for no cost, can only occur once every 5 seconds.

ROW 1:

1: Choice Node: Force Pull/Unflinching Advance

Force Pull: Death Grip instead pulls you to targets who are immune to Death Grip. This effect can occur once every 30 seconds.

Unflinching Advance:
Increases the duration of Deaths Advance by 4 seconds and (passively at all times) you can never be slowed below 100% movement speed.

2: Frost Reach: Increases the range of your melee attacks by 5 yards. Your Runic Power Spending abilities increase your critical chance by 1% stacking up to 3 times.

3: Anti Magic Bulwark: when cast, Anti Magic Shell nearby allies gain a damage shield equal to 20% of their maximum health for 7 seconds.

ROW 2:

1: Runesmith: Increases the effectiveness of runeforge effects by 50%

2: Runic Overload: Your Runic Power Spending abilites deal 15% more damage while above 50% of your maximum runic power.

3: Choice Node: Death’s Executioner/ Runecleaver

Death’s Executioner: Rime and Crimson Scourge can now be consumed by Soul Reaper. Consuming Crimson Scourge or Rime causes Soul Reaper to cost no runes and its initial strike deals 150% more damage.

Runecleaver: Your free Frost Strikes or Death Strikes deal 50% of it’s damage to all nearby targets.

ROW 3

1: Skeletal Fury: Casting Frostwyrms Fury or Bonestorm grants you Empower Rune Weapon for 10 seconds.

2: Heightened Empowerment: Free Frost Strike or Death Strikes from Rune of the Deathbringer always generate a rune.

3: Lich Strikes: Death Strike and Frost Strike damage is increased by up to 25% on enemies below 100% health.

CAPSTONE:
Greater Rune Weapon: While Empower Rune Weapon is active, Frost Strike and Death Strike cost nothing and always activate Rune of the Deathbringer.

1 Like
2

Interested concept. I like the idea of having increased range. I personally think thay shouls be a talent baseline for all specs.

3

I wouldn’t anticipate Deathbringer to deviate from what has already been established in game without some kind of quest, lore, or reasoning presented to the player. If it did deviate with no reasoning I’d anticipate a flavour and name change.

What is suggested feels like it would have a lot of power per point, maybe making it more accustomed to an actual rework of the frost tree.

Personally I wouldn’t be looking for more power (that should come from the current spec trees), but I would be looking for a iconic gimmick that modifies play style slightly. Hence why it wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up with a reworked player version of Blood Link capped with Blood Power and some other utility bits that synergies well in the middle.

Deathbringer is currently totally one dimensional, so it’s difficult to see where they can go with it without doubling down on the blood theme.

4

I don’t see it following that theme as San’layn already does that as well as having the blood beasts from saurfang.

5

This with the capstone is a recipe for actual degenerate play, especially when Frost already overcaps without caring.

Capstones and Hero talents in general aren’t supposed to be massive DPS increases like this.

Frost is also flushed with resources, so unless your idea comes with Frost losing basically all it’s resource generation, this will just feel bad.

I do like the idea though and think it it triggered on the rune/RP generation with ERW (so every 4s or so) and refunded a % of the cost speny on an RP spender instead of making it free, it’d be more balanced and work for all of Frost & Blood.

1 Like
6

i agree, the heightened empowerment talent was a leftover from my initial design which involved more of a focus on increased runic power spending. it’s also definitely a degenerative design. but i’m not gonna go back and fix it as i figured this was a good way to generate discussion about deathbringer’s themes (and also now that san’layn has effectively stolen deathbringer saurfang’s stuff). I definitely think that one of the remaining hero specs should focus on runic power spending and/or rune forging