Are we finally … good? Because this feels fantastic.
I’m not even in heroic dungeons yet so i can’t say what our tuning for DPS is like.
But world and delves and normal/follower dungeons it feels really good with my build.
I don’t feel reliant on Pillar for everything, reaper’s mark is uber satisfying.
Feels like our sustain damage is finally back.
I have only two… gripes/suggestions.
The first is that frost strike feels weak. like it should do a bit more damage.
And no I don’t mean give it a flat % buff. That’d get taken away in a patch or two and achieves nothing. No A meaningful buff I think would be to make Shattering Blade no longer consume razorice. Although that might need to have Shattering blade tuned back from 115% to 90% due to the increased rate of hits.
And secondly Pillar feels too short. It would be nice to say please make it 20 seconds but that would only be fit for it’s 1min CD, given we can pull it to a 45 sec CD, 20 sec duration would be too long. So due to this, 15 sec feels more appropriate. And it remains balanced.
These two minor tweaks and I could not reasonably ask for more.
Although the idea of cleaving strikes for exterminate would be busted hilarious.
As exterminate goes from each enemy hit by obliterate so if obliterate hits three enemies because of cleaving strikes… three scythes swooshy wooshy. And then if all three applied reapers mark to the targets… well that is just too crazy. Fun but imba as ffkk
(And before everyone decides to rag on how trash my build is… I don’t care, I’m having FUN with it.)
Our damage is good and the spec is better than ever but the spec now feels like it doubled down on CDs with Pillar and Reaper which leaves Frost spec itself in the same spot as before, which is why Frost Strike feels weak while being balanced on the Shattering talents.
Pillar was also buffed in prepatch from 20% to 30%. IMO I think Pillar and Reaper’s Mark/Exterminate need to be toned down a bit so that Frost itself can shine a bit more. I’m hitting 5 million damage on RM alone which is hilarious.
Also, we lost our our endgame stats from Season 4 so that makes our sustain a lot more sucky without crit to proc KM and Icy Death Torrent more.
Fun idea I have is rework KM proc to give us Exterminate instead. Feels fun seeing scythes chop stuff up. 
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Something like 90% of Frost Strikes in ST and 100 in AoE are already Shattered so it wouldn’t really need to be tuned down, but it is also basically doing what your asking for already.
Strong disagree. Pillar is functionally 18s and a 15s CD increase for 2s is a bad trade off.
Pof being 30% now is nuts
It needs to be 20% at 20 sec on a 1 min again
Obliteration only last for 12 of that though.
Secondly do that math. it would then bump your duration to 26
Then also read the second part of what I said.
Play Reaper in the open world and you will see how much of a problem Pillar is. You never get the full use out of it and you will be doing crap damage going from mob to mob.
The Long Winter exists and is taken in almost 100% of scenarios; it functionally lasts for 18.
15s flat at 45s is still just objectively worse than the current version. And they would never just buff Pillar outright and keep TLW. Any changes would be a mutually exclusive capstone and just worse and the alternative (TLW).
I have and it’s not a real problem. The game isn’t, and shouldn’t, be designed around open world content.
That is inherently flawed.
If a class cannot perform satisfactorily in the open world then a player will not stick to end game.
Also this is an MMO, it is called WORLD of Warcraft for a reason.
Open world content should most definitely be factored in to class design.
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Tell me, what does 1 shotting an enemy out in the open world… lets not even take a 1 shot, lets say it takes 6-7 seconds to kill a mob. What does that tell you about any class or spec?
IDT itself was blowing enemies out of the water in the pre-patch and that continued into TWW early access. Blizzard nerfed everyone that didnt have early access which is a topic in itself, but unless you are seeing like 3m fights where cd’s can cycle you learn absolutely nothing in reality.
This is also another hyperbolic nightmare fueled doompill that you have to pop cooldowns to beat some random antelope in the middle of the map. Sorry but its never been like this. If you are having to pop cd’s or else the spec feels like garbage then you are seriously doing something wrong.
Why not? While the forum sees a heavy population of people who engage in mythic and Pvp gameplay, the vast majority of players are open world pve players, doing pug groups, or normal runs with friends at most. A thing made even more notable with the advent of delves.
There should absolutely be a heavy emphasis on balancing around open world play, since that’s where the any and every class is going to see play,
Things arent alive long enough in the open world. Thats why. Open world players really dont have a reason to use CD’s unless they are extremely bad, or its something like a world boss or some kind of elite world quest.
This has been a thing in open world since Wrath at least. DPS geared prot warrior in Wrath 2 shotting basically anything. Heck it wasnt even worth putting diseases on the target because those 2 globals and Obliterate would have killed the thing anyways. Thats the reality of open world.
They balance for end game, open world isnt end game.
I feel weak AF in arenas. Not having the same experience you are at all with my Frost DK. I’m mulling over the possibility of rerolling since it’s still very early.
Going from mob to mob as Reaper doesn’t feel good when you already blew your CD’s killing one mob. Outside of CD’s, Obliteration hits like a pool noodle. Meanwhile on my WW I am going from mob to mob without pressing a single CD.
Why are you blowing your CD’s for a single mob that isnt an elite?
Obliteration is part of a CD. Im guessing you mean Obliterate which if you have to use Pillar for Obliterate to hit as it should then you are doing something very wrong in the building of your character which is going to follow through all content. This tells me that you have low crit. That is stopping you from having KM procs so your Obliterate isnt doing its full damage (people are still complaining about a change made 2 expansions ago and still dont know how to build around it, so baffling). That low crit is leading to low IDTs as well which is kneecapping your damage. Build your character better and you wont have any issues.
I like this idea, it would alow 2h build to spec in shattering blade, dispite the slow ramp up of razor ice via talents. However they would have to severely nerf it, much more than just 90%.
Frost was very fun to level from 70 to 80 so Blizzard did something special with the Frost DK changes. Tuning matters though. My leveling 4 characters so far was needed because I pvp and at any moment any spec can be brought into or out of the top tier for usefulness for pvp game modes. I want Forst to do well, I want to play it, but if the powers that be keep nerfing it (thankfully most nerfs were pve only but unnecessary nerfs) I might not play it much. Big fan of the animation changes, that helped to make leveling Frost a pleasure.
You know how many Elite mobs there are now in open world? Boss mobs? Named mobs? Rares? You’re the one doing something wrong if you’re not using CD’s in open world. I see you’re still and antagonistic know-it-nothing.
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Hey, your bad… nothing wrong with it.