Frost DK - Don’t roll with the default talents
Let’s start with something constructive - the default talents for frost are pretty dismal. I’d advise researching the new talents changes online, but here’s some to start with based on your final-talent focus:
Breath of Sindragosa
BsPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAkIAIhkwBiIREikECIJRSQAiIIRSSSSKBAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Obliteration
BsPAdLUHklrTr3hBIcYWdbnCGLCAESCHIiEBSSSIBSSkEBgICEJJJJpkEAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Personally I prefer Oblit over BoS, and Death’s Reach to Death Pact.
I have thoughts on the current state of frost DK. I know Blizz worked hard to balance out classes prior to pre-patch. I’m not a raider, I’m a casual player who has spent most of their time farming CL6 gear in ZM, so my ilvl is right at 252. I’ve tried out DW frost vs 2H and it seems DW still outperforms at 60, particularly against multiple targets.
I know my opinion will stir up the raider types. I get it, you hit hard, grunt grunt nothing’s wrong hoo haa! Get it m’man, y’all good we got it - moving on.
For the casual gamer who isn’t obsessing over end-game top-tier playing, this class has problems that have been piling up over many years. The biggest problem imo is spinning up your dps buffs in battle.
To spin up the maximum dps-o-frostatroninator, you gotta punch up 7 things (if you include covenant ability, this is with my Venthyr DK):
Raise Dead
Death and Decay
Empower Rune Weapon
Chains of Ice
Swarming Mist
Remorseless Winter
Pillar of Frost
And once Pillar runs out, hope and pray you get a Rime or killing machine proc.
When everything lands nice, I’m seeing my dps surge up to 5.5k on single target and saw as high as 13k spike against multiple targets - which will vary depending on how many targets. On average, running constantly through a string of mobs and mob packs with single to 3 at a time, I’m seeing around 4.5k dps. That’s better than what I was seeing previously at around 3.2K, so I’m happy to admit the Obliteration build is working better than what I had.
When I’m facing three target dummies over a 30 second period, I’m hitting right at 7K.
That aside, even with the better configured talents, I’m still hitting under half of what my DH does - with the default talent config and using ilvl 249 weapons vs the 252 DW on my DK. This is also dumping everything possible every time it comes up, DnD, ERW, RW, Pillar, Swarm, everything. It also sucks that every 8 seconds I gotta recast Chains, that’s just more time out of the general cooldown rotation.
This completely disengages you from what’s actually going on in combat. If you want to contribute max dps, you end up constantly watching timers to get ready for the next thing to dial up, no engagement in what’s happening in the fight onscreen except to try and dodge pools underfoot. There’s even a convenant buff for literally just standing still.
I’m not advocating for nerfs. I’d like to see the dps buffed for the sub-70 frost DK. I know there are many raiders on this forum who will toss all kinds of logs and things at you - hey great, I get it. Y’all are SET, congrats! There’s going to be a lot of newbie DKs who are going to have to grind through the levels now (they start at Lvl8 in DF?), I’d like to see that they compare with other sub-60 class leveling. ATM, imo, they are behind.
This is an opinion piece. I’m not getting paid, I’m not advocating for nerfs, I’m not concerned about the end-game top-tier DK experience. I’m advocating for better dps sub-70, which again, in my opinion… it’s sub-par
. That gear usually has an ilvl of I think the previous raids normal mode or something around there. Super easy to get and more then enough ilvl to do world quests and your pet battles.