Modifiers are so compounding and everywhere at this point the spec is a riddled mess. I get bring up base damage and lowering CD power is to nerf hit and run and buff sustain but currently neither exist.
Pillar of Frost is currently a 12% strength bonus compared to 30% in PvE. 12% is half of the pre TWW value of 24% when it ramped by spending runes. So its now less than half of the base value while still not stacking like before. Not that I liked it stacking.
Empowered Rune Weapon is a 5% haste buff in PvP compared to 15% in PvE. I think this nerf was more for Unholy when EWR was in the class tree. Nerfing this CD really makes no sense. Nerfing Pillar and buffing base ability like Oblit and Frost Strike brings up sustatin and keeps burst fairly similar. The problem is its not like frost just gets free base haste in PvP. This only nerfed a needed CD.
Reapers Mark Hit pretty hard in Beta and got a heavy nerf. Now its been reduced by 22% in PvE while retaining a heavy nerf in PvP. It would also help if this had a heal cut effect on hit like Assa Rogs hemotoxin shiv talent.
Chill streak was once a PvP talent and the main win condition of FDK in PvP. I dont want to go back to that playstyle but the fact its not even worth taking now while being in its most usable state ever by bouncing off the DK should say something to its tuning.
Frost Wyrms Fury should hit like an ability that has a base CD of 3min…
BoS and Cold Heart also have large PvP nerfs but playing around those two talents in PvP is pretty degenerate anyway.
FDK has no heal cut mechanic so a sustain damage playstyle can never win unless the sustain damage is 15-25% more than another sustain damage spec that has a heal cut. ALL of our big CDs are currently nerfed and do not feel like the win condition they felt like in early DF and back.
Frost is also plagued with a secondary stat issue in PvP. First vers is on every piece and every player needs a lot to not feel like a squishy mess. This means the majority of your secondary budget in PvP is vers. BUT frost needs to stack lots of crit to make it function. BUT crit damage is nerfed to 150% in PvP so its by default the worst stat to build. Since EWR is garbage and a long CD you have to get at least 12% haste or your goes are too sluggish to be successful. Since all our CDs are nerf you have to stack Mastery to or you wont have enough burst to get a kill in the nerfed goes.
Meanwhile a spec like unholy gets sudden doom procs of regular AAs alone and can just stack mastery and haste till their eyes bleed.
Either give FDK AAs a flat 30% chance to crit in PvP or make KM proc off AAs alone in PvP.
Lastly how boring is it that Frost DK as a DPS spec doesn’t have a single DPS pvp talent?
FDK has no role in PvP atm. It brings nothing that literally any other spec can bring but also do it better and bring more.
Right now UH has a better survivability kit than frost because it’s rot/ranged so can damage while kiting plus it has a decent extra amount of self healing though blood plague and necrotic wounds. FDK should be the tankier spec by default based on the play style you are forced into. FDK should be a brawler and feel comfortable staying in the fight. I would suggest buff (or rather unnerf) to Deathstrike. Making it very difficult to kill fDK if they can DS something. This means kiting, disarming, sharpen, or stunning would be paramount to killing them. And would give people a very strong reason to want to disarm us offensively rather than literally just disarming us every pof. If we are being trained and forced to spend resources DS, we are also doing no damage. So focusing us would also be a way to curb our output the same way melee train casters to disrupt their output. It’s a great balancing tool imo.
I’ll also as add in we should get a MS runeforge or MS PvP talent, as well as some new PvP talents that help address some of the discrepancies you mentioned between PvP and PvE where having less secondary budget really impacts how the spec functions at its core.
And frost currently doesn’t have a MS. Closest thing to a MS is rot and wither which offers a micro heal absorb. Pretty sure most peoples <1% leech could out heal rot and wither without even trying.
UDK isn’t any better. Both specs have been rendered impotent for PvP. Meaningless splash pad damage that is comfortably healed through by any healer in the game. So sad. I was really looking for to have an xpac where I could play DK again. Now I’m faced with a decision…quit or reroll?
This is just my opinion, but frost should be THE spec that you don’t want to be face to face with in PvP. It moves slow, has poor mobility, almost zero range damage. When frost connects it should be felt, even outside of burst windows.
It sorta of plays that role in PvP. It can do some serious cleave damage and performs pretty good in team fights with its snares and stuns. Its defenses are definitely a bit too low vs physical classes and its sustained could be buffed a bit outside of pillar. I don’t think it necessarily needs a mortal strike, just some overall buffs would go a long way.
I miss having consistent killing machines outside of pillar. Buff auto attack crits or change how killing machine procs and frost will feel much better.
This was my first complaint this season. When i finally connect with the infinite mobility infinite defensives caster that’s been pelting me the whole game i don’t even move their HP bar. I was around 2400-2500 for at least two season of DF on FDK. I’m not a pro but I’m not an unskilled FKD. I can tell something is way off with balance.
There are too many “chance on hit” abilities tied into rune recharge and damage happening to easily balance burst windows outside of PoF. If they buff damage without addressing “chance in hit” there’s rare occurrences where everything procs and the thing you’re hitting explodes, kind of how like trickster sub rogue does now.
Stat weight for crit/haste could be adjusted up, and mastery would be less stupid to stack if every ability wasn’t modified into the ground.
the devs seem resigned to just keep FDK weak neutral game because it’s a lot of work to redesign abilities I guess.
It’s definitely a weakness for frost. Miss your burst window and you fall behind hard.
I’d love to see them buff maybe howling blast (with rime up) or frost scythe to do much beefier damage. They’re both poop at the moment and wouldnt be used during a burst window generally (as we’re too busy mashing obliterate and frost strike to reset runes) but would help overall damage.
