Somehow, I don’t find it likely that it’s getting a rework. The hero talents indicate they’re doubling down on standing in D&D for buffs and effects, and I don’t see why or how they’d change that for Frost. Have they even indicated they’re doing anything about cleaved Obliterates (and the emphasis on Obliterate overall) damaging Frost as a spec from a gameplay perspective? Until I see an all-encompassing rework, I’m just assuming no help is coming for this class.
There’s a reason I’m moving to my Monk.
Would kind of like to see it a DW spec only again.
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What is funny is if you look at DPS sim statistics on Noxxic, and under “Max” it shows that DW frost DK sims the highest at high end in single target, aoe +6 and 2nd in aoe +12 right under Unholy. Pretty interesting that it then reflects 2h with a -3-5% dps loss.
Realistically we all know thats not true, but the numbers give a good laugh. Maybe that’s what Blizzard goes off of? 
That’s quite a throwback. I haven’t heard that name since Legion, and even in Legion their data was completely wrong.
Simcraft have Frost as the 2nd best DPS spec on a Patchwerk/pure single target fight, with no movement, adds, or any mechanics to do. Volcaros is our closest fight that could mirror Patchwer and Frost is 3rd~ in every category that matters on Mythic there.
The problem with Frost has never been its overall DPS, and being in the middle of the pack for one raid tier isn’t going to kill you when the spec has been a top performer since Sepulcher to now.
As soon as I saw the San’layn tree, it killed any hope I had of DK being reworked and fixed going into War Within. As much as I love DK, I can’t do another season/expansion with it feeling like this. Been using the rest of this season to figure out another class that I would want to play, then going to use Season 4 to try them out so its not like pulling teeth to get into groups.
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I’ve been rather enjoying Windwalker, though it’s a particular taste. Mostly picked Monk because I’ve always enjoyed Mistweaver and Brewmaster finally has a cadence I enjoy.
I mained warrior this xpac and had a lot of fun with fury, though arms felt a bit more like DK juggernaut playstyle. Level up an enhance shaman now too and it’s got the same ‘arcane warrior’ feel to it that DK does.
I don’t think it needs a rework. Just a good haircut.
Step 1: Remove Army of the Dead, Unholy Assault, and Unholy Blight. Army and Unholy Assault are too long a CD and a redundant CD, and spec needs less CD reliance and more dmg between CDs so they gotta go. Unholy Blight is redundant when you have Outbreak.
Step 2: Tune the damage of the basic attacks between the CDs by raising it.
Might need to trim another CD or two. It’s crazy how overkill the CD bloat is with this spec. But it’s a great spec still so they don’t need to screw with it just return some pop to the basic abilities which requires CD removal.
For UH I agree, bloat feels bad, but disagree on removing those cds.
I want the pimple popping to go away and replaced with more of a dot based build option. (Think how curse of agony works for locks, but implemented for dks).
I personally think army should be for all 3 dks specs. It is such an iconic skill that every spec used to have access to.
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I’d say an easy first step is to have the unholy blight talent replace outbreak but keep outbreak’s no cd, cost and ranged application in tact. Adjust with tuning or talent point commitment if it gets out of control damage wise. IMO there’s zero reason to have a both a better and worse version of applying vp after they took away the pet damage increase from ub.
I think an interesting change would be replacing soul reaper with shackle the unworthy. Really miss that ability 
I feel like bonestorm could also be replaced with a tuned swarming mist to become viable as a cap stone. And give me back blood mirror.
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Unholy Blight isn’t redundant at all. It’s an extra for for morbidity damage bonus, dot that stacks 4x and when it’s up it constantly reapplies VP to everyone around you.
I do think that Blight should be worked into Outbreak though. And turn blight into another dot affecting talent. Like Crypt Fever/Ebon Plague back in the day with WotLK.
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Fair enough. But the point is they need to clean up the rotation. It feels bad to open fights with this spec. And I think generally speaking cooldowns have grown into a bit of a problem in the class design side of things. Unholy being the current extreme example of too much.
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I think I don’t understand why frost and unholy get to have actions constrained by two different resources and forced into janky gameplay to AoE, when nüRet gets to just hit buttons, sometimes buttons that light up, most of them seeming to bleed plenty of AoE even when using single target abilities, and do big damage.
It’s fun! Ret Paladin right now feels a lot more fun and rewarding. Frost feels like it has no payoff. There’s nothing that feels as cool or fun as Divine Storm. Pillar feels nothing like wings, it’s more like “oh great, now Obliterate will hit as hard as it can/should.” Unholy feels a lot more fun than Frost to me because it feels like it can do damage, but even then, AoE is really janky. I wish it would lean harder into diseases rather than pets that don’t cleave.
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Regardless how you slice it, every spec is constrained by two resources. There’s definitely an argument that before Legion, and maybe in Legion itself, that DKs were a dual resource class, but it hasn’t been that way at least since Shadowlands.
Waiting 6s for 2 Runes to recharge to Obliterate/Festering is fundamentally the same as waiting 6s for Stormstrike or Judgment to come off CD.
In fact, the facts show that you should very rarely, if ever, be not able to press a button as Frost or Unholy, so neither is really constrained by any resource other than the GCD.
Well do I have some possibly good news for you then: in the San’layn developer video, they explicitly mentioned looking into fleshing out the disease side of Unholy more in TWW. What that means is anyone’s guess but it’s definitely something they’re away of and wanting to expand on.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaha
oh wait you were serious
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i loved shackle. rather have it than reaper as it stands. neither should be a capstone tho. maybe the tier below, with follow on passives to boost them, like the war class tree does (again showcasing a real tree with real diversity vs the garbage we have)
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Ignore this bozo. He gives the absolute worst takes. Thankful he’s not a dev
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My main has been a DK in Cata/Panda, but I didn’t play anything after Pandaria until now. I think DK mostly feels the same as it did 12 years ago, it’s just that the game around it has changed a lot, due to the “go go go” mentality. In ancient pre-nerf Cata dungeons where mobs had to be pulled one by one and pats needed to be picked out of crowds to not overwhelm and wipe teams, Death Grip was extremely useful for positioning yourself somewhere safe and “yonk” the right enemy without disrupting the others.
In today’s age where tanks mimic FF14’s “wall to wall” approach in anything below high keys, Blood’s lack of mobility due to Death Grip feels far less vaunted than it once was, and all three specs sharing D&D kind of blows especially for DPS, since you may drop D&D just to find the tank continuing to pull the mobtrain further still.
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