Okay, we need to have a serious discussion/constructive criticism about frost DK in PVP.
This will be a long post, so if you don’t care, don’t bother. I’m in it for the long haul. TLDR at bottom.
I’ve yet to see any recent constructive discussions on the official forums other than general tuning passes and whining. But we seriously need to go over design of the spec and potentially have some changes even to the point of a complete overhaul. So additional ideas are welcome. I’m also not a DK main so I may not know the finer details of the ins and outs.
What I gathered from the community elsewhere (Reddit, Youtube, Discord). People mostly agree on some general things. Let’s go over them.
Not enough survivability.
It seems to me this is the biggest gripe. But what can we do? When comparing to Unholy (which people universally say is decent), there’s not much difference in their toolkit outside of two or three spells. The first and probably biggest difference is the PvP talent Necrotic Wounds. It’s the only spell Frost DK doesn’t have access too and in most situations is taken by every UH dk. It provides an extra buffer of healing (or leech, however you want to classify it) as well as incorporating it into their rotation without the dps loss of using defensive CD’s. Second I can identify is Lichborne. It’s recent buff to healing has helped, but since UH has access to buffing death coil, Lichborne healing is more profitable for UH then Frost. Lastly is of course Rune of the Fallen Crusader. Since Frost wants to get Razorice to maximize damage, the extra 6% heal proc also is another buffer, and with health increasing, that % is of course gets larger.
On the “tradeoff”, Frost has a couple extra CC capabilities with Dead of Winter and Frostwyrms Fury. But with CC reduction and DR’s, this limits very heavily what comps can work with Frost. It seems it’s more of a setup design. Not to mention the amount of aoe going out that breaks other CC’s.
To put it simply, they need a new talent. Whether it is a new pvp talent, or preferably a talent in the frost tree; one that is completely new or alters an existing talent in the DK tree. Of course they would need to make something in the Frost tree baseline so as to keep peoples builds. So here are a couple ideas on defensives. (Names and abilities I’m making up).
“Frozen Fortitude”
In addition to Icebound Fortitude’s Effects, Icebound Fortitude’s duration is extended by 2 secs, increases damage reduction by an additional 20%, and limits movement impairing effects on you by 50%.
“Nerubian Pact”
Death Pact’s healing will now heal for 25% and its Cooldown reduced by 30 seconds but now applies the healing absorption effect on the enemy target up to 20% of their maximum health.
(this can give an “ms” effect to Frost DK’s. It can also fit a the style of defensive/offensive.)
“Cryo”
Use the powers of frost to cauterize your wounds. When activated, you will heal for 40% of your maximum health over 6 secs every 2 secs.
“Pact of the Valkyr”
Replaces your raise dead minion to instead summon a Valkyr who will leech health from your target and give it to you for the summoned duration. Summoned Valkyr lasts 30 seconds, is attackable.
Too Little Damage
Although this may be an issue, it’s less so. Anyone following charts and meters will know that Frost DK is amongst the highest DPS in PVE and the lowest in PVP. This makes it really difficult to balance because you may upset the PVE peeps this late in the tier. This I’m sure is partly why they made so many changes to damage in this last patch. If you read the patch notes. You could probably win the argument that Frost DKS have the most abilities that have PVP damage alterations. However, with how they changed things, this may be the easiest fix. Just tweak the numbers. Reduce effectiveness nerfs of might of the frozen wastes, pillar of frost. Buff the core rotation a bit. These recent changes allow them tweak it easier. In this case it overshot the target, dial it back a little bit and now we’re talking.
Design
The above mentioned is of course in my opinion, a little easier of a fix. Or we can talk about a full overhaul on design philosophy. I think part of the problem, is this was one of the first specs to get a talent rework, so much of the style mid expansion development could have changed. Although they have changed small stuff, it needs some help. I think howling blast should be baseline. If we really need a “filler” talent at the start, we should have it be obliteration. Then this new “defensive” talent could be in the middle connecting to pillar.
Should also look at Runes with a potential talent to giving double runes on a 2H or 1 Rune that is slightly buffed over 1H counterpart.
Again, I’m not a frost DK main, but some friends are, and I would like to have it feel better for everyone. Anyway what are some thoughts Agree, disagree? Other ideas.
TLDR:
Frost DK buffs boil down to needing a new defensive of some kind, small buffs to what they’ve done already this patch. Or a Complete Overhaul.
in my biased opinion, was best designed in Cata. If memory serves correctly it was perhaps the most balanced it could have been though yes a little too strong. Being a hp monster, with 1 death pact, 1 IBF, 1 amc, and a death strike that functioned more as a victory rush and was basically used as a last resort. They didn’t need asphyxiate nor did they have it, and functioned solid with either a 1h or 2h build with minor differences in dmg.