It doesnt really do anything to be honest, Without accelerated cold the ability would be pretty bad especially for a “2m cd”
The minor cd reduction we got for rank 2 in shadowlands did nothing but misalign its cooldown with things like breath
Like actually someone explain to me why a 15% haste buff and 5 runes/25 runic power is worth the cd
It seems more reasonable to see empower up for every single pillar
I mean it’s a CD that gives a lot of Haste and Resources over time… Right?
…
Wow, now that I say that… It does kind of sound underwhelming. ERW is just a weird CD now that I think about it.
What’s worse is that Accelerated Cold doesn’t feel like “Accelerating” at all. It feels like Frozen Velocity or some pseudophysics that speeds you up on a spec that slows all molecules down.
it doesnt really even give you a lot of resources, its not nothing but a cd that just gives you 5 runes 25 rp and 15% haste is hardly worth a 2m cd when other 2m cds are a lot more impactful to the damage a class actually does
And pillar of frost feels bad to use without empower as well especially after they oddly nerfed the duration of the spell
Well 5 runes is neat in all, as well as Haste to weave in Globals. 
I dunno man.
neat enough to be almost a 2m cd? are 5 runes and 25 runic power worth 2minutes? How about 15% haste
Accelerated cold isnt gonna be here forever. Since it does exist though its more warranted to be a almost 2m cd but at its base power i would argue its really not worth the cooldown
When you limit the scope it does sound underwhelming. But it gives attack speed which with a healthy dose of crit means more KM procs, it gives resources other than 1 rune and 5 rp, it also speeds up rune regen since it gives haste and also lowers GCD so more attacks.
With Accelerated Cold I would say its a better PI, even if you do wait the 2 minutes to sync it up with Pillar. PI is 25% haste, with Empower Rune weapon and Accelerated Cold depending on the ilvl its almost 25% haste + resources. at a 1.6 minute CD.
Also, with slowing things down, that has to have a transfer of energy somewhere. Its probably why when you had FF applied to targets slowing them down (attack speed), that energy was transfered to you, speeding you up. The energy lost in one object has to go somewhere and prior to now, it used to go to you AND the raid/party with Improved Icy Talons.
Yea, I’ll definitely miss Accelerated Cold. I just hope that they do something with it that doesn’t throw off from other CDs.
You’re probably right on it not being worth 2 minute cooldown.
Why isn’t Empower Rune Weapon available to all specs? Frost DK is probably the spec that gets the least out of it to begin with, but why the arbitration?
Every spec should have it, but with an added effect.
Frost = Pillar of Ice (gain strength and additional % for every rune spent)
Blood = Dancing Rune Weapon
Unholy = Apocalypse (every Festering Wound bursted spawns an Army of the Dead minion)
There’s so much wasted ability bar space on abilities that do boring crap like Pillars of Ice. At least in BFA you had the Azerite power to shoot a mini Frostwyrm, or the Visions of Perfection essence to make things just a little more exciting.
Breath of Syndragosa as a standalone ability is also awful, especially on a 2min cooldown. Just make it activate when you use Empower Rune Weapon since you’re just going to macro them together anyway, and the CDR will help with the dead void between Breaths.
Yeah ill hard pass on breath being activated when using empower, id like to keep my runic power for deathstrikes in pvp as opposed to having it wasted on a useless ability
Remove breath entirely imo
Why are you using Breath in PvP to begin with when Obliteration is better for it?
you can make a 1 shot gimmick build as venth breath with fae pala …so if youre into that kinda thing…
but yeah.
Considering i remember that Breath does 66% less damage in pvp (idk if it still does), it’d be worth not using.
Almost like Cold Heart.
I think it’s cd is designed for breath because you pop it once you start needing resources.
Say you hero on the pull or get PI you won’t need to pop it until we’ll into your breath.
Your second breath though you may need to pop it say 6 seconds into your breath and if it was a 2 min cd it wouldn’t be available.
They weird timing right now actually works really well.
I do think it should change based on your final row talent. It just feels really bad for obliteration.
Or even a talent row that gives a good option for breath, oblit and whatever they decide to do with icecap.
It only feels weird if you don’t play Breath of Sindragosa. There is a reason why people say Obliteration is kind of a crappy build for anything but PvP, and that reason is CD alignment/resource pooling.
Many players don’t play Breath of Sindragosa out of fear not being able to perform, but the reality of the spec is quite the opposite. It’s Obliteration that takes a lot of effort to play at an optimal level and even that will perform mediocre damage.
Many players dont play breath because nobody likes the playstyle of it, I have played a lot of breath in the past back when it was much harder to maintain and even back then it was still kinda just mash obliterate and use rime on proc at high resources
I wouldnt say obliteration takes a lot of effort to play at high level either, but in any case obliteration just feels better imo, it feels more akin to what frost dk should be. Hard hitting weapon strikes, not runic power drains and playing with no resources
But aside from talking about obliteration and breath, None of this changes that for a cooldown and for what empower rune weapon actually does, doesnt justify any cd longer than 1m. At its base strength its a really underwhelming cooldown, I feel like id almost prefer it to be a 1 minute cooldown with maybe a talent of some sort to increase its cooldown for more power similar to accelerated cold but maybe instead of 15% more haste, maybe like 5% more haste and 15% mastery
Bulks up our pillar window and remourseless winter window by adding globals and runes, in theory.
In practice it floats breath, as in remove empower and breath ceases to be good. From wrath to wod empower was available to all 3 specs. They shifted it to frost because they use borrowed power to prop up unholy resource flow and bloods is mainly addressed in spec and with haste.
Empower isnt underwhelming per say but its full potential isnt sceen because only breath is really good in pve. If empower were up every piller go in pvp or non breath builds being demonstrably better in pve its value would be easier to see. That being said, if you arent specced breath the rp overflow is insane and causes a dps loss according to the meter because the meters account for resource spending when they calculate dps. Does that mean you really lose dps? Probably not, because thw runes are regening at an accelerated rate from the talent and the added haste anyway, so spending runic to regen isn’t an issue.
Ya runic spenders dont do any damage, rp overflow is directly caused by our spenders doing nothing.
Why would i spend any of my 100 rp when i can just oblit instead for 30k over a 8k froststrike
ERW will be underwhelming if Accelerated Cold rotates out of the expansion. It adds a whopping 10% haste on top of ERW. It may not seem that much but it is enough to make it worth a 2 minute cooldown.
If that goes away, it’s gonna be plain ol’ 15% haste with 5 runes and 25 RP over time.
… And hey, while I value haste enough to squeeze in the amount of Globals I can weave during Pillar windows, along it giving runes. I really don’t think it’s worth a 2 minute cooldown.
Runic Power will feel garbage to spend whether or not you got BoS allocated. Especially, if you don’t allocate BoS. I happen to allocate IT and Unleashed Frenzy right now as a means to give RP a purpose and if that conduit goes away, it’s going to feel even worse.
A single talent should not dictate this.
Oh I agree, I should have been more clear about the cd timing.
It is kind of odd, especially if you dont play a Breath build. I say this because i often find myself overwhelmed with procs, runes & runic power, so its not like we’re lacking abilities to use.