wow Upcoming Frost Death Knight Changes on the Dragonflight Beta: September 9th

[Staff 1,196]

Blizzard posted a preview of upcoming Frost Death Knight changes that will go live in the next Dragonflight Beta build. These include new/reworked talents, updated pathing connections, and more.

(Source)

Hello Death Knights,

We want to share some of the upcoming changes we have planned for the Frost spec tree in the next Beta build. While we were generally happy with the Frost tree and what it had to offer, we also recognize that there were some improvements that could be made based on our learnings over Dragonflight’s Alpha development.

The existing Frost tree suffered a bit from a lack of choice once a player locked into a specific build (often choosing between Obliteration or BoS, then making 1 or 2 choices with what talent points remained). To help alleviate this issue, the upcoming tree has received new talents, reworked talents, existing talents moved to more accessible spaces, updated pathing connections, and lastly several selection node talents have been decoupled and moved elsewhere within the tree (most notably Icecap).

This is what it looks like:

Below, you can find the new and updated talents. This doesn’t cover all of the positional and pathing changes for talents, but it does highlight some of the more notable ones.

Unleashed Frenzy

• Now grants the strength buff when any Runic Power ability damages an enemiy

Improved Frost Strike and Runic Command

• Swapped positions on the tree

Glacial Advance

• Removed the cooldown
• Moved higher into the tree and is now unlocked after the 1st gate.

Frostscythe

• Moved higher into the tree and is now unlocked after the 1st gate.

Horn of Winter

• Now Frost only and placed directly after Improved Obliterate

Improved Killing Machine

• Renamed to Frostreaper

Enduring Strength

• Now available directly after Pillar of Frost
• New Icon

Frostwhelp’s Aid

• Now available directly after Pillar of Frost

Coldheart

• No longer a choice node with Inexorable Assault
• Moved to the right side of the tree below Improved Rime

Inexorable Assault

• No longer a choice node with Cold Heart
• Moved below Frostreaper on the left side of the tree

Icecap

• No longer a choice node with Obliteration
• Now available directly after Frostwhelp’s Aid or Enduring Strength

Empower Rune Weapon

• Now properly grants +1 charge if you already know the spell from the core tree

Everfrost

• Now directly available after Gathering Storm and should no longer be able to be taken without knowing Remorseless Winter
• Reduced to a 1 max rank, down from 2.

New Talent – Shattering Strike

• When Frost Strike damages an enemy with 5 stacks of Razorice it will consume them to deal an additional 60% damage.
• Available directly after Icecap

Avalanche

• This has been updated to also apply Razorice to your targets if Howling Blast is empowered by Rime.
• No longer a choice node with Frozen Pulse
• Now available directly after Icecap

Frozen Pulse

• Cut
• Developers’ notes: After reworking the tree and making room for the new talents we felt like Frozen Pulse didn’t offer anything unique to the Frost and rather than forcing it within the tree we decided it best to cut it for now to make room for what we hope are more interesting options.

New Talent - Icebreaker

• When empowered by Rime, Howling Blast deals 30/60% increased damage to your primary target.
• Available directly after Empowered Rune Weapon and Gathering Storm

[Q 87]

Why remove Frozen Pulse but keep Avalanche? Isn't Avalanche just a worse Frozen Pulse anyway?