Changes to Death Knight Frost in Patch 7.3

[blue author = »Blizzard» source = »https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17616143067#post-1 ″]

The next version of the PTRs should bring a series of changes aimed at addressing various issues with the Death Knight Frost. The main problems we are concentrating on are:
• The spec is primarily dominated by Breath of Sindragosa (affecting talent choice).
• Breath of Sindragosa, when activated, you can hold it too long. In addition to blocking talents / legendaries around it, it demands very strict continuous time on the target for long periods of time.
• The spec has many talents and legendaries that (individually or collectively) are awash in resources. Breath contributes to this by encouraging you to get them all, but it is also a problem in itself.
• Balance talents need to be checked, especially after adjustments.
• We're trying to limit the scope of the patch changes, to address the above without opening the change core rotation.
• Damage of all abilities increased by 27%
• Hungry Rune Weapon (L58) and Glacial Advancement (L100) have swapped positions
• Sindragosa's Breath damage increased by 10%

We want to preserve the identity of Aliento de Sindragosa, including the constant consumption of resources as the main limiting factor, and the ability to optimize them. To avoid less natural fixes of duration limitation or redesign, we are trying to limit synergies with talents / legendaries that cause large variation in how long Breath can stay active. And breaking the Sindragosa Breath / Hungry Rune Weapon interaction, alone, is a long way to the more reasonable duration adjustment again. The DPS adjustment for this change has been applied based on spec rather than Breath damage because it is currently ahead of other specs.

• Killer Efficiency (N56-> N57), Frozen Pulse (N57-> N90), and Runic Fade (N90-> N56) have swapped positions
• Hungry Rune Weapon's duration is now 12 seconds (down from 15) and additionally grants 20% Haste
• Fix: Hungry Rune Weapon correctly spawns a Rune every 1,5s instead of every 1s
• Killer Efficiency chance is 50% (was 65%)
• Horn of Winter's cooldown is 45s (down from 30s)
• Koltira's New Will generates 1 Rune (down from 2) and now grants Obliterate 10% extra damage

Even in a small group the effects would cause the rotation to remain stuck. They are being either reducing their power (offsetting base damage), or granting non-resource-giving effects as part of their value. Additionally, the two most notable talents (Killing Efficiency and Horn of Winter) can no longer be chosen at the same time.

In general, there should currently be a much wider selection of talent combinations that feel better with the rotation where there are resources to do something in most GCDs, but you can still spend them. Including, for example, during Hungry Rune Weapon, it is currently exceedingly frustrating, when all your resources cannot be spent.

Additionally, the talent shakeup puts Frozen Pulse with two predominantly area damage talents, making it a more natural position. The synergy between Frozen Pulse / Frozen Talons ("Machine Gun") is maintained, but can no longer be taken in conjunction with Runic Fade

Note: The Hungry Rune Weapon bug may be fixed shortly after we test the fix and analyze the impact.

• Ice Talons bonus is 15% (down from 10%)
• Devastating Strikes bonus is 60% (down from 40%)
• Freezing Mist's effect is 20% (down from 30%)
• Obliterate duration is 10 seconds (was 8 seconds)
• Frost Pulse damage reduced by 39%

There has been a minor balance adjustment to match previous adjustments and talent changes; the numbers are likely to be updated as the rest of the changes stabilize.

EDITED: Added the Freeze Pulse changes that got misplaced when copying the changes in the previous post. As with the other changes, this is done to balance Frozen Pulse in his new talent row, with the previous global damage increase as well.

Breath can retain its role as a talent that nurtures builds around it to some extent (synergies such as Runic Damping, Koltira's New Will, and Signet of Necrofantasy are preserved). But without the powerful interaction with Hungry Rune Weapon, there's a lot more room for other builds to compete, and we've polished up the specialization's base damage so all talents are closer in DPS. As always, we will continue to review all of these changes based on feedback from PTR players.

[/blue]

[blue author = »Blizzard» source = »https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17616143067#post-1 ″]

The next PTR build should have a round of changes aimed at addressing various concerns with Frost. The major issues we're focused on are:
• The spec is too dominated by Breath of Sindragosa (which has knock-on effects on talent choice throughout the tree).
• Breath of Sindragosa, when you do use it, can be maintained for far too long. In addition to causing the talent / legendary lock-in around it, it means the demand for continuous time on target is very strict for extended periods of time.
• The spec has many talents / legendaries that (individually or taken together) flood it with resources. Breath contributes to this by encouraging you to take all of them, but it's also a problem on its own.
• Talent balance generally has to be reviewed, especially after addressing all of the time.
• We're trying to limit the scope of the changes in the patch, to address the above without opening up the core rotation for changes.
• All damage abilities increased by 27%
• Hungering Rune Weapon (L58) and Glacial Advance (L100) swapped positions
• Breath of Sindragosa damage increased by 10%

We want to preserve the identity of Breath of Sindragosa, including the steady resource drain being the main limiting factor, and the expression of skill in optimizing around that. So in trying to avoid less natural solutions like capping the duration or redesigning how it works, we're trying to limit the talent / legendary synergies that cause huge variance in how long Breath can be maintained. And breaking the Breath of Sindragosa / Hungering Rune Weapon interaction, on its own, goes a very long way toward making Breath's duration more reasonable again. DPS adjustment for the change is being put mostly into the baseline spec rather than into the power of Breath, because it's currently so far ahead of other setups.

• Murderous Efficiency (L56-> L57), Frozen Pulse (L57-> L90), and Runic Attenuation (L90-> L56) swapped positions
• Hungering Rune Weapon duration 12s (from 15s) and additionally grants 20% until
• Bugfix: Hungering Rune Weapon correctly generates a Rune every 1.5s instead of every 1s
• Murderous Efficiency chance 50% (from 65%)
• Horn of Winter cooldown 45s (from 30s)
• Koltira's Newfound Will generates 1 Rune (from 2) and now causes Obliterate to deal 10% extra damage

Using even a small subset of all of the above effects causes the rotation to be quite flooded. They are all being either weakened in power (with compensation to the baseline spec), or given non-resource-granting effects for part of their value. In addition, the two most egregious offenders (Murderous Efficiency and Horn of Winter) can no longer be taken together.

Overall, there should now be a much broader set of talent combinations that produce a good-feeling rotation in which there are resources to do something on most GCDs, but you're still able to spend them down. Including, for example, during Hungering Rune Weapon, which is overly hectic or frustrating right now when you can't spend all of its resources.

In addition, the talent rearrangement puts Frozen Pulse on a row with two predominantly AoE talents, which is a better home for it. The Frozen Pulse / Icy Talons ("machinegun") synergy is preserved, but can no longer be taken alongside Runic Attenuation as well.

NB: The Hungering Rune Weapon bug may be fixed on live shortly as well, after we test the fix and analyze the impact.

• Icy Talons bonus 15% (from 10%)
• Shattering Strikes bonus 60% (from 40%)
• Freezing Fog effect 20% (from 30%)
• Obliteration duration 10s (from 8s)
• Frozen Pulse damage reduced by 39%

Minor talent rebalancing to match the above rearrangements and talent changes; numbers are likely to be updated as the rest of the changes settle into place.

EDIT: Added Frozen Pulse change which was missed when I copied changes into the earlier post. As with the other changes, this is meant to make Frozen Pulse balanced within its new row, and meant to be accounted for in the overall DPS increase above.

Breath can retain its role as a talent that encourages building around it to some degree (and its synergies with things like Runic Attenuation, Koltira's Newfound Will, and Seal of Necrofantasia are preserved). But without the overpowering Hungering Rune Weapon interaction, there is a lot more room for other builds to compete, and we've buffed the spec's baseline damage a great deal to shift the landscape towards all talents being closer together in DPS. As always, we'll continue to examine all of these changes based after people can start to test them on PTR.

[/blue]