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Frost Death Knight in Shadowlands - DPS Strengths, Best Covenants, Soulbinds and Legendaries
Shadowlands
Geposted
17.11.2020 um 15:43
von
Bicepspump
Shadowlands launches on November 23rd / 24th and all classes will be getting new toys to play with -- from Covenant abilities, to Conduits and returning Legendary effects! This article, written by Bicepspump, will provide details on the current state of Frost DK in Shadowlands, to help you to prepare for the upcoming expansion!
This article is a follow-up on the previous
article
about the Frost Death Knight on the Shadowlands Beta. I'll discuss the changes we'll see from Pre-Patch to the Shadowlands, talk about coventants, soulbinds and legendaries, as well as covering an array of interesting topics related to the gameplay of Frost DKs in Shadowlands.
As always, shoutout to the Acherus community for providing an endless amount of constructive discussion.
About the Author
This guide is written by Khazak, a Death Knight player since 5.4. Besides writing guides, I am a moderator in
Acherus, the Death Knight class Discord
and maintainer on SimC, contributing code and APL for Death Knights. I raid in Agency on Zul'jin US and sometimes stream raids on
Twitch
. I am always happy to take questions or comments about the guide through Discord.
I made a video covering the content of this article as well. Do have a watch if you fancy.
Check out all our Shadowlands Launch Opinion articles by our Class Writers and members of the community! Click on any of the colored specs below to see what articles we've released so far.
These guides were meant to give you a preview of what's to come in the expansion, but don't worry -- our full Shadowlands Class Guides will be updated soon!
Blood Death Knight
Arcane Mage
Assassination Rogue
Frost Death Knight
Fire Mage
Outlaw Rogue
Unholy Death Knight
Frost Mage
Subtlety Rogue
Havoc Demon Hunter
Brewmaster Monk
Elemental Shaman
Vengeance Demon Hunter
Mistweaver Monk
Enhancement Shaman
Balance Druid
Windwalker Monk
Restoration Shaman
Feral Druid
Holy Paladin
Affliction Warlock
Guardian Druid
Protection Paladin
Demonology Warlock
Restoration Druid
Retribution Paladin
Destruction Warlock
Beast Mastery Hunter
Discipline Priest
Arms Warrior
Marksmanship Hunter
Holy Priest
Fury Warrior
Survival Hunter
Shadow Priest
Protection Warrior
Class Changes and Talents
The majority of the core changes between BFA and Shadowlands are already present in the Pre-Patch. However, we do gain new spells as we level up, as well as losing both Azerite Essences and Azerite Traits. Furthermore, covenants will partially affect the talent we choose. Let's take a look at the impact of these gains and losses.
Notable Changes in Beta Cycle
Let's take a look at a couple of significant changes that have come throughout the beta cycle, related to the new systems we encounter in Shadowlands.
Recht des Todes
- Instead of gaining the strength based off the ability doing damage, it's now from your
Auslöschen
hitting enemies. Duration of the buff was also nerfed. However, the ability also got a huge buff through an
Auslöschen
cleave effect.
Auslöschen
hits one additional target when you're standing in your
Recht des Todes
.
Fesseln der Unwürdigen
- Was changed from spreading on its own (small probability) to an active spread with rune-consuming abilities. The spell is decent in AoE where we can effectively spread it on multiple targets.
Covenant Abilities and Conduits Impact on Talent Choices
Only a few Covenant abilities and conduits actually affect our talent picks. Let's take a look at which ones those are!
Recht des Todes
- Specific synergy with
Auslöschung
in AoE scenarios. You pop your
Säule des Frosts
, follow up with
Recht des Todes
and then weave in multiple
Auslöschen
s buffed with
Tötungsmaschine
for massive damage. We get both the cleave and the strength gain!
Schwärmender Nebel
- Great synergy with
Sindragosas Hauch
. The Runic Power generation is massive for increasing the duration of your
Sindragosas Hauch
, specifically when we can leverage multiple mobs for more RP.
Vernichtender Stoß
and
Entfesselte Raserei
- These conduits have anti-synergy with
Sindragosas Hauch
due to
Froststoß
being less emphasised. This means that they are
less
of an upgrade when speccing into this talent. They still increase your damage, but less so compared to other builds.
Immerfrost
- Strong synergy with
Aufziehender Sturm
since they both buff
Unbarmherziger Winter
.
Level-Up Abilities
Verbessertes Auslöschen
(level 52) - 20% to
Verbessertes Auslöschen
is significant to builds that rely heavily on your overall damage output from
Verbessertes Auslöschen
. This buff helps
Auslöschung
builds and thefore also the viability of 2H builds.
Opferpakt
(level 54) - A completely new ability that enables us to explode the ghoul we summon through
Totenerweckung
. This is both AoE damage as well as a useful heal. For pure single target, we want to use this ability just before the ghoul dies on its own (it doesn't matter too much if you do this, not using the ability is pretty much neutral dps). You can use it earlier if you need to heal to stay alive! For AoE, again use it at the end of the duration as default, or trigger it early if you can hit more enemies doing so!
Runenwaffe verstärken
(level 56) - A rather odd rank 2 since it just desyncs with everything in our kit. Both
Säule des Frosts
and
Sindragosas Hauch
come off CD every 2 minutes. You'd definitely hold
Runenwaffe verstärken
for
Sindragosas Hauch
and probably for
Säule des Frosts
as well. I'd ideally like to see the haste portion be buffed instead.
Frostschnitter
(level 58) - Now this is a huge rank 2 ability. Making your
Verbessertes Auslöschen
s do frost damage when they consume procs of
Tötungsmaschine
significantly
increases their potential. We bypass the ~30% reduction on physical attacks due to armour, as well as gaining ~50%+ damage due to our mastery
Meisterschaft: Gefrorenes Herz
. The result is roughly a 200% increase on the crit coming from
Tötungsmaschine
compared to a regular crit. This is a significant buff to
Auslöschung
since the value of
Tötungsmaschine
procs is so much higher. It's also great for 2H since it makes the
Auslöschung
build viable.
Auslöschung
DW is within 1% of
Sindragosas Hauch
DW on pure single target.
Auslöschung
2H is within 4% of
Sindragosas Hauch
DW on pure single target.
These are still early numbers but it's very promising for 2H builds as well as
Auslöschung
.
Impact of Azerite Traits and Essences loss
The impact of losing Azerite and Essences depends heavily on build for the Frost Death Knight.
Eiskappe
loses a
tremendous
amount of power since it derives the majority of its damage increase from Azerite Traits.
Sindragosas Hauch
also suffers slightly due to a resource loss.
Erinnerung an den Klartraum
- Losing Lucid minor is most significant for
Sindragosas Hauch
since it was pumping up its duration.
Eisige Zitadelle
and
Entrüstung des Frostwelpen
- The majority of the power of
Eiskappe
comes from gaining more value off these two Azerite traits. Losing them is a huge nerf to
Eiskappe
, essentially removing its competitiveness completely in Shadowlands.
Raid Build
Here's a go-to raid talent build:
Swap out
Gefrorener Impuls
for
Lawine
if you're wielding a 2H weapon.
Swap out
Gefrorener Impuls
for
Lawine
if you're wielding a 2H weapon.
Covenant Abilities
There are 4 pairs of covenant class abilities and covenant signature abilities to take a look at.
Kyrian
Fesseln der Unwürdigen
(Class ability) - A hasted DoT that lasts for 14 seconds. Using direct abilities that cost runes on the target with the DoT has a chance (50%) to spread the DoT with its
remaining
duration to another target (it's a bit weird atm and isn't exactly remaining duration, close enough though). Can't jump to targets that already have the DoT. The ability works best in single target but also scales well in AoE. In AoE scenarios, your
Frostsichel
and
Heulende Böe
can
proc the spread on targets that aren't your main targets. However, the spread mechanic has an internal GCD of 1 second. This means that only a single spread can happen each GCD. The probability of spreading increases with the number of targets you hit with the DoT though.
1 Target -> 50%
2 Targets -> 75%
3 Targets -> 87.5%
4 Targets -> 93.75%
As you can see, the more targets that have the DoT, the faster it spreads. The spread can quickly ramp up to all targets if you get lucky spreads in the beginning.
Ausbreitung
(Conduit) - Increases damage by 20% and duration with 3 seconds. Solid conduit that provides a longer duration to spread the DoT in AoE.
Provost beschwören
(Signature ability) - A nice utility ability that provides both a heal as well as a cleanse. Good defensive option.
Necrolord
Monströse Gliedmaße
(Class ability) - A 2-minute AoE cooldown. Hits a total of 13 times (direct initial hit) and is hard-capped at 5 targets. The targets that are pulled also receive a damage tick. First time hooking a target provides a proc of
Raureif
. It's currently unclear how the proc gain works as it doesn't seem like the hook needs to be successful. The grip-portion isn't that powerful in PvE sadly. We'd pick this ability for AoE scenarios, ideally when there are adds or bick packs that show up every 2 minutes and where there aren't more than 5 mobs turning up to the party.
Brutaler Griff
(Conduit) - Flat damage increase. Solid dps gain in AoE.
Fleischformung
(Signature ability) - A nice shield that unfortunately requires a long channel. Can be useful in raids when channeled during downtime. Useful in Mythic + since the channel can be done before engaging a pack.
Night Fae
Recht des Todes
(Class ability) - Replaces your
Tod und Verfall
, effectively adding an effect that causes targets damaged by your
Auslöschen
to deal 1% less damage to you, stacking up to 8 times. You also gain 1% strength per target hit, also stacking up to 8 times (the buff lasts for 12 seconds). Your
Auslöschen
s also cleave to one additional target when you're standing in your
Recht des Todes
. This cleave is really powerful in cleave and specifically works really well with
Auslöschung
. You pop your
Säule des Frosts
, follow up with
Recht des Todes
and then weave in multiple
Auslöschen
s buffed with
Tötungsmaschine
for massive damage.
Verdorrender Boden
(Conduit) - Extra damage to
Tod und Verfall
doesn't look too appealing honestly. Possibly a solid choice for AoE scenarios.
Seelengestalt
(Signature ability) - A teleport and a speed boost is great for us slow death knights. When you're transformed into a Vulpin you cannot use any spells or abilities but it's still very useful to move around quickly. You can even teleport multiple times in the 12 second window!
Venthyr
Schwärmender Nebel
(Class ability) - An AoE with both a small increase in survivability as well as runic power generation. The spell ticks a total of 9 times (there's an instant initial tick). Every tick itself can generate a maximum of 15 runic power, making 135 the maximum generation possible. For a single target, you would generate 27 runic power. This is mainly an AoE ability that generates a ridiculous amount of runic power, as well as dealing heavy damage in big AoE. It synergises extremely well with
Sindragosas Hauch
due to the Runic Power generation. It's okay for single target (37 total Runic Power for a single rune) but truly shines in AoE. When we can leverage the increased Runic Power gain from multiple target we'll be able to significantly extend our
Sindragosas Hauch
window.
Undurchdringliche Düsternis
(Conduit) - A small increase in dodge chance as well as a buff to the ability itself. Looks like a solid conduit since the ability already does good damage.
Schattentor
(Signature spell) - A teleport that unfortunately requires channeling time. Can be useful in raiding environment when running a long distance. Also good for Mythic + for potential skips.
Covenant Choice
The covenant choice for the Frost Death Knight depends heavily on what build you want to focus on. There's therefore two tabs in this section, one for
Auslöschung
and one for
Sindragosas Hauch
.
Choosing a Covenant for
Auslöschung
is tricky. On the one hand, we have
Kyrian
that has a solid single target ability as well as a great soulbind. On the other hand, we have
Night Fae
which provides juicy cleave with
Recht des Todes
. I do think, more often than not, prioritising single target throughput is more important. I would thefore choose
Kyrian
as my covenant.
If I were to pick a covenant today, I'd pick
Venthyr
. The initial soulbind spells are appealing (both Mistblade and Theotar) and the covenant ability synergises so well with
Sindragosas Hauch
. There are simply too many situations where you'll be able to leverage the increased Runic Power gain!
Here
is a guide to all death knight covenant abilities!
Conduits
There are 4 frost specific potency conduits to consider. The potency conduits associated with our covenant abilities are discussed in the section above. I do not think the potency conduits for the covenant class abilities will outperform any of our class-specific conduits. This list below is in general priority. I'd pick
Immerfrost
as my priority and follow up with
Beschleunigte Kälte
.
Immerfrost
- The best potency conduit by a large margin. It's best on both AoE and single target, essentially making it the go-to pick for any build. Also synergises really well with
Aufziehender Sturm
, making us more likely to pick up this talent as well.
Beschleunigte Kälte
- Second best conduit for all builds. The important aspect of it comes through the
haste increase
. The cooldown reduction just makes us hold it for longer before we line it up with our cooldowns... Works well in single and AoE which is a good benefit!
Entfesselte Raserei
- Third slot for all builds. Doesn't synergise that well with
Sindragosas Hauch
but neither does
Vernichtender Stoß
. Mostly a single target conduit but can be useful in AoE in the few scenarios you press
Froststoß
.
Vernichtender Stoß
- Least amount of single target damage and no scaling in AoE, this potency is lackluster in all areas.
There are also some interesting endurance and finesse conduits:
Geistentzug
- Only non-potency conduit that provides a dps increase. Really nice to have a reward for successful interrupting.
Gehärtete Knochen
- Best defensive endurance option. Really nice to attach an extra damage reduction to
Lichritter
, transforming the spell into a proper extra defensive cooldown.
Verstärkter Panzer
- Bigger and longer
Antimagisches Feld
can be very useful in a raid setting!
You can read more about our conduits on the
death knight conduit page
Soulbinds
I've already mentioned the soulbinds when discussing the best Covenant. They are a significant factor when choosing your covenants since the abilities you gain from them provide significant dps boosts. To provide some context, it's really difficult to compare the soulbinds due to them differing on so many points. Some soulbinds have an initial ability that is a dps boost, some don't. The Renown level required to gain potency conduits is different across the different soulbinds, something that is crucial since it determines when you can receive dps upgrades from them. Finally, some soulbinds have their final dps spell behind a non-potency conduit, meaning you need to choose to either have two potencies, or one potency and the dps spell.
Here are my recommended soulbins for the Covenants I mentioned above.
I recommend choosing the
Pelagos
soulbind.
The path is pretty straightforward. We aim for double potency, picking them up in our priority. We choose the finesse path in the penultimate node to pick up
Geistentzug
for the potential dps increase.
I recommend choosing the
Nadjia
soulbind.
First part of the three is just about getting that first potency conduit. In the lower portion, we prioritise
Akribische Vorbereitung
since a second potency conduit isn't that valuable for
Sindragosas Hauch
.
Legendaries
Legendary Powers
Shadowlands brings with it a number of legendary powers for us to use. A couple of the effects have been seen before but we also get lots of completely fresh ones.
Picking a Legendary
For Raids, I'd choose
Koltiras Gunst
. It's the best single target throughput legendary, working well with both
Sindragosas Hauch
and
Auslöschung
.
For Mythic +, I'd pick up
Beißende Kälte
. It's the best AoE legendary which also does solid damage in AoE. The free
Raureif
is great as you engage AoE packs!
General Powers
Umarmung des Todes
- A purely defensive legendary which makes
Antimagische Hülle
much more potent. Can see potential niche use when there are magic abilities that must be soaked, and a normal
Antimagische Hülle
can't get the job done. It has a tiny offensive perk since it can allow for a greater amount of Runic Power generation.
Griff des Ewigwährenden
- Providing a small utility increase through the decreased cooldown and an extra subsequent grip. This legendary will probably not see use in any end-game PVE situation for us. If you want lots of grips, you bring a Blood DK.
Phobische Pheromone
- A significant damage increase connected to your
Tod und Verfall
makes the ability worthwhile to use in single target. A good legendary to pick up if you want something that works on all the DK specs.
Supervirus
- This legendary provides us with both
Virulente Seuche
and
Blutseuche
, both giving some damage (the extra DoTs are nerfed compared to their vanilla version) as a perk through
Blutseuche
. It heals you for all the damage it deals! Small note, the part of
Virulente Seuche
the explodes on death is actually
not nerfed
in damage. It's therefore a bit more powerful that it probably should be. Generally a solid AoE legendary that also works well across specs!
Frost Specific
Absoluter Nullpunkt
- An old Legion legendary has returned. A 50% cooldown reduction on
Furor des Frostwyrms
can play into very specific fights where it allows you to harvest the insane AoE burst of the ability. If a fight has adds showing up every 90 seconds, with very high priority, this legendary might be the play. The stun is a nice addition which has value mostly in M+.
Beißende Kälte
- Inspired from
Eisiger Sturm
with a % damage gain instead of a flat one, this legendary has a lot of potential in AoE. The free
Raureif
has great potential since it sends off your burst with high damage and free DoT application. I think this will be the go-to legendary for Mythic + due to the big AoE gain.
Koltiras Gunst
- Another legendary power based off an old Legion legendary. It has great synergy with builds based off of
Auslöschen
. Both because it increases
Auslöschen
damage, but also because it generates lots of runes throughout a fight, resulting in more
Auslöschen
s. It also synergises really well with
Sindragosas Hauch
. You generally use
Auslöschen
lots in your
Sindragosas Hauch
windows. The extra runes here will
significantly
increase the duration of
Sindragosas Hauch
! This legendary is the best single target legendary for all builds at the moment.
Wut des eisigen Champions
- This Legendary is essentially the T19 set-bonus of Nighthold baked into one. If you remember the durations of
Sindragosas Hauch
from those days, you should already know what this legendary synergises with. It's a significant boost to your duration of
Sindragosas Hauch
! This legendary is a strong contender to
Koltiras Gunst
when it comes to breath duration increase. However, it falls a bit short of
Koltiras Gunst
. It's still a great pick though!
Playstyle Issues
With the changes, covenants and legendaries out of the way, let's talk about how Frost actually plays on the beta! Overall, I think Frost is looking really promising in Shadowlands. There are lots of new talents that will see play in different scenarios, lots of diversity between builds and plenty of new things to think about!
2H vs DW balancing
This topic is only partially related to playstyle but I still feel like we need to discuss it. 2H viability is a major concern for lots of people that are looking forward to playing 2H. As I previously mentioned, the gap is really close on pure single target. However, as soon as we enter a scenario with many targets,
Sindragosas Hauch
will start to pull ahead (and therefore DW).
Generally, DW scales better in AoE compared to 2H. The reason for this is that the benefit of 2H is purely in single target. 2H bridges the gap through the increased damage on
Verbessertes Auslöschen
, a single target ability. As soon as we enter AoE scenarios, the gap widens (DW benefits aren't purely single target) but the bridge doesn't grow longer. I would love to see
Macht der gefrorenen Ödnis
extended to also affect
Frostsichel
. This would help bridge the gap in AoE as well, making builds with 2H weapons more viable in all content.
This would also help another issue that 2H builds have.
Auslöschen
competes heavily with
Frostsichel
on procs of
Frostschnitter
.
Frostsichel
deals 56% attack power per target on a proc of
Frostschnitter
.
Auslöschen
deals 207% AP in the same scenario. This means that
Auslöschen
is worth almost 4 hits of
Frostsichel
! The gain from using
Frostsichel
in AoE isn't that large, marginalising the talent. Furthermore, for 2H you're probably not running
Schneidendes Eis
in AoE, removing the need to spread it through
Frostsichel
. 30% damage increase on
Frostsichel
would help lots in AoE with this. I wouldn't mind if the % increase wasn't as large for
Frostsichel
as for
Auslöschen
, for balancing purposes.
Runenwaffe verstärken
Desync
Runenwaffe verstärken
has a base 2 minute cooldown, something that aligns very well with every second
Säule des Frosts
and every
Sindragosas Hauch
(if you choose to pick this talent). Shadowlands brings two effects that lower the cooldown of
Runenwaffe verstärken
, effectively desyncing it from our normal burst cooldowns.
Runenwaffe verstärken
- 15 seconds off the cooldown makes it 1 minute 45 seconds. Really doesn't give any power at all since you most likely hold it to gain the haste and Runic Power. Mostly the haste in
Auslöschung
's case.
Beschleunigte Kälte
- 10% off the cooldown, making the ability 1 minut 34.5 seconds. Again, we'd most likely hold this for our cooldown windows, making the cooldown reduction insignificant. There is a possibility of using it on cooldown for builds that don't run
Sindragosas Hauch
. It still feels bad to not sync it with anything though.
I feel like the previous idea was to create synergy between the cooldown reduction and
Säule des Frosts
, when
Säule des Frosts
was 45 seconds cooldown. You could then achieve a line-up every ~1 min 30 seconds if picking up
Beschleunigte Kälte
. With
Säule des Frosts
now at 60 seconds, this doesn't work anymore.
I feel like they should rethink the cooldown reduction effects on
Runenwaffe verstärken
and instead explore alternative ways to buff it. Potentially with a flat damage buff or a frost damage buff.
The Withering of
Eiskappe
As I previously mentioned,
Eiskappe
is significantly nerfed once we enter Shadowlands. Losing Azerite traits is like losing more than half the value gained from this talent. This effectively makes it underperform both
Auslöschung
and
Sindragosas Hauch
in all content.
I thought it was quite nice that
Eiskappe
became a solid pick at the end of BFA. Talent diversity is always a good thing imo! I think
Eiskappe
should inherit the
Entrüstung des Frostwelpen
effect, making it a possible option for heavy AoE!
Conclusion
Frost is looking really promising for Shadowlands! We gain so much from level 50 to 60, increasing the power of
Auslöschung
and 2H build significantly. They've been really lackluster in the pre-patch so it will be interesting to see them gain power in shadowlands.
Frost excels in cleave scenarios where we can utilise
Sindragosas Hauch
or
Auslöschung
with
Recht des Todes
cleave. We also have excellent AoE burst with
Furor des Frostwyrms
.
Our weaknesses are often prolonged single target fights, as well as spread cleave. We also have mobility issues. We can choose covenants that give us great extra mobility though!
I hope everyone reading this article shares my excitement of jumping into shadowlands and trying out your favourite class. I also look forward to all the interactions and minmaxing possibilites that we've yet to think about, let's stay tuned for more!
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