Im a big fan of this class, it certainly feels better to play than before. Some might even say “overpowered” in some cases. I spent a few days on it and to me it seems underwhelming from the same reasons it did before.
reasons:
-
Low base ability damage
Apart from procs like Icy Death torrent , rhime and killing machine Obliterate still tickles. -
Too many damage modifiers
I get we’re supposed to play around pillar of frost burst window. But there’s too many modifiers at stake and when they are gone it wont do very well. Here’s some math behind it
-30% strenth from pillar
-Some mastery from whelps talent about 16-30% usually
-Obliterate killing machine does frost damage so it bypasses armor that’s additional % damage bonus versus different armor types between 15-60% damage on killing machine.
-Then there’s the “Bonegrinder” talent that was bugged for so long and even now that its fixed it still rarely aligns with the burst window it’s kind of a waste on the talent tree if you ask me. That’s another 20%
Literally all of those modifiers should be removed, and just get incresed base ability damage. I mean im on a dk with 503 ilvl and my normal obliterates on a dummy hits it between 25k normal or 60k crit without killing machines, while killing machine does 170k. It doesnt feel to good to spend 2 runes on 30k damage. non burst killing machine 170k while bursting with all modifiers goes up to 400k on my dk with this gear…
Also a honorable mention for another damage modifier thats not gonna be there for long is the 4p set bonus which gives 20% increased crit damage to targets hit by Frost Wyrms Fury. It does give good digits now, but when it’s removed it’s gonna be even weaker.
I tested some stats and builds and the rotation doesn’t feel too fluid without at least 40% crit where you get killing machine procs almost once per 5 sec otherwise it just tickles. Imagine kiting in pvp where you chase someone to “maybe” crit an auto attack to proc a killing machine.
This needs some attention. I dont want another Dead frost dk expansion. And before some of you start writing “its very strong now” yea sure, its ok. But look at the bigger picture. Some talents and especially mastery are overtuned at the moment and are making it pop in the burst windows, outside of it not so much. On lvl 80 it’s gonna be significantly lower stats and and icy death torrent will inevitably get tuned down.