My ideas for Class Tree and Frost Tree changes:
Before going for Class tree ideas i want to mention, The problem with current class tree imo is that We have to spend so many points on what we had back then in Shadowlands as baseline so we barely can pick up what we could choose on former Talent tree system(Shadowlands system), For example before We had to choose between Wraith walk,Death pact and Permafrost so there was a choice there but now we have to spend so many points to get baseline stuffs and we barely get to choose, This problem is not only the case for DK talent tree but several classes that either got reworked or still have this issue.
Class tree changes:
Death Strike has been removed from the class tree and is now baseline.
Anti-magic shell is now placed on death strike’s former place on class tree.
Improved Death-strike is now in former place of anti magic shell.
March of Darkness has been removed.
Supression has been removed.
Blood scent is now in former place of Improved death strike and it gives 5% leech.
Wraith walk is now in former place of March of Darkness.
(It could be said that Death Knight is the most Wheelchair class in the game since Ret paladin’s toolkit is mostly Ranged after the rework they got, So we need either easier access to wraith walk which is not a huge mobility or something else other than Death’s Advance).
Veteran of the third war talent now is a 1 point talent, and it gives 10% stamina.
Raise Dead has been removed from the class tree and is now baseline.
Soul Reaper is now placed on Raise dead’s former place.
(Back then all Specs or let’s say both Unholy and Frost had Soul Reaper, as baseline but now it’s a capstone in the class tree, which in my opinion it doesn’t deserve to be, It didn’t work since the start of DF for Frost dk but now it’s starting to work because of scaling through the expansion, DK should have an official Execute that is not a capstone, like a guaranteed pick on Class tree or even Baseline.)
Super Strain is now in former place of Soul Reaper.
Coldthirst is now a baseline effect on Mind Freeze.
(some classes don’t even have to spend point to get their interrupt but dk has to.)
Icebound Fortitude is now in former place of Coldthirst.
Runic Attenuation is now in former place of Icebound Fortitude.
Acclimation and proliferating chill have swapped places on the class tree.
(The purpose of this change is to give a choice there to the player instead of making Acclimation a guaranteed pick).
Assimilation has been revamped, It now makes Anti magic zone last 2 seconds more and it increases the amount of damage it can Absorb by 20%.
(The current design of this passive is questionable imo, It encourages the use of utility for personal advantage.)
Might of Thassarian now gives 2% mastery instead of Strength.
New Talent Hunger For Blood: Increases melee attack speed by 10%.
Hunger For Blood is in place of Wraith Walk’s former place.
Horn of winter has been removed from Frost’s talent tree.
Horn of winter is now in place Runic Attenuation’s former place.
Horn of winter has been redesigned, It has two charges and no cooldown, Consuming five killing machines, Sudden dooms and Bone shield charges give 1 charge of Horn of winter, It now gives 1 Rune and 30 Runic power.
Blood Draw has been removed.
(Before Horn of winter belonged to all specs instead of Frost only, and the current design of it is a no brainer button just to get resources, I gave it the mop design of Blood Tap(well kind of) and decided to put it on the class tree, Because it’s a guaranteed way to generate resources and the way it works is not as meh as it is right now).
New Talent Frozen Skin:(a two points talent): Increases both your Armor and Stamina by 5%.
Frozen Skin is in place of Blood Draw’s former place.
(a much better talent than blood draw, and it pays the loss of 10% stamina because of veteran of the third war being a 1 point talent).
Rune Mastery now is in place of Will of Necropolis and it gives 5% strength per point.
Abomination’s limb is now in place of Rune Mastery’s former place.
Will of the Necropolis is now in place of Abomination’s limb former place, And now it’s a 1 point talent and it reduces damage taken by 30% below 30% hp.
(The reason of all these swapping places is, Their current placement is really bad, I can see the reason being not to let Will of the Necropolis be a guaranteed choice for Frost and Unholy, But it is the case right now Because the loss is not that big).
Unholy bond now Increases the effectiveness of Runeforge effects by 25% per point.
(10% per point is really weak to be considered a bottom tier talent).
Icy Talons has been revamped, Runic power spending abilities increase your haste by 2% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
(Making it more rewarding for keeping it up, So instead of getting Attack speed for each stack, you are getting A secondary stat(Haste).
Before going for Frost tree ideas and changes i want to mention, The purpose of buffs and numbers below there, Is to give an idea of how powerful an ability should be compared to it’s current form and state.
Frost Tree Changes:
Might of the Frozen Wastes has been removed.
(When Frost death knight was introduced to the game, It was a dual wield spec, It is it’s iconic form; The reason for this idea is not only that but, The problem of having to farm certain weapon types to be able to do high end contents competitively(Such as Breath of Sindragosa playstyle being better on ST scenarios and Obliteration for M+), Fury warrior is dealing with a kind of similar issue but atleast Single minded fury is not a competitive option for them.
Howling Blast now instead of dealing reduced damage to all enemies, deals reduced damage to beyond 5 targets.
(Making Howling Blast hard capped really punched it in the face for it’s AoE performance).
Remorseless Winter now replaces Death and Decay and benefits from Death and Decay modifiers(Including Unholy Ground,Cleaving strikes and death’s echo).
(Playing Around Death and Decay for AoE Scenarios as Frost is not fun, or even it can be said it’s not fun for dk in general, Death and Decay doesn’t even fit Frost’s theme; This change would also make the concept of extending Remorseless winter more rewarding).
Obliterate’s Critical strike damage has been reduced by 30%.
Obliterate’s baseline damage has been increased by 50%.
(Obliterate does huge amount of damage with right timing on cds and specific buffs when it crits or consumes Killing machine, but It can be said it doesn’t hit impressively when it does not).
Improved Frost Strike increases the damage of Frost Strike by 25% per point.
(Instead of giving Frost strike a flat buff, This talent should be more worth to spend points on, Frost Strike has fallen behind other Frost’s abilities while it’s as iconic as them).
Runic command now increases maximum runic power by 25 per point.
Frost Scythe and Glacial Advance are now part of a choice node talent below pillar of frost.
Frost Scythe damage has been buffed by 30%.
Frost Scythe now replaces Obliterate and now costs 2 Runes.
Obliterate modifier talents now effect Frost Scythe aswell.
(This is an issue that’s been the case since Frost Scythe was introduced to the game, It’s described as an replacement for Obliterate on AoE scenarios but It does not benefit from Obliterate modifiers which makes it fall behind, The reason for making an option between Frost Scythe vs Glacial Advance is to give the the element of choice and flexibility and give their existent a sense, You are choosing between empowering your generator for AoE Scenarios or getting an AoE based Spender).
Ice Cap has been changed: Glacial Advance and Might of Sindragosa critical strikes can also proc it.
(Glacial Advance critical strikes should proc Ice cap, Even if it requires nerfing Ice Cap, We will get to What exactly Might of Sindragosa is).
Frigid Executioner has been redesigned, It now increases the damage of Obliterate, Frost Scythe and Frost Strike by 15%. Additionally gives Obliterate and Frost Scythe 25% chance to refund a rune.
(This design is much better than the former one if you ask me, instead of fully stacking on obliterate, It’s buffing Obliterate, Frost Scythe which replaces Obliterate and Frost strike, and it has a higher chance to refund one rune instead of two).
Rage of the frozen champion has been redesigned, It increases the chance of Obliterate and Frost scythe for procing rime by 15% and increases the Damage of Howling Blast by 30%.
(Instead of making Howling blast to give more runic power, It buffs it so this choice node can be introduced as a Obliteration vs Breath of Sindragosa choice, Basically saying that Howling Blast should be a stronger button for Breath of Sindragosa playstyle).
Fatal Fixation has been changed: Killing machine can now stack up to 2 times, And now every obliterate critical strike does frost damage.
(Killing Machine stacking to 2 times is good and a quality of life change talent while we are swimming in procs but for a Spec tree point is not as worth, The new effect will make it that Normal Crit on Obliterate( I mean not consumed Killing machine Obliterate) would have the same value as if you consumed Killing machine).
Inexorable Assault has been removed.
(Never was an interesting of a talent imo).
New Talent Ambidexterity: Increases the off-hand weapon damage dealt by Frost Strike and Obliterate by 20%.
(Basically a ST based talent that is encouraging the iconic identity of Frost).
Ambidexterity is in place of Shattering Blade former’s place.
Shattering Blade is now in place of Inexorable Assault’s former place.
Shattering Blade now increases the damage of Frost strike by 70% instead of 100%.
(Because of the buffs Frost Strike is getting from other talents, reducing the value a bit might not hurt).
New Talent Frozen Pulse: your melee attacks now deal frost damage.
(Makes Melee damage better because it would benefit from Mastery).
Frozen Pulse is in place of Horn of winter’s former place.
Icebreaker now increases the damage of Howling blast by 20% on primary target when empowered by Rime per point.
(Because of the buffs Howling blast is getting from other talents, reducing the value of this talent might not hurt).
Invigorating Freeze has been removed.
New Talent(Ability)Might of Sindragosa(Replaces Soulreaper): A Cold strike that does 140% of Main weapon damage(only) and increases the damage of your next howling blast by 20%. Stacking up to 2 times. Costs 2 Runes. Generates 20 Runic power. Has 5 seconds cd(hasted).
Might of Sindragosa is in place of Invigorating Freeze’s former place.
Breath of Sindragosa has been reworked(Now replaces frost strike): Breath of Sindragosa damage has been reduced by 60% and it has no cooldown now, The runic cost of it per second has been reduced to 15 and no longer gives any runes. It now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
This is basically a rework for Breath of Sindragosa playstyle that would solve the issue of doing mechanic= Losing damage, Breath of Sindragosa makes Frost Strike irrelevant in general, so Why not just make it replace Frost Strike ? This version of Breath of Sindragosa is a consistent form of current one, With this playstyle you are just Generating and consuming Runic power left and right, Might of Sindragosa is another generator that would compensate the loss of a major button and it would help in generating runic power and making Howling blast stronger for Breath of Sindragosa playstyle).
Cold Blooded Rage has been redesigned: Increases the damage of Frost Strike and Glacial Advance by 10% but also increases the runic power cost of them by 5 per point.
(Would make Runic power much precious of a resource than it is currently for Obliteration build).
Obliteration has been renamed to Annihilation.
The purpose of the last suggestion is to clearify that making this playstyle focused on Obliterate is not a good design, It makes Obliterate as a generator make other abilities look weaker(Not like they are not :D), When Frost Dk got reworked in legion, All of it’s core abilities did good and fair damage instead of only doing countable damage from a single button).
