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Frost Death Knight in Shadowlands - DPS Strengths, Best Covenants, Soulbinds and Legendaries
Shadowlands
Publicado
17/11/2020 a las 15:43
por
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.
Cuota de la muerte
- Instead of gaining the strength based off the ability doing damage, it's now from your
Asolar
hitting enemies. Duration of the buff was also nerfed. However, the ability also got a huge buff through an
Asolar
cleave effect.
Asolar
hits one additional target when you're standing in your
Cuota de la muerte
.
Encadenar a los indignos
- 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!
Cuota de la muerte
- Specific synergy with
Desintegración
in AoE scenarios. You pop your
Pilar de Escarcha
, follow up with
Cuota de la muerte
and then weave in multiple
Asolar
s buffed with
Máquina de matar
for massive damage. We get both the cleave and the strength gain!
Niebla enjambradora
- Great synergy with
Aliento de Sindragosa
. The Runic Power generation is massive for increasing the duration of your
Aliento de Sindragosa
, specifically when we can leverage multiple mobs for more RP.
Golpe erradicador
and
Frenesí desaforado
- These conduits have anti-synergy with
Aliento de Sindragosa
due to
Golpe de Escarcha
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.
Siemprescarcha
- Strong synergy with
Tormenta inminente
since they both buff
Invierno sin remordimientos
.
Level-Up Abilities
Asolar mejorado
(level 52) - 20% to
Asolar mejorado
is significant to builds that rely heavily on your overall damage output from
Asolar mejorado
. This buff helps
Desintegración
builds and thefore also the viability of 2H builds.
Sacrificio pactado
(level 54) - A completely new ability that enables us to explode the ghoul we summon through
Levantar muerto
. 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!
Potenciar arma de runas
(level 56) - A rather odd rank 2 since it just desyncs with everything in our kit. Both
Pilar de Escarcha
and
Aliento de Sindragosa
come off CD every 2 minutes. You'd definitely hold
Potenciar arma de runas
for
Aliento de Sindragosa
and probably for
Pilar de Escarcha
as well. I'd ideally like to see the haste portion be buffed instead.
Segadora de Escarcha
(level 58) - Now this is a huge rank 2 ability. Making your
Asolar mejorado
s do frost damage when they consume procs of
Máquina de matar
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
Maestría: Corazón congelado
. The result is roughly a 200% increase on the crit coming from
Máquina de matar
compared to a regular crit. This is a significant buff to
Desintegración
since the value of
Máquina de matar
procs is so much higher. It's also great for 2H since it makes the
Desintegración
build viable.
Desintegración
DW is within 1% of
Aliento de Sindragosa
DW on pure single target.
Desintegración
2H is within 4% of
Aliento de Sindragosa
DW on pure single target.
These are still early numbers but it's very promising for 2H builds as well as
Desintegración
.
Impact of Azerite Traits and Essences loss
The impact of losing Azerite and Essences depends heavily on build for the Frost Death Knight.
Setelo
loses a
tremendous
amount of power since it derives the majority of its damage increase from Azerite Traits.
Aliento de Sindragosa
also suffers slightly due to a resource loss.
Recuerdo de sueños lúcidos
- Losing Lucid minor is most significant for
Aliento de Sindragosa
since it was pumping up its duration.
Ciudadela helada
and
Indignación de cría de Escarcha
- The majority of the power of
Setelo
comes from gaining more value off these two Azerite traits. Losing them is a huge nerf to
Setelo
, essentially removing its competitiveness completely in Shadowlands.
Raid Build
Here's a go-to raid talent build:
Swap out
Pulso congelado
for
Avalancha
if you're wielding a 2H weapon.
Swap out
Pulso congelado
for
Avalancha
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
Encadenar a los indignos
(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
Guadaña de Escarcha
and
Explosión aullante
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.
Proliferación
(Conduit) - Increases damage by 20% and duration with 3 seconds. Solid conduit that provides a longer duration to spread the DoT in AoE.
Invocar al administrador
(Signature ability) - A nice utility ability that provides both a heal as well as a cleanse. Good defensive option.
Necrolord
Extremidad abominable
(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
Helada blanca
. 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.
Agarre brutal
(Conduit) - Flat damage increase. Solid dps gain in AoE.
Modelar carne
(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
Cuota de la muerte
(Class ability) - Replaces your
Muerte y descomposición
, effectively adding an effect that causes targets damaged by your
Asolar
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
Asolar
s also cleave to one additional target when you're standing in your
Cuota de la muerte
. This cleave is really powerful in cleave and specifically works really well with
Desintegración
. You pop your
Pilar de Escarcha
, follow up with
Cuota de la muerte
and then weave in multiple
Asolar
s buffed with
Máquina de matar
for massive damage.
Suelo debilitador
(Conduit) - Extra damage to
Muerte y descomposición
doesn't look too appealing honestly. Possibly a solid choice for AoE scenarios.
Forma de alma
(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
Niebla enjambradora
(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
Aliento de Sindragosa
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
Aliento de Sindragosa
window.
Penumbra impenetrable
(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.
Puerta de las Sombras
(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
Desintegración
and one for
Aliento de Sindragosa
.
Choosing a Covenant for
Desintegración
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
Cuota de la muerte
. 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
Aliento de Sindragosa
. 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
Siemprescarcha
as my priority and follow up with
Frío acelerado
.
Siemprescarcha
- 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
Tormenta inminente
, making us more likely to pick up this talent as well.
Frío acelerado
- 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!
Frenesí desaforado
- Third slot for all builds. Doesn't synergise that well with
Aliento de Sindragosa
but neither does
Golpe erradicador
. Mostly a single target conduit but can be useful in AoE in the few scenarios you press
Golpe de Escarcha
.
Golpe erradicador
- 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:
Drenaje de espíritu
- Only non-potency conduit that provides a dps increase. Really nice to have a reward for successful interrupting.
Huesos endurecidos
- Best defensive endurance option. Really nice to attach an extra damage reduction to
Exánime nato
, transforming the spell into a proper extra defensive cooldown.
Caparazón reforzado
- Bigger and longer
Zona antimagia
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
Drenaje de espíritu
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
Preparación concienzuda
since a second potency conduit isn't that valuable for
Aliento de Sindragosa
.
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
Favor de Koltira
. It's the best single target throughput legendary, working well with both
Aliento de Sindragosa
and
Desintegración
.
For Mythic +, I'd pick up
Frío cortante
. It's the best AoE legendary which also does solid damage in AoE. The free
Helada blanca
is great as you engage AoE packs!
General Powers
Abrazo de la Muerte
- A purely defensive legendary which makes
Caparazón antimagia
much more potent. Can see potential niche use when there are magic abilities that must be soaked, and a normal
Caparazón antimagia
can't get the job done. It has a tiny offensive perk since it can allow for a greater amount of Runic Power generation.
Atracción de lo eterno
- 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.
Terrormonas
- A significant damage increase connected to your
Muerte y descomposición
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.
Supercepa
- This legendary provides us with both
Peste virulenta
and
Peste de sangre
, both giving some damage (the extra DoTs are nerfed compared to their vanilla version) as a perk through
Peste de sangre
. It heals you for all the damage it deals! Small note, the part of
Peste virulenta
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
Cero absoluto
- An old Legion legendary has returned. A 50% cooldown reduction on
Furia de la vermis de escarcha
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+.
Frío cortante
- Inspired from
Tempestad de hielo
with a % damage gain instead of a flat one, this legendary has a lot of potential in AoE. The free
Helada blanca
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.
Favor de Koltira
- Another legendary power based off an old Legion legendary. It has great synergy with builds based off of
Asolar
. Both because it increases
Asolar
damage, but also because it generates lots of runes throughout a fight, resulting in more
Asolar
s. It also synergises really well with
Aliento de Sindragosa
. You generally use
Asolar
lots in your
Aliento de Sindragosa
windows. The extra runes here will
significantly
increase the duration of
Aliento de Sindragosa
! This legendary is the best single target legendary for all builds at the moment.
Ira del campeón congelado
- This Legendary is essentially the T19 set-bonus of Nighthold baked into one. If you remember the durations of
Aliento de Sindragosa
from those days, you should already know what this legendary synergises with. It's a significant boost to your duration of
Aliento de Sindragosa
! This legendary is a strong contender to
Favor de Koltira
when it comes to breath duration increase. However, it falls a bit short of
Favor de Koltira
. 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,
Aliento de Sindragosa
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
Asolar mejorado
, 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
Poder de los Baldíos Helados
extended to also affect
Guadaña de Escarcha
. 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.
Asolar
competes heavily with
Guadaña de Escarcha
on procs of
Segadora de Escarcha
.
Guadaña de Escarcha
deals 56% attack power per target on a proc of
Segadora de Escarcha
.
Asolar
deals 207% AP in the same scenario. This means that
Asolar
is worth almost 4 hits of
Guadaña de Escarcha
! The gain from using
Guadaña de Escarcha
in AoE isn't that large, marginalising the talent. Furthermore, for 2H you're probably not running
Cuchilla de hielo
in AoE, removing the need to spread it through
Guadaña de Escarcha
. 30% damage increase on
Guadaña de Escarcha
would help lots in AoE with this. I wouldn't mind if the % increase wasn't as large for
Guadaña de Escarcha
as for
Asolar
, for balancing purposes.
Potenciar arma de runas
Desync
Potenciar arma de runas
has a base 2 minute cooldown, something that aligns very well with every second
Pilar de Escarcha
and every
Aliento de Sindragosa
(if you choose to pick this talent). Shadowlands brings two effects that lower the cooldown of
Potenciar arma de runas
, effectively desyncing it from our normal burst cooldowns.
Potenciar arma de runas
- 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
Desintegración
's case.
Frío acelerado
- 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
Aliento de Sindragosa
. 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
Pilar de Escarcha
, when
Pilar de Escarcha
was 45 seconds cooldown. You could then achieve a line-up every ~1 min 30 seconds if picking up
Frío acelerado
. With
Pilar de Escarcha
now at 60 seconds, this doesn't work anymore.
I feel like they should rethink the cooldown reduction effects on
Potenciar arma de runas
and instead explore alternative ways to buff it. Potentially with a flat damage buff or a frost damage buff.
The Withering of
Setelo
As I previously mentioned,
Setelo
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
Desintegración
and
Aliento de Sindragosa
in all content.
I thought it was quite nice that
Setelo
became a solid pick at the end of BFA. Talent diversity is always a good thing imo! I think
Setelo
should inherit the
Indignación de cría de Escarcha
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
Desintegración
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
Aliento de Sindragosa
or
Desintegración
with
Cuota de la muerte
cleave. We also have excellent AoE burst with
Furia de la vermis de escarcha
.
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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