Frost - T20 & Helm Nerf - Speculation & Ideas

[Browed 19]

Been thinking a lot about how Blizz are going to nerf the helm and the repercussions of this.

I am pretty convinced the change (if it comes) will hit non-BoS builds harder due to them relying on high Gathering Storm burst with Icecap.

With this in mind, I made a suggestion on the Blizz forums basically putting forward the idea of reworking the Tier 6 and 7 talents to swap Gathering Storm and Obliteration.

Yes, I know it's a bit drastic but think about how it affects the usage of the helm, spec out of BoS and into Gathering Storm to get buffed helm damage, spec into BoS if you prefer it. Obliteration then becomes a secondary CD for rune burst during BoS or the value of RA increases due to Gathering Storm not competing with it anymore.

It enables the non-BoS builds to gain a bit of ground and become raid viable again (hypothetically with a proper T20 set bonus, see below), and makes several talents useful that had previously been worthless.

T20

I'm very concerned that Blizz seem to be pushing us to BoS as the ONLY thing you should be doing with your Frosty... and I dislike that in a big way.

If this bonus is not changed or at least made more build neutral then it'll be a disaster for me.. I like flexibility and the issue with mandatory legendaries comes up again instead of the helm it becomes the ring (Seal).

 

Thoughts?

Edited February 28, 2017 by Browed

[Drtain 74]

My opinion is that everything will come and it's probably far off into the future to matter to much now. Things will get nerfed, things will get buffed everything will be okay in the end, we've gotten out spot light of being absolutely broken and in the top 2/3 dps, you can't ask for much more.

[Browed 19]

Heh, would have been nice if that was the case... hopefully I'll get a couple of weeks with T19 before it hits :P

[Browed 19]

Oh well, 40% becomes 20% on PTR for the helm bonus damage.

Still, feels like a nerf that hits specs other than BoS too hard (my hybrid build relies on Obliteration and Rime spam for it's burst)

I really dislike the move towards mandatory talent specs despite having all the legendaries I need for T20 in my bag, I don't like the idea of BoS for the rest of the expansion or just resign to being uncompetitive.

Blizz need to buff/rework our talent options, I don't particularly care if they nuke the helm from orbit provided they give us choice about how to play the class.

[Shells 64]

Only got the helm the other night, pity to see it getting nerfed already. 

Sigh.

[demonardvark 556]

tier 20 was already pushing bos pretty heavily with the set bonus. the helm nerf just reinforces it heavier, its drop isn't death though i believe the math was like a 8 percent gain down to a 5. Ring and waist will now be bis but helm will still sit comfortably around 3rd or 4th best leggie still. certainly do agree though, if not a fan of bos you are kind of out of luck in the next tier. plus with the changes the focus will be on longer breaths now so the whole "am i doing it long enough" thing from hfc will pop back up.