wow Upcoming Death Knight Set Changes on the 9.2 PTR Planned for Early January

[Staff 1,488]

Both Unholy and the Frost 2-piece set bonuses have generated a lot of discussion over their actual power level, so Blizzard shared an insightful blue post with the planned adjustments that should arrive to the 9.2 PTR during the first week of January.

(Source)

hey folks! similar to the rogue thread, it felt like death knights would appreciate the gift of a follow-up post to last week’s update with a look at some of the changes that will be coming in January, as a winter veil present to make up for not seeing iteration & bug fixes on the PTR this week.

for both of the bonuses we’re showing today, try to center feedback around your impressions of them on a feel-level; both the Unholy set and Frost’s 2-piece have generated a lot of discussion on that angle over their actual power level, so these iterations seek to address those concerns while capturing the original goals of the sets.

Unholy:

• 2-piece Bonus: Every 5 Scourge Strikes / Clawing Shadows casts Soul Reaper on your target and summons a Ghoul for 12 seconds.
• 4-piece Bonus: Soul Reaper causes your pet to deal 20% increased damage. If Soul Reaper’s secondary effect triggered, all of your pets gain 20% increased damage instead.

while we think there’s still value and excitement in a bonus that interacts with Soul Reaper & pushes Unholy’s more single-target/execute niche (as compared to Frost), it was clear that having an entire bonus inactive unless in execute was a bridge too far and could lead to some major tuning issues. this set seeks to retain that goal while also emphasizing the ‘undead commander’ fantasy of Unholy that the original promised.

before anyone asks, yes all pets means apoc ghoul, garg, aotd, you name it. go crazy.

for Frost, this bonus is a little more experimental, so really curious to see what people think of it - again, numbers may be too high/low, don’t make me tap the sign

Frost:

• 2-piece Bonus: Gaining a Rune has a 15% chance to grant Killing Machine. Consuming Killing Machine increases your Strength by 2% for 6 seconds.

the above bonus seeks to accomplish the previous one’s goal of ‘generate more KM procs for the 4-piece’ but in a way that feels a little more in your hands. Gaining a Rune here means both as part of talents and passives like Murderous Efficiency and Runic Empowerment, but also whenever a Rune refreshes naturally. The strength kicker also stacks, so hitting multiple KM’s within a moderate duration via fishing for 2p procs or talents like Obliteration gain a lot of value here as well.

It’s worth noting for the vocal group of players who only want to play Breath of Sindragosa, that those builds generate a lot of extra Runes as well which should hopefully still make it a viable option.

as for blood players - there’s nothing to share at the moment, other than there’s still a desire to find a middle ground for solo-tanking and multi-target tanking that feels good for the bonus, though more data and feedback on a non-bugged version is necessary before figuring out where to take it.

thanks for being patient, and we’ll see you all again in January!