WoW The War Within Beta: Death Knight Talent Changes

• Many talents have moved locations or have had their pathing updated.
• New Talent: Subduing Grasp – When you pull an enemy the damage they deal to you is reduced by 6% for 6 seconds.
• New Talent: Osmosis – Anti-Magic Shell increases healing received by 15%.
• New Talent: Null Magic – Magic Damage taken is reduced by 10% and the duration of harmful Magic effects against you are reduced by 35%.
• New Talent: Vestigial Shell – Casting Anti-Magic Shell grants 2 nearby allies a Lesser Anti-Magic Shell that absorbs magic damage and reduces the duration of harmful Magic effects against them by 50%.
• New Talent: Ice Prison – Chains of Ice now also roots enemies for 4 seconds but its cooldown is increased to 12 seconds.
• New Talent: Runic Protection – Your chance to be critically struck is reduced by 3% and your Armor is increased by 6%.
• New Talent: Unyielding Will – Anti-Magic Shell’s cooldown is increased by 20 seconds and it now also removes all harmful magic effects when activated.
• Chains of Ice now learned at level 13.
• Anti-Magic Shell now learned at level 14.
• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle can now be Runeforged on 1-handed weapons.
• Abomination Limb no longer grants Bone Shield, Runic Corruption, or Rime based on specialization.

Developer’s note: In Shadowlands it was important for the spec hooks to exist to better balance between the other covenant ability choices. With its re-introduction in Dragonflight its added to the influx of resources/procs that can often come at inopportune times or add to the feeling of being unable to spend down the bonuses it grants. By removing this it allows the ability to “breathe” on its own and lean into its strength of AoE control and damage.

Rune of the Apocalypse has been updated:

• War Effect – Damage taken increased to 4% (was 1%) and duration increased to 10 seconds (was 6 seconds).
• Pestilence Effect – Damage increased by 500%.
• Famine Effect – Damage dealt to the caster reduced to 5% (was 2%).
• Death Effect – Healing reduction increased to 5% (was 1%).

• Icebound Fortitude cooldown reduced by 60 seconds.
• Cleaving Strikes now also retains bonus effects for being within your Death and Decay for 4 seconds when leaving its area.
• Veteran of the Third War now grants 20% Stamina (was 10%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
• Icy Talons now increases attack speed per stack by 6% (was 3%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
• Unholy Bond now increases effectiveness of Runeforge effects by 20% (was 10%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
• Assimilation now reduces the cooldown of Anti-Magic Zone by 30 seconds. No longer increase Runic Power when absorbing damage.
• Suppression now grants an additional 6% damage reduction to area of effects when you suffer a loss of control effect. Moved to gate 3.
• Blood Scent Leech increased to 5%.
• Blood Draw now also grants a buff reducing damage taken by 10% and reducing Death Strike cost by 10 for 8 seconds when falling below 30% health. Now a 1-point talent.
• Blood Draw cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).

The following talents have been removed:

• Might of Thassarian
• Merciless Strikes
• Clenching Grasp
• Empower Rune Weapon

Developer’s note: This will still be available for Frost in their spec tree but both Blood and Unholy were often flooded with resources and a big unnecessary contributor to this was Empower Rune Weapon. To better dial in resources on Blood and Unholy we feel its best to keep Empower Rune Weapon for Frost only.

• Rune of Hysteria

Developer’s note: Rune of Hysteria was a problematic design especially as it pertains to Breath of Sindragosa and the volatility of its uptime. We felt that for the overall health of the spec it would be best to remove Hysteria at this time to better enable us to meet our goals with the upcoming changes to Breath.

• New Talent: Bone Collector – When you would pull an enemy, generate 1 charge of Bone Shield.
• New Talent: Ossified Vitriol – When you lose a Bone Shield charge the damage of your next Marrowrend is increased by 15%, stacking up to 75%.
• Crimson Scourge now learned at level 21.
• Death’s Caress now learned at level 23.
• Tightening Grasp now Silences enemies for 3 seconds when they are pulled and no longer increases the damage enemies take from you when they are pulled by Gorefiend’s Grasp.
• Blooddrinker now reduces the damage the enemy deals to you by 20% while channeling and for an additional 5 seconds after a channeling it fully. Now also generates 20 additional Runic Power over its duration.
• Consumption now also causes your Blood Plague damage to occur 50% more quickly for 8 seconds and generates 2 Runes.
• Bonestorm no longer costs Runic Power. Costs up to 10 Bone Shield Charges and lasts 1 second for each charge consumed. Generates 1 Bone Shield charge every 1 second while active.
• Reinforced Bones now also lets Bone Shield stack 2 additional times.
• Heartbreaker’s Runic Power per target hit increased to 2 (was 1). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
• Perseverance of the Ebon Blade’s Versatility bonus increased to 6% (was 4%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
• Shattering Bone now a 1-point talent (was 2).
• Red Thirst reduces the cooldown on Vampiric Blood by 2 seconds (was 1 second). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).

• New Talent: Shattered Frost – When Frost Strike consumes 5 Razorice stacks, it deals 50% of the damage deal to nearby enemies. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
• New Talent: Cryogenic Chamber – Each time Frost Fever deals damage, 15% of the damage dealt is gathered into the next cast of Remorseless Winter, up to 20 times.
• New Talent: Arctic Assault – Consuming Killing Machine fires a Glacial Advance through your target.
• New Talent: Smothering Offense – Your auto attack damage is increased by 5%. This amount is increased per stack of Icy Talons you have and can stack up to 2 additional times.
• New Talent: Icy Death Torrent – Your auto attack critical strikes have a chance to send out a sleet of ice dealing Frost damage to enemies in front of you.
• New Talent: The Long Winter – While Pillar of Frost is active, your auto-attack critical strikes increase its duration by 1 second, up to a maximum of 5 seconds.
• New Talent: Hyperpyrexia – Your Runic Power spending abilities have a chance to additionally deal 30% of the damage dealt over 4 seconds.
• Frostscythe has been redesigned – A sweeping attack that strikes all enemies in front of you for Frost damage. This attack always critically strikes and critical strikes with Frostscythe deal normal damage. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets. Consuming Killing Machine reduces the cooldown of Frostscythe by 1 second. Now has a 30 second cooldown and Rune cost increased to 2 (was 1).
• Rime is now learned at level 21.
• Breath of Sindragosa damage increased by 25%.
• Chill Streak can now bounce off the Death Knight if a second enemy target isn’t found.
• Enduring Strength’s Strength increased to 20% (was 10%). Now a 1-point talent.
• Frostwhelp’s Aid now grants 8% Mastery per target hit (was 4%). Now a 1-point talent.
• Killing Machine now stacks 1 additional time.
• Rune of Razorice now displays the debuff on the enemy nameplate.
• The following talents have been removed:

  • Fatal Fixation
  • Cold Blooded-Rage
  • Invigorating Freeze
• Fixed an issue with Absolute Zero being available prior to the 3rd gate being unlocked.

• New Talent: Doomed Bidding – Consuming Sudden Doom calls upon a Magus of the Dead to assist you for 8 seconds.
• New Talent: Raise Abomination – Summons an Abomination to attack nearby enemies applying Festering Wound with its melee attacks and infecting all nearby enemies with Virulent Plague. 90 second cooldown. Replaces Army of the Dead.
• New Talent: Foul Infections – Your diseases deal 10% more damage and have a 5% increased chance to critically strike.
• New Talent: Menacing Magus – Your Magus of the Dead Shadow Bolt now fires a volley of Shadow Bolts at up to 4 nearby enemies.
• New Talent: Festering Scythe – Every 20 Festering Wound you burst empowers Festering Strike to become Festering Scythe for 12 seconds. Festering Scythe: Sweep through all enemies within 14 yards in front of you, dealing Shadow damage and infecting them with 2-3 Festering Wound.
• New Talent: Decomposition – Virulent Plague has a chance to abruptly flare up, dealing 50/100% of the damage it dealt to the target over the last 4 seconds. When this effect triggers, the duration of your active minions are increased by 1 second, up to 3 seconds. 2-point talent.
• Epidemic now learned at level 18.
• Outbreak now learned at level 13.
• Sudden Doom causes your next Death Coil or Epidemic to critically strike.
• Sudden Doom is no longer an RPPM proc and has instead been updated to have a 25% chance on auto-attacks to proc with build in bad luck protection to provide a more consistent proc.
• Sudden Doom now reduces the cost of your next Death Coil/Epidemic by 10 (was free).

Developer’s note: With the update to Sudden Doom’s proc rate it further flooded Unholy with Runic Power and you weren’t able to spend the RP down fast enough in a lot of scenarios to prevent overcapping. This next iteration we are going to try a reduced cost Death Coil or Epidemic to help combat the problem of Runic Power overcapping. Internally we tested this as a full removal of the cost reduction but it left quite a bit of downtime in the rotation and felt particularly bad outside of cooldowns. A 10 Runic Power cost reduction felt reasonably well both inside and outside of cooldowns.

• Sudden Doom now also causes your next Death Coil/Epidemic to burst a Festering Wound.

Developer’s note: We are looking into ways to increase the frequency you apply Festering Wound with Festering Strike so we are exploring having a Runic Power spender burst a wound instead of only rune spenders or Apocalypse. Internally with testing we have found it creates a natural cadence in which you want to press Festering Strike instead of relying only on passive wound applicators. The other perk of Death Coil bursting a Festering Wound when consuming Sudden Doom is it helps ease the friction of what to press during your cooldowns.

• Army of the Dead cooldown reduced to 3 minutes (was 8 minutes).
• Apocalypse cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 90 seconds).
• Dark Transformation cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
• Vile Contagion cooldown reduced to 45 seconds (was 90 seconds).
• Festermight now functions like Ironfur, allowing multiple instances to overlap.
• Ebon Fever now also affects Frost Fever and Blood Plague if Superstrain is talented.
• The following talents have been removed:

  • Replenishing Wounds
  • Army of the Damned
  • Unholy Command
  • Feasting Strike