Our Frost and Unholy talent trees (and a little bit of Blood) have undergone a makeover for 3.1. Blizzard attributes this to the ongoing definition of the class. All classes in wow are in a constant state of reevaluation, this is just a part of that progress. There have been many changes related to both DPS and Tankage. For my part, I’ll focus on the DPS implications.

Frost

The Frost tree has received the most attention. Blizzard has changed this tree around, resulting in the diminishment of certain talent builds (Frost\Unholy Hybrid Duel-Wield builds) they decided were against the Death Knight mythos. Galacial Rot has been moved to Tier 5, and Runic Power Mastery has now been moved to a Tier 1 talent; opening up this ability for use in non-frost builds. The pvp talent Chillblains has been unlinked from Endless Winter and has been pushed further down the tree; those were both considered PvP abilities.

The biggest change to the tree is that Blizzard swapped Howling Blast and Hungering Cold. Howling blast is now our 51 point talent. Previously, PvR frost DK’s skipped this ability because it’s a PvP or Utility Dungeon ability which is useless in raids. My problem with this is that all the talents in Tier 7 Frost are either PvP abilities, or talents which do not affect DPS, so no matter which talent you pick in Tier 7, its pretty much going to be a wasted point (your choices are Chillblains, Hungering Cold, or Improved Frost Presence).

Howling Blast, the iconic Frost talent has been pushed to the bottom of the tree. Many people in the DK community hoped that Blizzard would improved the recently-nerfed ability since they dropped it further down the tree. On the test realm, Howling Blast has had its post-nerfed damage doubled, but has also had its cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds; not exactly the changes we were all hoping for.

It looks like those of you who were accustomed to 0/33/38 will probably have to either go Unholy, or spec further into frost, maybe to something along the lines of 0/51/20. This appears to be an attractive build on the test realm.

Unholy

Virulence and Morbidity have been switched around. This makes Virulence an easier talent to get for Frost and Blood builds. Virulence increases spell hit as well as provides dispel resistance. The spell hit is very good in PvE, and the dispel resistance makes Virulence an attractive PvP talent.

You’ve read my opinions on Shadow of Death. I think Blizzard read it too. Wait, who am I kidding, I’m just some guy who writes a Death Knight blog. In this case, my opinion was dead on. Shadow of Death was just too buggy. It has been removed from the tree. In its place, Master of Ghouls has been moved up to become a Tier 4 talent, once again making it more accessible to builds that only put 20 points or less in Unholy. A new ability has been added which depends on you taking Master of Ghouls; Ghoul Frenzy. Ghoul Frenzy gives you a new ability which is essentially a HoT for your Ghoul. One of my main complaints about the Ghoul and specs which depend on its dps is that the Ghoul is a wimpy little sissy. It dies a lot faster and lacks the AoE resistance of Hunter or Warlock pets. I’m hoping that just maybe Ghoul Frenzy will give it a little more survivability.

The final major change is that Unholy Blight, the former 51-point talent was moved up to Tier 5, and the Gargoyle was moved down to its place at the bottom of the tree. The gargoyle is among the most nerfed abilities in our class and is now currently a desiccated corpse of its former glory. Not content with nerfing its damage, Blizzard has put it so far down the tree that only the most devoted Unholy DK’s will be able to take it. It is now out of reach for Blood and Frost builds. On the other hand, Unholy Blight is now higher up in the tree and is available to other builds.

Many other abilities have had their numbers buffed or nerfed. Make sure to check out the patch notes.