I actually began this article intending to touch on several specs that hadn't changed that much, but after writing five paragraphs on Frost DKs, I figured that maybe there was enough to justify an entire article. This is, after all, the spec of one of my co-mains, so I tend to be a little better-versed in its intricacies (though now that I've said that, I'm sure someone will scoff at me for saying something wrong.)
Frost Strike - More Power for More Runic Power, but a Discount for Buying in Bulk
Frost Strike now costs a bit more but hits twice as hard. The central mechanic for Frost is managing your Killing Machine procs and trying to spend them on your variation's more powerful strike (Frost Strike for Dual-wielders and Obliterate for 2H.) As players got more Haste, the KM procs would come so quickly and resources would regenerate so fast that it got to a point where A. it became a loss to actually wait for your preferred ability to come up and B. Haste itself was almost totally de-valued as a stat once you hit the later tiers, because a little on one or two pieces would go a long way.
The greater expense of Frost Strike could encourage dual-wielders to use Obliterate more, and there is a perk that causes the free Howling Blast you get from Obliterate (what used to be the "Rime" passive) to deal more damage, so I think Dual-Wielders are going to be pushed away from Howling Blast/Frost Strike spam. This change will, yes, slow the rotation down a little, but we can easily compensate for that with Haste, especially as we have that as our Stat-Attunement.
Diseases Made Easier
With Blood Boil and Pestilence merged, Roiling Blood has been replaced with Plaguebringer (not that Frost would ever take Roiling Blood, as you'd always be better off spending your Death Runes on Howling Blast instead of Blood Boil.) Plaguebringer causes your Frost Strikes (or Death Coils, which we sadly no longer have) to refresh your diseases (or add a stack to Necrotic Plague, since that one can't be refreshed.) This really lets you just apply diseases and forget about them.
(To Be Read as Michael from Lost): "They took my ghoul!"
Raise Dead is now Unholy-only. Now, I get this and the reasoning behind it, as they're trying to cut back on stacked cool downs that you'd just macro anyway. But damn it, we're DEATH Knights. The only real necromancy Frost gets to do now is Army of the Dead, which had its damage slashed so that it serves more as an emergency panic button and less of a once-a-raid-boss damage cool down. If they must take the ghoul, I hope that they'll figure out a way to get some of that undead theme back into Frost. Maybe let us proc ghostly spirits to attack our enemies that are somehow not a Shadow Priest's Apparitions...
Diseases Made Less Interesting
This is true for all DKs, but diseases no longer affect the damage of our biggest strikes. They are now purely DOTs, but they've been tuned to deal more damage now, so you'll still be incentivized to keep them up (which should be very easy with Plaguebringer and the Blood Boil/Pestilence change.)
Weapon Runes: Uh... nothing to see here, move along.
Sadly one thing that did not change is that we're still stuck with Rune of the Fallen Crusader. FC is the go-to rune for 2H and Unholy, as well as going on the off-hand for DW. I really wish they'd just get rid of Fallen Crusader so that each spec could have its own, more interesting runes. There seemed to be some intention to have Frost use Razorice and Cinderglacier, but they backed off from that, first by completely getting rid of Cinderglacier and then by adding a Fallen Crusader portion to the perk that buffed Razorice. I think we might just be stuck with Fallen Crusader. Oh well, the self-heal is nice.
Slight Tweak to Rune Regeneration:
Regeneration talents (Runic Empowerment, Runic Corruption, and Blood Tap) now trigger from any expenditure of Runes, instead of only Frost Strike/Death Coil (and sadly, we now have only Frost Strike, which replaces DC for Frost.)
Level 100 Talents:
Necrotic Plague:
Necrotic Plague is one of two new talents that were used in the Lich King fight at the end of Wrath. NP will replace both Frost Fever and Blood Plague, doing more damage than both of them combined, but it works in a weird way. NP will start dealing not very much damage at all, but every tick it will gain another stack and spread to a new target if there is one. Reapplications will add a new stack (up to a max of 15) as well, but they will not extend the duration. That means that you'll have to be ready to reapply the disease as soon as it falls out to maximize damage. It will also cause affected targets to grant you Runic Power if they strike you.
Defile:
By the Light, just hearing that name is giving me Lich King flashbacks. Defile is another replacement ability, taking the place of Death and Decay but granting you one of the most infamous raid boss abilities in WoW history. Like Death and Decay, Defile begins as a simple ground-based AoE, but every time it deals damage, it will grow both in size and power. There's almost certainly a cap on this for players, but in a big group it will probably do a lot of damage (it's also Shadowfrost damage, so both DPS specs can benefit equally from their masteries.) Enemies standing in Defile will deal less damage to the DK.
Breath of Sindragosa:
While it's the most unique ability at level 100, I have to be honest and say I'm not such a huge fan of it. Breath of Sindragosa has a two-minute cool down and causes you to deal Shadowfrost damage in a cone in front of you, draining Runic Power as you do so. Given the changes to rune regeneration mechanics, I think the idea is that you want to spend Runes as quickly as possible to keep it going. You also get... healed... for some of the damage it does? Yes, that sounds right.
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