The Patch 5.4 Death Knight Changes don’t amount to a whole lot this time ’round. You got some nice buffs, a new talent (Riposte,) Anti-Magic Shell was the only real nerf, and the rest were tweaks. Check the glyphs, there are a couple which you will probably want to use. See below for details.
PvP: Resilience is now 72% and there are some other small changes. Go here for more. As for PvP gear, note that getting the two PvP trinkets gives you a nice Resilience bonus. You call if that’s enough to keep you from equipping a PvE trinket, but there are some pretty crazy PvE trinkets dropping in this patch (PvEexample Vs PvPexample.)
There are some remarks going around about how crazy the trinkets are this patch. The trinkets look like they’ve been fixed (nerfed hard) and are now in line with what you would expect, not that they aren’t pretty nice.
Basically, The Patch 5.4 Death Knight Changes won’t change much about what you do. You’ll go on just as before, regardless of spec. The nerf to anti-magic shell and the addition of Riposte,which is a passive ability, being the only real changes.
Skip to: General abilities, Blood, Frost, Unholy, Talents, Glyphs, More
Note that the tooltips you see when hovering over a link might not reflect the 5.4 Death Knight changes until 5.4 goes live.
The Patch 5.4 Death Knight Changes
General DK Abilities
Buffed
- Icebound Fortitude no longer costs Runic Power.
- Rune of Razorice now causes 3% extra weapon damage as Frost damage (up from 2%), and each stack of Frost Vulnerability now causes the target to take an additional 3% damage from the Death Knight’s Frost attacks (up from 2%).
- Soul Reaper‘s initial damage component has been increased by 30%. If the target is below 35% health after 5 seconds the amount of Shadow Damage dealt has been increased by 20%.
- Unholy Presence now grants a flat 10% Haste to all things, up from Haste for melee (attack speed and Rune regeneration) only. The movement speed buff remains unchanged.
Nerfed
- Necrotic Strike now deals 100% weapon damage (down from 150% weapon damage).
Misc:
- Death Gate now returns the Death Knight to a location near their original departure point when the spell is cast while in Ebon Hold.
- Fixed a bug that caused Improved Blood Presence and Runic Corruption to incorrectly increase activation rates of some trinkets and effects.
Blood Spec
They (the changes) are all good.
- Riposte is a new passive ability learned by Blood Death Knights at level 76. When the Death Knight dodges or parries any attack, they gain 75% of their Parry and Dodge as additional bonus to Critical Strike for 20 seconds.
- Dancing Rune Weapon no longer costs Runic Power.
- Sanguine Fortitude no longer reduces the cost of Icebound Fortitude, since IF no longer costs Runic Power.
- Scent of Blood now also has a chance to activate when the Death Knight dodges or parries a melee attack.
Frost Spec
Got some Buffs.
- Frost Strike now deals 115% weapons damage (up from 105% weapon damage).
- Howling Blast now deals 15% more damage.
- Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases all melee attack damage by 30% (up from 20%).
- Obliterate now deals 250% weapon damage (up from 230% weapon damage).
Unholy Spec
It’s all good. Consider using Mastery as your #1 secondary stat this patch.
- Master of Ghouls now reduces the cooldown of Raise Dead by 60 seconds.
- Ghoul’s Leap and Gnaw abilities are no longer on a global cooldown, and no longer cost Energy.
- Unholy Might now increases the Death Knight’s Strength by 25% (up from 10%).
Death Knight Talent Changes
Some classes had some serious talent changes, nice to see that DKs didn’t get all those changes. Just a few:
- Big nerf: Anti-Magic Zone has been redesigned. The talent now reduces magic damage taken in the area-of-effect by 40% for 3 seconds, there is no longer a cap on total damage absorbed, and the ability no longer scales with strength. It used to reduce damage by 75%, the absorbtion scaled with Str, and it lasted 10 seconds. You may want to pick a different talent now. You will have to have better timing, such as knowing exactly when the magic damage is coming, to make it worthwhile to use now.
- Death Siphon had its damage increased by 10%, but it’s probably not enough.
- Plague Leech now tries to convert 2 fully-depleted runes (up from 1) into a Death Rune based on specialization.
- Blood: Restores 1 Frost Rune, 1 Unholy Rune
- Frost: 1 Frost Rune, 1 Unholy Rune
- Unholy: 1 Blood Rune, 1 Frost Rune
Death Knight Glyphs
New Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Festering Blood: Makes Blood Boil treat all targets as if they have been infected with Blood Plague or Frost Fever.
- Glyph of Regenerative Magic: If Anti-Magic Shell expires after its full duration, cooldown for the ability is reduced based on the amount of damage absorbed.
- Glyph of Swift Death: Haste effect granted by Soul Reaper now also increases the Death Knight’s movement speed for the duration.
- Glyph of the Loud Horn: Horn of Winter now generates additional Runic Power, but the cooldown is increased. Tis will likely become a required glyph, along with the new minor: Glyph of the Long Winter
Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Enduring Infection now reduces damage dealt by diseases by 15% (down from a 30% reduction).
- Glyph of Mind Freeze now reduces the cooldown of Mind Freeze by 1 second, and raises its cost by 10 Runic Power (down from 2 seconds and 20 Runic Power).
- Glyph of Outbreak now causes Outbreak to cost 30 Runic Power (down from 40).
- Glyph of Pillar of Frost now reduces movement speed by 70% instead of freezing the Death Knight in place.
New Minor Glyphs
- Glyph of the Long Winter: The Horn of Winter ability now lasts for 1 hour (up from 5 min.)
- Glyph of the Skeleton: The Death Knight’s Raise Dead spell now summons a Skeleton instead of a Ghoul.
The Death Knight Pages
- Death Knight overview – a general guide to the Death Knight
- Death Knight Leveling – Tips to get to 90 quickly
- Blood spec tanking – Tanking in dungeons and raids
- Blood Spec PvP
- Frost spec for PvE
- Frost in PvP
- Unholy for PvE
- Unholy PvP
- Got to 90, faster