Leaked Changes to Killing Machine in Legion!

[Deleted]

Leaked from Russian forum:

"With the new introduction to a single Rune ressource system in Legion we felt like it really allowed us to make some major changes to the Frost Death Knight and introduce some depth in the gameplay that wasnt revolved around the runes. At the same time we've heard alot of criticism about how Killing Machine devalued crit and didnt really alter the prioritization of the gameplay much and in the end just resolved in being a flat dmg increase with a devaluation of critical strike. With this in mind we are working on the following changes to Killing Machine:

Killing Machine:
Each ability has a chance to trigger Killing Machine with up to 1 stacks (Can be increased to 2 with talents). Using Frost Strike / Obliterate / Howling Blast while Killing Machine is active will empower the death knight according to what spell is used for 5 seconds. You can have all 3 empowerments active at the same time.

Using Frost Strike while Killing Machine is active will turn all of Obliterates dmg into Frost.
Using Howling Blast while Killing Machine is active will increase the Death Knights rune & runic regeneration by 100%
Using Obliterate while Killing Machine is active will make Frost Strike Cleave with 20% in 10 yard radius."

We felt this change to Killing Machine kept the fun aspect of having to react to procs while removing the annoying devaluation of crit aswell as introducing some choice for Death Knights on whether they want to empower their AOE / ST / Ressource Regeneration capabilities.

We look forward to everyone testing out the changes in Beta!"

[Darkguyver2020]

Very interesting changes. Gonna have to see how it plays out before I make a judgement on it.
At the very least, people can't say that the devs haven't been listening.

[Jagorath]

Using Howling Blast while Killing Machine is active will increase the Death Knights rune & runic regeneration by 100%

That's curious bit of info.
What are the odds of complete removal of runic regen talents ?

[Wrien]

Seems fake

[Deleted]

That's curious bit of info.
What are the odds of complete removal of runic regen talents ?

I don't think all the pieces are in place at the moment, but it seems like the realize they must do something to killing machine to make Frost a more interactive specc.

[Wrien]

Using Frost Strike/death strike/other skills has a chance to trigger killing machine, and using frost strike while killing machine is active will make your next obliterate deal frost damage? That sounds very confusing....

[Deleted]

Using Frost Strike/death strike/other skills has a chance to trigger killing machine, and using frost strike while killing machine is active will make your next obliterate deal frost damage? That sounds very confusing....

I think the reason they wanna change the killing machine proc away from auto attacks into abilities is to increase the punishment of being GCD locked and by that increase the value of using the killing machine on Howling Blast.

[jackofwind]

Using Frost Strike/death strike/other skills has a chance to trigger killing machine, and using frost strike while killing machine is active will make your next obliterate deal frost damage? That sounds very confusing....

Why is that confusing?

proc killing machine > use frost strike to empower obliterates due to frost mastery > use obliterate to do aoe damage.

It's no more complicated then empowered divine storm was for ret.

[Tylaeus]

Source? Sounds interesting but I don't think it sounds real.

[Deleted]

Source? Sounds interesting but I don't think it sounds real.

It was leaked on a russian forum. Dunno if it is real I agree that the numbers might seem alittle unreal but i guess it depends on how high the proc chance is on Killing Machine. I hope its real though seems fun.

[Tylaeus]

If true, I wonder how this will affect the talents we've seen datamined so far, as they seem designed for the current iteration of Killing Machine.

[Deleted]

If true, I wonder how this will affect the talents we've seen datamined so far, as they seem designed for the current iteration of Killing Machine.

Yeh it looks like the tier 1 talents looks pretty uncoordinated with theese changes if they are true. But the tier1 talents where also pretty boring Sub-zero was a flat increase to mastery valuation. Without Remorse seemed to just increase the Killing Machine uptime which in turn would make the limiting factor ressources and by that limiting the amount of choice and interaction that KM offers. Icy Taloons just seems like a flat dmg increase that doesn't do anything to gameplay other than inreasing KM uptime which much like Without Remorse would make ressources a limiting factor and by that decreasing interaction with the proc.

The current tier1 talents looks so similar in purpose that its pretty obvious that 1 of them would have been the optimal choice for every encounter so i wouldn't be suprised if they decided to rework KM and scrape the tier1 talents. I mean as a DPS the choice is often between ST / AOE / Burst / Utility all of the current tier1 talents are just flat inreases to ST & Burst?

[Tylaeus]

Yeh it looks like the tier 1 talents looks pretty uncoordinated with theese changes if they are true. But the tier1 talents where also pretty boring Sub-zero was a flat increase to mastery valuation. Without Remorse seemed to just increase the Killing Machine uptime which in turn would make the limiting factor ressources and by that limiting the amount of choice and interaction that KM offers. Icy Taloons just seems like a flat dmg increase that doesn't do anything to gameplay other than inreasing KM uptime which much like Without Remorse would make ressources a limiting factor and by that decreasing interaction with the proc.

The current tier1 talents looks so similar in purpose that its pretty obvious that 1 of them would have been the optimal choice for every encounter so i wouldn't be suprised if they decided to rework KM and scrape the tier1 talents. I mean as a DPS the choice is often between ST / AOE / Burst / Utility all of the current tier1 talents are just flat inreases to ST & Burst?

Also, our last row of PvP talents has a choice that replaces passive Killing Machine with an activated Killing Machine on a 45 second CD, with 50% damage bonus. I thought this was pretty bad, and the rest of the row is boring as well, so maybe with this change we'll get a more interesting talent on our last row in PvP.

[Sinzaram]

It was leaked on a russian forum.

You could still link this for the class to see, regardless. Still seems fishy without a link to the post.

[Deleted]

Also, our last row of PvP talents has a choice that replaces passive Killing Machine with an activated Killing Machine on a 45 second CD, with 50% damage bonus. I thought this was pretty bad, and the rest of the row is boring as well, so maybe with this change we'll get a more interesting talent on our last row in PvP.

Ye that doesnt seem to fit with the new KM i wonder how much they have thought about PVP with theese new KM's a 100% mastery OBL crit will really reck in PVP :s

[RockmSockm]

That would make certain talents and artifact points worthless.

[Clash the DK]

First of all, I wouldn't trust anything posted here or on any other forum as a "leak". Second, these changes to KM are nonsensical.


So you would have to use a random ability in order to get the proc to then use a certain ability to empower a different ability.

~ The concept is over-complicated for no good reason. The middle step could be left out for better results.
~ The fact that we need Obliterate to deal frost damage in order to scale better with our current Mastery is the allure here.
~ 100% resource regeneration is absurd.

[Tylaeus]

That would make certain talents and artifact points worthless.

Keep in mind the context of this leak is an actual announcement as far as we know, whereas the talents and artifact trees that we know of are from an old alpha build. If this leak is true, those talents will be changed.

[Schizoide]

Leaked from Russian forum:

If that is true, it aligns very closely with all my suggestions/feedback over the past 5+ years-- very happy!

1) Procs from using abilities, not auto-attacks. Player doesn't constantly feel like he's "failing a test" when responding to an instant proc. Check.
2) Doesn't devalue crit. Still can't believe they left that in for so many expansions when it was so trivial to fix.
3) Player has to make an actual choice how to spend the proc, providing real gameplay. It can't be ignored, because you want either 2 or 3 of those effects active at all times. Check!

Good stuff indeed!!

Not going to bother criticizing the specific effects as this is just a leak and they'll change anyway. But if the leak is true it's very, very promising that they're changing it so it provides real gameplay.
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What are the odds of complete removal of runic regen talents ?

Yes it's a copy of Runic Corruption, but they could stack-- this doesn't really imply that will happen. I hope it does, though!

[Tylaeus]

Yes it's a copy of Runic Corruption, but they could stack-- this doesn't really imply that will happen. I hope it does, though!

One of Frost's artifact talents also causes our diseases to trigger Runic Empowerment. Maybe this will be a total replacement of rune regen for frost, or they just want Frost to have way more rune regen than the other specs?