Death Knight Dragonflight Talent Tree Preview for All Specs

Dragonflight Posted 2022/06/03 at 12:15 PM by Squishei

To learn about the best PvE talent builds in Dragonflight for this class, and export these builds into the game, please check out our Blood, Frost, and Unholy Death Knight class guides:
Blood Death Knight Talent BuildsFrost Death Knight Talent BuildsUnholy Death Knight Talent BuildsDeath Knight Dragonflight Talent Tree ImagesDeath Knight Dragonflight Talent Tree and Ability BreakdownGeneral Notes

Blizzard

Death Knight Talents and Abilities

As we move toward Dragonflight talents we are exploring ways for the Death Knight to express themselves based on their class talent choices. Each branch of the class tree is thematically tied to a specialization and the further you invest down a path the more you unlock talents that may have been previously unavailable to your spec such as Empower Rune Weapon, Will of the Necropolis, and Soul Reaper. Our goal is to create new and exciting options for you to explore and play around with allowing for a rich and engaging core tree that you can customize based on your own goals.

Baseline Abilities and Talents

Blizzard

Death Knight Ability and Talent TooltipsBelow you'll find a list of all baseline abilities and Talents available for Death Knights, including class-shared and specialization-specific Talents.

Baseline Death Knight AbilitiesAll maximum level Death Knights will have access to these abilities. They are earned through leveling and do not require you to spend talent points to have them.Death Coil: Fires a blast of unholy energy at the target, causing Shadow damage to an enemy or healing an Undead ally for health.Death Grip: Harnesses the energy that surrounds and binds all matter, drawing the target toward you.Runeforging: Allows the Death Knight to emblazon their weapon with runes.Dark Command: Command the target to attack you.Death Gate: Opens a gate which you can use to return to Ebon Hold. Using a Death Gate while in Ebon Hold will return you back to near your departure point.On a Pale Horse: You are as hard to stop as death itself, increasing your mounted speed by 20%.Path of Frost: Activates a freezing aura for 10 min that creates ice beneath your feet, allowing party or raid members within 50 yards to walk on water. Usable while mounted, but being attacked or damaged will cancel the effect.Death and Decay: Corrupts the targeted ground, causing Shadow damage over 10 sec to targets within the area.Rune Strike: Strike the target for Physical damage. This attack cannot be dodged, blocked, or parried.

Class Talents

Blizzard

Death Knight Class Talents. denotes a talent that has a temporary, not yet final name.
Row 1Chains of Ice: Shackles the target with frozen chains, reducing movement speed by 70% for 8 seconds.

Granted by default when selecting Frost Specialization.

Death Strike: Focuses dark power into a strike that deals Physical damage and heals you for a percentage of all damage taken in the last 5 seconds.

Granted by default when selecting Blood Specialization.

Raise Dead: Raises a ghoul to fight by your side. You can have a maximum of one ghoul at a time. Lasts 1 minute.

Granted by default when selecting Unholy Specialization.

Row 2Mind Freeze: Smash the target's mind with cold, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 3 seconds.Anti-Magic Shell: Surrounds you in an Anti-Magic Shell for 5 sec, absorbing a large amount of magic damage and preventing application of harmful magical effects. Damage absorbed generates Runic Power.Improved Death and Decay :

Blood: Heart Strike hits 3 additional enemies while you remain in Death and Decay.
Frost: Obliterate hits 1 additional enemy while you remain in Death and Decay.
Unholy: Scourge Strike hits 5 additional enemies while you remain in Death and Decay.

Row 3Icebound Fortitude: Your blood freezes, granting immunity to Stun effects and reducing all damage you take by 30% for 8 seconds.Blood Scent: Increases Leech by 3%.Veteran of the Third War:

Blood: Stamina increased by %. Two Rank Talent
Frost & Unholy: Stamina increased by % Rank Two Talent. Two Rank Talent

Suppression: Increases Avoidance by 3%.Brittle: Your diseases have a chance to weaken your enemy causing your attacks against them to deal 6% increased damage for 5 seconds.
Row 4Blinding Sleet: Targets in a cone in front of you are blinded, causing them to wander disoriented for 5 seconds. Damage may cancel the effect. When Blinding Sleet ends, enemies are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds.Permafrost: Your auto attack damage grants you an absorb shield equal to 40% of the damage dealt.Death Pact: Create a death pact that heals you for 50% of your maximum health, but absorbs incoming healing equal to 30% of your max health for 15 seconds.Wraith Walk: Embrace the power of the Shadowlands, removing all root effects and increasing your movement speed by 70% for 4 seconds. Taking any action cancels the effect. While active, your movement speed cannot be reduced below 170%.Sacrificial Pact: Sacrifice your ghoul to deal Shadow damage to all nearby enemies and heal for 25% of your maximum health. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.Unholy Ground: Gain 5% Haste while you remain within your Death and Decay.
Row 5Merciless Strikes: Increases Critical Strike chance by %. Two Rank Talent.Anti-Magic Zone: Places an Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage taken by party or raid members by 20%. The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 8 sec or until it absorbs a large amount of damage.Might of Thassarian: Increases Strength chance by %. Two Rank Talent.
Row 6Proliferating Chill: Chains of Ice affects 1 additional nearby enemy.Choice Node:

Runic Empowerment: Each Runic Power you spend has a 2.0% chance to instantly grant you a Rune.
Runic Corruption: Each Runic Power you spend has a 1.6% chance to increase your Rune regeneration rate by 100% for 3 seconds.

Anticipation: Successfully interrupting an enemy with Mind Freeze grants 10 Runic Power and reduces its cooldown by 3 seconds.Asphyxiate: Lifts the enemy target off the ground, crushing their throat with dark energy and stunning them for 5 seconds.Death's Advance:For 8 sec, your movement speed is increased by 30%, you cannot be slowed below 100% of normal speed, and you are immune to forced movement effects and knockbacks. Passive: You cannot be slowed below 70% of normal speed.Anti-Magic Barrier: Reduces the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell by 20 sec and increases its duration and amount absorbed by 40%.Control Undead: Dominates the target undead creature up to level 61, forcing it to do your bidding for 5 minutes.Choice Node:

Death's Reach: Increases the range of Death Grip by 10 yds. Killing an enemy that yields experience or honor resets the cooldown of Death Grip.
Grip of the Dead: Death and Decay reduces the movement speed of enemies within its area by 90%, decaying by 10% every seconds.

Enfeeble: Your ghoul’s attacks have a chance to apply Enfeeble, reducing the target’s movement speed by 30% and the damage they deal to you by 15% for 6 seconds.
Row 7Acclimation: Icebound Fortitude's cooldown is reduced by 60 seconds.Assimilation: The amount absorbed by Anti-Magic Zone is increased by 10% and grants up to 100 Runic Power based on the amount absorbed.Lichborne: Draw upon unholy energy to become Undead for 10 sec, increasing Leech by 10%, and making you immune to Charm, Fear, and Sleep.
Row 8Icy Talons: Your Runic Power spending abilities increase your melee attack speed by % for 6 sec, stacking up to 3 times. Three Rank Talent.Horn of Winter: Blow the Horn of Winter, gaining 2 Runes and generating 25 Runic Power.Improved Death Strike : Death Strike's cost is reduced by 10, and its healing is increased by % for Blood specialization and % for Frost and Unholy specialization. Three Rank Talent.Will of the Necropolis: Damage taken below 30% Health is reduced by 30%.Unholy Bond: Increases the effectiveness of your Runeforge effects by %. Three Rank Talent.
Row 9Runic Attenuation: Auto attacks have a chance to generate 5 Runic Power.Rune Mastery: Consuming a Rune has a chance to increase your Strength by 6% for 6 seconds.Blood Draw: When you fall below 30% health you drain health from nearby enemies. Can only occur every 3 minutes.Death's Echo: Death's Advance, Death and Decay, and Death Grip have 1 additional charge.
Row 10Empower Rune Weapon: Empower your rune weapon, gaining 15% Haste and generating 1 Rune and 5 Runic Power instantly and every 5 sec for 20 seconds. If Empower Rune Weapon is not talented elsewhere on the tree, this grants 1 charge of Empower Rune Weapon.Abomination Limb: Sprout an additional limb, dealing Shadow damage over 12 sec to all nearby enemies. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets. Every 1 sec, an enemy is pulled to your location if they are further than 8 yds from you. The same enemy can only be pulled once every 4 seconds. Gain Runic Corruption instantly, and again every 6 seconds.Soul Reaper: Strike an enemy for Shadowfrost damage and afflict the enemy with Soul Reaper. After 5 sec, if the target is below 35% health this effect will explode dealing additional Shadowfrost damage to the target. If the enemy that yields experience or honor dies while afflicted by Soul Reaper, gain Runic Corruption.

Blood Death Knight Talents

Blizzard

Blood Death Knight Talents. denotes a talent that has a temporary, not yet final name.
Blood Row 1Heart Strike: Instantly strike the target and 1 other nearby enemy, causing Physical damage, and reducing enemies' movement speed by 20% for 8 sec.
Blood Row 2Marrowrend: Smash the target, dealing Physical damage and generating 3 charges of Bone Shield.Blood Boil: Deals Shadow damage and infects all enemies within 10 yds with Blood Plague.
Blood Row 3Foul Bulwark: Each charge of Bone Shield increases your maximum health by 1%.Crimson Scourge: Your auto attacks on targets infected with your Blood Plague have a chance to make your next Death and Decay cost no runes and reset its cooldown.Improved Blood Boil : Increases the maximum number of Blood Boil charges by 1.
Blood Row 4Improved Boneshield : Bone Shield increases your Haste by %. Two Rank Talent.Improved Heart Strike: Heart Strike damage increased by %. Two Rank Talent.Blood Fortification: Stamina increased by %. Damage taken reduced by %. Three Rank Talent.Rune Tap: Reduces all damage taken by 20% for 4 sec.
Blood Row 5Blood Tap: Consume the essence around you to generate 1 Rune. Recharge time reduced by 2 sec whenever a Bone Shield charge is consumed.Reinforced Bones: Increases Armor gained from Bone Shield by 10%.Leeching Strike: Heart Strike heals you for 0.5% health for each enemy hit while affected by Blood Plague.Vampiric Blood: Embrace your undeath, increasing your maximum health by 30% and increasing all healing and absorbs received by 30% for 10 sec.Hasty Bargain: When Crimson Scourge activates, you gain % Haste for 6 sec. Two Rank Talent.Death's Caress: Reach out with necrotic tendrils, dealing Shadow damage and applying Blood Plague to your target and generating 2 Bone Shield charges. 6 second cooldown.
Blood Row 6Choice Node:

Blooddrinker: Drains health from the target over 3 sec. You can move, parry, dodge, and use defensive abilities while channeling this ability.
Consumption: Strikes all enemies in front of you with a hungering attack that deals Physical damage and heals you for 150% of that damage. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.

Choice Node:

Mark of Blood: Places a Mark of Blood on an enemy for 15 sec. The enemy's damaging auto attacks will also heal their victim for 3% of the victim's maximum health.
Tombstone: Consume up to 5 Bone Shield charges. For each charge consumed, you gain 6 Runic Power and absorb damage equal to 6% of your maximum health for 8 sec.

Choice Node:

Voracious: Death Strike's healing is increased by 20% and grants you 15% Leech for 8 sec.
Bloodworms: Your auto attacks have a chance to summon a Bloodworm. Bloodworms deal minor damage to your target for 15 sec and then burst, healing you for 15% of your missing health. If you drop below 50% health, your Bloodworms will immediately burst and heal you.

Relish in Blood: While Crimson Scourge is active, your next Death and Decay heals you for a small amount of health per Bone Shield charge and you immediately gain 10 Runic Power.
Blood Row 7Ossuary: While you have at least 5 Bone Shield charges, the cost of Death Strike is reduced by 5 Runic Power. Additionally, your maximum Runic Power is increased by 10.Improved Vampiric Blood : Increases all healing and absorbs by % and duration by sec. Two Rank Talent.Hemostasis: Each enemy hit by Blood Boil increases the damage and healing done by your next Death Strike by %, stacking up to 5 times. Two Rank Talent.Heartbreaker: Heart Strike generates additional Runic Power per target hit. Two Rank Talent.
Blood Row 8Rapid Decomposition: Your Blood Plague and Death and Decay deal damage 15% more often. Additionally, your Blood Plague leeches 50% more Health.Dancing Rune Weapon: Summons a rune weapon for 8 sec that mirrors your melee attacks and bolsters your defenses. While active, you gain 40% parry chance.Gorefiend's Grasp: Shadowy tendrils coil around all enemies within 15 yards of a hostile or friendly target, pulling them to the target's location.
Blood Row 9Shattering Bone: When Bone Shield is consumed it shatters dealing damage to nearby enemies. This damage is tripled to enemies affected by Death and Decay. Two Rank Talent.Heartrend: Heart Strike has a chance to reduce the Runic Power cost of your next Death Strike by 10 and deal an additional % damage based on your missing health. Two Rank Talent.Crimson Rune Weapon: Dancing Rune Weapon generates 5 Bone Shield Charges and whenever a charge of Bone Shield is consumed, the cooldown Dancing Rune Weapon is reduced by 5 sec.Tightening Grasp: Enemies hit by Gorefiend's Grasp take % increased damage from you for 15 sec. Additionally, reduces the cooldown on Gorefiend's Grasp by 30 sec. Two Rank Talent.Red Thirst: Reduces the cooldown on Vampiric Blood by sec per 10 Runic Power spent. Two Rank Talent.
Blood Row 10Bonestorm: A whirl of bone and gore batters all nearby enemies, dealing Shadow damage every 1 sec, and healing you for 3% of your maximum health every time it deals damage (up to 15%). Lasts 1 sec per 10 Runic Power spent. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.Everlasting Bond: Summons 1 additional copy of Dancing Rune Weapon. Additionally, each rune spent increases its duration by 0.5 sec.Purgatory: An unholy pact that prevents fatal damage, instead absorbing incoming healing equal to the damage prevented, lasting 3 sec. If any healing absorption remains when this effect expires, you will die. This effect may only occur every 4 minutes.Unquenchable Thirst: While Vampiric Blood is active store a portion of of your Death Strike healing. When Vampiric Blood expires splatter nearby enemies dealing 100% of the stored healing as Shadow damage.

Frost Death Knight Talents. denotes a talent that has a temporary, not yet final name.
Frost Row 1Frost Strike: Chill your weapons with icy power and quickly strike the enemy with both, dealing Frost damage.
Frost Row 2Obliterate: A brutal attack with both weapons that deals Physical damage.Howling Blast: Blast the target with a frigid wind, dealing Frost damage to that foe, and reduced damage to all other enemies within 10 yards, infecting all targets with Frost Fever.
Frost Row 3Killing Machine: Each charge of Bone Shield increases your maximum health by 1%.Rime: Obliterate has a 45% chance to cause your next Howling Blast to consume no runes and deal 150% additional damage.
Frost Row 4Unleashed Frenzy: Frost Strike increases your strength by 1.0% for 6 seconds, stacks up to 3 times.Runic Command: Increases your maximum Runic Power by . Two Rank Talent.Improved Frost Strike : Increases Frost Strike damage by . Two Rank Talent.Remorseless Winter: Drain the warmth of life from all nearby enemies within 8 yards, dealing Frost damage over 8 sec and reducing their movement speed by 20%.
Frost Row 5Improved Obliterate : Increases Obliterate damage by . Two Rank Talent.Pillar of Frost: The power of frost increases your Strength by 20% for 12 seconds. Each Rune spent while active increases your Strength by an additional 1%.Improved Rime : Increases Howling Blast damage done by an additional %. Two Rank Talent.
Frost Row 6Choice Node:

Frigid Executioner: Obliterate has a 10% chance to refund 2 runes.
Rage of the Frozen Champion: Obliterate has a 15% increased chance to trigger Rime and Howling Blast generates 8 Runic Power while Rime is active.

Improved Killing Machine: Your next Obliterate also deals Frost damage.Choice Node:

Inexorable Assault: Gain Inexorable Assault every 8 sec, stacking up to 5 times. Obliterate consumes a stack to deal additional Frost damage.
Cold Heart: Every 2 sec, gain a stack of Cold Heart, causing your next Chains of Ice to deal Frost damage. Stacks up to 20 times.

Choice Node:

Avalanche: Casting Howling Blast with Rime active causes jagged icicles to fall on enemies nearby your target, dealing Frost damage.
Frozen Pulse: While you have fewer than 3 full Runes, your auto attacks radiate intense cold, inflicting Frost damage on all nearby enemies.

Biting Cold: Remorseless Winter damage is increased by 30%. The first time Remorseless Winter deals damage to 3 different enemies, you gain Rime.Chill Streak: Deals Frost damage to the target and reduces their movement speed by 70% for 4 seconds. Costs 40 Runic Power. Chill Streak bounces up to 9 times between closest targets within 6 yards.
Frost Row 7Murderous Efficiency: Consuming the Killing Machine effect has a 50% chance to grant you 1 Rune.Might of the Frozen Wastes: Wielding a two-handed weapon increases Obliterate damage by 30%, and causes your auto attack critical strikes to grant Killing Machine.Enduring Strength: When Pillar of Frost expires, your Strength is increased by for 6 seconds. This effect lasts 2 sec longer for each Obliterate and Frostscythe critical strike during Pillar of Frost. Two Rank Talent.Frostwhelp's Aid: Pillar of Frost summons a Frostwhelp who breathes on all enemies within 40 yards in front of you for Frost damage. Each unique enemy hit increases your Mastery by , up to . Two Rank Talent.Gathering Storm: Each Rune spent during Remorseless Winter increases its damage by 10%, and extends its duration by 0.5 seconds.Empower Rune Weapon: Empower Rune Weapon gains an additional charge. If Empower Rune Weapon is not talented elsewhere on the tree, this grants 1 charge of Empower Rune Weapon.Choice Node:

Piercing Chill: Enemies suffer 5% increased damage from Chill Streak each time they are struck by it.
Enduring Chill: Chill Streak's bounce range is increased by 2 yds and each time Chill Streak bounces it has a 20% chance to increase the maximum number of bounces by 1.

Frost Row 8Glacial Advance: Summon glacial spikes from the ground that advance forward, each dealing Frost damage and applying Razorice to enemies near their eruption point.Bonegrinder: Consuming Killing Machine grants 1% critical strike chance for 6 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. At 5 stacks, your next Killing Machine consumes the stacks granting you increased Frost damage for 10 seconds. Two Rank Talent.Everfrost: Remorseless Winter deals % increased damage to enemies it hits, stacking up to 10 tanks. Two Rank Talent.Frostscythe: A sweeping attack that strikes all enemies in front of you for Frost damage. This attack benefits from Killing Machine. Critical strikes with Frostscythe deal 4 times normal damage. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
Frost Row 9Cold-Blooded Rage: Frost Strike critical strikes have a chance to grant Killing Machine. Two Rank Talent.Frostwyrm's Fury: Summons a frostwyrm who breathes on all enemies within 40 yd in front of you, dealing Frost damage and slowing movement speed by 50% for 10 seconds.Invigorating Freeze: Frost Fever critical strikes increase the chance to grant Runic Power by an additional . Two Rank Talent.
Frost Row 10Choice Node:

Obliteration: While Pillar of Frost is active, Frost Strike and Howling Blast always grant Killing Machine and have a 30% chance to generate a Rune.
Icecap: Your Frost Strike, Obliterate & Frostscythe critical strikes reduce the remaining cooldown of Pillar of Frost by 4 seconds.

Absolute Zero: Frostwyrm's Fury has 50% reduced cooldown and Freezes all enemies hit for 3 seconds.Breath of Sindragosa: Continuously deal Frost damage every 1 sec to enemies in a cone in front of you, until your Runic Power is exhausted. Deals reduced damage to secondary targets. Generates 2 Runes at the start and end.

Unholy Death Knight Talents

Blizzard

Unholy Death Knight Talents. denotes a talent that has a temporary, not yet final name.
Unholy Row 1Festering Strike: Strikes for Physical damage and infects the target with 2-3 Festering Wounds.
Unholy Row 2Scourge Strike: An unholy strike that deals Physical damage and Shadow damage, and causes 1 Festering Wound to burst.Improved Raise Dead : Your Raise Dead ghoul becomes permanent.
Unholy Row 3Sudden Doom: Your auto attacks have a chance to make your next Death Coil cost no Runic Power.Outbreak: Deals Shadow damage to the target and infects all nearby enemies with Virulent Plague.
Unholy Row 4Replenishing Wounds: When Festering Wound pops it generates an additional 3 Runic Power.Improved Festering Strike : Festering Strike damage increased by %. Three Rank Talent.Infectious Wound: Festering Strike has a 20% increased chance of applying additional Festering Wounds. Three Rank Talent.Epidemic: Causes each of your Virulent Plagues to flare up, dealing Shadow damage to the infected enemy, and an additional Shadow damage to all other enemies near them.
Unholy Row 5Improved Scourge Strike : Scourge Strike damage increased by %. Two Rank Talent.Harbinger of Doom: Sudden Doom triggers 15% more often and can accumulate up to 2 charges.Dark Transformation: Your ghoul deals Shadow damage to 5 nearby enemies and transforms into a powerful undead monstrosity for 15 seconds. The ghoul's abilities are empowered and take on new functions while the transformation is active.Deadly Coil: Reduces the Runic Power cost of Death Coil by . Two Rank Talent.
Unholy Row 6Clawing Shadows (Replaces Scourge Strike): Deals Shadow damage and causes 1 Festering Wound to burst.Pestilence: Death and Decay damage has a 10% chance to apply a Festering Wound to the enemy.Choice Node:

Unholy Pact: Dark Transformation creates an unholy pact between you and your pet, igniting flaming chains that deal Shadow damage over 15 sec to enemies between you and your pet. While active, your strength is increased by 3%.
Defile: Defile the targeted ground, dealing Shadow damage to all enemies over 10 seconds. While you remain within your Defile, your Scourge Strike will hit 4 enemies near the target. If any enemies are standing in the Defile, it grows in size and deals increasing damage every seconds.

Choice Node:

Bursting Sores: Bursting a Festering Wound deals 25% more damage, and deals Shadow damage to all nearby enemies. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
Ebon Fever: Virulent Plague deals 15% more damage over time in half the duration.

Infected Claws: Your ghoul's Claw attack has a 30% chance to cause a Festering Wound on the target.All Will Serve: Your Raise Dead spell summons an additional skeletal minion.
Unholy Row 7Pestilent Pustules: Bursting a Festering Wound has a 10% chance to grant you Runic Corruption.Unholy Command: Damage Dealt by Death Coil reduces the cooldown of Dark Transformation by seconds. Two Rank Talent.Army of the Dead: Summons a legion of ghouls who swarms your enemies, fighting anything they can for 30 seconds.Improved Death Coil: Death Coil deals % additional damage and seeks out 1 additional nearby enemy.Reaping: Your Soul Reaper, Scourge Strike, Festering Strike, and Death Coil deal 20% additional damage to enemies below 35% health.
Unholy Row 8Death Rot: Sudden Doom causes your Death Coil to burst up to 2 additional Festering Wounds and increases the Shadow damage the target takes from you by 4% per wound popped for 6 seconds.Apocalypse: Bring doom upon the enemy, dealing Shadow damage and bursting up to 4 Festering Wounds on the target. Summons an Army of the Dead ghoul for 15 sec for each burst Festering Wound.Unholy Blight: Surrounds yourself with a vile swarm of insects for 6 sec, stinging all nearby enemies and infecting them with Virulent Plague and an unholy disease that deals damage over 14 sec, stacking up to 4 times.
Unholy Row 9Festermight: Popping a Festering Wound increases your Strength by % for 20 sec, stacking. Does not refresh duration. Two Rank Talent.Frenzied Monstrosity: Dark Transformation also increases the attack speed and damage of you and your Monstrosity by %. Two Rank Talent.Morbidity: Diseased enemies take % increased damage per disease they are affected by. Two Rank Talent.Unholy Aura: All enemies within 8 yards take % increased damage from your minions. Two Rank Talent.
Unholy Row 10Unholy Assault: Strike your target dealing Shadow damage, infecting the target with 4 Festering Wounds and sending you into an Unholy Frenzy increasing haste by 20% for 12 seconds.Army of the Damned: Death Coil reduces the cooldown of Apocalypse by 1 sec and Army of the Dead by 5 seconds. Apocalypse and Army of the Dead also summon a Magus of the Dead who hurls Frostbolts and Shadow Bolts at your foes.Summon Gargoyle: Summon a Gargoyle into the area to bombard the target for 30 seconds. The Gargoyle gains 1% increased damage for every 2 Runic Power you spend.

Talent Tree Design Philosophy

Blizzard

Dragonflight contains major updates to World of Warcraft classes, centering on the re-introduction of talent trees. In this preview, we take a first look at the prototype trees for the Druid and Death Knight classes. These and all the other trees still have a lot of work to be done, but we want to share what we can to start collecting detailed feedback at this early stage.

Talent System Design Philosophy Some of our biggest goals in a class and talent revamp are to increase player agency over your character’s progression and build, provide meaningful rewards while leveling, and reinforce your character’s connection to both their class and their spec. In addition, we felt we had to retain many features of modern World of Warcraft specializations. Specializations have many unique abilities, some of which might be central to the identity of the spec. They have a wide variety of optional bonuses that have been created at various times over the years. This all led us back to talent trees— a concept familiar to people who played WoW before the Mists of Pandaria expansion.Visually, trees are still an intuitive way to represent the different paths one could follow while making many choices about a character. Trees also communicate dependencies and magnitude intuitively, without a lot of added rules. For example, talents higher in the tree are expected to be more commonly chosen, while talents lower in the tree are more optional and more geared towards shaping max-level builds.Dragonflight talent trees have some significant differences from previous versions of talent trees in World of Warcraft. First, you have not one tree, but two. This is due to the combined importance of class wide and specialization-specific themes for current WoW characters. The class tree contains a core set of abilities available to all specs in a class and has a higher proportion of utility choices. It’s a place where you can, among other things, choose some abilities or passives that draw from the identity of other specializations to give your character some hybrid flavor, or simply to grab something particularly useful for certain content. The specialization tree is predominantly focused on bonuses that enhance your power in your main role. Keeping these separate is one way of ensuring that you have some choices in both areas without, for example, feeling compelled to give up all your utility or off-spec buttons in order to maximize main role performance.Another fundamental change is that much more of your class is represented in the tree, instead of being awarded automatically while leveling up. Other than the starting abilities you obtain before you access the system at level 10, the vast majority of abilities are obtained via the tree. This gives rise to some of the most important questions and challenges of the new system. Exploring a world where many more things are optional has a lot of advantages but requires a lot of care.Here are just some answers to questions and answers that we know you might be wondering about:

“Some abilities are critical to my rotation—will that mean I always have to build a certain way?”

No. The most basic building blocks of your rotation will tend to be either learned from levels 1-10, awarded automatically in the class tree, or placed at the top of your spec tree as a first point spent in that tree. In other cases, major abilities that we expect to be a part of most builds will be near the start of a tree, or on an easily accessible path so that they don’t constrain your other choices.

“A certain piece of utility is important in certain content (for example, interrupts in Mythic+), does this limit my choices?”

Similarly, the more likely something is to be all but required for some players, the more we must place it in the tree in an appropriate location— one that still leaves the rest of your build choices very open.

“Does this mean it’s possible to make very ‘bad’ builds?”

In short, yes. There are limits and guardrails here, such as those abilities that are automatically given. And furthermore, our goal in designing the trees is not to trap players in complicated choices in order to make a functional build; in fact, it’s the opposite—it's to set up the trees with intuitive paths that lead you to reasonable builds. But a key philosophy of this rework is to keep the player in the driver’s seat of their character’s growth within their class.

“Does this mean that some of my points are spent on somewhat ‘obvious’ choices, and aren’t likely to be moved?”

Often, yes. 61 points is drastically more than the 7 that players currently have in Shadowlands. And it would probably be a mistake if all 61 points were always heavily in play— this is part of how we maintain the balance alluded to above, where it’s not overwhelming to make and analyze builds. The tree contains a spectrum of more basic abilities all the way to comparatively advanced ones, and one of the advantages of this system is letting you draw that line.

“Doesn’t this all mean that I will use some of my points to re-buy some things that were baseline in Shadowlands?”

For all the reasons mentioned above, making a huge swath of abilities open to player decision-making requires this. We hear this feedback as primarily a concern about having much less “stuff” than you had in Shadowlands. After starting with your basic class and spending 61 points in a tree, will you feel “pruned”? Openly, our goal is that you don’t. We’ll be watching for feedback on this. Our goal is for a Dragonflight character to feel like it has a similar amount of power and complexity—which can be hard to quantify—as a Shadowlands character. The main difference is you getting to choose which active buttons and passive bonuses make up that toolset, and potentially having combinations that were previously impossible.

One other set of questions is around what abilities are still awarded automatically outside of the tree. There are few broad categories:

Abilities learned before 10, the most basic elements of what starts to make you into your class (Moonfire, Death Strike).
Buttons whose impact is primarily non-combat and non-power related (Teleport: Moonglade, Path of Frost, Revive).
Nonstacking group buffs or spells, where a group virtually always wants exactly one person with the ability (Raise Ally, Rebirth, Mark of the Wild).

There are a lot of case-by-case calls to be made around all of this, but by and large we are pushing ourselves to leave it to players to explore in the trees how to build out their class from levels 10 to 70.
A Few Nuts and BoltsThe experience of using the tree will be more intuitive when you play with the system in-game, but we want to provide some explanation here for those who want to analyze the current draft trees in detail. Please bear in mind, these are all subject to change as we continue development.

Your first class tree point is awarded at level 10, and your first specialization tree point at level 11, alternating between the two from there. At level 70, you will have 31 available class points and 30 specialization points.
Certain basic abilities in the class tree, are given automatically to people of particular specializations. These do not cost any points.
Most talents have prerequisites (these will be indicated by arrows in the final UI). If a talent has any arrows leading to it, you must have fully purchased at least one of those previous talents to access it. For clarity, arrows always point downwards or diagonally downwards in current drafts.
Every tree has certain rows that you can’t advance past until you’ve spent a certain number of talent points (unlike in pre-Mists of Pandaria trees, this is not the case for every row). In the prototype Druid and Death Knight trees, you cannot buy talents in the fifth row and beyond until you’ve spent eight points in the tree, and you cannot buy talents in the eighth row and beyond until you’ve spent twenty points in the tree.
In octagonal “choice” nodes, you may obtain one of the two choices at a time.

12 37

Comment by TryndisLooks amazing!Comment by dado82rmAre you planning on leave the talents freely changeable without need to go to rested area? with such a large amount of choice it would be nice to be able to swap them for each raid boss or M+ contents

not sure how many people agree or disagree what are your tought Players and Developers? pros and cons?Comment by dabone1337Are you planning on leave the talents freely changeable without need to go to rested area? with such a large amount of choice it would be nice to be able to swap them for each raid boss or M+ contents

not sure how many people agree or disagree what are your tought Players and Developers? pros and cons?Comment by RexhanThis is insane.Comment by Skullhawk13I'm already hating this...It shouldn't be limiting us like this. Like this is having it so you don't automatically get a permanent ghoul as unholy, even though our mastery will require it. "Player choice" isn't really a choice if you're just taking out required parts of our kit to give back SOME of it. talents should improve existing things, and maybe give some choices between cooldowns. Core requirements should never be optional, and I'm really upset they think this is an improvement. They have actually said they want people to feel bad about this system, so I guess mission accomplished.Comment by OnyxashrockAre you planning on leave the talents freely changeable without need to go to rested area? with such a large amount of choice it would be nice to be able to swap them for each raid boss or M+ contents

not sure how many people agree or disagree what are your tought Players and Developers? pros and cons?Comment by pghcrewHope they come out with the rest soonComment by tomatosaucinamazingComment by goblindorktaking basic abilities required for a spec and making them "talents", gj blizzComment by OnyxashrockI'm already hating this...It shouldn't be limiting us like this. Like this is having it so you don't automatically get a permanent ghoul as unholy, even though our mastery will require it. "Player choice" isn't really a choice if you're just taking out required parts of our kit to give back SOME of it. talents should improve existing things, and maybe give some choices between cooldowns. Core requirements should never be optional, and I'm really upset they think this is an improvement.Comment by ShankazeI'm already hating this...It shouldn't be limiting us like this. Like this is having it so you don't automatically get a permanent ghoul as unholy, even though our mastery will require it. "Player choice" isn't really a choice if you're just taking out required parts of our kit to give back SOME of it. talents should improve existing things, and maybe give some choices between cooldowns. Core requirements should never be optional, and I'm really upset they think this is an improvement.Comment by LenienceInterrupts are important everywhere, they should be baseline. My god.Comment by Wahoo123gaMmm...
Looks great overall but I'm not a fan of interrupts being optional, and unholy not getting perma-ghoul as default is... questionable. Admittedly you'll have the points to get that stuff very easily, but such fundamental abilities really shouldn't be something you can skip over.

Also soul reaper is a class capstone.

Soul reaper. The level 35 talent. Wut.Comment by pjawsI really don't like the idea of interrupts and other vital utility being a talent. That's going to lead to some very degenerate gameplay in pugs.Comment by Wahoo123gaI'm already hating this...It shouldn't be limiting us like this. Like this is having it so you don't automatically get a permanent ghoul as unholy, even though our mastery will require it. "Player choice" isn't really a choice if you're just taking out required parts of our kit to give back SOME of it. talents should improve existing things, and maybe give some choices between cooldowns. Core requirements should never be optional, and I'm really upset they think this is an improvement.Comment by CatashePretty much all I got from this is they are taking abilities that we already have and locking them behind talent trees... What kind of hot mess s*** show do they got running over there... my goodnessComment by shubaCan't wait to see rest of the tree where the new skills and passives are at level 70.Comment by KaagnakxCan't wait to see rest of the tree where the new skills and passives are at level 70.Comment by slemaireFirst pass at a talent tree that won't be coming out for about 9 months, and rather than focus on the vast improvements and potential, first reaction is to complain.... at least try it, beta it, provide feedback and see what happens before screaming this is terrible.Comment by cordell9Pretty much all I got from this is they are taking abilities that we already have and locking them behind talent trees... What kind of hot mess s*** show do they got running over there... my goodness

12 37