Akcope

As many of you know, with Patch 2.4, Enchant weapon-Deathfrost spell has been added to the game. The spell looks like this : Permanently enchant a weapon so your damaging spells and melee weapon hits occasionally inflict an additional 150 Frost damage and reduce the target’s melee, ranged, and casting speed by 15% for 8 sec. Requires a level 60 or higher item. The picture below is older, and it says only 4 seconds durations there.

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However, the enchant is not available in game yet, and rumour has it, that the formula for it drops from Lord Ahune, a seasonal boss of the midsummer event, which is coming in about a month.

So question is, IF it really drops from Ahune, and we will have it in game, how’s it like for pallys? I have looked into this question.

We have two matters to look into: The damage from the proc and the actual debuff. Let’s look on the debuff first.

The proc rate is still unknown, so we can’t calculate how often it will be up yet, but we can still check what it will do with your opponent’s spells and attacks - In my own opinion, the proc is just awesome for paladins. In arena, in solo PvP, everywhere. Even though it doesn’t look like it, 15% is a lot. A melee class with most utility will become a melee class with even more utility! It’s no mind-numbing poison of course, but this works with melee and ranged attacks too! Some examples below:

Flash Heal : 1,5 sec + 15% = 1,725 sec cast

Holy Light (Considering Light’s grace is up) :  2 sec + 15% =  2,3 sec cast

Frost Bolt : 2,5 sec + 15% = 2,875 sec cast

Greater Heal : 3 sec + 15% = 3,45 sec cast

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All swing times below are calculated with the gladiator weapon speeds

Rogue main hand swing : 2,6 sec + 15% = 2,99 sec

Rogue off hand swing : 1,5 sec + 15% = 1,725 sec

Arms warrior swing : 3,6 sec + 15% = 4,14 sec(!!)

Hunter auto shot : 3 sec + 15% = 3,45 sec

As you can see, the proc can lenghten warrior’s swings by more than 0,5 sec, therefore causing them to get less rage from them as well. Considering that classes like druids or warlocks won’t use other than instant cast spells often of course, makes this enchant viable against lesser range of opponents, but, in my opinion, it is still worth it if the proc rate will be high enough. Especially against warriors.

Now, let’s check how the damage from the proc is like. I’d say that we can think of it as of a “Bonus”, as the enchant is good enough to be worth taking already without it (Quite obviously). But to not miss on anything, we will even look into the damage. It might be a nice makeup from the loss of savagery or such if the proc rate is high enough.

Calculations are made in a normal pve raid rotation, considering that everything is used always when it is up. I made calculations for a few proc rate % variations, and summed up the damage caused into a average-per-minute.

Auto Attack ( Every 3,6 sec )  : Has about 17 hits per minute

Crusader Strike ( Every 6 sec ) : Has 10 hits per minute

Seal of command ( 7 PPM ) : Has 7 hits per minute

Judgement ( Every 8 sec) :  Has about 7 hits per minute

17+10+7+7 =  41 hits per minute

Now that we know around how many hits per minute a retadin got, we can easily calculate the various percentages. We don’t know if the proc can crit yet, so we will count only with noncrits.

2% Proc Rate : About 1 proc per minute, 150 damage, adds 2,5 DPS

5% Proc Rate :  About 2 procs per minute, 300 damage, adds 5 DPS

10% Proc Rate : About 4 procs per minute, 600 damage, adds 10 DPS

15% Proc Rate :  About 6 procs per minute, 900 damage, adds 15 DPS

20% Proc Rate : About 8 procs per minute, 1200 damage, adds 20 DPS

25% Proc Rate : About 10 procs per minute, 1500 damage, adds 25 DPS

As you can see, even small things as 150 dmg proc can be nice, it is nothing big of course, and i made these calculations mostly out of boredom and because i had nothing better to do, but i think it is interesting to see that even little things can have a powerful impact on the result.

Anyway,  to finish this theorycrafting, i have made a final personal decision, and i reccomend to all of you retadins out there : If the procrate is 5% or higher, get the enchant!

-Akc