Defile

Defile
Defile Row 6 Unholy death knight talent Replaces [Death and Decay] 30 yd range 1 Rune 20 sec cooldown Instant Defile the targeted ground, dealing (55% of Attack Power) Shadow damage to all enemies over 10 sec. While you remain within your Defile, your Scourge Strike/Clawing Shadows will hit 7 enemies near the target. Every sec, if any enemies are standing in the Defile, it grows in size, dealing increased damage, and increasing your Mastery by 1%, up to 8%.
Properties
Class	Death knight
School	Shadow
Cooldown	20 seconds
Talents
Talent required	[Unholy Blight]
Improvements	[Pestilence]

Defile is an Unholy death knight talent.

Trivia

• This talent is presumably based on the Lich King's ability of the same name.
• This talent was mentioned in the April Fools' Day patch 9.0.5.0.5 notes: "Defile damage doubled in one dungeon, making it de-better to de-use in De Other Side."

Patch changes

• Patch 10.0.7 (2023-03-21):
  • Defile now works with the [Pestilence] talent.
  • Defile now has additional functionality - If an enemy is inside Defile, it grants 1% Mastery every second, stacking up to 8% Mastery.
  • Defile is no longer a choice node with [Unholy Pact] and has replaced Pestilent Pustules within the specialization tree (previously located uner [Sudden Doom] and [All Will Serve].
    
• Patch 10.0.0 (2022-10-25): Now a row 6 Unholy talent (was a level 45 Unholy talent). Scourge Strike and Clawing Shadows now hit 7 nearby enemies (was 4).
  
• Hotfix (2021-08-30): Fixed an issue where Defile would activate [Kevin's Oozeling].
  
• Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13):
  • Now requires level 45 (was 90) and has a 20 second cooldown (was 25).
  • Now causes [Scourge Strike] and [Clawing Shadows] to hit 4 enemies near the target (was all enemies near the target).
  • Now has an additional effect – If any enemies are standing in the Defile, it deals increasing damage every second.
    
• Patch 8.0.1 (2018-07-17): Now requires level 90 (was 100), has a 25 second cooldown (was 30 seconds), and deals Shadow damage (was Shadowfrost). No longer increases your mastery.
  
• Patch 7.2.5 (2017-06-13): Damage increased by 38%.
  
• Patch 7.1.5 (2017-01-10): Damage increased by 20%, and Mastery per stack increased to 300 (was 200).
  
• Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19):
  • No longer available to Blood or Frost death knights.
  • Now has no cost (previously cost 1 Unholy Rune).
  • Every 1 second, if there are enemies standing in it, Defile now increases your mastery, stacking up to 10 times. No longer increases its damage if there are enemies standing in it.
  • While you remain within your Defile, it now causes [Scourge Strike] and [Clawing Shadows] to hit all enemies near the target.
    
• Patch 6.2.3 (2015-11-17): Damage has been increased by 10%.
  
• Patch 6.1.0 (2015-02-24): Now only reduces damage taken for Blood Death Knights.
  
• Hotfix (2014-10-30): Should no longer be growing in radius and damage by more than the intended amount.
  
• Hotfix (2014-10-16): Damage increased by 20%.
  
• Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14): Added.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB