http://mop-talent-grid-maker.appspot...&gridId=518001
The Death Knight class has a few problems. There has been far too many hotfixes and bandaid adjustments made over the years. They have taken their toll on the class. We need to take a look at the core mechanics of the class and make changes that are practical and sensical while also fleshing out the theme of Death Knights in general. I would love any feedback you may have regarding the following proposed changes:
It is my opinion that we need to redefine the purpose and function of Death Runes. The idea is for each spec to have access to 2 permanent Death Runes to compliment 4 spec-specific runes. Blood spec would have access to DD-BB-BB. Frost would be DD-FF-FF. And Unholy would be DD-UU-UU. But.....Death Runes would only be usable with specific abilities that cost Death Runes. Furthermore, these 'Death Rune abilities' would be the only abilities that are shared across all three specs.
This all accomplishes quite a few things. Death Rune availability would be consistent across all specs. The usage of Death Rune abilities would flow much better. They would now play nice with our other spec-specific abilities. The clunky rune problems of Unholy would be remedied. 2H Frost would finally jive with Soul Reaper. And the general whack-a-mole feel of Frost would be improved. Furthermore, this change to Death Runes allows us to tweak our Rune Regeneration talents in the grid for a more successful model of choice. Although Runic Conversion would be a very PvP centric choice, RE and Runic Corruption would be equally competitive for PvE, allowing two distinctly different game styles. And that's because we would no longer be able to game runes. Below is an example of how our current abilities would fit with the new system.
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BLOOD --- (DD-BB-BB)
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1 Blood Rune - Blood Strike - (Applies Blood Plague)
1 Blood Rune - Heart Strike - (Blood Shield Mechanic) (Self-Healing Mechanic)
1 Blood Rune - Blood Tap - (1 minute cooldown, X% heal)
1 Blood Rune - Dancing Rune Weapon
20 Runic Power - Rune Strike
20 Runic Power - Blood Boil - (AOE + Spreads Blood Plague)
1 Death Rune - Death Strike - (Single target strike) (Shadowfrost Damage) (No longer heals)
1 Death Rune - Shadow Cleave - (3 Target Cleave) (Shadowfrost Damage)
1 Death Rune - Death and Decay
1 Death Rune - Necrotic Strike
1 Death Rune - Soul Reaper - (Delayed damage would activate after 3 seconds instead of 5) (25% less damage, but changed to Shadowfrost)
1 Death Rune - Army of the Dead - (Channel time reduced significantly)
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FROST --- (DD-FF-FF)
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1 Frost Rune - Icy Touch - (Applies Frost Fever) (Procs Rime)
1 Frost Rune - Howling Blast - (Applies Frost Fever)
1 Frost Rune - Pillar of Frost
25 Runic Power - Obliterate - (Only ability that works with and consumes Killing Machine)
Rime - Frost Strike - (Only ability that works with and consumes Rime)
1 Death Rune - Death Strike - (Single target strike) (Shadowfrost Damage) (No longer heals)
1 Death Rune - Shadow Cleave - (3 Target Cleave) (Shadowfrost Damage)
1 Death Rune - Death and Decay
1 Death Rune - Necrotic Strike
1 Death Rune - Soul Reaper - (Delayed damage would activate after 3 seconds instead of 5) (25% less damage, but changed to Shadowfrost)
1 Death Rune - Army of the Dead - (Channel time reduced significantly)
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UNHOLY --- (DD-UU-UU)
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1 Unholy Rune - Outbreak - (Applies Crypt Fever)
1 Unholy Rune - Scourge Strike
1 Unholy Rune - Pestilence - (Spreads Crypt Fever and activates Wandering Plague)
1 Unholy Rune - Dark Transformation - (30 second cooldown, 15 second duration) (SI damage built into DT)
30 Runic Power - Death Coil
1 Death Rune - Death Strike - (Single target strike) (Shadowfrost Damage) (No longer heals)
1 Death Rune - Shadow Cleave - (3 Target Cleave) (Shadowfrost Damage)
1 Death Rune - Death and Decay
1 Death Rune - Necrotic Strike
1 Death Rune - Soul Reaper - (Delayed damage would activate after 3 seconds instead of 5) (25% less damage, but changed to Shadowfrost)
1 Death Rune - Army of the Dead - (Channel time reduced significantly)
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NOTES:
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We need more Death in Death Knight!
Death Runes would only be usable with abilities that cost a Death Rune. Our cross-spec utility abilities fall into this category.
For PvE, the idea is that all specs would use Death Strike regularly on single targets until in execute range when you switch to Soul Reaper. For multiple targets, Shadow Cleave and DnD would be the way to go.
For PvP, there are lots of choices to make depending on the situation. The fact that we would always have Death Runes regenerating to spend solely on our utility abilities makes that choice more fun and interactive.
Blood would only have access to Blood Plague and Frost would only have access to Frost Fever. Unholy would use a new disease tentatively called Crypt Fever.
Unholy's AOE would be just their disease + Wandering Plague and DnD.
Blood Strike would now apply Blood Plague. Plague Strike would be removed from the game as it would no longer be needed.
Only Frost would have access to Icy Touch; Therefore, the Glyph of Icy Touch would be removed from the game for balance reasons.
The talent Chilblains would be removed from the game. A new glyph would be implemented (Glyph of Disease?); This new glyph would cause any target affected by our diseases to be slowed by 50%.
Chains of Ice would be moved into the talent grid as a Root ability for Frost. Blood and Unholy would have their own version within the same talent choice. This way all specs would have the choice of a root ability that works within their own rune setup.
Heart Strike would function just like the current Death Strike ability works for Blood.
Lichborne would no longer work as a self-healing mechanic.
Purgatory would be baseline for Blood spec. Gorefiend's Grasp would also be given to Blood spec as a baseline ability.
Raid cooldown in the form of AMZ, but on the same tier as Bone Shield.
With the proposed ease of applying diseases, I would suggest lowering the duration of our diseases back down to 20 seconds.
Horn of Winter would no longer grant Runic Power. We are Death Knights. Not Bards. Fire and forget for 5 minutes.
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This is a very rough and generalized idea of how our ability damage might break down with some Mastery:
Blood:
Soul Reaper - 100
Heart Strike - 70
Rune Strike - 50
Death Strike - 40
Blood Boil - 40
Shadow Cleave - 30
Blood Strike - 30
Necrotic Strike - 30
Frost:
Soul Reaper - 116
Obliterate - 100
Frost Strike - 76
Icy Touch - 56
Howling Blast - 56
Death Strike - 56
Shadow Cleave - 46
Necrotic Strike - 30
Unholy:
Soul Reaper - 120
Scourge Strike - 70
Death Strike - 60
Death Coil - 50
Shadow Cleave - 50
Necrotic Strike - 30
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EDIT:
1. Adjusted the RP cost of some of our abilities. Work in Progress.
2. Changed the abilities Death Strike, Death Siphon, and added the ability Shadow Cleave.
3. Final tier of talents changed.
4. Frost's abilities changed.