Rerolling Dk in WoD

[bobkin]

So I have mained boomkin all through Siege and the end of ToT. I love it. But with all the changes made, I have to part from it. SO, when thinking about to reroll the first thing that came to my mind was Dk since I main that it PvP and love it. I love playing UH, rotation seems smooth and always flowing. Not a lot of downtime, at least for me. I never worry about being the top of the dps charts, I would rather play a class that I like and have fun with. Boomkins were never simming top but I could always manage to stay close to the top/top out because I was having fun on the class. Our guild is competitive, but not hardcore like 6 days a week raid schedule.

I have been reading through a lot of the forums and posts about the sims, stat weights, and so on. My questions go to all you dk pros out there.

1) How BAD is the scaling for dk's as the expansion goes on. Is it really as bad as what some say it is. I know we usually don't see dks topping charts, which I am fine with, but I also don't want to be bottom (lets assume I am playing the class correctly and not knock if I am bad or not lol).

2) Do we know of any other planned tuning changes for dk? I prefer to play UH but will play frost if it is far superior to UH.

3) My raid leader has told me that we are going to have 5 melee if I switch to DK. Which he is fine with, but has told me I might have to compete for spots if fights need more ranged. Our other melee are ret, war, rouge, enh. But do we know of any fights that are very ranged oriented? (kind of like malk, need so many ranged to either make it easier or do mechanics).

This is a big decision for me only because I was guaranteed a core mythic spot if I mained my boomkin, but I just can't stand the playstyle. I don't want to be sat for fights because I either don't bring enough utility or just don't scale well as the expansion goes on (Lets again assume I am playing the class correctly) Now I will be competing for spots if the fight needs more ranged or w/e. So those that have mained dks for awhile, what are your thoughts? Were you ever sat for reasons like this? I know everyone's situations are different, but just getting a general feel from the Dk community

thanks

[UnholyGrazer]

1) Dk's have always had a scaling issue when it comes to DPS. They are strong early because of their high base damage, but fade off some as the expansion goes through. This also depends on how well you can play the class/spec because even with 560 gear I can beat some that are closer to 570 because I happen to play better than they do. (Doesn't mean you will always play better than everyone)

2) Chances are 2h Frost will be the top at the start, followed by DW Frost and then the end of the expansion will see UH being the highest. But of course these numbers will be all about how well you play the spec and the DPS differences will be minimal.

3) Ranged will always be better than melee. That's due to no ranged classes have a minimum distance from target. A hunter, mage, or warlock can be in melee if it calls for it and still hit just as hard, whereas a DK, Rogue, or Warrior cannot hit their full potential at ranged. If you're a 25 man guild, 5 melee is absolutely fine and you should not have many issues.

[tru]

Ive been a dk since ICC opened up been my main since then. I see no reason to stay a dk anymore nor would I suggest rerolling to one unless they address some stuff in coming weeks if they go live as current beta stands Go with a war/rogue/enh or stay with the druid and go feral if you want to play a melee.
+ you are more valued as ranged anyway
+ you can have to many melee
+ range does everything better
imo stay boomer its one of my choices going into WoD just watching and hoping something else changes so i dont have to reroll

[Stacie]

Would stay druid :P the scaling issues are there Kelur explained that one ok.

Unholy is not doing that bad in PVE right now on a fight with lots to AOE (actually the first tier is not bad for AOE fights) so unholy/2h frost are sort of on par i guess with 2h better single target right now? DW is not far behind will likely overtake next tier.

Ranged pwn just stay unless you really are not having fun and want to go melee if so i would recommend a warrior.

[Deleted]

So many nerfs going on in the patchnotes atm and Im in the same boat. Considering to reroll to dk from my warlock but yeah we'll see.

[psyquest]

In 20 man raids places are going to be at a premium. There is currently no indication that the current status of distance dps > melee will change (in terms of ease in dealing with mechanics).

I would caution you against going dk if your futur roster is full melee. If you really like and enjoy the class, ok go for it. If you think that going dk will guarantee you a raid spot: be careful....

[Soisoisoi]

I switched from DK to Monk (it was that or Rogue, but I wanted to be able to Tank OS.. Still close). There's just no reason to be a DK; no mobility or utility besides grips since they nerfed the "broken" AMZ, and the DPS was bleh compared.

[Stacie]

I switched from DK to Monk (it was that or Rogue, but I wanted to be able to Tank OS.. Still close). There's just no reason to be a DK; no mobility or utility besides grips since they nerfed the "broken" AMZ, and the DPS was bleh compared.

Found warrior's to be a better replacement myself Fury has a spammy playstyle to frost on live now so little downtime and tanking is superior as is mobility and raid cooldowns.

[Soisoisoi]

Found warrior's to be a better replacement myself Fury has a spammy playstyle to frost on live now so little downtime and tanking is superior as is mobility and raid cooldowns.

Never really liked Fury's reliance on enrage mechanic, and the whole copying of Paladin's Haste > reducing GCD [Arms at least, didn't check Fury/Prot] is just bollocks. Too slow for me, especially at the start of an expansion.

[Deleted]

scaling was mostly fixed by vers, MS and the fact that Weapon damage scaling with AP has been completely changed etc. You won't like the class very much if you don't like downtime, we bring the worst utility out of any class besides our niche aoe grip.

1) How BAD is the scaling for dk's as the expansion goes on. Is it really as bad as what some say it is. I know we usually don't see dks topping charts, which I am fine with, but I also don't want to be bottom (lets assume I am playing the class correctly and not knock if I am bad or not lol).

people use this as a scapegoat most of the time, even if we don't scale very well now, we're far from useless and we can compete with a lot of other classes on most fights. It will be much better in WoD though, people over exaggerate and make it as if they're completely useless because they're 5-10% behind some other classes. it really doesn't matter unless you're in a top 10 guild where min maxing is vital, and I'm 99% sure all the top end boss kills in SoO had atleast 1 dk in the raid.

[coffebreak]

I am actually "in the same boat", but more from a casual perspective.

I have been running my hunter as main for a very long time (switched from mage to hunter when TBC launched).

Now I am really into the DK, it is my main in terms of playtime/week, at least, still a bit behind in gear.
Mind you im a casual, so I only got LFR gear and the occasional ordos/celestials drop.

Main reason I want to go DK is I dont really like the hunter that much, being a pure DPS is a bit boring, I want the occasional tanking / offtanking at least as a possibility (or just running HC dungeons or so as tank).

I have always wanted to have a DK as main due to the heavy solo capabilities, I love going back through old content, mostly because ever since TBC launched I have been playing so little I have not kept up with raids and end-game content, now I really enjoy going back and doing that type of stuff.

What do you think about the solo capabilities, will DK's still be in a very good spot (best? 2nd place?) given current state in Beta?
I managed to keep up a bit in the start but now I really have no real feel of where we will end up to be honest, so many changes the last couple of weeks.

Edit: obviously, the hunter is also strong as a solo-class, one of the reasons I play it, I would put DK's in a better spot in current live-state though, but I am clueless how that is going to change in WoD.

[Stacie]

I am actually "in the same boat", but more from a casual perspective.

I have been running my hunter as main for a very long time (switched from mage to hunter when TBC launched).

Now I am really into the DK, it is my main in terms of playtime/week, at least, still a bit behind in gear.
Mind you im a casual, so I only got LFR gear and the occasional ordos/celestials drop.

Main reason I want to go DK is I dont really like the hunter that much, being a pure DPS is a bit boring, I want the occasional tanking / offtanking at least as a possibility (or just running HC dungeons or so as tank).

I have always wanted to have a DK as main due to the heavy solo capabilities, I love going back through old content, mostly because ever since TBC launched I have been playing so little I have not kept up with raids and end-game content, now I really enjoy going back and doing that type of stuff.

What do you think about the solo capabilities, will DK's still be in a very good spot (best? 2nd place?) given current state in Beta?
I managed to keep up a bit in the start but now I really have no real feel of where we will end up to be honest, so many changes the last couple of weeks.

Edit: obviously, the hunter is also strong as a solo-class, one of the reasons I play it, I would put DK's in a better spot in current live-state though, but I am clueless how that is going to change in WoD.

With the scaling anything can really solo below MoP content :P Like LK heroic can be knocked down at 90 on ptr with squish in under 2mins on a warrior as dps. At level 100 would be even quicker. Unless you plan on soloing MoP content it won't really matter. If you do plan on soloing MoP stuff Monk/DK.

[bobkin]

scaling was mostly fixed by vers, MS and the fact that Weapon damage scaling with AP has been completely changed etc. You won't like the class very much if you don't like downtime, we bring the worst utility out of any class besides our niche aoe grip.



people use this as a scapegoat most of the time, even if we don't scale very well now, we're far from useless and we can compete with a lot of other classes on most fights. It will be much better in WoD though, people over exaggerate and make it as if they're completely useless because they're 5-10% behind some other classes. it really doesn't matter unless you're in a top 10 guild where min maxing is vital, and I'm 99% sure all the top end boss kills in SoO had atleast 1 dk in the raid.

Yeah we are not a top 10 world guild, we are usually in top 10 for our server for 10m, but we have like 4 really good 25man guilds that are raiding next tier so who knows. I don't think my spot will be in jeopardy that much, I just don't want to be the bottom ALL the time. After talking with my RL more yesterday, he informed me that one of our feral and our enh shaman are going to have their ranged counterparts as OS so they can switch to ranged if a fight is harder to do as melee. He also wants me to stay DK so that we have a dk with tank OS. So I am hoping that my spot is secure, unless I am scraping the bottom consistently I think I will be okay. My boomkin buddy said it pretty well last night, playing boomkin is like playing "a retarded snail" with the class changes. I would rather play a class that I am enjoying and risk sitting the bench sometimes than play a class I hate and be guaranteed a spot 100% of the time. Just my opinion though.

[Karthius]

I'm going to be odd man out and so go for it. I have always found DKs fun something about the class play style, aesthetics and their resource system is just really fun.
However like stated above they are some issues to work out on beta but to be honest all specs of the DK right now are performing well which is hard to say for other classes.
All 3 specs in PVE are viable, and while we may not have some of the coolest raid CD we still carry AMZ, Horn, and a combat res (instant one at that). Not to mention DKs just plague the area when they are fighting enemies and its just pleasurable to see. So its up to you personally. Its a game have fun with it.