5.4 Feather Nerf

[cFortyfive]

Its proc rate will be doubled and the strength will instead increment every second as opposed to every two seconds.

Whether that is what is actually intended or not I can't tell. It doesn't stack every second on the current ptr and you only get five charges. Uptime overall seems be about the same at least after a quick try.

[Vereesa]

Whether that is what is actually intended or not I can't tell. It doesn't stack every second on the current ptr and you only get five charges. Uptime overall seems be about the same at least after a quick try.

My inside sources suggest what I posted is true. Wushoolay's (basically the int version of Feather) is also stacking up every 1s which would lead me to believe they forgot to implement that for Feather. Not to mention leaving it like this would simply make it severely underbudget for its itemlevel.

[Deleted]

They have been oblivious of other things that were more game changing than this. This is a substancial nerf. I would assume that they are trying to get rid of the festerblight play style. They said themselves they have a love hate relationship with it, basically saying they hate it but they aren't sure what to do cause players actually like it. As I've replied to you in another thread I'm honestly not expecting much of a buff due to pvp. Unholy would just become overly godly and assuming they buffed frost they would just nerf it shortly after.

Well, they've succeeded IMO... Unless that crit-stacking trinket turns out to be "feather v2" then Festerblight as we know it is likely dead. I don't think that's an overly bad thing. Applying diseases at high strength procs and then trying to maximise SS useage until the next opportunity to use outbreak on high-str procs is how I view unholy anyway o.O.

To be honest I seriously doubt the whole "lacklustre in PvE due to necrotic strike existing" thing. I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't buy it and this would be the first tier where that excuse dictated our PvE DPS if that was the case. Unholy wasn't even that bad during Tier14, it was just clunky.

Well, the truth of it is this, if youre not competitive, your not viable in a raiding situation. Sad truth..

If you're talking about top-X guilds going for early heroic kills, undergeared and trying to beat a tight enrage timer or get adds down before a transition then you're completely correct. However, for every other situation the fact that you're 1-2% below the next melee class is a non-issue IMO, damaging personal pride rather than your chances at downing a boss. There's always going to be a "bottom DPS" and 5.4 COULD be the first time where we find ourselves in that bracket, regardless of spec. I seriously doubt it though - unless everyone in your raid pushes out 100% of their theoretical DPS. Hell, I'm not shit at unholy and there's a comparably specced ret paladin in our raid group that I'm always fighting against for top spot.

Anyway, I digress - just going to wait and see what the next couple of weeks on the PTR brings us. Trust me, if we end up being terrible then I'll be going back to my rogue.

[CausalXXLinkXx]

Feather stacking 1 second for 10 seconds doesn't kill festerblight. Feather becoming not better than the other trinkets in SoO kills festerblight.

[Deleted]

Feather stacking 1 second for 10 seconds doesn't kill festerblight. Feather becoming not better than the other trinkets in SoO kills festerblight.

If it still stacks to 10 like Vereesa's saying it will then fair enough, won't make any difference in terms of disease strength. Atm the PTR's showing it stack to 5... They could just make it proc more often to compensate (and nerf festerblight) - will see.

[Darkfriend]

Feather stacking 1 second for 10 seconds doesn't kill festerblight. Feather becoming not better than the other trinkets in SoO kills festerblight.

Well, fester was able to be great because of Tricks, fights favoring it, the RC bug, and feather. Take away 1 of those factors, and fester loses value. Take away too many, and it becomes useless.

Most people don't play pure fester anyway, just a modified version based on what they have and RNG.

[Varyk]

Most people don't play pure fester anyway, just a modified version based on what they have and RNG.

I agree, it feels foolish to just spam Festering Strike, as long as your diseases don't fall off, I don't see how using the traditional priority would result in a dps loss. If you apply diseases with full stack feather, pre-pot, other trinket, blood fury, rotfc, synapse springs, and keep them up the whole time, all the while scourge striking over festering strike when you can afford it, it will work out better. Maybe this is obvious, but I see a lot of people only using SS to cycle runes.

[Aventhos]

Please don't take Unholy being viable away from us

A trink should not make a spec viable/competitive, it only eludes to the fact the spec is broken if 1 piece of gear makes people use the spec and go frost if they dont have it.

[hskrprd]

People had the DST forever back in TBC.

[ymirsson]

Back in "that time" is not an argument in favor or against something that is now. Blizzard improved their item philosophy, thank the deity of your choosing.
THey can do whatever they want to the trinket slot, i would like to see the numbers fixed at the root, not at the other end.

[bals]

I agree, it feels foolish to just spam Festering Strike, as long as your diseases don't fall off, I don't see how using the traditional priority would result in a dps loss. If you apply diseases with full stack feather, pre-pot, other trinket, blood fury, rotfc, synapse springs, and keep them up the whole time, all the while scourge striking over festering strike when you can afford it, it will work out better. Maybe this is obvious, but I see a lot of people only using SS to cycle runes.

one of the basic premises of fb is to end the fight with as close to 0 left on your diseases as possible...

[ymirsson]

one of the basic premises of fb is to end the fight with as close to 0 left on your diseases as possible...

Is that not a premise in any DK spec? Not wasting runes on disease uptime when it's not neccesssary.

[Zalavaaris]

If you're talking about top-X guilds going for early heroic kills, undergeared and trying to beat a tight enrage timer or get adds down before a transition then you're completely correct.

If a rogue is better than you in every way and you have a brez covered.... most guilds looking to do even moderate hard mode progression will over look us.

[Scyzek]

If there's no token grip fight (will of the emp, lei shen) this tier, and we're still in this same spot w/o FB, I'd expect to see a sharp decline in raiding dk's. I've never abandoned ship before, but for as hard as I have to play right now to be competitive with my raid, I don't think we have much purpose other than brez and get stomped on by other classes. I have a rogue, ret, and warlock ready to come out of the woodwork if I have to resort to it.

[Darsithis]

A trink should not make a spec viable/competitive, it only eludes to the fact the spec is broken if 1 piece of gear makes people use the spec and go frost if they dont have it.

Exactly. Don't get me wrong, I like playing festerblight (scored 202k even on Horridon) but it's really telling that one trinket alone makes the spec worthwhile. That's why it would be changed.

[Ryleylol]

Exactly. Don't get me wrong, I like playing festerblight (scored 202k even on Horridon) but it's really telling that one trinket alone makes the spec worthwhile. That's why it would be changed.

Windwalker depends on RoR and instead of nerfing that trinket they just redid their entire mastery... again.

[Baphomette]

Windwalker depends on RoR and instead of nerfing that trinket they just redid their entire mastery... again.

The trinket was propping the spec up. With the mastery changes, it won't. Why would they change one item when they can change the mechanics so that it doesn't happen with future items?

Compared to the roller coaster DKs were on between 3.0-3.1-3.2-3.3, Monks have changed very little over their first expansion.

[WillFeral]

Dont worry Blizzard knows what they are doing,i mean they are nerfing the only thing that makes our class viable/competitive in a raiding enviroment.And at the same time doing nothing to mages who just happen to be so far away and beyond then every class on *most* fights (and continue to destroy the meters on the ptr).Basically the same old shit with Blizzard:Buff then nerf then buff then nerf all classes in every spaect of the game and just leave mages alone because heaven forbid any class be more competitive than mages in pve and pvp.

[Baphomette]

Dont worry Blizzard knows what they are doing,i mean they are nerfing the only thing that makes our class viable/competitive in a raiding enviroment.And at the same time doing nothing to mages who just happen to be so far away and beyond then every class on *most* fights (and continue to destroy the meters on the ptr).Basically the same old shit with Blizzard:Buff then nerf then buff then nerf all classes in every spaect of the game and just leave mages alone because heaven forbid any class be more competitive than mages in pve and pvp.

a) why would you WANT to be dependent on one item to be "viable" or "competitive"
b) save the QQ til they actually start tweaking damage numbers

[WillFeral]

a) why would you WANT to be dependent on one item to be "viable" or "competitive"
b) save the QQ til they actually start tweaking damage numbers

If you actually read what i typed you would understand im saying the unholy spec is only viable because of a single trinket that inflates our dor ticks to absurd numbers and that is a VERY bad thing.And if you didnt notice you are on a forum and this is where people come to talk about issues and express opinions either right or wrong and sometmes the subject has no real answer.So you can continue to be childish and use the "QQ" shit,you'll eventually grow up.And yes i know numbers will be tweaked 7 ways to sunday im just hoping they focus on the issues we are concerned about and stop using a bandaid on our class every few weeks.Its been going on since Wrath and no progress has really been made to fix these issues.

Happy gaming.

Keep it civil