[WoD DK PvP] An unexpected change...

[Deleted]

I've been messing around with a lot of different builds on the beta with DK and overall I must say...


We have not been as strong as this since WotlK. Breathe of Sindragosa is ridiciously broken, we are able to cleave down the entire team with the breathe and maintain runic power almost endlessly in the process. The damage is pretty much unhealable and the only way to stop it is to CC the DK which basicly leads to a play style of stacking all our rune power+blood charges and other cooldowns.

I have won a 2v3 skirmish against rogue mage shaman as double DK with a DK who had no glyphs, just destroying them with double breathe.


Unholy is really strong but it plays very slow paced compared to MoP and Cata. The removal of necrotic strike and the lack of haste and unholy frenzy does make it(personally) somewhat uncomfortable to play. I'd say we happen to be one of the best DPS classes PvP wise if things are not changing much, especially the breathe which I believe is incredibly OP.

Now however comes the interesting part. When I got tired of unholy due to this new, much slower paced playstyle I remembered Blizzard wanting to make tanks viable in arena in WoD this is why I tried blood instead of unholy.

The result is that blood will be so much better that it just leaves the other trees in the shadow. Blood will most likely be dominating for 3s.

Our 4 piece PvP set bonus gives the two nearest allies anti-magic shell. The full, normal AMS we got not a weaker version. Note that this is -only- for blood DK's.

Damagewise blood DK performs better than many other real DPS classes. I have been topping the damage in arena most of the time sometimes doing more than double over everyone else. You are easily able to kill people with breathe.


Also by the looks of it blood DK will also be the highest skill-cap and most rewarding specc to play if you are good.

Runetap is a 3 second duration shieldwall, using it properly will be very fruitful.

The AMS setbonus range is really short, only 15 yards maybe 20 but the existance of this bonus in general gives us a lot of plays to make in terms of assisting our teammates.

Dancing Rune Weapon now copies Asphyxiate, letting you double asphyxiate.


Blood can use all three presences. There is no longer a presence you are forced to use because it's the best, allowing you to decide what presence to use.


Due to this short AMS range and absolutely overpowered DK damage I decided to give blood DK+rogue+ret pala a try. The DPS combo from cataclysm, only with blood instead of unholy for the AMS setbonus. This means we are 3 melees, opening with burst and AMS, making it unpeelable for caster teams.

We won everyone and everything, no loss. Zero. Most people died by the time AMS was over.


Blood has equal damage, more utility. The setbonus is incredibly broken, together with glyph of regenerative magic you will be able to AMS your entire 3s team every 20 seconds. Blood actually seems to be much more squishy outside of boneshield and runetap however. This might be because the death strike hotfix that we received this/last season in MoP was probably not reverted for WoD.


But as it stands right now, blood DK is actually the superior PvP specc at least when it comes to 3v3. Overall we are in the best spot we've ever been since Wrath.

[Deleted]

say that one week before launch and not during beta then it might mean something

[r1dik]

Breath is bugged right now, it doesn't use up runic power or something like that. Don't expect it to be that strong on live.

[psyquest]

So what you are saying is that a dk can blow all CDs , breath and get CCed and loose everything?

If all it takes is a cc to neuter BoS, then I cannot possibly see good PvP players falling for it.

[Stacie]

So BoS is like a warrior's 1 shot macro then yeah can be done on a long cooldown?

[Deleted]

Breath is bugged right now, it doesn't use up runic power or something like that. Don't expect it to be that strong on live.

It does use your runic power. 30 runic power per second but you are able to get 30 runic power per second easily for a long time which is why you are able to keep up breathe for sometimes a minute.

And your breathe continues while you are CC'ed but it burns your runic power so fast that it will cancel itself. However that's why you save desecreated ground or icebound/AMS to get a pretty much unstoppable breathe

[Kraeth]

It does use your runic power. 30 runic power per second but you are able to get 30 runic power per second easily for a long time which is why you are able to keep up breathe for sometimes a minute.

Wha? Getting 30rp per sec isn't really that easy outside AMS soaking. Actually, outside AMS soaking you can't get (outside blood MS procs) 30 rps, discounting ERW.

[Deleted]

Wha? Getting 30rp per sec isn't really that easy outside AMS soaking. Actually, outside AMS soaking you can't get (outside blood MS procs) 30 rps, discounting ERW.

Multistrike proccs give you 15 runic power. Chains of Ice gives you 20 runic power. Getting slowed gives you runic power.

I have been able to maintain breathe without problems for like a minute

EDIT: Just noticed only the initial cost is 30 runic power. Otherwise it only drains you 15 per second.

[Kraeth]

Multistrike proccs give you 15 runic power. Chains of Ice gives you 20 runic power. Getting slowed gives you runic power.

I have been able to maintain breathe without problems for like a minute

EDIT: Just noticed only the initial cost is 30 runic power. Otherwise it only drains you 15 per second.

Oh now I see. Had completely overlooked the new glyphs, must've missed them in the patch notes. No wonder I was feeling confused.

[scabobos]

If something seems that OP, it likely is OP and won't be like that come live.

[psyquest]

I wont worry about it. Blizzard has this uncanny ability to hit with a sledgehammer anything DK that looks OP, this wont be any exception!

[Deleted]

If something seems that OP, it likely is OP and won't be like that come live.

[Zka]

If something seems that OP, it likely is OP and won't be like that come live.

This. And afaik aoe dps tuning isn't finished.

[Dookles]

If something seems that OP, it likely is OP and won't be like that come live.

You must be new.

s5 dk, s9 warrior, and s12 warrior/hunters, anyone? On the contrary; if something broken and OP is still in beta at this point, you can rest assured that it will go live, with a balance fix potentially arriving during the next pvp season. Not the opening season, but the one starting about six months into the expansion.

After the past few years, this seems to be Blizzard's tuning model. There's a reason that WoW's pvp is so widely regarded as a joke nowadays.