Warrior or DK?

[Bigolcrittys]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some insight into starting a new warrior or DK.
I'm not looking for a "play whatever you have more fun with". I'm asking what are the pros and cons right now with them?
I plan on doing more PvE and doing more DPS than tanking
I have general knowledge of both classes, but main a warlock so I'm asking for insight.
How are the classes fairing in raids? How's the argument between runic power and rage?
Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[RuneDK]

warrior that is all

[Halexius]

I hate answering questions like these.
RIGHT now, warriors are in a better spot. In a month, DK's might be in a better spot.
You can't simply make a snap judgement based on what is the current metagame. You would be switching toons every major balance change or patch.
Take a look at simcraft to see what kind of position you are in.
Fury warrior has an easy rotation, as does Frost 2h, but it feels very rng proc based.
Arms is a completely boring and incomplete spec to play at the moment.
Unholy is good fun - but we are receiving a bit of a nerf soon.

Honestly though, play whatever you want - it all changes in terms of balance in the blink of an eye.

[Hellborne87]

Warrior and DK are the only two toons that I really put time into and raid Mythic level content with.

Death Knights bring a decent amount to a raid, buffs, b rez, grip and mass grip, emergency tanks, mass stun, etc. I don't think Warriors bring quite as much to a raid.

However, Warriors are often in a better place dps-wise because their scaling isn't completely broken like Frost. Unholy scales better than Frost but it usually gets nerfed. Seems like they have a tough time balancing DKs in PvE because of PvP.

I enjoy blood more than Prot.

That being said, I love both classes but I enjoy my DK a little bit more.

[Beefkow]

Unholy is good fun - but we are receiving a bit of a nerf soon.

Unholy is indeed fun, but since when does unholy need to be nerfed?

But yeah unholy dks are in a decent spot, i still think it needs a little tweak to it then it will be very competitive.

Warriors on the other hand are also in the middle of the pack, but not as good as dks..i think.

[Halexius]

Unholy is indeed fun, but since when does unholy need to be nerfed?

But yeah unholy dks are in a decent spot, i still think it needs a little tweak to it then it will be very competitive.

Warriors on the other hand are also in the middle of the pack, but not as good as dks..i think.

Well, it doesn't really in my opinion -
Patch notes for 6.1 -
"Necrotic Plague damage has been increased by 20% and now only grants Runic Power to Blood Death Knights."
Basically making a level 100 talent only useful for 1 spec, pretty dodgy if you ask me.
Sure, the damage is getting increased, but the nerf pretty hard. (For PvP that is)

[Deleted]

in PvE the NP won't be much of a change, I don't PvP so won't comment on that.

If you're confident in your ability to play both, why not take the generic 'play what you like' approach? Balance will change things every major patch anyway.
That being said, I concur with most people here, DKs typically bring more to the raid in terms of utility but at the moment warriors seem to do more damage.

[Gwa]

I was playing Warrior for WoD....after doing Mythic HM, I re-rolled DK. Much more utility and raid survive ability. Unholy is very powerful right now on all fights. Warrior has been changed too much recently and is a constant state of flux which is really, really frustrating.

[Christonya]

Warrior. Love my DK more but warriors tend to be superior in pretty much every way... Except tanking but since you intend to dps, your golden.

[Deleted]

Warriors is and has always been at a good spot, however on dk side, well they are not even remotly close.

they always have 1 or two specs that have signifigant issues, be it mechancical issues, talent issues damage issues, burst nonburst etc. and even tanking issues.

Warrior have always been good their resource system is not either flawed in some ways.


So stable choice warrior, dk is fun dont get me wrong love dk, but it has a lot more issues than warrior.

they are not close to eachother in playstyle either in either specc.

And as some said once they want to tackle resource and mehcanical issues with dk, it will become good indeed a very good class

[Gwa]

nothing stable about warriors at the moment....

[Ianus]

go dk.. i played warr in highmaul and i must say it has shit survivability..and avg dps if u are not playing arms

[Flaks]

Warriors play like crap and necessitate a healer in pvp. But the class for dps is better than pretty much any other melee in competitive play.

For literally everything else dk is better and you'll be far better off with dk simply because it can hold its own and is still exceptionally competitive.

[Evida]

You don't really want to look at playstyle videos, abilities, glyphs yourself? This is called analyzing and drawng a conclusion. We could make a deal with couple of guys here and spam black and white PR both classes, would you follow this? In PvE blizzard rarely keeps disbalance, so both classes are/will be good.

[Pkey]

In terms of pure pve raiding... warriors are superior on anything with more than 1 target. Single target unholy is just as good if not better than warriors. When its comes to 2 or more targets warriors will dominate dks. Similarly in AoE with warriors ridiculous Bladestorm doing 45% of their aoe dmg you have no chance to beat them. But unholy dk is a fun class and most raid teams want at least 1 dk dps for their utility.

[SlippyCheeze]

I'm looking for some insight into starting a new warrior or DK.
I'm not looking for a "play whatever you have more fun with". I'm asking what are the pros and cons right now with them?
I plan on doing more PvE and doing more DPS than tanking
I have general knowledge of both classes, but main a warlock so I'm asking for insight.
How are the classes fairing in raids? How's the argument between runic power and rage?
Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

The problem is, your question only *has* the answer "play what you enjoy." Let me go into detail about why, though, and answer your specific questions:

The biggest pro of Warrior, right now, is that Gladiator stance prot warriors were overpowered, and the biggest con of DKs is that Frost, but also Unholy, were under-powered, prior to 6.1 and the tuning changes. Of course, 6.1 is about to drop and reshuffle all that further, and both are fine for anything that you will want to do with them -- because if you have to ask you don't raid or PvP at a high enough level that the minor DPS differences would really matter.

The previous pros and cons still apply, of course: DKs and Warriors both bitch about having no meaningful raid utility, and both bring some relatively situational things (unlike, say, paladins who HoP in every single fight in every tier, so it isn't an entirely illegitimate gripe.)

DKs still play way faster than Warriors, in the sense that you mash buttons a lot more (especially DW Frost), but the throttled that back a bunch for DKs this xpac to make haste valuable, so that is less significant than it was. Arms and DW Frost are still pretty legitimately considered some of the simpler specs in the game, if that interests you, but UH and Fury bring some interesting complications to the table.

They are both doing fine in raids. Seriously, any DPS difference is way below the level that matters in content that you would consider bringing a new alt to at this stage -- you are clearly not pushing for world firsts, and the odds that you are consistently wiping to bezerk timers or soft enrage mechanics because of the difference is approximately zero, compared to just plain ol' mechanics.

DKs theoretically have a significantly more complex power system, with both runes and runic power to use, but really, runes are basically just charges for your builders, and RP and rage are identical in terms of spenders. Unless you want to lose DPS by taking the micro-management DK rune regen talents, and pretending you are playing well enough for it to be a win rather than a DPS loss, your interaction with rune regen will be pretty damn simple. (Note: I am not saying that everyone loses DPS with those talents -- just that if you are asking, you are likely not experienced enough with the class to get it right all the time, and usually there is a very small margin for error before they become a DPS loss. You can definitely learn to use them, should you desire to do so, with time and practice.)

Beyond that, both are strength plate users, both have a tank spec, and neither has especially complicated gearing strategies or anything much in terms of breakpoints, etc, that you need to watch out for. So, uh, play what you enjoy?

PS: if you make a decision based on what is higher DPS by, like, 200dps in realistic gear, and 1-3k DPS in BiS BRF gear and tier, you will be sadly disappointed / rerolling after the next time they change balance to bring the classes closer. So, uh, can't recommend that strategy.

[Elestia]

Pffffft, like this is even a question.

No really, both are up there and about even. Just realize everything wrong with Warriors is fixed with Dks. Not to mention being powerhouse tanks.

[arisoh]

How are blood dks right now? I feel like crap when my healers are taxed because of my prot warrior, while my monk co-tank just laughs all the big hits off.

[Vanaline]

I couldn't preach much to tanking, but both are good in terms of DPS right now. Both are fun to play, as well, IMO.

It sounds shallow but it really is a play what appeals to you situation.

[Brototype]

End game tank on both and imo, blood far more fun, warrior feels too much "mashy."
I enjoy the DK's playstyle however, in that you are in control rather than using abilities on CD similar to a warrior.