Will Death Knights be good in PvP?

[Naevan]

Will Dk's be good in Cataclysm PvP?Discuss.

[Mayden]

Mortal strike and similar abilities have been lowered to 25% reduction in healing.

In that context Necrotic Strike looks like a very strong tool.
http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=73975

Downside is that a DK's liferegen might be a problem in battlegrounds. Deathstrike costs two precious runes. Runes you probably wanted to use to snare targets or do your big dps with.

[jerry]

Yes they will.

[Frygar]

Necrotic Strike and Dark Sim look to be incredible in the PvP environment. Deathstrike is expensive, but when put on Blood Presence + Death Strike + Lichborne/Death Coil self you can really get some great health regen compared to other classes.

[Wormbones]

it looks pretty good for DK's but Cata will bring many changes and I'm sure PvP will be very unbalanced at first

[fizikz]

dk's look awesome. sadly, mine's on alliance. lol...

[Deleted]

DK pet crits 20K in dark transformation, overall unholy DK's look super strong.

[Deleted]

Dks have always been good at pvp and they will be the same in cata, because pvp is about tools and dks have them all. Ok, except stealth.

[greatbox]

In the new organized BG, I have a feeling the unique ability of Necrotic Strike will be essential in focusing down an important target. DKs certain do have a lot of toolset and I have a feeling Frost will be taken as a viable alternative to Unholy considering its ability to mass snare / stun the opposing side.

Self regen kit of DK is a lot more limited than other ppl make it out to be and is EXTREMELY CD dependent. You really don't want to be using lichbourn just to heal yourself with deathcoil. You want to use it in situations where you're getting chain feared out of position - which means you'll run out of healer's range and die in crucial times - or when you're about to get seduced. (This applies the same in Arena)

Death Strike / Death Pact, however, are somewhat legitimate forms of healing. But you'll simply have to see the final version to see if they're of superb use on BG / Arena.

[Primigenia]

Unholy will be the ONLY pvp spec for DKs barring any drastic changes to the Frost tree. It remains to be seen how well DKs will perform in light of the incredible damage and mobility ranged specs now possess. The chains of ice nerf I believe is the most significant pvp change for Cata, which essentially severely reduces the uptime we have on targets.

Dark Simulacrum is a crap shoot, its a 1 min CD, costs two gcds to use and 20 RP, and the spell taken might only hit for 1k or not do anything at all. Hopefully Blizzard will fine tune it a bit more because in its current forms its not worth using in pvp or pve.

Necrotic Strike has potential and apparently it stacks, but doesn't cause desecration and since it uses an unholy rune it is awkward for Frost DKs to use because Obliterate is their main nuke and uses U and F runes (one of the reasons Unholy will stay our only pvp choice). On beta its kinda meh right now,(Scourge Strike does more damage even when the absorb is added to the damage necrotic strike does), but might potentially be a good option to use in place of mortal strike down the road with better gear.

Also keep in mind that Unholy lost Bone Armor, which was huge for pvp and Frost lost Unbreakable Armor which was also a nice defensive CD. Our two remaining defensive CDs, IBF and AMS can't be used while silenced. This is a problem given how much burst mages can do right now. No idea how this will play out once people get better gear for pvp, but given how Wrath launched I'm skeptical.

[greatbox]

Unholy will be the ONLY pvp spec for DKs barring any drastic changes to the Frost tree. It remains to be seen how well DKs will perform in light of the incredible damage and mobility ranged specs now possess. The chains of ice nerf I believe is the most significant pvp change for Cata, which essentially severely reduces the uptime we have on targets.

I honestly think you're downplaying the power of mass snare / mass stun in an organized BG setting.

In arena, it's always going to be unholy DK that reigns supreme because of its unique combination of burst / toolset, but in settings where there are player slots / compositions that require certain toolset like mass CC, frost will obviously have a place.

When there are so much damage going around between 10~15 vs 10~15, then there are so many GCDs you can spare to coordinated CC. This is where unholy dk cannot offer the same amount of control as Frost. You need to break off of "Only pvp is arena" mindset.

[s3r4phym]

ok is it just me or does blood not present some pvp utilization? ok i'll break it down and plz correct me if i'm wrong, i'm a noob but i'm not dumb so plz, critisism is allowed.

blood has several talents to make it a viable pvp spec. Hand of Doom, Bone Shield, Rune Tap, Will of the necropolis, Scarlet fever, Vampiric Blood, actually there are alot of talents that you could argue are pvp heavy.

Blood concentrates on survivability, if it's one thing i've learned it's better to stay alive and widdle away an opponent than to bring nothing to the table but burst damage. Death strike may demand alot but look at what you get from it, and with Improved Death Strike i think one could be pretty unstoppable at times. and i didnt mention the measley 1 min. cd of DRW.
Add in Necrotic Strike and silence CD reduction, and assuming you dip into frost to get lichborn, palehorse, and free mind freeze, you could be a healer's worst nightmare.

ok now like i said i'm fairly new at this game i've played for about 6 months, but i think i may have a point here. but plz let me know if i'm wrong i haven't played beta so i might be missing something huge in this picture that i'm just not aware of. so plz let me know what you think, just be nice plz, ty.

[Foibles]

With the removal of Cleansing Totem, the Unholy diseases mastery should add some pretty good pressure in rated BGs.