Upcoming Deathknight Changes.

[Deleted]

Source: us . battle . net /wow / en /blog /1829962 --> Someone link it please, i can't yet.
Found the source in a Paladin thread and just wanted to link it with you fellow DK's and quote out the stuff about us.

Still, we see Survival hunters and Unholy DKs on top of a lot of single target fights

- Incoming Unholy dmg nerf.

On fights where there is a lot of area damage, Demonology warlocks, Frost DKs and possibly Survival hunters are all too high.

- And Frost on AoE - most likely Howling Blast dmg reduction.

Unholy DKs are another spec for whom mastery just isn’t working out. Our current intent is to redesign their mastery so that their attacks cause more damage to diseased targets (in a similar manner to the Restoration druid mastery).

- Yay finally a change to the mastery after talking about it quite a while.

We want to make sure Unholy DKs prefer two-handed weapons.

- Unholy DW Seems to be killed off.

Necrotic Strike needs to be affected by resilience.

- Yea, most of us who did PvP saw this one coming, pretty overpowered ability at current stage.

For Cataclysm, we changed Death Strike almost completely into an ability for Blood DK tanks, which is a bit unfortunate. We want to make sure it is still a useful button for Frost or Unholy DKs who need healing.

- Hmm.

We also want to address DK mobility in PvP.

Is this the final list of changes?

No. This is some stuff we are looking at so that you’ll have some context if you see changes on a future PTR. The final list of class patch notes for the next patch will doubtless be much longe

So, what are your thoughts of these (supposed) upcoming changes?

[Phyroth]

I do like the changes planned for Unholy's mastery, but I am still waiting for changes to bring two handed frost in line with the other dps specs.

[Hypro]

I hate 2h, me personally when i figured out that DW UH was going 2 b viable i was stoked.... but now that they are going 2 remove it.... y bother with my dps spec.... i wanted a change from frost dw... and y give us the option to DW if ur just going to take it away?? might aswell just remove NoCS

[Oopsmezedya]

The only reason im playing a dk is because they are a hybrid magic melee dps class

Howling blast is the only thing that really stands out that dk is a "magic class" is instant powerfull can snare and can be somewhat spamed

If they reduce DK's to a "melee class with crappy spell dots" then im just going to go back to shadow priest who have 50% damage reduction with resil (super OP shadow form plate armor) and massive spike damage(noob spike spam), nerfing necrotic strike and howling blast will make this class a joke

How about buffing dk's before nerfing the only 2 abilities that make them worth playing

[Deleted]

I stopped playing my DK when the new talents came out (it was my main) because i cant stand new frost and i dont like using slow 2H. I just started playing it again after doing some research and finding out that UH DW was viable and now this....guess I wont be playing him after all =(

[Floreon]

No one should have been surprised that DW unholy was going to be killed. I'm thoroughly surprised blizzard let it get this far. If you want to be unholy, use a 2h. If you want to DW, say goodbye to your ghoul friend.

[cFortyfive]

Anyone else here thinking that it's really funny that they'd rather spend time on fixing something that was more or less accidentally viable like dw Uh (which isn't really better than 2h uh anyways) than fixing 2h frost which was supposed to be a relevant spec but is so far behind it's not even remotely viable ?

[Shiira]

I'm glad that blizzard have finally admitted that dks have mobility issues, and that the unholy mastery is terrible.

I'm not surprised to hear that they think frost does too much aoe damage but I would like to hear what they are trying to do with fires burst aoe. I'm sure a lot of you have seen what happens when a mage uses combustion and impact at halfus when the whelps are up.

[Windborne Sword]

I hate 2h, me personally when i figured out that DW UH was going 2 b viable i was stoked.... but now that they are going 2 remove it.... y bother with my dps spec.... i wanted a change from frost dw... and y give us the option to DW if ur just going to take it away?? might aswell just remove NoCS

Than play Frost, because thats the DW tree.

No one should have been surprised that DW unholy was going to be killed. I'm thoroughly surprised blizzard let it get this far. If you want to be unholy, use a 2h. If you want to DW, say goodbye to your ghoul friend.

He is correct, besides they spent so much effort on making frost the DW tree, use it. They only included 2Handed Frost because they felt that making people choose between becoming a pet class or just a plain DPS class shouldn't impact your weapons choice. I never agreed with that change and I think Frost 2Handed dps is pointless, I hear its good to level with though.

[kerwyn]

I hate 2h, me personally when i figured out that DW UH was going 2 b viable i was stoked.... but now that they are going 2 remove it.... y bother with my dps spec.... i wanted a change from frost dw... and y give us the option to DW if ur just going to take it away?? might aswell just remove NoCS

I think you hit the nail on the head. Something tells me NoCS is going to be made baseline for frost only.

[catalystical]

I think you hit the nail on the head. Something tells me NoCS is going to be made baseline for frost only.

While they're at it, make Virulence baseline across the board too.

[sabrelime]

Anyone else here thinking that it's really funny that they'd rather spend time on fixing something that was more or less accidentally viable like dw Uh (which isn't really better than 2h uh anyways) than fixing 2h frost which was supposed to be a relevant spec but is so far behind it's not even remotely viable ?

Actually in epics DW unholy pulls ahead as the highest dps spec, in lower end gear Two hand unholy is the best.

[Rhetoric]

Hmm. not excited about a HB nerf; I would accept a 4-5sec CD on it though, obviously reset by rime procs. Our snap AoE is probably too strong compared to everyone, I wont deny, but I fear that single target will see a decrease with any lowering of HB's damage, with it replacing IT now. Maybe even a damage reduction to non targeted enemies, similar to the new pestilence.

[Deleted]

Reducing Howling Blast's dmg in boss fights with AoE is just making the dmg fewer percentages to the different mobs. Then you will keep the nice mechanic for Howling Blast in Bossfights & PvP. And if only Howling Blast and Necrotic strike can keep you playing a Death Knight, you seem pretty much like a player that goes for whatever is considered overpowered at the current patch imo.

[Deleted]

Someone is actually surprised that DW Unholy (Unholy was ment for 2H only anyway) would get nefed? I wouldn't be surprised at all even if they made 2H completely worthless for Frost aswell. At least that way newbs wouldn't be using sub optimal gear / specs without any clue.

[Mesovr]

Reducing Howling Blast's dmg in boss fights with AoE is just making the dmg fewer percentages to the different mobs. Then you will keep the nice mechanic for Howling Blast in Bossfights & PvP. And if only Howling Blast and Necrotic strike can keep you playing a Death Knight, you seem pretty much like a player that goes for whatever is considered overpowered at the current patch imo.

Yep this is pretty much it. Im supprised HB made it past beta with the single target fighting mindset for cata. Anyway what you can expect is a 100% dmg on your target and 50% on everything around it. However this is speculation and blizzard is known for doing wierd fixes when the obvious is staring em in the eye.

[kerwyn]

Hmm. not excited about a HB nerf; I would accept a 4-5sec CD on it though, obviously reset by rime procs. Our snap AoE is probably too strong compared to everyone, I wont deny, but I fear that single target will see a decrease with any lowering of HB's damage, with it replacing IT now. Maybe even a damage reduction to non targeted enemies, similar to the new pestilence.

I'd like to see either a damage reduction on secondary targets, or a reason to cast icy touch.

As an aside, I got a 40k Howling Blast crit on dragon twins earlier. That's a tad bit ridiculous (even considering: 1700 mastery rating, was probably during my 12k strength period of aligned CD's and procs)

[Habbadasher]

Reducing Howling Blast's dmg in boss fights with AoE is just making the dmg fewer percentages to the different mobs. Then you will keep the nice mechanic for Howling Blast in Bossfights & PvP. And if only Howling Blast and Necrotic strike can keep you playing a Death Knight, you seem pretty much like a player that goes for whatever is considered overpowered at the current patch imo.

To be fair though, that's how Death knights work. You need runes as a resource so you end up pigeon holed into using whatever does the most damage per rune. It's basically saying we're nerfing your main abilities.

PvE will be fine but this patch could be a decent nerf to frost pvp.

[SoulPoetry]

they need to be careful with unholy mastery, it could go from the worst to the best stat, but then again, they could just limit the abilities ie. your festering strike and scourge strike do x% more damage to diseased targets. other than that, these aren't surprising at all.

[Deleted]

It was obvious Blizzard wanted Unholy DK to go 2H from the begining, don't know what the big surprise is.