What was it like to play DK in WOTLK?

[kaelix1]

If I would use one word to describe DK in WOTLK it would be OP but in the same time I fell it was the time where the class was very 'interesting' you could tank/dps with all 3 specs, dw or 2h, obvious that there was a best build for each spec but the fact that you had so many options made wotlk DK in my eyes the best class wow had to offer

[Az0na]

Bloodtanking was op also in pvp you could just own 5 man groups including other dk in it eith easr. Self healing was insane.

[Mercadi]

Blood DPS was my favorite out of all the melee DPS specs, even before the armor penetration craze.

[Eapoe]

As a person who beta played one and then realm first'd one in Wrath till they defined Blood/Frost/Unholy during Ulduar until a guild split had me abandon it, it was a helluva fun ride.

1) As one of the first people who got a DK to 80 in like short period along with the rest of the guild who pretty much all got realm firsts of their classes, tired as fuck, and then to go in and clear Naxx to gear up was amazing. I loved Blood as my dps spec till the changes.

2) PvP was fucking hilarious because no one knew how to handle you. You just wailed on these people as they ran or you just negated all their shit.

3) This one is more for fun, but going for the lowest arena rating possible as a nigh unkillable class in a motorcycle that had it's own healthbar made those 30 min+ arena matches fun.

As for 2, it’s not that people didn’t know how to handle you, it’s that they literally couldn’t. DKs were super OP at the time. I’m not complaining, it was hilarious how strong they were, and I could see the appeal.

[Tronski]

]
DW Frost tanking was a nightmare for stats if I remember correctly, with all the extra necessary hit on top of your usual tanking stats.

But so worth it!

[Scyth]

Blood DPS was one of the most fun specs I have ever played (PvE, did not do much PvP).

[ek0zu]

I remember being on the beta for Wotlk and obviously testing the new hero class DK.

I had only one word to say it was so AWESOME, basically it was so awesome that i had to ditch it, when i dinged after the release, because it was so OP.
That resulted into my inevitable quitting of the game because i was sick and tired of my only other class, back then, the priest (which was brutally murdered in wotlk, at least compared to my likes).

But the game in general was a lot better back then....good times....

[Aggrophobic]

Unbalanced and rather clunky compared to the classes we have today.
Good fun for its time though. The idea of having 3 specs that could both DPS and tank was really cool on papar at least. I didn't work that well but it was a fun experiment.

[Unholyground]

I have a Hybrid Blood Unholy spec that was essentially unkillable in PvP by most classes and it performed really well in content, it was like being a support healer with high DPS that could tank in a heartbeat.

[Slakkers]

Tanked as blood then as now, every spec could tank and dps, some arguably better than others. I had no complaints in raids or dungeons though.

[Softbuns]

Dw frost tanking was even better. Most fun and cool-looking tankspec to date.

Blood DPS, is not the same as FROST tanking

[Nihilux]

Yes "weaknesses" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIXYMY4dOmI

Yes, glaring weaknesses. Just showing a collection of fortunate videos, doesn't really not refute that. Honestly, video should be named "sucky arena teams vs partner and DK randomly casting all his abilities not on cooldown, take 1000". Most of the videos it's the partner actually doing all of the work. Mage at 50% before DK gets close? Druid runs around in caster form being targeted by both DPS?
Oh, and let's not forget he's fighting 2 DKs solo after his Shammy dies (after healing his complete life 4 times over) and they manage to lose. That's just sad how bad it is.

This is why I hate people using videos, because it's just cherry-picking.

[Ange]

Icy Touch spamming with sigil/relict combo, highest hitting ability, high crit chance, hot dispell, at range - just stupid. It was not needed at all, since the class was allready overtuned in dps and defense.

Blizzard was glad to payback the WotLK BETA "testing" for years to come, thanks to all "testers" who made the balancing of the class so onesided.

Honestly WotLK DKs in PVP were just as shamefull as the PARTICIPATION in the 4+ months of 5500 MMR cheating in arena/BGs when RU players with cheated 5500 MMR were autolosing against everything and people made 2700 achievements by just queueing in pvp. We all know the dates of the exploit months, its a great way to tag cheaters in this game.

Death Knights are a fun class, with unique spec mechanics, higher than average skill cap and maybe the best class theme in the game. But WotLK was nothing but a very unblanaced game that did cost a lot of DEV<->COMMUNITY trust and was repayed with years of negligence. The "fun" times had a very high price for everyone who mained this class after WotLK.

We never had real DEV<-> COMMUNITY feedback on eye level after WotLK.

[KrayZ33]

Yes, glaring weaknesses. Just showing a collection of fortunate videos, doesn't really not refute that. Honestly, video should be named "sucky arena teams vs partner and DK randomly casting all his abilities not on cooldown, take 1000". Most of the videos it's the partner actually doing all of the work. Mage at 50% before DK gets close? Druid runs around in caster form being targeted by both DPS?
Oh, and let's not forget he's fighting 2 DKs solo after his Shammy dies (after healing his complete life 4 times over) and they manage to lose. That's just sad how bad it is.

This is why I hate people using videos, because it's just cherry-picking.

What weaknesses are you talking about though.

DK in WotLK had stun immunity, magic immunity, fear immunity, good sustain, good burst, good slow (and thus didn't need gap closers as much as others), very tanky, didn't lose DPS like warriors when they went full defense mode, range interrupt with silence attached to it.
They even had a good enough amount of range DPS to get the job done if someone was able to get away, compared to other melee classes.
etc. pp.

What was DK missing? "glaring weakness" surely not.

That doesn't mean DKs could win every single fight easily, no - but that's more due to how OP some of the spells and talents of other classes were.
For example, SV Hunter's Explosive Shots could stun you on every tick and would be able to burst you down if you aren't careful with that spell alone - but unlike DKs, they actually did have a glaring weakness.... the dead-zone.

[Zogarth]

I just remember duel-wield frost while tanking in ICC and feeling like a god.

[Nihilux]

What weaknesses are you talking about though.

DK in WotLK had stun immunity, magic immunity, fear immunity, good sustain, good burst, good slow (and thus didn't need gap closers as much as others), very tanky, didn't lose DPS like warriors when they went full defense mode, range interrupt with silence attached to it.
They even had a good enough amount of range DPS to get the job done if someone was able to get away, compared to other melee classes.
etc. pp.

What was DK missing? "glaring weakness" surely not.

That doesn't mean DKs could win every single fight easily, no - but that's more due to how OP some of the spells and talents of other classes were.
For example, SV Hunter's Explosive Shots could stun you on every tick and would be able to burst you down if you aren't careful with that spell alone - but unlike DKs, they actually did have a glaring weakness.... the dead-zone.

I don't disagree that DKs had a lot of tools, but so did literally all classes. Were they strong? Yes, and I don't disagree with that and they had versatile tools. But they had glaring weaknesses like relying on a single gapcloser. You could easily have mage vs DK that could be finished without the mage losing much HP at all, though it could equally go the other way. They each had weaknesses they had to account for.
A lot of the strong tools of the DK had various ways of being countered by other classes, leading to different strategies. The burst damage was also quite high. A lot of the times a DK would have to rely on a lot of those abilities as potential defensive abilities during times where they had to reach the target, and wrong use either offensively or defensively could ruin the match for a DK. Something like AMS only had about 5-7 seconds of uptime and you'd have to wait out the cooldown after that.
Also they didn't have a ranged interrupt, only a ranged silence (on a 2 min cd), but a melee interrupt. Their slow was good, but it also meant using up runes and could be countered by class/spec abilities, as well as having a 20 yard range, that could make it irrelevant with correct spacing. They also lack a CC. Another weakness, depending on the fight. Lacked anti-snare capabilities. Meaning they were dependent on a 20 yard variable snare that needed frost or death runes available to use, and on a 30 yard grab attack. Death Grip had like 25 sec cd talented. In contrast to that Blink was 15 seconds at default. Now, to be fair it also had a shorter range (20-25 yards, or should I say x-25, as it depends on the environment), but that was the pros and cons you had to deal with back then.
Icebound Fortitude didn't break stuns back then, last time I checked (believe it got added in Cata pre-patch). Meaning it had to be use before a possible stun.

So, DKs were good, but they were not the end-all-be-all class. They were amongst the overall better classes, but depending on the circumstances they might be at an disadvantage as well.
How do I know this? I've played WotLK enough to know it. I've also searched the internet for posts about the subject from during WotLK and even some of the private server forums.
What gets mentioned the most as OP? Paladins. However, there are major disagreements regarding that as well, depending on environmental factors and type of pvp.

[Absintheminded]

First of all, you must know that we were intentionally overpowered to a fault. This was explicitly stated because Ghostcrawler was worried that people would not want to switch mains and level a new character through TBC again to get to Wrath.

But... It was glorious. The freedom of talents, ability to tank or dps in any spec, etc all made this class the most fun I've had in my 15 or so years of playing. The main drawback was itemization. Specs were held back due to expertise, hit rating, defense rating, etc. If blizzard would simply give it a chance, we could easily get a Wrath version of DK now, but without any of the problems that class had back then.

[Lorianus]

Unholy killing people at range from 30 yards away with icy touch and lol coil spam in arena s5 was the most overtuned shit this game has ever seen, i still laugh irl at every DK and Holy Paladin that got Deadly Gladiator in season 5 in 2s arena.

[Edward Wu]

Blood DPS, Frost Tanking, and Unholy Tanking were cool as fuck.

[chaddd]

DKs have always been a blast to play, no matter the xpac IMO.