Death Knight Concept - 2020

[Ealyssa]

For example: You placed an awkward comma into your sentence instead of a period. I could have just said that your grammar is terrible. But, I am explaining why exactly I have a problem with your sentence structure. It makes for a more intelligent conversation.

Turning to ad hominem make suuuuch a intelligent conversation.

PATHETIC.

[Clash the DK]

I mean no offense with my comment.

I just feel that a lot of the talent design seem very %damage increase and old abilities.

I think that to actually improve the DK we need to evolve and not devolve and go back to previous versions.

You did have a couple of good talents. I really liked infest and to be honest don't know why this isn't in the game already.

The other points would be Apocalypse and AOTD being a talent, i don't think this should be the case and would actually like to see AOTD be returned to blood and frost DK alike.

The main problem i see with the DK at the moment is the foundation of the class is boring,dull and to be honest doesn't actually know where it seems to be going, for example;

Frost seems to be torn between dot damage and auto attacks, when i believe it should be based hard hitting abilities.

Unholy seems to be all about auto attack damage from pet and champion with no real thought into the dot apart from chuck it up and leave it, when i would much like to see it return to its rot damage and pet control, so much more could be done with the scourge army and pets to make the class so much more flavorful.

Sorry for the Rant

Generally, each choice in a talent row offers a different level of interactivity. The first choice in most cases are just % damage increases that are not meant to affect the base gameplay. This is done on purpose for those that want more simple gameplay. The second choice generally affects your rotation in some meaningful way by changing how you push your buttons; This increases interactivity but without having to add additional buttons to your action bar. The third choice is generally an active ability that increases throughput the most depending on how you spend your earlier talent choices. This is the current design of the talent system and I generally agree with that precedent because it offers varying degrees of choice to the player within this particular concept. I wouldn't agree with placing 3 active abilities on the same row for example. In that scenario, you would be offering a no win situation for a player who doesn't want more abilities. That creates a negative choice for that player.

I like the idea of adding back old abilities and concepts where it fits into the current design. Some things were removed that could have just been changed in past. But this is all very situational. It really just depends.

What I have laid out as a concept doesn't devolve the class; It is most definitely an evolution. I'm certainly not requesting that we go back to having 3 different runes for example. It's a logical progression from where we stand now. Removing Festering Wounds is the biggest change that I am suggesting, but I would guess that the majority of DKs did not like having Combo Points added to their other mechanics.

I have a love/hate relationship with AOTD. In some cases, it makes for a fun ability. But, there are also times where it can be problematic and just a pain. And having that much of our damage tied to one ability on such a long cooldown has major drawbacks. That's exactly why I feel it appropriate to have AOTD as a talent choice and for all specs.

Apocalypse, on the other hand, as it is currently designed is completely redundant. It's the exact same concept as AOTD, but with a shorter cooldown and more complicated to activate. They even used ghouls whereas maybe they could have used skeletons or zombies or anything else. I can see it as maybe a choice between the two. But Unholy currently having both feels like overkill. Notice that while I put Apocalypse in my concept talent grid, it has changed to fit my design.

For some reason, auto attack damage was increased significantly across the board in BfA. That leaves your active strikes feeling much less powerful. This is a problem with all melee, although it feels more impactful to DKs with their DoTs. And even moreso with Unholy because of the permanent pet and multiple summons. Why they did this I do not know.

In general, many players do not like playing with a permanent pet, which is why I think it should be optional. Blood and Frost had a ghoul at one time even if it was just a cooldown. They would have also been able to make it permanent if we had kept the old WotLK talent trees going forward. So at this point, I think it would be appropriate to have the option of a permanent pet for all specs. That's my first priority on the ghoul.

But with having the ghoul optional, it becomes impossible to add new gameplay to it, much less keep Dark Transformation even though I agree there is some design space there. If only they would allow certain talents to connect in the talent grid. Therefore, you could have prerequisite talents. Maybe in one row you have Raise Dead. The next row you could take Dark Transformation if you selected Raise Dead previously. Then, the next row would connect and add something else. That would all be a possibility if they made that one simple change to the way the talent grid operates.

- - - Updated - - -

Turning to ad hominem make suuuuch a intelligent conversation.

PATHETIC.

Troll elsewhere. I have no time for you.

[Clash the DK]

Project Updated 11-10-19

We know little about Shadowlands so far, but I have blended in what information we do know into this design concept.