I. PREFACE
I figured I'd take my Unholy Death Knight / Necromancer concept a bit further. I hope you all don't mind that I start a new thread to showcase my thoughts.
Sooooo... here's my take on how Unholy could theoretically move forward with having the OPTION to have a Necromancer-ish (ranged) playstyle if one chooses to do so.
II. UNHOLY CHANGES
- Each Festering Wound increases the Unholy Death Knight's damage to the target by 1% (stacking and capping alongside Festering Wounds). This would add a cycling of damage that would actually give us a small and very much needed damage boost.
- Summon Gargoyle is baseline for Unholy.
- Necrotic Strike is baseline for Unholy (this is already a near mandatory choice for us so it being baseline will actually give Unholy some choice in PvP Talents - see section 5 below).
- Staves can be equipped / used (and thus transmogrified) but would be virtually useless for a non-Necromancer build (see Necromancer's Phylactery below.)
- All Will Serve is changed to being the same as the Item - Death Knight T15 DPS 2P Bonus but it would instead be a Ghoul for 15 sec and not a Fallen Zandalari.
- Raise Dead is changed to allow you to raise a specific undead minion i.e. Ghoul (ST DPS), Sludge Belcher (AOE DPS), Risen Skulker (Ranged DPS - I would expect slightly less damage than the Ghoul but maybe with a slow effect?). The minions damage, etc. would be adjusted so that they they are the best choice for their role.
- Necromancer's Bargain (PVP) is changed so that Crypt Fever does up to 24% based on how many (4) Festering Wounds are burst (6% per Wound). Please note how this ability works - it does 2% damage for each second of the 4 second duration.
III. RUNEFORGING
Runeforging should definitely be expanded upon. I propose that the current runes become the base for all runeforging and then adding an interesting and different effect to it. In this way we could essentially have multiple options of Rune of the Fallen Crusader and Rune of Razorice, etc. These base runes would somehow NOT stack (in regards to DW).
Here's an example...
- Rune of the Fallen Crusader - Rune of the Fallen Crusader and a lite version of Shadowmourne's "Your attacks have a chance to drain a Soul Fragment granting you 0.5% Strength. When you have acquired 10 Soul Fragments you will unleash Chaos Bane, dealing Shadow damage split between all enemies within 15 yards and granting you 10% Strength for 5 sec."
- Rune of Cinderglacier - Rune of the Fallen Crusader which also procs the old Rune of Cinderglacier (increase the damage of your next 2 spells that deal Frost or Shadow damage by 20%. Lasts 15 sec.)
- Rune of Razorice - Rune of Razorice which also increases your movement speed by the same stacking 3% (stacking up to 5 times).
IV. NECROMANCER TALENTS & ABILITIES
Necromancer's Phylactery - Replaces Summon Gargoyle talent (Level 100 Unholy Death Knight ability)
Instant (1.5 min cooldown)
Scourge Strike, Festering Strike, and Death Strike are replaced with Death Chill, Blighted Frost, and Death Touch (so that all melee abilities become ranged attacks with a 30 yd range... Apocalypse and Soul Reaper, if selected, are also converted to a 30 yrd range). All Physical damage abilities are converted to Frost damage (see abilities below). All Intellect (stat) converts to Attack Power the same way Strength does (and continues to do so.)
NOTE: Mastery: Dreadblade remains unchanged. This stops these Necromancer changes from scaling a tad too much and also keeps things like Clawing Shadows, etc. as a viable choice.
Death Chill - Replaces Scourge Strike
1 Rune / Instant / 30 yrd range
A deathly blast of unholy power that deals [ 30% of Attack Power ] Frost damage and [ 16.5% of Attack Power ] Shadow damage, and causes 1 Festering Wound to burst.
Blighted Frost - Replaces Festering Strike
2 Runes / Instant / 30 yrd range
Unleash a frozen attack for [ 101.09% of Attack Power ] Frost damage and infects the target with 2-3 Festering Wounds.
Death Touch - Replaces Death Strike
45 Runic Power / Instant / 30 yrd range
Focuses dark power into a chilling attack that deals [ 46.43% of Attack Power ] Frost damage and heals you for 25% of all damage taken in the last 5 sec, minimum 7% of maximum health.
Raise Dead and Dark Transformation would maybe receive a cosmetic change to the models themselves (and thus maybe themed after the updated Skeleton models and the different "empowered" Skeleton model with a shadow effect just for variety. This would include a new icon and a minor change to the Claw tool tip to replace the word "deformed" to whatever is fitting i.e. "unholy" or something). These could also all be glyphs I guess...
V. PVP TALENTS
Exhume Magic - NEW PvP Talent (available to ALL Death Knight specs)
1 Rune / 45 second cooldown / 30 yrd range
Instantly remove one helpful Magic effect from the target and gain 10 Runic Power.
* I "borrowed" the icons from Heroes of the Storm (Kel'Thuzad, etc.)