Ghostcrawler: Death Knight dual wielding to get a makeover soon
by Daniel Whitcomb 
May 23rd 2009 at 4:00PM
Good news to all you Dual Wield Death Knight Diehards: Ghostcrawler recently popped up on the forums with a simple answer to your woes: "Next Major Patch."Apparently, the next major patch (I'm guess it will be patch 3.2) will be seeing more tweaks to Death Knights, at the least to get dual wielding viable again. There's no word on what form this tweaking will take, which is to be expected. Balancing Dual Wielding and Two handed weapons has always been a tricky to near-impossible for other classes, so the skeptical part of me still wonders if it's possible.
Of course, it could also be the two-handed weapon partisan in me speaking as well. Any basic solution such as creating a two-weapon strike seems like it could leave two-handed Death Knights out in the cold, at least for DPS. Still, we have that earlier mention of possible dual-wield dedicated tree, so who knows how extensively they'll revamp whichever one they choose to allow dual wield optimization. We do already have some 3.2 feature announcements, though, so who knows, maybe class change information is up next. We'll keep you posted.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Smackman May 23rd 2009 4:15PM
I find it more interesting they let DW fly for DK's, they fully knew it was not ready, Second instead of fixing the issue they decided to "disable" it in a matter of speaking. I'm really doubting they have the experienced people necessary to make sound gaming decisions and are in-line with a knee-jerk mentality in regards to class balance.
But hey, better shipping a class OP'd then risk it being a failure, right? Sadly money, not solid game development comes first with them now.
theRaptor May 23rd 2009 4:33PM
"Sadly money, not solid game development comes first with them now."
/raised eyebrow
You are talking about Blizzard right? The Blizzard that made Warlocks one of the worst classes for most of classic WoW (except they could chain fear, that was all they had, they needed to chain fear because that was the only way a warlock was going to win a fight) and then buffed them into the stratosphere in TBC, and now they are getting as mediocre as they were in classic.
Pallies have done it as well recently (ret really was retlol for the first half of TBC), rogues, hunters, warriors, all the healers have similarly gone from being worst to being best and back again.
Blizzard have never achieved class balance or even stability. It isn't like the OPness of DK's is new or even notable. Blizzard takes forever to recognize an issue, over buffs, and are slow as tar in nerfing it back down.
I have played MMO's with balanced game design. WoW has never been one.
Saleheim May 23rd 2009 4:38PM
Just get the new promised druid forms done..... sigh...
PeeWee May 23rd 2009 5:30PM
To my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong), they never made any solid promises regarding new forms. They've only stated over and over again that they are "working on it".
A single, unpaid guy could whack new forms up in a few months, yet a multi-BILLION dollar company can't make it happen in four and a half years. Instead, they've banned people using said single guy's creations.
(^.^)b
Suhas May 23rd 2009 4:23PM
lorewise, its looks silly if they make Frost as the dual wield dedicated tree coz the Frostmourne would probably be a 2 handed weapon which wouldnt be useful for a "Frost" DK
K May 23rd 2009 5:44PM
We better get used to Frost being the DW tree real fast then...
I'd rather an euthanizing "DELETE" from the devs' side, to rid us of this stupid and balance-wise overcomplicated mess that is DK dual wielding once and for all, to right the wrong that was enabling this monstrosity in the first place.
But I see thats not going to happen...
Eisengel May 23rd 2009 6:23PM
I had really thought Blood was going to be the dual-wield tree, and to me Frost doesn't make much sense either. I would think the tree that battle-frenzied nigh-unkillable self-healing frontline soldiers of the Scourge would be Blood, and to me, nothin' says battle-frenzy lovin' like dual-wield (tee hee!).
I had thought Frost would have some type of constant low-damage AoE and very slow, but extremely powerful strikes as well as lots of defensive CDs. You'd wade into a crowd of mobs, slow them, weaken them, and then utterly destroy them one by one. You'd want the biggest, heaviest, 2-hander you could get with highest top damage possible, and you'd keep your defenses up to take the hits while you waited for your uber single-target attacks to come off of CD.
I had thought Blood would have some type of multi-strike ability and would really favor dual wield, kind of like the Rogue Combat swords spec, and lots of self-healing and reflective damage and cleave-like abilities. They'd run full-speed into any situation and would chop their enemies to bits while constantly healing themselves. They'd differentiate themselves from Warrior types by having more mob control tools that didn't focus on keeping mobs from running away or healing, but would instead have knockbacks, weapon breaks and chance to hit reduces. You'd want fast, high-hit weapons so you could parry and block (with your swords) while your enemy took a constant hail of hits from you, and if they ever got a hit in, you'd self-heal through it, and they'd likely take damage from the hit (bladed armor redesign).
Sean May 23rd 2009 6:51PM
Hate to burst your bubble, but Frostmourne isn't going to be a player usable item. Think about it, an artifact of unspeakable power that corrupted one of the strongest Paladins Azeroth had ever seen....how's that going to work in the hands of a common adventurer?
Gulnaga Jun 17th 2009 7:35PM
Ashbringer > Frostmourne in both power and lore.
And you could get the corrupted ashbringer (and even so all of SM bowed down before you).
A lot of folk tend to... overestimate Frostmourne. It was just part of the regalia that Kil'jaeden bound within the frozen throne to bind Ner'zhul's twisted spirit inside it. Forged by the demons.
It wasn't that Frostmourne corrupted Arthas, it was that Ner'zhul's will corrupted Arthas using Frostmourne as a vessel (think of it as Frostmourne was the radio antenna and let Arthas listen to Lich King 108.8 FM).
Now the question is with 'Arthas the Lich King' defeated will Ner'zhul also be vanquished? And thus the corrupting influence from the sword. If so then it is just a sword, albeit a powerful demon-forged blade. If not then it would be 'fun' for random audible whisper to happen when a player wields it (basically an 'invisible' proc while wielding it.)
Frostmourne's history is fairly shrouded in mystery before it was put into the Frozen Throne, as is the rest of the lich king's armor.
However, considering they let you aquire Gul'dan's skull an item that had far more power than Frostmourne... it being an item you can aquire in the game is far within the realm of possibility.
whodhavesonic May 23rd 2009 4:31PM
The thing is that it wasn't the Dual Wielding part of those hybrid builds that was so overpowered, but how powerful a spell-oriented build could be. They've since fixed that with the adjustments to icy touch and howling blast so I dont think it would be as OP as it once was.
I agree with the knee-jerk thing though, my other character is a hunter and we seem to have gotten the short end of that this time around, which is kind of annoying.
Antiquity May 23rd 2009 4:41PM
The class imbalances and constant changes is what made me finally quit the game 2 months ago.
Most of my guild is doing the same thing and most of us feel WoW has jumped the shark and the people running is just have no clue how to get this game under control.
It's a shame, art finally got good and the rest of the game went to $hit. Class balance and all the issues basically destroyed this game.
tchernobyl May 23rd 2009 5:04PM
i have never seen a more hilariously wrong comment.
As someone mentioned above... there has never *been* class balance, nor will there likely ever be. With nearly 12 million people playing, there will always be some person unsatisfied with how their class works, or bitching about how another class works vs theirs.
The semblance of "balance" that was in vanilla WOW or BC is simply looking at the past with nostalgia. It is simply like musical chairs, a different class is the top dog or the underdog.
Additionally, the mechanics of the game itself have radically changed, and mostly for the better. Mechanics that don't seem to actively punish you for following them, but instead are rewarding, and easy. Easy apparently being a bad thing in some people's eyes.
No MMO has ever truly had a class balance. In fact, most multiplayer games are always being updated for said multiplayer, to keep the balance in check (see starcraft STILL getting patches after over 10 years).
killik May 24th 2009 6:57AM
You haven't 'quit the game' if you're still reading and commenting on WoW blogs.
JustinScott May 23rd 2009 5:59PM
Personally, I welcome the Dual-Wielding changes with open arms. As the top tanking spec atm for DKs is a frost/unholy build, and with dual-wielding talents in the frost tree, it makes sense to make the frost tree the true dual-wielding tree. Cause right now, if you tank using a 2h weapon, to get the added 2h bonuses, you have to put 7 points into blood, which those points could otherwise be put further into unholy, or more important places in frost.
I have 2 great 1h swords for tanking, but they just arent viable atm. And that upsets me. I would much rather be able to use my talent points where i want to, without having to conform 2h tanking and having to put points into blood.
Smackman May 23rd 2009 6:05PM
It's not the fact the game is not balanced, that is not the issue, it's more so what ideal goal is balance being weighed against. They have expended far too many resources trying to get arena off the ground. And every aspect of the game has paid a price for it, that's what makes me sick of this development team.
Only today a statement came out saying 2v2 is not ever going to be balanced, lol no shit?! And since no one plays 5v5, lol they are syaing 3v3 is all they can work with? Lol, please.But you see how long it takes them to admit a mistake, it's rather sad but this team is out of touch with what the game is and more importantly what it can do. Latching onto arena was a huge mistake, no one gives a rats ass about esport. The BG's where fine, they neglected them for arena and now everyone bitches about them, even raiding has fallen to the mindless arena push.
In any event they have made some serious mistakes and misjudged the audience, and have quickly waved off anyone saying otherwise. So GRATZ to a sorry development team who have no vision of the game and have taken it into a bad place. Thanks a-lot.
DragonFireKai May 23rd 2009 8:53PM
You can only balance a single rule set around one focus point. The developers chose to balance pvp around 3v3 at 80 rather than 1v1 or 2v2 or 5v5 or level 29. Certain abilities will be more or less powerful in the other brackets or in other arena sets than is balanced because they cannot be balanced around those other brackets and Level 80 3v3 at the same time. 5v5, regardless of availability is no more balanced than 2v2.
Halthaak May 23rd 2009 9:19PM
Sorry DW is a gimmick, a gimmick that should have never been in the game in the first place. I don't want to see it in the game if it "breaks" the other trees capabilities, if they can't implement it without doing that more power to them but if not let DW die.
bradv10 May 24th 2009 3:33AM
is complaining about the inbalance between trees relevant anymore since dual spec?
Joester May 24th 2009 8:37AM
I dont play a DK. so Idk what happened to DK DW but the fact they nerfed it? Nerfed it how?
Antiquity May 24th 2009 12:01PM
Yet the majority of people I know (which is easily 20+ that play in my network of friends) are quitting the game for these reasons.
Believe it or not, but the ridiculous amount of class changes and knee jerk reactions in balance, changes, etc are what killed the game for us. There are much better ways to balance, but Blizzard just does their own thing which time and time again proves itself as a mistake. You can tell that the people running the game at the moment don't have a clue.
The best thing about opinions are that they can't be wrong. I've never seen a more hilarious comment about this.