Patch 3.2 Death Knight changes
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 18th 2009 at 4:45PM
Death Knights are among the most-changed classes in the first PTR version of patch 3.2, which is not terribly surprising for such a young class. Because of such significant changes, all DKs will receive a free respec.
Blood Strike will scale more from disease (up to 50% per disease), while Frost Strike is receiving significant nerfs: it can now be dodged/blocked/parried, and only gets a 55% bonus from weapon damage, instead of 60%.
On the tanking front, one of our major cooldowns was nerfed, although DKs are still probably the king of tanking CDs (disgustingly powerful new Ardent Defender aside). Icebound Fortitude's CD was doubled to 2 minutes. Veteran of the Third War's Stamina bonus was cut in half, and Toughness was cut by a third.
As for DPS, both Dancing Rune Weapon and Gargoyle were changed to a fixed duration for 60 Runic Power, 12 and 30 seconds respectively, and the Gargoyle now flies closer to the ground so melee can hit it.
Desecration is now a PvP/slight tanking talent (2 points for 25/50% snare, no damage increase), but a new talent called Desolation has taken its place: causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
Speaking of PvP, Lichborne's duration was reduced to 10 seconds, but the cooldown cut to two minutes.
Unholy Blight was completely reworked. It looks like now it makes your Death Coils apply a 10-second DoT equal to 30% of your DC damage, which stacks in a like manner to Ignite and Deep Wounds. So less AoE damage, but more single-target, for the Unholy DPS DK.
Frost got a big new talent to prop up dual-wielding, as the devs were saying they might do. Threat of Thassarian reads: When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strike have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
That's about the size of it as far as DKs are concerned. As an Unholy DPS player myself, I'm pleased with the changes. Desecration was irritating, and Unholy Blight, while fun on AoE, made the rotation a little complex.
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Filed under: Patches, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Keyra Jun 18th 2009 4:51PM
You know, I often wonder what happened to the days of hiring play-testers and thoroughly examining an aspect of your game before releasing it to the public. Now, they just have user feedback from the PTRs as a means of saving money, which winds up being an uncontrolled environment, and results in things like the...what...like 8th time that DKs have been changed since they were first instituted into the game?
Elry Jun 18th 2009 9:49PM
I'd prefer Blizz had closed testing too. Not only would it be more controlled and they'd probably get actual feedback (rather than just a load of players logging on to see new content without submitting feedback) and be able to monitor PvP balance more closely but no one would know how new raid fights work (as hopefully it wouldn't be the top guilds they hired to test) so there could be more chance for other guilds to get world/realm firsts. Ok so my guild would still stand no chance, but at least we might see something other than "Ensidia gets world first on boss/clear".
On the other hand, so many people have so many different playstyles and can find ways around certain game mechanics that PvP could end up less balanced from closed testing if the testers aren't really creative in their playstyles and thorough in their testing. Blizzard also has to at least try to account for many hardware variations too, and the best way to do that is with real consumers playing/testing. But I'd still rather they had closed testing so that technically almost anyone could have a shot at a world/realm first on a new boss or achievement...
Keyra Jun 18th 2009 4:51PM
Hey, Eliah..."kyle" wants to be banned.
Keyra Jun 18th 2009 10:32PM
(this was a response to a "first" post - and it looks like, indeed, "kyle" was banned)
Marshy Jun 18th 2009 4:52PM
As a Frost DK, I am also pleased with the changes, and am curious to see how DW's numbers will be post-patch (assuming this goes live -- also, I am currently not DW).
emptyrepublic Jun 18th 2009 4:57PM
I think the changes are good for Frost DPS (especially those interested in DW) and bad for Frost Tanking.
JonLerner Jun 18th 2009 11:26PM
I'm both a frost 2h DPS and a frost tank, and honestly I'm disappointed. I mean, I'm glad that DW is making a return, but I feel bad with the frost strike nerf. The way they have the new DW talent set up believe it's going to get nerfed to the point where the left hand has an even reduced change to hit than what it already has. Otherwise DW Ob's would be too powerful.
Back to Frost Strike though, that ability is absolutely amazing for frost DPS. It's the main spammable, and with it being glyphed you can pump out 4 of them every time your runic power gets full, which is even easier to get with a glyphed Icy Touch.
One thing I'd rather they fix too is have Glyph of Plague renew Icy Talons. If they get that to work - I'll be happy with all of the changes. Damn bug keeps taking 1 GCD and 1 Obliterate away from me.
Alex Jun 18th 2009 4:53PM
Gargoyle links to the rune for your weapon, now i'm not keen on DK deeps but i'm sure that's a tanking kinda thing thar.
Beatphreek Jun 18th 2009 6:42PM
Go back and re-read that.
Falcom Jun 18th 2009 8:29PM
wait....what?
Alex Jun 18th 2009 9:00PM
"As for DPS, both Dancing Rune Weapon and >Gargoyle< were changed to a fixed duration for 60 Runic Power" - when i mouse over the gargoyle i'm getting rune of stoneskin gargoyle. Shouldn't it be the little flying gargoyle the death knights can summon?
Aureliusz Jun 19th 2009 2:52AM
Oh.. Took me a moment to realize, you were saying, in the article, Gargoyle (which should be hyperlinked to the ability) was hyperlinked to the Rune of Stoneskin Gargoyle (which is the tank runeforge) instead.
emptyrepublic Jun 18th 2009 4:55PM
I'm concerned that Frost Strike change among the other changes to tanking abilities will hamper DK Frost tanking too much. I have enough problems now generating threat. I don't need Frost Strike to be dodge/parried.
stephen Jun 21st 2009 5:19AM
Actually I think this was a PvP change. Practically every time I die to a DK, I check the log and.. Oh, yep! That killing blow is a Frost Strike crit...
Bouille Jun 18th 2009 5:03PM
What's gonna happen to the Dancing Rune Weapon Glyph?
norm Jun 18th 2009 5:17PM
It'll stay the same most likely. The old version with the glyph and 2/2 Runic Power Mastery with full runic power made your DRW last a good 23 seconds. Now with a fixed duration of 12 seconds, it will last a total of 17 seconds glyphed. This is a buff for those who weren't talented with 2/2 Runic Power Mastery and weren't glyphed, but a nerf for those of us who were.
Sargenus Jun 18th 2009 5:11PM
Hm. I like the changes as an Unholy DPS DK, but I never Tank or PvP. So I'll miss Desecration, but Unholy Blight sounds nice. No longer waste a talent point when I'm on single-target boss fights.
Kar On E Jun 18th 2009 5:13PM
See...I kind of had a different reaction to the talent changes for Unholy DPS. Mine was more of a "punched in the face" kind of feel as opposed to a good one. Yes, I'm about to QQ here...oh well.
- I loved having Unholy Blight as an AoE...it was one more damage piece that I could cast and forget about (until it ran out) and combined with Blood Boil and Death & Decay, made for a nice 3-set of AoE attacks. Single target DPS is nice, but I'd far rather have more AoE.
- It seems strange to me to split up Desecration and Desolation into two different talents, making them cost 7 talent points as opposed to 5. Plus, to make that DPS increase based upon Blood Strike (not necessarily refreshed) vs. Plague Strike (always refreshed)...not game-breaking by any stretch, but still not sure why it's necessary.
atomicstrawberry Jun 18th 2009 11:08PM
I agree on the problems linking the effect to blood strike, but my problem is more with the durations.
The usual DPS rotation for Unholy is IT -> PS -> BS -> BS -> SS -> UB -> dump -> SS -> SS -> SS -> dump. Linking the effect for 12 seconds to blood strike should mean that using that standard rotation you have next to no net DPS loss (you lose 5% on the very first BS) while it's up. The trick is that to keep it going you need to BS every 12 seconds. Assuming SS, UB, DC, SS, SS, SS, DC, DC, IT, PS, that's 10 instants between the two BS. 15 seconds. The only way you can squeeze it to 12 is to drop Unholy Blight or a Death Coil out of the first dump and move the second BS to after SS. You can only fit UB in during the second dump if your SS glyph refreshes your diseases.
If they want it to only last 12 seconds they should be making it like Abomination's Might in the Blood tree. 50% chance on Blood Strike and 100% chance on Scourge Strike. Otherwise it's not possible to keep it up without putting a pair of Blood Strikes in the place of a Scourge Strike in the second part of the rotation.
Ed Jun 18th 2009 5:33PM
I'm not liking what I see here. I'm a big fan of UB, and think it's one of the more defining characteristics of the DK. I think Unholy is one of the more unique play styles at the time, esp. unholy, which now seems to be in the homogonization bucket.
Will AoE hit the gargoyle? It all sounds like nerfs to the DK for me. :(