Lichborne: Unholy issues in Patch 3.2
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 3rd 2009 at 4:00PM
If there's one thing that researching the Death Knight class changes for patch 3.2 has done for me, it's reconfirmed my hatred of all these extra annoying little combat stats. You know expertise, armor penetration, haste, all those little things they added to the game for seemingly no other reason than to make determining best in slot gear a master's thesis level task or to make quest rewards suck worse than they first appear. Really, I long for the days when your choices were hit rating, AP, and spell power, heal power and spell or physical critical strike rating.I mean, I guess if I sat down and thought about it, I can deal, especially since the system tweakage has also bought us more awesome stuff like consolidated spell power and critical rating. Still, times like this, I really long for the old days. In particular, I'm talking about the Unholy tree.
The Unholy tree has received the largest amount of basic play style adjustment this patch (outside of dual wielding, of course, which I plan to discuss more on patch day). While there's a few factors at play here, the big one that has to do with my rant above, is the nerfing of Scourge Strike compounded with the Introduction of a new tier of gear.
What this has essentially lead to is the possibility of Obliterate becoming just plain better for Unholy than Scourge Strike. Tests on the PTR have pretty much established that as a reality, in fact. Some point just slightly north of 20% armor penetration, it appears that going for an Obliterate/Annihilation build will start outpacing Scourge Strike altogether. The setup that's getting a lot of buzz is something akin to this 3/13/55 build, which gives Unholy a very basic Obliterate rotation and includes both Annihilation and Subversion to provide disease longevity and threat reduction.
From a strictly utilitarian viewpoint, this type of build certainly isn't bad. It brings back threat reduction, which the old 0/10/61 build has been missing. Also, since the Blood Strike buff has been rolled back, Reaping is back in the mix, so we have the flexibility that brings with it. However, the unique flavor of Unholy has been rolled back pretty significantly. Unholy Blight has been redesigned, leaving Unholy knights with Death Coil spam for rune dumps, and a Gargoyle (instead of a dancing sword) for the big button. Permaghoul, at least, remains, but now high level Unholy knights will be losing Scourge Strike.
So how do you fix this? How do we give Unholy back some of its flavor? Scourge Strike buffing is certainly a place to start. The nerf to Scourge Strike may have made sense this patch back when we were getting a big buff to Blood Strike, but now that Blood Strike is unbuffed (as is probably for the best), it seems like Scourge Strike could probably stand to come back up a little. The big problem it has though, is scaling. Since Scourge Strike can ignore armor, it does not scale as well with pure strength as Obliterate does. But now that there's enough armor penetration in game to let Obliterate ignore a decent amount of armor, this, combined with the latest class changes, lets Obliterates superior scaling overtake Scourge Strike's complete armor ignorance.
Fixing Scourge Strike scaling is probably the first step in fixing this, and the one I see very likely to happen in patch 3.3, if not sooner in an intermediate patch sometime after BlizzCon. Of course, I wouldn't complain if they fixed it by removing armor penetration altogether, but that's more of a pipe dream, there.
Beyond that, the road gets murkier. Unholy Blight could conceivably get redesigned again, but I doubt we'll see it go back to its old AE dominance/awesomeness. Maybe in the expansion, the new talents can give Unholy a bit more flavor again. But at least in the short term, we may have to be content with our Permaghoul and Gargoyle. As long as you don't abandon me, I'll be fine, Eyeleaper.
But seriously, we are coming up on Patch 3.2 pretty fast here. With multiple patches going through as bug fixes devoid of balancing over the PTR, it's safe to say that even if the patch doesn't go live this week, this is probably what we're getting balance wise. We probably didn't come out all that bad, but I am going to miss a lot of the fun and flavor of Unholy. Here's hoping Scourge Strike gets some much needed love in the next balancing patch.
Welcome to Lichborne, the new class column on the new WoW class, the Death Knight, where we discuss Patch 3.1 cookie cutter builds, basic defense gear and Heroic defense gear for the Death Knight tank, 5-man Crusader's Coliseum gear previews for tanks and DPS, and basic Death Knight statistics and mechanics. You might also want to check all the other articles in our Death Knight category.Filed under: (Death Knight) Lichborne, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Talents, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
norm Aug 3rd 2009 4:12PM
I wouldn't be surprised if the SS issue was fixed by the time the patch gets out. Now that Blizz is coinciding arena seasons and patches, we can conclude that when we get our 2 week warning for the end of the arena season, we will be 2 weeks away from the new patch.
Seeing as there is a minimum of 2 weeks left, that is plenty of time to un-nerf SS. I'm pretty sure they won't deviate from the each tree has its own special strike thing.
Randy Aug 3rd 2009 4:38PM
Do not assume that all.....
Clevins Aug 3rd 2009 5:32PM
They'll either drop it tomorrow or after Blizzcon. There's no way they'll drop it the week of Blizzcon and I can't see them doing it the week before. So this week or post-con.
I'm sad to see SS get treated like this - if I need lots of Armor Pen and UB isn't an AoE anymore, why would I spec Unholy vs Blood? The pet? No. The Gargoyle's cool and all ( I loved pulling it out as Heigan made us dance) but it's basically DRW in a different guise.
The trees each need to have some reason for existing, something that they're good at that the other trees aren't.
Luci Aug 3rd 2009 4:25PM
:( I've just recently started leveling up my death knight, she's holding at 68 until 3.2 right now, but I'm so sad over all this! I've really enjoyed how things have been with scourge strike. I hate that I'm going to have to learn a whole new playstyle when it is all so new to me still.
Continuum6 Aug 3rd 2009 4:41PM
don't worry your pretty little head. I know it might feel bad that Blizzard is changing the talents of a class that you are just learning how to play, i've been there on my warlock.
But most of these changes really only effect players at level 80, participating in the "endgame". You'll be fine, and trust me, you will hardly notice a thing. Anything different you do notice will probly end up being something you like, so don't sweat it.
The big boys in Ulduar and the Crusader's Coliseum dungeons might complain about their damage output, but you will hardly notice anything is different.
Daniel Whitcomb Aug 3rd 2009 8:17PM
You should actually have no problem continuing to use Scourge Strike, Luci. Obliterate only becomes better when you have 20% Armor Penetration, and at current, you do have to be well into the end game to have that amount without sacrificing too much strength for it to be worth it. You will still have to do without Unholy Blight, but at least for now, keep on Scourge Striking as you level and even as you finish out Heroics.
Luci Aug 5th 2009 9:32AM
Well that's good to know =)
When I start leveling her again I plan to dual-spec tank/dps, and seeing as I am most familiar with the Unholy tree, I thought I would try Unholy tanking until all this came up. But, since AoE dmg for Unholy has seen the nerf bat, I think I will try Unholy dps/Blood tank instead. I'm gonna miss Desecration + Unholy Blight + Pestilence + Blood Boil /sigh.....
Seeing as this post is now in the aftermath of 3.2, it really doesn't seem as bad as I was thinking it would be, concerning unholy dps though.
Moppentoff Aug 3rd 2009 4:25PM
I've been a Unholy tank for a while now, how would such a nerf to Scourge Strike affect my threat? Should I just go frost like everyone else?
Xino Aug 3rd 2009 5:03PM
The UB change alone should make you go frost.
Carlthejim Aug 3rd 2009 5:33PM
Totally agree with Xino, the change to UB really hurts AoE tanking for Unholy. Honestly the whole reason I play my DK is the unholy playstyle as it is now. It's just fun
Daniel Whitcomb Aug 3rd 2009 8:21PM
The Scourge Strike nerf won't be as much of an issue as the Unholy Blight nerf, really. It's definitely going to be harder to keep aggro as an Unholy tank, that is for sure, though I haven't investigated the numbers too much, to be honest.
That said, I plan to at least try to stay Unholy tank for a while and see what I can do.
Task Aug 3rd 2009 4:34PM
@Moppentoff, from what I've seen in raids having Frost DK's, it might be the way to go but I'd say stick with it until 3.2 hits and watch the shift change if any. I'm not sure myself how SS would affect the threat generation, as I'm not a tank myself so I can't give my POV on that.
Plus on top of that DK's are getting a talent reset so free respec for us.
Cabbageloins Aug 3rd 2009 4:47PM
Taking away the cool feel of the unholy tree is really quite a blow to the spec's very core. I started as an Unholy Knight, and I enjoyed all of the cool toys that came with it; ghouls, swarms, gargoyles, extra diseases, bone shield, and the old Diablo standby, Corpse Explosion. I ended up switching to blood spec because the damage was just so much better, but I was always jealous of all of the cool toys the unholy knights were using in my raids, even when I dominated their dps. I always hoped that Unholy would catch up one day so I could go back to it, but if the unique atmosphere is gone I'll stick with the simple joy of spamming Heart Strike like mad, and making big numbers fly.
As far as the Unholy tanks go, I hope they stick around. Frost is my tank spec, but I love watching our unholy tank pull of 3k dps, and never having to worry about rogues, lock, or huntards getting ahead in threat every two seconds.
rev Aug 3rd 2009 4:57PM
blizz will probably just drop Annihilation to a higher tier talent to prevent specing into it. that will no longer make OB an option I would guess.
Gabrael Aug 3rd 2009 8:45PM
This is probably exactly what they will end up doing.
If the community wants each tree to have a unique strike, and if the community apparently feels that Obliterate is a strike that only Frost DKs "should" be using, they'll move Annihilation down the Frost tree a bit more to make it impossible for Blood / Unholy specs to use OB with a build other than frost.
The fact that they haven't done this yet tells me that Blizzard's concept of the Deathknight is a bit more amorphous than the article author's concept (or many of the commentors for that matter). OB is not supposed to be just for Frost specs. I don't see a problem with using it in an Unholy build at all ... especially if it's doing more damage. So you change out that Glyph of Scourge Strike for a Glyph of Obliterate and roll on ... what's the big deal? With the changes to Desecrated Ground (not sure if I've got the right name there), SS is basically just another big hit strike anyway which (in 3.2) will function even more similarly to DS / OB as far as rotations and buffs go.
Unholy still has plenty of its charm left to it, if you ask me ... it still gets 3 diseases (still providing for the best scaling of any of the trees) ... still gets a perma-pet ... still has a questionably useful presence buff (has anyone really done the math to find out what you have to do / how long the fight has to be for 15% haste and 9 sec rune cooldowns to outpace 15% damage buff to all damage?) ... and still has that annoying twirly bone thing.
Don't rely on others to tell you how to spec ... fit your spec to your playstyle and be happy.
Suffer well Brothers (and Sisters)
Gabrael (of Azol-Nerub)
Geo Lara Aug 3rd 2009 4:53PM
I would buy a billboard outside of each of the devs houses with the Authors quote:
".....my hatred of all these extra annoying little combat stats. You know expertise, armor penetration, haste, all those little things they added to the game for seemingly no other reason than to make determining best in slot gear a master's thesis level task or to make quest rewards suck worse than they first appear. Really, I long for the days when your choices were hit rating, AP, and spell power, heal power and spell or physical critical strike rating."
Firestride Aug 3rd 2009 8:15PM
I don't mind haste, as long as it's not on leveling gear. It makes sense and applies to every character the same.
Eisengel Aug 3rd 2009 10:49PM
@Firestride
Since I have a max level SPriest, Unholy DK and Feral Druid... I have to say to your haste comment: "????!!!?!?!?!"
It definitely doesn't apply to all classes the same. Actually once you have about 300 haste, as an SPriest additional haste does very little, and in fact you can get more haste than you can use.
Haste, I think, is a garbage stat that is showered on gear to soak up extra item level so that characters aren't even more godlike than they are now. I'm not sure who started the gear power inflation in BC, but it seems it has become rather out of control... to the point where slow-gain stats like haste, armor pen and expertise need to be applied to gear to make up the extra item budget. If items actually had all their ilvl budgeted into stats that were designed for the class/spec, we'd be clobbering Algalon hard modes like they were Utgarde Keep.
Iblis Aug 3rd 2009 5:04PM
The author has a good point about the "extra annoying little combat stats" that have been added over time, specially since the implementation and scaling of them runs in the background.
Now you might enjoy pretending to theorycraft while using the spreadsheets someone made up for you based on assumptions they created with 100s of housr of PTR testing, some of us dont have the time. And when you consdier the way these are implemented change with each patch, its a royal PITA to keep up with whats good for what spec on which particualr pahse of the moon it is.
Thornsbane Aug 3rd 2009 5:06PM
Being an involuntary convert to Unholy spec in 3.1 when Frost DPS was made nonexistent and before I get into it please no ignorant comments about Frost being only for tanking, all 3 specs were made viable for both DPS and Tanking, the fact that Blizzard made Frost the De-facto Tanking spec and Unholy/Blood the common Raid DPS specs just makes them retroactively dishonest.
As I stated, I was frost DPS and loved it, sure it had some overpowered aspects but it just needed tweaking for DPS not a complete viability loss and although Unholy is indeed fun my heart has always been with Frost and feel the opposite when it comes to this next patch, I await for Frost to be a viable DPS option for groups again and all I have to do is get 2 decent one-handers.
I sincerely hope they fix Unholy to where people are happy with it, even though it isn't my favored spec we all get affected by any spec changes. As the hated few, DKs have to support each other. :)