Lichborne: Analyzing the latest Patch 3.2.2 PTR changes
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Sep 21st 2009 at 11:00AM
These past few weeks have bought a flurry of updates the Patch 3.2.2 PTR servers, and a lot of the updates have a lot to do with Death Knights. Since we were the most changed class in Patch 3.2, it might be expected that we got a good amount of tweaking in 3.2.2 to complement and compensate the Patch 3.2 changes. Thus, it would behoove us to take a look at said changes and see where they'll leave us coming into the likely rapidly approaching patch.
The Matter of the Heart Strike
Blood DPS, has, of course, taken a hit just from the Armor Penetration nerf, just because they do a whole ton of physical DPS. That said, they're still very solid, and probably will still edge out Unholy for single target DPS when all is said and done. One place where they are getting a nerf, though, is multiple target DPS, in the form of Heart Strike. Heart Strike, on live servers, is a cleaving ability that does full damage to two targets. On the PTR, however, it will only do half damage to the second target.
Blizzard seems to be gradually pulling back from giving Death Knights massive AE damage. In that vein, this nerf seems to be quite in line with the complete removal of the AE version of Unholy Blight, or even earlier adjustments to Howling Blast. Ghostcrawler backed that up in a post on the change, in which he said that Heart Strike needed to be balanced either for single target DPS or dual target DPS, and balancing it for dual target DPS, thus forcing a Blood Death Knight to return to Blood Strike for single target battles, seemed counter-intuitive.
Some Blood Knights argue that with Blood trailing behind Unholy and Frost for AE power, the nerf is unwarranted and will server to weaken not only DPS, but tanks looking to keep aggro on the multiple mob no-CC fights that have been the trademark of Wrath. Still, so far it looks like the change is here to stay, and has plenty of design theory to back it up. That said, Blood AE probably isn't going to suddenly become abysmal, and by all accounts, Blood DPS and Tanks alike should definitely retain their single-target supremacy among specs.
Unholy DPS II: The Scourge Strike's Back
Yeah, Unholy DPS can once again expect to be speccing back to Scourge Strike when Patch 3.2.2 goes live. This is in part to the armor penetration nerf coming our way, but there's also been some tweaks to Unholy talents that are making the difference. Firstly, Dirge no longer works for Obliterate. This means that you simply won't generate enough runic power to cast all the Death Coils you can in your rotation. Death Coils actually end up being a pretty large part of an Unholy DPSer's damage, so you should never count them. In this case, losing out on them is a bigger DPS loss than you might think.
The buffs don't stop there, of course. In addition, Subversion also affects Scourge Strike. Combine this with the Tier 9 4-piece bonus (which does, for the record, stack with Wandering Plague), and suddenly critical strike rating starts looking like a very nice stat indeed for an Unholy Death Knight, while Armor Penetration plunges down to somewhere around Agility. This also means you're going to want to spec out of frost as your secondary tree. Even Black Ice can't make up for the new subversion buff.
Interestingly enough, what doesn't look like it's going to make the grade is the new Glyph of Scourge Strike, which will go from having a chance to cause diseases, to adding up to 9 seconds to existing diseases. In theory, this is a great buff to the glyph. Diseases refreshed in this manner won't clip their damage, and it allows the Unholy DPS rotation more consistency, since you don't have to hope and pray that the glyph procs.
That said, DPS tests from the test server suggest that it just doesn't work. The Glyph of Unholy Blight (remember what I said about Death Coil?) will actually provide more DPS in place of the Glyph of Obliterate. However, what seems to be the real winner, oddly enough, is Glyph of Icy Touch. The runic power granted by the Glyph actually allows a 10 second rotation like so:
Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Blood Strike -> Blood Strike -> Death Coil -> Death Coil
With this rotation, you actually end up eschewing reaping because you need the extra 10 runic power from Icy Touch every time, and there's very little room for error. Still, it's already proving to be the powerhouse for Unholy DPS. Some Death Knights are already using it on live servers to good effect. It seems like it may just be the king of rotations, until or unless Glyph of Scourge Strike gets another buff.
Tanking Changes
The big tanking change came in the form of major adjustments to the talent tanking cool downs. Bone Shield will now only last 1 minute and will only have a cool down of 1 minute, and will also (according to the patch notes) lose a charge. Vampiric Blood will last only 10 seconds, but has its cool down reduced to 1 minute. Unbreakable Armor keeps its duration and gets cut to a 1 minute cooldown. However, it will be back to a flat 25% armor boost, and the Strength buff will be down to 10%. Of course, we all get a clear unvarnished tanking buff with Frost Presence jumping to 8% damage reduction.
In large part, it seems like the dev team is sort of hoping to get Death Knights back to the days of being the amazing cool down tanks without returning to the days where we were essentially invincible as long as we rotated our cool downs well. These adjustments allow us to use cool downs more often to smooth out our damage, but mandate that we pay closer attention to when to use them, since we'll have smaller windows of use. Unbreakable Armor is perhaps the interesting change here, since it leaves Frost Tanks down one magical cool down. Perhaps the logic here is that they do get Acclimation and Improved Frost Presence, and twice as much time on their cooldown to dodge more incoming physical damage.
Edit: Here's two more tanking changes to note: Rune Strike will be added to Threat of Thassarian, thus making dual wield tanking much more viable. Also, almost all of the cooldown Glyphs for the above mentioned talented cooldowns are being nerfed in line with the new shorter durations and cooldowns, so be aware of that as well.
The Bottom Line
Yeah, we're still in a good place. It's going to be a bit of work adjusting to the new cool down timers, probably, as we feel out the best way to use them and twist them in, and Unholy DPSers have one more rotation to lock down, but so far, we're still weathering Wrath just fine. Of course, there's still Patch 3.3 to come. We'll be sure to keep an eye on any more changes coming down the pipe right here, in Lichborne at WoW.com.
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: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, News items, Guides, Classes, Talents, Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Sara Sep 21st 2009 11:18AM
Interesting. I'm just speccing my brand new 80 DK into frost tanking, so I won't have to get used to changes - just the tree in general. :)
Barak Sep 21st 2009 11:27AM
The glyphs for the various Tank abilities have been "nerfed" as well. Something to keep in mind.
David(Postal) Sep 21st 2009 11:31AM
What is happening to the glyph of vampiric blood? Are they taking it down to 5 seconds?
Exarkun Sep 21st 2009 11:30AM
Again this is another downgrade to what once used to be a hero class.. All these changes, upcoming and past one's, have made me dislike playing my DK. People shouldnt have complainted so much about DK's being too strong, it seems that those people just want, one class, one spec so that everything is equal..
Way to go guys, way to go..
Sengir Sep 21st 2009 11:47AM
Oh noes! You got to skip over 50 levels, got to do insane dps WHILE tanking, and you're now complaining that Blizzard is, Heaven forbid!, adjusting the class to be in line with the other classes?
*hands you a hankie*
Rialle Sep 21st 2009 11:58AM
My gut feeling is to expect more DK nerfs as time goes on. The closer we get to Catacylsm, the less DKs are "special" and the more that Blizzard will be willing to bring them to parity with the other classes. And frankly, I see this as a good thing overall.
jeff Sep 21st 2009 12:02PM
'Hero' class was never meant to be better than all of the other classes, that is just ridiculous. I don't know why you bring up DK being a 'hero' class as that really has nothing to do with anything here. They still have to balance the class out just like every other one, otherwise why would you play anything but a hero class?
Mecer Sep 21st 2009 12:12PM
More of a reply about the parity of the classes. Blizzard has had no problems with nerfing DK tanks to bring us inline with the other three. In fact this patch BUFFS DK tanks. This is because as of 3.2 DK tanks are currently on the low end of the totem pole of tanking. I feel confident that these minor tanking changes will bring us back in line with parity (when combined with the pally nerfs).
wrt to DK DPSers, I dont have enough experience with DPSing. DPS while tanking is ~ the same as the other tanking classes, and they all do a minimal amount in raid. In truth its the idea to have all three's TPS to be about equal (and assuming equal gearing and skill, paladins are the only ones out of whack).
Quote the Raven Sep 21st 2009 1:23PM
I think he brought up them being a hero class is because in other games, the "Hero Class" was a step above the other classes. And a lot of people expected that with DK's. I did too. I don't mind DK's being brought in line with other classes, just don't call them a hero class. The only difference they have to the other classes now is you get to start at a higher level and every race can roll one. But advanced leveling (after you have already done it with another character) and having flexibility in race choice is hardly Heroic. "Played to 55" class maybe. My main is a DK and I have fun with it, there are pros and cons to everything in this game. But what has let me down the most was the lack of the class feeling "Heroic". But then again, that only stems from my expectation of what I "thought" Hero class was going to mean.
Flad Sep 21st 2009 2:41PM
Raven - I think you're right, and the way Blizz rolled out the DK only exacerbated this problem. They made them very OP compared to other classes at the beginning, then steadily brought them in line. I understand some of the motives behind this - after all, they wanted people to play the new class, and it is a "hero" class. But in an MMO you simply can't have one class that vastly outpowers all others. It makes every other class undesirable in comparison, which leads to imbalances in class distribution, which leads to loot drama, buff shortfalls, and plain old boredom.
I am curious to see how Blizz handles any possible future "hero" classes, whether they will stick with the OP/scale-down method. Personally I don't think it's necessary to make a new class as overpowered as they did with DKs - people will want to play them because they're shiny and new, even if they're similarly powered to other classes.
Lemons Sep 21st 2009 6:33PM
I don't think it was blizzards express intent to make DKs op at the beginning just because they're a "hero class". I think they just made a new class, and it happened to be really fcking op...then they struggled to bring it in line with the rest of the classes. I think Blizz is hesitant to nerf...because if they really screw up and accidentally gut a class (even if that class is really REALLY op) people will just reroll or even quit.
I just can't see GC was sitting there at the design table with the other devs saying "Yea...but could we make it a bit more op? I mean...this is a hero class here."
If anything they'll learn from their mistakes with the DK and the next hero class will be much more balanced at launch.
Barak Sep 21st 2009 11:44AM
Glyph of Bone Shield: This glyph now grants 1 additional charge instead of 2.
Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now increases the armor gained from Unbreakable Armor by 20%.
Glyph of Vampiric Blood: The glyph now increases the duration of Vampiric Blood by 5 seconds instead of 10.
David(Postal) Sep 21st 2009 12:22PM
Thanks for the info. This nerf actually sounds like it is going to make tanking a bit more interesting for me as blood, since Vampiric Blood is down to the 1 minute cooldown. Also that means it will be more readily available in PVP battles.
lazymangaka Sep 21st 2009 11:54AM
I'm liking the tanking changes, looks like once it catches on that I'll be getting ever more requests to tank [insert instance here] than I already do.
Secutor Sep 21st 2009 12:01PM
The new Unholy spec drops Epidemic, in addition to Reaping. Also, in a lot of ways single cycle rotations are a lot easier and more forgiving than the traditional 2 cycle / 20 second rotations.
kabshiel Sep 21st 2009 12:22PM
I wish they'd nerf death coil and buff scourge strike or something, because this new "skip epidemic and reaping" thing feels almost as weird as the "skip scourge strike" specs we had before.
DeathPaladin Sep 21st 2009 12:07PM
If you ask me, Heart Strike is a rather silly name for a cleave attack. The name would make more sense if they moved it back towards what it originally was (a more powerful Blood Strike with a debuff), maybe having it add a stackable bleed effect. If that hits Blood AOE tanking or DPS too much, there could always be tweaks or talented buffs to Blood Boil, which is a rather solid AOE ability for Blood.
Cyrus Sep 21st 2009 12:30PM
DK ability names are weird all around. Or rather, they aren't weird, they're repetitive, and however weird "Heart Strike" might be for a cleave effect, at least it's different, which is nice.
Blood Boil, Blood Plague, Blood Presence, Blood Strike, Blood Tap, Bloodworms.
Death Coil, Death Gate, Death Grip, Death Pact, Death Strike, Death and Decay.
Plus five different "______ Strikes." They sound like the Blood Mages from Warcraft III: "My blood cries out for the vengeance of my people's blood, which can only be repaid with at least twice as much blood! Or maybe three times as much blood! Like if you went to hell, and it was full of blood, and that blood was on fire, and it was raining blood, then maybe that would be enough blood! Eh… but probably not." Blizzard can't get *every*thing right, of course, but they laid it on a bit thick with the ability names. We get it, already. You're evil.
Cyrus Sep 21st 2009 12:35PM
Oh, and I forgot about Vampiric Blood and Mark of Blood, because they don't show up alphabetically with all the rest. So that's eight talents or abilities with "blood" in the name. Heart Strike doesn't look all that bad now, does it?
Hoggersbud Sep 21st 2009 6:38PM
DK's have a pretty streamlined theme. I kind of like it, since it's pretty easy to understand where something fits in the tree for many abilities.
Not that different from say Mages when you think about it though.