Lichborne: Death knight masteries and other Cataclysm beta tweaks
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 17th 2010 at 5:00PM
With the latest build having just hit the Cataclysm beta test servers, this seems like a pretty good time to take a quick inventory of the changes, maybe say a few things about the direction that the class is heading thus far in beta. I can tell you right now that some of the latest changes are either confusing or just plain silly, and while some things are looking cool enough, we really are long overdue for another major change patch. However, before we get too hardcore into that discussion, let's look at the latest changes.
Mastering death knight masteries
Blood Shield Each time you heal yourself via Death Strike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Absorb increased further by mastery rating.
The blood tree mastery is pretty straightforward and also pretty nicely useful for tanking. Currently, dressed in a random array of Deepholm and Hyjal quest drops, my level 83 death knight is up to an 85 percent shield. Of course, it's hard to say right now how much mastery endgame death tanks will need or want, but with health totals rising, the absorption shields you create with this mastery probably won't be too shabby. Plus, it's an active mastery, which I personally prefer, since it gives you a choice of when and how to use it, at least to a limited extent.
The one concern here is that it does interfere with Death Rune Mastery, which essentially makes Death Strike a death rune factory for the purpose of churning out more Heart Strikes. However, Blood Shield seems to suggest that we should instead be using those now superfluous death runes for more Death Strikes. Of course, it's possible that Blizzard wants us to have to make the choice between the superior threat of Heart Strike or the damage absorption of Death Strike.
Even so, if that's the aim, it does leave death knights with more to worry about as far as which skill to use and when, and to make that work best, I think this is another case where we can ask for a new rune display interface. Being able to keep better track of our death runes (or runic energy pools, as I like to think of them now) will go a long way in helping us to successfully juggle the new dimension of rune usage that this mastery has bought up, while still being able to juggle the responsibilities of a tank.
Frozen Heart Increases all frost damage done by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
Unfortunately, frost's mastery is not as dynamic as blood's, but at the same time, it does fit the style very well. Between Frost Strike, Icy Touch and Howling Blast, frost does a not insignificant amount of damage as frost. Since previous iterations of frost mastery involves overload frost with runic power, this also helps alleviate frost's overabundance of the stat as well, thus also freeing up some of those spare GCDs we're supposed to have this expansion. All in all, despite the somewhat lackluster passiveness of the stat, for frost's unique playstyle, it may turn out that it just fits in too well to be revamped to something active.
Blightcaller Increases the damage done by your diseases by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
Unholy's mastery is perhaps the most disappointing. On one hand, it's at least useful for unholy's ostensible status as master of disease, and it does make up a little bit for the (still undeserved, in my opinion) nerf to Pestilence. That said, it's also incredibly boring and puts yet another arrow in the quiver for dual wield unholy (which is fast overtaking two-handed unholy for superior damage, thanks to Sudden Doom procs and Runic Empowerment) by increasing spell-based damage instead of strike damage. I'd very much like to see this mastery switched out for something that specifically reinforces the two-handed playstyle, even if it's as simple as adding more physical damage to Scourge Strike based on high-end weapon damage.
A dirge for runic power
As of the latest patch, Dirge now affects Blood Strike, Plague Strike and Icy Touch. However, it no longer affects Scourge Strike and Festering Strike. Essentially, this makes it near worthless for endgame two-handed unholy, while further cementing the dominance of dual wielding.
Here's the main issue: Currently, endgame unholy rotations completely skip the use of all three of these skills by using Outbreak to apply diseases and Festering Strike to maintain those diseases and use up blood runes. Assuming everything works out, other than emergency disease reapplication when Outbreak is on cooldown, we'll not be using those skills, meaning Dirge does next to nothing for us.
Blizzard's main aim with this change is probably to relieve Unholy's GCD problems by giving us fewer Death Coils to shoot off this. This is certainly understandable, but part of the problem is that it once again bolsters dual wielding. Since dual wielders find that Icy Touch plus Blood Strike will do more damage than Festering Strike for them anyway, they can cast those, get the runic power, cast more Death Coils and continue to dominate.
At this point, I'd say Dirge just needs to get wiped out. If we have enough runic power generation without it, throw it away. Personally, I'd love to replace it with a talent that resets the cooldown on Outbreak (or gives you a temporary free cast of Outbreak) when you kill an enemy that grants experience or honor, thus cementing the new unholy rotation.
Morbidity and the slow death of AoE
Blizzard's latest salvo in the war against AoE has been to apply restrictive cooldowns the "set it and forget it" types of AoE spells such as Consecration that have allowed huge pulls and AoE speed runs since the BC days, and apparently, it decided Death and Decay needed another hit. The Morbidity talent no longer reduces the cooldown but gives it a damage buff.
Unfortunately, this continues to complicate the death knight tank's life. Even with the morbidity cooldown, Death and Decay was not constantly up, but now that it's even less available, we're left with two major AoE damage options: Heart Strike and Blood Boil. One provides an important debuff, the other better threat against up to three targets. However, they both use the same runes, blood runes, and using them means you give up using the damage absorption on your mastery. Blood tanks currently wait too long for runes to refresh anyway (and may need to save those runes for tanking cooldowns anyway), and this will just make things worse for them.
What a death knight needs
In short, we're obviously not done as a class in Cataclysm, and the latest changes and the new masteries only highlighted this. Hopefully, we'll see another patch with some major death knight changes soon. Specifically, I'd like to see the following points addressed:
- the lack of free global cooldowns, especially for unholy
- the dominance of dual wield unholy
- the over-focus on blood runes for tanks, to the point of rune drought
- the current failure of the rune system revamp, or at least the failure of the current default rune display UI
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
devilsei Aug 17th 2010 5:15PM
You know...
part of me is not surprised by the constant amount of change hitting the Death Knight class... makes an almost ironic sense too when they are the opposite of Paladins, yet are suffering from the same thing that plagued the same two specs we had issues with, protection and dps...
Lathr Aug 17th 2010 5:35PM
The Blood mastery has me interested enough to reroll as a tank when Cataclysm comes out, and I don't normally like tanking.
I find it strange that Blizzard changed the effect of Morbidity. That's almost a requirement for a DK tank to get adequate initial threat and for maintaining it. I hope they reverse that change soon.
thebitterfig Aug 17th 2010 8:26PM
Well, AE is changing for everyone in Cata, and while DnD is the centerpiece of that in live, it isn't a problem that it's changing. You'll still be able to use outbreak->Pest->BB to get some pretty solid AE threat, follow up with a pair of Death Strikes on the main target, or open with IT->PS->Pest->BB, and that might be even better since it gets the single-target threat going faster. It'll probably be harder on DPS too stupid or lazy to adapt to the change and insist on simply using AE attacks instead of going back to single-targeting like they should be. You just know the tanks will get blamed for DPS playing in sub-optimal ways... On the plus side, they seem to be nerfing the AE damage people can do.
Likewise, you still will have DnD as a situational AE spell, great for add waves and such where you won't have to worry so much about the exact timing of the attack, and you'll still have the mobs running to you rather than a healer.
I also have to step in and defend my fur-covered brothers in rage, who are seeing an even bigger AE nerf than DK are getting - Swipe is getting a 6-second cooldown. For anyone else to complain about AE threat nerfs just seems... insensitive.
Noctune Aug 19th 2010 11:55AM
I agree with you and with previous speaker.
the nerf to Swipe is 10x worse then the loss of 2nd DND
basicly for a druid tank you got 1 AoE skill that can hit everyone around him like your DND
you atleast got an option to use Pest + BB
the poor druid will have to resort to using Tab+Lacerate again *facepalm* the thing that Blizzard fixed when raising the dammage swipe could do. I don't mind them putting a CD on Swipe but then they have to raise the dammage. else the healer will take aggro for sure.
feniks9174 Aug 17th 2010 5:37PM
Im beginning to be really disappointed with the way Death Knights are turning out in Cataclysm so far. Rotations are jacked up and GCD capped, were getting very little in the way of new toys and it generally seems like Blizzard is trying to fix and change so many things at once that all it's creating is a jumbled mess. Meanwhile, my warlock is getting a ton of new toys and spells (Bane of Havoc, Hand of Gul'dan, Soul Swap, actually getting to use my Infernal and Doomguard). I'm really trying to keep in mind that "it's still just beta", but there's been very little in the way of good news for quite a while.
Byron Aug 17th 2010 6:02PM
/second that. At this point it's looking like my Prot War will be my new main, and Disc Priest my #1 alt. DK will be relegated to profession alt.
Leorad Aug 17th 2010 6:05PM
Don't be disappointed yet, because they aren't turning out to be anything currently. They have a long way to go.
When they get to the point where they have the polish of the warrior or paladin trees and things are STILL a disaster - then you can start worrying.
feniks9174 Aug 17th 2010 7:19PM
Yeah, i know it's still beta and that a lot can still change. Ultimately, though, most of my issues with the Cataclysm DK are more or less set in stone. What are we getting on our way to 85?
Dark Simulacrum - While this sounds like it could have some very awesome uses in PVE (catching Infest from the Lich King and throwing it back at him . . . lulz), I expect that most boss abilities are going to be immune to this will be relegated entirely to PvP. Being a PvE focused player . . . meh.
Festering Strike - I really don't see anything particularly interesting here. It's another "X weapon damage + Y per disease" attack. The main difference is that it extends our diseases and, therefore, does little more than replace Pestilence in a single target GoDisease build.
Outbreak - Not bad, this will certainly be helpful on add fights like Anub or Putricide, but the one minute CD makes it too situational to use on fights like Deathwhisper or Dreamwalker adds come in at a faster pace. It also certainly lacks the flair of it's Affliction counterpart, Soul Swap ( http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=86121 ) which, by the way, does NOT have a cooldown.
Ultimately, what I'm saying is that even if they fix the trees and rotations, there's very little to get me excited about making my DK the first character I level to 85. My Ret Pally is getting an entirely new resources system and some very fun toys (Templar's Verdict). My Shaman is some new toys with Unleash Elements, Spirit Walker's Grace and Healing Rain. My Mage is getting all kinds of cool stuff with the Flying Flame Orb of Death and Magelust and my Warlock . . . oh my Warlock, how I long for the days when I will be able to Bane of Havoc the boss and nuke adds or pop Meta, Immolation Aura, Hand of Gul'dan and Hellfire for 100K DPS AoE. I'm so very excited to see my Doomguard randomly spawn from Bane of Doom and start nuking away at my target (I will audibly giggle like a 12 year old girl when this happens for at least the first few weeks of Cata, especially if I get to do it before I replace Nibelung) or to call down my infernal for some AoE burst without giving up my current pet. I can't wait to get rid of my Soul Bag and no longer need to farm shards before walking into a raid.
Everything I'm seeing about Death Knights right now is just . . . underwhelming. The fact that the talent trees, rune UI and rotations are currently disasters is just a nail in the coffin. I ahven’t given up on my long beloved DK yet, but like the article stated at the end, they need a SERIOUS pass of heavy work and they need it soon.
Hahahaha Aug 17th 2010 7:30PM
"catching Infest from the Lich King and throwing it back at him . . . lulz"
Go back and read the complete discription plz. Specially the last part. In a PvE fight it is one more way to save some of your healers mana and time.
feniks9174 Aug 17th 2010 7:54PM
I did read the description. It sounds to me like a preemptive Spell Steal. Tell me, in the entirity of Wrath raid content, how often can a Mage Spell Steal something off a boss? I can think of one instance. Even if I'm supremely ignorant I can't imagine that there are more than 3 or 4 at the most.
Like I said, it sounds like it could be useful, but I fully expect Blizzard to make most Boss abilities immune to it.
Sarrii Aug 17th 2010 5:47PM
I don't understand what is so broken about dks that require all these changes. I didn't see anything wrong with the rune system as it is wrath and I DON'T want free gcds. I don't have free gcds on any other toon I play, and I LIKE being a busy toon. I've seen videos of dk tanks in beta having 10-12 seconds of dead time where they can't use either an offensive or defensive ability due to the new rune system.
As for defensive cds, why are they costing us runes still? Warriors and Bears don't spend rage on cds, paladins may spend mana, but if you are oom as a tankadin you are doing something very wrong...
I understand blood's reliance on blood runes on live, because its death rune conversion talent converts 2 runes at a time instead of 1 for unholy and frost.
And Unholy was never meant to be a DW spec, blizz has said this over and over again. So why is it getting on hit proc abilities like sudden doom? That doesn't even make sense when its frost that gets the haste buff that unholy can no longer get.
The talent trees themselves are still pretty terrible last I checked, I was messing around with them and had to take so many useless talents to get what I want. Hungering Cold is beyond useless in PVE since any non disease damage breaks the effect, there is no reason for this to be a requirement for Howling Blast. Since Blizz is killing aoe as throughly as possible, it is likely HB will end up like divine storm and not even be used in the single target rotation.
And has there been any word on the 2h frost build that is supposed to be viable other than that one talent that is on the tier with ToT?
Ty Aug 17th 2010 6:00PM
I too would like to hear about this 2h frost spec. Unholy is lame so far.
Also, WTF blizz? Why are you trying to mess with somethig that DOESNT NEED CHANGING!!! the run system is n
Ty Aug 17th 2010 6:02PM
The rune system is Fine how it is!!!
Typing on iPod :(
Leorad Aug 17th 2010 6:03PM
Then I'm afraid you are going to be unhappy, and its why you don't understand the reason it needs to be changed.
I'm not at all hesitant to say that the Death Knight community as a whole disagrees with you on the GCD. The majority of players don't want to be locked, and neither does Blizzard. You are guaranteed to be disappointed.
Byron Aug 17th 2010 6:05PM
> I DON'T want free gcds. I don't have free gcds on any other toon I play, and I LIKE being a busy toon.
Hear hear! WTB more upvotes for this.
Hahahaha Aug 17th 2010 6:06PM
"it is likely HB will end up like divine storm and not even be used in the single target rotation"
And use what when rime procs, Icy touch? Do you even know DeathKnights in particular or just throwing out opinions?
Byron Aug 17th 2010 6:07PM
@Leorad - could you explain a little more why lots of DK's want free GCDs? What would do during that time, just sit there autoattacking? Enlighten us :)
DeathPaladin Aug 17th 2010 6:07PM
I can't say for sure, since I am not in the Beta myself, but everything I read indicates that 2H Frost is so far keeping pace with Dual Wield in terms of damage. Maybe even slightly better. While it may just be one talent, the extra runic power it provides is a pretty big deal.
Leorad Aug 17th 2010 6:16PM
I will attempt to enlighten you, but my hopes are not high for someone who wants to smash a damage button the minute it comes off of cooldown...but here goes.
The majority of the DK community (and it is the majority - if you want proof visit http://considerit1.wordpress.com or the official cataclysm forums) doesn't want to be in a damage GCD lock. What I mean by this is that if you don't immediately hit a button that increases your DPS (yes, that includes Bone Shield, ERW, HoW, etc.) then you lose DPS - obviously. What this means is that Blizz can't give us ANY utility talents or abilities, because we wouldn't have the spare GCD to use them. This is problem 1 (although not the biggest problem)
Problem 2 - starting off GCD locked regardless of gear/stats (think Haste here) is horrible, because haste would normally be something a DK would want, but now would have little to no effect on damage. For Unholy DK's this is especially a problem, as haste would help increase our disease damage. Blizz wants UH DK's to use UH presence, but the extra haste would be worthless for all of its other benefits except extra disease ticks, and therefore would be considered a DPS loss.
I'll stop there. Hopefully that explains some of the problems
DeathPaladin Aug 17th 2010 6:17PM
"@Leorad - could you explain a little more why lots of DK's want free GCDs? What would do during that time, just sit there autoattacking? Enlighten us :)"
Some possibilities:
Interrupt a caster
Death Grip an add running for a healer
Raise Ally for the lulz
Actually use their runic power dumps (as Blood DPS, I find I currently can safely ignore my runic power bar most of the time, since Death Coiling is a DPS loss unless all my runes are spent)