battleaxe
11-21-2008, 01:22 PM
Welcome to All things Death Knight ... here we go
Ability Impressions:
Blood Presence – The only thing I don’t really like about this presence is the 4% healing. It seems completely worthless to me, and it makes SCT quite annoying. IMO, either boost it a bit or change it to maybe additional threat reduction.
Frost Presence – The 6% hp bonus through talents was nice, but obviously it’s a waste to have DKs in this presence for DPS just for the group hp boost. The magic part also seems unneeded/unwanted. Perhaps maybe a 10% movement reduction to all enemies within 30 yards instead. This could help solve the big problem with DKs being so easily kited.
Unholy Presence – Perfect atm.
Icy Touch – Great debuff with minimal cost. Poor damage, but the disease that is now inflicted makes it worthwhile. Great change!
Blood Strike – Decent damage, and a good way to spend a quick blood rune. Great the way it is.
Plague Strike – This ability seems so much better now that it has been changed to one unholy. Between this and the two above abilities, it makes managing runes so much easier and efficient. Not to mention the merge for the HoT removal from degen. Perfect!
Death Strike – I like the new idea behind this ability. However the healing is obviously way to random atm. It is a great change from the original version. My only real concern is it sharing the same runes as Obliterate. If I want to use plague strike to remove a HoT I lose a lot of dps since there is no longer frost+ blood ability. Plague strike + Obliterate -or- Blood strike + Death strike seems more reasonable to me.
Obliterate – Great damage ability. Only concern is what I mentioned above: rune type cost.
Death Grip – Most likely the most fun ability the DK has. Cool down is a bit long but perfect with easily accessible talent improvement position. So overall, one of my favorites!
Death Coil – With the current build, this costs too much. If you’re going to reduce the RP generation, please don’t increase the cost of our ‘idle’ ability. 50 RP is not too bad if we can keep our original RP generation. DKs will not spam this with other vital abilities requiring RP.
Mind Freeze – Great interrupt. Abilities like this should stay with RP costs so DKs don’t have to sacrifice DPS.
Strangulate – Great ranged interrupt. The cost however, should be RP. It is kind of pointless to sacrifice DPS when fighting a caster just so you can silence them. I would much rather sacrifice that DPS by losing a death coil and having more control on my runes for DPS.
Anti-Magic Shield – Another one of my favorite abilities. Again you have to sacrifice controlled DPS since it does not have a RP cost. The 3 5 second change is perfect. Three seconds was not long enough to even absorb one attack most of the time, and five seconds seems to catch one, maybe 2 spells, making it worth the cost.
Chains of Ice – This enters the problem with a DK’s lack of a snare. Combining a root and a snare does not work. IMO, this should be reworked into a snare ONLY, with no cool down costing 1 frost rune. In its current form it’s much better now that it costs only one frost rune, however, the cool down kills the ability. Even mixed with Death Grip, a lot of classes can easily escape and continue kiting the death knight at that point.
Blood Boil – Great tanking ability. This ability really makes me want to tank. It was also great to add something to remove diseases so our CC doesn’t break. (Not that our current CC is any good anyways =P)
Pestilence – Another great tanking ability. Enough said.
Raise Dead – I’m not a big pet fan. I like to focus on my character and not have to worry about controlling my ‘companion’. I loved the way the ghoul is just a mindless minion that follows/protects you, making it so you don’t really have to worry about him unless you want to. However I expected a little more out of this. It would be much more enjoyable if death knights could summon up to three ghouls at a time. Just make them a lot weaker and maybe nerf the death pact ability a bit. This would make the death knight A LOT more enjoyable while not hurting other classes. (Great fix on spell pushback btw :D)
Death Pact – This was my favorite ability in Warcraft 3. Just striking down a minion to make yourself stronger is a great feeling. However with the lack of ghouls, this ability has basically a 5 min cool down. Add more ghouls, and keep the current 2 min cool down and it would bring more strategy into play for the death knight.
Blood Tap – My priest is named Bloodtap, so now I’m going to get harassed, thanks. =P All kidding a side, this is a great way to bring more strategy and skilled play to a death knight.
Empower Rune Weapon – Same as Blood Tap, just with a better ability name. =D
Icebound Fortitude – This ability is flawless, and a great addition for tanking.
Talented Ability Impressions:
Rune Tap – Gives the blood knight the option for more survivability. Great ability.
Mark of Blood – Great for PvP as well as group support.
Hysteria – Damage increase is always good. Health loss can be made up with Rune Tap.
Heart Strike – Much better now that it is an instant strike. Not sure if it as good for PvP, but swapping this for blood strike is well worth it.
Dancing Rune Weapon – IMO, a pretty crappy 51 point talent. 20 seconds of more damage is not exactly what I call 51 point material. I often spec pretty deep in blood without getting this. I dunno what is it, but I’m pretty turned off for this ability.
Lichborne – Great for PvP and tanking. Cool down is a tad high though. 2-3 mins sounds more reasonable.
Deathchill – This is an ‘icing on the cake’ talent.
Howling Blast – This gives the DK a more caster hybrid feel, and is very useful for tanking.
Frost Strike – So much better than the original version. With a RP cost, it gives the death knight a lot more options! I haven’t been able to fully test it though.
Hungering Cold – AoE CC for a 51 point talent? I still have found no use for this ability. Again, I expected a lot more.
Corpse Explosion – As long as you don’t have to target a corpse, this ability is golden.
Summon Gargoyle – /facepalm I have had nothing but failure and frustration with this ability. Doesn’t even seem like it’s worth the 1 talent point.
Anti-Magic Zone – So useful in a lot of situations! Tanking, PvP, you name it!
Bone Shield – One of the greatest abilities a DK can get. It seems like such a core ability though, it really sucks that it is only in talents. Even worse, you have to spend a lot for it. IMO, make it a standard ability, or move it to the 2nd or 3rd tier in talents.
Scourge Strike – Great plague strike replacement. Hits harder, as it should for its current talent tree placement.
Unholy Blight – The only 51 point talent that I think is worth it. Great for an AoE/tanking build. However, with the current bug, I have found this much more enjoyable to have it a standard 20 sec duration for a fixed cost. The idea of extending it is bad imo. What if I want to do something else with my RP? 20 seconds is plenty of time.
Character Creation and Starting Out:
Character creation is still a bit bugged, but the new skin tones give characters a much better DK feeling. The starting quests/area has undergone a huge improvement! Arthas also actually looks intimidating now. Overall excellent job! (You forgot my name in the death knight book though! What’s up with that?!
Tanking:
I can’t really say much on this since there is an extreme lack of tanking gear for the DK atm. I am quite concerned about this though since I am eager to start tanking again. It seems like the death knight is a better AoE tanker than a single target tanker. The DK lacks from not having a single target high threat ability. I’m not sure what a DK would do on targets that can not be taunted. Tanking seems quite fun, and it’s easy for targets that are tauntable though. I’ll come back to this when we have more to work with.
PvP:
Being a hardcore PvP player, this is most likely my top concern. It is hard to test things with the lack of people playing BGs. Thus far it is quite obvious that DKs NEED a snare ability that has no cool down. Cost is another story, as long as it is one rune or RP, it should be sufficient. DKs are so easily kited atm.
I tested plague strike on druids and it is perfect the way it is. It’s a complete tossup in skill 1v1. With a druid’s CC they have enough to get by if played right, and the DK has a good chance of winning if he/she manages his/her runes correctly. If the druid decides to run… the DK is screwed. Three shifts max and the druid is home free. (DK gets caught on cool downs)
Mages completely own DKs. It’s hard to believe with the anti caster abilities the death knight has, but DKs are just getting locked down. The mage can so easily kite the DK that the DK might as well sit down or bend over…
Against melee, it seems like a dps race. Warriors tend to do a bit more damage and the same for rogues. However with the new death strike the DK makes up for lost HP, and icebound fortitude is all a DK needs against rogues.
Overall the experience is very unique and fun. Other than the times being kited, a death knight fits in quite well. I really think the snare idea would fix this problem. My suggestion is make chains of ice a snare, 1 frost rune, no cool down. Maybe take hungering cold and make that a standard 10 sec CC ability that is RP heavy, or 3 runes in cost, (One of each type) with a 45 sec cool down. Then change the 51 point frost talent to something more useful. Or you could use my frost presence idea. This gives the DK a perfect chance to catch his target if played right. The only exception might be a well timed trinket, but that is to be expected and makes PvP so interesting.
From:http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/
Ability Impressions:
Blood Presence – The only thing I don’t really like about this presence is the 4% healing. It seems completely worthless to me, and it makes SCT quite annoying. IMO, either boost it a bit or change it to maybe additional threat reduction.
Frost Presence – The 6% hp bonus through talents was nice, but obviously it’s a waste to have DKs in this presence for DPS just for the group hp boost. The magic part also seems unneeded/unwanted. Perhaps maybe a 10% movement reduction to all enemies within 30 yards instead. This could help solve the big problem with DKs being so easily kited.
Unholy Presence – Perfect atm.
Icy Touch – Great debuff with minimal cost. Poor damage, but the disease that is now inflicted makes it worthwhile. Great change!
Blood Strike – Decent damage, and a good way to spend a quick blood rune. Great the way it is.
Plague Strike – This ability seems so much better now that it has been changed to one unholy. Between this and the two above abilities, it makes managing runes so much easier and efficient. Not to mention the merge for the HoT removal from degen. Perfect!
Death Strike – I like the new idea behind this ability. However the healing is obviously way to random atm. It is a great change from the original version. My only real concern is it sharing the same runes as Obliterate. If I want to use plague strike to remove a HoT I lose a lot of dps since there is no longer frost+ blood ability. Plague strike + Obliterate -or- Blood strike + Death strike seems more reasonable to me.
Obliterate – Great damage ability. Only concern is what I mentioned above: rune type cost.
Death Grip – Most likely the most fun ability the DK has. Cool down is a bit long but perfect with easily accessible talent improvement position. So overall, one of my favorites!
Death Coil – With the current build, this costs too much. If you’re going to reduce the RP generation, please don’t increase the cost of our ‘idle’ ability. 50 RP is not too bad if we can keep our original RP generation. DKs will not spam this with other vital abilities requiring RP.
Mind Freeze – Great interrupt. Abilities like this should stay with RP costs so DKs don’t have to sacrifice DPS.
Strangulate – Great ranged interrupt. The cost however, should be RP. It is kind of pointless to sacrifice DPS when fighting a caster just so you can silence them. I would much rather sacrifice that DPS by losing a death coil and having more control on my runes for DPS.
Anti-Magic Shield – Another one of my favorite abilities. Again you have to sacrifice controlled DPS since it does not have a RP cost. The 3 5 second change is perfect. Three seconds was not long enough to even absorb one attack most of the time, and five seconds seems to catch one, maybe 2 spells, making it worth the cost.
Chains of Ice – This enters the problem with a DK’s lack of a snare. Combining a root and a snare does not work. IMO, this should be reworked into a snare ONLY, with no cool down costing 1 frost rune. In its current form it’s much better now that it costs only one frost rune, however, the cool down kills the ability. Even mixed with Death Grip, a lot of classes can easily escape and continue kiting the death knight at that point.
Blood Boil – Great tanking ability. This ability really makes me want to tank. It was also great to add something to remove diseases so our CC doesn’t break. (Not that our current CC is any good anyways =P)
Pestilence – Another great tanking ability. Enough said.
Raise Dead – I’m not a big pet fan. I like to focus on my character and not have to worry about controlling my ‘companion’. I loved the way the ghoul is just a mindless minion that follows/protects you, making it so you don’t really have to worry about him unless you want to. However I expected a little more out of this. It would be much more enjoyable if death knights could summon up to three ghouls at a time. Just make them a lot weaker and maybe nerf the death pact ability a bit. This would make the death knight A LOT more enjoyable while not hurting other classes. (Great fix on spell pushback btw :D)
Death Pact – This was my favorite ability in Warcraft 3. Just striking down a minion to make yourself stronger is a great feeling. However with the lack of ghouls, this ability has basically a 5 min cool down. Add more ghouls, and keep the current 2 min cool down and it would bring more strategy into play for the death knight.
Blood Tap – My priest is named Bloodtap, so now I’m going to get harassed, thanks. =P All kidding a side, this is a great way to bring more strategy and skilled play to a death knight.
Empower Rune Weapon – Same as Blood Tap, just with a better ability name. =D
Icebound Fortitude – This ability is flawless, and a great addition for tanking.
Talented Ability Impressions:
Rune Tap – Gives the blood knight the option for more survivability. Great ability.
Mark of Blood – Great for PvP as well as group support.
Hysteria – Damage increase is always good. Health loss can be made up with Rune Tap.
Heart Strike – Much better now that it is an instant strike. Not sure if it as good for PvP, but swapping this for blood strike is well worth it.
Dancing Rune Weapon – IMO, a pretty crappy 51 point talent. 20 seconds of more damage is not exactly what I call 51 point material. I often spec pretty deep in blood without getting this. I dunno what is it, but I’m pretty turned off for this ability.
Lichborne – Great for PvP and tanking. Cool down is a tad high though. 2-3 mins sounds more reasonable.
Deathchill – This is an ‘icing on the cake’ talent.
Howling Blast – This gives the DK a more caster hybrid feel, and is very useful for tanking.
Frost Strike – So much better than the original version. With a RP cost, it gives the death knight a lot more options! I haven’t been able to fully test it though.
Hungering Cold – AoE CC for a 51 point talent? I still have found no use for this ability. Again, I expected a lot more.
Corpse Explosion – As long as you don’t have to target a corpse, this ability is golden.
Summon Gargoyle – /facepalm I have had nothing but failure and frustration with this ability. Doesn’t even seem like it’s worth the 1 talent point.
Anti-Magic Zone – So useful in a lot of situations! Tanking, PvP, you name it!
Bone Shield – One of the greatest abilities a DK can get. It seems like such a core ability though, it really sucks that it is only in talents. Even worse, you have to spend a lot for it. IMO, make it a standard ability, or move it to the 2nd or 3rd tier in talents.
Scourge Strike – Great plague strike replacement. Hits harder, as it should for its current talent tree placement.
Unholy Blight – The only 51 point talent that I think is worth it. Great for an AoE/tanking build. However, with the current bug, I have found this much more enjoyable to have it a standard 20 sec duration for a fixed cost. The idea of extending it is bad imo. What if I want to do something else with my RP? 20 seconds is plenty of time.
Character Creation and Starting Out:
Character creation is still a bit bugged, but the new skin tones give characters a much better DK feeling. The starting quests/area has undergone a huge improvement! Arthas also actually looks intimidating now. Overall excellent job! (You forgot my name in the death knight book though! What’s up with that?!
Tanking:
I can’t really say much on this since there is an extreme lack of tanking gear for the DK atm. I am quite concerned about this though since I am eager to start tanking again. It seems like the death knight is a better AoE tanker than a single target tanker. The DK lacks from not having a single target high threat ability. I’m not sure what a DK would do on targets that can not be taunted. Tanking seems quite fun, and it’s easy for targets that are tauntable though. I’ll come back to this when we have more to work with.
PvP:
Being a hardcore PvP player, this is most likely my top concern. It is hard to test things with the lack of people playing BGs. Thus far it is quite obvious that DKs NEED a snare ability that has no cool down. Cost is another story, as long as it is one rune or RP, it should be sufficient. DKs are so easily kited atm.
I tested plague strike on druids and it is perfect the way it is. It’s a complete tossup in skill 1v1. With a druid’s CC they have enough to get by if played right, and the DK has a good chance of winning if he/she manages his/her runes correctly. If the druid decides to run… the DK is screwed. Three shifts max and the druid is home free. (DK gets caught on cool downs)
Mages completely own DKs. It’s hard to believe with the anti caster abilities the death knight has, but DKs are just getting locked down. The mage can so easily kite the DK that the DK might as well sit down or bend over…
Against melee, it seems like a dps race. Warriors tend to do a bit more damage and the same for rogues. However with the new death strike the DK makes up for lost HP, and icebound fortitude is all a DK needs against rogues.
Overall the experience is very unique and fun. Other than the times being kited, a death knight fits in quite well. I really think the snare idea would fix this problem. My suggestion is make chains of ice a snare, 1 frost rune, no cool down. Maybe take hungering cold and make that a standard 10 sec CC ability that is RP heavy, or 3 runes in cost, (One of each type) with a 45 sec cool down. Then change the 51 point frost talent to something more useful. Or you could use my frost presence idea. This gives the DK a perfect chance to catch his target if played right. The only exception might be a well timed trinket, but that is to be expected and makes PvP so interesting.
From:http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/