Firstly
I want to start this off with a apology to Kelliste; as in the past I feel the discussion rhetoric can get silly as her (assumed) and I have sparred in the past over Frost DK’s and Dual Wield/two-handers - I want to admit that I think I was wrong and 2-handed is generally OK (there could be a discussion about gearing but that is outside of the intent of this post)
So I have been playing a lot with all the DK specs and a few other classes and I am thinking about how close Blizzard is permitted to sail near the iceberg - the ice-berg in question being balance/broken classes. I realize that some classes are currently very high on the scale of power - which generally means others are not; and that will be a eternal as long as classes actually differ.
Is that a bad thing though? As long as classes get their time to shine and I know tier lists continue to evolve and can be debated in many cases.
So lets look at the concept of “play-style” options rather then specs; I wanted to talk about how Frost seems to have perhaps tripped over a good thing; the current fact that their is enough variation between different Frost DKs - Obliteration spec & Breath of Sindragosa spec; both are Frost spec; but the playstyle differences are noticeable yet neither seems to too far from the other.
Since this is a DK discussion - how could we add a second play-style to the our other specs?
My logic is that generally the requirements would be
- The second play-style should still focus on the specs actual role (Ergo the second Unholy spec is still a DPS role/Blood as a tank)
I was thinking just in the perspective of Blood Game-play that more heavily empathizes self healing (Augmenting Leech and Death Strike) vs another that empathizes mitigation (Augments Boneshield & Rune Tap)
- The way that the play-style is “shifted” should not be a drastic choice.
Example - Frosts play-style is really shifted due to a few talents - just doing so changes your stat weights and play-style. Another example is how in BfA unholy was using Festering Strike differently depending on the “fester-blight” power. Unholy’s play-style being modded might just be a matter of making a shift between Pets (More focus on Army of the Dead and Apocalypse and Gargoyle) or Dots (maybe bring back Ebon Fever and perhaps adding more diseases for Unholy via talents to maintain). The tricky part is to have both exist as options; but not able to have both at the same time (like how BoS and Oblit cannot be possessed at the same time)
So by all means make some suggestions - remember we want to avoid adding new mechanics; we simply want to augment existing mechanics that would change play-style (Making Death Strike heal 10% more and allover Over-healing is fine - Making Death-strike create healing balls or charges would be too drastic)