Alpha Changes (Midnight)

Classes Death Knight
21

Its a new era. :pray:

9 Likes
23

Even in pvp it is not taken. Proc is too low and breath jsut outshines it currently even with the pvp modifiers.

24

I think this is just the first iteration we’re seeing based on what they said for their plans for Frost, emphasis mine:

Developers’ notes: In Midnight, we are looking to iterate on the Ghosts of K’aresh Frost Death Knight rework by implementing better tuning knobs that allow for the two prominent builds, Frostbane and Breath of Sindragosa, to be able to compete in single target situations. We’re also updating Obliterate to be partially dealing Frost damage, so that we can fine tune the throughput difference between casting it with Killing Machine or without where we believe is needed.

I’m mildly optimistic that they’ll makes changes to make the Shattering Line competitive with BoS, which indirectly is a buff to DW unless they change MotFW to also start applying RI.

1 Like
25

I’m thinking the same thing. They are litterally talking in terms of build choice, not 2h and DW disparity.

1 Like
26

So I really like the direction of the new unholy changes, it looks fresh.

I was a bit worried we were going to be CD trapped again with our apex talent buffing army of the dead, but then I realize apoc and unholy assault are both gone, and I couldn’t be happier! Gargoyle and Abom are still available as a choice node, so you only get one.

Summoning ghouls is now something that happens rotationally! It’s not just cooldowns, but several procs will also summon ghouls, and we can “spend” those ghouls with our new “Putrefy”, and lots of other talents hook into this system. A more sustained focus, more pet focused but still complex unholy, I hope they nail this.

Now unholy has 2 diseases baseline. Virulent plague, as before and a new one called Dread Plague which can only be on a single target. A lot of the talents now interact with these diseases, scourge strike deals more damage based on diseases like old times, and festering scythe increases the tick speed of all disease, making me wonder if festering strike does the same thing, (increase disease tick speed) on a single target target.

I love what they are attempting with unholy here, I especially love that they are really going out there and trying something new! This is our first MAJOR redesign since Legion.

One thing I do want though, now that ghouls are a resource for unholy, can we just give unholy the old Death Pact back? I’m talking about the Death Pact that kills one of your minions and then heals you, sacrificing DPS for Health. Not to mention the modern Death Pact isn’t that popular with the self healing absorb, I’m certain blood and frost dk’s wouldn’t mind that being exchanged for something new.

4 Likes
27

Yeah you take the hits

  • Consumption has been redesigned and is now an Empower ability – Empower the runes in your weapon, reducing the damage you take over the duration and unleashing a devastating attack that deals Shadow damage and consumes up to 75% of your Blood Plague instantly from enemies in front of you.

I just hope the animation + sound effects are satisfying enough to justify empowering to the biggest level. I love the concept of empowering, it just really needs to be a big number on my screen, have a cool animation, and a sick sound

1 Like
28

Are you reading the same notes I am? Because the notes dont read at all like you are reading them at all. There is still going to be weapon disparity at this point in the alpha notes. They also didnt change Obliterate and Frost Strike like you said. All that it says is Obliterate will do partial frost damage because the gap between non-KM and KM Obliterates is far too large. So the problem that I pointed out 6 years ago is finally being recognized.

Not to mention that build choice is literally based on your weapon. The only reason 2h is doing good right now is Obliterate is doing way too much damage within the spec.

Making Obliterate partial frost doesnt do anything but still make you want to press Obliterate with KM and could possibly cause another Obliterate nerf which it should be nerfed in the first place.

29

Oh I forgot about you. Boy you must be so mad rn :rofl:

3 Likes
30

What others got??? What others got??!! Are we looking at the same game?

Almost every mechanic has been simplified down to the bones so much so that I doubt anything will be actually fun to play, a spec like frost being barely touched is a god damned blessing!

What others got, what a joke, almost every spec got crapped on and you’re here talking about it as if dk didn’t get any interesting things, dude, you better hope and pray they don’t touch dk further looking at what they did to classes such as mage or warlock

31

I’m referring to the Midnight changes as I am aware they don’t currently - PvP might take it when it gets a turbo damage boost from Shattering but I’m just speculating. I don’t PvP so I’m definitely not an authority in that area.

I gotta be honest, I have little faith in Blizzard in this area as DW vs 2h has been a hot button issue for Frost ever since Frost DK was added to the game.

Also, Shattering does not compete with Breath of Sindragosa right now and it’s concerning that Blizzard seems to think this is the case. If you take Shattering Blade / Frostbane, it’s actually higher DPS to drop talent points from Icy Death Torrent / Long Winter. BoS and Killing Streak are mandatory right now. Unless they nerf BoS this will continue to be the case.

Anything that affects Shattering Blade and Frostbane is 2h vs DW because DW benefits overwhelmingly more from talenting in Shattering Blade and Frostbane than 2h. If Frostbane becomes meta, then you have to go DW. And if 2h gets equal access to Shattering Blade, then it would put the final nail in the coffin for DW as there will be no reason to go DW at that point unless they nerf Might of the Frozen Wastes.

Unless Blizzard makes substantial changes to make DW and 2h perfectly equal (or purely a cosmetic transmog option), this fact will remain unchanged. I personally still advocate for 2h and DW having their own talent and damage profile identities but I realize this is generally the unpopular opinion.

Blizzard just needs to choose something and stick with it because right now they are trying to have their cake and eat it too with Frost DK design and it’s causing issues.

1 Like
32

For real. Horn of Winter 60 min raid buff, giving everyone 3% haste. Done gg easy.

6 Likes
33

Speaking of Blood DK:

  • what I liked:
  1. return of ABOM LIMB, blood exlusive ability, although without damage. Best change by far.
  2. they acknowledged struggles of blood DK in higher keys.
  3. Deathstrike can now cleave, great talent.
  • what I didn’t like:
  1. they didn’t acknowledge blood DK’s issues with lack of utility (we weren’t very sought after tank even when we had both Abom Limb and Gorefiend’s grasp)
    1.1. They didn’t change / delete such hopelessly underwhelming talents like San’layne Vampiric Aura, Vampiric speed and Bloody Fortitude.
  2. Dancing Rune Weapon still costs 3 talent points for no reason (Pala’s wings cost only 1 talent points for comparison).
  3. Instead of unnerfing and making Blood Beast impactful again, they doubled down on that boring, unfun talent “Infliction of Sorrow”, baking one of the worst tier set bonuses we recently had into hero talents. Again, we’re suffering because it’s Unholy spec, which is in their focus, not us.
  4. They didn’t address our issue of keeping AoE threat. We still have nothing but blood boil to try and keep AoE threat.
    DnD 130% damage increase won’t be enough to make it threat snapping ability even when we’re static, and when we’re gathering packs, it’s threat generation is minimal to non-existant.
2 Likes
34

Honestly I feel like San’layn’s design got a bit lost in the sauce. Disease extension and consumption is cool, but is better suited to Unholy, and doesn’t exactly strike me as “vampirey”.

I’d kinda hope for a total revamp of San’layn to dial in more on the vampiric aspects.

5 Likes
35

They took away muh
BOOONE STOOOOOORM!

36

Yep.
I personally can’t stand the idea of San’layn for UH lmao.

3 Likes
37

Mad about what?

38

I think they’re trying to find the right way to balance the two of them and this is just part one of that which is to make FB hit for 3x damage on the main target when shattering. If it’s still like this when it releases then, yeah, RIP, but we’ve got literal months before that and we can repeatedly let them know that it’s not enough to be on par with BoS until it is.

39

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Unholy should have gotten Deathbringer and BDK should have gotten Riders. I think Frost with San’ylan could have been very interesting,

40

I like my Deathbringer Blood thanks very much. Although Riders could kinda be a vibe. But most of it’s kit really doesn’t slot in well with Blood.

1 Like
41

why did they get rid of sacrificial pact and not death pact? everybody hates death pact.

soul reaper is gone, style killing people in pvp is too mean for microblizz.

between sacpact, rune tap, and several other spells they removed and the baseline DS nerf, its clear they don’t want any DKs to livelord in PVP, back to being glass cannons again -_-

1 Like