It’s been a rough time for us after the recent armor nerf, and I feel it’s crucial for us to discuss the dire state of Death Knights in PVP.
The recent changes to our armor have left many of us struggling to survive against the current meta, and it’s disheartening to see the impact on our effectiveness in player versus player encounters. As Death Knights, we’ve always been a been on the tankier side, but the recent changes have significantly hampered our ability to endure really anything.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences regarding this issue. How has the armor nerf affected your gameplay in PVP? Have you found any effective strategies to cope with the reduced survivability? Are there specific talents or gear adjustments that have helped mitigate the impact?
9 Likes
Always? that is most definitely not the case at all whatsoever. There has been times during previous expansion and patch cycles where DK’s in PvP have been literally a free kill for one of their specializations with the second being marginally better but still nothing to write home about. There has even been points at which both DPS DK specializations were just massive dumpster fires with it being so bad that many just refused to PvP or changed to an alternative character class who wasn’t such a smoldering pile of fecal matter; those DK’s who didn’t want to change to an alternative but still wanted to PvP on their Dk Character actually ended up doing it in Blood Spec because unlike they other two specs it provided a means where the DK could participate in PvP actively and not die in the first 5 seconds…
Deathknight’s for a long time now have always been the focus DPS target in matches due to the simple fact unlike almost all other classes they lack any means to make them an unviable kill target because a certain ability or talent that is available to them reduces that chancel to something that it is better for the enemy team to fight either of the other two characters on your team.
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Just consider many of the classes that are always part of the high end PvP meta - Mage, Warlock, Rogue, Priest, and Druid..?
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What is it that these classes have and the DK lacks that makes it so a DK will almost always be the best choice for the the best choice for the enemy team target to focus?
1/ Mobility - First and Foremost it’s the clear disparity in class Mobility with DK being the one class that is being hamstrung, ball and chained (On Purpose which is completely opposite to how the game is being designed and played now) there is absolutely no lore based reason, or even one that is logical under the current design meta.
Now when you factor in the recent changes it has meant that the DK is Always the best focus DPS target because their lack of mobility makes them a significantly easier target to maintain uptime and constant pressure which is now exacerbated and emphasised all the more now because the DK is taking much higher physical damage than they did previously which has a cascade of additional affects.
2/ Lack of No Go Ability or Defensive - DK’s are the only class in the game that completely lacks an ability that creates a situation where it is better for the enemy team to switch to another target while that ability is active. All other classes have an ability which for example makes them immune to all damage for a period of time (Both Physical and Magical damage not just one or the other). Alternatively means that the enemy team will be heavily penalised, have a large percentage of their own damage reflected back at themselves etc. The DK completely lacks anything like this consider AMS/AMZ blocks only magical damage meaning they will take physical and with the recent armor changes the DK is going to take more physical as well. Ice Bound Fortitude is only a short Damage Reduction so they can be DPS’d through it without any downsides for the enemy team. *The DK drastically needs an ability that forces the enemy team change to another target whether it is some kind of full damage immunity the works for both physical and magical damage at the same time or alternatively a damage reflection or a toxic effect trigger that is nasty enough to cause the enemy to not want to attack the DK and avoid them etc.
If you haven’t watched the recent AWC you most definitely should. There was a couple of DK players however, in every single one of the matches where their team loses it is the DK that is killed first and it was generally always due to the fact their healer was out of mana due to the need for them to heal the DK.
In addition it almost always ends up being at various points in the match the class with the worst mobility in the game having to try to kite the enemy dps using Icy Chains Spam…So you have the Death knight an undead that is supposed to be a MAGIC RESISTANT, UNABLE TO BE CC’D MOVING AT A CONSTANT RATE TOWARDS THEIR NEXT VICTIM and is virtually UNKILLABLE that you never want to be in melee range with because if they connect on their targett death is assured which means these other classes make use of their greater mobility in order to kite the DK completely the opposite of this concept… Kill the DK because they are slow, lack any means to force a no go on themselves which make them clearly a great option to focus as you’re going to have a high amount of uptime with constant damage pressure which will tax the DK’s healer significantly more. In addition the DK’s only viable means to heal themselves is a melee attack which hamstrings their ability to provide counter pressure significantly…
Then you see the match statistics that show the DK healed for 3M - 4M while the enemy teams Arcane Mage took pretty much no damage whatsoever for the duration of the match has managed to heal for 8M - 10M just by using their standard dps pvp design without any downsides to their own personal rotations with Spellsteal (Kleptomania) being the likely main culprit for this… So you have an Arcane Mage doing what UH DK used to do with Plague Strike years ago to strip the enemy teams buffs. However, the arcane mage isn’t just stripping the enemy teams buffs they are stealing them and gaining those benefits for themselves. When you consider that the DK Plague Strike buff stripping required them to be in melee range and was considered to be too overpowered when it removed TWO buffs from the targeted player so it was nerfed to only remove one and even then it was whined about by Druids so much so that it was actually removed completely…yet now we have the Arcane Mage who can instant cast spellsteal to remove all positive buffs from any target that is in line of site within a 30y range no melee required which using what happened with plague strike for DK’s and saying their version was too over powered then clearly even if spellsteal didn’t give the buff to the mage but just stripped all the buffs it would be overpowered. Yet mages are clearly getting something that is even more overpowered but, it’s okay it isn’t overpowered on mages like it is on DK’s…
15 Likes
WOW! Well Thought and Posted, I wish i could like your response multiple times,
3 Likes
This isnt true, I watched some of it. Seen an arcane mage and rogue switch and kill a monk in no time at all and through AMZ.
no one sees a problem with this proposed design? no one at all?
1 Like
as if people havent been “discussing the dire state of DK” since S1 when they unjustly annihilated our entire defensive toolkit
what about when they pruned spellwarden (well deserved) But then did absolutely nothing meaningful to fill the void anywhere else
Enough of the copium, stop giving these people your money if it bothers you that much
1 Like
atm every physical dps feels harder to play cause there’s a sudden rush of clothies with their new armor buff, and between that an roots/fears that no longer break, they are a royal pita to fight now.
4 Likes