37 specs in total and dk only shows up after the 27th. I’m not a math guy by any means but all 3 specs sub 25% seems to be a significant outlier. The spec is verging on unplayable.
And before someones @s me and says “wELL, cUToffs are sPec SPeciFIc So Still PlAYABle LUL”, everyone knows that the top unholy dks haven’t qued a shuffle match since 10.5 (3 months ago) and are sitting on the rating they got when the class was still playable. In other words, it’s currently impossible to reach their rating.
And yea the cutoffs are somewhat based on spec popularity and “popularity doesn’t equal performance” but let’s not delude ourselves into saying that the most popular specs aren’t played because they are stupidly broken (cough ret, war, demo cough cough. just be honest guys).
What’s funny is that Dh is the second worst class in the game right now in pvp and that spec tends to do well with dk in 3v3. Since dh/dk is simply unplayable as both specs are dogwater, you’re only option as dk right now is to cheese everyone as evoker dk.
I’m sure everyone’s having a good time with that, either getting oneshot or kited all game until you get oneshot(much engaging gameplay wow)
But this is where the problem starts. Unholy is simply undertuned, and both dps dks are too squishy to even play the game. If balance is in such a horrid state, then only something horrific can exist(evoker dk).
Hopefully 10.1 changes things with the blood forged armor talent but a lot of these bottom 25% specs need to be looked at after the patch to ensure that they can still play the game.
I would say DK is definitely very underpowered in terms of damage (which is one of the main points of arena) but in recent RBGs, I’ve found that Frost DK has pretty good CC and survivability, both of which may or may not be worth much in the long run but they can still be enjoyable. A buff would be nice in the future though.
Okay i hear you, but there are two parts that are just as impactful if not moreso and dk cutoff is lower BECAUSE it’s popular and stronger at lower rating AND was VERY strong until ret paladins happened.
Moonkin has the highest cutoff in the game because there are 5 spots. If there were 25 spots like ret paladin, the cutoff would be like 3150. The class is obviously good because it can get that high, but its not popular and most players struggle with it.
Dk isnt weak at all, in fact, its healing/damage profile is fairlt good in shuffle. The elephant in the room that youre not addressing is that dks strength has nothing to do with deathknight and almost entirely due to the fact that ret paladin dookies all over it.
Sanc for every stun/strang. Freedom to counter chains on 2 people. 27s wake that aoe stuns all dk pets. Blind on top of that for every gargoyle. Better defensives, better damage, now have holystrike damage that can go through ams, and bop on top to counter big DK goes on their team.
yea you’re right that ret is an abomination of a spec that has a hard counter for everything dk has and deals holy strike damage which goes thru ams AND ZONE ffs(and also doesn’t synergize in the slightest with dk unless you want to play cringe fdk ret).
but if ret is the new normal, then something has to happen. All specs in a class being sub 25% should never happen. I wouldn’t wish that on any class because that just means the game is in a garbage state
Also, i dont think that slamming buffs on dk so it doesnt get countered by ret is tbe answer, because then dk just bullies non-ret classes. OH. Dk also gets countered by fw and rsham pretty handily, which is also 2/3 of meta healers
I swear unholy after its buffs wouldve been super scary if ret never happened though.
This isnt a fair comparison using your metrics, though. Its more popularity than it is balance.
You gotta address the real problem with your solution, or else youre just creating more problems.
its kinda crazy. dk rn has a lot of counters. You get dumpstered by every physical damage dealer bar none, and you also get dumpstered into wizards because your “magic niche” doesn’t exist anymore.
AMS gets deleted in a global, and death strike can’t save you through any wizards damage.
When a class seems like it just gets countered by anything, it’s a strong sign that it’s just bad.
When I play unholy rn, the main thing i feel(besides the clunkyness) of the spec is that i doesn’t have any kill pressure. They nerfed our main dot damage by 30% which was enormous, while also nerfing our mortal strike to be 24% in the same patch.
That coupled with unholy losing unholy blight spiraled the spec into being unplayable.
With the current state of tuning, it is impossible to pass a dk that played 3 months ago - this is a problem. You simply do not have pressure, you’re not strong into wizards, and you still get dumpstered by melee, and ret exists.
Dk is definitely too vulnerable to physical damage that’s for sure
I’d like to see double 40yd range death grip gutted and chains of ice dispellable and then buff death strike and ams by a significant amount and also reduced amz cooldown
It’s not supposed to save you it’s supposed to mitigate it enough for you to outplay in some other way. The games always extremely toxic when dks can just afk spam deathstrike forever when they’re actually in trouble.
Good thing this actually isn’t the case for dks.
You’re not setting up correctly then.
The spec isn’t unplayable and if ret didn’t get reworked to be a god class unholy would be an absolute menace on the ladder right now.
Although Devastation is more deserving of adjustments.