Death Knight Talent Tree Redesign Comments:
53 Nodes for Class Tree
45 Nodes Frost Spec Tree
49 Nodes Blood Spec Tree
46 Nodes Unholy Spec Tree
Node in this case is defined as a place to put a point. So a multi-rank talent has multiple nodes, or, to put another way, the total number of points needed to completely fill the talent tree.
I used all my fingers and toes and double checked.
Note: It appears in this draft build that each spec has a different number of point nodes each. Is this intended or not seen as a problem? I would contend the problem with different specs having different numbers of nodes is that can bloat the tree and make power progression uneven between specs, and potentially dilutes the value of each point spent (With pure DPS classes, can also create balancing issues between specs).
While being unrestrained in the total values is great for overall design space, is the intention to re-constrict trees like Blood back down to say, 45 points? That would be an effective design space because it helps with deciding which talents are worthwhile against those which may not be seen as good (For design purposes). For example, Blood could reduce the number of talent spots by 4 (conveniently the same as the lackluster Blood Fortification being moved to Veteran since it already changes based on spec, and if Reinforced Bones and Improved Boneshield are consolidated puts the spec on par with Frost Tree’s 45). Similarly, Unholy could have Improved Festering Strike drop from 3 to 2 points to put it on par with Frost.
Just for numbers sake, would love to see 45 nodes per spec, 50 or 55 nodes for Class. Rounding to 5 just seems right.
Class Tree Notes:
Row 3 – Lots of issues with the talents here. In general, to not fall into the core issue from the original talent trees, pure stat bonuses are uninteresting and in reality players rarely see the difference in their rotations. An easy rule of thumb of what I consider an interesting talent is that a talent should be tied to a button press (either in modifying what that button does, adding a new button, or less interestingly, giving a bonus to that button press). Only BIG changes in stats are noticed. Blood Scent, Veteran of the Third/Fourth War, and Suppression all fall into the pure stat changes that players just wont see an effect from. Yes, they are there, yes they are helpful, but in reality players rarely perceive the benefits of these core stat percentage changes in any meaningful way.
Blood Scent - should likely be reworked into either a larger bonus but in limited circumstances, or something a player can see is causing them to restore life. In other classes a base Leech is noticed because they don’t have constant healing, absorbs, and other effects, however DKs, Blood in particular, can yoyo health quite spectacularly so that a 3% base just isn’t noticed. In reality folks would only want to take this for PVP or as a Blood DK, which Voracious would already cover. Maybe increase Leech 10% against targets below 30% health, making this an Execute Phase heal?
Veteran of the Third/Fourth War – See issues with node # bloat in Blood. Consolidate Blood Fortification into Veteran to make this a big want for PVP/Tanks.
Suppression – 3% Avoidance is … again while this is technically an improvement and certainly helps parse survivability, unless a player actively watches the calculations there is no way they will notice a 3% change to Avoidance. Maybe replace with a buff when Death Coil is used to heal?
Row 5 – Small row of the tree, Merciless Strikes and Might of Thassarian are again pure stat bonuses. The original set piece of Thassarian’s Battlegear had the strength bonus triggered off of using Frost Strike (back when everyone had it). As is, this is less interesting than a talent further down the list (Rune Mastery) which has a trigger. I can understand wanting to cap the total Strength bonus to 10% (6 from Rune Mastery + 4 from Might of Thassarian), but at the same time, why not have Might trigger off of a player’s attack with their main weapon strike (Heart/Frost/Festering) for 10 seconds, ala Unleashed Frenzy? Or have it trigger and then stack the bonus per main strike (1% per up to 4 or 6 stacks). This gives the power a bit more of a build-up ala Icy Talons and rewards play with the base spec kit.
Merciless Strikes is only there to serve as Frost fodder to bump up the chances of Killing Machine (in the class talents? Again, low % core stat bump talents are rarely noticeable in standard play), which is fine in theory, but it’d be nice to have something more interactive.
Spec Tree Notes
Blood Tree:
A lot of the issues with the Blood Tree appears to be that everything was split up too much, as noted by it having the most nodes of all three DK specs. An easy way to resolve this would be to consolidate some of the talents involving Bone Shield (Reinforced Bones, Improved Boneshield), Pure stat increases (Blood Fortification reintegrated into Veteran). This puts some of the required benefits of the increased Stamina into the Class category (core class component of survivability) and integrates two very similar themed abilities into one.
I would also ask that you reconsider and add Swarming Mist to the Blood Tree. Maybe make it an alternative to Bonestorm as an active ability on the row (Choose Bonestorm or Swarming Mist)?
Frost Tree:
Frost appears pretty tightly done! The Pure damage bonus from Improved Obliterate and Improved Frost Strike are meh, just on the verge of something a player would notice (I generally feel 25%+ is noticeable). Perhaps Crystalline Swords can make a return as a visual component if you need a reason to bump core ability damage? Similarly, Eradicating Blow would be a good theme for the Frost Strike damage bump to replace the flat % of Improved Frost Strike, (Change to a 10/15% bump per Obliterate, max 2? 2 Point talent). Just change the name to Eradicate.
Unholy Tree:
Similar to Frost, pretty tight group, but I would figure out a more active way to do the bonuses to Improved Festering and Improved Scourge Strike – also to drop Festering Down to 2 talent points to make it on par with the number of nodes of Frost (15/30% if nothing else). The Legion Artifact ability name Rotten Touch would probably work well. The Scourge Strike ability can be replaced by Scourge of Worlds.
TLDR: Too many nodes in Blood and Unholy, could be consolidated better. The Flat % bonuses to damage in specs can be flavored up a bit with existing ability ideas from Artifacts/Azerite/Soulbind powers, but overall a decent WIP!
