Hello designers. It’s great to see your new design. Hero Talents has received a great response in China. Some people think it’s the artifact or Conduit 2.0, but what I see is a new take on DK by the design. After seeing San’layn, I have some small suggestions. They may not be mature enough, but I still hope to provide feedback to the designers.
I apologize for my poor English.
Infliction of Sorrow and Vampiric Strike
I’m glad to see that the designers are paying attention to the interaction between DK and Plague, and I’m very satisfied with the design of this talent, but the talent design still has some flaws in its usage, that is, the trigger rate is too random, when I don’t have Gift of the San’layn, I can only trigger Vampiric Strike randomly through Death Coil or Death When I don’t have Gift of the San’layn, I can only trigger Vampiric Strike randomly via Death Coil or Death Strike with a 10% trigger rate, so it’s going to be a very difficult situation to deal with in the middle of a fight. For example: when my Plague lasts for only 2 to 3 seconds, and I triggered Vampiric Strike, I’ll need to continuously use Outbreak twice to replenish Plague. The first time I used Outbreak was to continue the duration of Plague, and the second time I used Outbreak was to utilize the Plague inheritance mechanic to maximize the remaining damage of Plague by making the Plague duration 130% of the original. I hope the designers can understand that if this does happen, it will result in a very difficult experience for the player, and even anger at the Infliction of Sorrow talent.
If it can be modified, I hope the designers can modify the design of the 10% chance of Death Coil or Death Strike triggering to read: in the absence of a Gift of the San’layn, every 10 seconds a Death Coil or Death Strike makes the next Scourge Strike or Heart Strike into a Vampiric Strike; or modified to: after the duration of Gift of the San’layn is over, your first Death Coil or Death Strike triggers a fixed Vampiric Strike, and on the 10th second after using Vampiric Strike, it will once again cause your Death Coil or Death Strike to fix-trigger Vampiric Strike.
The reason for this change is to fix the entire flow so that you don’t waste runes or GCDs to reuse a skill, causing the entire battle to seem bloated and overwhelming; secondly the reason why it’s set to Vampiric Strike every 10 seconds is also based on Plague’s duration, as I’m defaulting to Ebon Fever in the case that Plague lasts 13.5 seconds, a time period where it would be very easy to either patch up early or do whatever, and even if you don’t order Ebon Fever, Vampiric Strike every 10 seconds won’t be affected much.
The Blood is Life
This talent looks very interesting, but the actual use is a garbage, you can see Unholy DK’s Ruptured Viscera, no one use Ruptured Viscera this talent, the same tier of Magus of the Dead is more cost-effective, especially Blood Beast explosion looks powerful, but it needs to wait for 10 seconds. The Blood Beast explosion looks powerful, but it needs to wait for 10 seconds, which will be its Achilles heel. In this fast-paced era, 10 seconds is already enough for DH or other professions to kill monsters other than the boss, and by the time we finish the explosion in 10 seconds, the only thing that will be attacked is the air, and the damage dealt will only be zero.
If it can be modified, I hope the designers can refer to DH’s Ragefire, Blood Beast is no longer triggered by Vampiric Strike probability, we can design a Blood Tank, 50% of the damage we dealt or healed will be accumulated in the Blood Tank, and when the accumulation is full, it will allow the next Vampiric Strike to be directly summoned! Blood Beast, when summoned, Blood Beast will charge at the target and explode, immediately dealing explosion damage equal to the accumulated value of the Blood Slot, which is shared amongst the surrounding targets. If Blood Beast is not in combat when summoned, Blood Beast will follow the DK around until it enters combat and charges the nearest target causing an explosion, and then the DK will be able to use the Blood Beast as a weapon to destroy the target. Pact of the San’layn will increase the cap of the Blood Slot by 75% and 100% of the damage or healing we deal will be accumulated in the Blood Slot; or Blood Beast will continue to consume the Blood Slot after being summoned to inflict a small Blood Storm on the surrounding area until the Blood Slot is consumed, then Blood Beast will disappear, if not in combat, Blood Beast will follow the DK around until it charges the nearest target causing an explosion. If not in combat, the Blood Beast will follow the DK around, and Pact of the San’layn will make the Blood Beast permanent, with a maximum of two Blood Beasts, and 80% of the damage or healing we do will be accumulated in the Blood Slot, and whenever the Blood Slot accumulates to 50%, the Blood Beast will be destroyed. Whenever the Blood Slot reaches 50%, the Blood Beast will automatically release a Blood Storm.
The reason why we have Blood Beast charging is a reference to Reanimated Shambier in 9.0, where you slowly walk up to the target to explode, the design is so stupid that by the time your zombie even slowly walks up to the target, the whole fight is over, and we’re still attacking the air and dealing 0 damage.
Infliction of Sorrow instead of Festering Wound
Since Gift of the San’layn can make Vampiric Strike no longer consume Plague and deal 20% of Plague’s remaining damage, doesn’t that mean we can make Plague work for the duration of Gift of the San’layn instead of Festering Wound? Gift of the San’layn duration instead of Festering Wound, this would be a very interesting idea, and if it were to come to fruition, San’layn could change the entire landscape of Unholy DK.
Can Plague be used instead of Festering Wound during Gift of the San’layn since it gives direct access to Vampiric Strike? If so, we could create an ability for Gift of the San’layn that doesn’t interfere with the DK’s original mechanics and allows them to better experience its power.
Gift of the San’layn lasts for a duration.
Plague replaces Festering Wound and gains 3 Runic Power each time Vampiric Strike deals 20% of Plague’s remaining damage to an enemy. This triggers Festermight and Bursting Sores. Vampiric Strike no longer extends the duration of Plague by 3 seconds.
Festering Strike and Marrowrend no longer apply Festering Wound to the target. Additionally, every third Festering Strike or Marrowrend will only consume 1 Runic.
Instead, they extend the duration of Plague on the target by 6 seconds. Unholy Assault also extends the duration of Plague on the target by 12 seconds.
Apocalypse will no longer detonate up to four layers of Festering Wound. Instead, it will deal 70% of the remaining damage of Plague.
Vile Contagion has been modified to infect up to seven other targets around it with the maximum Plague duration on the current target.
Death’s Caress will also extend the duration of Plague on the target by 4.5 seconds while gaining Bone Shield.
The text explains how to modify Gift of the San’layn based on the playstyle of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King’s DK. According to the author, the DK from this time period will be the more popular choice.
To increase the duration of the Plague, use Vampiric Strike, Festering Strike, and Death Coil when entering Gift of the San’layn. Ebon Fever can be extended from 13 seconds. The Plague duration can range from 5 to 27 or 40 seconds, and even up to 60 seconds or more. Increasing the duration of Gift of the San’layn also increases the total remaining damage. Additionally, Vampiric Strike is triggered directly by the first Death Coil at the end of Gift of the San’layn. When we end Gift of the San’layn for the first time, we can deal a significant amount of residual Plague damage to the target. This is more interesting and powerful than not being able to predict when Vampiric Strike triggers, causing us to replenish Plague on our hands.
Can we take inspiration from the Venthyr and their ability to teleport over long distances? This aligns with the vampire image we are modeled after. Instead of bloodsucking acceleration, could we replace it with this teleportation ability?
It would allow us to instantly teleport to a location out of sight and recharge twice.
Then there is Blood-Soaked Ground, a skill that cannot be changed to better align with San’layn’s identity.
Blood-Soaked Ground causes the DK to consume Death and Decay, granting the DK Blood Pact for 10 seconds. This deals 0.25% of the DK’s maximum health in Shadow damage to the DK every 0.5 seconds. Every time he deals damage to DK, he causes DK’s blood to spill on all enemies within 10 yards of himself. Enemies affected by DK’s blood take Shadow damage every second. 25% of this damage heals DK for 3 seconds. DK is also equivalent to being in Death and Decay for the duration of the Blood Pact. The effect lasts for 10 seconds.
Lastly some small suggestions, if I had chosen San’layn as an Unholy DK wouldn’t my effects have been red with blood as well, like Warlock who received green evil fire, which I’m sure is very cool!