Lets talk about the state of DK in Dragonflight

Classes Death Knight
174

DKs are in such a piss poor state because legion stripped all the tools away and shoved them into separate specs in a way no other class was pruned. The entire DK identity revolved around using multiple resources to activate separate parts of your class, so you were never forced to use just a single ability type.

Rogues, for example, all got to keep things like ambush, but a frost dk completely lost the ability to spread diseases. Fast forward to shadowlands, and nearly every other class was restored to its former glory (think warriors all getting access to stances, ignore pain, etc.), but death knights were screwed by their core designs because the multi-spec crossover was locked behind rune types that no longer existed.

Now, even in DF, we’re still suffering from a bland and stripped down frost and blood dk with UH having every “green” ability mindlessly tossed into the kit for the sake of the supposedly outdated class fantasy aspect of the game that was intended to be unpruned. So still, we are the ONLY class in the game that hasn’t been restored completely because of the way we were separated, and I’ll never forgive it until it’s fixed.

(Just want to note that I don’t want to return to having separate runes, but something more along the lines of death runes for all 3 so that more tools can be viably used. At the very least, a full rework that should have happened in Legion should take place so all 3 specs feel complete and, more importantly, fun.)

8 Likes
175

I wish you mentioned soul reaper. It needs to cost runic power. Otherwise i agree, chill streak is garbage.

176

Ehh… not that breath gets played alot, but making SR cost runic power would make it unusable in a breath build.

177

I personally would like them to turn fester strike into the ret talent for crusade strike and have fester strike apply wounds with auto attacks. Also move aotd & super strain to general tree for all dks.

178

I think it’s time breath received a total overhaul so frost dk can have fun and fluid runic spenders without being affected by breath. That single ability is so divisive that it prevents major changes being made to frost, and this spec desperately needs an overhaul.

1 Like
179

As much as I love breath, I agree.

I think breath should be changed in 1 of 2 ways:

  1. a much shorter CD and function similarly to Bonestorm - more damage and duration based on RP spent
  2. In the recent community council interview it was alluded to that other classes may get empower spells in the future. I’m 50/50 on how I feel about this idea, but I think BoS is a great place to start. It could function very similar to fire breath to where a low empower would be low damage/long duration and a long charge would be high damage/short duration.

You could even go further down the fire breath route and make RP spent during breath extend/empower breath.

4 Likes
180

There is a problem with frost, not unholy.

Unholy is “fine” with the two~three pvp build variations.

What I would still change a little bit, would be the damage of the fastering strike, it is still not a very “ok” skill to use - it needed a 10% increase or a cost reduction…but otherwise, the Desease build with DnD(defile) + blight is good in pvp so far.

Other than that, I believe that one more option to choose in place of the army of death would be interesting, for example, a talent that gives a small chance to summon an undead malee from the ground. Why ? because a skill of 8 minutes CD in pvp is still surreal.

I would also put the option of unholy being able to have dual wield, instead of two handed. Why ? because it makes perfect sense to me, frost has a huge history of being two handed, unholy is a duelist / fast class because it always had this footprint of causing quick damage. This is so true that haste is needed as much as mastery, for builds like desease.

The problem is with the frost build. It has a problem with dealing damage only to exact windows. It’s easy to avoid, requires a lot of handling, and is usually way down in all situations - dmg, CD and control.

Apart from the problems with frost, I don’t understand the part about - “the problem dk has since X expansion” - that some of you are talking about here.

What I could say is that I’ve never seen pvp being worked on as much as it is currently and, that at the most there is a VISUAL problem in unholy, where some fight animations are still weird.
Those things aside, I don’t see that many problems with unholy at the moment.

181

Then you are truly blind.
The entire core mechanic of Festering Wounds is sheer insolence.
They are Classic Rogue Combo Points but worse and had to be buffed by 250% recently to be somewhat viable and only restricted to PvP.

In PvE this mechanic is supposed to be our main source of damage but an AoE application (beside the talent ‘Vile Contaigon’ every 1.5 min) is not possible and thus not being worth to tab target.

It’s like a rogue would try to manually apply Rupture to all targets via tab targeting.
In a raid environment where you are focused on pure single target you are highly dependent on PI to succeed.

4 Likes
182

Ok maybe in pvE it’s a problem.

In pvp, between 1600~1800, the ROT build has been working well, and I have my build incomplete (normally, I would have 1500 more mastery, I’m still building it and it still works fine)

blight, defile, plaguebringer, ebon fever, are skills that do a lot of damage in pvp (at least now).

defile increases 8% of mastery…mastery increases shadow damage, virulent plague is shadow…plaguebringer makes deseases occur 100% faster, ebon fever makes virulent occur 15% more frequently…with the correction of virulent plague duration, it is possible to keep reapplying and using scourge strike, making the enemy melt for deseases.

With high mastery (3k+), defile, Haste above 2.5k…the damage is big.

that’s not counting other burst skills, which help in kill situations.

I don’t know if the situation changes above 1800 but…for me it’s “ok” now.

If the player prefers, they can change the strategy to pet damage, or direct damage. It works.

only thing in pvp that is complicated for unholy, now, is survival.

183

That would make rp costing soul reaper good which I’m all for. I want that in my rotation

2 Likes
184

Easy BoS fix.

-Remove the connection RP entirely.
-Make it cost runes.
-2min large nuke CD with a static amount of channel time (10-15 seconds?).
-Or, 1min mini -nuke on with shorter static channel time (5 seconds?).

Benefits:
-Makes it so you dont get completely screwed if you have to do mechanics.
-Now viable with 2h.

185

Isn’t that basically frostwyrms fury

1 Like
186

Is Void Torrent just Mind Flay? lol

3min(1.5 talent), instant, ranged, Stun ability =/= A channeled melee ability which can still get scuffed by mechanics and CC.

So no, it is not basically Frostwyrms Fury.

187

Bringing this thread back to the top. Expansion announcement and first thought through my head was “this looks cool and all, but no DK changes would sour this experience”.

2 Likes
188

i think at this point, we’re going to be soon, there’s not that many classes that haven’t had one lately. i think there’s like Monk and maybe a couple of specific specs.

189

Id be glad if theyd give us better defensives in pvp. And maybe different viable builds for damage. I hate dot builds but i love unholy and affliction lol. And army of the dead, hate that talent, always have. Loveddddd apoc in legion.

1 Like
190

needs a lot more than that imo

1 Like
191

I’ve been a Death Knight (DK) for quite some time now; it’s the only class I play. I don’t really switch mains or play alts. My focus is mainly on Mythic Plus, but I also engage in arena and make sure to clear Heroic, occasionally tackling a mythic boss or two. I’m a lore enthusiast as far the death knight goes. I have come to appreciate the bursty profile of Unholy in Mythic Plus and raid. There are many aspects I enjoy, though I hesitate to demand a rework, fearing the possibility of ending up like the Survival Hunter (Sv) rework, turned into a meme spec and giggled at by the community. The risk of being totally changed, overtuned, and then hating it in a season is a genuine concern.

Despite DK being formidable in raids, I found myself disliking it last tier. The rotation was tolerable, but I despised relying on Power Infusion (PI) or Augmented Evoker buffs to feel like I was maximizing my abilities. Dealing with trash was frustrating, and switching specs between bosses disrupted the flow. Talent swaps felt like part of my rotation, and waiting for cooldowns to change back was a hindrance. In raid I could only contribute damage during trash when constantly switching talents between packs and bosses. In mythic plus, running Defile and hoping I wasn’t standing in anything became a nightmare, not to mention the numerous deaths. It didn’t seem fair to the group given my lukewarm damage profile last season.

Entering this season with Defile, the damage feels even worse. I’m hoping the tier set resolves the issue because, at this point, I wouldn’t push keys with myself either. I have been thinking about a break since I do not alt, but going to give it some time.

While I’m skeptical about a rework due to past experiences, I do have some suggestions for improvements that I would find engaging and interesting:

Fix the talent tree to avoid severe punishment in raids when helping with trash.

Introduce ghouls that can be found in the world, enslaved, and used as pets. They don’t need to match the sheer number of pets like hunters, but discovering new models in cemeteries and customizing them would add depth.

For raids, consider a mass rez that brings back three dead players with a shortened lifespan. They would take on a cool ghoul shape, reminiscent of the past, and gain a haste buff or damage. If one dies, they all die.

Incorporate talking weapons that embrace our dark roots, adding an element of fun to the experience. You have done this with several classes and having much more of a relationship with your weapon could be fun.

Allow for more customizations; Death Knights are undead, and many have died in battle, so why not let us walk around with a sword in our chest or arrows in our back? Flies constantly buzzing around us or dripping ooze could add to the atmosphere. I appreciate how Frost freezes the ground, but the possibilities are endless.

2 Likes
192

They should bring back shadow of death only without the str and stam

193

That would be runes.

This is such a troupe with festering wounds. Rogues generate combo points with energy, dk’s generate energy with combo points. Runes and energy both refresh automatically, combo points and runic do not.

Combo points allow for other abilities to be used, wounds don’t do that in the slightest. For instance, I can Eviscerate/Envenom/Dispatch for damage or use Rupture/Between the Eyes. I can Kidney Shot or Slice and Dice with combo points. On my DK breaking a wound adds damage in pve and it’s damage with a heal absorb in pvp.

On the other hand when I use Runic Power spenders on my DK it powers most of our self buffs, much like Combo Point spenders do for rogues.

I’ve played both for well over 10 years. The comparison of Combo points to Festering Wounds is game illiterate and the devs will continue to ignore this comparison because all it demonstrates is the person making it understands neither CP or FW.

Stop with this troll. If you want something to change you need to provide actual feedback about why wounds are bad and don’t work. Here’s a hint, they do work.

What actually doesn’t work is having our cleave tied to Death and Decay because anyone in pvp with 1/2 a brain runs out, and in most pug groups the tank is going to run out or pull the mobs.

Long global for no reason is another issue. It wouldn’t matter if we went back to Wrath DK it would feel awful to play b/c of how global works with dk currently. It will always feel clunky unless you run 24-26% haste.

Just based on Global and DND being necessary for cleave either spec loses straight off to most other plate wearers, every leather wearer, and most if not all mail in M+. In raid Unholy’s been carried by PI forever plus movement mechanics make the least mobile class in the game mostly worthless outside doing the most damage in the game single target and overall in boss fights.

1 Like