[Opinion] All three Death Knight specs should be changed

I played a DK pretty much since they were first available in the Wrath Beta. But to be perfectly frank, I think that while they have had their ups and downs, I think the fantasy of each Spec has been fundamentally misunderstood, and could be far better worked.

Here’s how I would redefine these three specs:

  • Frost: The “Arthas” spec, Tank

I don’t care if “most of his skills were Unholy”, when you think about Arthas, you’re thinking about Frostmourne and the Frozen Throne. I would dive fully into that fantasy, with Frost wielding a single 2hander, a juggernaut that is meant more for taking punishment than necessarily doling it out.

Not only does it better fit the “fantasy” of a Frost Death Knight (a slow-moving, hulking behemoth of a man), but I think by tying its identity directly to Arthas (much as Havoc DH’s are to Illidan), it would inspire more players to take up the mantle of Tanking, which is always helpful in MMO’s.

  • Unholy: The Necromancer, WC2-style Death Knight

In a more startling shift, I would change Unholy to be more of a traditional “Necromancer”. Not totally traditional, mind you; just more so. During Legion, the Unholy artifact, Apocalypse, did an absolutely incredible job of capturing the fantasy of being a melee-oriented Necromancer, where your attacks had you summoning a constant barrage of one-off undead for sometimes a single attack.

That was a really cool fantasy anyways, and this could bridge the gap a little more with the WC2-era Death Knight, who was also quite cool in his own right. If you had to put a specific name to it, I suppose Teron Gorefiend is about the only well-known WC2 Death Knight.

Also, by being a bit more “ranged” focused, it paves the way for a more unique interpretation of…

  • Blood: The “new” Death Knight

While Frost and Undead serve as solid callbacks to Arthas and the WC2 era Death Knight, respectively, I would use the opportunity to reinvent Blood spec a bit.

It would be the more pure Melee DPS-spec. I would throw a spin on things by perhaps coupling their ability to drain blood (health) with abilities to also expend it. I would go entirely Dracula/Vlad the Impaler for inspiration for the spec, depicting Blood DK’s as mighty, bloodthirsty warriors, but also with a dark, supernatural/vampiric quality.

I feel like not only would that be wholly unique, but also mesh quite nicely with one of the new zones and covenants in Shadowlands, which seems very inspired by Dracula’s castle.

To give the spec a bit more defined “personality”, I’d say you’d want Blood spec represented by either some kind of bloodthirsty Orc (perhaps re-defining Nazgrim as a Blood DK?), or maybe a Blood Elf or one of the San’layn.

  • In conclusion…

I think these specs would feel far more distinctive and iconic that the current ones we have. Sure, the current specs “work”, but honestly I don’t think any one spec is particularly exciting. Doubly-so when Frost is now DW-only. They just don’t seem to convey a sense of identity anymore.

Speaking of which, now that we have so many dual-wielding classes in the game, I would legitimately propose removing dual-wielding entirely. I simply don’t think it fits the Death Knight class. As for the Legion artifact, just retcon it to a singular “Blade of the Fallen Prince”, and increase the size of the 1hander models to be suitable for 2handers.

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Yeah ok I like this a lot. Blizz?

Statement: No, I like my spec the way it is thank you very much.

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Overall I like what you’ve laid out, but you are unfortunately going to run into the “survival problem”. Remember when survival spec for hunters was changed to a melee spec at the beginning of legion? Many people loved it, they had always wanted a melee hunter spec. There were many people who loved survival before that though, and they really didn’t have anywhere to go; MM and BM both felt different to play and no other class comes anywhere near the hunter feel and aesthetic.

Designing DK’s this way from the beginning would have been amazing tbh. Changing them so drastically now though will push people away, and they may feel they have nowhere else to go. I don’t think this game can handle purposefully pushing people away.

Ultimately, I feel like these ideas are best left as a “what could have been” type of deal.

Although I have not completed the Mage tower on a Frost Death Knight the Dark Runeblades always felt like his primary signature weapons.

I’ll have to disagree with the removal of Duel Wielding since it also limits the transmog Death Knights have access to by 400%.

Also many would be infuriated they would not be able to duplicate the appearance of Darion Mograine; since they could not use Slayer of the Lifeless.

Frost should have been the slow two-hander, crushing foes like a glacier.

Unholy should have been the fast dual-wielder, emulating a clawing ghoul and rapidly covering the target in ruptures/pustules before popping them all, much like combo points.

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How about we just remove death knights from the game, yeah? thanks
dhs too since we’re at it

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I’d prefer if they just ripped death knights into a WoD like situation and returned them to their glory days of wotlk

Where SS hit like a truck and blood was a dps spec

And presences

Frost should have morphed into fire once we started the Bolvar era.

Eh, I like my frosty floozy- er… dreanei the way she is and I don’t want to tank.

Still weird to me because frost was the tank spec and blood was pvp. Dont know why it changed. :woman_shrugging:

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Remember when you could tank as frost and dps as blood? I remember.

But those pesky talent trees and those damn people having options. You’ll pick your spec and you’ll like it god damnit.

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Yeah man I like this.

I hear blizzard is hiring atm. Go try it out.

That’s shadowlands 4th Dk spec, lifebinders flames. The heal spec.

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Tbh just remove blood elves and that solves like 99% of wow’s problems.

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Fixed it for ya baby :kissing_heart:

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I would prefer they revert us to how we were in MoP, with the additional abilities WoD brought.

Necromancer! Necromancer! Necromancer!

You know what? I’d completely forgotten about this topic, but had a notification when I logged in just now, and actually – ESPECIALLY – with the new Talents coming in Dragonflight, I feel like this would actually make for a great time to consider these changes, “rotating” the roles a bit.

For Unholy, just make that the dual-wielding spec (or maybe talents that let you choose between the two?), like I said make it more the “Necromancer” spec, along with applying various diseases. Doing so, becoming a bit more “mid-ranged” in the process, or at least maintaining some DPS when running away from targets, thanks to said diseases.

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