TL:DR
Raise Abomination smothers any hope for Army of the Dead play as even without Riders, Raise Abomination is just superior as it should be due to needed an extra talent point and has no alternative competition in talents. Gargoyle also sees very little play due to Doomed bidding just being an easier and (in my opinion) cooler thematic approach to class fantasy. Any attempt to fix the issue with tuning would simply flip the scenario so a change in the tree is needed.
Intro
For any who play Unholy, I should come to no surprise that neither of these talents particularly see a ton of play. I wanted to make a thread talking about the state of these 3 talents. For the thread I will refer to Army of the Dead and Raise Abomination as 2 seperate talents since Abom replaces Army. Just cause you are playing Abom does not count as playing Army of the Dead essentially.
Issues
Army of the Dead Issues
In the case of Army of the Dead the issue lies in Raise Abomination and it’s interaction with Riders of the Apocalypse. This will likely mean that any season in which Rider’s is meta will mean Army of the Dead will see 0 play what so ever as Abom CDR will just be too strong to ever pass up. While this feels great for Riders, for choice options/build crafting, it leaves little options to play with Army instead of Abom which makes the talent point feel like a tax and not a choice.
Gargoyle Issues
Admittedly, I have never really enjoyed playing with this talent, and while I greeted Doomed Bidding with open arms not just as a really cool talent, but as an alternate choice for gargoyle, Gargoyle still deserves recognition and where it lies on the tree at the moment, I don’t see that happening. I don’t want to discuss rework of Gargoyle too heavily as those who enjoy the playstyle deserve to keep it, but rather offer an alternative for those seeking to play it or add incentive to want to try the playstyle more. I feel a good example is how they made Breath of Sindragosa a much more inviting playstyle by making the talent options and effort to maximize it much more appealing.
Abomination Issues
For Abom, its issues lie in its lack of competition for how much power it grants. Ultimately it is a mandatory pick up not just cause of riders, but because it equal to, or out performing Army of the Dead even without Riders being considered. This makes sense as if it cost an extra talent point, it SHOULD be doing more damage, but it removes all potential to play with the iconic Army of the Dead, which is a shame since it finally got the 3 minute face lift this xpac and hasn’t been used at all.
Riders of the Apocalypse Issues
Brovo Blizzard, this hero tree is a master piece in feel and theme. However, the hordes of undead that people want to feel with this hero tree is completely lost when we can’t have the Army of the Dead to ride out with. With Abom being a choice, it is a no brainer so balance needs to be added to try and amend this issue.
Primary Fix
Competitive Choice Node: Raise Abomination and Gargoyle
My main idea to fix most of these issues would be to bring Gargoyle over to be a choice node with Raise Abomination instead. This would give Raise Abomination a talent node that can be balanced to be a competitive option alternative to the current default Raise Abomination. Since Raise Abomination is an extra talent point, nerfing it would defeat the purpose of talents as if one spends a talent point, they should expect an increase in power.
Why Gargoyle and not Doomed Bidding or something else?
Gargoyle seems like the likely candidate as power wise it is probably the closest talent in the tree power wise other than Doomed Bidding. Doomed Bidding, however, is very popular, so I would refrain from moving that talent as players who don’t like Gargoyle would face not being able to play into Commander of the Dead talent without being forced to Gargoyle. Moving Gargoyle to be a choice node with Raise Abomination would also balance the tree where there will no longer be a choice node on one side of the tree, but not the other.
Would Gargoyle need to change?
Yes and no. I do think it should probably be a passive where Gargoyle is summoned upon casting Army of the Dead instead. This would help reduce button bloat that the spec has in its burst, which is part of the reason no one seems to want to take the talent. Additionally, Gargoyle may want a similar treatment that Sindragosa received. Adding a Cap to Gargoyle damage scaling (while reducing damage potential) would allow developers to more easily scale the talent to be competitive with Raise Abomination without being overshadowing at times. The soft duration cap on Sindragosa has in the long run been healthier for the Frost Spec so perhaps it is time Unholy Gargoyle received a simular treatment.
P.S. If Gargoyle does get a cap and tied to activate on Army of the Dead cast, tuning will 100% be needed, but also Gargoyle may need a duration increase to 30 seconds to match that of Army of the Dead, and to compensate for the loss in damage from the Damage scaler cap.
Additional Fixes
Let the Riders fight with their Army: Apocalypse Now Talent and other Riders Tuning
As it stands the Apocalypse Now talent provides no incentive to ever run Army of the Dead over Raise Abomination due to the CDR. A 1min-1.5min CDR could be added to this when running Army specifically, but then that would only reverse the issue of balance. Not to mention keeping Army as a potent and iconic 3 minute CD is important to differentiating the 2 talents identity. For this issue, I think several changes could be made so I will list my ideas for this and let you guys talk about which would be cool or not below. One or more ideas below may be needed to balance, but I would like some form of balance to add Army of the Dead viability to Riders.
Stand alone ideas
- Riders last 30 seconds when running Army of the Dead ONLY
- Riders deal X% more damage if running Army of the Dead ONLY
- Riders increase the damage of Army of the Dead Ghouls and Magus by x% while all 4 are active.
Ideas if Primary Fix: Gargoyle ideas are taken
- Riders last 30 seconds when running Gargoyle (choice node with Abom)
- Every X runic power spent [tuning required] during Gargoyle also increases your Riders of the Apocalyse damage by 1%
- While Gargoyle is active, Riders deal X% more damage.
Thanks for Reading
This is a longer post of mine as I did wanna go a bit more indepth. I got a lot of intrest in my last post I made on Frost DK before the Xpac but didn’t offer much on Unholy as I expected it to be a bit more flexible than it is. I do think Unholy as a whole needs a lot of talent tuning/moving but that is a discussion for another day. Ultimately the Unholy playstyle is very fun, but it has been too long without seeing the ghouls and Goyles truely come out to play. Hope to see them in the future soon! Thanks for reading and leave your thoughts.