The State of DK

[Letholas-veknilash]

Lets talk about the state of DK in Dragonflight

So, I’m sure a lot of you guys have noticed that, well… there’s just, not too many of us anymore. DPS DKs seem to be a dying breed, Frost most of all. There’s a lot of things that pushed it towards this place, but, ill be the first to point out… it isn’t tuning. DPS DK has been tuned pretty damn well this entire expansion, yet, there’s barely anyone playing it. So, lets talk about it, see if we can get to the root of “why is this happening?” Obviously, this is a super subjective question and ev…

Great post here from Taeznak (who, for those who may not know is a prominent face in the DK community and Class Discord)

A few thoughts from me:

Frost has traditionally been my favorite spec of DK to play since I started playing DK in 2009. But it has been the sub-par raid spec for DK (with a few specific fight exceptions) since Ny’alotha. Even there Unholy outshined on some encounters.

The current state of Unholy requiring certain trinkets more than other specs (Look at Puzzle Box in 10.0 and Fragment in 10.1) and frankly the class being balanced around PI is beyond frustrating. Obviously some class has to be the “best PI target” but the sheer amount it does for Unholy (and to be fair, Demo Locks as well) is absurd.

@Taeznak-area-52

Unholy benefiting insane amounts from trinkets, flawed (youre fixing this for demo in 10.1.5, why the heck is unholy ignored? You mentioned wanting to flatten out the peaks and valleys for Demo, so lets compare. https://imgur.com/ccKXsAT … its the same picture.). The class talent tree having the choice between utility, and damage, flawed (and outright against what the stated goals were of the class trees).

Beyond that even, the balancing of frost is just out of whack as well. The recent changes to Breath of Syndragosa did not do enough to prevent 100% breath uptime. It feels horrible that if you ever drop breath you’re just losing at the spec. IMO the ideal uptime is 45-60 seconds on breath. Amp up its damage and increase the RP cost, or make it like Bonestorm is and do more when you consume more RP. Breath is a really fun ability, but keeping it up is awful by times.

Also on a personal note I’m sad with the tuning of Chill Streak. I love this ability and it is just never picked. Picking it requires giving up too much in the spec tree, and it has ZERO use in single target situations. I will go back to what I said at the end of SL (before new talent trees were revealed)

@Letholas-veknilash

If only 1 hostile target is nearby, allow chill streak to bounce off yourself providing a small shield for each bounce lasting a short amount of time (and not applying the slow). This will allow the talent to function in single target, excel in 2-3 targets, but probably still get beat out by 3+ consistent targets

I would also propose taking this change and making a buffed version of Chill streak a capstone talent (in the place of Frostwyrm’s Fury which I really think should be baseline as such an iconic ability)

All things considered and TLDR, I’m in agreement with Taeznak. It’s time for a change. The class is fun, but requires such specific items, externals, and circumstances to stay fun. I’m game for a rework.

[Azelon-stormrage]

I also support the need for rework of DKs. Paladins got their rework already but my favorite Alliance elves cannot be paladins. And DKs are not restricted to any race.

[Letholas-veknilash]

Adding this thought regarding Breath of Syndragosa I added to the original thread here:

Lets talk about the state of DK in Dragonflight

As much as I love breath, I agree. I think breath should be changed in 1 of 2 ways: a much shorter CD and function similarly to Bonestorm - more damage and duration based on RP spent 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…

[Mistmoorex-stormscale]

I desperately agree about Breath of Sindragosa. Frost is my favorite spec and Breath is my favorite playstyle but in Dragonflight I have had to mostly abandon it. The risk is too high and the reward is too low. It is practically unplayable in most content compared to Obliteration or Unholy and can only work in raid sometimes. Breath felt great in Shadowlands from 9.1 onwards and I really miss that. I miss doing dungeons and being able to keep breath up long enough for it to have done a lot of damage.

My big complaint was when Breath was down I was doing a tiny fragment of my damage. It would be nice if more of the power was moved into Obliterate and Howling Blast. Having Frostscythe available for 2 runes would also be a great option for aoe situations, especially in dungeons. The whole death and decay cleaving obliterate is clunky and doesn’t feel right at all for Frost. Having to use one rune spells during Breath is very risky. A change that would make specific 1 rune spells cost 2 runes and be buffed accordingly during Breath is another potential solution.

I’m not a game designer. I don’t pretend to be. I’m just a Death Knight who misses his favorite powers.