I’ve been itching to return to WoW for the last few months and every time I get close to pulling that trigger I get reminded that my favourite spec is an incoherent abomination of two entirely distinct fantasy archetypes struggling for the faintest scent of satisfaction.
What do I mean by this? I mean that trying to fully build out both the “Plague Knight” and “Necromancer” archetypes within Unholy results in an overly complicated spec where none out of 100 key binds feel individually satisfying to press or chain together.
Up until the recent Unholy DK PVP damage profile changes, I was able to largely live with the sub-optimal design of the spec because, in PVP/Raid, the spec was maybe 70% necromancer and 30% Plague Knight while being the reverse of that in M+. Given that I prioritized PVP and preferred the Necromancer archetype, I could easily overlook the dysfunction of the spec and enjoy playing Unholy.
The PVP damage profile changes ruined that for me. At first, I was thrilled, Unholy had been fairly weak for a few months and the changes made the spec undeniably stronger.
But I quickly grew bored of the game and Unholy’s new incarnation. Some of this is butthurt that my favoured playstyle was clawed back to make room for some of the “Plague Knight” archetype to shine but I feel like they fell short there.
Instead of building on “Plague Knight” they just made Deathcoil, the boring filler that exists between both archetypes significantly more prominent leaving even less space for the actual flavour of either “Necromancer” or “Plague Knight” to shine.
I’d argue that Unholy’s conjoined archetypes are just as big a menace for the game as the Cat/Bear problem that used to exist within Feral. But it’s certainly possible that because I was a Feral Druid main way back in the day I’m hyper-sensitive to seeing an archetype struggle to define itself while trapped in a spec with a separate distinct archetype.
TLDR; Split Unholy in half and give Death Knight a 4th spec. Let Unholy continue being the “Plague Knight” and make Necromancer its own thing as a 25-yard mid-range spec similar to Devastation Evoker.
17 Likes
the lackluster damage and PVP nerf to VP, loss of Abomb, loss of Miasma, gutting of Reanimation, nerf to Army count, nerf to Apoc count, and nerf on the range of Epidemic really destroyed these playstyles.
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Sadly the DK class as a whole has been gutted and turned into what it is now.
I hate the pimple popping mechanic. I wish The Plague Knight playstyle was still truly there. And I don’t meant just by getting superstrain.
I would 100% be all for a true necromancer 4th spec. But I have no idea how they would go about balancing the plague knight or the necro. It would be cool, but sadly unless dks get a rework in general, will never happen.
4 Likes
alot of stuff in the unholy tree should be baseline which opens up options
theres the plague knight playstyle and necromacer playstyle and a mix between the two…lets say thats what unholy is now.
each end branch is a separate playstyle that everything before it supports it
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Realistically I highly doubt the devs will ever put in so much effort for a class whose player base they like to see suffering.
However they could extend our tree with much more nodes to enable two sub classes within our tree.
F.e. the right side is all about diseases, the middle segment is cooldowns that are shared between builds and modified by connecting talents depending on which side of the tree they lie. And right side is all about summoning.
Ofc this would make the Unholy tree much more bloated compared to other classes. Hypothetically it could be like 50-55-ish nodes compared to a 40 nodes tree for most other specs.
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I guess I’m a bit more optimistic about the prospects of Unholy getting the attention it requires.
It’s not like this is uncharted territory as they’ve established the precedent in the past with things like the Surv rebuild/Feral Split and the addition of Augmentation Evoker.
(Aug is controversial because it is a new “Role” but the tech and experience of adding a new spec to an existing class itself was largely perfect)
It’s also not like they aren’t spending a massive amount of time trying to maintain the status quo. Unholy probably gets more PVE tuning than any other spec because they constantly have to make sure that one-half of the spec doesn’t cannibalize the other.
That said the worthwhile compromise is not to make the Unholy tree so big that it just has room for two archetypes inside one tree.
The compromise solution is for Blizzard to grow a spine and just decide on one predominant archetype and commit to it while dismantling most of the second one.
Unholy gets some talents moved around, possibly exacerbating existing issues, and these forums praise it.
Frost gets more Obliterate damage, definitely exacerbating the spec’s issues, these forums praise it.
The DKs on these forums like suffering more than the devs enjoy seeing the class suffer.
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That’s because most peoples brains working binary. Damage buff for spell x = good. F.e.
They can’t or don’t want to see the big picture.
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Sorry but y’all needed a nerf
Play a different spec of dk then like me lol
So nerf the nerfiest into nerf ville. Maybe Frost can get a toilet paper holder mog for 1h and blood dk a paper towel 2h. Uh is far from op
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Maybe hero talents will scratch that itch?
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The class needs more fun buttons to push.
That’s fair, blood is actually more OP
Someone left the loony bin doors open?
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Already far too many CDs to manage. Apoc/Unholy Assault/Dark Transform and Gargoyle for PvE need massive pruning.
Apoc and Dark Transform should just be one ability AT MINIMUM
2 Likes
they tried this in SL beta and DKs rioted. it would be much better to take DT off the GCD and just macro it with Apoc.
I dont think they should make a necromancer spec. I think that the necromancer spec you mention should be applied to all DK specs. As it stands blood and frost don’t feel like Death Knights. One feels like a melee frost mage and blood like a vampire. There is nothing wrong with that but they should make it so that unholy (UH) isn’t the only undead summoning spec. This way UH can focus solely on plagues and disease while still feeling like a DK having undead flavor abilities.
In my personal opinion zombies and undead should be the base flavor of all Death Knights specialization, and the topping should be the one you pick blood, frost, unholy.
Now I’m not saying this is how it should or would play out. This is just a hypothesis. Blizzard should give every spec Apocolypse and/or Army of the Dead. Let’s think about it for a second this makes sense perfectly lore-wise, and that sweet Death Knight fantasy.
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Here is an example you’re playing Frost youre about to summon Sindragosa, but before that, you pop Apocalypse right in your big DPS window. This fits that fantasy that every Frost player wants to live. it’s like being Lich King in ICC. Zombies, ghouls, and undead dragons, hell give them Gargoyle (Valkyr).
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The same goes for blood, you’re this vampiric, blood-manipulating guardian. Give them Apocolypse, Army of the Dead, and Gargoyle too. It fits their fantasy too. The San’layn, Venthyr, and Blood Trolls all can manipulate the dead with their blood magic. You just procced Purgatory you’re on your last leg BOOM you pop Army of the Dead, this too also fits the immersion of Blood.
This way Unholy can focus on just being a Plauge, Disease spec while still maintaining that summoning feel. Basically an abdication of Summoning spec being monopolized just to Unholy
1 Like