Unholy Developer Notes for War Within

[Grandelderx-eitrigg]

Continuing the discussion from Feedback: Death Knight Updates:

@Kaivax

Lastly, while we don’t have plans to remove Festering Wounds we do want find ways to make the friction of playing with them less. Vile Contagion was an ability introduced in Dragonflight that had some excitement around it but it never quite got its time. We plan to reduce its cooldown to 45 seconds and we plan to update Festermight to function similarly to Ironfur so playing around the act of bursting wounds feels less punishing and doesn’t require as nearly as much set up.

This, to me at least, feels like it’s strongly coming from a PvE standpoint which lets be real, it most likely is. It just doesn’t translate well with the modern game anymore apposed to what the other classes have to offer. It has gotten very stale over time and I think it’s time we get an actual revamp.

Since Death Knight has been in it’s current state for a while in retail I’ve been finding myself reexploring the old Death Knight gameplay from Wrath of the Lich King Classic which to me just feels miles better than what we have now.

Since Blizzard is in a state of “experimenting” just go crazy with what to do with the class at this point. What do you guys think?

[Illaandra-gilneas (Illaandra)]

I’m gonna be honest, Unholy feels absolutely horrible in Wrath Classic to me.

I think condensing Wounds into a more regular pattern and working on dead talents/interactions would be most of what Unholy needs, in addition to their stated attempt to reduce the CD bloat in Unholy’s opener.

[Kelliste-antonidas (Kelliste)]

Why does Wrath Unholy feel horrible? And which Unholy build? Morbidity or the standard one from actual Wrath?

[Hardcorelana-bloodsail-buccaneers]

I played Frost on Wrath Classic.

I don’t want so many cooldowns. The core rotation of adding and popping wounds and apocalypse is fine. All the extra is just busy work that makes boss fights harder. Tracking Festermight timing and stacks is bad design, disease timing bad design.

Unholy Assault/Dark Transform/Blight/Gargoyle is just insanity.

Festering Strike should apply all of our diseases

UA should be a passive talent that triggers when Apocalypse is used. Dark transformation should also be baked into Apocalypse or removed all together and its damage/effects baked into Apocalypse. Whst is the fantasy of a transforming corpse anyway?

[Einherja-drenden]

Where things are happening in the rotation is also important. The wound management mechanic occurs more or less wholly within Rune Spenders, excepting Apocalypse, and has little direct interaction with pet mechanics, cooldowns, disease mechanics, or Runic Power spenders.

Would it make more sense to have Death Coil and Epidemic pop wounds rather than keeping the interaction between Festering Strike and Scourge Strike?

Alternately, if they’re going to keep wounds more or less as-is and DnD cleave, why not allow Festering Strike to cleave wounds onto enemies within DnD, and then shed Vile Contagion (or make it a passive that allows this interaction).

[Steelgear-area-52]

Then PLEASE bring back Necrotic Strike BfA likewise; interacting with Festering Wounds.

And PLEASE give us Abomination for PvP. Kind great for stacking Wounds.

[Gallock-azuremyst]

I boosted a DH yesterday and just yeet enemies. I go back to unholy and the gameplay is too clunky/takes too long to do any meaningful damage.

[Akatsüki-stormrage]

If they’re going to look at changing disease contribution… would be a nice time to re-introduce fan favorite necrotic plague.

[Faerlina-wild-growth]

100% this, i miss WoD necrotic pad