I never played Dk before. I used my free level boost on this guy because I really love the lore around death knights and that’s important for me to get into a class.
As a completely ignorant noob, here’s my view just watching other DK’s:
From what it seems, Unholy is more tanky and has better survivability. Its damage seems more like a “ramping”/“build-up” heavy sustain type damage. Seems more complex in terms of its rotation and using it’s pets effectively. It appears to me that there’s kind of a lot going on/a lot to watch. I get the feeling it has a steeper learning curve, but a higher skill potential/ceiling.
Frost seems more “1- dimensional” to me. Looks like it has these bursty windows, but more predictable. Looks more straightforward and simple. Maybe not easy to learn, but easier then unholy with less of a higher skill potential. I do love its animations though. Some of the best in the game. Looks more visually appealing to me then Unholy. Remoreseless winter and the frost wyrm thing especially.
How would a more experienced DK explain the playstyle, “feel”, learning curve, skill ceiling, etc. of the 2 specs?
Frost can be either straightforward or ridiculous, depending on how you spec. Breath of Sindragosa, for example, is absolute AIDS to use in most scenarios. It’s not hard, but it is often extremely annoying. Most of us detest the playstyle.
Unholy does certainly have an amount of ramping up, but you can also burst insanely hard right out of the gate with it. Its burst (we’re talking primary burst window, not secondary) is comparable to, if not sometimes greater than, Frost’s. This being said, you’re spot on about it being the more involved spec; tons of micromanaging, dots to watch, and resources to keep an eye on while simultaneously keeping track of various cooldown timers.
As for the ceiling… yeah, Unholy’s skill ceiling is definitely a lot higher than Frost’s. Its DPS, however, is not. Frost is the stronger choice in PvE at the moment despite its comparative simplicity and ease of play. What Unholy truly excels at right now, as it often does, is PvP.
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This is interesting. I main warrior and its usually the same with Arms and Fury. Arms is generally better for pvp because of its kit then Fury. Right now, fury is better, but it probably won’t be for long.
What makes unholy generally better in pvp? Because it seems as long as I can remember, unholy is generally seen as superior over frost in pvp, and one of the better pvp specs in general. Does it have better utility or is it more tanky/better survival or does it just have a better damage profile for pvp?
Its much harder to shut down unholy damage in pvp while frost only has one (kinda gimmicky) way to do meaninful damage in pvp.
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The damage is for the most part, up all the time. Even outside of cooldowns you’re still a threat with the constant pressure. Here’s the thing too it’s very hard to shut down unholy damage, pets and diseases stick to targets like glue. Frost however if you get disarmed into a stun or whatever, better luck next time for your kill window, wait 45 seconds to do anything remotely meaningful again. Extremely telegraphed setups with frost too, you know when pillar is up, damage is coming. So you respond with defensives or cc. Unholy however once your cooldowns are rolling, you can afk and you will still do 500k dps for 20+ seconds. Your burst window will outlast most defensive cooldowns, combine that with 18% healing absorbed plus whatever absorbed heals you? You’re more tanky, you’re harder to peel, it’s a monster to deal with for even a minute. Frost however is just entirely dependent on pillar windows.
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UH is probably the most fun I’ve had with DK. I haven’t played frost this xpac, so I have nothing to compare it to as far as complexity goes. It’s not quite BM levels of easy, but it’s not incredibly hard to grasp. I don’t have high end raiding or M+ with this guy yet so take it for what it’s worth ymmv I guess, but I’ve been having a blast with it. And it’s really tanky which gives you some wiggle room when you make a mistake.