Mainly speaking as frost here. Wraith Walk just trumps permafrost and death pact in every situation, although death pack has its uses from time to time. It does not make any sense why there are 2 defensive options and 1 mobility option in a single talent row.
If Wraith Walk was baseline, they could actually make the tier more competitive by beefing up permafrost, and adding a new talent. Maybe something that is worded like
“While Remorseless winter remains active you heal for X% max hp every second”
I mostly agree that changes to wraith walk are needed. There are other classes that get, mostly free, movement skills. I’m thinking of spirit wolf for shamans. I’ve found spirit wolf really fun to use mainly because of its’ lack of restriction. Sure, you get taken out of spirit wolf form if you start other actions like spell casting, but you can immediately pop back into it at will.
Wraithwalk would be really fun for dk’s if we had similar functionality. Just be able to pop into the spirit realm at will for movement needs, drop out, get a few attacks in, then pop back into wraith form to move and avoid nasty mechanics etc. I can’t really see why we’re so limited with its use. Having march of the damned is nice but two movement abilities, both on cooldown, feels redundant. Right now I have a cast sequence macro for both so I can use them both with one key, albeit, multiple presses. Just combine the effects of both and have the immunity benefits on a timer / cooldown.
Wraith Walk replacing Death’s Advance. The talent can either give two charges or reduce the cooldown, similar to Paladin’s double steed talent.
Raise Dead Ghoul should be an instantaneous summon near/behind the target and stun them. Nobody else has to deal with roleplaying wait time crap. Asphyxiate can stay a talent.
Sacrificial Pact should not be a separate ability. It should replace the Raid Dead button for the duration, and auto-explode when duration ends (not if it dies). If thats too difficult to implement, just make it so if you cast Death Coil at it, it explodes. The whole “heal undead” mechanic was roleplay nonsense.
Army of the Dead should be available for all specs and work the same way it did originally, acting as both a defensive cooldown (taunting) and offensive cooldown. The animation should be no longer than default GCD.
Death Strike doesn’t need to exist as a rune dump. Death Coil can replace its functionality entirely, as it was originally intended to. There was no reason for devs to add redundancy.
Lichborne doesn’t need to exist outside of PvP. All functionality can be put into Icebound Fortitude.
Empower Rune Weapon should be available to all specs, with additional functionality for each spec:
Blood get Dancing Rune Weapon
Unholy gets Apocalypse (spawns an extra Army Ghoul each time you pop a Festering boil)
Frost gets Pillar of Frost
My post is getting bloated at this point and I could go on.
ACTUALLY BIG FAN OF SACRIFICIAL PACT replacing the button. That would save me another keybind, and my fingers would’t have to dance on my keyboard to activate it.
Wraith Walk is bad by design. The list of why this is the case is as follows:
It should never have been added as a talent choice as most classes have two movement abilities baseline except DK’s Why? DK’s should have two movement abilities baseline just like other classes.
A movement ability as a channeled spell is functionally bad. The player can’t do anything whatsoever which makes the use of ability restrictive and limiting. Majority of other classes have the ability to use other abilities and DPS while using their movement abilities and this is the standard and accepted concept for these types of abilities. In addition the fact that the movement ability can be canceled or lost essentially making the ability use ineffective and not actually provide the movement that might have been required.
The concept design idea behind the ability doesn’t make a great deal of sense. The deathknight is supposedly Phasing themselves into the Spirit Realm (i.e. Shadowlands) and is more or less a Spirit Ghost that isn’t actually present on Azeroth (think Ethereal). So if you take that concept design a DK should be IMMUNE to anything happening that isn’t directly within the Spirit Realm itself as they aren’t actually on Azeroth when using the ability.
The ability should be not channeled but be an activated one that lasts a number of seconds. That is if Blizzard must keep the aesthetics of the ability making it an ability that lasts for 4s allowing the DK to use other abilities and play choices when activated.
The design concept would have worked if they made it similar abilities like shadowstep, blink or Door of Shadows. The fact that Door of Shadows is one of the long term redesign ideas for Wraithwalk that many have come up with as an alternative to the basic Sprint style mechanic. The reason this works conceptually is simple as the DK is stepping into the Spirit Realm time works differently so 4 seconds in the Spirit Realm is equal to 10 - 20 seconds on Azeroth allowing the DK to essentially look like they disappear and reappear at a location much further away.
The Talent option should not be the ability but a modification to the DK’s movement talents. Examples would be to Give Wraithwalk two charges instead of one, alternatively change the ability to function like Door of Shadows and no longer be channeled, lastly increase the duration of the ability from 4 seconds to something between 6 to 8 seconds. The final option would be to make the talent choice be something that effects Deaths Advance instead of Wraithwalk changing Deaths Advance to mean a DK can’t ever be knocked back, rooted, snared or slowed below 70% movement with an activated function that makes it 100% instead of 70% but also give the DK a short burst for a few seconds up to 130% - 150% movement. (This was actually the original design of Deaths Advance and it was a defining DK ability before it was gutted.)
there was loads of feedback on why people didnt want it back in legion or BFA forums i had a DK feedback thread and had two posts of links to threads of people complaining about it and dont want it.
it needs to go back to where it came from and add the speed part of it back into DA and make the passive so it lets us keep up with the group and be faster with no downsides for 8 sec
Exactly if I remember rightly the ‘We Don’t Like or Want WraithWalk’ thread actually ended up sprawling over from one Thread to three because it the thread it the post limits at the time twice.
That being said if you consider the concept that Blizzard wanted to effectively give classes two movement abilities. So Paladins had Blessing of Freedom and got the My Little Pony as their second as an example. Taking that in to account Deaths Advance was the DK’s equivalent for Blessing of Freedom then they had to come up with a second choice and this meant the birth of the abhorrent diarrhea that they called Wraithwalk.
If Blizzard wants to maintain the two movement concept that is fine but it shouldn’t be a talent choice to get that second ability nor should any movement ability ever be a channeled ability that is canceled or lost if another ability or trigger happens but ones that allow the player to interact and use various other options during their activation unless it’s an instant movement mechanic like Blink etc.
well if you wanted two movement abilities then you know what worked? Unholy Pres and wod version of DA best combo ever. wod was a steaming pile, but keeping up with the group and going fast was the best feeling
Totally…and if Unholy Presence, Frost Presence and Blood Presence where back on the table it would be a done deal.
Sadly however, I don’t think that is something that will ever be a likely outcome in their original forms.
That being said if they considered that the Presences act like Paladins Blessings then Unholy Presence could work as a buff similar to Blessing of Freedom allowing the DK to cast it on themselves or another ally but has a cooldown like Blessing.
Then for the other two Presences Frost and Blood change these to be debuffs that in turn provide a buff to the DK and their allies. Blood Presence could essentially apply the Mark of Blood (ability) to a foe and Frost Presence could apply Numbing Cold effect to the target which is essentially Curse of Tongues type effect. Only one Presence can be active at any given time on a target in terms of Blood and Frost but Unholy is separate to these two.
unholy pres could be a passive for the class like blood pres could be added into vet for more survivability
and DA goes back to its wod version what we have two movement sources and no buttons need to be clicked except for DA onuse effect
I understand however, the problem that you have now is that Blizzard will not put a passive movement increase that is always active. They essentially do not want passive movement speed increases anymore that was the basis of the movement ability changes and that happened previously. This means that you have to work with the concept that it is a activated or on use type ability. While DA does have a passive component it isn’t a movement speed increase but a movement speed assurance (70%) so essentially skirts line of not being a passive speed increase.
As I said I would love to have the original DA and DK Presences back however, based on the design mentality for movement abilities for all classes they need to be a activated or on use ability type now in some way…
I know it’s heartbreaking and sad but it’s the reality of the situation now
Yes this is a given…even if have to keep WW it needs to be baseline and an activated ability not a channeled one.
That being said I would actually like to see WW changed work like Door of Shadows for Deathknights so it’s a on use teleport effect that allows the DK a lot of utility that WW currently doesn’t provide… It would need to be instant cast as well so no cast time when used. However, I know that is the impossible dream that will never happen…
If we must have WW they at least can give us the poor step child fix to WW… Remove Channel and make an activated buff ability allowing the DK to use other abilities and utilities while they are using WW would be a very positive and well received change…