Death Knight Changes in Patch 3.2
Posted by 
Tyranis on Friday, June 19, 2009 - 62 Comments Tags: 3:2, DPS, Frost, Patch, Tanks, blood, death knights, dk, nerf, tanking, unholy
Tyranis on Friday, June 19, 2009 - 62 Comments Tags: 3:2, DPS, Frost, Patch, Tanks, blood, death knights, dk, nerf, tanking, unholy 
In the upcoming patch, death knights will be the only class to receive a talent point refund because, once again, they are getting an overhaul. Some of these changes are nerfs, some are buffs and others are redesigns of how the spells and abilities function. The death knight community is already analyzing all of the data and surmising why these changes have occurred. Let's explore some of these changes, but keep in mind that all of this is subject to change before this patch goes live.Blood Strike: The bonus damage this ability receives from diseases on the target has been increased to 50% per disease.
This change is creating quite a stir in the death knight community. That's a huge buff to that ability and some folks are speculating that it's a typo and they meant to say "increased by 50% per disease", which would mean it increases from 12.5% to 18.75% per disease and not 50%. If the change does remain as written, then blood strike could replace heart strike in the blood rotation and some of the scourge strikes in the unholy rotation. The blue post found here seems to indicate that it's not a typo, however, it's already been reduced on their latest internal build, which would make it different than the patch notes.
Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.
This is a change for pvp and will probably come as a relief to many hardcore pvpers. However, I don't see DKs making much of a stink over it. Chains of ice is still amazing and has the same basic function.
Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.
Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
Ouch! The death knight tanks take another heavy blow with the nerf bat. In patch 3.1.3 frost presence armor bonus was reduced by 20%. Now we see a 4% nerf to the stamina bonus and the doubling of the cooldown on the death knight's main survival ability. In addition, the armor and stamina talents in the blood and frost trees are also taking a hit.
It seems that they are trying to make death knight tanks more like the other tanks. The original design felt like death knights would have more frequent cooldowns to push to offset the fact that they do not have a shield and cannot block. These changes, however, make them feel more like the other tanks and icebound fortitude is now more in line with other tank talents like last stand.
If I'm being objective, I think the icebound fortitude change can solve some issues. Recently, my guild took down General Vezax using a paladin main tank. It was a little obnoxious knowing that we could survive the surges of darkness easier if our main tank was a death knight solely because icebound fortitude had a one-minute cooldown.
Much of the screaming from the DK tank community seems to revolve around the fact that paladin tanks are getting a decent amount of buffing, including this hard to believe change:
Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
If I'm reading that correctly, that's a passive guardian spirit every two minutes? I'm sure glad my guild often runs with two protection paladins!
Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.
Frost strike hits hard and it was probably viewed as too much burst in pvp especially considering it couldn't be mitigated. The slight reduction of damage is probably going to be a wash considering that blood strike is getting buffed. The blue post here, seems to indicate that the frost dps is being spread out a bit more and not consolidated on just one ability.
Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
These are the 51 point talents for blood and unholy specs. The jury seems mixed on these changes. While I'm not sure if it's an overall buff or nerf to the damage of these spells, what I do know is these spells will be a lot easier to use now that they have a fixed runic power cost and duration. Currently, the timing of when you use these abilities can drastically affect the amount of extra dps they give you. Pop them at the wrong time and you have just wasted a precious cooldown. So I'm eager to see these changes in action.
Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
Dual-wielding used to be one of the top approaches to take for a dps death knight. Recently, however, many of the changes have all but killed it. So in patch 3.2, the dual wielding death knights might make a comeback with this new talent in the frost tree.
Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent.
Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
Interesting. So the current desecration is being split into two separate talents. Desecration is now mostly a pvp ability. The good news is, the infamous desecration graphic will now be much less prominent in pve, which will make most raid leaders happy. However, the speculation is desolation may not be worth taking because the 12 second duration may mean that it is not active at all times with the current rotations. We'll have to see if this new talent gets modified at all before it releases.
Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 5/10/15%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.
Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
There isn't much to comment on here. The talent points saved on blood of the north are probably meant to make room for the new dual-wielding talent in frost. The lichborne change makes it more dynamic since you can use it more often, but need to be more exact on the timing.
Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%.
Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 30% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.
Last but not least, some big changes to the unholy tree. Scourge Strike is the bread and butter for the unholy DK. The nerf in damage seems partly pvp related. Since scourge strike deals shadow damage, it is not reduced by armor and can be a wrecking ball. Blizzard doesn't seem to like large amounts of burst coming from a single ability. The reduction in damage on scourge strike is offset by the buff to blood strike, which should see more use. This may also be a push for unholy DKs to get more benefit out of armor penetration. Items with armor penetration are rife in Ulduar and currently it's not a stat that does too much for unholy DKs who spend most of their time scourge striking shadow damage.
The unholy blight redesign is one of the biggest changes for death knights in this patch. Unholy blight is the signature spell of the unholy tree and the main reason that this spec is normally associated with AOE damage. Well that all changes in 3.2. Unholy blight no longer deals AOE damage at all, in fact, it is not even a spell, it is a passive ability that adds a bleed effect to your death coils.
This change really alters the flavor of the unholy death knight and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Don't get me wrong, this change may turn out to be powerful, but I thought it was interesting how each of the three dps specs for death knights felt unique. Blood was the heavy hitting single target crusher, frost seems to be evolving once again as the dual-wielding spec and unholy was the master of AOE damage. Well I guess we'll have to wait and see how unholy feels after the changes go live.
In summary, death knights are looking at some tanking nerfs and a reduction to burst and AOE damage in 3.2. On the other hand, some abilities will be easier to use, dual-wielding should be viable again and raid members should no longer die by standing in fires that are obscured by spell effects.
What do you think of the death knight changes coming in 3.2? Is there anything you're particularly excited or angry about?
Reader Comments (62)
i am barny
No.
no
no
no
not again they keep dumping theese nerfs on us
WoW hates Frost tanks
WoW hates Unholy AoE
WoW hates Engineers
I guess go blood or go home.
This is bull !
Doing the calculations based on my own DK Tank, I stand to lose a bit over 3k hp (about 7%) and have physical damage taken increase by about 2.8%. This patch is going to hurt, and frankly is a bit overdone. The tank nerfs would have been fine if they had just increased the IBF cooldown and cut the Vo3W stamina in half. Frost Presence didn't need changed, nor did toughness.
I think they do not want DKs to tank in WoW at all. In fact, it seems they do not want the Death Knight class in the game at all. They have nerfed our tanks, now they nerf (Yes I see ost of the changes as a nerf) DPS too. I am usually Main Tank in my guild runs to Ulduar, but it may seem that the protection warrior and paladin from the second raid group might take over and push be back to the 10-man raids. Why blizzard, Why?!
Well, as a frost dps DK this isn't too bad for me. All I need to do is get expertise capped to overcome the nerf on Frost Strike. Blood Strike is only a small part of my damage, but hey it's a buff.
One of my guilds main tanks is a DK, and when we told him about the changes on vent last night he was to put it lightly, pissed.
@ All the QQ before me.
GET OVER IT!!! Every class gets nerfed. Its a damn MMO, things change, and always will!
The DK is a new class, and the Devs are still learning it themselves. They have been with all 9 other classes for 5 years now and they know how they work. The DK has all of 8 months!
Ya know, I think the WoW community would be much better if @$$%! like you guys would just quit if you cant tank changes.
Gr8 another dk tank nerf. I have been a frost tank. then when they nerfed that howling blast to bottom i went to blood. Then with dual spec i had to find a new dps spec so now i went unholy. FFS now they are nerfing unholy dps. why are they making dks worse???
Do you guys seriously think that the nerf to icebound fortitude was unwarrented? A 50% damage reduction on a 1 minute cooldown - that is pretty OP if you spend a moment to think about it.
And DKs are a brand new class. They didn't have 3 years of iteration to get balanced. These tweaks are needed to make sure they stay balanced with the other classes.
Oh my guild leader (or our off tank DK) is gonna LOVE this. Overall it feels like huge nerf, but if it means that Prot Warrs and Bears might get be a little more favoured over DKs for once then I'm all for it ^^. Sorry all you DKs out there but while you're a 'heroic' class you're getting pegged down to the level of the rest of us.
Besides as it has been pointed out before, all the classes have been on this rollercoaster of buffs and nerfs. So you got hit by the nerf bat? Suck it up. You'll be buff batted again sooner or later.
Oh and I'm slightly miffed at the protadins having a passive 2 minute Guardian Spirit. Way to make my 51 point talent feel even more useless. I hate the fact that it needs to be glyphed to even become somewhat useful and now this :(.
_-_ We're crying because this nerf will not set us equal with other tanks, it will set us lower. Shield tanks are getting a huge buff, shield block is being doubled. This will make Death Knights the least needed tanks in the game. I bid you good day, sir.
@Kaandre
Icebound Fortitude provides 20% damage reduction plus extra reduction with defense, not 50%. I think you were thinking of a paladin's divine shield.
WTF? Where are the Rogues nerfs in this patch? Just read full patch notes. Nerf them down. They can now use axes. O Blizzard loves rogues. PvP for a Rogue must be heaven
And on the DK side. These nerfs are uncalled for ( except chain of ice , as that is a bitch to many classes ) but you know what, with all of these changes....
*emblem changes ( easier for T8.5 gear you farm heroics - 5 mans like UK HC - No shit )
*Daily heroic will reward 1 or 2 of the new emblems.
Plus many more, Blizzard/Activision are clearly aiming towards the causals. Good or Bad? You know what?
Tbh With all this info, game changes, I am 50/50 on alot of things, or am i. Blizzard /confused
Blizzard keeps taking the cool stuff away from the Unholy tree.
First removing the Unholy DK's ability to be a Ghoul when they die.
Now Desecration and Unholy Blight? Sheesh.
Next they'll take away Death & Decay.
To be quite honest.
Its about fucking time.
Finally i might main tank a freaking boss over a frost dk. No matter how much gear i get, hes still fucking taking my spot!
Woot for protadin buffs.
I do feel bad for Unholy dps tho. i love unholy blight.
im glad im blood specd but my tank spec keeps getting shot to hell why don't they start nerfing a class that deserves it. I swear DKs are the Jews of wwow2 stop blaming us for everything. You suck because you suck not because are class is better, you just need to learn how to play yours.
Performance aside, I think it's very disappointing that unholy blight is practically out of the game. I've played unholy since day one of being a DK and the 'fun' keeps packing up and moving out of town.
As Angel pointed out, it was quite a blow for me when we lost the ability to come back as a ghoul after death (not to mention that it came after a reduction in duration in a prior change), because it was just fun to run around as one after you died and I would always have a laugh about it. The thing sucked for dps but it was bloody entertaining! Now I won't be able to send my army of malevolent bugs in a cloud of death? Where's the fun in that?
I'm sure they have a good reason for the changes because of game mechanics or to balance things out or what not, and I will not argue with that. I also don't really care much about topping dps charts or handing other player's asses back to them but when they start taking the fun out of playing the class it makes me wonder why they even bothered with death knights. Couldn't they just find another way to nerf the fun stuff without removing it completely from the game play? Maybe our definition of 'fun' varies a lot more than I thought.
At least I'll still have my corpse explosion.
WoW now I feel real messed up with how blizz is treating Unholy DKs this class is known for AoE now the 2ed main AoE is gone. Heck most of the stuff that is getting done to unholy could have bin balanced out and not completely done away with. /sigh ahh well no point in QQing now
@ Everyone who says the nerfs are fine because of "balancing":
No.
Learn how the Death Knight class works.
When you've played since the beta and you have som sort of understanding of how the class works, then you can talk about balancing it with respect to other classes.
After playing almost every class in the game (sans Priest), I can say that Death Knights were balanced at one point, but this is going too far, as far as tanking is concerned. Either Blizzard wants Death Knight tanks to quit, or there is something we're not aware of behind the scenes.
Expect every tank spot to be filled by a shield class now. Death Knight tanks are going to go the shape of the pear it seems.
crap,
i was having fun completly raping ever class except druids. i i actually might die. but seriously: i hate these nerfs
I know I'm somewhat of a noob here, only because I started playin jist b4 TBC launched, but shouldn't a "HERO" class be a little stronger than its counterparts? I understand that there is a HUGE difference 'tween a little stronger and OP, but it sounds to me that Blizz is taking away this "HERO" class and jist givin us another Plate wearer afterwhat, maybe 7 months?
Ok This changes are very simple.
Each time my frost Dk is getting worse and worse.Whats the point with going frost anymore.
What next remove the armor bonus a little bit more.
Just go blood i say to you.Forget about frost...Now it's over...
What a pack of whiney losers. Your EZ-Mode tanks now maybe require a bit of skill. If you're in such a backwards guild that the class of the tank is more important than the quality of the player mashing the buttons then either re-roll or join a real guild.
There will not be a single encounter that you wont be able to successfully tank as a DK, it just might be a little easier for another class, which is fine because you guys have been on the easy train for a while now.
I'm a druid tank and I'm not concerned in the slightest about losing spots to shield tanks (or DK's for that matter) because they are perceived to be better in a given situation...we run with good players rather than classes. The ability of a player to get the most out of there chosen class/talent build will always count for a lot.
This is bullcrap Death Knights need to stop being nerfed luckily retadins are being nerfed 2!!!