Death Knight Changes in Patch 3.2
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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)
lmao ok the dks crying out there let me tell u something on my server and u can bitch and maon and complain all u want or flame me all u want when they dropped me by 5k armour in the last patch yes i was pissed but i got over it! also i still tank naxx as frost with one handers with the soft expertise cap and i DO IT RIGHT! GTFO it and learn ur class and learn to be flexable and to adjust! yes the nerfs suck ok! but learn to adjust stop bitching or roll another class!
Hey all - I know this may sound as another QQ. Probably it is, but this just to sum things up through all of these different comments, all very true, some not as true and some insightful. I play a tank myself, named Doubleup and he is mainly frostspecced.
First up is the Deathknight specs. At this moment, from what i can read, blizzard are swapping the tanking specs from the commonly used frost, to blood, a rarely used spec for tanking prefs, seeing as they are buffing dualwielding alot in frost, together with blood strike.
Also I do aggree that people think that deathknights should keep they're throne of being a "Hero" class compared to others, but now, Blizzard has been bombarded by way too many complaints to handle from people who claim Deathknights to be "Overpowered"
I am now very concerned for the fate of Deathknight tanking, because from my POV I predict that they will slowly fall in numbers, seeing as they will be rejected by most groups, seeing as they now have low armor, long cooldowns, less avoidance, and probably also the lowest healthbar. To me this seems unfair and unwanted; I have never heard a QQ about deathknight tanks being OP.
Also i would like to scale the DPS meter for tanks in, fx. Naxx 10. Here a normal deathknight tank would be, without slack, at about 1.2-1.3k DPS. But if you read up, you will probably see a warrior tank above you, with about 1.5k dps. Just to take it into perspective that now deathknights don't only miss out on alot of armor and a lot of health (Probably about 3.000 health will be subtracted from your current healthbar), and they already have problems with keeping up on the dps charts with other warrior tanks.
My suggestion would clearly be that blizzard gave the Deathknights the ability to equip shields, maybe give them a few abilities and let it be like that, to give them a decent chance of keeping up in the avoidance numbers (seeing that deathknights usually are known for they're high dodge occurence and big healthbar), making up to paladin and warrior tank, who's block value by the way also is getting doubled.
All in all deathknight tanks are getting about 40% WORSE than what they currently are.
If you read this, thanks for sparing me some of your time.
So much for the promised HERO Class.
Well, in my point of view - yes DK's are getting nerfed again and buffed at some BUT no worries; I strongly believe that this is happening as we are a new 'Heroic' class in the game.. they will not stop now.. we will get buffed again eventually. Rogues are getting nerfed all the time as I hear from some guildies and they are still the TOP melee class in the game. DKs are great considering a good specced char and a good rotation ofc as all classes. Everything depends on the player I think.
Peace ^^
Wow. Looking at the patch my dreams of being a DK tank looks slim. I have been wanted to become a tank for a lon gtime but I could never find good tank gear and when I did, I was never allowed to need on it.
DK's have been nerfed like crazy. They are getting to the position of being pieces of shit with weapons. They will soon be useless if blizzard keeps going the direction they have.
I think DK's need to get a little more respect than they have been getting. My friends which are extremely high dps DK's are always getting booted from grops because of their class. Also I have come across a lot of healers that wouldn't heal me because I am a DK.
What is sad is how many people there are that insult DK's because they got a huge nerf. Your class has got nerfed a lot too over the years and I bet you wouldn't have enjoyed someone calling you a retard or a whining brat because you are displeased with the class changes. DK's have been treated horribly since their creation and have been constantly nerfed and have been constantly discriminated against because of their class. This goes to all you non DK's out there: Have a little fun. This is a videogame and is meant for enjoyment. It is not a serious game so don't treat it like it is. Live a little and stop getting all butt hurt because people are displeased with the patch. Getting mad at someone because they don't like the changes is most likely hypocritical for I can easily say that you have at least once felt the need to show your displeasure of some patch changes by commenting or writing something to someone or maybe even telling your friends (I doubt you have any) why you are upset.
I hope by the patch after this, all other classes than the deathknight get anally raped by blizzard's giant cock just to smite all of you dickheads that think it is appropriate to kick someone when they are down. If people are upset, let them be uset peacefully. There is no need to be a nazi shit head because your mother didn't love you enough when you were a kid.
Well, good gaming and please feel free to enjoy existence.
Peace the fuck out bitches!
i thought it was a hero class for a reason that reason being it was extremely over powered why would they make it like any other class at least let us use shields please.
im a DK dps and i personally think frost sucked anyways.I mean the damage u could take was pretty insane but just go blood that way u can take damage and heal yourself.frost still doesnt deserve this nerf anyways its a HERO class, isnt it supposed to be a little bit better than the others?
I have both a DK tank (blood spec) and a protadin. I found it alot easier to be a DK tank in ulduar with more CD's than a Paladin. But both are able to tank every boss in Ulduar. You just has to be alittle more creative as a protadin. So now Dk's will have to get more creative. They didn't mess with anti-magic shield CD which played just as big a role on most of the bosses that Dk's excelled at. So I don't see that as a major nerf that IBF is 2 minutes now. But that may be because I had a protadin first and I'm used to it. The reduction in health although a nerf isn't as bad as one thinks. Dk's already had a ton more health than a protadin anyways. Armor reduction. ok so now the numbers will be about the same as other classes. Avoidance Avoidance Avoidance. That is truely what made Dk's preferred in Ulduar. 3.2 actually brings a buff to Dk tanks. yes a reduction in dodge... but dodge is the bigger of the two stats for paladins, so they are getting a nerf too. Dk's are the only class that gets .25 points of perry from str. and perry gets an increase.. do the math DK's get an avoidance buff in 3.2 . For those that say "but paladins get block" block is useless it has only been good for threat gen. It appears that 3.2 will bring more of the same. gee I can now block 3K of damage instead of 1.5K 20% of the time, but I still get hit with 15K-20K hits more offten. do the math. DK's will still take less damage. getting hit less = taking less damage.. yes if you get it, it will hit you harder. but overall I'm sure dk's will take less damage head to head compaired to a protadin.
Now DK DPS, that just makes me sad. I love playing unholy, it was so fun. Removing unholy blight I think is a major hit to AOE not to mention just a cool ability. Nerfing scourage strike humm I'm assuming that the dps can be made up, just how yet I don't know. I was hoping for a DW spec for unholy. but being DW is so deep in frost now, I don't see that being a true option. I'm sure a month from now there will be new rotations that will make DK's simialiar in dps numbers. people just don't like change. Including me.
Well, as an unholy dps, I can say that im not too concerned about the changes... i mean 15% increased damage from diseases and the bleed from my DC that stacks 5 times? That 15% increased damage is gonna keep my AoE up to par, and the bleed is probably gonna make my single target dps even better; not to mention the blood strike 5% damage... its 1% more than desecration was.
Plus that RP hungry gargoyle finally got its stomach stapled.
This sucks i just got my dk where i need it and this happens again, Im ready to go else where. Now i need help in my new builds for my dk again .
lol at druid tanks. they dont need to have decent gear to be op they can run naked and still are the best tanks in the game>so they dont need shields<nice faceroll bear there there your nerf will come..but on a pvp point of view why dont they pick on te regular topspots of BG i.e locks..shamys, pallys again since there even more facerole then druid ...anti bubble for dk stuffed by CD pally bubble/rouge all pile on the dk!!! there more usless then protwars in pvp i have all these classes at lvl 80 im good at all..leave DK's alone blizz all there trees, start on the 10k+crit hitters thats definatly wrong and waaay unballenced
No one wanted a feral druid for pvp so I invested a large amount of time leveling a DK for this? No more money from me Blizznitches!