#0 - Nov. 14, 2009, 5:49 p.m.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the current PvP state of the Death knight class, and the biggest issues are obvious right now:
-Few comps to work with, mostly faceroll comps to make it worse
-Problems with keeping pressure up in combination with disease uptime
-In need of some added utility(different per tree) to bring more to the table, to open up new options and comps, and different synergies.
I have thought about it long and hard, and developed some ideas that I want to share with the top players of each respective class, and death knights in particular, to get some feedback and see what the general consensus is on my ideas.
Something to note about these changes: None of them will have an impact on PvE, which seems to be THE most important criterium for a PvP change to even have a chance to get implemented.
Now on with my ideas:
General change
-Might of Mograine, Guile of Gorefiend and Ebon Plaguebringer now add an additional physical debuff to the main strikes of each talent specalization. (Death strike for Blood, Obliterate for Frost, Scourge Strike for Unholy). This debuff will add 7/14/20% (3 talent points)additional dispell protection to your diseases , and lasts for 8 seconds after hitting the target with the main strike(so it's not too retarded).
This will give death knights a bit more time to worry about other things then trying to keep the diseases up, especially against any properly played shaman team, but does not make it impossible to get them off.
Per tree main strike additional change
Now for the added utility part, I think there should be an added effect, depending on which talent specialization effect, that comes with the disease protection physical debuff. For each tree I tried to bring it in line with the theme and possibly the weakness of said tree, altho I am not too sure if I got the weakness right per tree, since it is hard to come up with something that does not affect PvE in this regard.
Blood tree
-Your death strikes causes severe injuries, causing the target to lose focus. The next spell cast within 4 seconds by the target costs double(placeholder number) the mana. This effect can only occur once every 20 seconds.
Might be similar to a mana drain, but if the opponent can get a peel or get away for a bit, the effect can be avoided, making it an interesting mechanic. At least it's something new.
Frost Tree
-Your Obliterate now slows the targets casting time by 10%, this effect stacks up to 2 times and counts as a disease effect. Does not stack with other cast time slowing effects, and lasts for 12 seconds.(it would be too powerfull it it wouldn't be removeable in any way, now the caster has to carefully choose, try to dispell or try to heal/juke, depending on pressure and inc damage)
Unholy Tree
-Your Scourge Strike adds a physical debuff to your enemy target. Whenever this target dispels Frost Fever or Devouring Plague, he will instantly take damage equivalent to 2(or 3 dunno what would be ok) ticks of the disease that is dispelled. (This will give unholy death knights some pressure even when their diseases get dispelled, so they do not get completely nullified by cleansing heavy teams, and in combination with the added dispell protection give healers a more painfull time when they do choose to try and dispell.
Some 3.3 thoughts
Seeing as 3.3 is right around the corner, and the dreaded scourge strike change incoming, I am not sure yet about the debuff that unholy will bring, since we won't know if scourge strike will get a last minute change or stay as it currently is on the PTR. If scourge strike turns out to be weaker to reduce the lolwotlkburst, in my opinion the dot dispel damage effect should also grant your diseases 20% more damage on the target with the debuff, to make up for the loss in damage, abnd give it back in a non burst way, getting on par with other dot specs(spriest, ua lock) in the process. The only concern with this is, that it does have an impact on PvE and therefore unlikely to be implemented.
I know that it is a big wall of text. I hope you guys can give me some feedback on these suggestions/ideas.
Edit 1: Changed the blood tree strike utility effect after reading feedback.
Edit 2: Changed the wording on the general tree change to clarify that you need 3 points into the respective talents to gain the full protection effect.
Thanks for your time, and please keep it constructive!
~Masayume
