Lichborne’s DK Summary

The wowinsider Lichborne collum has a snappy summary of the outcomes from the Beta for Death Knights as they stand now. Hop across and read, it is a reasonable summary and the comments grant perspective.

What I took away as interesting from the information was that Frost is going to remain as a two option spec, where dual wield and two handed weapons are options. Honestly I’m not so sure that I care for two handed Frost specs, but there are many circumstances where a diversity might be advantageous – such as balancing the needs of pvp vs pve for the DK specs. It seems to be heading in the right direction. That said, if it assists with greatly reducing the balance issues, then kill 2H Frost.

Counter to that, if 2h frost were to become “the most” useful spec for pvp due to some tweaks to the abilities (as much as I hate re-tooling pve for pvp aspects), then pve players still have Unholy 2H and Frost dual wield as selections. Lock in the roles, and allow pve and pvp selection to be readily viewable by presence and selection of weapon – Warriors have that locked in now anyway.

There is mention of weapon switching in terms of optimal Frost usage and that is disappointing. If a class cannot be straight enough to not have to switch situationally between 2x1H or 2H then something is still broken. It frustrates me a little to read that. The power gamers won’t care what the method for maximum dps is as they’ll just do it, and the slackers (like me) want something simple and enjoyable. Weapon switching sucks and benefits nobody.

The presences have also had some attention, and mechanically it feels like the direction is good, although the actual % in the modifiers is something that might change if Frost or Unholy Presence ends up with an edge wrought. Unholy as a speed demon, and Frost as a resilient hard-hitter certainly feel OK.

Blood tap is still a niggle, and as an issue it’s role, use, and mix when combined with the presences and specs is not resolved cleanly; such is life. It is still beta.

Ahem – I’d love to wave a magic wand to make Blood and Unholy the damage specs and Frost the Tanking spec, or even add a secondary Tank spec option for Death Knights, but as Blood stands it is not unattractive. A dead guy can dream, perhaps in MoP+1 expansion.

Happy killing, TyphoonAndrew

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