The fact that after I get done going through all that super cool new DK content, I have to go trudge off to outland, almost arbitrarily, all by myself.
If the main fight has shifted to northrend, why am I going to outland, other than to "just level"? There seems to be this huge disconnect of purpose there. I just broke free of the Lich King's will, so my first order of business is to... go to outland? Wait, what? At first I was too excited to start playing and testing the class, I didn't even notice or care. But from a design standpoint, it just doesn't make sense, and it just doesn't feel right.
I know it's too late, but If I had to make any recommendations right now, it would be that you start at 68 or 70 instead of 55. Is this some sort of way to just keep outland somewhat alive and not totally forgotten?
I'm not really sure I'm going to be super psyched about this aspect of the expansion when it does go live, simply because as all my friends and guildies are going to be off going to fight the fight in northrend, here I go trudging my way through outland by myself, for no apparent reason other than to gain levels, so I can get to the rest of the new content.
Leveling up new races I can understand. But this particular aspect of playing the death knight certainly does not feel very "heroic". It feels very out of place and disconnected from the theme and focus of wrath of the lich king.
I'm certainly not the only one that feels this way, am I?
Right now I feel like there just has to be some sort of super compelling quest/reason/purpose that would explain why we were started at a level that would make us have a desire to go to outland, other than to simply gain levels.
Edit: There is one thing I overlooked, though.
Remember, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of newbie death knights running around for the first few days/weeks/months.
If they could jump into northrend immediately, would you really want all these characters who might have been made with the intention of never even reaching level 71 competing with you for your quest mobs in the new northrend zones?
Eh, anyways, that being the case... I feel like there should probably be a pretty big final quest to send you to your faction or racial leader where you pledge your allegiance to them, get a big super fat XP bonus (since you still currently fall about 15% short of dinging 58 going through the starter quest line). Then, have them tell you to grow more powerful while bolstering the now abandoned forces in outland where you will hone your skills against Arthas's minions.
Something. There just needs to be something to fill that disconnect. A new player that may have had a 55, but never anything beyond still might not know to head to outland. I don't really seem to recall a quest line leading you from the major cities to blasted lands to clue people in, since it was the major focal point of the last expansion anyway. There didn't need to be one.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Warlock beefs so far this expansion:
The problem with destruction is that it still relies too heavily on actual cast time spells to start combo's off.
I don't understand where there aren't some "night fall" type talents in destruction, such as giving immolation ticks a chance to proc insta cast incinerates or soul fires. (Think of the synergy with shadowflame here)
Why is the succubus still so fragile? You'd think that a demon who's able to disappear would be a bit more nimble and harder for melee to hit. Why not give her a passively high evasion rate?
Why does she die in basically 3 hits?
Why does seduce share DR with fear still?
Why does seduce, which is a channeled spell, have a cast time on top of that?
Why am I not impressed with shadowflame yet? It the secondary burn effect of putting immo on all those targets at nice, but I'm seeing further potential in this spell here.
Why is there not an improved conflag that can ignite all immolated targets at the same time withing X distance of the target? Wouldn't that make shadowflame (a destruction spell) more attractive, and more fun, to use? Especially with the pyroclasm change.
I look at hunters and get excited to use explosive shot. 15% increased crit chance and chance to stun on top of that? Instant cast? 6s cooldown? Doesn't require a dispelable debuff to be on any of the targets first? Can launch it from 41 yards away? Knowing this, does an improved conflag ability really seem that over the top?
Why is soul fire still boring to use? It's a copy/paste version of pyroblast, without a lot of cool talents to support it really, plus it costs a shard! Why can't chaos bolt just be a massive (and shardless) upgrade to soulfire?
Snares are the bane of warlocks, and always have been. Getting snared on my warlock is far, far more annoying than any other class I've ever played. We have no intercept, intervene, snare reduction talents, heavy armor, blink, teleports, or shape shifting abilities. We simply have to eat it, every time. In fact, the class is designed around eating melee damage constantly. Plus, we don't even have a good counter snare. Or at least we didn't, until we got the new Curse of Exhaustion.
Look at Fel armor (now demon armor). This armor was obviously designed with pvp applications in mind that we'd be taking hits constantly in pvp, which is why we get the pretty massive +healing received bonus. Why, then, do we not have snare-based defensive talents? Why not a talent that makes us take less damage while snared, or something that triggers when we get snared?
Why do we have so many improved demon talents early in the demo tree? Who actually takes improved succubus and improved voidwalker? Who cares about improved imp other than hardcore raiding guilds that want the smidgen of extra raid HP? Why can't we just have improved minions, sort of like demonic empowerment?
What's the deal with improved fear? Isn't it really only useful against rogues that CloS? Is that the main purpose? My problem with landing fears is being constantly interrupted/kicked/pummeled, or fear immune feral druids, BM hunters, death knights, and warriors. The resist problem went away with spell pen on pvp gear. This talent could be better, such as a cooldown making your next fear effect unresistable, uninteruptable (outside of stuns) and a horror effect on a cooldown.
Why does grim reach have to be so inaccessible to destruction, who arguably needs the longer range fears and curses even more?
Why is Malediction still so horrible?
Why is improved lifetap still not a tier 1 talent for affliction? It needs to be more accessible to destruction, which needs it far more than any of the trees.
Why did we get nether protection in destro instead of some sort of melee protection abilities instead, which is what it needs the most?
Why is improved immolate still a horrible waste of points, and is only taken to pick up conflag?
Why can't you just roll imp soul leech into soul leech? That talent has always been lacking since the beginning of TBC simply because the healing portion often gets over healed.
Why is shadow and flame (a mostly pve talent) still a prereq to shadowfury (a mostly pvp talent)?
Why does shadow fury cost a ridiculous amount of mana when A) It's mostly a pvp talent, and B) It's really only typically used on a low number of targets (usually just 1 half the time) as a spell interrupt, or to chain a fear after it?
And finally: Why does haste still not decrease the amount of time dots need to run their full effect?
I must say that after reviewing a lot of the changes for warlocks this expansion, I haven't really been impressed. Socio knows how underwhelmed I've been with the lock changes.
I don't understand where there aren't some "night fall" type talents in destruction, such as giving immolation ticks a chance to proc insta cast incinerates or soul fires. (Think of the synergy with shadowflame here)
Why is the succubus still so fragile? You'd think that a demon who's able to disappear would be a bit more nimble and harder for melee to hit. Why not give her a passively high evasion rate?
Why does she die in basically 3 hits?
Why does seduce share DR with fear still?
Why does seduce, which is a channeled spell, have a cast time on top of that?
Why am I not impressed with shadowflame yet? It the secondary burn effect of putting immo on all those targets at nice, but I'm seeing further potential in this spell here.
Why is there not an improved conflag that can ignite all immolated targets at the same time withing X distance of the target? Wouldn't that make shadowflame (a destruction spell) more attractive, and more fun, to use? Especially with the pyroclasm change.
I look at hunters and get excited to use explosive shot. 15% increased crit chance and chance to stun on top of that? Instant cast? 6s cooldown? Doesn't require a dispelable debuff to be on any of the targets first? Can launch it from 41 yards away? Knowing this, does an improved conflag ability really seem that over the top?
Why is soul fire still boring to use? It's a copy/paste version of pyroblast, without a lot of cool talents to support it really, plus it costs a shard! Why can't chaos bolt just be a massive (and shardless) upgrade to soulfire?
Snares are the bane of warlocks, and always have been. Getting snared on my warlock is far, far more annoying than any other class I've ever played. We have no intercept, intervene, snare reduction talents, heavy armor, blink, teleports, or shape shifting abilities. We simply have to eat it, every time. In fact, the class is designed around eating melee damage constantly. Plus, we don't even have a good counter snare. Or at least we didn't, until we got the new Curse of Exhaustion.
Look at Fel armor (now demon armor). This armor was obviously designed with pvp applications in mind that we'd be taking hits constantly in pvp, which is why we get the pretty massive +healing received bonus. Why, then, do we not have snare-based defensive talents? Why not a talent that makes us take less damage while snared, or something that triggers when we get snared?
Why do we have so many improved demon talents early in the demo tree? Who actually takes improved succubus and improved voidwalker? Who cares about improved imp other than hardcore raiding guilds that want the smidgen of extra raid HP? Why can't we just have improved minions, sort of like demonic empowerment?
What's the deal with improved fear? Isn't it really only useful against rogues that CloS? Is that the main purpose? My problem with landing fears is being constantly interrupted/kicked/pummeled, or fear immune feral druids, BM hunters, death knights, and warriors. The resist problem went away with spell pen on pvp gear. This talent could be better, such as a cooldown making your next fear effect unresistable, uninteruptable (outside of stuns) and a horror effect on a cooldown.
Why does grim reach have to be so inaccessible to destruction, who arguably needs the longer range fears and curses even more?
Why is Malediction still so horrible?
Why is improved lifetap still not a tier 1 talent for affliction? It needs to be more accessible to destruction, which needs it far more than any of the trees.
Why did we get nether protection in destro instead of some sort of melee protection abilities instead, which is what it needs the most?
Why is improved immolate still a horrible waste of points, and is only taken to pick up conflag?
Why can't you just roll imp soul leech into soul leech? That talent has always been lacking since the beginning of TBC simply because the healing portion often gets over healed.
Why is shadow and flame (a mostly pve talent) still a prereq to shadowfury (a mostly pvp talent)?
Why does shadow fury cost a ridiculous amount of mana when A) It's mostly a pvp talent, and B) It's really only typically used on a low number of targets (usually just 1 half the time) as a spell interrupt, or to chain a fear after it?
And finally: Why does haste still not decrease the amount of time dots need to run their full effect?
I must say that after reviewing a lot of the changes for warlocks this expansion, I haven't really been impressed. Socio knows how underwhelmed I've been with the lock changes.
Full northrend music collection (almost 1GB)
For those of you who dig this sort of thing, here you go. The ebon hold stuff is amazing. =]
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Deep Blood PvP spec issues with subspec choices:
Blood PvP spec:
Couple things to note:
Early unholy talents compliment deep blood very well for pvp, at least for the first two tiers.
Unholy Tier 1 with this spec.
A) Vicious strikes is a great dual purpose talent for pve/pvp in just about any scenario.
B) Morbidity follows suit. Great dual purpose tanking/pvp talent as blood spec with sudden doom plays well with any talents that improve deathcoil. This is double true if you pick up lichborne.
C) Anticipation is really 100% for PVE tanking.
Overall, Tier 1 Unholy is fantastic for deep blood pvp.
Unholy Tier 2 with the same spec.
A) Epidemic is ok, but hardly required. With many various ways to remove diseases (some effortlessly via abolish disease and disease cleansing totems), banking on each application of disease lasting the full 18 seconds isn't a good strategy. Mostly a PVE talent.
B) Virulence grants dispel resistance, which is fantastic for pvp. Given that our diseases are less spammable in our assumed rotations than rogue poisons, and far, far less spammable than warlock dots, it's going to make virulence either nearly required against some classes (paladin, with no brainless way to remove diseases other than 1 disease per cleanse), or almost seem like a waste of points (shamans and priests). Given all the factors, I'd say that virulence at 30% dispel resistance is probably not going to be enough against the classes that we need it most against. I've played my hunter enough to know that going against well-played (this is key) shamans can seem like having improved stings is a waste of points, as poison cleansing totems seem to strip them off immediately anyways. The jury is still out on this talent for me right now.
C) Unholy Command seems like a talent that will be just as required for pvp as imp intercept is for warriors on live right now. I imagine this talent being just absolutely required for competitive pvp, but for right now(on the not-so-serious beta), you can get by with skipping a point or two in it.
Unholy Tier 3 with the same spec.
A) Outbreak only becomes a pvp-centric talent if you pick up scourge strike (similar to glacier rot in frost in tier 1, that it sucks without howling blast and frost strike), otherwise, primarily a tanking (AOE threat) talent.
B) Necrosis is OK, but nothing that I would really call required for pvp. It does help melt through heavy armor targets, though..
C) Corpse explosion. Fun in battlegrounds, but useless in arenas. A lot of fun to use while tanking! :)
Early frost talents are even better for deep blood pvp spec. Here's why.
Frost Tier 1 with the same spec.
A) Imp icy touch is useful, but not required. The 30% damage boost does stack nicely with the new bloody vengeance, but it's not nearly as useful as the new toughness.
B) Glacier rot I've already covered. Not really a good talent unless you're at least 31 points deep. This is a pretty weak Tier 1 talent overall, and should probably be just rolled into Rime.
C) Toughess is just fantastic for PvP. 50% reduction on snares, AND 15% more armor? Wow. This is the no brainer talent for pvpers, which sucks, because it means there's a lack of choice in this tier.
Frost Tier 2 with the same spec.
A) Icy reach is a no brainer. 30 yard range chains of ice is completely awesome.
B) Black Ice probably needs to be reworked as it's giving too much bonus to both frost strike and scourge strike. I'd probably change this to 2/4/6/8/10% increased crit chance with shadow and frost abilities. This makes it still appealing to both spells and frost/scourge strike, but gets rid of another unneeded multiplier which is currently making up some ridiculous damage. Good talent for pvp overall either way.
C) Nerves of cold steel I don't like, as I don't dig the dw thing at all for dks. It's fine for pvpers that choose to go that route I guess, though.
Frost Tier 3 with the same spec.
A) Icy talons is only really good if you're going deep into frost for either more synergy via killing machine, or you need to buff a raid via the group haste talent. It's not really a great choice for pvp as a last pick filler.
B) Lichborne is obviously good.
C) Annihilation I don't care for as a design philosophy, simply because I don't think obliterate does enough damage to warrant disease removal to begin with. I only picked it up for 3% crit for frost strike for a while, but then later just dropped it once I found out how good killing machine becomes later with haste talents, gear, and unholy presence.
Couple things to note:
Early unholy talents compliment deep blood very well for pvp, at least for the first two tiers.
Unholy Tier 1 with this spec.
A) Vicious strikes is a great dual purpose talent for pve/pvp in just about any scenario.
B) Morbidity follows suit. Great dual purpose tanking/pvp talent as blood spec with sudden doom plays well with any talents that improve deathcoil. This is double true if you pick up lichborne.
C) Anticipation is really 100% for PVE tanking.
Overall, Tier 1 Unholy is fantastic for deep blood pvp.
Unholy Tier 2 with the same spec.
A) Epidemic is ok, but hardly required. With many various ways to remove diseases (some effortlessly via abolish disease and disease cleansing totems), banking on each application of disease lasting the full 18 seconds isn't a good strategy. Mostly a PVE talent.
B) Virulence grants dispel resistance, which is fantastic for pvp. Given that our diseases are less spammable in our assumed rotations than rogue poisons, and far, far less spammable than warlock dots, it's going to make virulence either nearly required against some classes (paladin, with no brainless way to remove diseases other than 1 disease per cleanse), or almost seem like a waste of points (shamans and priests). Given all the factors, I'd say that virulence at 30% dispel resistance is probably not going to be enough against the classes that we need it most against. I've played my hunter enough to know that going against well-played (this is key) shamans can seem like having improved stings is a waste of points, as poison cleansing totems seem to strip them off immediately anyways. The jury is still out on this talent for me right now.
C) Unholy Command seems like a talent that will be just as required for pvp as imp intercept is for warriors on live right now. I imagine this talent being just absolutely required for competitive pvp, but for right now(on the not-so-serious beta), you can get by with skipping a point or two in it.
Unholy Tier 3 with the same spec.
A) Outbreak only becomes a pvp-centric talent if you pick up scourge strike (similar to glacier rot in frost in tier 1, that it sucks without howling blast and frost strike), otherwise, primarily a tanking (AOE threat) talent.
B) Necrosis is OK, but nothing that I would really call required for pvp. It does help melt through heavy armor targets, though..
C) Corpse explosion. Fun in battlegrounds, but useless in arenas. A lot of fun to use while tanking! :)
Early frost talents are even better for deep blood pvp spec. Here's why.
Frost Tier 1 with the same spec.
A) Imp icy touch is useful, but not required. The 30% damage boost does stack nicely with the new bloody vengeance, but it's not nearly as useful as the new toughness.
B) Glacier rot I've already covered. Not really a good talent unless you're at least 31 points deep. This is a pretty weak Tier 1 talent overall, and should probably be just rolled into Rime.
C) Toughess is just fantastic for PvP. 50% reduction on snares, AND 15% more armor? Wow. This is the no brainer talent for pvpers, which sucks, because it means there's a lack of choice in this tier.
Frost Tier 2 with the same spec.
A) Icy reach is a no brainer. 30 yard range chains of ice is completely awesome.
B) Black Ice probably needs to be reworked as it's giving too much bonus to both frost strike and scourge strike. I'd probably change this to 2/4/6/8/10% increased crit chance with shadow and frost abilities. This makes it still appealing to both spells and frost/scourge strike, but gets rid of another unneeded multiplier which is currently making up some ridiculous damage. Good talent for pvp overall either way.
C) Nerves of cold steel I don't like, as I don't dig the dw thing at all for dks. It's fine for pvpers that choose to go that route I guess, though.
Frost Tier 3 with the same spec.
A) Icy talons is only really good if you're going deep into frost for either more synergy via killing machine, or you need to buff a raid via the group haste talent. It's not really a great choice for pvp as a last pick filler.
B) Lichborne is obviously good.
C) Annihilation I don't care for as a design philosophy, simply because I don't think obliterate does enough damage to warrant disease removal to begin with. I only picked it up for 3% crit for frost strike for a while, but then later just dropped it once I found out how good killing machine becomes later with haste talents, gear, and unholy presence.
Hunter vids from a buddy of mine:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9336797303&sid=2000
Pretty cool stuff. Mikizle is a hunter that I play with on Sargeras alliance, and he's taken the time to record some videos of what survival hunters can do right now in the beta.
I must say that the hunter changes have been nothing short of outstanding so far this expansion, and the class is shaping up to be a lot better than it has ever been before (and that includes pvp).
Check out some of his videos here.
Keep up the good work, Mikey!
Pretty cool stuff. Mikizle is a hunter that I play with on Sargeras alliance, and he's taken the time to record some videos of what survival hunters can do right now in the beta.
I must say that the hunter changes have been nothing short of outstanding so far this expansion, and the class is shaping up to be a lot better than it has ever been before (and that includes pvp).
Check out some of his videos here.
Keep up the good work, Mikey!
Do death knights need better healing debuffs?
I saw an interesting thread this morning over at http://deathknight.info/ about some people asking for better healing counter measures for pvp. Here is the post.
Here was my rebuttal.
"I think you guys are forgetting a big piece of the puzzle here.
Let's say we do bring a new and unique healing debuff to apply to targets that works alongside blood plague and mortal strike/aimed shot/wound poison.
You know what would happen then? Every team would have to consist of DK + warrior, or DK + Hunter, or DK + Rogue, and healers would basically stop pvping because it would be damn near impossible to keep someone alive that has MS on them, AND hots are getting removed, AND DKs would have an additional effect on them. It would just 100% completely flat out suck and not be fun for healers in pvp. At all.
Blizzard made this mistake once before in TBC alpha by letting wound poison stack with MS for 75% healing reduction. The only thing that changed was every arena team was then forced to bring a warrior and rogue to be competitive, and healers basically quit wanting to pvp (and rightfully so) because it was impossible to keep other people (or themselves) alive through that kind of crap.
You have to stop thinking in terms of 1vs1. The combination of blood plague + wound poison or an MS effect is already extremely strong. Druids are no longer going to be the gods of healing 3v3 teams by themselves anymore simply because of the addition of blood plague (which they can't remove).
I think the addition of DKs is going to shake things up nicely just fine the way it is. I'm really not certain we need an additional healing debuff as of this time, and if we do, it should be very minor that won't affect group balance severely.
The only reason I really pushed for blood plague to remove hots periodically is that hots, up until now, have never really had a counter-balancing factor. That, and having to plague strike every time you wanted to remove a diseases is hardly effective against a competent druid."
What do you guys think?
Here was my rebuttal.
"I think you guys are forgetting a big piece of the puzzle here.
Let's say we do bring a new and unique healing debuff to apply to targets that works alongside blood plague and mortal strike/aimed shot/wound poison.
You know what would happen then? Every team would have to consist of DK + warrior, or DK + Hunter, or DK + Rogue, and healers would basically stop pvping because it would be damn near impossible to keep someone alive that has MS on them, AND hots are getting removed, AND DKs would have an additional effect on them. It would just 100% completely flat out suck and not be fun for healers in pvp. At all.
Blizzard made this mistake once before in TBC alpha by letting wound poison stack with MS for 75% healing reduction. The only thing that changed was every arena team was then forced to bring a warrior and rogue to be competitive, and healers basically quit wanting to pvp (and rightfully so) because it was impossible to keep other people (or themselves) alive through that kind of crap.
You have to stop thinking in terms of 1vs1. The combination of blood plague + wound poison or an MS effect is already extremely strong. Druids are no longer going to be the gods of healing 3v3 teams by themselves anymore simply because of the addition of blood plague (which they can't remove).
I think the addition of DKs is going to shake things up nicely just fine the way it is. I'm really not certain we need an additional healing debuff as of this time, and if we do, it should be very minor that won't affect group balance severely.
The only reason I really pushed for blood plague to remove hots periodically is that hots, up until now, have never really had a counter-balancing factor. That, and having to plague strike every time you wanted to remove a diseases is hardly effective against a competent druid."
What do you guys think?
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Death strike, Blood Strike, Obliterate:
"I'm not digging obliterate at all anymore, for any spec.
It's just very much overshadowed by the other things every other tree offers as a replacement for that spot in the rotation.
And to be honest, I'd rather see obliterate become something other than a 'super blood strike that removes diseases' at this point.
DRM rotations as blood won't/don't use it because there aren't enough supporting talents in blood for it anymore, now that MoM doesn't affect it. Blood has an overabundance of blood runes via DRM, and this directly translates into wonderful synergy of sudden doom, bloody vengeance, abom's strength procs, along with better RP generation, as well as more attacks from DRW while it's up.
Frost will never use oblit if HB is ready to go, and even if I can't use HB, i'd rather use icy touch for 20 RP and similar damage for one rune. Not only does howling blast do more damage, but it only requires frost fever to do max damage, ignores armor, can AOE, and doesn't remove the disease. It's just a no-brainer.
Unholy has Scourge strike, which is also a no-brainer to use over oblit in every single way.
Without blood talents (read: DRM and MoM) supporting Obliterate, it's simply a bad skill that doesn't fit in anywhere, for any spec right now."
Now, with all that being said, I'd like to bring something up that I've brought up in the past:
I'd like to see death strike reworked a bit and make it cost 1 blood rune instead, and tweak it's effectiveness to go with it.
Reasons:
1) It feels clunky as a 1U1F cost. I like my finisher being HB or SS as frost/unholy as is. Death strike with a 1U1F cost as frost, which is very disease independent (outside of frost fever) always feels incredibly weak. The choice should really be between obliterate and the tree-specific finishers. Thus, obliterate needs to be reworked a bit to be a more universally powerful and useful ability that is independent on spec.
2) As Frost: Using blood strike as frost for blood of the north feels like a chore and isn't fun. There are many times I'd rather sneak death strikes into the rotation instead of blood strikes to catch up on healing a bit rather than do a bit of extra damage (again, if it cost 1B instead). I'd rather have the choice in the rotation be between blood strike and death strike. In a group scenario with a healer? Blood strike for more damage. Healer CC'd or solo and need a bit of extra healing? Death strike instead for that part of the rotation. Then, use a finisher. Ideally, blood of the north would cover blood strike, death strike, and pestilence.
3) As Unholy: Using blood boil and pestilence for reaping is fun and all, but again I'd rather see options for single target "combo" abilities to build up those death runes to make combat more fun and engaging. I'd like more choice in the build-up process for working towards those death runes/finisher moves. Again, it would be nice to see DS use a blood rune for unholy rotations just the same. You want to do AOE damage? Blood boil. Need a bit of extra healing? Death strike. Ideally, reaping would cover all of these abilities as well.
4) More choices = More fun. I think it's been made quite clear by several parties at this point that spending 33% of our runes on blood strikes half of the time (especially as frost) is not fun.
5) Death strike heal amount is very underwhelming unless it crits. This plays very well with deep blood specs that A) Have lots of blood runes, B) has a higher crit chance than other specs, and C) includes both vicious strikes and MoM. Blood would be a lot more fun if you had the choice of doing a lot of damage via heart strike in DRM rotations, or by using DS to heal yourself with those blood runes, which would further lend itself to blood being the self-healing tree. To go along with this point >
6) Obliterate would then need to be reworked into Death Rune Mastery, and have death strike removed.
7) Make Obliterate more friendly to use. 125% weapon damage and doesn't remove diseases? Generates 15 or even 20 RP per use? Obviously blood would want to use it with these changes over the other specs due to DRM, but why would the other specs want to? Shadow-resistant target? Don't SS, but oblit instead. Can't AOE? Use oblit instead, but make the damage worth it, and remove the disease-removing penalty.
8) Rework annihilation to have your blood strikes have a chance to refresh the diseases on the target, making the choice between death strike and blood strike tougher. Blood strike is simply boring right now, and this talent would really make things more fun and interesting. I'd also probably have it refresh the disease on the current target when pestilence is used as well. Right now you have a half-assed way of getting around this, by applying diseases on a target, then using pestilence, then tabbing to another target and using pestilence again (refreshing the diseases on the initial target). It just feels clunky to do it this way.
Edit: (I forgot to clarify this part) Then, I'd move annihilation to the blood tree, and give us a reason to sneak in 1 blood strike during the rotations with those overabundance of blood runes so that you don't have to use icy touch + PS again (which are just awful damage by themselves as blood spec). The idea here is to give you an abundance of blood runes via DRM working off oblit, and using one blood rune per rotation for a blood strike (or pestilence if AOEing) to refresh diseases. This essentially frees up the need for epidemic as blood, as well as lets you get off another oblit than you normally would, solidifying obliterate as our finisher move for blood.
9) Rework Death strike healing amount if it being a 1 rune cost is too much. 50% healing per disease? 75%? 1%? 1000%? The numbers are easy to play with, but I'd probably reduce it to 50-75% or so.
It's just very much overshadowed by the other things every other tree offers as a replacement for that spot in the rotation.
And to be honest, I'd rather see obliterate become something other than a 'super blood strike that removes diseases' at this point.
DRM rotations as blood won't/don't use it because there aren't enough supporting talents in blood for it anymore, now that MoM doesn't affect it. Blood has an overabundance of blood runes via DRM, and this directly translates into wonderful synergy of sudden doom, bloody vengeance, abom's strength procs, along with better RP generation, as well as more attacks from DRW while it's up.
Frost will never use oblit if HB is ready to go, and even if I can't use HB, i'd rather use icy touch for 20 RP and similar damage for one rune. Not only does howling blast do more damage, but it only requires frost fever to do max damage, ignores armor, can AOE, and doesn't remove the disease. It's just a no-brainer.
Unholy has Scourge strike, which is also a no-brainer to use over oblit in every single way.
Without blood talents (read: DRM and MoM) supporting Obliterate, it's simply a bad skill that doesn't fit in anywhere, for any spec right now."
Now, with all that being said, I'd like to bring something up that I've brought up in the past:
I'd like to see death strike reworked a bit and make it cost 1 blood rune instead, and tweak it's effectiveness to go with it.
Reasons:
1) It feels clunky as a 1U1F cost. I like my finisher being HB or SS as frost/unholy as is. Death strike with a 1U1F cost as frost, which is very disease independent (outside of frost fever) always feels incredibly weak. The choice should really be between obliterate and the tree-specific finishers. Thus, obliterate needs to be reworked a bit to be a more universally powerful and useful ability that is independent on spec.
2) As Frost: Using blood strike as frost for blood of the north feels like a chore and isn't fun. There are many times I'd rather sneak death strikes into the rotation instead of blood strikes to catch up on healing a bit rather than do a bit of extra damage (again, if it cost 1B instead). I'd rather have the choice in the rotation be between blood strike and death strike. In a group scenario with a healer? Blood strike for more damage. Healer CC'd or solo and need a bit of extra healing? Death strike instead for that part of the rotation. Then, use a finisher. Ideally, blood of the north would cover blood strike, death strike, and pestilence.
3) As Unholy: Using blood boil and pestilence for reaping is fun and all, but again I'd rather see options for single target "combo" abilities to build up those death runes to make combat more fun and engaging. I'd like more choice in the build-up process for working towards those death runes/finisher moves. Again, it would be nice to see DS use a blood rune for unholy rotations just the same. You want to do AOE damage? Blood boil. Need a bit of extra healing? Death strike. Ideally, reaping would cover all of these abilities as well.
4) More choices = More fun. I think it's been made quite clear by several parties at this point that spending 33% of our runes on blood strikes half of the time (especially as frost) is not fun.
5) Death strike heal amount is very underwhelming unless it crits. This plays very well with deep blood specs that A) Have lots of blood runes, B) has a higher crit chance than other specs, and C) includes both vicious strikes and MoM. Blood would be a lot more fun if you had the choice of doing a lot of damage via heart strike in DRM rotations, or by using DS to heal yourself with those blood runes, which would further lend itself to blood being the self-healing tree. To go along with this point >
6) Obliterate would then need to be reworked into Death Rune Mastery, and have death strike removed.
7) Make Obliterate more friendly to use. 125% weapon damage and doesn't remove diseases? Generates 15 or even 20 RP per use? Obviously blood would want to use it with these changes over the other specs due to DRM, but why would the other specs want to? Shadow-resistant target? Don't SS, but oblit instead. Can't AOE? Use oblit instead, but make the damage worth it, and remove the disease-removing penalty.
8) Rework annihilation to have your blood strikes have a chance to refresh the diseases on the target, making the choice between death strike and blood strike tougher. Blood strike is simply boring right now, and this talent would really make things more fun and interesting. I'd also probably have it refresh the disease on the current target when pestilence is used as well. Right now you have a half-assed way of getting around this, by applying diseases on a target, then using pestilence, then tabbing to another target and using pestilence again (refreshing the diseases on the initial target). It just feels clunky to do it this way.
Edit: (I forgot to clarify this part) Then, I'd move annihilation to the blood tree, and give us a reason to sneak in 1 blood strike during the rotations with those overabundance of blood runes so that you don't have to use icy touch + PS again (which are just awful damage by themselves as blood spec). The idea here is to give you an abundance of blood runes via DRM working off oblit, and using one blood rune per rotation for a blood strike (or pestilence if AOEing) to refresh diseases. This essentially frees up the need for epidemic as blood, as well as lets you get off another oblit than you normally would, solidifying obliterate as our finisher move for blood.
9) Rework Death strike healing amount if it being a 1 rune cost is too much. 50% healing per disease? 75%? 1%? 1000%? The numbers are easy to play with, but I'd probably reduce it to 50-75% or so.
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