Mosg's DK Manifesto Version 2.0

[Multibocks]

This is my 4th week in arenas now and I am finally seeing the light. My DKs and priest all have just shy of 3k resil now and the DKs buffed have 10k AP with 13% mastery. Most importantly I took the advice of everyone and grabbed 170 spell pen (WTB a 25SP/20Str purple gem :P).

My results this week are 6-1. Prior to that I had been losing approximately 75% of my games. Now this wasn't through cycling against the same nub team, I queued at several different times and got 20-50 points from each game. It feels like I have just broken through this threshold where my priest is tough enough that the other team can spend up to 30s trying to kill him whilst my DKs are relatively free to take them apart. By the time my priest dies (if he does) I still get 12s of spammed PoH to take out the 1-2 players that survived the initial onslaught.

So for those that are finding it a tough grind still, follow Ualaa's advice. Get all the crafted res gear to start with then grind BGs to get your honour gear. Go for 2 piece bonus initially for the 400 res. Do the Crucible of Carnage quest line to get the 333lvl weapons (not sure 346 lvl ones are worth it considering you will upgrade to 359 after 3 weeks). Beg, steal or borrow to get your conquest cap each week and then get your epic weps and you are home free.

Now just can't wait to see what 4.0.6 throws up in its final form and I am quite keen to try an unholy build as an alternative. Tbh the nerf to howling blast doesn't really seem to bad to me now though considering the buffs we got in return, but I am looking forward to playing a pet class again and if the anti-snare talent goes through untouched, I have to try it before it gets nerfed :P

Cheers

Awesome to see a priest driving DKs, gives me a bit of hope since everyone else uses paladins.

[cmeche]

My team really feals gimped today. I know Howling Blast got nerfed, but everything feels completely weaker than i was last night.
I just played TB and about 8 5v5 games. I couldnt even get anyone down to 40% in 5s.......whereas last night i went 5-10 with most of the losses being really close.

[Ualaa]

Haven't tested the Ferals; Rake/Rip were nerfed by the 10% advertised, but the Mastery increases bleeds much more than before. The Mangle Cat tooltip shows 100% weapon damage more than the test notes reported. Of course Berserk & Power Shifting were both nerfed as advertised, so aside from the trinket a feral has zero means of escaping fear or any root.

Hopefully teams can adjust/adapt whatever, and remain competitive and fun.

[Multibocks]

My team really feals gimped today. I know Howling Blast got nerfed, but everything feels completely weaker than i was last night.
I just played TB and about 8 5v5 games. I couldnt even get anyone down to 40% in 5s.......whereas last night i went 5-10 with most of the losses being really close.

Oh looking forward hearing more on this...

[Vociferate]

I am wondering if anyone has made the switch to Unholy.

I was playing with it a bit last night, and it seems... Interesting, really. I think it just feels very different than at it was with Frost, but I am going to get a lot of playing time in this weekend and I'll be able to post more about it.

Has anyone else made the switch?
Or playing with it. I would like to speak with 'ya and bounce ideas really.

[cmeche]

Oh looking forward hearing more on this...

Well, after that post, I was able to win my 5 games for the week, although i do still feal a little gimped on the aoe side. i am liking the idea of maybe running with 1 unholy for the sp debuff. Might try that later.

[thedreameater]

I am wondering if anyone has made the switch to Unholy.

I was playing with it a bit last night, and it seems... Interesting, really. I think it just feels very different than at it was with Frost, but I am going to get a lot of playing time in this weekend and I'll be able to post more about it.

Has anyone else made the switch?
Or playing with it. I would like to speak with 'ya and bounce ideas really.

Eager to hear an update. Anyone still frost? Is Unholy working better for ya'll? Haven't seen an updated arena vid from Mokoi in a while either.

[remanz]

• The root that the Frost talent Chilblains gives to Chains of Ice is now properly affected by diminishing returns and shares diminishing returns with other root effects.
• Dark Transformation now increases pet damage by 60%, down from 80%.
• Death Coil damage has been reduced by 15%.
• The pet damage bonus from Shadow Infusion is now 6% per stack, down from 8%.

well unholy had it coming. Next on the list is shadow priest. I don't see 5 unholy working out too well. I am using 3 frost 1 unholy for the spell debuff.

Hybrids right now are blowing most of the pure dps out of the water post 4.0.6, except hunter.

Shadow Priest, Balance Druid, Elemental shaman, Retribution Paladin, Fury Warrior, all above mage warlock on single target dummy dps.

[Multibocks]

God dammit I felt like my unholy team had just gelled... Bdheddjdhsnsjsjsjdjdj!!!!!!

[Darm]

For Unholy --

1) What would be the conventional wisdom for a spec? Id' assume you have to put a few points into Frost to have the zero runic power cost Mind Freeze?


2) I'm not an expert on Unholy DKs, but Scourge Strike would be spell with the highest priority for damage, right? And I'd presume Death Coil would be used to dump runic power as it accumulated. Scourge Strike is more effective with more diseases on the target, so that means a rotation that puts Frost Fever and Blood Plague has to be developed without applying them too often.

I suppose Festering Strike would be good for refreshing dots, but again, you don't want to be using that too often otherwise Unholy runes would be unavailable for Scourge Strike.

Necrotic Strike also takes a single unholy rune, but I guess I'm not familiar with Scourge Strike to know whether forgoing Necrotic Strike's healing debuff in favor of Scourge Strike is worth that trade.

3) Unholy Frenzy -- not familiar with this effect at all, sounds like it could help with the frontloaded damage.


Is that about right, or have I gone astray somewhere?