Sweet, DK tanking nerf.

[Hachoo]

The subtle buff is that we gain mitigation ... we don't have shields. That damage mitigation is quite nice, as far as I know it does effects incoming spells. I agree with the above poster; that this is more of a retooling than a huge nerf, but who knows. This may or may not even go live. imo, try it out before you cry foul. The math comment is that you have a constant damage mitigation (ie it's not on a cooldown, or dependant on blood runes being on cooldown, etc. It's flat damage mitigation). Whereas with Blade Barrier you do have to actually get your blood runes down, it means there's a little less we "have" to keep in our rotation. it's not incredibly hard to do. But it does leave you open at the beginning of a boss fight, which seems to be the most dangerous point of combat for a DK.

Say a mob swings at you 10 times, if he hits he does 1000 damage.

10% parry would be expected to parry 1 hit - saving you 1000 damage - on average.

Let's assume that you're at 60% avoidance; on average the mob will hit you 4 times. 5% mitigation saves you 1000 * 0.05 = 50 HP per hit. Over 4 hits, that's 200 HP.

How is this nice? Yes, mitigation "smoothes" out the damage that you take, making it less spiky and more predictable. But that's a 5-fold damage difference.

I'm not crying foul - I made the point that this is a _very_ justifiable nerf as DK avoidance is way out of proportion to other tanking classes ATM. But it's a big nerf still.

With respect to needing to burn your blood runes to activate blade barrier, there's nothing in the PTR notes that suggests to me that this is going to change with shifting from parry % to mitigation.

This is a very narrow view and is leaving out all sorts of details, such as the fact the 5% mitigation works even on attacks that can't be parried, for one, not to mention others.

[Hor]

It's a nerf, yes. But I honestly feel like some people are blowing it out of proportion. Since the news of it was released I've heard several people, including RL friends complaining that DKs aren't even going to be able to tank anymore, which I feel is simply not true. Does it suck that my favorite class is getting some nerfs? Yes. But I'm trying to stay positive about it.

[X-Ifist]

Its a test server..............................
the patch is not comming out in about 4 weeks alot is gone change in that time

[hardcoded]

Its a test server..............................
the patch is not comming out in about 4 weeks alot is gone change in that time

Why yah gotta go and ruin a perfectly good bandwagon?

[5fingersofdoom]

Well I recently changed my DK's from Frost to Unkholy/Frost at the time I was hating the fact I needed to do it,but now after seeing these nerfs i'm glad I did.
I only mention this as from what I read some time ago,Unholy was getting a nerf and Frost was getting a buff,from what i'm reading here this is all bad for Frost,especially Howling Blast.
OFC i'm talking about PvP here,but still i'm getting a little tired of Blizz pissing around with specs so wildly,it truly smacks of a lack of depth in designing DK's skills,pretty much reinforces my view that WoTLK was badly rushed out IMO.

[genocyde]

I don't think this shows wrath was rushed at all. They are just trying to do 4 years worth of balancing on a DK in 4 months. I think with this class really having nothing to compare to balance wise... They are just having trouble balancing a plate tanking dps caster class with silences and 4k dps in blues. I think the DK is just a terrible class to attempt to balance PvE and PvP with the same "all specs, all jobs" idea that is not working for them.

Also, they said they are just bringing all the tanks back to even with eachother. You can cry all you want about dk nerfs, I'm right there with you. My bear tank is losing 5k health and 9k armor currently on the PTR with my nerfs.

They are just trying to bring warrior and pally tanks back into competition with bears and DK's.

[Zerocool2024]

You know, I am starting to see Multibocks as Satan, every time he posts something about DK's it's a nerf.... Lol.

[Multibocks]

Its a test server..............................
the patch is not comming out in about 4 weeks alot is gone change in that time

Seriously, read my damn post a few up. Blizzard's "test" servers are not what you think. They should be called "pre-live load-test servers" as most of whats thrown up on them doesnt change and goes live. The real test servers are only open to employees that actually "test." The only thing that seems to matter when they test patches is loading(will this screw up lag?) and bosses. Class changes pretty much go through.

[Multibocks]

Its a test server..............................
the patch is not comming out in about 4 weeks alot is gone change in that time

Why yah gotta go and ruin a perfectly good bandwagon?

You mean like the one you are on?

[Multibocks]

It's a nerf, yes. But I honestly feel like some people are blowing it out of proportion. Since the news of it was released I've heard several people, including RL friends complaining that DKs aren't even going to be able to tank anymore, which I feel is simply not true. Does it suck that my favorite class is getting some nerfs? Yes. But I'm trying to stay positive about it.

Nowhere did I say it was the end of DK tanks. I just called a duck a duck. It's a nerf, that's what I called it.