Cataclysm Changes: Death Knight

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Well, I'm holding out hope It sure does make 4x DK teams sound like fun to me!

If it stacked, 5 DK teams would get guaranteed kills on at least the first target. Unless they make the debuff purgeable/dispellable. And no idea whether it would affect the remaining ticks of a HoT that's already applied before the debuff gets applied.

[Ualaa]

I'd guess it won't stack either (particularly with the Mortal Strike effect being reduced to 20%), although if you stagger them... and place them in a rotation so every fourth attack is this ability from one of the DK's, that will be a healthy reduction in healing received on the target.

[Pycno]

WOW!

Deathknight New Abilities: Lvl 81 - Return to Flesh: The Deathknight can instantly resurrect dead allies on the battlefield, consumes all available runes and runic power. Lvl 83 - Summon Haunting Spectral Spirits: Summons several spellcasting spectral ghosts to fight at the Deathknights side, this ability shares cooldown with Army of the Dead. We intend for this ability to be the ability of choice against highly armored targets. Lvl 85 - Plaguewalker (Passive): The Deathknights footsteps leave a trail of diseased ground behind him, targets that run onto the blighted ground will take damage and suffer from diseases.

Source: Blizzard Entertainment

[Mosg2]

I'm sure Blizz wasn't/isn't taking 5 boxers into consideration when designing classes.

In a perfect world it would put one debuff on the target and any subsequent strikes from anyone would just add to the total. Yes, 4 boxing DK's with a healer would be a rolling storm O' death... But I don't think they consider boxers when they do this stuff

[Ualaa]

I suspect the debuff won't stack, but that's not saying it won't.
I would suspect also, that once consumed it can be reapplied.

In either case, its a substantial strain on healing.
Either they stack and are all cast at once, or you apply them in rapid succession to the target you are burning, with each attack reducing the effectiveness of the heals.

In a way, boxing takes a mechanic which is interesting or neat for 1 toon of the class, even in a party... but multiplies the effect in fun ways.
Four totems is not unbalanced really, but twenty totems each basically affecting the whole party...
Never know, the heal debuff might well stack initially, and if it does there's a good chance it will stay.

[Mosg2]

Obviously we're 6+ months from anything near finalized changes but if they did stack... The world would implode.

It would basically be unhealable damage. 100% MS. Especially with 4x Death Grip and all the snares that DK's have nobody is going to get away.

[Seldum]

I can't imagine either that it stack. It would probably be over powered.... but let's see what happens. Maybe blizz will make that mistake.

And I also don't think they take any notice at multiboxers at all - we represents a tiny fraction of the players playing wow.

[Boylston]

I don't think they consider them either... Witness the longevity of 4xToW stacking.

I think the only way multiboxing would drive a significant class balance change is if the top-rated arena teams were all multiboxed DKs and a skill combo was so effective that even non-multiboxed groups started stacking DKs.

Even if they don't stack, it might still be effective to have them round-robin cast throughout a sequence. I think Friday's announcement about pallies will be very interesting for us melee team PvPers...

One thing that's hard to ignore is that even if DKs had better burst, the passive healing and buff potential of stacked pallies is very, very compelling.