Cataclysm: The Ret Paladin- AKA Multi-Box Burst PVP Machines.

[Shodokan]

I've never actually pvp enough with unholy or frost dk.

What are their bursts like? Frontal ? or there is ramp up time (like wait for 6-10 seconds to get that 3 holy power up). I am hoping to use my main DK as unholy for the 8% sp buff and AMZ. But when I played unholy, it felt like an affliction warlock in plate, all chip damage.

What rotation do you use for bursting.

Frost DK looks something like this for me.... at 80

13k howling blast crits
12k frost strike crits
17k obliterate crits

So you can technically get off 4x howling blast + 4x frost strike +2x plague/necrotic strike. or 3x obliterate + 4x frost strike which the frost strikes alone are like up to 50k burst if you crit... and since you get rando crits from killing machines and it resets every target you can be damn sure you are going to do a shitton of burst. So that means a group of 4 dks burst on a target just with frost strikes is close to 100k.

So burst is very very high.

In cata i will probrably be specing into both slowing mechanics and weaving plague strike into things and not always necrotic.


unholy's damage mostly comes from scourge strike, diseases and your death coils, it is very much not a burst spec in my opinion.

[Mercbeast]

Frost DK looks something like this for me.... at 80

13k howling blast crits
12k frost strike crits
17k obliterate crits

So you can technically get off 4x howling blast + 4x frost strike +2x plague/necrotic strike. or 3x obliterate + 4x frost strike which the frost strikes alone are like up to 50k burst if you crit... and since you get rando crits from killing machines and it resets every target you can be damn sure you are going to do a shitton of burst. So that means a group of 4 dks burst on a target just with frost strikes is close to 100k.

So burst is very very high.

In cata i will probrably be specing into both slowing mechanics and weaving plague strike into things and not always necrotic.


unholy's damage mostly comes from scourge strike, diseases and your death coils, it is very much not a burst spec in my opinion.

With a boxed group of DK's it is all about howling blast. I don't think that will change with cata. Solo DK pvp will change up their priorities since HB isn't going to scale as well as it does now, however we can still achieve in excess of 100k damage with 4 or 5 DK's off of two HB rotations. HBx4 HBx4, Grip, plague/nectrotic, frost strikes to finish. That is enough bursty DPS imo to come into a fight in a BG and if the HB's doesn't wipe everyone who isn't topped up off, you start picking the healers off whom are going to be going into healing overload to catch everyone you just dropped to <20% hp back up. With the way mana and healing is supposedly going to work, that right there will win you the impetus of the fight and put your healers way out in front of the mana healing battle.

I am starting to think that the 4DK+healer friend, 5 DK or Healer lead + 4DK is going to be a solid melee group. Huge burst, crazy control, good survivability.

[Shodokan]

With a boxed group of DK's it is all about howling blast. I don't think that will change with cata. Solo DK pvp will change up their priorities since HB isn't going to scale as well as it does now, however we can still achieve in excess of 100k damage with 4 or 5 DK's off of two HB rotations. HBx4 HBx4, Grip, plague/nectrotic, frost strikes to finish. That is enough bursty DPS imo to come into a fight in a BG and if the HB's doesn't wipe everyone who isn't topped up off, you start picking the healers off whom are going to be going into healing overload to catch everyone you just dropped to <20% hp back up. With the way mana and healing is supposedly going to work, that right there will win you the impetus of the fight and put your healers way out in front of the mana healing battle.

I am starting to think that the 4DK+healer friend, 5 DK or Healer lead + 4DK is going to be a solid melee group. Huge burst, crazy control, good survivability.

In pvp period it's all about howling blast... why use obliterate when you can get necrotic/plague + howling for equal damage and more pressure =P For the highest burst though you use oblit, not that it is superior in any way shape or form other than pure damage output.

I personally am going to be running either holy pally or resto druid/shaman + dks. Likely holy pally or resto shaman... being able to beacon yourself for 5 mins is just too strong.

[Sephice]

In pvp period it's all about howling blast... why use obliterate when you can get necrotic/plague + howling for equal damage and more pressure =P

This!

I dont use obliterat, it need many points and a glyph, for an attack to much in my eyes

i use unholy stance and can keep all runes and rune power on cooldown and i can use more often ( in cata ) the heal debuff

And i can but the point in Death Coil

[Mercbeast]

In pvp period it's all about howling blast... why use obliterate when you can get necrotic/plague + howling for equal damage and more pressure =P For the highest burst though you use oblit, not that it is superior in any way shape or form other than pure damage output.

I personally am going to be running either holy pally or resto druid/shaman + dks. Likely holy pally or resto shaman... being able to beacon yourself for 5 mins is just too strong.

Why? Hungering cold is possibly the most over powered ability stacked DK's have at their disposal, at the very least it is as effective as HB. (HB MAKES the team, and without it the team imo isn't very effective, but having HB AND Hungering Cold is just the icing on the cake, so while I wouldn't play DK's with just hungering cold, I feel like hungering cold situationally is every bit as powerful as HB can be and in those situational encounters it is even more so, however HB is the bread and butter)

Running into a group you can light up in a matter of seconds? Use HB. Running into a big fight where you are outnumbered and you need to hold on for reinforcements? Pop hungering cold and switch to a single target DPS rotation. 10s later pop hungering cold again, repeat 4x on anyone in range of you. If you prioritize the cleansers first, melee DPS on you will be doing nothing.

I forsee hungering cold being even more powerful than HB spam. A timely bubble can stop your front loaded HB dump in its tracks. Taking the entire other team fighting you out of the fight while you waltz around picking your targets 1 at a time will be insane.

If you played DAOC, this is how 8 man melee groups successfully destroyed 50 to 60 man raid groups. Aoe Mesmerize which is exactly what hungering cold is, and then have your melee's run around insta gibbing all of the other teams support/healers in one GCD.