MoP Beta - Group Composition viability (ongoing process)

[Mokoi]

I want to start with one of my favorite teams... and one which my good friend, Mosg2 really has pioneered not just for the release of Cata, but ever since.

4-9 Deathknights and a Healer

The healer is a choice which is separated from the choice of the melee character, and so I will not theorycraft the use of different healers classes as heavily as the DKs.

Survivability - 9/10
DKs have excellent, and continue to have excellent survivability. This has not changed in MoP, and in fact has gotten better.

Damage - 7/10
DKs continue to have great damage. It is mostly Melee, and there seems to be a problem with downtime again, where runes and RP is diminished, with nothing to do but Auto-attack. That could prove to be a problem if it occurs when your target is at 10% and you have no way to stop them from healing to full before you have a rune again.

Healing - 7/10
Healing for this team relies heavily on the healer, which can be excellent, but is often killed easily, or runs out of mana. Once a healer is gone, this team must rely on self-heals, which are fairly good, but at a high cost of damage.

Ease of use - 9/10
Ever since Mosg2 revealed to us how brilliant he is, and his use of a first come first serve system, running a DK has never been easier. They continue to be an easy to manage with procs, cooldowns and other abilities. This does not seem to be affected yet in MoP. Almost all cooldowns can be macro'd, most abilities are easy to FCFS, and there are no procs which you really have to manage. g.g.

Synergy - 3/10
DK's do not offer buffs that they can share, or benefit from above and beyond a single DK. The choice of healer class will determine the buffs, and the DKs have no way to assist each other independently. However, DKs have Death Grip, and 5x Death grip is 5x better than one DG. This ability sunergy is very good, and accounts for all of the DK's points. ALSO: The new (but untested) lvl 90 talent point "Gorefiend's Grasp" and "Remorseless winter" seem beneficial when stacked, too. but conservatively we can not yet count on talents that have never been used.

Crowd Control - 3/5
DKs continue to have excellent CC, and if talented, have even more CC. A Darth Vader throat crush will mean that even those pesky tanks in BGs can not dodge or parry abilities (I assume) making even a hardened enemy easier to take out. Silences and Interrupts are easily macro'd or added to rotations. No long-term CC like Poly makes the class a bit weaker.

Longevity - 3/5
DKs use a resource which is continually regenerating, and therefore the DK will continue to deal damage even in super-long fights. Obviously healer longevity is seperate to this, and I have taken 2 points away to be conservative, knowing fully-well that a DK team without a healer is a dead DK team.

Flexibility - 4/5
DKs can fill two roles, and with a healer on the team they can easily queue for dungeons for gear, or raid in LFR easily and quickly (gear dependent). One point taken away because Melee teams are often harder to control and work in a dungeon / raid.

Recoverability - 4/5
DKs have a battle-res, which makes recovering in an area where it is too difficult or time-consuming to run back from a GY easier. Also a healer will always be able to ressurect fallen DKs, if he stays alive.

Final Score - 49 / 70

Remembering that the DK team loses a lot of points because there are no buffs to stack, and because it relies so heavily on a healer... DKs are still one of the most interesting, flexible and dominant teams available today.