I’m very concerned about some parts of the tree structure on both the class and spec sides.
On the class side Runic Attenuation and Unholy Ground are both so absurdly powerful that you’re forced to path through them. This effectively cuts all of your choices above the capstone level of the tree to “what do I spend my last 2 points on?” rather than allowing you to make choices throughout the tree.
When your choices are Wraith Walk, AMZ, 1min CDR on IBF, 3% leech, Asphyxiate, this severely limits the options for more niche utility such as Grip of the Dead, Control Undead or Clenching Grasp to the point that those talents may as well not exist. If there’s ever a fight where you need both Wraith Walk and AMZ, or some other combination of talents that prohibit you from taking Runic Attenuation and Unholy Ground then the survivability loss is so extreme you’re almost playing a different spec. It really cannot be understated how impactful 50+ RP per minute, or a permanent 5% haste are for BDK.
On the spec side things are even worse, in my opinion.
Death’s Caress being your most efficient Bone Shield generator feels very awkward, akin to Prot Warrior having Heroic Throw, VDH having Throw Glaive, or Brew Monk having Crackling Jade Lightning as part of their rotations. Not only does this feel extremely clunky, it also limits your options for pulling mobs and generating threat from range.
I’d propose removing the cooldown and Bone Shield charges and reverting the ability to how it functioned in Shadowlands, or if the design team is set on keeping it as is then increase the cost to 2 runes and make it generate 3 Bone Shield charges to bring it in line with Marrowrend, as currently the only time to press Marrowrend is during Dancing Rune Weapon.
Also being force-pathed through weak nodes early into the tree in order to access significant throughput increases later is terrible. In order to access Coagulopathy (a 5% flat damage increase) and Sanguine Ground (a 5% flat damage and healing increase) you have to take Death’s Caress, Rapid Decomposition, and either Relish in Blood or Perseverance of the Ebon Blade, 3/4 of which are essentially wasted talent points.
This total 5 point investment then limits your choices on the left hand side of the tree, forcing you through nodes like Foul Bulwark and Reinforced Bones, when you’d much rather talent into Heartbreaker but doing so would strip you of 1 point at the capstone level. This point-scarcity then makes it so that desirable talents like Blood Tap or Rune Tap or Consumption/Blooddrinker are almost inaccessible because they do not allow you to path towards the mandatory talents in the tree. (Rune Tap and Blood Tap are disconnected from Improved Bone Shield, while Consumption/Blooddrinker are disconnected from Coagulopathy).
There are several solutions to the pathing problems in the spec tree, the simplest of which would be to make Heartbreaker and Perseverance of the Ebon Blade into 1 point nodes, which would alleviate some of the point-scarcity and allow us to take talents which aren’t essential for pathing.
Another option would be to make the mandatory nodes of Improved Bone Shield and Coagulopathy easier to path to, this could be done by adding a connection from Dancing Rune Weapon to Improved Bone Shield and moving Coagulopathy to a more central point in the tree, perhaps where the Consumption/Blooddrinker node is currently and adding a similar connection to Dancing Rune Weapon.
Overall I think the class and spec tree for Blood DK are probably the weakest of all tanks, and it is only the strength of the base class that allows it to still be viable in spite of these problems.
It is very disconcerting to be the only class (at least that I’m aware of) that feels more restricted by the new talent trees.
I sincerely hope these problems can be fixed or at the very least mitigated before dragonflight launch, and keep DK being the most enjoyable tank to play.