DKs are currently the least represented class at higher rating across all brackets and it is for a good reason. Let me elaborate.
- Our burst window is incredibly short with Pillar of Frost only lasting 12 seconds. To enable the burst you first need to use one of your filler spells (Howling Blast or Frost Strike) to active Killing Machine, and with Killing Machine and Pillar of Frost active, your Obliterate hits a measly 6-9k crit.
- Chill Streak is a complete joke, and you’re lucky if you manage to hit more than 2 bounces on a player, as with the amount of mobility and additional mobs from covenants (Kevin’s Oozeling etc.), it is nearly impossible to get any hits on actual players with it. It was apparenly still too strong, so it got nerfed recently and now hits for 2-3k on average.
- For some reason 20-30% of our damage is Frost Fever, a disease no one cares about and which is barely noticeable, still more noticeable than every other ability it seems though.
- And don’t even get me started on Frostwyrm’s Fury, which is a 3 min CD that sends a huge dragon spewing ice across the field, that deals 2-3k damage. Its only use is with the legendary, Aboslute Zero, so it at least stuns for 3 seconds.
Our survivability is also incredibly bad with the removal of Blood Presence, and our only way to negate physical damage is a 3 min CD, Icebound Fortitude, which reduces damage taken by a measly 20%. As a result, we’re forced spend all our Runic Power spamming Death Strike to even come close at surviving, which is quite hard with 0 mobility.
However, if it wasn’t bad enough already, we also have to take into account how frustrating it is to even get a Death Strike through, considering the amount of answers other classes have, such as Disarms (War, Rogue, Monk, Druid), DH’s dodge (Blur), Warrior’s Parry (Die by the Sword), Rogue’s dodge (Evasion) or Monk’s Parry (FoF). It is literally impossible to even get a hit through and heal with Death Strike, and did I forget to mention healing reduction? I could go on and on. Anyways, on to the next defensive.
Death Pact is a death sentence if you decide to play with it, as the penalty outweighs the positives, especially when you have some form of healing reduction debuff on you. Guess you can’t expect more from a 2 min defensive cd talent.
Luckily, we have Sacrifical Pact, which heals for 25% of our maximum health without any penalty, except losing your pet. Shame you need to spend 1,5 seconds on summoning a Ghoul and then another 1,5 seconds and 20 Runic Power to sacrifice it (dealing 500 damage to nearby enemies), if you aren’t dead by then.
Funnily enough, even if we were able to use the Runic Power on something else, it doesn’t matter much though, as Frost Strike hits for 1-2k.
In hindsight, I still can’t believe how the Shadowlands beta nerfs got through, or why nothing has been changed so far.
I guess all we got going for us are sick looking visuals and a big 2H weapon.
