This current iteration of DK, especially unholy ( but also frost and blood ) is amazing! Utilities, a little increased mobility, nicer defensives and the DIVERSITY! Finally we can run a proper disease rot build, minion build, wounds build (with festermight back!! yey ). And then thereās Garg, commander of the dead - god! Everything youād like.
The gameplay itself has become a bliss with many functionalities and ways to adapt to the situation. That being said - is there anything PVP and PVE wise DKās lack? As far as Im concerned, the damage is there, utility, defensives and different playstyles are also here as well as a nice self-heal. Surely there must be something wrong, is there? A little hook? Is this really the moment when we get to enjoy our beloved class with extra dip of fantasy flavour?
The only ever thing I can think of is SFX and perhaps animations are a little subpar and less gimmeinstantdopamine than other plate melee classes with their big clongs every time they hit something.
Besides that it feels really nice to hop on my DK again and blast through content with all these new sweet options.
TL;DR : Overall a very positive outlook on new DK changes and its current iteration. Really excited to lead this badboy into Dragonflight. Do we seem to be on the top now in terms of usefulness in PVE/PVP content? Are there any still lacking things in any of our spec trees?
I stepped away from unholy for the time being. Too many GCDs, wound popping (impractical, archaic game design imo) and boring visuals. Frost has a bit more visual charm and a more stream-lined rotation.
Iām pretty happy with how Blood turned out. I donāt dps that often, but my quick first impression is that Frost feels roughly like before, and Unholy have way too many cooldowns on the GCD, which I donāt find fun at all.
After playing a bit of PvP ( Soloque mostly Around 2300-2350 MMR, some bgs), over these past 2 weeks, I can give you some impressions:
Unholy feels super fun, and like you said, there are a multitude of builds that iāve been trying: Diseases, Pets, Big Coils, etc. All feel really fun and well designed.
GCD Bloat is a problem, I agree. In some builds I have to press between 7-8 GCDs to start bursting. But there is a catch to this. I feel like they designed Unholy this way to give that āslow but unstoppableā feeling. And itās mostly true. Once you start getting the pets rolling, and Gargoyle decently pumped, it is very hard for your opponents to stop the MASSIVE incoming damage. It keeps going even if you are CCd, and I would definitely agree it would be OP if you could get the entire zoo out in 3 seconds. It would leave little room for counterplay.
Frost: I have played a lot more, but at lower MMR, 2000-2150 mostly. The frost tree feels a lot more āsimplifiedā compared to unholy, and it leaves little room for playing with the talents. The Obliterate build is the only one really viable. It isnāt bloated at all, in fact it feels as simple to play as in Shadowlands, with little to no changes. Dump frost strike, pump oblits during pillar, usual stuff. Feels fast, Fun, even if I would have liked to try 2H as well, but itās not viable right now.
I will definitely main DK at Launch, and will see how it goes from there. We are also one of the classes that wonāt lose much from the transition to Dragonflight, as we already have all our abilites baseline, and Abom limb as a talent.
Hey! Thanks for the fine reply Its nice to see at least some other positivity. I agree on the GCD bloat, but then again, we do have measures to reduce it afaik. Not sure how it feels on PVP, havenāt tried it yet, but PVE wise it plays really rythmically and fun.
Cooldowns seem to align perfectly, and we have multitude of options!
On frostās note - I love to hear it! Especially given that we have Icy Citadel back, whelplings and other stuff - seems to feel waaay less clunky than before. Canāt wait to get some set bonuses and proper stats and start rolling!
With the whelpings talent on AOE you can do huge burst. HUGE. On 5 targets they will give you 40% Mastery, on top of what you already should have (50%+ for aoe builds), And during pillar your strenght can go crazy high. You completely annihilate trash packs, and frost fever can get up to 7-8k crits.
Unholy will probably still be king in sustain AoE, think Fortified affix on higher Keys, or some boss fights. You can get crazy value from 3 x diseases + unholy blight, and the talents that reduce duration + the one from scourge strike that hastens dots.
). And then thereās Garg, commander of the dead - god! Everything youād like.