With the rework to Unholy Death Knight, we can finally play out as a master of undead and diseases, but, i can see that we still have some bad passives in the talent tree, i think this needs to be changed, and some talents needs to be relocated.
- Menacing Magus. This passive is still in the talent tree, this should just be baked in to our Reanimation, it feels bad taking a passive that strictly is AOE and does not provide any dps upgrade on single target, i would rather see the return of Raise Sludge Belcher in this location.
Raise Sludge Belcher had some skills that improved things for UH, here is how it would impact us now with the talent rework.
(1) Spell attacks always cleaves, and AOE while Dark Transformation is active.
(2) Defensive CD no longer stops the pet from attacking, while in Dark Transformation, it reduces damage taken by 60%.
(3) Pet stun now last for 2 seconds, up from 1 second, while in Dark Transformation it stuns for 3 seconds.
(4) You gain a Physical Death Grip from the pet, which if target is immune, it will grapple itself to the enemy instead.
(5) With the new infected Claw applying a Disease to the enemy, this will then help us keep adding this Disease in cleave and AOE scenarios.
(6) We have Rune of the Apocalypse, why not also make it so the Sludge Belcher applies 2 individual stacks to the enemy to increase the consistency of this rune weapon enchant. Also again, if it cleaves, it will apply it to multiple targets, once again a win win if added to the talent tree.
(7) Plus, if it also gains a bit more damage, and health, it also helps it set it apart from our Pet Ghoul.
This are some really good things it offered which we have lost, i think this would be an great addition to our talent option in the talent tree. Some things they can add to it as well to make it a little more interesting is, each time you consume a Sudden Doom proc, it will generate a charge which lets you raise a Lesser Ghoul. When you press Soul Reaper, it will also get commanded to deal it’s pet attack, but now it raises a Lesser Ghoul instead.
With all the undead we raise on Alpha, i think it would be cool to bring back Ruptured Viscera. This used to detonate our Ghouls when their duration expired, it had a chance to generate Festering Wounds, they could just tweak this passive a bit and make it more interactive.
- Ruptured Viscera cost 2 talent points, and it should be located after you have talented in to Raise Sludge Belcher, which you can after you have talented in to Ruptured Viscera, you can then talent in to Army of the Dead.
(1) Each time a Lesser Ghoul explode, they have a chance to make your next Scourge Strike to raise an additional Lesser Ghoul alongside Festering Strikes effect. So 2 Lesser Ghouls, instead of 1.
(2) When 1 Lesser Ghoul gets Putrefy, Ruptured Viscera’s Corpse Explosion effect has a chance to chain of to another Lesser Ghoul, causing it to enter a state of Unholy Frenzy increasing it’s attack speed and duration for the same amount, from the effect of Putrefy. This can only chain of once per Lesser Ghoul.
(3) Each time a Leser Ghoul’s duration expires and it detonate, reduce the CD of Putrefy by 1-2 seconds.
Unholy Aura no longer grants us haste from Putrefy. Now this is a really bad change. Now Unholy Aura is just a Mastery scaling tool from our Magus of the Dead, this is boring, and has made this 2 point talent feel extremely bad. Of course it had to be changed a bit from it’s current function, but, i think Blizzard should made it a 1%-2% haste for each Lesser Ghoul you have active.
- Ancient Runes got renamed to Ancient Power, still the same, but you gain stacks from Runic Power spending abilities, instead of runes. Like common Blizzard, we don’t need this unnecessary multi strength scaling passive, it really cannibalizes our dps for just existing as a passive with the way it scales our strength up. i’d just remove it, and then move Unholy Aura to it’s location, then move Reanimation to Unholy Auras location, and then make it to a 2 talent point nod where you also gain Menacing Magus as an effect, if you put the second talent point in to Reanimation, and with it also giving you a 50%-100% chance to raise a Magus. As for what to add in Reanimation’s location.
I still stand on that Gargoyle should be changed from a por mans Breath of Sindragosa, the Runic Power draining one. Not the new Breath of Sindragosa we have right now. Gargoyle should be relocated to Reanimation’s location.
- Summon Gargoyle . Summon 3 Gargoyles, to attack the enemy target, if they did it this way, they could add in an effect that for each attack they do, they will increase both Critical Strike , and Critical damage by 0,3% to Disease, and undead minions, for each attack they do to the enemy target, and stacking as high as all the attacks they can do in a span of 30 seconds. This is a buff on the Death Knight , and not a debuff on the enemy. In additon, Summon Gargoyle also has a chance to raise Lesser Ghouls.
Ghoulish Frenzy is an incredibly boring passive, which is a discount Unholy Devotion/Transfusion buff. My suggestion is to relocate All Will Serve in this spot, and add a new follow up passive where the Skulker is located.
- Where the All Will Serve was located, i would love to see a passive that makes Dark Transformation work with the Skulker as well. Here are what i think it should do. Dark Transformation now has a 1,5 minute CD, and last for 20 seconds up from 12 seconds. The All Will Serve Skulker will be transformed to a Bone Lord. The Bone Lord has several skills it uses during Dark Transformation.
(1) When Dark Transformation is cast, it uses Bone Storm , charging in to the focused enemy target to deal damage, Bone Storm last for 4 seconds and can be extended by Death Coil.
(2) When Bone Storms duration expires, the Bone Lord will use Bone Cleave , to cleave the enemy target.
(3) For each time the Bone Lord deals damage, it has a chance to raise a Lesser Ghoul , when Sudden Doom is used to trigger Bone Cleave/Bone Storm , it will also have a chance to raise a Lesser Ghoul but at the half of it’s chance, something like, if it had 30%, then it would be a 15% chance when it’s at it’s reduced effectiveness.
- Our Apex talent needs to be made more interesting, the Death Coil part of it is really boring, and i would rather have a Lich attached to it instead. Just make the Death Coil effect to a new talent passive we can talent in to the talent tree, it is cool as a talent, but not as a [APEX TALENT]. In my opinion, locating it after you have talented in to Reaping as a new talent gate between Unholy Aura and Reanimation, that would be a smart move, just make it a 2 talent point nod just like those 2 passives.
What they can do with Necrotic Bolt and Graveyard should be something along the lines of.
(1) each time Necrotic Bolt is cast, you have a chance to cause Dread Plague/Necrotic Plague to cause Dread/Necrotic Eruption, causing your Disease to flare up, and to deal splash damage around the enemy target.
(2) Same case for Graveyard, but in this case this will work with Virulent Plague, making this Disease to cause Virulent Eruption instead, this will deal higher amount of damage for each enemy hit.
Now, as for the Lich, i think having a powerfull Lich minion which does a lot of things to our spec and rotation is a great thing, this would also feel exhilarating when you have a powerfull minion doing unique things to set it apart from things such as Abomination, and Summon Gargoyle.
- here are some examples i think a Lich could do to shape our Unholy’s Apex Talent over what we currently have on Beta.
(1) When Army of the Dead is cast, you will raise a Lich to fight alongside you for 15 seconds.
(2) While the Lich is active, it morphs Dread Plague in to Necrotic Plague.
(3) Necrotic Plague will gain stacks, increasing the damage, for each time you raise or Putrefy a Lesser Ghoul.
(4) Army of the Dead’s Lesser Ghouls are empowered while the Lich is active. The Army of the Dead Lesser Ghoul’s melee attacks, and movement speed, is increased by 50%.
(5) The Lich buffs the Death Knight with Deathfrost Armor. Deathfrost Armor reduces the damage the Death Knight takes by 5%, while also increasing the damage done as well.
(6) Lich cast Deathchill Bolt at the enemy target, Deathchill Bolt slows the target for 60% movement speed, and Deathchill Bolt increases the damage the enemy take by 1%, stacking up for a certain amount of stacks on the target. In addition, when Reanimation is talented in to it’s second talent point, the Lich will also cleave with it’s Deathchill Bolt.
(7) The Lich will drop a Shadow Fissure underneath the enemy target, after 1 second, it will explode for high amount of damage. In addition, if the target is infected with Necrotic Plague, it will build 5 stacks on the enemy target, it has a 8 second CD.
I did copy this post from my Unholy Beta Feedback thread. I hope your team at Blizzard might take this suggestions in to consideration. I do think with this changes, it could shape Unholy to have a strong identity in both it’s necromancy, and master of plagues theme.