Certain Death Knight players including myself have been banging on the raid buff/utility drum for a long time. With a new season looming ahead it is a topic I wanted to revisit and tackle some of the common counterarguments.
-Why does it even matter?
A feeling of job security essentially. As a DH player you can feel comfort in knowing that almost regardless of how well your class is performing it will be desirable.
-But Grips are more than desirable they are mandatory!
Yes, Blizzard has accommodated us by designing atleast 1 fight per tier that makes grip necessary. But what about every other boss? There is incentive to bring a DK regardless to get them geared.
But what happens if itās the 4th boss out 10?
And your RL tells you sorry you are benched for prog from now on DK just isnāt good this tier.
Or the opposite itās boss 8/10.
But you arenāt in the best fastest RWF guild and by the time your guild gets there someone could easily have geared a DK alt alongside. Even if they are undergeared this is supposed to be the one fight where our direct performance isnāt as important.
What about pugs? Mythic isnāt really meant to be pugged sure. But what if you are just trying to get into a last boss HC group?
-What are you complaining about between frost/unholy DK has consistently been at the top of the meters every tier
But is that fair to the other classes? Should Monks just forever be tuned worse than DK because they have a raid buff and we donāt? Ideally should not every class have their fair share of time in the sun and in the dumps?
-You have AMZ/AMS/DA DKs are incredibly tanky!
Tankiness doth not metaness maketh. DH is incredibly mobile and that has value but you donāt bring one because of it. BM Hunters can do their entire rotation while on the move but does that guarantee them a raid spot?
AMZ is a raid defensive and isnāt unique in that regard. DA really just makes up for our lack of mobility otherwise. AMS is a personal. But yes it does occasionally make a fight easier for the entire group. Itās more unique in itās use case but not entirely unlike having an immunity in that regard.
-Warlock Gate isnāt useful every fight but they donāt complain.
Alright I donāt actually think anyone has ever made this argument and for good reason. But I wanted to talk about it. Gateway sits at a similar level of raid utility to grip. It is near mandatory for certain fights if not completely so.
Yet you wouldnāt ever consider dropping a warlock from your raid for other fights though because they bring healthstones. soulstone and a summoning portal all which are universally useful.
Imagine for a moment if we took soulstone away from warlock and gave it to DK. Would you still want a Warlock every fight? Yes. Would you now also suddenly want a DK for every prog fight? Also yes.
Not that this is an actual suggestion I would ever make but itās interesting to consider. Priest for instance also has Mass Dispel alongside their raid buff which can similarly make or break your ability to do a specific fight.
-But you have additional utility with Insidious Chill!
Yeah um thatās nice but literally nobody notices if itās there. How do I know this? Because it doesnāt get taken most of the time since itās mutually exclusive with double grip/dnd/da (without losing damage). A class tree redesign is honestly probably in order.
ā
If youāve made it this far then hey thanks for reading!
While I highly doubt we are going to see any changes going into next patch itās not impossible. And if atleast one person at Blizzard reads this or this helps get the ball rolling leading to eventual change Iād be estatic.
EDIT: apparently you canāt reply to your own post unless someone else does first so addendum.
-The social reason
I wanted to tackle another element of this discussion. Earlier in my post I mentioned what if your RL just decides to bench you after the grip boss? And you think well they wouldnāt do that. If they did they would just find themselves without a DK for next tier. That doesnāt mean there isnāt a problem.
DK is usually brought so itās fine people who disagree might say
Your guild might also have a Hunter who always gets brought to raid for instance.
Why? Because they are an incredible player on of the best in your guild. They are always there and on time. They really got into crafting and can make every item your group might want. Oh and they are married to the GM.
There are plenty of reasons why someone can end up being brought regardless. But that doesnāt mean balance isnāt necessary.
M+
I have entirely focused on raiding for this post. But if you spend any time in M+ you might have noticed some problems. Class imbalances in utility suddenly find themselves magnified when you can only bring 5 players.
This is a much deeper problem than just giving DK a generic +% Y buff. But itās yet another thing to consider on why it might be beneficial.