Death Knight: The Rise and Constant Change of a Hero Class
In the WotLK beta we saw the introduction of one of the most hyped changes to World of Warcraft, the introduction to a new character class, the Death Knight. The first time in 4 years that a new class was being brought into the fold. This brought a unique set of challenges to the blizzard developers I am sure, but now with each patch we see more and more changes to not only damage and mitigation but how the class even functions.
For example, in the beginning we saw Unholy Blight for the Unholy Death Knights not only act as a damage over time, but also as an extra disease which aided in Scourge Strike and other strike mechanics which takes advantage of that. This was a unique mechanic in having to be in close range to keep up the DOT and use strikes to take full advantage of it. Then it moved to simply a damage over time, and now in the latest (yet to be released patch) it will make your death coil add a DOT to your target, thus now removing strikes completely out of the equation.
Also with the goal of making each tree viable for dps and tanking, has brought more flexibility to users but also more challenges in keeping them balanced but offering a different playing experience. Frost is one of those trees which is being updated to be more for dual wield, which opens up a ton of new dynamics and changes to many of the spells and abilities and how they interact with the weapons since now they can’t necessarily be based off the weapon as you have 2 of them instead of 1 big 2 handed weapon.
Essentially we are seeing the developers trying to catch up on 4 years of iteration they had with the other classes, but at the same time how is this affecting the players who love playing their Death Knight as is? Are they gaining less enjoyment from all the changes? Is there a sense of frustration players are seeing with watching their class change drastically from patch to patch. I personally feel like I am playing a new class every patch and drastically changing my play style. I feel I can’t get comfortable with the Death Knight, because the moment I do the mechanics are drastically changed.
I personally play as an Unholy Death Knight in the role of DPS, with Unholy Death Knight Tanking as my off-spec role. I have watched my DPS rise and fall, now to a point where Blood DK’s easily can out damage me against single targets, my tanking is limited due to many physical tanking talents not in the tree, and magic tanking effectiveness reduced due to us being made too powerful for hard mode encounters.
Though on the reverse, a guildmate who has always been blood spec, is loving the recent changes and has loved the increase in his DPS and feels more useful in progression encounters.
I realize that the Death Knight has a lot of catching up to do, but at the same point I feel like there are changes happening that don’t need to be made or that change the class so drastically people may feel alienated from the class until it reaches a more stable point.
I will stick with my Death Knight and will stick with the Unholy side of things for as long as I can, because I love the style of the ghoul and strikes utilzing the different DOT mechanics, but I would be lying if I was not concerned with all the changes and it makes me want to play a class with a bit more stability every now and then. I just wish I didn’t have to relearn my class and role every patch.