Patch 3.2Follow

That's what I feared. As for the 52/56 thing, it's something I picked up on the European Oboards after the patch notes made the Frost tank community sh*t themselves simultaneously. Someone said 52 and someone else corrected it to 56 - debate ensued and I didn't bother with the following nine pages of "no, you're the meanie!" just to find out who was the bigger meanie.

Guess both were.

So with Frost Strike being a major source of damage in PvP for Frost Knights and with Patch 3.2 making Frost Strike resistable, dodgeable, parriable and blockable (not sure if dodgeable and parriable are actual words), what kind of damage reduction are we looking at here? I know my own Death Knight has about 5% dodge rating and 9% parry rating in his PvP gear. He can't block, though, so there's a bit of mitigation gone there, but everyone has a base 10% chance to resist an incoming spell, right? Before the opponent's hit ratings apply (or is it spell penetration?).

I've got 2/3 Virulence for the 2% added spell hit chance, plus about 80 hit rating from gear giving about 3% spell hit rating according to the Armory. So that's 5% hit chance added to Frost Strike. I have DrDamage (addon), so I could check in the game, but I don't have access to it at the moment.

Meh, it seems like Frost Strike got nerfed a lot. Too much considering its effect at lower levels. Maybe it'll balance out a guy in full high-end Arena gear, but I was feeling a little stressed in my blue BOE and honor gear.

Edit: Forgot the math on the mitigation thing.

I have 5% hit chance, meaning there's a 5% chance to have Frost Strike resisted, 9% chance of having it parried and 5% chance of dodging it - if I was me attacking myself. It went from 5% chance to not deal damage to 19% chance, right? Or aren't the chances additive?

I can only imagine what this will look like if I'm attacking a tank.

Edited, Jun 20th 2009 11:05pm by Mazra

I use a Frost DPS build, and our kind seems to be getting every kind of change, both in our weapon choice and the percentage of our damage certain abilities will comprise. Frost Strike forms a nice chunk of our DPS, so the weapon percent and dodge/parry/block changes will see my damage from Frost Strike drop. The new dual-wield talent will certainly attract a following, as another free(but half damage), attack is always good. It might cause some trouble crafting builds, as it takes six points to fill out the talents we need. Finally, the Blood of the North change will open up some points for other talents, taking dual-wield or not.

Edited, Jun 21st 2009 12:11am by Lichbourne

So playing on the PTR today made me think about some of the changes. (I copied 2 DK premades and have my own DK)

Blood DPS is roughly the same, but you have a choice between UB and DRW for the most part. And I really like UB's passive nature now. It's overall a nerf to Unholy IMO. UB does stack, rolling like a warriors Deep Wounds.

Blood tank took a small hit in terms of mitigation and EH. But overall it's pretty strong still.

Unholy DPS lost some AE power, but is starting to look like a DOT powerhouse. And if that trend continues, I'm really gonna like Unholy.

I haven't tried Frost tank/dps or Unholy tank yet, will tonight after work/etc...

It feels like Tanks got a decent nerf, overall, but honestly; I feel more in line with my warrior tank in terms of power.

Unholy DK here.

Still a fun class and spec. I usually forget to use UB but was getting better at remembering to use it. Now I don't have to remember to use it as it is now active, more or less, when I use DC which I use a lot. I really like how Desecration looked but with them making it more "transparent" and not as useful for PvE, except maybe PvP which I don't do yet, I won't be using it no more.

Desolation doesn't look to bad. I know most, if not all, DK start with IT being it has good range but maybe now start off with Blood Strike instead. BS>IT>PS>BS>SC> etc.. Doesn't look to bad but I am not into raiding yet so it may be a big deal in those scenarios.

The SS nerf sucks but it will still do just fine.

Summon Gargoyle is fine as now I don't I have to keep track of my RP or keep it up to get maximum Gargoyle time. The RP cost is a little steep though but manageable.

UB, again, isn't a bad change. I didn't use it that much for AoE but that was just me forgetting to use it. One less keybinding I have to worry about though :) Plus, has anyone realized this is 40 RP you are not having to spend. I know though, UB was for AoE :(





Am I reading that correctly that instead of the 12.5.1% damage increase per disease currently, it will be 50% damage increase per disease??

Edited, Jul 29th 2009 3:42pm by Stucco

What kind of content are you talking about, Tyranise? I haven't done Ulduar but I've tanked parts of Naxx 25 as Unholy now and I've never had Desecration in my spec at all. Why waste 5 whole points on a little bit of damage that's not even up 100% of the time? Loss of Unholy Blight I can imagine to be bad, but I don't see the hassle about Desecration.