DK Changes Don't Address the Real Problem, Aion Hype Seemingly Dying

DK Changes Don't Address the Real Problem
In the latest PTR patch notes, it seems that Blizzard has made a few changes to Death Knights to try to address (read: nerf) Unholy DK's using Obliterate instead of Scourge Strike. In doing so, they removed Dirge's bonus to Obliterate but at the same time added Scourge Strike to Subversion. While that's great for a DK raider (it gives 9% crit bonus on the talent), it does little to nothing for a PvP DK unless they utilize a 3/17/51 spec which would have to forego at least a couple of important unholy talents.

What Blizzard seems to not understand here is the true underlying problem. It's not DK burst, it's not which strike they use, nor is it even chains of ice anymore really. The true problem is a DK's dependence on having active diseases in order to do any sort of respectable damage. This problem applies to all specs of Death Knights and increasingly so for Unholy DK's. Death Knights are the first class introduced with a dual-resource system, using both runes and runic power in order to deal damage. Runes are a finite resource, having a 10-second cooldown to refresh while runic power is gained primarily through rune usage. A DK has to use either at least 1 rune to apply a single disease and if the disease is cleansed, that rune won't come back for another 10 seconds (barring improved unholy presence). They can then use their 2nd rune of that type to apply the disease again but A) that will leave them with no runes left of that type being unable to perform a FU (frost unholy) strike until the first rune refreshes again or use their FU missing that disease (possibly both). Either situation is pretty dire for the DK and thus you can see the dilemma.

Rogues are balanced around poisons being permanently on because, well, they are permanently on for the most part. Wound poison has over a 50% chance to proc usually on each weapon and with deadly brew and double wound active, it's almost impossible to remove either type of poison for any meaningful amount of time. Warlocks can DoT as fast as their GCD and infinite mana bar allows them to and Affliction warlocks have the dispel protection from UA. Elemental shamans get a haste buff if their flame shock is dispelled. Shadow priests deal a lot of damage and get mana returned if VT is dispelled. Basically the trend here is that every melee, caster, or hybrid class that relies on their debuffs being up have reliable ways of keeping them on and/or deterrents to dispelling them. DK's have none of these.

There's no easy way to fix this problem while keeping things balanced for both PvE and PvP but I think the most reasonable suggestion that I've come across is to have the target of dispel receive damage equal to all remaining DoT damage on the disease. Thus, if a blood plague were to deal 3000 damage over it's duration and got dispelled half-way through, the target of dispel would receive 1500 damage as a result. Sure, the numbers could be tweaked and fine tuned and all but the idea is sound and is something Blizzard should consider in order to fix the real problem that arena DK's have right now.





Aion Hype Dying?
If you followed this website about 2 months ago, you'd be very familar with the myriad of blogs being posted around discussing Aion in it's beta and everyone's experiences with it. Typically when a game with that much popularity nears release, the talk only grows as anticipation raises for the retail launch. However, with Aion, it seems to be quite the opposite as hype and publicity for it seems to have died down tremendously.

So what could be the cause for this, if it's even true? If I had to pin it on something, I would probably have to say Blizzard's rather impressive showcase for Cataclysm at Blizzcon. Blizzard unveiled enormous and game-breaking development plans; things that will entirely change the game from how we know it at all right now. Then you have the two new races with super overpowered racials and who exactly wouldn't want to buy the expansion? I still keep the stance that Blizzard is being overly ambitious with their plans but whether that will be true or not, they showcased it well and definitely caught the attention of their massive playerbase.

Personally, I'm probably going to at least try it out and see how much I enjoy the version of Aion planned for release (which I believe is 1.5), and go from there without making any permanent decisions of quitting anything. Some people that I know that pre-ordered, however, have cancelled their pre-order while others are still eagerly awaiting the 22nd of this month for the official launch. So, I figured I'd put this to a poll whether or not the readers here will try it out or not: