There Will be Blood (Part II)

There Will be Blood (Part II)
Earlier today Blizzard released the preview of the Death Knight class changes for Cataclysm, my previous post showed the full announcement, now it’s time to try to come to grips with what these changes mean.

New Abilities
Outbreak (level 81): Outbreak infects the target with both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at no rune cost.

Thoughts: As a tank, this I think will be a useful ability for an early threat lead or for multi mob tanking. This I think would particularly useful in situations where the tank is picking up a boss after the MT dies or is otherwise knocked out of the fight (temporarily or otherwise). The main advantage here is that by getting Fever and Plague up quickly at no cost, you can focus on your normal rotation immediately for maximum damage/threat.

Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done.

Thoughts: Ok, so it’s not exactly Mortal Strike, but let’s not quibble. Essentially this is our version, definitely something that will be useful for PVP, not sure of it’s PVE applications, it’ll really depend on encounter design in the expansion.

Dark Simulacrum (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent’s next spell cast and unleash it.

Thoughts: a limited spell reflect that does not interrupt spell casting. This one is difficult, because it much like NS above is a very PVP oriented ability. And definitely one that’s going to take definite timing (and a bit of luck) to pull off effectively.

Rune System Changes
This one is a bit vague (as is most of the preview sadly), this one really depends on what Blizzard decides to fill the dead space in our rotation(s) with. From a tanking perspective, it’s somewhat unsettling, Death and Decay for AOE encounters. Similarly, I’m more concerned about our cooldown use in the face of these Rune changes, it could make things… complicated. Or it could be a breathe of fresh air, so we’ll just have to play this one by ear for now.

Talent Changes
We really didn’t get much here, other than a reaffirmation that Blood would be the new dedicated tanking tree. We did however get the hint that talents like Bone Shield (mentioned specifically) would be moving from the Unholy Tree to the Blood Tree. Essentially, I’m left with more questions than answers. Will blood retain talents like Blood Gorged, Abominations Might, and Dancing Rune Weapon? The one thing I was able to gather talent wise, is that the healing mechanic is really going to be played up in Cataclysm, finally some of the die hard dissenters may finally be able to admit that Rune Tap is actually a good talent for tanking…

Masteries
Blood
+ Damage reduction
+ Vengeance
+ Healing Absorption

Healing Absorption: When you heal yourself, you’ll receive an additional effect that absorbs incoming damage. Rune Tap and Death Strike, oh my! Definitely fitting for this tree, and I for one am anxious to see it in action. This also begs the question, will we be getting more healing abilities in Cataclysm? This thought occurs to me even more when considering the ambiguous comments made about the future of Blood and Frost presence in the expansion.

Vengeance: All tanks get this one, I covered this one earlier today in this post. TLDR version, this is the top tier tanking mastery for each of the tanking classes, meant to help tanks with damage output and threat.

Frost
+ Melee Damage
+ Melee Haste
+ Runic Power Generation

Runic Power Generation: This will function as the name implies, and the new rune system will make generating Runic Power more appealing.

Unholy
+ Melee Damage
+ Melee and spell critical damage
+ Disease Damage

Disease Damage: Unholy death knights will be able to get more out of their diseases, which are integral to the tree’s play style.

Final Thoughts: Allow me to first preface my closing statement by saying that I am overall excited about the changes to Death Knights, and particularly those being made to DK tanking. I would be lying however if I didn’t admit that I’m a little underwhelmed, a large portion of the information we received today was a rehash of what we’d already learned yesterday. The few things we did get were vagueries and generalities, worse some of what we got (Rune System Changes for example) served really to simply prepare us for sweeping changes to a system we’ve spent the past year getting accustomed to. I think in general there wasn’t enough meat and potatoes for most DKs, I’m afraid this update only served to pique my already sizable appetite for all things Death Knight. Here’s to things more substantial, things to come…