Hardmodes next week! Good fight overall, but a little too long and intense DPS requirements. My freakin wrist hurts from doing my DPS rotation.
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Scourge Strike nerf.
The nerf to Scourge Strike yesterday hurt. I was only in the spec for a day, and now I have to change to something new. This change was obviously a quick remedy because it defeats the purpose Scourge Strike was redesigned in the first place.
The purpose of the redesign was to make Scourge Strike appealing to PVE specs, while having the damage lower in PVP. Also in 3.2, Blizzard did not like us skipping the talent Reaping. They feel converting runes into death runes should be a part of our rotation. But what do you know, the best spec as a result of the Scourge Strike nerf will have Unholy specs skipping Reaping again.
It’s not over yet. This nerf was done in haste I think. I have a feeling Scourge Strike will be looked at again after the holidays are over. Meaning DKs will need a new spec with a new rotation. *sigh*
I spent over 15 hours researching and writing a Death Knight raid guide for the current patch. A day later it was rendered useless. GG Blizzard!
Blizzard stealth nerfed Scourge Strike in the middle of raid last night. This changes everything I said in my guide. There will be a new spec, new rotation, new gearing, and new stat priorities. As such, when these details are solidified, I will have to completely scrap my guide, and write a new one.
This was somewhat expected, hence why I added a disclaimer to it. Scourge Strike was doing insane damage. I was doing 20k crits self buffed. I don’t understand why the nerf is so soon when they had months to look at it. This change hurts because Death Knights have to change everything they’ve been doing. As always though, there will be somewhere to safely land.
While Blood is inferior to Unholy on multi-target fights, Blood is still great for single target. A conservative choice, and good one, Blood has remained virtually unchanged for the past seven months. It will likely not change until Cataclysm.
With that said Blood is probably the safest spec right now, despite the loss to multi-target DPS. Thus, I will add the Blood spec to my guide.
I will remain playing with Unholy because it is the best spec to provide the 13% increased magic damage buff (Ebon Plaguebringer). Due to being able to spread it quickly to all mobs within 15 yards of me via Pestilence. The cost is only one GCD. Having this buff on multiple targets is no doubt great utility for these Icecrown encounters, as we’ve seen.
I’m a bit upset because the gear set I have been putting together for these couple months is a bit obsolete now. Luckily, I’ve become accustomed to Death Knight suddenly changing. So, I’ve been keeping my old pieces of gear I have upgraded/side-graded out of. This way it does not feel I have wasted DKP if a piece becomes totally worthless because of class changes.
