#1 - Jan. 16, 2016, 1:50 a.m.
First off, some links.
I'll start with my logs. Like I said, I sort of get what I'm doing, so it's not like I'm some new guy that is out to ruin everything. That said, I'm not huge on PvP, so keep that in mind while reading, this is a dragonslayer's post.
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/character/171368/latest/
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/character/11314456/latest/
Next, basically the meat of the post, a crude MS Painted version of my bars on live, with what's being removed and what they'll ultimately look like in Legion.
http://i.imgur.com/81mYL4X.png
Ability removals/additions/changes for PvE actionbars:
Starting with removals, since it's easier to see what is missing rather than what's different or what has changed.
Blood Boil
Oh boy do I miss this ability in AoE situations. Does it feel more like a Blood ability? Sure. Do Unholy Death Knights have any place boiling the blood of their enemies? Not really.
Do I feel like I'm unable to AoE without it? Absolutely. In alpha, it currently seems like I'm meant to apply Virulent Plague, let it spread, hit Death and Decay/Defile, and... that's... sort of it. That's how it feels anyway, absent some talent choices that do technically alleviate some of the holes (notably Profane Pathogens and Bursting Sores, a 2 Rune ability and a passive.) If that's really how it's meant to be, then it's definitely an adjustment that will take time to get used to.
Dark Simulacrum
Admittedly, I'm really upset about this. This is an ability that definitely doesn't get a lot of raid use, but in the occasional dungeon or world scenario, it's a fun ability to have and definitely makes me feel like a death knight as opposed to a paladin or warrior. However, it is in the PvP talent tree, so while it's not technically gone for good, it's still sad to know that I won't have it on my bars pretty much ever.
Death's Advance
I'm struggling to figure out why this is being removed. Currently, death knights are very fast passively as unholy, and it's part of what I love about playing my death knight over my monk (which is also pretty fast!) or paladin. Hitting Death's Advance may not feel as huge a difference in speed as, say, a paladin's Speed of Light, but it's something.
In the place of Death's Advance, we're getting... nothing? I'm an engineer, so I (might) still have my Nitro Boosts, but those (probably) still share a cooldown with more important things like DPS potions. The passive speed is still there, but I can't count the amount of times I've saved myself on important fights like Archimonde with the ability to move just a bit faster on demand.
Blood Tap
I hate RNG. Blood Tap remedied the RNG of regenerating runes for me, but no more. Instead, we get Runic Corruption. Now, I'm happy we got that one instead of Runic Empowerment, but it's still RNG and I'm not completely looking forward to losing control over how many runes I get back and when.
Horn of Winter
Oh well. Now that it's just a plain buff instead of a Runic Power generator, I'm fine with it going away. (I tend to forget I have it every now and again anyway.)
Empower Rune Weapon
To go back to rune regeneration, I found myself running out of abilities to hit every so often in the alpha. While this is partially due to being just item level 680 at level 100 and not having a whole lot of haste to work with, I feel it also has a good amount to do with the fact that this ability is being made Frost-only. This is a pretty huge cooldown to have, and I feel like it should be made up for in some way or another.
Breath of Sindragosa
I'm okay with this being Frost-only. It really doesn't seem to fit Unholy very well, though hopefully the gameplay it offers will be present for Frost.
Plague Leech/Unholy Blight
Plague Leech is another return to a talk about rune regeneration. Without it, it adds another layer of being stuck sitting and waiting for another rune as you look to see you're at 29 runic power somehow.
But again I feel it should be mentioned, maybe haste will be more beneficial to death knights and their rune regeneration than it is in live. There isn't much of it at level 100 when you're only 680, so that could be part of the problem I'm having. I certainly had it in the Warlords of Draenor beta when testing it out.
Unholy Blight going away is also pretty sad, but only in the sense that we're also losing Necrotic Plague technically, and that style of play was pretty fun. Without Necrotic Plague, though, there isn't much reason for Unholy Blight to be around as it is, so it's fine to see that go.
--Continued--
