#0 - Feb. 22, 2010, 11:40 p.m.
However, now they need to make CoI NOT override Glyph of Heart Strike and Chillbains. Those two steps alone would be moving in the right direction for making Frost and Blood more PvP-viable.
My other suggestion for Chillbains, is either make it non-dispellable again... or change the mechanic slightly.
Idea: Upon being dispelled, Chillbains "freezes the whits" of the dispeller, silencing for 3 seconds.
These would be purely utility buffs for Blood/Frost and has no bearing on Unholy.
Also, I'd like to mention how poorly-designed buffing disease-less Scourge Strike damage is. All that does is cater to more of a face-roll style of play without addressing any real issue. It does nothing to address the disease protection issue (in fact, it implements a mindless work-around to the problem). I realize this was a PvE fix... to work with the Armor Penetration currently on gear... however, why would you balance around Armor Penetration when it is being removed come Cataclysm? That is odd to say the least.
I'd also like to make a case for Scourge Strike revert to pure shadow damage. This is a very sound argument if tied to a glyph that changes the mechanic... I'll explain. Physical ScS causes serious gearing discrepancies due to DK's not being able to gear ArP because of class design. Furthermore any subsequent buff to Scourge Strike physical damage will lead to damage balance issues on low armor to achieve relatively significant damage on high armored targets. DK's are unable to counter this dilemma by intended means in PvP (i.e. ArP stacking or Mortal Strike). Also, even if a DK chose to socket ArP, we're already required to heavily socket spell pen due to high resistance mitigation in PvP. So we're being hit by both sides of the sword here, so to speak.
It's definitely a logical argument. And in reality a pure Shadow damage Scourge Strike would be "easier" to balance considering the damage would be the same on all targets. If they feel like damage is too high on the pure shadow Scourge Strike, simply nerf the damage. But a revert is necessary for consistency in class design/gearing (or tying it to a Scourge Strike glyph). I personally believe tying it to a glyph would be a more viable option... basically change the Scourge Strike Glyph to revert Scourge Strike to shadow damage. It allows for the more physical damage version of Scourge Strike in PvE, and allows the Shadow damage version of Scourge Strike in PvP. No DKs use the current version of the Scourge Strike glyph anyways.
The only way I've ever seen it presented is "we want a revert for more damage." This doesn't necessarily have to be the case. It could very well net a decrease in damage on cloth/leather targets, but be more of a buff the higher armor scales. And let's not forget that it will once again proc on nether protection and be a significant nerf against Destro Warlocks. So it's not a pure "end-all-get-all buff" like many people make it out to be.
