DeathCoil
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Lichborne: Unholy first impressions in the Mists of Pandaria beta
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. The strange thing about talking about the unholy tree since Cataclysm is that nothing ever seems to change. Don't get me wrong, unholy's been on a roller coaster of nerfs and balances, it's true, but the basic gameplay stays the same -- and more importantly, the basic problems never really get fixed. So as we come into Mists of Pandaria, where are we with unholy? It still has a relatively unique playstyle, with a pet and less difficulty keeping diseases up (but more difficulty applying them because of the rune spending issue), but this same playstyle gives it a lot of trouble, as weapon damage scales horribly and strength becomes more important -- some would say too important. This is how it continues to go with unholy. Today, we'll take a look at the upsides and downsides of unholy as it currently exists in the Mists of Pandaria beta and maybe make some suggestions for things Blizzard could focus on fixing once the death knights' turn for class balancing comes around.
Death Coil: Diminishing, but only against itself.
Seems like those who have been in PVP battles against groups of multiple warlocks, then felt the sting of Death Coil landing and sending you screaming off into the distance have something to look forward to in their upcoming battles... somewhat. According to Eyonix on the General Forums: We're actually going to be updating the patch notes soon, with a new note indicating that Death Coil will now be subject to diminishing returns with itself, in the Horror category. Currently, only Death Coil is in this category. On the other hand, Death Coil is on, what, a 2 minute cool down? As such, this is really only going to apply if you get into a fight with more than one warlock Death Coiling you at a time. Perhaps it's just me, but it doesn't seem like this is going to be too terribly much of a concern to most warlocks running around on their own. (I admit, my 'lock is only 58) Especially when you consider that Death Coil's fear effect doesn't diminish based on a warlock using other fear effects -- only itself, currently. Now, if you make it's effect diminish when combined with other fear effects...
Nerf FEAR!
We've all been there -- cheerfully minding our own business in a battleground when along comes a warlock to ruin our day. Fear, dot, dot, dot, fear, shadowbolt, fear, shadowbolt... And you've died with nary a chance to defend yourself. You may be tempted to run to the most convenient forum and yell "nerf locks! nerf fear!"Well, people of that persuasion, I point you towards Stylewalker's Nerf Warlocks FAQ, which covers all the bases on why fear isn't always an "iwin" button. Like how it's on diminishing returns (on a shared timer with seduce, even) and breaks on direct damage (and becomes more likely to break on dot damage with more spell damage gear). Does fear alone win fights for warlocks? I doubt it -- I've fought with plenty of horrible players for whom fear wasn't near enough to win a fight.
