As we're already starting to see, our good friends the Death Knights juggle some abilities centered around an as-of-yet unrepresented PC damage type: Disease. There is a variety of plagues and diseases which will obviously have direct application in the arena. I wonder if, as PvP-guru Zach put it, Death Knights might be the rock to the Druid's scissors. This isn't the first time we've seen Blizzard willing to put a strong counter to Resto Druids in the hands of a single class. (Arguments about Hunters/Druids being the strong counter to Warrior/Druids are kind of aside here - both comps still have Druids.) You don't see how this new damage type is the Druid counter? It's pretty simple -- Druids don't have a cleanse that works against Disease.
If Death Knights become a favored arena class, then the presence of Disease in the Arena could help provide solid reason to go Paladin or Priest over Druid. Of course, that assumes the disease effects are significant enough to matter. And cleansing all that Disease is still going to be a pain even for our Paladins: they can only cleanse one at a time, and they'd blow through quite a few global cooldowns trying to clear their partners.
I don't know if this dynamic was intentional, but I would find it hard to believe that Blizzard's ignorant of it. They tend to have an idea about what's going on. We don't know what new gear will be available to combat diseases (Resistance? Resilience?), and it's still way early to be hedging bets -- but introducing the Death Knight and their diseases should certainly mix things up.
Edit: I've not forgotten about Shamans, but I was mostly focused on Druids in this article. My apologies to any Shaman who issued a rightful reminder for the call out.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
7-01-2008 @ 8:03PM
phenger said...
You know, shamans can remove disease as well.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:08PM
d503 said...
Damn, you were half a second earlier!
7-01-2008 @ 8:12PM
The Hammer said...
With a totem, too!
7-01-2008 @ 11:37PM
schm0 said...
In case anyone needed a reference:
http://thottbot.com/s8170
7-01-2008 @ 8:07PM
d503 said...
Don't leave Shamans out of the Cure Disease goodness...
Reply
7-01-2008 @ 8:21PM
SaintStryfe said...
Don't forget Disease Cleansing Totem either.
7-01-2008 @ 8:09PM
Allen said...
Blizzard? Oblivious?
I think the answer to this question lies in the Retribution Paladin's 4 piece T6 bonus.
Reply
7-01-2008 @ 8:11PM
Max said...
Also, if I saw the preview correctly, Death Knights will have a melee strike that does more damage if the target has HoTs on them - and negates those HoTs. This would be a huge blow to resto druids if it remains after the beta.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:11PM
FURTHYDURTH said...
Priests would be the preferred healers against them I would think.
Abolish Disease
Attempts to cure 1 disease effect on the target, and 1 more disease effect every 5 sec seconds for 20 sec.
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7-01-2008 @ 9:41PM
Charlie said...
Yeah i was about to say. Priests only have to cast a spell once and it will remove 5 diseases. Shamans have the same ability. I think Priests will be very even stronger PvP healers than they are atm in Wrath.
7-01-2008 @ 8:18PM
Smurk said...
It seems logical that Death Knights will be OP, at least at their introduction. It's the first "hero class" and a headline attraction for the expansion. If they suck, it'd be embarrassing. And what are the odds that they'll start out well-balanced versus other classes? Those who rush DKs to 70 should have a fun month or two before the nerfs roll in.
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7-01-2008 @ 9:42PM
Charlie said...
They won't be OP, quite the opposite because of this reason. More than likely they will start out weak and get buffed, especially in PvP areas.
7-01-2008 @ 8:27PM
Hevnlyst said...
Stoneform Power! About time a dwarf racial got a buff. Kinda.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:28PM
Den said...
DKs will hurt Druids in the current arena environment . But when you look at druids talents in wrath we are getting enough options to over come this. Basically resto (tree) druids become priests with a warriors armor but no mana burn.
Degeneration was one skill that freaked people out, though resto druids will have Nourish, Living Seed, the initial heal of Regrowth and assuming there was Regrowth and Rejuiv on the target Swiftmend is still a direct heal.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:30PM
Savant said...
"And cleansing all that Disease is still going to be a pain even for our P-classes: they can only cleanse one at a time, and they'd blow through quite a few global cooldowns trying to clear their partners."
This is inaccurate with respect to priests. Priests get a skill at level 32 called 'Aboloish Disease'. It's a COT (Cleanse Over Time) skill that will remove 1 disease effect when case, and then continue to remove 1 disease effect every 5 seconds for 20 seconds. Overall that means it will cleanse 5 disease debuffs in 20 seconds.
This skill can be used proactively as well, there is no requirement that a target be diseased to cast. If you cast it in advance, you lose your first disease cleanse on cast, but you will still get four more disease cleanse effects every 5 seconds for 20 seconds.
The priest will be *the* king for counters against death knights in this regard, because they can have these COTs going on all party members so long as they have a deep enough mana pool. While the disease will still get a tick or two of damage off, it is not nearly as bad as trying to manually cleanse each and every debuff
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7-02-2008 @ 10:06AM
deceive said...
The King?
Shaman can drop a disease totem that will do the exact same thing as abolish disease does for priest, except the totem lasts 2 mins, not 20 secs.
7-01-2008 @ 8:34PM
Armistice said...
Druids will end up with a spell to cleanse diseases. Just like they get given half the other crud they shouldn't have gotten.
I'm sorry but an s3/4 druid is just unbeatable which is just stupid.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:40PM
Corrine said...
Don't forget about the HoT corrupting ability (Degeneration).
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7-01-2008 @ 8:52PM
matt said...
Yeah-- Degeneration looks seriously nuts against resto druids. Put a DK and a Frost Mage together, and you can corrupt the HoTs and counter the heals. Nasty.
7-01-2008 @ 9:04PM
my2cents said...
Oh no! Poor druids, they already do so poorly in arena.
/end sarcasm
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