I seem to have been lucky enough to receive a Beta invite, for Cataclysm, so I am currently leveling my DK to the current cap in the beta (83), and it's already apparent each spec is getting changed drastically. I will post changes, and theorycrafting here, as I make my way through the Beta.
Okay, so, I'm sure everyone by now has heard about the 31 point talent trees, instead of 51 point, and honestly, I hated the idea at first, but now, it's sort of grown on me. And the masteries make up for a lot of talents, and give us some things that were extremely nice, but couldn't necessarily have, because you needed the talent points elsewhere. At least I found this to be the case as Unholy. Anyway, first thing I've found is we have this new ability, called Festering Strike, which at first seemed situational, at best, but now, after some testing, it definitely is amazing, and actually replaces Blood Strike in Unholy's rotation.(may not actually replace Blood Strike, you still have one Blood Rune to use, after casting Festering Strike, and Scourge Strike, so it might just add one ability to our rotation, rather than replacing one, at least on the first rotation. Haven't done significant test on anything that lives long enough to find out.) It hits harder than Blood Strike, and does use a Blood and Frost Rune, instead of just a Blood Rune, HOWEVER.. Scourge Strike only uses one Unholy rune, now, so you have an extra Frost rune, all the time, anyway. Also, Festering Strike adds 6 seconds to the duration of your diseases, and chains of ice, meaning that you can now have a permanent slow on a target, for one, and for two.... now this is a big one... *deep breath* YOU NEVER HAVE TO REFRESH DISEASES AGAIN. Your diseases will constantly just have time added to them, as you just spam Scourge Strike and Festering Strike, and if for whatever reason your diseases DO fall off, you can just cast Outbreak, which is a 1 min CD, and automatically applies both of your diseases to the target, with no Rune or Runic Power cost. So, big change number one, Festering Strike.
Big change number two, it seems, that in order to make up for the loss of the MASSIVELY HARD HITTING Blood DPS tree, Blizzard at least for now has buffed the living hell out of Frost (And even succeeded at making both 2h and DW Frost viable!) Obliterate hits for almost 20k(crits of course), in my 264 gear, completely unbuffed, Howling Blast hits for about 12k crits (each mob), and Frost Strike is right around 13-14k crits, as well. Keep in mind, these numbers are from 2h Frost. Didn't have any 1handers to use.(Also, in regards to Festering Strike, above, it only fits in the rotation in Unholy, because Obliterate still uses a Frost and Unholy rune, so you don't have the extra Frost Rune to use for Festering Strike, so you still need Blood Strike for this spec.
Will continue to add more, as I discover more.
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