There’s a lot of aggro towards the DK class in the ever-shifting WoW metagame right now, which seems to be showing little sign of abating. We are known as ‘Dethtards’, a moniker we’ve been cursed with thanks to the fact that so many people have rolled DK alts – hey it’s 55 free levels – and been slammed headfirst into probably the most challenging and complex class to DPS with. Oh, sure, it’s easy to do bad DPS with a DK but it’s far more challenging to do well at the role. Our rotations are far more involving and complex if you want to squeak out the very best you’re capable of. Contrast this with a 9696 Retnoob ‘rotation’, or a AB4XAM Arcane mage? Most DPS classes are relatively straightforward. DK’s have to keep 2, 3, even 4 dots&debuffs up, if we don’t our main nukes are cut in half, and our strikes vary according to a set of 3 different types of ‘combo points’. Then, for good measure, whack in a Rage bar.

So where people get the notion that this is a faceroll class, I’m not sure.

The point of this post, though, is to try and highlight our strengths. Going on about Scourge Strike sucking in PVP or complaining about our tanking all the time is a sure way to sour yourself, and ruin all the good points to playing this class. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves exactly how good we have it.

First off, we have some amazing AoE potential when specced Unholy. Maybe that’s not always terribly important, but there are a number of occasions – yes we’re talking boss fights here, not solely trash – where effective AoE and the relative ease with which we can set it up put us well ahead of everyone else. Even Pure DPS. See, we sacrifice very little. One blood rune is all it takes to Pestilence and keep those diseases spread on all our targets. The Set-It-And-Forget-It nature of Death and Decay truly dwarfs any other PBAoE ability out there. And the longer the fight goes on and the more adds there are, the more our damage done and DPS rockets. Examples like Anub’Arak. Whether 10, 25 or Heroic, being able to shunt out absolutely horrendous amounts of damage to all those bugs is massive. And we don’t have to worry too much about positioning either. Other classes have a short radius. Blizzard requires channeling. We can dot up a couple mobs here, run a few steps and dot up a dozen more there. Affliction warlocks wish they could dot up mobs like we can.

Secondly, our single target DPS – whether Unholy, Blood or even Frost, remains solid. As Unholy, particularly, we retain the ability to sustain powerful single target dps – all without sacrificing AoE. We lag behind rogues and mages somewhat, but no more or less than any other hybrid. Blood and Frost sacrifice a bit of AoE to gain raid utility – Blood stands in for a Marksmanship hunter and Frost can provide the Windfury buff that an Enhancement Shaman brings (seen any of them around lately? Neither have I) but by no means should one underestimate the utility Unholy brings with Ebon Plague. An Affliction Warlock or Boomkin might be able to provide the same debuff to a raid boss, but not as easily and reliably as we can, and certainly not where any number of adds are involved.

Thirdly, we have some amazing tools. Anti Magic Shell is, the more I play, becoming such an incredible crutch. Raid bosses these days spew AoE magic damage out constantly. We can pop AMS regularly and weather the most violent of destructive arcane torrents unleashed upon us. And we get Rune Power out of the deal, too, with which to  unload a little more deeps on that boss. After having raided a chunk of content on my DK, now, and venturing ever further into ICC, I come to value the Green Bubble ever more. It is truly an incredible lifesaver. Use it early, use it often. And then we have Death Grip. You don’t have to be a tank to use it. You can use it to make your tank’s job easier, too. Jsut be careful – don’t DG mobs off a tank. That’s Deathtarded. But seeing a stray mob heading to a healer and pulling it into a Prot Pally’s concentrate followed by Chains of Icing it and moving out so the tank can get aggro on it? That’s awesome. I’ve wished, countless times, that I could do that while playing my mage. And then we have Icebound Fortitude. This reduces damage taken by a significant amount. Pull aggro? Pop it. But you should never pull aggro, at least not unintentionally. But if you know there’s an incoming AoE spike? Often I’ve popped this and survived horrendous raid damage that felled many a lesser.  And then there’s Vampiric Blood, Bone Shield or Unholy Armor. We have a ton of tools to survive bad things. Having raided as a mage, and in TBC as an (at times) Enhancement Shaman, these tools are all incredible and I often wonder how squishier classes manage. I’m not particularly skilled, yet I routinely post some of the best dps in my guild while dying the least – usually only to complete wipes. And I really have to say, a lot of it’s the class itself. Running through Marrowgar’s blue flames with my Green Bubble and unloading Death Coils on spikes willy nilly? It’s awesome.

In summation, DK DPS Quality of Life is, actually, pretty darn good. We are awesome. We look cool. We have cool abilities. We do DPS in a cool way. We’re tough as nails (at least in PVE). And we’re easy to learn, difficult to master. Sooner or later the room-temp-IQ facerollers will leave this class alone as they keep failing at dps and peeweepee, and the deathtard stigma will pass to another class, as surely as the huntard stigma did. We simply have to weather that storm a while longer.

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