Heya guys!!  So there is a lot to talk about with the upcoming PTR changes, however for the moment we’re only touching on a few points.

• Killing Machine now gives Your melee attacks a chance to make your next Icy Touch, Howling Blast or Frost Strike a critical strike.
• Necrosis now give your auto attacks an additional 4/8/12/16/20% shadow damage.
• Summon Gargoyle now persists up to 30 seconds.  Damage from Gargoyles has been reduced from 64-86 to 51-69.
• Anti-Magic Zone now lasts up to 10 seconds.
• Gnaw cooldown has been increased from 20 to 30 seconds.

Outside of Necrosis, this is pure fail.  Keep in mind that Necrosis tends to never exceed 3% of your total damage, so this 5 point talent will cap out at 4-7% of your damage tops.  With 4-5% being more realisitic with these changes.  No one is sure yet what the PPM is on KM, so lets talk about it for just a moment for the uninitiated.

PPM

PPM stands for Proc Per Minute.  This is usually set to a number.  Let’s use the number 10 for example.  Now if an item or ability has a PPM of 10, that means that normally without anything changing your attacks you’d get 10 procs (or activations) per minute on average.  So if you would normally attack 30 times in 60 seconds (with haste) then you’d get 1 proc per 3 attacks.

Instant casts change things, as they don’t count as your normal attacks.  So if you fire off 30 instant cast attacks in 60 seconds you got 60 attacks in 60 seconds.  With the same PPM of 10, once you add in the instant casts, you will actually proc 20 effects in 1 minute since you are normally at 1 proc per 3 attacks with your current stats, etc…  Now, this is a bit simplified, but that is basically how PPM works.  You can also check out a read on PPM at WoW Wiki.

OK, so at the moment no one knows what the PPM on KM is, but I guess some testers will hopefully find out for us soon.

Summon Gargoyle

Summon Gargoyle is now less than 50% of what it was.  Remember that for about the first 10 seconds of the Gargoyle’s duration, he’s not doing bupkiss.  He’s summoning in.  So in actuallity you will only have a potential of about 20-25 seconds of dps instead of 50-55 seconds of dps.  Add in that the base damage is being reduced, and this has become a MASSIVE nerf to DK’s.

While it’s good to nerf this talent in regard to the fact that any and every spec can get it, this screws over Unholy spec dramatically.  Unholy is not really being buffed in any way outside of Necrosis, and that isn’t much to begin with.  So you’re looking at a pretty severe dps drop off.  It’s time to get crackin’ on ideas and thoughts on how to make up for some of this dps in the Unholy tree without affecting other trees.  Get on over to the PTR forums and drop some feedback and/or suggestions.

PvP Nerfs

AMZ to 10 seconds.  I’d personally think this deserves at least 20 seconds.  It requires a 6 point investment to gain, and has limited use which solid CC can actually negate entirely.  Not too keen on 10 seconds.

And wtf with screwing over our Stun?!?  It’s the biggest reason to stay spec’d into Ghouls for PvP to begin with.  /sigh

More to come

Well I’m off for the moment.  I’m still waiting to hear more feedback on the DK nerfs and changes.  And it’s things like these changes to KM and Gargoyle that is making me wait on revamps and touch ups on specs and rotations.  There’s still no telling where we will land.

This is like voting though guys.  If you don’t go speak up and leave some kind of feedback, then you’ve got no one to blame but yourself if you get something you don’t like.  PTR forums.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters.

Tags: Blue