Death Strike healing no longer based on damage
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 21st 2009 at 8:00PM
Death Strike is a bit of a strange skill in the Death Knight arsenal. Leveling, you use it in place of Scourge Strike/Obliterate when you need healing. In a raid, likewise, although you may be significantly less likely to need healing. In patch 3.1 this changed a bit, with Death Strike becoming the default UF ability for Blood builds, whether or not they needed healing at the time.
However, this beefed-up Death Strike for Blood meant that Blood players were getting huge heals from DS without having to pay a damage penalty, which was an issue both in PvP and, apparently, while tanking. So after a brief period of being hotfixed to provide an unspecified amount less healing, DS now heals for a flat 5% of the DK's health per disease on the target, up to a maximum of 15%. The amount healed is no longer based on how much damage Death Strike does.
Among other things, this means Unholy DKs, with their third disease, will actually get more healing from DS than Blood DKs who have talents to boost DS's damage. I'm not sure this is a problem, especially given Blood's other health-generating abilities, but it does feel slightly strange. I haven't played Blood since early leveling, though - do current Blood players have any opinions on the change?
Filed under: Patches, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
emptyrepublic Apr 21st 2009 8:08PM
I imagine there will be a segment of the DK population that is not happy with this; though in my view this has next to no impact in PvE for tanking or DPS. If you are relying on DS to keep up your healing then there is a much larger problem at hand than a functional change that Blizzard made to an attack.
Narshe Apr 22nd 2009 1:27AM
The healing you receive from DS gives a Blood tank threat as long as your actually missing health when you use it. It was nice too for AOE, since it would spread threat to multiple mobs with a single target spell.
I agree it was way OP but to say it has no impact on PVE (tanking wise) isnt true. Heres to hoping they rethink certain Blood talents that involve DS.
Draim Apr 21st 2009 8:10PM
If you look at the spell unholy dk's do not necessarily get more healing from this because the healing effect ignores a 3rd disease if you have one (5% for no diseases 10% for 1 and 15% for 2) There was a blue post yesterday confirming that as well. I guess they would need slightly less effort to get the full 15% since they can apply two diseases in one move but most dk's are going to be putting all diseases us right away anyway so thats not that big of an issue.
dtb529 Apr 21st 2009 8:30PM
Yeah, GC said a few days ago that he believes the DS healing only scales to two diseases.
Kassu Apr 22nd 2009 10:32AM
It ignored the 3rd disease for a brief time before this last hotfix.
It now benefits from Ebon Plague...
Stupid change is stupid, they should have never made DS a viable DPS option, that's where this all started. Blood should have sticked with using OB. Bollocks.
Valdorin Apr 21st 2009 8:11PM
Much better, the hotfix after 3.1 was ridiculous!
May as well have waited for my spirit heals to tick or keybind Gift of the naaru where I normally had deathstrike
Eight Apr 21st 2009 8:15PM
While I enjoyed the crazy heals from DS on my leveling DK tank (offset the quality of low level pug healers nicely) it was pretty ridiculous.
bugmaster Apr 21st 2009 8:16PM
with 15% it still gives me a 4.2k heal every time i use it so no complaints here :P
Kakistocracy Apr 21st 2009 9:25PM
4.8k unbuffed here, looks like it's time to solo stuff.
Raid buffed, that should be an easy 6k, that sounds like a decent bit of threat, not to mention a buff from what it was, might be time to annoy some people in the battle grounds.
Emily Apr 21st 2009 8:24PM
I've definitely noticed a change with DS healing when applied to my level 70 Death Knight. I'm now dual-specced Blood and Unholy, but mostly I play in Blood unless I need to do a lot of AoE tanking. Granted, I'm not max level, so the change I see here may not be as significant as that seen by a level 80 in full raid gear.
The amount healed by Death Strike seems to have been reduced by about 20-25%. Before the hotfix, I'd get normal heals for ~750, and crit heals for just over 1100 (at level 70), but now the average heal is ~600 and the crit heal is around 1000.
When working with a healer, this change will be no problem at all. But because I'm mostly a solo player while leveling (unless my hubby is bored and brings one of his toons along with me), that might make it a little more difficult. But no more difficult than, say, Warrior or Rogue.
Overall, this isn't as major a nerf as many classes have recently seen, so those of us playing OP-as-hell Death Knights (I'm saying OP-as-hell when my main is a dual MM/Surv Hunter!) need to just learn to live with it.
Varne Apr 21st 2009 8:23PM
When I was healing myself for 256 damage with 3 diseases up on my 80 Unholy DK, I was very annoyed.
Now I'm healing for 3k+ with 3 diseases, and I'm happy. Well done Blizz :)
Dalrand Apr 21st 2009 9:06PM
Don't think this change makes that much difference other than scaling with your health.
Unholy gets the 5% more healing due to EP, but Blood still gets all its Improved Blood Presance (10% healing recieved) so don't think theres much to it all really.
LandMineHare Apr 21st 2009 9:15PM
Yaaah... This is more BS.
Nerfing a skill because other classes are QQing in PVP. Who cares about the PVPers, go outside and play basketball or something if you want to wave your weenus around.
How am I supposed to solo elites now when I can't crit 8k heals :(
Blob Apr 21st 2009 10:12PM
Have a problem with DK nerfs? GO BACK TO ARTHAS, HE MISSES YOU! ;)
Pope Jamal Apr 22nd 2009 12:09AM
Well played my blobby friend...well played indeed.
Nexumbra Apr 21st 2009 10:07PM
Yet another Reason to roll unholy.
aaronomus Apr 22nd 2009 2:46AM
Idiot. This is a buff to blood tanks. Death Strike used to heal me for about 3.5-4k. Now, raid buffed, it will be more than 6k. Blood tanking was already the most OP thing in the game, now it's just going to be stupid. Frost is better for AE tanking and OTing, but Blood is better than any spec/class in the game for tanking a single heavy-hitting boss, period.
UH tanks, you all fail; as soon as you get some good gear and diminishing returns start nerfing your avoidance stats, you'll realize why bone shield is so inferior to Vamp Blood and Unbreakable Armor.
Blayla Apr 21st 2009 10:13PM
SUCKS HUGE! There is not other way to put it. I have been blood since the beta and those 6-8k heals made soloing fantastic! Now, no way! I can not solo elites my level on a hero class DK with Naxx25 gear! But... I can solo those elites on my farming BM hunter in quest blues. What a joke. Sure, it takes a little longer, but at least I am not making the grave yard run!
tatsumasa Apr 21st 2009 10:55PM
how can you possibly suck that bad? on my frost tank dk, i can solo the big elites in icecrown with no problem.
PsychoRaven Apr 22nd 2009 12:07AM
Yea. I don't raid and hell now that I switched sides I don't dungeon much if at all. So all I can get is PVP gear and I can even freaking solo the Elites in Ice Crown in those. So if you can't solo them then something isn't right.