As of late, I've been extremely happy with the changes to Death Knights. Being a big fan of the Frost tree, I love the recent changes. When I was playing my Warrior before my hiatus pre-Wrath, I was dual wield Fury spec. When I learned that Death Knights would be able to dual wield, have having known they would be a tanking class already, my first thought was dual wield tanking.
When Wrath launched, and the months thereafter, it was quickly learned that dual wielding was terrible. It required perfect balance of stats and even then was mediocre. After a while, I (like every other DK at some point or another) gave it a try. I really liked it but it just was not viable for DPS, let alone tanking. Then, 3.2 dropped and it was like a light from the heavens for all Death Knights who wished to dual wield. 3.2 gave us the Threat of Thassarian talent deep into the Frost tree. While dual wielding was still a way off from being great, it was getting better. A while later, 3.3 dropped and added Icecrown raids and dungeons. More importantly, Rune of the Nerubian Carapace was added, giving us a 1h version of the Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle. Suddenly, dual wield tanking was viable. Not only was it viable, it did pretty well provided you could generate enough threat.
3.3.3 changed dual wield tanks even farther and Death Knight tanks in general with the addition of the high threat mechanic of Icy Touch. Off-hand damage was also increased by changes to Nerves of Cold Steel. Changes to Icy Talons made a constant raid wide haste buff possible, removing the need to constantly hit Icy Touch within a rotation and bringing back Pestilence rotations. 3.3.3 was very good to us Frost tanks, especially the dual wielders. I've even heard that dual wield tanking is now the preferred tanking spec of Frost tanks, though I can't remember where I read it at.
Now, dear reader, you may be wondering what I have to be upset about. As far as Wrath, I have nothing to be upset about. What I am upset about is the recent from Ghostcrawler that in the massive changes coming to classes in Cataclysm, Death Knights will no longer be able to use each talent tree to tank with. You may be thinking that it's not a big deal and you'd be right. The community has asked for a unified tanking tree and Blizzard has granted that. All tanking will be done by one specific tree, the same as how Druids, Warriors and Paladins all have. The difference lies in the name of that tree. Frost, right?
Wrong.
The sole tanking tree for Cataclysm will be Blood. Some do not regard this as a big deal. The fact that it will be a unified tanking tree is a welcome change. All tanking abilities will be united under Blood. According to GC, it's because Blood already has strong self-healing and defensive abilities. However, most of the community seems to agree that Frost tanking has better mitigation and actual passive defensive abilities. Call me petty, but this isn't even what I'm upset about. What I am most upset about is the loss of dual wield tanking. Some call it a gimmick and mostly just for fun. I, however, run it as my main spec. I main tank a weekly ICC10 run while dual wielding. It is extremely satisfying for me to be able to have Killing Machine proc as often as it does while dual wielding, allowing for Frost Strike to hit from both hands and guarantee a crit, hitting for usually 3k a piece.
Dual wield tanking is part of the reason I play my DK. I don't DPS with him very often. Granted, when I do, it's (again) dual wielding and I've noticed a big jump in my numbers. In Vanilla, I was a main raid healer. In BC, I was main raid DPS. Wrath, I've been a tank for most of the time. Out of the three, I love tanking. I love being in the thick of it and being the main line of defense between the boss and it eating healers. Part of this passion for it is the fact that I don't wear a shield. I have a weapon in each hand. The animations for tanking while holding 2 weapons is awesome for me.
There will be a lot of change before Cataclysm goes live. Hopefully this is something that Blizzard will reconsider.
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