With Cataclysm, as we’ve all seen, there have been some major changes all around and Death Knight, like all classes, has definitely been patched up. Not only has his talent tree been completely revamped, but changes have also been made to the way his runes regenerate. In order to be successful, DK players will need to take some time to familiarize themselves with the changes, including the new processes that are now part of Runic Empowerment. Since runes now refresh as a process, none of their previous rotations are of any use.
With this in mind, Death Knights in PvP have a distinct advantage as it’s much easier to have a rune on hand for that key ability compared to PvE where your main concern is maxing out every single DPS point you might have. in your hands. One thing that has become apparent across all classes and particularly Death Knight is that with the new talent trees, each of the three trees is an entity on its own rather than a mild hybrid of the others.
For Death Knights in PvP, Unholy has long been considered the only way to spec and is by rights still the best option, but with the new changes you can play all three with a high level of success. With a variety of talents like Shadow Infusion and Dark Transformation, you can unleash a lot of runic power into your Death Coil and let your pet run wild with Dark Transformation for 30 seconds with vastly enhanced abilities.
Unholy Blight will also be a major player, as it prevents your diseases from dissipating while keeping your Death Coil powered up. Adding Glyph of Death Coil to the mix makes you that much more powerful and the dirge of the battlefield. Choose your talents very carefully as you can’t pick all of the DPS boosters, be prepared to give up some of your DPS for some extra versatility and you’ll be surprised how well you’ll do on the battlefield. One more thing these changes will accomplish is that you’ll see tons of Death Knights in PvP playing their own game instead of copying each other; this should be a lot more fun and unpredictable than we’ve seen in a long time.