No good solution to "different but equal" until th

separate PvP and PvE balance.

(Cross posted at tankspot.com)

they separate PvP and PvE balances.

There has been pretty convincing proof that given regular blizzard instance design, a certain tank class, the DK is just plain better than other classes for progression content, and that is ultimately the best choice of tank.

Previously, arguably warriors were the best choice of progression tank, with caveats, but there was a niche for other tanks, like paladins and feral tanks. AOE tanking was the purview of Paladins and ferals were the best choice for bosses with consistent and huge melee hits, and theoretically magic damage soaks.

Blizzard has a new favorite progression tank. The Death Knight. The best parry/dodge avoidance. The best armor. The best effective health. The best cooldowns (even after the glyph buffs of 3.1.)

I don't begrudge another class having a strong ability... after all I have a different ability, along with warriors. A shield... however a shield is not "different yet equal". On trash, sure... its a little better for us than DKs... but seriously who worries about trash?

So... we say... make shield abilities better. Give shields a multiple of block value in direct reduction of magic abilities.... thus we'd pit better cooldowns vs flat consistent reduction. Different yet equal, and you could thus design different encounters where regular but consistent damage and extraordinary but cooldowned damage would not give only one tank type an exceptional advantage.

Why can't we do this? PvP. Can't do flat blockvalue multiple reduction of magic damage... even as deep prot... because it would tip the balance of PvP... given that Blizzard has actually given prot some dps... and a high BV equating to high shield slams/SotR AND magic reduction would be viewed as imba.

Why are we allowing PvP to limit new options for PvE raiding after all this time? Its been years of this, after all.

My plea... give a raidwide debuff from new/future raid bosses, "Valorous Presence" (merely an illustrative name,) that modifies base skills and talents to give more, less or entirely different advantages.

They should be as minimal changes as possible... only enough to give different challenges and solutions to raiding (like for example changing PvE raid healing regen without changing up mana regen everywhere else.)

Thoughts? Comments?

My guild isn't up to Sarth+3 yet(We can do Sarth+1 easily, and we aren't hardcore enough to care to go farther at this point in time). There is absolutely no content that we have done that I can't do, or haven't done.

Yes, there is one boss in the game(Sarth+3) that has advantages for DKs and bears. Bears are getting the nerfbat in the next patch, and DKs didn't get off free. I still tend to have better threat generation than my tank brethren in my guild, and the changes to BoSanc are going to hurt DKs even with the compensation they are getting.

Beyond that, GC has stated on multiple occasions that if block scaling requires tweaking they'd fix it. At the time everyone was assuming he meant the overpoweredness that Critical Block seemed to throw out, especially if Warriors can hit the passive blocking cap. Now it seems that it's not the blockers but bears and DKs that were getting an unfair advantage against magical damage/extremely heavy hitters. Bears are already getting the stick. I have confidence in the developers to address any issues in a somewhat timely fashion.

Welcome to the forums, but your mountain is actually a molehill.
_________________

Heroic Hogger - Now with Fresh Lemon Scent!

Given that druids have more armor, health, and flat damage reduction than equivalently geared death knights, even after the PTR nerfs to druids, I think the premise for your rant is a bit misguided. Even if that wasn't the case, you've singled out one possible cause without disproving that there could be a much simpler solution. If one class were consistently ahead on everything, handing buffs to paladins doesn't fix the other three.

The concept of separation between pvp and pve is not new, either. Diminishing returns, control effects and occasional odd talents all work differently in pvp and pve; changing things from having one mechanic for pc's and another for npc's would not require a specific buff or debuff.

-Splug
_________________
Active raid character - death knight: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Illidan&n=Spyte
(usually) prot warrior: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Illidan&n=Splug

I'm pretty sure he's a warrior, actually. I'm also guessing this is a drive by poster.
_________________

Heroic Hogger - Now with Fresh Lemon Scent!

We have enough of these stupid threads. I don't know what you were trying to say about PvP, but it didn't come across as having anything to do with it.