Beta Imbalance - Scourge Strike

Perhaps one of the best and worst things about being part of the beta testing is just that... it's testing. Which means there are bound to be things that are miscalculated, ill-conceived, or just plain OP. =P

Scourge Strike was an Unholy DK talent that NO ONE wanted when it was first released. It didn't do anything special, especially for a 41-point talent, so Blizz made it better-- a LOT better. This will clearly be toned down in the next patch, but it's fun to play with for the time being. ^_-

If you look at this talent, and take a moment to understand how a DK plays, you'll quickly see how this ability is severely unbalanced as it stands.

1. "... deals 115% of weapon damage...": My weapon damage right now is 654-827, before it's mitigated by armor, of course. 115% of that puts me in the range of 752-951.
   
2. "... as Shadow damage...": Well, there goes that "mitigated by armor" part. =P Now we're dealing solely with Shadow resistance, and that's far less common than armor.
3. "... plus 653...": Okay, that makes my range 1405-1604.
4. "... and 58% additional damage for each of the Death Knight's diseases on the target.": An Unholy DK will typically have minimally three diseases, occasionally four, on his target, so add 174%-232%.

Final damage result:
3 diseases = 2445-2791 Shadow
4 diseases = 3260-3721 Shadow

The requirements for maximizing this ability are rather simple to meet. Remember, you have 2 Blood, 2 Frost, and 2 Unholy runes to work with, all refreshing 10 seconds after use. Using 1 Frost and 1 Unholy, I can almost immediately get three diseases on my target. This leaves me with the 1 Frost/1 Unholy required to use Scourge Strike right off the bat. 10 seconds later, my diseases are still up, and my runes are refreshed, allowing me to use Scourge Strike twice more. Getting the fourth disease up is a matter of having 60 runic power, which may or may not happen in a short fight, depending on how much you have saved up.

All this aside, the real fun comes when it crits. =P There's so much synergy via talents with Scourge Strike, it's sick. FOUR of the Unholy talents deal with SS. Take a look:

Vicious Strikes: 6% more crits, 30% more powerful crits.

Outbreak: here's 15% more damage to the base ability.

Desecration: if I'm standing on my Desecration effect, that's another 10% damage!

Rage of Rivendare: since the target almost definitely has Blood Plague, this is ANOTHER 10%!

Blood Presence: and if you happen to choose Blood Presence over Unholy, you can add on an additional 15%! XD (I like Unholy Presence-- 15% attack speed increase, 0.5 second shorter Global Cooldown.)

When all this adds up, and I happen to crit... LOOK OUT! People are QQing all over the forums and the General chat channel about Scourge Strike. I kinda hope they don't get around to balancing it any time soon. =P

POW!

BAM!

SMASH!