Too soon: DKs in Panda Beta Testing

No news is, well no news. I’m waiting the feedback on beta testing for MoP to see where the classes are headed and if my beloved Death Knights will be fun or not. As a side distraction I’m also watching Warlocks, Paladins, Druids, and Warriors too as I enjoy those classes.

What I’ve found after reading around the regular wow news haunts is that the Beta process is still too early imho to trust that the information will be similar at launch. A case in point is the rather good Lichbourne column on WoWInsider, which has a summary of the current state of play for DKs in beta.

“With the Mists of Pandaria beta test under way, I’m reminded of an interesting discussion I’ve seen going around the death knight community. Coming out of Wrath, we were most definitely seen as overpowered, and starting a few patches later, we started off on a balance roller coaster we’ve never quite disembarked from, getting nerfs, de-nerfs, tweaks, and even the removal or redesign of entire spells and systems….”

The TLDR version is: still unknown on most items, its all about balance, and fundamentals are unresolved. But don’t trust me, go read for yourself as Daniel Whitcomb does a good job on the column.

What does this mean?

Well my guess is that its now the end of march and we have no clarity on DKs as either Tanks or DPS, so MoP is many many months away. If DKs are this unknown, then other class roles also could not be expected to be finalised either, as WoW will be aiming for “balance” between the classes as they work in a role.

Back to the distractions of blogs, games, and non-DK lives. Happy Killing.

Its too quiet on the 4.3 PTR for DKs

I’m not sure I like how quiet the news on Death Knights has been. The PTR built has seen chatter and changes for most of the other classes, set bonuses, and some spell affects, the odd tweak and change; but the DKs seem to be silent. The initial batch of information on changes was OK, and while I think the t13 bonuses were lackluster, they were posted.

Now if I was a Paladin (getting reworked) I might be happier if it was quiet, as it could be a good thing. Perhaps DKs are functioning on PTR as intended, and we’re just pending the best art design ever for the T13 Death Knight armor model (a guy can hope).

No updates, no t13 armor graphic models, no extra notes; it just feels too quiet for us at the moment. I hate waiting.

Mortigen on Son of a Lich

Son of a Lich has posted my response to the DK intro called Circle of Killing.

For those new to the concept the Circle of Killing is a featured Death Knight answering a series of similar questions about the class; akin to the Circle of Healing posts. And Son of  Lich is a great DK blog and resource.

Happy killing.

Initial 4.3 patch notes for Death Knights

The first set of patch notes for 4.3 have been released, and there are some interesting things for Death Knights (source, mmo). A lot of things will likely change between now and the release.

Noteworthy is:

1. Healing from Death Strike is automatic, and the damage is subject to a successful hit.
2. Abom’s Might has the melee attack power increased, all other affects are the same.
3. Blade Barrier is a base % damage soak reduction, which is a change away from being dependent on rune usage.
4. Howling Blast’s base damage has increased, while the scaling from attack power has been slight reduced.
5. Veteran of the Third War now also reduces the cooldown on Outbreak by 30 seconds.

For DK Tanks this is a change toward a more consistent inbound damage, a reduction on replacing our diseases. The change in Abom’s might will be reflected elsewhere in identical buffs, so that melee dps is bumped. I am not sure if the HB change will increase or decrease the damage. Overall its good, I feel that we’ll be less spikey.

In other news:

1. A few enchants for Tanks are slightly increased, not overly huge change, but welcome.
2. You’ll be able to dethrone an inactive GM, so play nice.
3. GC has posted a summary and some background thoughts on the patch changes.
4. And yes, the artwork for the Priest and Hunter gear has been released. The Priest helm looks incredible. Where are the Death Knight models?
5. Archaeology areas of interest will now show on the mini-map, in addition to the World Map.

Happy killing, Typhoonandrew.

Death Knight Tier 13 Set Bonuses

Death Knight Tier 13 bonuses, as published by WoW Joystick (or whatever that blog’s name is now):

• Blood, 2P — When an attack drops your health below 35%, one of your Blood Runes will immediately activate and convert into a Death Rune for the next 20 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 45 sec.
• Blood, 4P — Your Vampiric Blood ability also affects all party and raid members for 50% of the effect it has on you.
• DPS, 2P — Sudden Doom has a 30% chance and Rime has a 60% chance to grant 2 charges when triggered instead of 1.
• DPS, 4P — Runic Empowerment has a 25% chance and Runic Corruption has a 40% chance to also grant 710 mastery rating for 12 sec when activated.

Overall this looks interesting, and subject to so many smaller factors like up-time and usage that I can’t see any of these as great overall; useful, but not great.

The bonuses also seem somewhat different to some of the other class bonuses in the tier 13. Priests and Hunters specifically seem to have a direct damage increase here, and although I hate to be doing cross class comparison (as its often not at all valid), it does seem odd.

At least a few upgrades

Last week I was finally able to purchase the third t12 item, and I decided to craft the 365 weapons rather than waiting for either a price drop, or a totally lucky drop in Firelands. It feels good to have some upgrades.

It took me a long time to get the third t12 item, and I worked hard for it – was it casual? Yup. But you can get stuffed if you think it didn’t take a very long time. I’m not the best geared in my guild at all, but considering that I have never had a raid upgrade in Firelands, and have barely stepped in there, being around position 12 to 14 on the guild list is a small achievement.

Today I read news that the t13 items will not be available for purchase with Valor, but other gear will be. Initially I was totally disenfranchised by this. I think this is OK as long as the gear is almost the same as the tier gear. A tad less powerful is fine (eg. missing a Tier set bonus), but if the items are no more powerful than the 5 man rewards, then I will not be grinding Valor at all – and cannot see a reason to do the 5 mans beyond the basic gear-ups.

That will have a drastic affect on the tank population, and the amount of players we’ll see – so much so that I doubt it is even plausible for the Valor gear not to be almost as good. Not granting t13 rewards makes having those items more special, and I like that. If you are a raider and you got lucky enough to get them, then kudos. Just don’t penalise my role in the raid because I’ve geared a few items using Valor. That would be stupid.

So what does this all mean? It means I’m watching closing the announcements for gear as part of 4.3. Very closely.

Should DPS Death Knights learn to Tank?

Good topic on wow insider a while ago asking if Healing priests should learn shadow, and it has resonance with a DK’s dps role. So I’ll rhetorically ask:

Should DPS Death Knights learn to Tank? And vice versa?

I’d like to give you a balanced and well rounded opinion on this, complete with examples and war stories, but I can’t. The answer is so bloody obvious it makes me wonder how you could have the opposite view – my answer is by hell and damnation they should.

Everyone will play better and understand roles better when they have a wider set of experience. If you have not done it, go try a different role in 5 mans. Do 20 runs in each role, and then see if it changed your attitude.

Disagree? Please tell me why.

My class of Choice

Back in 2008 I wrote a post about My class of Choice. At the time I was an alt-a-holic, with 3 characters who were regularly played in Warcraft, and many more who were used as profession mules.

Fast forward to now and my warcraft time is as different as my life is, then from now. The Paladin, Warlock, and Druid has been replaced by Mortigen, the Death Knight. Wrath saw this class released upon the game, and I’ve never looked back.

The Death Knight was my first character to level 85, and the first I wanted to take to raids. I also now have a Hunter and Druid at 85, and the Paladin, Warlock, and Priest are stuck at 80, with a shamble of Shamans and others throughout the 30s to 70s. In 2008 I said I’d not ever have a Hunter and now its 85 – the game changes you.

Lifestyle wise in 2008 I was living in another city, where my partner (now wife) was regularly working away from home or doing long hours. This facilitated a huge amount of time where i could do as I pleased. The Alts came out in force, and the content was getting smashed left and right.

It is funny to ponder how wow and life changes. Happy Killing.

kudos to those who solo

Quick post to spread the word – mmo champion has videos of a DK who successfully completed Yogg+1 solo, straight after doing a solo kill Mimron on hard mode: Firefighter! Also in the post is a Malygos solo by a Warlock. So we have a Death Knight doing what they are darn good at, by demonstrating that Firefighter is nigh on impossible for some groups now, but plausible for a solo DK. That is great.

Then a Warlock stepping up and showing that it is not just plate wearers can solo old content. Malygos is a darn healthy fight. Just amazing efforts by both the Death Knight and the Warlock.

Farming the AH for raid gear

Here is a quick summary of the upgrades I’ve got for Mortigen, my Frost Death Knight in the last 2-3 weeks. Note that all so far are via the AH or Hyjal quests – and I’m now running with 4x items that are either Best in Slot, or well placed to be BiS in combination with other gear.

Why do I raise this? Well my gearing plan now is to make a huge boat load of gold on the AH and buy my way to decent raid gear. I can’t raid regularly at the moment, but I’ll be damned if I’ll not be taken later in the raids when my schedule gets better due to poor gear (meaning still wearing ilevel 359 items in most places). So now starts a sell-up of all the mats I’ve stockpiled over the expansion, to be converted into trade goods and items which will sell. In raw value I think I have at least 10k worth of mats banked, which I hope to convert into well over 30-40k. We’ll see.

• Cloak: The Hyjal reward is BiS and healthy. A darn good start, and such a great bump.
• Wrist: purchased valor based wrist, so another upgrade to wrist slot is far lower priority now. yes, it was a bit of a waste to buy this so early, as the prices are going to drop significantly in the next month…but I wanted it.
• Trinket 1: I just purchased an Apparatus of Khaz’goroth (AoK), which makes most of the other Dps trinkets a much smaller upgrade (ie. from Ragnaros). See ranking table from the EJ guys.
• Trinket 2: The Crushing Weight is is still apparently darn good, and given how much Expertise is dumps, I agree.

Trinkets for Dual Wield Frost DKs are a funny thing. The License to Slay ranks very high on that table, but then its main stat offering (Hit Rating) is something that I have a stack of due to the main hand weapons also having Hit. I’ll have to consider grabbing a License at some point, but well after the other gear slots are up to spec.

The AoK is very nice, although it is said that it is far worse for a DK using Unholy, as they do not get enough Critical Strikes fast enough to actually acquire 5 stacks of the power. That makes sense, and means that I’ll probably stay Frost unless a fantastic 2 handed weapon somehow gets within my grasp. I can’t see it happening any time soon. I did some preliminary testing to see if I’d wasted a lot of gold, but it had a slight dps increase on a dummy, so I hope that will translate to a more powerful increase when I’m raid buffed and killing things “for real”.

I also can’t see myself getting any of the Heroic versions of the trinkets either (or any other gear come to think of it), although I might get lucky and get a Firestone to upgrade an item I have much later at some point. I think I’d upgrade the AoK, as the Heroic version is really nice too. People are challenging the item as the potential affect cannot be fully utilised all the time, but the Str buff alone is very healthy and if macro’ed in to a strike then you’ll always use it when its off cooldown.

Yes, now I’m much poorer than a few weeks ago (spent approx 34k so far), but if my enchants sell then i could be picking up another BoE upgrade within a week or two.

I might even sell the Orb of Deception and Haunted Memento that I’ve had for ages too; the sale value of both has not changed hardly at all, despite being somewhat rare.