The new Death Knight set has been shared by MMO Champ – I’m calling it the mullet set. Business in the front, party in the back. … A mullet joke is better than the “me-so-horny” jokes you’ll see in Stormwind and the Deeprun Tram very soon.
The set without the helm is good, I don’t understand the helm design.
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.
MMO Champion has datamined the Death Knight Tier 13 base model. Was it worth the wait? (huge version here).
Given how long we waited for this – its good. Not fantastic, not game changing, but certainly a good model set. It is hard to know how this will look on the various character models, as that often makes or breaks the sets too. But yup, good stuff. I’ll be after the set for both the dps and model reasons.
A huge thank you to mmo-champion for mining this, its been too long a wait. Continue reading
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.
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.
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:
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:
Happy killing, Typhoonandrew.
My Death Knight Dps rotation: Tongue, Nose, Forehead, Chin or Cheekbone (on proc), then Forehead until my eyes & nose water, then wipe face on keyboard. Repeat.
Ahem, sometimes I’m amazed by the facerollers, and wanted to help them improve. I hear league of legend is good too. Happy killing.
Death Knight Tier 13 bonuses, as published by WoW Joystick (or whatever that blog’s name is now):
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. Continue reading
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.
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.
