En Garde!

Yeah, duel-wielding is awesome. Cuz awesome.

Glowy

I'm glowy, oh so glowy! Apparently the internet thinks glowy isn't a word. Well, I'll show you internet!

Glowy glowy glowy!

Glowy!

Death Knights in Cataclysm (Fo real)

A week ago or so I painstainkingly filled out talent trees for all three possible DK specs, looking at all the talents.

Then Blizzard went and fixed everything. Go here to look at the NEW DK talent trees.

Now, before you select one you have to remember that you get locked into a tree until you have spent 31 points (level 70).

So let us examine each spec more briefly than before.

All three specs get their spec specific strike as soon as they pick a spec. No big surprise. They also all get their death rune conversion talent, which is something that I would generally not take, but it is useful.

Unholy DKs get Master of Ghouls, which is one of the things that identifies an unholy DK, his perma-ghoul. He also gets a somewhat significant boost to his spell damage. Which, although unholy has some spells, its not as good as it would be in frost.

Frost DKs get Icy Talon which both increases their runic power pool and increases their haste. Who can complain?

Finally,  Blood DKs get Veteran of the Third War for a little bit of stamina and some expertise. They also get Vengeance, which is a very interesting ability. "Each time you take damage, you gain 5% of the damage taken as attack power, up to a maximum of 10% of your health." Now, I thought about this for a few seconds. Right now, my paladin has 60k HP, fully buffed in ICC. Healthpools are only going up in Cataclysm. So, this could be very overpowered. Right now I would get about 6,000 more AP which is just a ridiculous amount. Of course, I would have had to take 120k damage, but that isn't really all that much, just a few swings from Marrowgar.


I'm probably interpreting that wrong, but part of me wishes otherwise.


Off to play SCII. Got the beta a day or two before they close it. Whoo!

Last bit of DKs in Cataclysm

So this is the third post on DKs in Cataclysm. I'm likely to revisit these fellas as we get closer to launch, and probably afterwards.

It felt to me that Unholy was well suited to PvP, and so I put together a PvP build. Now, I'm not a PvPer but anyways- PvP Unholy: Here it is!

In Blood we have Exsanguinate, which gives a little bit of healing when you kill something. Healing is nice- these points could probably be shifted to Unholy if it will increase mastery/be more effective damage wise.

In frost we go in deep enough to grab three really nice PvP abilties. Lichborne- their trinket on a talent, Endless Winter- makes their primary interrupt free and Pillar of Frost, because of the lovely immunity to external movement affects.

If you don't like those options, you can go with this spec. It focuses a bit more on blood, not grabbing Endless Winter or Pillar of Frost, but snagging Bone Shield (don't think it is very effective in PvP).

Anyways, then we get to our Unholy Talents. I chose to not take Epidemic because you will be reapply diseases as part of your rotation and while they are difficult to dispel (and once dispelled you can reapply them because you got your rune back vie Resilient Infection) this is PvP and they may be dispelled- no need to spend five points on something that will be dispelled.

Unholy Blight, while not as good as it used to be is still helpful, by making it harder for your diseases to be dispelled.

Improved Unholy Presence is really nice, because you will still be a better than average flag-capper and you can get away from someone you don't want to be near, plus, you can pop in Blood Presence, keep the movement speed bonus, but get a huge chunk of survivability.

I didn't put points into Wandering Plague, because PvP isn't the best place for AoE.

Of course, the spec does a lot for Death Coil, creating resource regeneration from Runic Empowerment in the  frost tree, Morbidity for increased damage, Unholy Blight for the disease sticking and extra damage. If you want to, you can put some points into Sudden Doom to give your auto attacks a chance to make them free.

Anyways, I plan on moving to another class- likely Paladins or Warlocks if they seem to be significantly changed.

More Cataclysmic Death Knights

So, lets get to this quick- here's a DW frost build using the current calculator. These are for PvE purposes, so my talents are chosen accordingly.

http://www.wowtal.com/#k=BTqmjF6rxbVItY.9gq.deathknight
or
http://www.wowtal.com/#k=CT3hwX_dL08Pz.9gq.deathknight

The only new abilities frost has are Brittle Bones, Pillar of Frost and Might of the Frozen Wastes. Improved Frost Presence is different, but not new.

Explanations after the break:

Death Knights in Cataclysm.

Well, in Cataclysm Blood DKs are going to be the tanks, Frost can DW or 2H- up to them, and Unholy is something I don't know much about.

So, without further ado, a Blood Tanking spec:

http://www.wowtal.com/#k=xSaCqIB_0-1M.9gq.deathknight

So- some interesting talents:

The Combination of Hemorrhagic Fever, Crimson Scourge and Blood Swarm all improve it. I like it because it is a cheap snap AoE. Anyways, it can now decrease physical damage dealt, does more damage and you can get it for free when you clip your Blood Plague.

Bood Presence and Imp Blood Presence are the replacement for frost presence- so now presences work with the specs. The improvement gives you your crit immunity.

Blood Parasite is the blood worms redone, so it heals your party- not just you.

Will of the Necropolis currently just does the standard reduced damage under 35%. In Cataclysm, it will give you a Rune-Tap free essentially. Plus 25 damage reduction for 8 seconds- pretty nifty.

Sanguine Fortitude is pretty awesome too- unbuffed it reduces damage taken by 30% and makes the player immune to stuns. If you add in the talent, it now reduces damage taken by 60% and is FREE. So its the Shield Wall/Divine Protection of DKs.

And Dancing Rune Weapon is actually useful for tanks now! In addition to the normal extra damage it provides 20% parry- a huge amount, making it a worthwhile tanking cooldown.

So this is plenty long for a post- I'll do frost some other day. Don't worry boys'n'girls, I'll get to it.

Let the roflstomping commence

Lotsa dargons. You can't see em all in this image, but I think there were about 6-9 flying around absolutely wrecking the city. And then the battle of lights hope- good lord, there were about 20 DKs.

Pwitty!

So, you remember when I got Malkhelm to 80 and I had a bunch of screenshots?

Well, Ziyzik is getting that treatment now. Welcome to The Hinterlands.

On the fifth day...

He hit 60.

I really do have a problem. I really like the way this is going, I'm leveling quickly and smoothly and having quite a bit of fun.

I'm not sure why I'm doing this though. I mean, the rogue- while a fun class- isn't a very interesting class to play while soloing. Most of my work involves spamming Sinister Strike and then hitting Eviscerate. If I see too many mobs, I either Shadowmeld or Vanish. Or, if I think I can take em, I hit Blade Flurry, Adrenaline Rush and Lifeblood before going back to my normal rotation.

I don't get awesome procs, like Hot Streak, I don't get a pet, I don't get ridiculous crits, I can't even aoe for my life.

But I really am enjoying leveling this toon. Perhaps it is the breakneck pace that I'm leveling him at. Perhaps it is the change of pace from doing a ridiculous number of instances on my other toons. I mean, my main is a tank, and the vast majority of what she does is instances, then my warlock is just to help out other people who need a dps for their instance, my DK was leveled as a tank in the RDF and continues to tank instances, without much questing involved.

My druid is currently being leveled as a feral tank and so he is tanking instances. Perhaps its the fact that I'm not tanking, or that I'm not in instances anymore. Perhaps its the fact that it is something new.


By that reasoning, I should love my new job. I've never had a 9-5 before. I've never had an office job before. I've never been an intern before. I've never worked in the publishing industry before. Thus, if I like new, this is going to be fantastic. Now. Sleep. Because you get to wake up early for 9-5s.

Forays in Icecrown Citadel

In addition to my walks in that icy palace on my paladin with my guild, I have had the privilege of going there on my lock as a guest for another guild's alt-10s. Recently, the leader has announced that it will be extended until we manage to down the Lich King.

Last week, we one shot everything up to Putricide and three-shot him. This week we one shot the Princes, two shot the Blood Queen, and rescued Valithria on our first attempt.

Then we proceeded to bring Sindragosa to phase three four times, before the raid was called.

Now, all of their raiders were significantly better geared than those of TOC, but it was an educational experience nonetheless.

For the Blood Prince Council, they used only two tanks. They had their paladin tank Taldaram and Valanar while the bear tanked Keleseth. One hunter was on Kinetic bomb duty- he shot at one and his pet was on the other.

Proceeding to BQL, they had the ranged put themselves in the middle ring and had the her tanked on her platform. They called out who should be bitten. Those who were connected ran to the middle (which was empty) and those who had the flames ran to the outer ring (also empty). When she flew up and feared, the tanks and dps scattered on the platform and the ranged and healers were already spread out.

For Valithria, they had the two tanks call out the adds that spawned on their sides.

Priority was as follows:

1. Blazing Skeletons: have pets on passive and bring them to the middle. They do not cast Lay Waste until they have cast a fireball on their initial target, so they can be kited to be in range of everybody. (or so it appeared- this is not fact, only observation).
2. Rot Worms: A little AoE should handle them easily.
3. Suppressors: They only have 35k hp, so they can be taken care of easily. If one (or two) dps are assigned to them, it shouldn't be a problem.
4. Risen Archmage: Their Frostbolt Volley should be interrupted, rogues, DKs and Shamans are good at this job.
5. Blistering Zombies: Have a Hunter (or some other kiting class) kite these guys around so as to avoid the armor debuff on the tanks.
6. Gluttonous Abomination: Its not much of a threat (as compared to the rest) so it can be low priority.

Their strategy for Sindragosa was quite different from the Tankspot video and consequently deserves an article of its own, probably in a day or two.

Nice people

Nice people? On the internet? HA!

Yeah, I had gotten the impression from many places that everybody in heroics is all about gearscore, speed and doing as much damage as they can.

However, I have yet to experience it. There are several reasons for it. First off, my main (Alenena) is geared enough to tank ICC-25, this satisfies the GS group. Then, because of this ridiculous amount of gear, I can run quickly through instances pulling up to three or four packs of mobs at once, so the people who desire speed are happy. Then, since my gear is ridiculous, I can hold threat off pretty much everybody I see, so they can go crazy.
Thus, I never hear any complaints on my paladin.

On my warlock, I generally only run with guildies, and as we are a social guild, we don't really care what happens so long as we get what we want- fun.
Thus, I never hear any complaints on my warlock.

My Death Knight is managed to get to the Defense cap quickly, and began running heroics. His gear is awful, he can't pull more than one pack at a time and people have to watch their DPS or pull off him.
However, I have yet to hear any complaints on my Death Knight.

In my last heroic (VH) I saw that one of the DPS (shaman) had ICC-10/25 gear and could probably pull 5-7k dps. This means that he would have pulled off me in under a second. However, when I mentioned I might have difficulty keeping up with him, he just settled into chain-casting Lightning Bolt, and ended up topping the charts with about 2.5k.

So, go figure, nice people on the webz.

Spoiler Alert

This screenshot post has information directly pertaining to the endgame quests in Icecrown of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. If you haven't gotten this far, well, keep grinding.

Poing!

As an FYI, instead of the classic Ding/Grats(Gratz etc...) my guild uses Point/Nifty to indicate level ups.

So without further ado, my newest 80, Malkhelm.

Back in Dragonblight (76). The high contrast makes this a very nice shot.

Orgrimmar (77). After becoming a Veteran of the Wrathgate, I did some diplomatic work including taunting Thrall and sitting in his throne.

Dragonblight (78). Working on a cure for a crusader. I had already asked the druids and now I was working with the Red Dragonflight.

Utgarde Pinnacle (79). One of the many, many times I saw the Lich King in my last couple days of leveling.

Icecrown (79). I tracked down the Naaru in Shattrath and they gave the ailing crusader an appropriate farewell.

And finally, the screenshot. Yeah, doubters, you can stop doubting now. I have a screenshot.

Death by Death Knight

As you may be able to tell by the title, this is gonna be another one in a string of class columns. I know I said that I would do leveling columns and Cata class changes, by those are boring. In this series, we will look at the various ways each class kills you- generally by each tree, one at a time.

So Death Knights- Blood, Frost and Unholy.

Blood: This spec isn't anything too extreme. It focuses on a lot on draining your life away from you. The way I see it happening is that the DK jumps from his flying mount and begins his assault. He drains your life away, the blood rushing up his blade and soaking into his skin. Eventually, though you do your best to burn him, he heals too quickly and you lose to much health to carry on.

Frost: When facing a frsot DK, you die quickly and relatively painlessly. He charges at you, freezing you in place. He continues to blast you with ice, frost and rime. All the while he is cutting at your limbs with his two weapons. While normally it would be very painful, the cold has numbed you and your responses are sluggish.

Unholy: By far the worst death by a DK. This monster waits behind a rock, or in a bush for you to ride by. When you do, he rips you from your mount to face him. An army of ghouls surround him, but they quickly move to position themselves around you. The bite and gnaw on your limbs while your foe fills your essence with diseases. Finally, you succumb to the rot and decay. (While all specs have access to diseases, Unholy focuses on them).

WoW in Real Life: Compilation

I've finally finished all the WoW in Real Life pieces- at least the first round. When the next expac comes around, I may have had enough experience to fill out this list better- but who knows. Anyways, they are as follows, in alphabetic (and chronological) order.

WoW in Real Life: Death Knights

WoW in Real Life: Druids

WoW in Real Life: Hunters

WoW in Real Life: Mages

WoW in Real Life: Paladins

WoW in Real Life: Priests

WoW in Real Life: Rogues

WoW in Real Life: Shamans

WoW in Real Life: Warlocks

WoW in Real Life: Warriors

C is for Corpse Explosion

Yeah. It blows them up. And if you're a Unholy Forsaken DK, you can blow up their corpse, eat it and then raise a ghoul from it. Yeah- thats called serious desecration.

Good Sir Squire

I just found this 'lil fella in Acherus, after you liberate it. Ain't he a cutie?

WoW in Real Life: Death Knights

A few days ago on wowinsider, I read an article referencing some other blogger's blog.

In that blog, they asked the question:

"If you could have any ability in WoW, what would it be?"

I find that the question is a bit rough in wording. I have reworded it to say (as it was originally meant) "If you could have any WoW spell/ability/talent in real life, what would it be?"

I have considered each of the classes and will present them in order, one every few days/weeks.

Since I couldn't come up with much for Warriors, I'll be going alphabetically, therefore starting with Death Knights.

My first pick would be Unholy Presence. Being able to do everything 15% faster would be a huge boon, and the GCD would be the ability to switch from one focus to another.

Next I would pick Army of the Dead. Yeah, if someone is bothering you, just stand there for a few seconds and you have an army at your beck and call.

Third is Master of Ghouls. Rather than having an army of several ghouls for a minute every ten minutes you get a ghoul to follow you. Forever. The downside is that he is a ghoul and therefore has the rotting flesh component to it.

Finally Dancing Rune Weapon. This just gives you an extra pair of hands. If you're a politician and need to shake hands and hold babies, you can now do both at the same time. As a side note I originally, accidentally wrote "hold hands and shake babies". You can write twice as fast or keep a hand on WASD, a hand on your mouse, and a hand on each of 1-5 and 6-0 while playing WoW.

If you have any ideas for Death Knight abilities you would want IRL, please post below. If you have ideas for other classes, email me at eldritchreign@gmail.com.

Next...

This guy was my first DK. I don't even remember his name. I've had four DKs on the server he was on. And yeah, he's recruiting for auditions. And he's bored.

I are tank.

My first toon ever was a tank. He was a feral druid and right now he's sitting in the Menethil Harbor Inn, as he has been for pretty much a year and a half now.

I remember running around as a bear shouting I'm a Tonka Tank!

It amused me so much.

Anyways, I'd like to note that my first 80 was a Paladin, who at the time was ret but has since gone to prot and fell in love with it.

At the moment I'm in the process of leveling four more tanks.

Malkhelm[Ursin]: 74 Blood DK tank.

Nescio[Eredar]: 70 Frost DK tank.

Erthu[Ursin]: 45 Feral Druid tank.

Death*[Eredar]: 20 Feral Druid tank.

All of them have very good ability with AoE tanking. On the druid, I spam swipe. On the DK's I throw out a DnD, the diseases, pestilence and then either normal rotation for Malkhelm or Howling Blast + Blood Boil for Nescio.

It is a wonderful world to be a tank- you're nigh unkillable and you are the one who is in charge of the instance. The only thing that holds you back is the mana pool of your healer.

Tanks, good tanks especially, are a valuable commodity. It never takes me more than a couple of minutes to find a dungeon pug to run with as a tank. I'd like to think as well, that I am a good tank and I have been complimented on my ability a few times.

Anyways, I'd like to share a few important things from the tanks perspective.

1. You yank it, you tank it. Don't pull stuff when the tank isn't ready.
2. If the Healer dies, its the Tank's fault. If the Tank dies, its the Healer's fault. If the DPS dies, its their own damn fault.
3. Only healers and paladin tanks can call a water break. Everyone should just sit down and and watch them go on.
4. Don't AoE until the tank has done AoE. Because then you have threat.
5. Don't use a 'tanking' form. For example, don't turn on Defensive Stance, Righteous Fury, Bear Form or Frost presence. This skyrockets your threat and doesn't do anything at all for your dps. So don't.

*His name is spelled with fancy characters.