by Daniel Whitcomb
With the latest build having just hit the Cataclysm beta test servers, this seems like a pretty good time to take a quick inventory of the changes, maybe say a few things about the direction that the class is heading thus far in beta. I can tell you right now that some of the latest changes are either confusing or just plain silly, and while some things are looking cool enough, we really are long overdue for another major change patch. However, before we get too hardcore into that discussion, let’s look at the latest changes.
Mastering death knight masteries
Blood Shield Each time you heal yourself via Death Strike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Absorb increased further by mastery rating.
The blood tree mastery is pretty straightforward and also pretty nicely useful for tanking. Currently, dressed in a random array of Deepholm and Hyjal quest drops, my level 83 death knight is up to an 85 percent shield. Of course, it’s hard to say right now how much mastery endgame death tanks will need or want, but with health totals rising, the absorption shields you create with this mastery probably won’t be too shabby. Plus, it’s an active mastery, which I personally prefer, since it gives you a choice of when and how to use it, at least to a limited extent.
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by Daniel Whitcomb
Our adventures in beta continue, as promised, with a new zone and a new spec. With Hyjal behind us, the next logical zone to head to is Deepholm, and such is where I headed, after a suitably epic breadcrumb quest sequence. My spec was dual wield frost.
Just to give you an idea of where I’m coming from with this testing, I should note that I have been equipping quest rewards if they’re itemized for death knight usage, even if they’re downgrades, in order to get an idea of how much survivability and damage potential your average casual death knight will have.
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by Daniel Whitcomb
Specializations
First, let’s take a look at the new class specializations:
You notice immediately that each tree gets its signature strike and its death rune conversion talent. I have a feeling that if we keep anything from this iteration of the talent trees, it’s probably going to be those. Death knight talent differentiation has long revolved around the replacement of strikes in the base rotation and the use of death runes to maximize usage of those strikes. It hasn’t always worked out that way, of course; sometimes the death rune conversion talent hasn’t been worth picking up, and sometimes Obliterate has overshadowed Scourge Strike. But now that the skill’s free, Scourge Strike’s balanced and a new rune system is being developed to allow us more freedom in our rotations, it looks like we’ve seen the last of those days.
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Posted by: free-wow-guide in WoW Battleground, WoW Death Knight, WoW Druid Guides, WoW Hunter Guides, WoW Mage Guides, WoW Paladin Guides, WoW Priest Guides, WoW PvP Guide, WoW Rogue Guides, WoW Shaman Guides, WoW Warlock Guides, WoW Warrior Guides
by Zach Yonzon
A new, exciting build of the Cataclysm beta has been released, implementing the promised overhaul to the talent trees. It’s still raw at this point, but we get a glimpse of the direction the developers want to take. The basic or starter abilities have been defined and although some of these may change, such as Divine Storm for retribution paladins (Ghostcrawler, lead systems designer, mentioned that it would probably go back into the talent tree), the changes feel solid and refreshing. One of the ideas the developers have is that “both the 31-point and the 10(-point) ability need to have more single-target use,” which means we should get very good one-on-one abilities early on as well as at higher levels. The trees are a long way off from being done, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking a look at them and picturing the possibilities.
One of the cooler, less noticeable things to come out of this build are the one-liner descriptions about each of the talent specs, allowing players to quickly grasp the concept of each spec. Blizzard seems committed to keeping this model, complete with talent tree lock-outs to prevent players from straying into other trees early on. As you might have suspected, the real culprit (or at least the most notable one) behind this change is PvP
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by Daniel Whitcomb
The Ruby Sanctum is ostensibly the last major raid of the Wrath expansion, and as such, ostensibly your last chance to get a few extra pieces of gear and uber yourself out before Cataclysm comes along and replaces everything with level 81 quest rewards. There are definitely some pretty prime upgrades to be had here, including a few straight-up best in slot drops, so let’s get going and check out what you can grab.
As with previous gear guides, try to keep your stat weights in mind, and when it comes to the heroic versions of these drops, unless otherwise noted, it’s usually safe to say the same stuff about the heroic version, except even more so. Also, comparisons here are normal to normal, or heroic to heroic. Heroic versions of ICC loot are, for the most part, probably still going edge out normal Ruby Sanctum loot.
A few notes on DPS stat weights
Before we begin, let’s take a quick moment to discuss what DPS stats you should be looking for on your gear. things have changed just enough that it’s worth discussing it again, especially in the case of unholy DPS.
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by Daniel Whitcomb
Army of the Dead is another one of those spells that is unique enough that it really doesn’t have much of a place in a common rotation, but is powerful enough that it’s worth learning to use well. This week, we’ll take a look at the mechanics and proper usage of Army of the Dead
Army of the Dead 101
The basics of Army of the Dead are as follows: You will spend a few seconds summoning a bunch of ghouls. While channeling, you will have damage absorption equal to your dodge and parry chances. Once summoned, the ghouls will be around for approximately 40 seconds or until they get killed, whichever is first. They will attack or taunt the nearest engaged enemies until that time. It’s a pretty straightforward skill in theory, but in practice, using it at the wrong time can wipe you.
The Army of the Dead Questionnaire
That pesky taunt is the main issue with Army of the Dead. Since it is a true taunt, that means that your Army of the Dead will pull aggro on almost any mob that is not immune to it. That means they will pull aggro on almost all normal and heroic dungeon bosses, as well as almost every trash mob and raid boss add in game. The good news is that they generally do not pull aggro on raid level bosses, which is where Army of the Dead often has a chance to shine. Essentially, you’ll want to make sure you answer a few questions to satisfaction:
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by Daniel Whitcomb
I’ve noticed that one skill seems to be the most misunderstood and reviled by non-death knights: Death Grip. Thus, I figured that this week, we’d take a quick look at this much-maligned skill, so that you can understand the best practices to get the most out of this undeservedly hated and unique death knight ability. These tips will mostly apply for 5-man dungeons, but you’ll probably find a lot of the basic principles will also apply to PvP and raiding.
Death Grip 101
Death Grip is one of the most feared and misunderstood abilities in a death knight’s arsenal. In the hands of a good death knight, it can turn the tide of battles and serve as an incredibly versatile tool for a variety of situations. Unfortunately, in the hands of an inexperienced or lackadaisical death knight, it can turn into an annoyance at best, a wiper at worst, and certainly one of the reasons many players still hold a pretty strong (and undeserved) dislike of the death knight class and its players.
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by Daniel Whitcomb
With Wrath more or less winding down and only the Ruby Sanctum before us at some nebulous point in the future, a lot of us are wandering around with full PvE gear and currency tabs full of emblems looking for a place to go. One easy place to let off some of that steam is with PvP. Be it arena, battlegrounds or (admittedly pretty rare these days) world PvP, this article will give you some basic tips to get yourself squared away with the gear and spec you need to start off on the right foot.
This is by no means a complete guide to absolutely every aspect of death knight PvP. This’ll help you get your feet wet and get properly geared, but there’s always more to learn, especially in the dynamic, ever-changing world of PvP combat strategy and tactics. Still, nothing gives you a better start on the road to skill than a good foundation in stats and speccing, so let’s start this up.
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?by Daniel Whitcomb
So you’ve just dinged level 80, and you’re ready and willing to take on one of the toughest jobs at the end game, that of the tank. But how do you get prepared and geared so that you have a decent chance of grabbing a slot in a 10- or 25-man ICC raid so that you can see the Lich King die before Cataclysm? Let’s give you a few tips and a list of gear to shoot for to get you in top pre-raid shape.
Gear to start raiding with
Now that we’ve looked at the raw data of what drops, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of what really works. Essentially, you’ll want to get as much of your gear up to item level 232 as possible in order to get a decent chance at surviving and thriving in Icecrown Citadel. That essentially means you’ll want to grab four-piece tier 9, then top off your gear with various choices from the Icecrown 5-player dungeons and Trial of the Champion.
This list will give you a basic rundown of what to shoot for as you gear up, in order from most powerful to least powerful. This will focus primarily on triumph emblems and 5-player dungeon rewards, since we’ll assume that’s what you’re focusing on, though you may be able to get into a Vault or Onyxia PUG from time to time. Once you start getting into raids, you will get better drops in many cases, but for now, focus on trying to get the top one or two choices in each of these categories. Remembers, as you gear and gem up, keep in mind your stat priorities from the 101 guides, especially in regard to getting 540 defense. Always, always, always make sure you’re at 540 defense.
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by Matt Maynard
Whether you are a first-time tank or a grizzled hardcore raid veteran, a death knight, druid, paladin or warrior, you will find some useful nuggets in these top 10 tank tips.
10. Pay attention to what abilities trigger the global cooldown (and pay more attention to those that do not). For example, warriors can generate threat on a large group by charging a mob in the back and using Thunder Clap on the mobs in the front as you pass through them. This is possible because Charge does not trigger the global cooldown. Likewise, abilities like Concussion Blow and Rune Strike can be macroed into other abilities.
9. Use a unit frames addon. An addon like Grid, which is generally regarded as specific to healing can be invaluable to a tank because of the sheer amount of information that can be concisely displayed. Grab a few additional Grid modules like GridStatusThreat and GridStatusRaidDebuffs and, at a glance, you can see your threat situation, major debuffs, etc. as well as having a handy mouseover frame for the next tip.
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