If Grommash Hellscream leads the Iron Horde, does he sit on the Iron Throne?
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This if for all the really new Death Knights; my guide on the class overall. In this guide I'll be covering our resource system, what abilities you have, how they work and what they do. I'll also throw in some suggestions on gameplay that should make things somewhat easier for you.
It's worth nothing that Death Knights, at lower levels, are ridiculously powerful which is a state of affairs I found to be really dull when leveling my latest Death Knight; it's not much fun when you're immortal and killing things with 2-3 attacks, but anyway, here goes. First thing's first; Resources -We have two different resources; Runes and Runic Power. We have a total of 6 runes namely, 2 Blood, 2 Frost and 2 Unholy Runes. Death Runes are "all purpose" runes that be used in place of any other rune, more on that later. -Runic Power is generated from used runes and the amount of runic power generated is based on the rune cost abilities, for example, Icy Touch costs 1 Frost rune, and therefore will generate only 10 runic power. Pretty straight forward on paper. Now we get to how they interact with each other. At level 75, (60 as of WoD pre patch) you'll be able to choose Blood Tap, Runic Empowerment or Runic Corruption which uses runic power to speed up rune regeneration. Effectively, you have to use runes to generate runic power which will in turn help you regenerate your runes. It's a cycle. Runes begin a regeneration cycle of no more than 10 seconds when used; Haste will decrease this time but not by much. If more than one of the same type of rune has been used, for example, both Blood runes are used, the second Blood rune will not begin it's cool down time until the first one has finished. The same goes for abilities that cost a combination of runes, e.g Festering Strike used back-to-back will leave the second Blood and Frost rune on empty until the first set has completed it's cool down time. The level 75 (level 60 as of WoD pre patch) talents help speed this process up either by speeding up rune regeneration time (Runic Corruption) or refilling random depleted runes as Death runes (Runic Empowerment, Blood Tap. Death Coil, Rune Strike and Frost Strike cost runic power and will give 2 Blood Charges (Blood Tap talent) per use, or they have a 50% chance to activate either Runic Empowerment or Runic Corruption. Note that their runic power costs differ widely. Improved Frost Presence affects the cost of Frost Strike while Unholy has Sudden Doom for more Death Coil shot, also note that these passive abilities are only available at level 64 and 65. Abilities - How They Work Each ability a Death Knight has has a rune or runic power cost. Abilities will cost one rune or a combination of different runes, here's the list of abilities that cost only one of a specific rune type. These abilities generate 10 runic power only -Blood Runes; Blood Boil, Pestilence, Blood Strike, Heart Strike. -Frost Runes; Howling Blast, Icy Touch, Pillar of Frost, Path of Frost -Unholy Runes; Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Death and Decay, Dark Transformation -Death Runes; Necrotic Strike, Death Siphon. The following cost a combination of different runes and will generate 20 runic power when used. -Blood and Frost Runes; Festering Strike -Frost and Unholy Runes; Obliterate, Death Strike. Army of the Dead should be here as well; it costs one of each type of rune (Blood, Frost and Unholy) and will generate 30 runic power. Let's talk about abilities that cost Blood Runes - these are the single rune cost abilities and as such will only generate 10 runic power use. -Blood Boil - Damages every enemy within in 10 yards in a circle around you. Probably the most interesting of these abilities because if you choose Roiling Blood (tier 1 talent) you can spread diseases without the need for using Pestilence; for Blood Death Knights it will refresh diseases on all the targets it hits, and for Unholy Death Knights it converts it's Blood rune into a Death rune. -Pestilence - Spreads your diseases. An iffy ability because it requires you to be in melee range of the target; for Unholy it converts its Blood rune into a Death rune. -Blood Strike - A single target melee attack; for Unholy it converts it's Blood rune into a Death rune. -Heart Strike - A multi-target melee attack exclusive to Blood Death Knights. Arguably Blood Boil is far more effective. Abilities that cost Frost runes; again single rune cost only so only 10 runic power will be generated. -Howling Blast - Area of Effect strike at 30 yard range; will apply Frost Fever to all afflicted targets. Exclusive to Frost spec. -Icy Touch - Single target version of Howling Blast; weaker in overall magnitude. -Pillar of Frost - Increases Strength by 20% for 20 seconds; good offensive cool down. -Path of Frost - Allows you to walk on water; will limit fall damage if glyphed. Abilities that cost Unholy runes; single rune cost = 10 runic power. -Plague Strike - single target melee attack that applies Blood Plague; applies both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at level 68 when Ebon Plaguebringer becomes unlocked. -Scourge Strike - Single target melee attack exclusive to Unholy spec. Main filler attack -Death and Decay - Targeted area of effect damaging ability. -Dark Transformation - Exclusive to Unholy, this ability is fueled by use of Death Coils and allows you to transform your active pet/minion into a more powerful creature. Death Runes - single rune cost = 10 runic power -Necrotic Strike; mainly used in PvP, it stacks a debuff which absorbs incoming healing and reduces cast speed. -Death Siphon (level 60 talent, level 75 @ WoD pre patch); Single target ranged attack that does damage to your target and heals you a percentage of the damage done. Scales amazingly well at lower levels and is highly recommended from level 60 when you're on your own. Blood and Frost - double rune cost = 20 runic power. -Festering Strike; exclusive to Unholy this ability refreshes and increases the duration of active diseases on a target. Successful Festering Strikes convert its rune cost into Death runes. -Obliterate; exclusive to Frost this ability is the main attack for a Frost Death Knight using a 2-handed weapon best used with Killing Machine procs for 100% critical damage chance. -Death Strike; baseline for all specs, this ability heals for no less than 7% of maximum health outside of PvP environments. Activates Blood spec Mastery placing an absorb shield the value of which is equal to the percentage of the Mastery stat when Death Strike heals you. An example of Death Strike and Blood spec Mastery; if I have 200% mastery and Death Strike heals me for 300k that means I'll get 200% of 300k as an absorb shield for 10 seconds. Runic Power - will store Blood Charges for use of Blood Tap or activate Runic Empowerment or Runic Corruption. -Death Coil; baseline for all specs but most effective as Unholy due to Mastery, Sudden Doom and the fact that Unholy has no other way of dumping runic power. It's a ranged attack, but can be used in conjunction with Lichborne (tier 2 talent) to heal yourself. Can be used on your active pet to heal it. Will give the buff called Shadow Infusion to your pet which, at 5 stacks (5 Death Coils), will allow for Dark Transformation. -Rune Strike; exclusive to Blood Spec, single target melee attack that cannot be dodged or parried. -Frost Strike; exclusive to Frost spec, single target melee attack. Death Coil, Rune Strike and Frost Strike are often best used when you're at, or approaching, 100 runic power, but are ideally used when spaced out across your "rotation" which brings me neatly to the next part of the guide. Abilities - What to use and When This is in itself a full guide all on it's own, but if you can work with a clear picture of the cycle, runes > runic power > runes, you should do alright; I highly recommend the addon called CLC DK which you can download from here : http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/clc-dk This addon, with the exception of Blood spec, will allow you to monitor the cool down and affects of different abilities and will display what action you should use next to maximize DPS. I've found it ineffective for Blood spec as Blood is for Tanking and doing maximum DPS isn't always a priority for tanks. If you can stand listening to the man I recommend Preacher's guide on Blood Tanking found here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQuNPOc4Mng and his subsequent gameplay guide here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHFasihBS6w Just to clarify; I'm not being lazy here, but I am approaching the character limit. I'll be posting in depth spec guides fairly soon; for now, here is my guide to Mastering Frost Death Knight for solo play. http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7789168971#1 Good luck on your Death Knight endeavors, and I'll see you in the next guide. |
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Hey,
I've noticed while reading through the forums that regardless of how people present their argument which, admittedly, is often crying about the state of things in the game, other people will always counter with responses (possibly) meant to make the original poster look like an idiot. In the Arena for example you'll have someone who, possibly out of frustration, made some post calling for a nerf to a specific class because of reasons x, y, and z. If players don't agree they'll counter with something like "HAHAHAHAHA coming from a <class> l2p" and other such things, and rather than present a well reasoned and structured discussion it becomes a flame war or a never ending argument about why the class in question is and isn't bad and in the end nothing is resolved and the thread gets left unfinished because people have gotten bored with trading barbs or trying fruitlessly to make convince the others. I've seen many posts like this one of all types of forums: Arena and Rated Battleground, Battleground and World PvP, all the class forums... In ancient times forums are where philosophers went and had debates and presented their opinions on a specific matter and it was discussed and if someone behaved badly they were told to leave, compose themselves and come back when they can look at the matter objectively. For my part I try and look at the argument objectively while respecting the opinions of others, but I'm only human (shocking isn't it?) and it doesn't always work, but it seems that most people have no filter at all. The result of people coming in and flaming or belittling others or general bad behavior is that, for the most part, the forums mentioned above have ceased being a place of intelligence and well reasoned discussion, but are more akin to a nursery school full of whiny little children all complaining because they can't get their own way. It bothers me, and the obvious solution is to stop visiting them but occasionally there'll be one or more posts that are constructive and enjoyable to read and it's for those that I sift through the mountainous piles of rubbish. Also there are a few forum posters who I've come to admire for their capacity to look at things differently and rather than just bash people they argue with fact. The forums need to be more closely monitored in my opinion because, even though the interaction between posters on the forums are not specifically prohibited by the Code of Conduct the level of abuse is still rather intolerable. Rather than being outright and unnecessarily harsh with their abuse and name calling they subtly attack a person with reference to their intelligence or their character or skill... (People like you make me sick) (<Person> is an idiot) (Troll is obvious) I beseech forum users to set aside their own bias and emotion when posting and look at a matter that you feel compelled to respond to and actually respond rather than react. Respond calmly with facts that you can produce and build your argument based on those rather than intangible hearsay or circumstance. Be civil and respectful to others and it'll be returned to you, and if you can't do this then rather don't post lest you shame yourself. I've made rage posts; I've made posts in which I'm quite literally throwing a temper tantrum out of frustration for one thing or another and to be completely honest, when I was done re-reading them I was very much embarrassed. Even this post might be in the same category but its something I feel strongly about. TL:DR - Because of the abuse (however subtle) I've noticed on the forums I feel they should be more closely and strictly monitored. When you're posting stuff, be respectful, clear, factual, and civil to others, and if you can't do that, then rather forgo posting anything. |
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I was doing my dailies today and because I'm decent at PvP I decided to flag myself for PvP while doing them.
Previously I've only had a Warlock and Monk attack me while questing when PvP flagged and they died so quickly I barely noticed they were there, but today was different in only one aspect. Every time I've ever been attacked while questing it's been while I've been fighting 2 or more mobs and today was no exception, except that rather than one Horde player attacking me I found myself ganked by 2v1 for almost 3 hours while I was trying to quest. Eventually I got the better of them but at this point I was so frustrated I unflagged myself which made my victory over them rather hollow. I fail to understand why it's necessary to attack someone who is busy with mobs, and in 2v1 no less. World PvP being what it is mind you I do understand that no amount of nagging or complaining is going to solve anything. To me it just seems that Horde are full of cowards, but then so is Alliance really because I've seen a full raid group of level 90s descend on an unsuspecting level 50-something. Why all the cowards out there? |