Death Knight Pets

So Pokemon style pet battles are coming to World of Warcraft, perhaps with the next expansion Mists of Pandria.  Benefits of leveling your pets do not include combat buffs, but may cosmetically change your toon.  So this got me thinking, what kind of pet best compliments a Death Knight?

I mean, I look a little funny already picking flowers while all death'd out.  Cute little rectangular bunnies don't quite fit my brooding motif and gnarly just isn't gnarly enough.  It's time to start scoping out the most Death Knight complimenting pets available in game.

The first few that come to mind are the following:

Black Kingsnake
Cobra Hatchling
Core Hound Pup
Feline Familiar

What Death Knight pets will you be scoring as soon as they become battle ready?

Death Knight Transmogrification Gear

Wish you would have saved all that Death Knight starting gear, back when Wrath launched?  No worries, the quarter master, Ozorg, has all your starting gear for sale.  Now you can transmogrify to your hearts content and look like you are getting back to your roots.

There are reports of people showing off the gear they never got rid of, but now it's time for them to feel foolish. Why wouldn't Blizzard throw us a bone, so we too can enjoy the Transmogrification added to the latest WoW Patch 4.3?

Find Quartermaster Ozorg  here.
Have fun looking like a dk noob.

4.3 Patch Today

It looks like patch 4.3 will be hitting live servers today, which means a handful of changes for us Death Knights and lots of additions for everyone.  By now I'm sure you have heard of the 3 new 5-man dungeons, not to mention the new raid content. But, don't forget, if you did the WoW Annual pass you will also get your special mount, Tyrael's Charger.

Tyrael's Charger

4.3 Patch Changes for Death Knights


Death Strike now heals the death knight whether or not the attack misses, or is dodged/parried. As a result of this change, Death Strike no longer refunds its rune cost if it fails to hit the target, as the death knight will still receive the healing effect.

Blood Presence now provides an armor bonus of 55%, up from 30%.

Death Knight pets now properly inherit their master’s crit and spell penetration stats.

Blood
Blade Barrier has been redesigned. It now passively reduces damage taken.

Bone Shield now has 6 charges, up from 4.

Veteran of the Third War now reduces the cooldown of Outbreak by 30 seconds.

Unholy
Unholy Might now increases Strength by 25%, up from 20%.

The gargoyle called by Summon Gargoyle should exclusively use its ranged attack regardless of range to the target.

Tier 13 Death Knight Armor

This tier of Death Knight armor has not been making DK fans very happy.

Only component I am a fan of on the Tier 13 set is the horns, which protrude up and out.  Actually feels demonic, unfortunately the rest of the set just seems very uninspired.

Preparing for Transmogrify DK Guide

Oh wait, we don't have any retro gear to worry about.

4.3 Death Knight Balance Explained

Blizzard has stated why they felt the buff to Blood Presence was necessary.

We decided not to prevent or discourage block capping for paladins and warriors, because it would have required several corresponding changes to compensate for such severe nerfs and the risk of getting things wrong or asking players to change gear was just too great. Instead, we decided to buff DK and druid tanks to improve their ability to handle streaks of bad luck. In the DK’s case, we increased the armor bonus of Blood Presence.

I feel what that will mean for PVP, especially that Druids are getting a similar buff.  The last thing I would imagine DK's need in PVP would be increased survivability in Blood Presence.

4.3 Patch Notes for Death Knight

Death Strike now heals the death knight whether or not the attack misses, or is dodged/parried. As a result of this change, Death Strike no longer refunds its rune cost if it fails to hit the target, as the death knight will still receive the healing effect.

Blood Presence now provides an armor bonus of 55%, up from 30%.

Death Knight pets now properly inherit their master’s crit and spell penetration stats.

Talent Specializations

Blood
Blade Barrier has been redesigned. It now passively reduces damage taken.
Bone Shield now has 6 charges, up from 4.
Veteran of the Third War now reduces the cooldown of Outbreak by 30 seconds.

Unholy
Unholy Might now increases Strength by 25%, up from 20%.
The gargoyle called by Summon Gargoyle should exclusively use its ranged attack regardless of range to the target.

Official Battle.net Blog Post with latest updates to the 4.3 patch.  The update released today was marked as a release client, so expect the 4.3 patch to go live this coming Tuesday or the Tuesday after.

4.0.6 Death Knight Live Patch Notes

4.0.6 Death Knight Patch Notes

The official 4.0.6 patch went live yesterday and even most servers came up on time.  By now you've probably had an opportunity to see the previous PTR notes affecting Death Knights, but here is the list that is now officially in game.

Death Knight

• Death Coil damage has been reduced by roughly 10%.
• Icebound Fortitude now breaks stuns when used, in addition to providing immunity to them.
• Necrotic Strike’s absorption effect is now reduced by the target’s resilience. In addition, its debuff duration has been reduced to 10 seconds, down from 15.
• The spell hit bonus previously given by Virulence (Unholy) has been rolled into the Runic Focus passive effect that all death knights possess.

Talent Specializations


Blood

• Bone Shield now has 4 charges, up from 3.
• Crimson Scourge has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a 50/100% chance to make the next Blood Boil free when Plague Strike is used on a target with Blood Plague, the talent now gives a 5/10% chance to provide a free Blood Boil when the death knight lands any melee attack on a Blood Plagued target.
• If Death Strike is used while a Blood Shield is already active, the new absorb will stack with the old one instead of replacing it.
• Heart Strike now deals 175% weapon damage plus 15% per disease, up from 120% plus 10% per disease.
• Improved Death Strike now increases the damage of Death Strike by 30/60/90%, up from 15/30/45%.
• Scarlet Fever now applies via Blood Plague, rather than Blood Boil.
• Will of the Necropolis no longer refunds a Blood Rune when it resets Rune Tap’s cooldown. Instead it makes the next Rune Tap free while Will of the Necropolis is active.

Frost

• Chilblains now also causes Chains of Ice to root the target for 1.5/3 seconds.
• Howling Blast now deals 40% less damage to all targets other than the primary target of the spell.
• Hungering Cold now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
• Might of the Frozen Wastes now also increases all melee damage by 4/8/12% while wielding a two-handed weapon.

Unholy

• Blightcaller (Mastery) has been redesigned and renamed Dreadblade. It increases all Shadow damage by 2.5% per point of mastery.
• Dark Transformation now increases pet damage by 80%, down from 100%.
• Death’s Advance (new talent): While both Unholy Runes are depleted, movement-impairing effects cannot reduce the death knight below 75/100% of normal movement speed.
• Desecration is now also triggered by Necrotic Strike.
• The ratio of runic power return from Magic Suppression has been reduced by roughly one third.
• Rage of Rivendare now increases strike damage by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.
• Runic Corruption procs while the aura is already active now add 3 seconds to the existing aura duration, instead of simply refreshing/overwriting the existing aura.
• Shadow Infusion now increases pet damage by 8% per stack, down from 10%.
• Sudden Doom is now triggered only from main-hand auto attacks, and is normalized according to weapon speed rather than having a fixed percentage chance.
• Unholy Might (passive) has been reduced to a 5% Strength increase, down from 10%.
• Virulence has been redesigned. It now grants 10/20/30% additional disease damage.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Dark Succor (new glyph) raises the minimum healing done by Death Strike from 7% to 15% of maximum health, but only while in Unholy or Frost Presence.
• Glyph of Death’s Embrace no longer refunds Runic Power when self-healing via Lichborne.

Runeforging

• Swordbreaking and Swordshattering now reduce disarm duration by 60%, up from 50%.

Death Knight Bug Fixes

• Blood of the North is no longer incorrectly increasing Blood Strike damage by 10%.
• The tooltip for Blood Presence was giving an incorrect value and has been corrected.
• The amount of bonus damage Blood Strike was receiving per disease was inconsistent with its tooltip and has been amended.
• Crimson Scourge will no longer proc if Blood Plague is not present on the target.
• Death Grip has a minimum range requirement of 8 yards against players, but this was not stated in the tooltip. The tooltip has been updated.
• Desecration should stay in place while on the Alliance Gunship in Deepholm.
• When a character is raised as a ghoul with Raise Ally, there is no longer a considerable pause after losing control of the ghoul before being returned to the corpse or graveyard.
• The Scourge Strike tooltip is now correctly augmented by Rage of Rivendare.
• The shadow portion of Scourge Strike was receiving more than 10% increased damage from Frost Presence and has been corrected.
• The shadow portion of Scourge Strike no longer incorrectly still receives a 13% spell damage increase from Earth and Moon.

Glyph Fixes

• The Chains of Ice tooltip is now correctly augmented by Glyph of Chains of Ice.
• Glyph of Raise Ally now correctly affects the risen ally's health.
• The Vampiric Blood tooltip became awkwardly worded after applying Glyph of Vampiric Blood. We made the words less awkward.

Latest 4.0.6 PTR Notes for Death Knights

The latest round of 4.0.6 PTR patch notes have been placed, which will be affecting all Death Knight talents and a single glyph.  Despite all the beta, it sure seems like we are having more changes and hotfixes than any other expansion I can remember.  Perhaps it's just the newness of it, but I'll be very thankful when things start remaining consistent for longer than a week at a time.


Blood

• Heart Strike now causes 175% weapon damage, up from 120%. Deals an additional 15% for each of your diseases present on the target, up from 10%.
• Improved Death Strike now increases the damage done by Death Strike by 30/60/90%, up from 15/30/45%. Still increases critical strike chance by 3/6/9% and amount healed by 15/30/45%.
• Scarlet Fever (Rank 2) now procs from Blood Plague. (Tooltip bugfix)

Frost

• Chilblains now also causes your Chains of Ice to immobilize targets for 1/3 sec.

Unholy

• Rage of Rivendare now increases damage of Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, and Festering Strike by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.
• Shadow Infusion now increases the damage dealt by your Ghoul by 8%, down from 10%.

Glyphs

• Inscription: Glyph of Dark Succor now causes your Death Strike ability to always restore at least 15% (down from 20%) of your maximum health when used while in Frost or Unholy Presence.

Again, these patch changes are not on live servers yet and are still undergoing testing on the Public Test Realm.  Looks like the Blood buffs will help with some aggro, Frost gets a barely noticable CC buff and Unholy is left to be nerfed.

See ya in Azeroth!

Therazane Dailies in Cataclysm

Therazane Rep

It's been 1 week since Cataclysm has been released and we are starting to see a lot of level 85's running around.  But even if you are taking your time, enjoying the sights, this doesn't mean you can't work on some reputation.  One of the first reputations you will want to earn at least honored with and move into revered and later exalted will be Therazane.

Therazane is the faction in Cataclysm, which can be found in Deepholm, which provide you with your shoulder enchants.  There are a total of 8 shoulder enchants, 4 available at honored that cover all classes and then an upgraded version of each at exalted.

Therazane Rewards

Honored
Death Knight Tanks will want - Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz
Death Knight DPS will want - Lesser Inscription of Jagged Stone

Exalted
Death Knight Tanks will want - Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz
Death Knight DPS will want - Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone

To unlock the Therazane Quartermaster you will need to complete one of the last quest chains within Deepholm. After completing the quest you will also unlock a number of dailies, comparable to the Sons of Hodir.  More dailies become available at different reputation levels.  Below is a list of all the dailies that will become available for gaining Therazane rep.

Therazane Dailies

Therazane Dailies List

Beneath The Surface
Fear of Boring
Fungal Fury
Glop, Son of Glop
Lost in the Deeps
Motes
Soft Rock
The Restless Brood
Through Persistence
Underground Economy

Death Knight Blood Tanking Nerfs

So, if it sounds like a nerf, acts like a nerf, and looks like a nerf, it's probably a nerf.  However, just because it's a nerf doesn't make us irrelevant or unable to complete content current or future within the World of Warcraft.  Unfortunately, a lot of people get worked up over a few set backs or tweaks within our class, so lets slow down and take a look at what is actually going on with the latest Blood Tank Spec nerf.

Blood Tank Nerf Gun

First of all, armor and stats are based off of existing equipment and gear.  Next week all of this will change and new gear will be on par with the talent trees Blizzard has imposed upon us.  Perhaps a new spec will be in order, something more optimal, or more cookie cutter.  Either way, Blizzard will not just allow a tank class to flop around on the ground, unable to complete dungeons or raids.

Now, I will agree that we aren't the flavor of the week, but guess what, no one is.  Every tank class has been nerfed in some way, where we may have been dinged hard on armor, others were dinged hard on threat, AOE abilities, and stamina.

Things will start to normalize, but not with a new expansion imminent and probably not until a few months after content is starting to be cleared.  Hunker down, take the nerfs on the chin, and let it make you a better tank and/or DPS.  It's not worth complaining about, but it is worth discussing in an open and constructive format.

Lastly, keep in mind situational abilities.  Perhaps its time to revisit our spell book and take a look at some spells that we perhaps didn't use as much before.  Change up some rotations, plan ahead, because Cataclysm will change the way 5-Man normal and heroic dungeons are ran.

Looking for a place to vent your concerns in a constructive manor?  Check out this thread over at MMO-Champion.

Death Knight Leveling from 81-85

All the experts are coming out of the wood work to tell you the best way to power level, get a realm first, or just stomp out levels 81-85 in time to grind heroics the longest.  My advice sucks, because I don't know the best Death Knight leveling spec, and I certainly won't bet getting a realm first.  I'm above casual, but I also enjoy the game, so my journey will be just as important as my destination.

That being said, let's look at some Death Knight Cataclysm leveling tips worth looking into.  These won't get you there the fastest, but will hopefully aid in the completion of the thousands of new quests that await us in the newly destroyed Azeroth.

Auto Loot - Quite possibly the simplest of tips, it's a check box in your interface menu and allows for short work of all the sparkly dead bodies laying at your feet.

Use Buffs - It's been a long time since some of us have ingested a potion, elixir, or buff food in any other setting besides a raid.  Well, get back in the habit of making sure your self buffs are all up before accepting that big yellow exclamation point.

Dual Spec - We have the ability and relatively inexpensive method of having multiple specs now.  Go ahead, spend the gold and buy that second spec that you will use specifically for leveling purposes.  You won't need to be min/max'd for raids any time soon, so sacrificing a lil DPS for more self heals in a balanced build will help the quest turn-ins fly by.

Unholy Death Knight Leveling Spec

I won't pretend to say this is the end all answer to a leveling spec, but it gets a lot of things right.  Depending on your method of leveling, this will be balanced enough to do crazy amounts of damage and provide some survivability.  Obviously this Unholy leveling build requires you to be at least level 79.

Death Knight Leveling Spec

WoW Head Death Knight Leveling Spec - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jbhZZcucdfcodfo
How to use this spec automatically with WoWTal.

I think in another post installment I'll do a write up of the best places to level and when to pickup some notable quests.  You know, the ones that reward decent gear to help get you prepped for Heroic Dungeon grinding. ;)  See you in The Shattering!

4.0.3a The Shattering Is Now Live

Amazingly enough the servers ended up coming online sooner than projected, within the 2nd or 3rd delay.  Hmm, does that makes sense to anyone else?  It's like Blizzard and Valve work on the same twisted time zone.  At any rate, new textures, some devastation, and a few thousand new quests await you next time you log in.

I had left my Death Knight logged out in Iron Forge and when I logged in I started off in the grave yard outside.  From what I understand this is typical, so if you logged in Stormwind, you'd find yourself starting off in the Elwyn Forrest grave yard.  Which would be nice, since the first thing you see when strolling into Stormwind would be the giant burning claw marks left on the castle structures.

Bombarded with questions about what the first thing I would do once The Shattering hit, I surprised myself.  All I did was stroll out to Westfall, look at the big hole in the ground and go back to farming.  What did you do last night, roll a new toon, finish leveling to 80 on another?

4.0.3a Death Knight Patch Notes

The Shattering is currently under way and we are dealing with a very extended maintenance schedule. Personally, I feel sorry for the Blizzard employees that have had to be there since 3 this morning. Surely they go out and party after a clean patch day.

At any rate, below are changes to Death Knights that will take affect immediately after the realms come back online.

• Death Pact now heals for 25% of maximum health, down from 40%.
• Death Strike now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, down from 30%, and will heal for a minimum of 7% of maximum health, down from 10%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.
• Icebound Fortitude now provides 20% damage reduction, down from 30% (now 50%, down from 60% when talented), and has a 3-minute cooldown, up from 2 minutes.
• Talent Specializations
• Blood
• Rune Tap now heals for 10% of maximum health, down from 15%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.
• Glyphs
• Glyph of Rune Tap now heals for 5% of maximum health, down from 10%.
• Bug Fixes
• Frost Fever critical strikes now apply the correct amount of bonus damage.
• Horn of Winter will once again provide runic power when used while another Attack Power buff is already present on the death knight.

Also, don't forget the major changes to Azeroth, which include thousands of additional quests from 1-60.  In addition, more important to new or leveling Death Knights, there has been a change to allow a 25% leveling time from 71-80.  Now, get out there and get ready for Cataclysm.

Death Knight Preparation for Cataclysm Leveling

The end is near, Cataclysm is looming in the distance and the shattering will be happening any day now.  So what should Death Knights be doing to prepare for leveling to the new cap of 85?  Also, what will be the best way to gain experience from 80-85?

Of course there are plenty of arguments about taking your time, power-leveling, instance runs, or just questing.  Really, I prefer a mixture of all of the above.  I love questing, but get bored fairly quickly and the same can be said for running instances over and over and over again.  Furthermore, I normally hit the power-leveling quick and hard, but back off as the bubbles disappear and my rested XP wears off.

Leveling Spec and Buff Stuff

If you don't plan on tanking instances all the way to 80, it may be a good idea to at least dual-spec into Unholy.  Unholy will provide the most damage and allow the completion and killing of Cata Creatures much faster or efficiently.  Also, the use of buff food, elixirs, and potions will help min/max your leveling experience to 85.

Personally I've been stocking up on some Strength Elixirs and other various buff foods.  If you happen to be a cook or alchemist the need for this may be null and void, since so many new buff stuff will be available.  However, if you are buying it all, you may save some money buying the Lich King expansion goodies now.

Instance Runs

Sprinkling in some dungeon runs will help break up the monotony of quest grinding.  Also, it has the added benefit of potentially providing superior loot, which will also in turn help your quest leveling process.  The stronger you are, the harder and faster they fall.

Death Knight tanks will also have the added benefit of learning the normal mode dungeons before jumping into heroics at 85.  This could pay off in spades, to learn the more difficult Cataclysm dungeons on a normal mode, when everybody is feeling their way around.  I find this will take the stress off of every trying to push for a rush as soon as heroic modes are available.

Misc Tips

Stocking up on gold will offer the side benefit of helping leveling your mat using professions.  Gold will become an even larger sink if you lack a gathering profession or there are people waiting in line for certain veins or herbs.  How long into Cataclysm before the auction house stabilizes?

Bonus Secret Extra XP Tip

Do 25 daily quests before Cataclysm launches on December 7th.  Then, once you have installed the expansion, had your level cap raised, go turn in said 25 quests.  This way you get an immediate boost in experience, perhaps just not enough to hit 81. ;)

4.0.3 Now Live, Still No Shattering

It'll be another few days at least until the event known as the Shattering actually takes place.  The latest patch, 4.0.3, is just putting things in place so that Azeroth falls apart as planned.  Look for a 4.0.3a patch to trigger the event and release Death Wing.

So, as far as this patch is concerned no real content added.  Mainly we get some bug fixes, pre patch patching, and a UI tweak.  For all purposes patch 4.0.3 is for back end goodies and nothing that we will notice in our day to day trekking.

General

• Much of the data being downloaded in patch 4.0.3 will pave the way for the shattering of Azeroth shortly before the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm on December 7.

• The leader of Wintergrasp raids can no longer kick players from the raid (this change will also apply to Tol Barad in Cataclysm).

• When in a Looking For Dungeon group, using an instance portal to that instance will now take players to the Looking For Dungeon entrance point instead of the normal destination of that portal. This will make it easier to return to the instance after dying in an LFD group.

• Honorable Kills are no longer awarded for killing players below level 5.

User Interface

• Added pets to the new raid unit frames when displayed in party.

• The default UI Scale has been altered so it will be set at a 1:1 pixel/texel ratio. This will result in a smaller UI appearance for higher resolution monitors.

• Players may now adjust the local "Lag Tolerance" time for better precision of spell timing. This is an advanced-users-only feature found in the Interface Options (Combat) panel.

Bug Fixes

• Macros now handle spell variant transitions better. For example, Trap Launcher causes a different version of Frost Trap to be cast. Previously the macro system was not handling this transition properly.

• Queuing in Looking For Dungeon for a different wing of the instance a player is already in now works properly. For example, a party can now queue for Scarlet Monastery - Library after completing Scarlet Monastery - Graveyard.

• Killing High Interrogator Gerstahn before killing Emperor Dagran Thaurissan in a Blackrock Depths - Upper City random Looking For Dungeon run will now provide the proper reward. This also applies to Archmage Arugal and the Crown Chemical Company bosses in Shadowfang Keep during the Love is in the Air holiday event.

• Repeatedly inspecting other players should now function correctly.

• Area heal-over-time effects should no longer cause players to stand up.

• Male blood elves have received a crash course in dancing and now know to stop dancing when they run.

• Drake mounts have gotten bored with gliding and will flap their wings again when flying forward.

• Druid Flight Form now properly appears in the Spellbook before Expert Riding is learned.

• Sunfire's damage-over-time effect now deals damage at the same rate as Moonfire's damage- over-time effect.

• GM Ticket messages should now displace buff icons instead of obscuring them.

Death Knight Tank Reforge Gear Guide

With the introduction of 4.0.1, everyone has access to an NPC that will reforge your gear.  That is, reforging will allow you to take 40% of one stat and convert it to another stat not found on that particular piece of gear.  Reforging cannot affect gem slots or base stats, which means as a Death Knight tank you will typically only be attempting to reforge stats to reach cap on hit or expertise.

When choosing a stat to reforge, consider stealing from hit or expertise.  The reason for choosing these stats is because you are most likely over the cap for one or the other, if geared well.  Take the amount over cap and convert that stat into the one needed or into the new Mastery stat.

Basically the reforging process is a method to get rid of useless over cap stats and convert them into needed stats to reach cap.  Once caps are reached, spend excess stat points on the Mastery skill.

Rune Strike Issues With 4.0.1

Many people have been complaining about the new changes to Rune Strike, specifically it only becoming available after an avoidance move.  Some Death Knight tanks feel this modification in the 4.0.1 patch makes the rune regeneration modification even more convoluted.  It's virtually impossible to create a fluid and sustainable threat level, especially on single target.

Right now there is a 4 page thread in the Death Knight Forums calling out for a hot fix.  As of this post, no dice.

Consider the need for such a fix to RS in 4.0.1.  It's another casualty of the random number generator (RNG), that doesn't allow proper planning when coming up against tank changes, boss pickups, etc.  The issue of not being able to build agro with Rune Strike becomes an even larger threat barrier when coming up against caster bosses.

What do you think about the change to Rune Strike in 4.0.1?

How To Spec Into A Talent Tree Automatically

If you are like me, you spent more time playing with talents and getting things to jive, than actually playing the game.  I have an awful time of looking at a web page talent calculator, alt+tab back to WoW, do a few talents, alt tab back to the other window, rinse and repeat until fully spec'd.  However, you should know that there is a simpler way and WowTal.com provides a quick and easy script to facilitate updating your talent trees.

First, cruise on over to WowTal.com and start building on your Death Knight Talent Spec.  WowTal.com has even been updated to allow for glyphs and Cataclysm only spells and glyphs.  So, future builds can already start being theory crafted or actually used if you are lucky enough to be playing the beta.

Next, click the 'Use it ingame!' button.  This will provide you with a popout, which contains a command line script which instructs you to copy and then paste in game.  But where are you supposed to paste the code from WowTal in the World of Warcraft game client?

The WowTal script must be pasted into the chat window of the Wow client.  If you are not familiar with scripts in Wow, then know that it is common place to allow certain commands within the chat line.  Yes, the same place you make 'anal' jokes is the same place you will make your life easier with seemingly complicated script lines.

For a complete list of chat command line summaries please click here.

I should also mention that there are certain Addons that allow the same type of functionality.  Talented is one such addon that allowed users to link spec's from many popular talent builders and then have them automatically previewed, then applied.  However, most of these addons have yet to be updated for 4.0.1, so for now WowTal.com will be my talent builder of choice.  Expect these builds to be linked in my posts, much like my Death Knight Tank 4.0.1 Spec.

Patch Day For 4.0.1

Looks like the new patch is for sure hitting the Blizzard servers as we speak.  It's a massive patch, 4.8gb to be exact and is reportedly taking up to 2 hours on a decent computer to install.  Yes, that is 2 hours to install, not just download.  Hopefully everyone started their background downloader a week ago.

4.0.1 Patch Highlights for Death Knights

• Runes - The way they fill is different, which slows the special ability use down, but allows for some different fighting mechanics. Runes will now fill one at a time, instead of all at once. Not meant to gimp the Death Knight, just allow for some broader changes come Cataclysm.
• Blood Is Only Tanking Tree - As mentioned in another post, quite possibly the biggest change for patch 4.0.1 will be that blood is the only tanking tree for Death Knights.
• Rune Empowerment - Ability to instantly refill certain runes, which allows for less cut'n paste rotations, a little variety in your fights.

Blizzard claims the servers will most likely be back up at noon, I'm doubtful.  Such a huge patch and Blizzard's history of never hitting patch deadlines, you'll probably be lucky to play before dark.  Hmmm, wonder if there will be a que to log on to my server?