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?

Chance Meeting of a Death Knight and Paladin

With transmogrification anything is possible, what have you been doing?

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!

Blood Tank Reforging

Personally, I'd wait until you start gearing at 85 before reforging.  I noticed during leveling from 80 to 85 that I was swapping gear out constantly, weapons, shoulders, everything just seemed to be constantly replaced.  This is expected, so don't worry about min/maxing just yet.  Although, the cost is low enough, if you are struggling with tanking some dungeons, go ahead, throw a reforge on there to get used to it.

Mastery is a great stat for Blood tanks and generally speaking this would be the stat I would reforge into.  However, you must first be to the Hit and Expertise soft cap.  This will become an issue as you struggle more and more for aggro as your DPS starts gearing and becoming more of an issue.  After hitting the mob is no longer a worry, start putting some points into Mastery.

A Death Knight Tanks Mastery Rating will affect Blood Shield.  Blood Shield will proc off of your use of Death Strike, which will provide a 50% damage absorption of what you were healed for.  The percentage of damage absorption is directly affected by how many points you have in Mastery.  Each point in Mastery stats will increase the percentage of absorption by 6.25%

More Blood Shield information on Wowhead.com.

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 Charger Animation Limp

Death Charger Animation Limp

The complaints have been in place since beta and now Cataclysm is live and our Death Charger is gimped or at least it looks like it in the animation.  It appears that the animation of the Death Knight Death Charger horse mount is now the same as every other horse animation in game, not like the wild Mustang animation from Wrath.

But, who is actually still using this mount, even now when you can fly in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.  However, I understand the frustration, especially for mount nerds, and I mean that in a nice way.  Hopefully Blizzard will see fit to fix the now boring animated Death Charger and bring back a more unique mount to a unique class.

Death Charger Discussion on Official Battle.net Forums - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1115861849
MMO Champion Discussing the Broken Animation - http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/796893-4.0.3a-deathcharger-animations

Unholy, Blood, or Frost for Death Knight Leveling In Cataclysm

Really depends on your favorite flavor of leveling on what spec you wish to use while hitting the new 85 level cap.  Currently I'm using a dual spec of Blood and Unholy, which allows me to tank the new dungeons and kill things faster while questing.  At this point, the cost for dual spec shouldn't be a hindrance and any hybrid class should be taking advantage of the ability.

But you say, 'I don't have good enough gear to run the new normal dungeons in Cataclysm as a tank.'  Pfsssh, the first few quest rewards are green items of ilvl 277 or higher, which will be the best gear available at lvl 80, pushing you above the arbitrary gear score Blizzard requires for queing in the dungeon finder.

Been doing a bunch of quests in Hyjal and starting to get burned out, take a break and go discover the new dungeon entrances.  As of this posting you cannot use dungeon finder to que for a dungeon until you discover it's entrance.  This means at level 80 you need to discover Blackrock Caverns and Throne of the Tides.

Fast XP

I will tell you that you need to take time to run each low 80 dungeon at least once.  The amount of XP received from running Blackrock Caverns is just a crazy amount and the new quest system is amazing.  The quest giver and receiver is all inline within the dungeon, so no returned trips necessary.  Kill 'X' and receive upwards of 70k experience and with all the bosses in Blackrock Caverns this adds up really quick.

Blackrock Caverns

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.

Deathwing Fly Overs Are Meh

Talked with my guild last night and ever since The Shattering, NONE of us have seen Deathwing do his fly over thing.  No one has been burned and trust me, we have a lot of guild members out doing the new quests in Azeroth, not just parked in Dalaran.  So, what gives?

Apparently Blizzard wanted to make the Deathwing burn achievement be uber random, so getting scorched actually meant something.  But after a very lackluster elemental experience, I'd kind of like to be a part of this upcoming expansion and at least interact a little bit with the new baddy before Dec 7th.  Anyone else had this experience, is he bugged on servers, is he working as intended?

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.

How Will You Buy Cataclysm?

A topic going around my social circle is how we will be purchasing the upcoming WoW expansion Cataclysm.  There are a few options available, brick and mortar store bought DVD, order the Cataclysm DVD or special edition DVD online, or buy directly from Blizzard and download, sans physical product.

In the past I've always bought my games from either Wal-mart or Best Buy.  For better or worse I've always been able to walk right in, purchase my game, go home, and enjoy.  The idea of trying to fix something that isn't broken makes me nervous, especially for such an anticipated title like Cataclysm.  The world is changing, why would I want to gamble on availability!?

So there it is, in an informal questionnaire, much less evasive than trying to get through TSA check points this Holiday Season.  How will you be buying Cataclysm?

To Download or Not To Download?