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?

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?

The Shattering Happens Today?

It's Tuesday, patch day, and we have an extended maintenance.  Further evidence, like an official blog post discussing The Shattering and patch 4.0.3a, make for a compelling argument that the event has hit.  However, I realms are still down and I just can't imagine then starting something in the middle of the Pilgrim event.

I mean, we are currently in a Holiday, Thanksgiving is on Thursday, and they want to set Azeroth ablaze?  I'm fine with that, but can you imagine the posts, complaints, and utter anarchy that will be found on the WoW forums?  It's been proven time and time again that people will complain about anything, so here is something else for them to get all hot and bothered over.

So, since we still have at least a few hours before servers come back up, will the actual Shattering event happen as soon as realms come back up, before the end of the Pilgrim Event, or after the Holiday like on Friday?



*Update - Maintenance on Tuesday 11/23/10 The Shattering 4.0.3a extended till 7 pm.

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. ;)

Death Knight Nerf On Beta Build

Those playing the Cataclysm Beta will tell you there is a big nerf coming that will effect almost every class.  Specifically the Death Knight Frost and Unholy specs will be receiving some changes.

Frost

Rune Strike now scales from 15% of Attack Power, down from 20%.

Icebound Fortitude now reduces damage taken by 20%, down from 30%. Cooldown increased from 2 min to 3 min.

Unholy

Mastery: Blightcaller now increases damage done by your diseases by 40%, up from 32%. Each point of Mastery increases disease damage by an additional 5%, up from 4%.

Again, Death Knights aren't the only ones getting beat up on the current Beta build.  Hopefully this will be a brief test on what may be too far and these changes will never make it live.  Time will tell.

Leveling A Death Knight

Without a question leveling my Death Knight was much more fun than it was on my Mage or Hunter. Death Knights are just plain fun and when leveling Blood you just feel OP at lower levels. It doesn't mean the class needs nerfing, all classes should be made this fun when leveling from 1.

Perhaps that's what Blizzard will try to achieve when they release Cataclysm, a 'Buff' to all classes so that they can be as fun to level as a Death Knight from level 1. We need more fun in the lower quests, more story telling, more involvement, and a feeling of opness so that the time goes by faster. Right now, it just seems like leveling takes forever. Yes, adding mounts at lower levels is a step in the right direction.

Also, I'm not against allowing classes to start at a higher level, like the Death Knight did, if a person already has a max level character. I didn't tank until I got to Northrend and I did just fine and I think others will too, even if they have to learn their class at max level. It's not like people are tanking at level 10 or clutch healing at lower levels either. Let's start all classes at higher levels...or just wait and see how much fun Cataclysm will be for starting a new class.

Thoughts On Cataclysm

I can't get over how many people are getting excited about Blizzard revisiting old content with the upcoming Expansion Cataclysm. There seems to be plenty of confusion about what it means to change the landscape of the original Azeroth and most importantly for those that might not end up purchasing this next World of Warcraft Expansion.

First of all, new alts or players to WoW won't notice the changes that will come with purchasing Cataclysm. The destroyed lands of Azeroth, as shown in the teaser trailer, will most likely only be seen through those who have purchased the expansion. Which leads me to believe that the land won't truly be changed at all, in regards to lower levels trying to level up.

My guess is that Azeroth will become one huge phase. Think back to how parts of Icecrown and even Dragonblight were phased, so that there were different stages of 1 area. If other toons weren't at the same stage in the phase, then you couldn't see or interact with those toons. So, it would be highly unlikely that low level toons would notice high levels interacting with new parts of Azeroth.

I wouldn't hold my breath for a completely revamped lower leveling experience. I'd expect more of the same in terms of grinding your way out to the future level cap of 85. However, if you disagree or want to contribute to the hysteria surrounding the next WoW expansion, please visit the Cataclysm Forums.