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.

4.0.1 Death Knight Blood Tank Talent Spec

Looking to hit the ground running with the all new 4.0.1 patch?  How about starting things off with this level 79 Blood Tank spec, which gets you the basics of a good build, at least what worked well on the public test realm.

This build also focuses on Rune Strike, which continues to be a primary threat builder moving into 4.0.1 and beyond.  However, if you are looking for a bit more of survivability and less on the threat scale, then perhaps consider putting some points into improved Blood Tap.

Blood Tank Spec for 4.0.1
WowHead Link - http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#jchr0srrusdZ0h:Rzosmac
WowTal Link - http://wowtal.com/#k=YfHoQ3t1.a5o.deathknight. (How to use WowTal.com to automatically update your talent spec in game.)

Death Knight Talent Tree Guide

This is a guest article on Death Knight Talent Trees in the World of Warcraft.

Death Knight is the hardest of all the classes in the World of Warcraft game. When playing the game, you can experiment with the different talent builds. There are three types of talent trees including blood, frost and unholy. The Death Knight talent has no DPS or tanking tree. There is also no connection between the blood, frost or unholy talent trees. The tank build always use the Frost presence. PvE DPS build uses blood presence whereas PvP builds can switch between different presences.

The blood tree increases the power of the Death Knight’s spells, and weapons. This tree will deplete the energy of the enemies. The blood branch can increase the damage of the enemies over a period of time. It can also incur high damage per seconds rating.

However, it has the longest kill time compare to other trees. The blood tree talent is used for the physical damage and self healing. For example, the butchery talent can generates up to 10/20 runic power. The subversion talent can improve the critical strike chance of Blood Strike, Heart Strike and Obliterate. The blade barrier will reduce the damage by 1% - 5% in 10 seconds. The bladed armor talent will increase the attack power within a range of 1 – 5 for each 180 armor.

The frost tree has many control elements including a powerful bonus-damage theme. The talents in this branch can improve the physical damage mitigation. Some Death Knight rarely carries their icy skeleton pet. The icy skeleton pet can enhance the damage per second rating of the group. Without the icy skeleton pet, you can still increase the damage per second by using the frost tree. The frost tree has a total of 30 talents which focus on burst, and dual-wielding. For example, the icy touch talent will create additional 5% – 15% damage and the frost fever will reduce the melee. The runic power mastery talent has the ability to increase to the maximum runic power in a range of 15 – 30

The unholy branch places a strong emphasis on diseases and related abilities. The unholy branch is also used to improve the minion summoning skill. The unholy tress has other elements including AoE, spell damage shielding, and themes for improving the mobility.

The unholy branch is the most important branch of the three in the talent tree and is responsible of fulfilling the group and the rank tank. Though players cannot easily level the protection paladin, they can use the unholy branch to increase the speed of the rune power so that it becomes more aggravating. The unholy tree has a total of 30 talents. For example, the vicious strikes talents increase the critical strike chance in a range of 3% – 6%. The virulence talent ill increase the spell casting chance by 1% – 3 % and reduce the damage on diseases by 10% – 30%

As the game becomes more mature, people can split the talent trees to attain a specific goal. By using the talent calculator, the player will be able to build his character more efficiently. However, you will not be aware of the overall effectiveness of the character you built.

Update Your Spec At Patch Time

Each patch brings it's own challenges in regards to every class and race. Typically even if you are a class that gets nerfed you can soften some of the blow by changing up your talent tree to compensate. Furthermore, what may have been the cookie cutter answer to Death Knight tanking 2 patches ago might not hold true now. Lastly, lets not forget those theory crafting freaks at elitist jerks, that are constantly updating what is the perfect option for Death Knight talent builds.

I've been tanking primarily in Blood Spec and after some reading and acquiring gear I realize it's time for me to respec. Since I have a lot more mitigation than previously, I can afford to drop some of my talented mitigation and move on to more damage producing talents, which will also increase my threat generation.

This is the recommended Blood Tank Spec from Elitist Jerks following the latest patch 3.3

Death Knight Tank Blood Spec Build with Rune Tap

So, don't set on your laurels and get used to the same spec your entire WoW career. Stay up to date on what nerfs and buffs are coming through on patch day and learn to adapt your talents as need be.

The Problem With 25 Man Raid Tanks

A diamond in the rough has emerged with a very thoughtful thread on Death Knights tanking level 25 Raid dungeons. Essentially most agree that there isn't an issue, even in 10 man Raids, but once a DK tank makes it to 25 he becomes too squishy.

Generally speaking most Death Knight tanks can handle the threat production, have plenty of armor, great evasion, but just can't cut it when they get hit. In a 25 man Raid, when they get hit, they get hit hard and it becomes an issue for healers. Where as compared to Paladins, Warriors, and Druids, healers have more consistency with heal requirements.

Below are a few suggestions by the thread starter:

1. Make Toughness back to the way it was with 15% increase to armor at 5 points, but switch it's position with Killing Machine. This puts the armor talent deeper into the tree(4th row) similir to both warriors and pallys both on the 3rd row of talents, forcing those that want it for PvP to ether spec frost or switch up where they put their points. Putting KM on the first row is completely uselss to both Blood and Unholy since they won't have Frost Strike or Howling Blast.

2. Have the Frost Pressence talent increase armor bonus by 5/10% and reduce damage by 1/2% or just increase armor by 10/20%

Most Death Knight tanks responding to the thread are suggesting that the talent trees become specialized. As it stands now, almost any tree can perform almost any roll. Like other tanking classes, there should be a clear tanking tree and a clear DPS tree. This way a Death Knight can specialize in either/or, instead of mediocre at all.