Tusam - Just another Deathknight

Getting Back Into It

2015-08-07T13:04:00.001-04:00

Its been several years since my last post. However i recently started playing World or Warcraft again a few weeks ago. I'm going to get back into writing about it. Although, I'm a little late to the party for Warlords of Draenor.

As I just finished levelling my main focus at the moment is getting gear from crafting and dungeons in order to get to the higher content. I'm also looking into farming gold in order to pay for game time solely with WoW Tokens. More on that later.

Tank Consumables - Food, Potions, Flasks and Elixirs

2011-01-13T12:45:00.006-05:00

Interesting post showed up a few days ago on pwnwear.com. I'm not going to re-post Gravity's masterful work but I will provide a list of the consumables form best to good.

Food

Potions

Earthen Potion

Flasks

Battle Elixirs

Guardian Elixirs

If you want more details and I recommend you read it please go see the original post on pwnwear.com.

Best Cataclysm Tanking Enchants

2011-01-10T18:08:00.008-05:00

Here is a quick list of the best enchants for not only Deathknights but all tanks in Cataclysm. Organised by item slot. A great site to see how your doing on gear score and enchants is WoW-Heroes.

Head

Arcanum of the Earthen Ring - From The Earthen Ring faction. See my Cataclysm Tank Reputation Guide for more details.

Shoulder

Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz - From the Therazane faction. See my Cataclysm Tank Reputation Guide for more details.

Chest
You have two choices here. I am personally inclined to saying that Peerless Stats is the better of the two is you take all tanking aspects into consideration such ans survival, threat and damage. Of course if all your going for is a huge health pool then Greater Stamina would be for you.

Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats - From enchanting or the auction house. Best in my opinion.
Enchant Chest - Greater Stamina - From enchanting or the auction house.

Pants

Charscale Leg Armor - From Leatherworking or the auction house

Boots
Three choices for this slot. With the new patch 4.0.6 lurking around the corner the Mastery enchant might not be the best choice for Deathknights due to the mastery nerf we are getting. Of course if your tank class relies heavily on mastery and you already have a speed boost go with the Mastery enchant. If you rely heavily on master and do not already have a speed boost I would go with the Lavawalker enchant. And if you are laking in stamina and/or need a speed boost go with the Earthen Vitality enchant.

Enchant Boots - Mastery - From enchanting or the auction house.
Enchant Boots - Lavawalker - From enchanting or the auction house.
Enchant Boots - Earthen Vitality - From enchanting or the auction house. Personal best for now.
Enchant Boots - Precision - From enchanting or the auction house.

Bracers

Enchant Bracer - Dodge - From enchanting or the auction house.
Enchant Bracer - Greater Expertise - From enchanting or the auction house.
Enchant Bracer - Precision - From enchanting or the auction house.

Gloves

Two choices for this slot. Again with patch 4.0.6 and the DK mastery nerf coming I think DK and other tank the do not rely heavily on mastery or are laking in HP
should go for the Heavy Savage Armor Kit. If you are lacking in mastery or rely on it heavily go for the Greater Mastery enchant.

Heavy Savage Armor Kit - From Leatherworking or the auction house. Personal best for now.
Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery - From enchanting or the auction house.
Enchant Gloves - Greater Expertise - From enchanting or the auction house.

Cloak

Enchant Cloak - Protection - From enchanting or the auction house.

Weapon
Again a few choices here. If your a Deathknight you will take your Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle or Rune of the Nerubian Carapace twice if your a dual wield Deathknight tank. An alternative for DKs has presented itself. If your staminia is at a good level you can switch to Rune of Swordshattering or Rune of Swordbreaking for equal or slightly better damage reduction. The consensus isn't out yet. For other tank you have the choice between Mending a healing enchant or Windwalk a dodge/speed enchant the choice is really up to you.

Rune of the Nerubian Carapace - From runeforgeing, dual wield Deathknights only.
Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle - From runeforgeing, Deathknights only.
Rune of Swordbreaking - From runeforgeing, dual wield Deathknights only.
Rune of Swordshattering - From runeforgeing, Deathknights only.
Enchant Weapon - Mending - From enchanting or the auction house.
Enchant Weapon - Windwalk - From enchanting or the auction house.

Off-Hand (for non DKs)

Enchant Shield - Blocking - From enchanting or the auction house.

After some nice feedback from here I decided to add the hit and expertise enchants to the list. From what I understand hit and expertise help your Death Strikes land so when you need to Blood Shield you need to worry less about misses and dodges. You can also reforge for hit and expertise its really you to you.

This concludes my guide or list of tank enchants in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm as of patch 4.0.3a. As usual feel free to post and question or comments in the comments section.

Cataclysm Tank Reputation Guide

2011-01-04T10:59:00.002-05:00

Here are my thoughts on how tanks should gain there rep in Cataclysm. I will list the reputations in the priority of what I think is most important first down to the least important. Keep in mind that this guide is for tanks only with emphasis on Deathknights.

The Earthen Ring

The Earthen Ring is at the top of my list due to the simple fact that there is no dailies for this faction and it contains the tanking head enchant. It is the most "difficult" to build rep with. The only way to gain rep is to make sure you complete the regular quests and wear your tabard while in dungeons until revered for the tank benefits from them. You can go further after getting where you need to be with the other tank factions but this will bring nothing more to you as a tank.

Enchants

Arcanum of the Earthen Ring (Revered)

Items

Friendly: Tabard of the Earthen Ring

Honored: Stone-Wrapped Greaves

Revered: None

Exalted: None

Quartermaster

Provisioner Arok - Shimmering Expanse 49.1, 42.1

Therazane

Therazane makes it in second for the tank shoulder enchants. As a raid tank
you should grind for exalted to make sure you can buy the best enchant from this faction. Dailies.

Enchants

Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz (Honored)
Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz (Exalted)

Items

Friendly: Tabard of Therazane

Honored: None

Revered: Felsen's Ring of Resolve

Exalted: None

Quartermaster

D'lom the Collector - Deepholm 56.9, 13.2

Ramkahen

From here on there isn't really an order to which faction you should choose. It all depends on your gear set and professions. Ramkahen rep provides access to a nice tanking item. Daily.

Enchants

None

Items

Friendly: Tabard of Ramkahen

Honored:

Revered:

Exalted: Sandguard Bracers

Quartermaster

Blacksmith Abasi - Uldum 54.1, 33.3

Wildhammer Clan (Alliance) / Dragonmaw Clan (Horde)

The Wildhammer Clan and Dragonmaw Clan do not have tanking enchants but do provide some nice items. Dailies Alliance / Horde.

Enchants

None

Items

Wildhammer Clan

Friendly: Tabard of the Wildhammer Clan

Honored: None

Revered: Crown of Wings

Exalted: Gryphon Rider's Boots

Dragonmaw Clan

Friendly: Tabard of the Dragonmaw Clan
Honored: None

Revered: Grinning Fang Helm
Exalted: Boots of Sullen Rock

Quartermaster

Craw MacGraw - Twilight Highlands 48.6, 30.6 (Alliance) / Grot Deathblow - Twilight Highlands 53.9, 42.1 (Horde)

Guardians of Hyjal

Guardians of Hyjal have some nice tanking items. This is another faction that does not have dailies so make sure to complete all the regular quests and wear your tabard.

Enchants

None

Items

Friendly: Tabard of the Guardians of Hyjal

Honored: Mountain's Mouth

Revered: None

Exalted: Wrap of the Great Turtle

Quartermaster

Provisioner Whitecloud - Mount Hyjal 62.8, 23.9

Baradin's Wardens (Alliance) / Hellscream's Reach (Horde)

While Baradin's Wardens or Hellscream's Reach don't awesome stuff for tanks some of their items can be cool to have as a raid tank. Dailies Alliance / Horde.

Enchants

None

Items

Baradin's Wardens
Friendly: None
Honored: Baradin's Wardens Tabard, Baradin Footman's Tags
Revered: Blade of the Fearless

Exalted: Mirror of Broken Images

Hellscream's Reach

Friendly: None
Honored: Hellscream's Reach Tabard, Baradin Grunt's Talisman

Revered: Blade of the Fearless
Exalted: Mirror of Broken Images

Quartermaster

Quartermaster Brazie - Tol Barad 72, 63 (Alliance) / Pogg - Tol Barad 54, 81 (Horde)

This should give you a clear idea of what you can get from the new Cataclysm factions as a tank and what order you should go for rep. As usual comments are always appreciated.

Best Deathknight 4.0 Spec

2010-12-28T11:02:00.002-05:00

Hey, so like everyone else I have not been posting recently due to the new expansion Cataclysm. I've been spending all my free time getting to level 85 and setting up our new guild website. Now that that is done I will start posting interesting changes about Deathknights in World of Warcraft again.

I thought a good way to start off posting about a new expansion would be to post a compilation of what are considered "best" Deathknight specs. Keeping in mind that this blog is raid tank oriented the DPS spec are considered offspecs.

Deathknight Raid Tank Spec
Your base for raid tanking in 4.0 should resemble this. You will have 2 spare point to place in one of these talents Abomination's Might, BCB, Virulence or Crimson Scourge. Most endgame raid tanks think Crimson Scourge is a waste of points unless your the designated AoE tank. You should look at what your other raid members and tank are bringing to the raid before spending the last 2 point. It will have a big impact on what you select.

If your wondering about the sub-spec into frost for Lichborne you can read more about it here. The short explanation is; with the use of the Lichborne macro you get an extra defensive cooldown.

Lichborne Macro:

#showtooltip Lichborne
/cast Lichborne;
/cast [@player] Death Coil

If you want to do your own homework here are the sources I look into.
Elitist Jerks - Blood | DK endgame tanking [4.x]
pwnwear.com - Index to all the DK Tank 4.0.3 info

pwnwear.com - Death Knight Cataclysm (85) Tanking Guide

Deathknight DPS Spec
Since DPS is an offspec for me I'm going to keep it short and sweet.
The highest damage output spec for raid boss fights without heroic gear is 2H unholy and if you already have an unholy Deathknight is your raid you could go as DW Frost.

Sources:
Elitist Jerks - Unholy DPS | Cataclysm 4.0.3, This Is My Life
Elitist Jerks - Frost DPS | Cataclysm 4.0.3, Stereo Love

Hot nerf for Deathknight Tanks

2010-11-02T14:42:00.001-04:00

In the latests news from blizzard fine tuning of patch 4.0.1 us Deathknight tank are on the recieving end of the nerf bat. While we are getting the least changes out of all the tank classes it's still a nerf. Blizzard decided they were goin to bring our talented Icebound Fortitude damage reduction down from 60% to 50% for a 10% drop and increase the cool down of the ability from 2 minutes to 3 minutes for a 1 minute increase.

Not the worst nerf ever but it will make each of our cooldowns that much more valuable. I don't think this will be a game changer seams to me that it's being implemented only to make us be that much more careful when blowing CDs.

View the official source here.

Blood Shield Tracker - A Death Knight Tank Addon

2010-10-22T15:03:00.005-04:00

So we have this new fancy mastery, Blood Shield. While this sounds very nice on paper blizzard provides no way of tracking this new ability. Good thing our friends over at the pwnwear.com community have developped a new addons called Blood Shield Tracker. This is a great tool for tracking the new ability.

The Blood Shield Tracker addons not only tracks our blood shield but also tracks the average healing we will get from our next Death Strike. As you can see in the screenshot. The larger bar on top is the Blood Shield the smaller bottom bar is the estimated heal for our next Death Strike.

As of this writing, the addon is still in beta phase the developers aren't hiding that. My guess is that it is very near completion. It has a very nice management interface with a mini-map icon is you enable it. You can also customize the look of Blood Shield Tracker. In my opinion, the ease of customization is this addons only remaining weak point.

You can download it from here at cursed.com and discuss it here at pwnwear.com.

Using right now. It has my vote. Can't wait to see what we will have once this come out of beta. Thanks guys.

4.0.1 and the Deathknight

2010-10-12T11:07:00.005-04:00

See bottom of page for DK specific patch notes.

4.0.1 has sundered the World of Warcraft as we know it. Bringing many changes to all aspects of the game and requiring us to relearn most of our classes. Look forward and welcoming theses changes here are the DK spec I'm looking into.

Boss Cruncher:
25 man single target raid tank with no utility. http://wowtal.com/#k=Yf93jyRh.a5o.deathknight.WiqGi

AoE Madness:
25 man AoE raid tank spec with no utility. http://wowtal.com/#k=Yf93ftf1.a5o.deathknight.n3KBx

Lonely DK:
5 man/Raid spec with utility and AoE for when other classes are not present with the buffs. http://wowtal.com/#k=YfOo1Fi1.a5o.deathknight.n3KBx

Frozen Death:
Off-spec DPS raid spec.
http://wowtal.com/#k=ebuORkQ.a5o.deathknight.xlGwT

Let me know what you guys think of these and as always a good place to discuss these spec is on the pwnwear.com forums more specifically here.

Bashiok (src):

Patch 4.0.1 will bring about major changes to all World of Warcraft classes, including sweeping talent tree revamps, altered spells, and improved abilities. We wanted to go over some of the more complex changes that are being made. If your class isn't listed here, it does not mean we didn't spend as much time on it -- the class will still receive a broad range of updates to talents, spells, and abilities -- we simply feel that these mechanics merit additional explanation.

Death Knights

Runes

The way in which runes regenerate has been changed. Rather than each rune type (Blood, Frost, Unholy) regenerating simultaneously, they now fill sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. You essentially have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. This allows the death knight rotation to be more forgiving, so that the player can take advantage of things like ability procs or respond to movement. This system makes it a little easier to get back on track without six separate runes now "out of sync" from the standard rotation.

You're a Bloody Tank

The time has come to dedicate a death knight talent tree to tanking, and that is what is in store for the Blood tree. We felt that we could offer a more focused and polished tanking tree rather than having to scatter similar tools throughout the trees. This also allows us to really focus the other trees into more flavorful damage-dealing specializations.

Runic Empowerment

This mechanic allows for runes which were on cooldown to instantly activate, which prevents the rotation from becoming too predictable and boring.

Boubouille (src):

Death Knight

Cataclysm (Level 80+) Skills

Outbreak - Instantly applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever to the target enemy. / 30 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown

Necrotic Strike - A vicious strike that deals 100% weapon damage and absorbs the next [ 75% of AP ] healing received by the target. For 15 sec, or until the full amount of healing is absorbed, the target's casting time is increased by 30%. / 5 yd range, Instant

Dark Simulacrum - Places a dark ward on an enemy that persists for 8 sec, triggering when the enemy next spends mana on a single-target spell, and allowing the Death Knight to unleash an exact duplicate of that spell. Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells. / 20 Runic Power, 40 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown

Blood

Primary Spells

Heart Strike - Instantly strike the target and up to two additional nearby enemies, causing 100% weapon damage plus 735.64 on the primary target, with each additional enemy struck taking 25% less damage than the previous target. Damage dealt to each target is increased by an additional 10% for each of your diseases present. / 5 yd range, Instant

Veteran of the Third War (Passive) - Increases your total Stamina by 9% and your expertise by 6.

Blood Rites (Passive) - Whenever you hit with Death Strike or Obliterate, the Frost and Unholy Runes will become Death Runes when they activate. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune.

Vengeance (Passive) - Each time you take damage, you gain 5% of the damage taken as attack power, up to a maximum of 10% of your health.

Blood Shield (Mastery) - Each time you heal yourself via Death Stike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Each point of Mastery increases the shield by an additional 6.25%.

Skills

Blood Presence revamped - You assume the presence of Blood, increasing Stamina by 8%, armor contribution from cloth, leather, mail and plate items by 60%, and reducing damage taken by 8%. Increases threat generated. Only one Presence may be active at a time, and assuming a new Presence will consume any stored Runic Power.

Blood Boil now deals [ 8% of AP + 267 ] Shadow damage, up from 180 to 220.

Pestilence - Diseases spread this way deal 50% of normal damage.

Blood Strike now causes 80% weapon damage plus 611, up from 40% weapon damage plus 305. Increased by an additional 10% for each of your diseases on the target. (Down from 12.5%)

Death Strike is now a Blood skill and has been revamped - A deadly attack that deals 150% weapon damage (up from 75%) plus 387 (up from 123), healing you for 30% of the damage you have sustained during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 10% of your maximum health). 1 Unholy 1 Frost, 5 yd range, Instant

Talents Changes

Dancing Rune Weapon is now a Tier 7 talent, down from Tier 11. The rune weapon also assists in defense of its master, granting an additional 20% parry chance while active.

Will of the Necropolis is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 9. Revamped - When a damaging attack brings you below 30% of your maximum health, you generate a Blood Rune and the cooldown on your Rune Tap ability is refreshed, and all damage taken is reduced by 8/16/25% for 8 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 45 seconds.

Improved Death Strike is now a Tier 6 and 3 Points talent, down from Tier 8 and 2 Points. Increases the damage and healing done by your Death Strike by 15/30/45%, increases its critical strike chance by 3/6/9%.

Vampiric Blood is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 8. No longer has a Rune cost. Now increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 25%, down from 35%.

Bloodworms is now a Tier 4 and 2 Ranks talent, down from Tier 7 and 3 Ranks. Renamed to Blood Parasite. Now has a 5/10% chance to proc, up from 3/6/9%.

Improved Blood Presence is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 7. Revamped - Reduces the chance that you will be critically hit by melee attacks while in Blood Presence by 3/6%. In addition, while in Frost Presence or Unholy Presence, you retain 2/4% damage reduction from Blood Presence.

Abomination's Might is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 6.

Rune Tap is now a Tier 5 talent, up from Tier 3. Now converts 1 Blood Rune into 15% of your maximum health, up from 10%. Cooldown reduced from 1 min to 30 sec.

Bladed Armor is now a Tier 1 and 3 Ranks talent, down from Tier 2 and 5 Ranks. Now increases attack power by 2/4/6 for every 180 armor value you have. (Up from 1/2/3/4/5)

Blade Barrier is now a 3 Ranks talent, down from 5 Ranks. Decreases damage taken by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

New Talents

Crimson Scourge - Increases the damage dealt by your Blood Boil by 20/40%, and when you Plague Strike a target that is already infected with your Blood Plague, there is a 100% chance that your next Blood Boil will consume no runes.

Sanguine Fortitude - While active, your Icebound Fortitude reduces damage taken by an additional 15/30% and costs 50% less/no runic power to activate.

Blood-Caked Blade - Your auto attacks have a 10/20/30% chance to cause a Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 25% weapon damage plus 12.5% for each of your diseases on the target.

Bone Shield - Surrounds you with a barrier of whirling bones. The shield begins with 3 charges, and each damaging attack consumes a charge. While at least 1 charge remains, you take 20% less damage from all sources and deal 2% more damage with all attacks, spells and abilities. Lasts 5 min. / 1 Unholy, Instant, 1 min cooldown

Toughness - Increases your armor value from items by 3/7/10%.

Improved Blood Tap - Reduces the cooldown of your Blood Tap ability by 15/30 sec.

Scarlet Fever - Gives your Blood Boil a 50/100% chance to afflict enemies with Scarlet Fever, reducing their physical damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec.

Hand of Doom - Reduces the cooldown of your Strangulate ability by 30/60 sec.

Removed Talents

Blood Gorged has been removed from the tree.

Heart Strike is now a primary spell of the Blood tree.

Might of Mograine has been removed from the tree.

Sudden Doom has been removed from the tree.

Hysteria has been removed from the tree.

Bloody Vengeance has been removed from the tree.

Bloody Strikes has been removed from the tree.

Veteran of the Third War has been removed from the tree.

Mark of Blood has been removed from the tree.

Improved Rune Tap has been removed from the tree.

Spell Deflection has been removed from the tree.

Vendetta has been removed from the tree.

Dark Conviction has been removed from the tree.

Death Rune Mastery has been removed from the tree.

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization has been removed from the tree.

Subversion has been removed from the tree.

Frost

Primary Spells

Frost Strike - Instantly strike the enemy, causing 110% weapon damage plus 274.549 as Frost damage. / 40 Runic Power, 5 yd range, Instant

Icy Talons (Passive) - Your melee attack speed is increased by 20%.

Blood of the North (Passive) - Whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence, the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune.

Frozen Heart (Mastery) - Increases all frost damage done by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases frost damage by an additional 2%.

Skills

Frost Presence revamped - Strengthens you with the presence of Frost, increasing damage by 10% and increasing Runic Power generation by 10%. Only one Presence may be active at a time, and assuming a new Presence will consume any stored Runic Power.

Festering Strike *New* - An instant attack that deals 150% weapon damage plus 377.415 and increases the duration of your Blood Plague, Frost Fever, and Chains of Ice effects on the target by up to 6 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant. 1 Blood 1 Frost.

Runic Empowerment *New* - When you use your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability, you have a 45% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune.

Rune Strike is now Instant instead of Next Melee. Now causes 200% weapon damage plus 20% of Attack Power, up from 150% weapon damage plus 15% of Attack Power.

Horn of Winter now has a 45 yards range, up from 30 yards.

Obliterate now deals 160% weapon damage plus 934, up from 80% weapon damage plus 467.

Path of Frost now affects party or raid members within 50 yards.

Chains of Ice now reduces movement by 60%, down from 95%. The target no longer regains a % of their movement each second.

Icy Touch now reduces the target's ranged, melee attack, and casting speed by 20% for 21 sec. No longer generates high treat.

Talents Changes

Howling Blast is now a Tier 7 talent, down from Tier 11. Now deals [ 40% of AP + 1201.745 ] Frost damage, up from 518 Frost damage. Now cost 1 Frost, down from 1 Frost 1 Unholy. Cooldown removed.

Threat of Thassarian is now a Tier 6 talent, down from Tier 8.

Chilblains is now a Tier 5 and 2 Ranks talent, down from Tier 7 and 3 Ranks. Now reduces movement speed by 25/50%, up from 15/30/50%.

Hungering Cold is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 7.

Improved Frost Presence is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 7. Revamped - Increases your bonus damage while in Frost Presence by an additional 2/5%. In addition, while in Blood Presence or Unholy Presence, you retain 2/4% increased runic power generation from Frost Presence.

Improved Icy Talons is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 6. Increases the melee and ranged attack speed of all party and raid members within 100 yards by 10% (down from 20%), and your own attack speed by an additional 5%.

Merciless Combat is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 6.

Rime is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 6. Your Obliterate has a 15/30/45% chance to cause your next Howling Blast or Icy Touch to consume no runes.

Killing Machine is now a Tier 3 and 3 Ranks talents, down from Tier 4 and 5 Ranks. Now affects Obliterate instead of Howling Blast.

Chill of the Grave is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4. Now generates 5/10 additional runic power. (Up from 2.5/5)

Endless Winter is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 4. No longer increases strength.

Lichborne is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 3.

Annihilation is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 3. Increases the damage dealt by your Obliterate ability by 15/30/45%.

Icy Reach is now a Tier 1 talent, down from Tier 2.

Nerves of Cold Steel is now a Tier 1 talent, down from Tier 2.

Runic Power Mastery is now a 3 Ranks talent, up from 2 Ranks. Now increases your maximum Runic Power by 10/20/30, down from 15/30.

New Talents

Pillar of Frost - Calls upon the power of Frost to increase the Death Knight's Strength by 20%. Icy crystals hang heavy upon the Death Knight's body, providing immunity against external movement such as knockbacks. Lasts 20 sec. / 1 Frost, Instant, 1 min cooldown

Might of the Frozen Wastes - When wielding a two-handed weapon, your autoattacks have a 15/30/45% chance to generate 10 Runic Power.

Brittle Bones - Your Strength is increased by 2/4% and your Frost Fever chills the bones of its victims, increasing their physical damage taken by 2/4%.

On a Pale Horse - You become as hard to stop as death itself. The duration of movement-slowing effects used against you is reduced by 15/30%, and your mounted speed is increased by 10/20%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.

Removed Talents

Tundra Stalker has been removed from the tree.

Acclimation has been removed from the tree.

Frost Strike is now a primary spell of the Frost tree.

Guile of Gorefiend has been removed from the tree.

Blood of the North has been removed from the tree.

Unbreakable Armor is gone.

Frigid Dreadplate is gone.

Glacier Rot is gone.

Deathchill is gone.

Icy Talons is gone. Now a primary spell.

Black Ice has been removed from the tree.

Improved Icy Touch has been removed from the tree.

Toughness has been removed from the tree.

Unholy

Primary Spells

Scourge Strike - An unholy strike that deals 100% of weapon damage as Physical damage plus 560.82. In addition, for each of your diseases on your target, you deal an additional 12% of the Physical damage done as Shadow damage. / 1 Unholy, 5 yd range, Instant

Master of Ghouls (Passive) - Reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 60 sec, and the Ghoul summoned by your Raise Dead spell is considered a pet under your control. Unlike normal Death Knight Ghouls, your pet does not have a limited duration.

Reaping (Passive) - Whenever you hit with Blood Strike, Pestilence, or Festering Strike, the Runes spent will become Death Runes when they activate. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune.

Unholy Might (Passive) - Dark power courses through your limbs, increasing your Strength by 15%.

Blightcaller (Mastery) - Increases the damage done by your diseases by 32%. Each point of Mastery increases disease damage by an additional 4%.

Skills

Unholy Presence revamped - You are infused with unholy fury, increasing attack speed and rune regeneration by 10%, and movement speed by 15%, and reducing the global cooldown on your abilities by 0.5 sec. Only one Presence may be active at a time, and assuming a new Presence will consume any stored Runic Power.

Anti-Magic Shell Runic Power cost removed.

Death and Decay now costs 1 Unholy, down from 1 Blood 1 Unholy 1 Frost. Now deals [ 6.4% of AP + 41.43 ] Shadow damage, up from 62 Shadow damage.

Raise Dead no longer requires Corpse Dust if no corpse is available.

Death Coil now deals 30% of AP + 885 damage. up from 510.

Plague Strike now deals 100% weapon damage plus 378, up from 50% weapon damage plus 189.

Talents Changes

Summon Gargoyle is now a Tier 7 talent, down from Tier 11.

Rage of Rivendare is now a Tier 4 and 3 Ranks talent, down from Tier 10 and 5 Ranks. Revamped - Increases the damage of your Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, and Festering Strike abilities by 15/30/45%.

Ebon Plaguebringer is now a Tier 6 and 2 Ranks talent, down from Tier 9 and 3 Ranks. Your Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Chains of Ice, and Outbreak abilities also infect their target with Ebon Plague, which increases damage taken from your diseases by 15/30% and all magic damage taken by an additional 8%.

Anti-Magic Zone is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 7.

Improved Unholy Presence is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 7. Now also grant you an additional 2/5% haste while in Unholy Presence. Your runes no longer finish their cooldown 5/10% faster.

Desecration is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 6.

Magic Suppression is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 6. Increases the spell damage absorption of your Anti-Magic Shell by an additional 8/16/25%, and causes damage absorbed by Anti-Magic Shell to energize the Death Knight with runic power.

Epidemic is now a Tier 1 talent, down from Tier 2. Increases the duration of Blood Plague and Frost Fever by 4/8/12 sec. Up from 3/6 sec.

Morbidity no longer reduces the cooldown of Death and Decay. Now increases Death and Decay damage by 10/20/30%.

Unholy Command is now a Tier 1 talent, down from Tier 2. Now also gives you a 50/100% chance to refresh its cooldown when dealing a killing blow to a target that grants experience or honor.

Virulence now increases your chance to hit with spells by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%. No longer reduces the chance that your DoT diseases can be cured.

New Talents

Shadow Infusion - When you cast Death Coil, you have a 33/66/100% chance to empower your active Ghoul, increasing its damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.

Dark Transformation - Consume 5 charges of Shadow Infusion on your Ghoul to transform it into a powerful undead monstrosity for 30 sec. The Ghoul's abilities are empowered and take on new functions while the transformation is active.

Runic Corruption - Reduces the cost of your Death Coil by 3/6, and causes your Runic Empowerment ability to no longer refresh a depleted rune, but instead to increase your rune regeneration rate by 50/100% for 3 sec.

Sudden Doom - Your auto attacks have a 5/10/15% chance to make your next Death Coil cost no runic power.

Unholy Frenzy - Induces a friendly unit into a killing frenzy for 30 sec. The target is Enraged, which increases their melee and ranged haste by 20%, but causes them to lose health equal to 2% of their maximum health every 3 sec. / 30 yd range, Instant, 3 min cooldown

Contagion - Increases the damage of your diseases spread via Pestilence by 50/100%.

Resilient Infection - When your diseases are dispelled by an enemy, you have a 50/100% chance to activate a Frost rune if Frost Fever was removed, or an Unholy rune if Blood Plague was removed.

Epidemic - Increases the duration of Blood Plague and Frost Fever by 12 sec.

Dark Transformation

If the Death Knight uses Death Coil 5 times and activates Dark Transformation, the ghoul gains a 100% damage buff and a new set of skills for 30 seconds.

Gnaw becomes - Strike an enemy with a smashing attack, dealing 125% of normal melee damage and stunning for 4 sec.

Huddle becomes - Unleash a fortifying roar, reducing all damage taken by 50% for 10 sec.

Claw becomes - Rakes an enemy with deformed claws, dealing 150% of normal damage to the target and up to 2 additional targets.

Leap becomes - Charge an enemy, interrupting spellcasting and immobilizing them for 2 sec.

Removed Talents

Wandering Plague has been removed from the tree.

Scourge Strike is now a primary spell of the Unholy tree.

Crypt Fever has been removed from the tree.

Bone Shield has been removed from the tree.

Desolation has been removed from the tree.

Ghoul Frenzy has been removed from the tree.

Reaping has been removed from the tree.

Master of Ghouls has been removed from the tree.

Impurity has been removed from the tree.

Dirge has been removed from the tree.

On a Pale Horse has been removed from the tree.

Blood-Caked Blade has been removed from the tree.

Night of the Dead has been removed from the tree.

Outbreak has been removed from the tree.

Necrosis has been removed from the tree.

Corpse Explosion has been removed from the tree.

Ravenous Dead has been removed from the tree.

Vicious Strikes has been removed from the tree.

Anticipation has been removed from the tree.

Nexwave

2010-06-15T10:48:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the lack of news. I've been working on getting a small IT company going with my cousin. We founded Nexwave a few months ago and its been taking much of my time since. Things are finally falling into place and I should be able to get back to blogging soon.

Now to advertise a little ;-)

Nexwave is a web and IT service company located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We offer a wide range of web marketing services and networking solutions to small businesses in any industry. Our clients value the quality of our personalised services, which adapt well in the environment of new and small businesses.

Now since the blog is mainly in english, you can visite Nexwave at http://tech.nexwave.ca/ or in french at http://tech.nexwave.ca/.

More WoW comming soon.

At Long Last, Deathknight Tank Buffs

2010-02-05T11:54:00.007-05:00

Long awaited buffs put us back in line with other tanks as far as effective health. And the buff to IBF is a very nice plus.

Reading the original post, I do belive that the changes are effective immediately although the spell tool-tips will not be updated right away.

Crygil:

Tanking and Survivability Changes 02/04/2010 10:38:04 PM PST

We are making some adjustments to tank survivability based on what we’re seeing in Icecrown Citadel. We feel this is particularly important in preparation for upcoming Heroic attempts. This is tricky and occasionally subjective, so we might very well make more adjustments as we get even more data.

Paladin:
Sacred Duty now provides 2 / 4% Stamina, down from 4 / 8% Stamina. The cooldown advantages of the talent remain unchanged.
Death Knight:
Frost Presence now provides 8% Stamina, up from 6% Stamina.
Icebound Fortitude now provides 30% base damage reduction, up from 20% damage reduction. For a geared tank with high defense, this translates to 50% damage reduction, up from 40%.

It’s important to note that we aren’t trying to single out paladins here. We like the tank balance of warriors and druids at the moment, and we have a larger sample size of warrior tanks that we can compare. Another solution would have been to buff warriors, death knights and druids and then increase boss damage accordingly. Obviously, that would have been a much larger change with greater risks and a longer delay.

Though Ardent Defender is always a possible target for changes, we like that this talent provides such a distinction between warriors and paladins. Rather than have all the tanks have the same health, armor, avoidance and cooldowns, we’d rather have four unique tanking classes rather than just superficial or artistic differences. Yes, that design is harder to balance, but we think class distinction is ultimately more interesting, which is better for the long term health of the game. The goal remains to have all four tanks be viable for any encounter, assuming sufficient gear and skill, and any differences in performance on individual encounters to be minor. “Minor” is obviously a subjective term.

Please note that the death knight change will result in a small survivability increase in PvP, which we think is appropriate. We chose it partially with that in mind.

Now the question is, will we again see the strong Deathknight main tank we once did?

3.3.2 - No Deathknight buffs

2010-02-02T17:47:00.003-05:00

While DKs are saved from beeing in patch notes this time, for better or for worse. We did find ourselves with a hidden buff, well if your a DK tank in T10.

All tank T10 sets found an armor increase of about 1000 on the chest and gloves. Like I said not a direct DK buff, but we'll take what we can get. The entire Scourgelord's Plate set now has 10,261 armor its name.

For entire patch notes you can go here. See the Item section for details on armor increase.

Happy tanking.

pwnwear.com?

2010-01-08T14:21:00.002-05:00

Hey I would just like to bring http://pwnwear.com/ to everyone attention. This is a great site where you can find almost everything DK related. The site contains analysis log and multiple other informative tools and posts all summed up by Gravity in a way that you don't need to analyse/read them for hours.

The site is definitely worth checking out and participating in. Pwnwear.com has earned a place in my Sites section at the bottom left hand side of the Home page.

3.3 - Fall of the Lich King

2009-12-11T14:46:00.025-05:00

A litle late but here it is. The death knight patch new for 3.3. Make sure you check out the killer patch trailer.

While not much has changed as far as are class goes, the increas threat on RS should prouve to be a nice buff for us DK tanks. Also with the addition of 1 hander version of "Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle" called "Rune of the Nerubian Carapace" will we see the rise of the dual-wield Death Knight? Here are the DK specific patch notes for more detailed changes and the youTube version of the patch trailer.

Patch notes:

Death Knights

Army of the Dead: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Raise Ally: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: There is now a 1-handed version of this rune in addition to the current 2-handed rune.
Rune Strike: Threat generated by this ability increased by approximately 17%.
Talents

Unholy

Night of the Dead: Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 45/90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Army of the Dead by 2/4 minutes, down from 5/10 minutes.
Scourge Strike: Redesigned. The base ability now deals 50% weapon damage plus an additional amount as physical damage. However, for each disease the death knight has on the target, the target will take additional shadow damage equal to 25% of the physical damage done.
Unholy Blight: This talent now deals only 10% of Death Coil damage as a damage-over-time effect on the target.

Items

Death Knight Tier-9 4-Piece Bonus (Damage-Dealing): This set bonus no longer grants Frost Fever a chance to be a critical strike. It still grants that possibility to Blood Plague.

Glyphs

Death Knights

Glyph of Icy Touch: Instead of granting additional runic power, this glyph now causes Frost Fever to deal 20% additional damage.

Bug Fixes

Classes

Death Knights

Bloody Strikes: Now properly increases the damage displayed in the tooltips of Blood Strike and Heart Strike.
Bone Shield: Tooltip corrected to indicate the player has the correct number of bones.
Chains of Ice: This ability will no longer appear to land on targets which are immune.
Desecration: The debuff from this ability will no longer sometimes appear as if it were cast by someone else. In addition, the visual and snare from this ability will now both dissipate at the same time. Further, this talent will now respect snare immunities, and no longer sometimes snare immune targets.
Frost Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time.
Glyph of Bone Shield: Now updates the number of charges in the Bone Shield tooltip.
Glyph of Dark Death: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil. In addition, its own tooltip has been clarified to indicate it also applies to healing from Death Coil.
Glyph of Death's Embrace: Now updates the tooltip on Death Coil to indicate runic power is refunded.
Glyph of Heart Strike: Now updates the tooltip on Heart Strike to indicate Heart Strike applies a movement snare.
Glyph of Icebound Fortitude: Now updates the tooltip on Icebound Fortitude to show increased damage reduction.
Glyph of Plague Strike: Now updates the damage shown in Plague Strike's tooltip.
Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Now updates the tooltip on Unbreakable Armor. Tooltip on glyph modified to make its effect more clear as well.
Master of Ghouls: Tooltip typo corrected.
Night of the Dead: Tooltip typo corrected.
Obliterate: This ability will no longer sometimes fail to do additional damage based on diseases on the target.
Raise Ally: While this spell is active on a target, they will not be sent to the graveyard, prematurely ending the spell.
Raise Dead: It is no longer possible under some circumstances to use a Risen Ghoul to cause neutral guards to attack opposite faction players.
Strangulate: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs.
Taste of Blood: Corrected inaccurate information in combat log tooltip.
Unholy Presence: The animation for activating this presence will no longer also have the animation for Blood Presence played at the same time.

WoW auction tool

2009-11-30T10:33:00.001-05:00

Not really related to DKs. I was reading WoWRaid.com's new as I do every morning and came across their post about a new out of game auction tool. You can find this new tool at http://www.wowoah.com/.

I played with the tool for a bit and found it very powerful. Definitely worth checking it out.

Patch 3.2.2 - Buffs?

2009-09-22T16:16:00.024-04:00

First thing first, Onyxia is back! Now on to Death Knight news. As far as I can tell we seam to have a pretty nice patch, as far as DKs go, this time around. We see some buffing on the tanking side of things and a small nerf in arenas.

Patch notes:

Frost Presence: The damage reduction granted by this ability has been increased from 5% to 8%.
Pets

Gnaw: This death knight ghoul ability now has a 1-minute cooldown.

Talents

Blood

Heart Strike: Secondary targets of Heart Strike now take half as much damage.
Subversion: Now also increases the critical strike chance of Scourge Strike by 3/6/9%.
Vampiric Blood: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and duration reduced to 10 seconds.

Frost

Threat of Thassarian now also causes Rune Strike to use both weapons when dual-wielding.
Unbreakable Armor: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute and changed back to granting 25% additional armor while active instead of flat damage reduction based on armor. The amount of strength granted has been reduced to 10%.

Unholy

Bone Shield: This ability now has 3 charges instead of 4. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute.
Dirge: This talent no longer grants additional runic power from using Obliterate.

So what do you guys think of these changes? Let us know in the comment section.

3.2 Unholy Tank Spec

2009-09-09T13:12:00.009-04:00

Finding topics to blog about is alot harder then I first realized.

I started a thread on my guild's forums a few days back for an unholy tank spec. While I got some good feedback from a friend there I wanted to get some more public feedback. I'm going to make a copy of the discussion here feel free to comment on it.

Tusam:
Here is the spec I'm thinking of. Please make sure to also look over at the glyph section.
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#3hvS-up33B9svc,3I-3eO,10192
The only point I'm not too sure about so far is the 1 on UB. But I'm sure some of you here will break this spec down and offer valuable advice :D .

Atrophos:
Oh Tusam... When will you learn that Unholy is just not as good as either of the other two trees for tanking? lol

With that being said I've made a few modifications to your spec if you're dead set on Unholy. Explanations first, than my take on the spec.

Scent of blood: Unholy is generally more an AoE tank spec than single target, and even with single target tanking you will find that Scent of blood procs constantly and even with only two points, you'll be generating more runic power than you have time to dump in a proper rotation.

Ravenous Dead: It's a good threat talent that scales with your gear, The 3 points here can come out of BCB very easily, as BCB is pretty terrible while using a 2h. A 30% chance once every 2.5 seconds to deal 50% weapon damage? Not worth it at all imo.

Blood Caked Blade: See above.

Night of the Dead/Master of Ghouls: Reducing the cooldown on your pet to 30 seconds isn't really necessary, unfortunately you have to have it maxed in order to get permanent ghoul. Either way, this allows you to have an extra cooldown by saccing your pet every minute for a big heal. (You can argue that you can summon and sac your pet in an emergency situation even without it being permanent, however that's a full GCD to summon it before you can sac for the heal. In most emergency situations, the delay will kill you anyway) Plus who doesn't like having a permanent pet?!

Anti Magic Zone: I see no reason not to get this with the abundance of magical AoE damage in the current raiding environments. Even if you are the only one getting the absorption it's a 75% magical reduction for 10 seconds. The idea here is that Unholy is already short on automatic tools/cooldowns imo, such as Vampiric Blood or Unbreakable Armor, this gives you one more tool to fill that spot or cycle a cooldown on hard mode encounters.

Desolation: I'm not terribly sold on this, as when AoE tanking you are generally going to be using your blood runes on pestilence/blood boil, however it does provide you a little extra threat versus single target encounters, and there aren't any talents that are significantly better than it at this point in the tree.

Wandering Plague: I don't know about you, but raid buffed in tank gear I have somewhere around 16% crit chance which makes this talent practically useless on single target, and I suspect that even while AoE tanking you'd need to have 4+ mobs on you nonstop for it to actually be worthwhile.

Glyphs:

Bone Shield: no brainer

Disease: A glyph that isn't terrible for AoE tanking, but absolutely useless for single target situations. Glyph of Scourge Strike gives your SS a 25% chance to refresh your diseases, so while AoE tanking, you can get the same benefit by rotating SS, Pest, Blood boil without the need for IT or PS and On single target allows you to go SS, blood strike, blood strike, DC, DC, repeat for a max threat rotation.

Anti Magic Shell: Again not a terrible glyph, but with AMZ now in the picture you can replace this with a great threat increasing glyph in Glyph of Rune Strike, or if you aren't at the spell hit cap, possibly consider a Glyph of Dark Command as a missed taunt can be an auto wipe.

With all that considered, here is what I believe to be the best overall Unholy tanking spec:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#3hv99DmUEXGFea,36Y3eO,10192

Now get back to work!

Tusam:
No... I will never learn. I love they way unholy DK plays.

I like the spec atro, you brought up some good points.

Atrophos wrote:
Ravenous Dead: It's a good threat talent that scales with your gear, The 3 points here can come out of BCB very easily, as BCB is pretty terrible while using a 2h. A 30% chance once every 2.5 seconds to deal 50% weapon damage? Not worth it at all imo.
I never though of this as a scaling TPS talent.

The only "real" change from my spec to this is Desolation. Once set into my rotation I generate 5k avg TPS(by omen) my snap aggro isn't very good. I'll see what changes Desolation brings to my TPS.

Even as an AoE tank if someone chooses a different target then mine to focus on they rip aggro. Its always been like this for tanks. I was wondering if anyone had pointers on how to address this issue. The only way I can think of is using a marking macro, and mark the focus target. Raid assist is needed for this though.

Atrophos:
On Aoe pulls, get your diseases on main target, pestilence, then blood boil like there's no tomorrow while tab targeting for scourge strikes on individual targets in between.

If you DnD, pull, Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, you're one blood rune short for blood boil, i ALWAYS use Blood Tap for the extra rune in that situation. Blood boil on pestilenced targets will give you aggro long enough to start tabbing between them.

I left Desolation in, the changes were:

-3 points Wandering Plague
-1 point Scent of Blood
-3 points Blood Caked Blade

+3 points Ravenous Dead
+3 points Night of the Dead/Master of Ghouls
+1 point Anti Magic Zone

Tusam:
Sorry, when I said this...

Tusam wrote:The only "real" change from my spec to this is Desolation.
I meant my in game spec.

As far as AoE goes I guess tabbing through targets would work... still a pain in the ass if a bunch of different people are on different targets.

Finally good 25 mans

2009-07-16T09:10:00.001-04:00

I had a few good attempts at 25 man raid now. I need to say I'm very pleased.

The difficulty curve from 10 mans to 25 mans is not as steep as I thought. I was expecting the bosses to hit harder. There is however something I was not aware of and I'd like to put it out there so others can learn from my experiences. Some bosses in Heroic Ulduar have abilities that the normal mode bosses do not. For example, Auriaya on heroic has an ability called Sentinel Blast that must be interrupted as soon as possible or it will wipe the raid. She does not have this ability in normal mode. As I said just watch out for these "Heroic abilities".

I'd also like to mention that I'm very pleased with the 25 man raiding group we've put together. I wish it upon everyone to have a raiding group like the one exclusion has. Also if your interested in beeing part of this group you can always throw up an application on our recruitment page.

25 mans, an itch I can't wait to scratch

2009-06-26T11:48:00.001-04:00

Due to limited time on wow and the loyalty to my guild, I haven't had many chances to run 25's. I did pug Sartharion once, but we call know that doesn't really count now, does it?

There might be an answer to my call. Our guild recruitment has been going reasonably well. We got a 25 group together but were short a couple of healers, so the recruitment efforts press on.

I'm exited to get into 25s so I can compare it to 10s. Just the raid leading aspect and the fact that 25 people need to be organized. I can't hide the fact that I also like some of that epic lewt. I'm anxiously anticipating our next attempt at 25 man Ulduar this comming Tuesday.

Raid well,

Panda Cloud Antivirus

2009-06-23T16:27:00.003-04:00

This isn't really wow news, but I thought it would be a good idea to share this with everyone. No one can ever be too safe, especially when it's free!

I stumble across this new Anti Virus a while ago. This AV uses a new and, as far as I can tell, unique process. You can read more about that here. It promises to be light weight and easy to use.

I've personally been running this AV for about a month now on all my PCs at home. It is all that it promises to be. I found it to be very light weight and insanely easy to use. I had been using avast prior to this and when comparing the two Panda Cloud AV is better by a long shot. I encourage everyone to give it a try, its worth it.

Download here, http://www.cloudantivirus.com/. Sadly there isn't any 64-bit or windows 7 support yet. Though, it's on the way.

First post

2009-06-16T16:26:00.000-04:00

Recently I was given an opportunity to transfer to a PvE realm and join a 25 man raiding guild with some friends. Well my friends transferred over a few alt characters to test the water, a good thing too. Turns out the guild we were going to raid with was drama ridden and our friends that were in that guild /gquit.

I'm a little glad that this happened as I quite enjoy the people in the guild I currently raid with. Needless to say, for now I'm sticking around on Magtheridon. Still trying to get my friends to transfer this way.