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    Cataclysm - Build 12479 - Death Knight

    Death Knight



    New Skills
      Spell Level Description
    Dark Simulacrum
    85 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.
    40 yd range, Instant, 2 min cooldown
    Necrotic Strike
    83 A vicious strike that deals 80% weapon damage and absorbs the next [ 40% of AP ] healing received by the target.
    5 yd range, Instant
    Outbreak
    81 Instantly applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever to the target enemy.
    30 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown


    Complete Skill List


      Spell Level Description
    Dark Simulacrum
    85 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.
    40 yd range, Instant, 2 min cooldown
    Death Pact
    66 Sacrifices an undead minion, healing the Death Knight for 40% of his or her maximum health. This heal cannot be a critical.
    40 Runic Power, Instant, 2 min cooldown
    Dark Command
    65 Commands the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you.
    30 yd range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown
    Blood Tap
    64 Immediately activates a Blood Rune and converts it into a Death Rune for the next 20 sec. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune.
    6% of base health, Instant, 1 min cooldown
    Strangulate
    59 Strangulates an enemy, silencing them for 5 sec. Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 sec.
    30 yd range, Instant, 2 min cooldown
    Blood Boil
    58 Boils the blood of all enemies within 10 yards, dealing 222.8 Shadow damage. Deals additional damage to targets infected with Blood Plague or Frost Fever.
    Instant
    Blood Presence
    57 The death knight takes on 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.
    Instant, 1 sec cooldown
    Death Strike
    56 A deadly attack that deals 150% weapon damage plus ( Improved Death Strike : 496.23/431.504/381.715/342.228 ) and heals the Death Knight for 5% of his or her maximum health for each of his or her diseases on the target.
    5 yd range, Instant
    Pestilence
    56 Spreads existing Blood Plague and Frost Fever infections from your target to all other enemies within 10 yards. Diseases spread this way deal 50% of normal damage.
    5 yd range, Instant
    Blood Strike
    55 Instantly strike the enemy, causing 80% weapon damage plus 680.536, total damage increased by 12.5% for each of your diseases on the target.
    5 yd range, Instant
    Forceful Deflection
    Passive
    55 Increases your Parry Rating by 25% of your total Strength.
    Death Strike
    1 A deadly attack that deals damage plus and heals the Death Knight for a percent of damage done per disease on the target.
    Instant
      Spell Level Description
    Empower Rune Weapon
    75 Empower your rune weapon, immediately activating all your runes and generating 25 runic power.
    Instant, 5 min cooldown
    Rune Strike
    67 Strike the target for 200% weapon damage plus [ 20% of AP ]. Only usable after the Death Knight dodges or parries. Can't be dodged, blocked, or parried. This attack causes a high amount of threat.
    20 Runic Power, 5 yd range, Instant
    Rune Strike
    67
    5 yd range, Instant
    Horn of Winter
    65 The Death Knight blows the Horn of Winter, which generates 10 runic power and increases total Strength and Agility of all party or raid members within 30 yards by 549.32. Lasts 2 min.
    Instant, 20 sec cooldown
    Icebound Fortitude
    62 The Death Knight freezes his or her blood to become immune to Stun effects and reduce all damage taken by 30% for 12 sec.
    20 Runic Power, Instant, 2 min cooldown
    Obliterate
    61 A brutal instant attack that deals 160% weapon damage plus 1040.608, total damage increased 12.5% per each of your diseases on the target.
    5 yd range, Instant
    Path of Frost
    61 The Death Knight's freezing aura creates ice beneath his or her feet, allowing him or her and his or her party or raid to walk on water for 10 min. Works while mounted. Any damage will cancel the effect.
    Instant
    Chains of Ice
    58 Shackles the target with frozen chains, reducing their movement by 95%, and infects them with Frost Fever. The target regains 10% of their movement each second for 10 sec.
    20 yd range, Instant
    Mind Freeze
    57 Smash the target's mind with cold, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec.
    20 Runic Power, 5 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown
    Frost Presence
    55 Strengthens the Death Knight with the presence of Frost, increasing damage by 10% and increasing Runic Power generation by 10%.
    Instant, 1 sec cooldown
    Frost Strike
    55 Instantly strike the enemy, causing 110% weapon damage plus 305.723 as Frost damage.
    40 Runic Power, 5 yd range, Instant
    Icy Talons
    Rank 2
    55 You leech heat from victims of your Frost Fever, so that when their melee attack speed is reduced, yours increases by 8% for the next 20 sec.
    20 yd range, Instant
    Icy Talons
    Rank 3
    55 You leech heat from victims of your Frost Fever, so that when their melee attack speed is reduced, yours increases by 12% for the next 20 sec.
    20 yd range, Instant
    Icy Talons
    Rank 4
    55 You leech heat from victims of your Frost Fever, so that when their melee attack speed is reduced, yours increases by 16% for the next 20 sec.
    20 yd range, Instant
    Icy Talons
    55 Your melee attack speed is increased by 20% and your maximum runic power is increased by 30.
    20 yd range, Instant
    Icy Talons
    Rank 1
    55 You leech heat from victims of your Frost Fever, so that when their melee attack speed is reduced, yours increases by 4% for the next 20 sec.
    20 yd range, Instant
    Icy Touch
    Rank 1
    55 Deals 217 to 235 Frost damage modified by attack power and reduces the target's ranged, melee attack, and casting speed by 15% for 20 sec.
    20 yd range, Instant, 6 sec cooldown
    Icy Touch
    55 Chills the target for 504.75 to 548.46 Frost damage and infects them with Frost Fever, a disease that deals periodic damage and reduces melee and ranged attack speed by 20% for 30 sec. Very high threat when in Frost Presence.
    20 yd range, Instant
    Rune of Cinderglacier
    40 Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that has a chance to increase the damage by 20% for your next 2 attacks that deal Frost or Shadow damage. Modifying your rune weapon requires a Rune Forge in Ebon Hold.
    5 sec cast
    Rune of Razorice
    40 Affixes your weapon with a rune that causes 2% extra weapon damage as Frost damage and increases enemies' vulnerability to your Frost attacks. Modifying your rune weapon requires a Rune Forge in Ebon Hold.
    5 sec cast
      Spell Level Description
    Necrotic Strike
    83 A vicious strike that deals 80% weapon damage and absorbs the next [ 40% of AP ] healing received by the target.
    5 yd range, Instant
    Outbreak
    81 Instantly applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever to the target enemy.
    30 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
    Army of the Dead
    80 Summons an entire legion of Ghouls to fight for the Death Knight. The Ghouls will swarm the area, taunting and fighting anything they can. While channelling Army of the Dead, the Death Knight takes less damage equal to his or her Dodge plus Parry chance.
    Channeled, 10 min cooldown
    Raise Ally
    72 Raises the corpse of a raid or party member to fight by your side. The player will have control over the Ghoul for 5 min.
    30 yd range, Instant, 10 min cooldown
    Unholy Presence
    70 Infuses the death knight with unholy fury, increasing attack speed and rune regeneration by 10%, movement speed by 15%. Only one Presence may be active at a time.
    Instant, 1 sec cooldown
    Anti-Magic Shell
    68 Surrounds the Death Knight in an Anti-Magic Shell, absorbing 75% of the damage dealt by harmful spells (up to a maximum of 50% of the Death Knight's health) and preventing application of harmful magical effects. Damage absorbed by Anti-Magic Shell energizes the Death Knight with additional runic power. Lasts 5 sec.
    20 Runic Power, Instant, 45 sec cooldown
    Death and Decay
    60 Corrupts the ground targeted by the Death Knight, causing 34.88 Shadow damage every sec that targets remain in the area for 10 sec. This ability produces a high amount of threat.
    30 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown
    Raise Dead
    56 Raises a Ghoul to fight by your side. If no humanoid corpse that yields experience or honor is available, you must supply Corpse Dust to complete the spell. You can have a maximum of one Ghoul at a time. Lasts 1 min.
    30 yd range, Instant, 3 min cooldown
    Acherus Deathcharger
    Summon
    55 Summons and dismisses your rideable Acherus Deathcharger. This is a very fast mount.
    1.5 sec cast
    Death Coil
    55 Fire a blast of unholy energy, causing ( Glyph of Dark Death : 985.7/1133.555 ) Shadow damage to an enemy target or healing ( Glyph of Dark Death : 1478.55/1700.333 ) damage from a friendly Undead target. ( Glyph of Death's Embrace : Refunds 20 runic power when used to heal. )
    40 Runic Power, 30/40 yd range, Instant
    Death Gate
    55 Opens a gate which the Death Knight can use to return to Ebon Hold.
    10 sec cast, 1 min cooldown
    Death Grip
    55 Harness the unholy energy that surrounds and binds all matter, drawing the target toward the death knight and forcing the enemy to attack the death knight for 3 sec.
    8-30 yd range, Instant, 35 sec cooldown
    Plague Strike
    55 A vicious strike that deals ( Glyph of Plague Strike : 100/120 )% weapon damage plus ( Glyph of Plague Strike : 420.84/505.008 ) and infects the target with Blood Plague, a disease dealing Shadow damage over time.
    5 yd range, Instant
    Blood Plague
    Passive
    1 A disease dealing [ 6.325% of AP + 1.15 ] Shadow damage every 3 sec for 30 sec. Caused by Plague Strike and other abilities.
    Base damage 0
    Bonus from attack power [ 6.325% of AP ]



    Masteries


      Mastery Description Per point Max (51)
      Damage Reduction Reduces damage taken by a percentage. 0.155% 8.01%
      Vengeance Increases attack power by a percentage of damage taken, up to a maximum of a percentage of the character's health. 0.1% 5.0%
    Life Shield Grants healing absorption 1.97 100.47
      Mastery Description Per point Max (51)
      Melee Damage Increases melee damage. 0.155% 8.01%
      Melee Haste Increases melee haste. 0.155% 8.01%
    Runic Power Increase Runic Power generation 0.395% 20.04%
      Mastery Description Per point Max (51)
      Melee Damage Increases melee damage. 0.155% 8.01%
      Melee Crit Increases melee critical strike chance. 0.155% 8.01%
    Disease Damage Increase disease damage by a percentage. 0.395% 20.04%


    Talents


      Talent Tier Col Description
    Dancing Rune Weapon
    Rank 1
    7 2 Summons a second rune weapon that fights on its own for 12 sec, doing the same attacks as the Death Knight but for 50% reduced damage. The rune weapon also assists in defense of its master, granting an additional 20% parry chance while active.
    60 Runic Power, 30 yd range, Instant, 1.5 min cooldown
    Improved Death Strike
    Rank 1-3
    6 2 Increases the damage of your Death Strike by [15%/30%/45%], increases its critical strike chance by [3%/6%/9%], and increases the healing granted by [25%/50%/75%].
    Crimson Scourge
    Rank 1-3
    6 3 Increases the damage dealt by your Blood Boil by [15%/30%/45%], and when you Plague Strike a target that is already infected with your Blood Plague, there is a [33%/67%/100%] chance that your next Blood Boil will consume no runes.
    Will of the Necropolis
    Rank 1-3
    5 1 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 15 seconds.
    Rune Tap
    Rank 1
    5 2 Converts 1 Blood Rune into 20% of your maximum health.
    Instant, 30 sec cooldown
    Improved Blood Presence
    Rank 1-2
    5 3 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.
    Vampiric Blood
    Rank 1
    5 4 Temporarily grants the Death Knight 15% of maximum health and increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 35% for 10 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost.
    Instant, 1 min cooldown
    Blood Parasite
    Rank 1-3
    4 2 Your weapon hits have a [3%/6%/9%] chance to cause the target to spawn a Bloodworm. The Bloodworm attacks your enemies, gorging itself with blood until it bursts to heal nearby allies. Lasts up to 20 sec.
    Toughness
    Rank 1-3
    4 3 Increases your armor value from items by [3%/7%/10%].
    Abomination's Might
    Rank 1-2
    3 1 Increases the attack power by [5%/10%] of party and raid members within 100 yards. Also increases your total Strength by [1%/2%].
    Bone Shield
    Rank 1
    3 2 The Death Knight is surrounded by 3 whirling bones. While at least 1 bone remains, he or she takes 20% less damage from all sources and deals 2% more damage with all attacks, spells and abilities. Each damaging attack that lands consumes 1 bone. Lasts 5 min.
    Instant, 1 min cooldown
    Sanguine Fortitude
    Rank 1-3
    3 3 While active, your Icebound Fortitude reduces damage taken by an additional [10%/20%/30%] and costs [33% less/66% less/no] runic power to activate.
    Blood-Caked Blade
    Rank 1-3
    2 1 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.
    Scent of Blood
    Rank 1-3
    2 2 You have a 15% chance after dodging, parrying or taking direct damage to gain the Scent of Blood effect, causing your next [/2/3]melee hit[/s/s] to generate 10 runic power.
    Scarlet Fever
    Rank 1-2
    2 3 Gives your Blood Boil a [50%/100%] chance to afflict enemies with Scarlet Fever, reducing their physical damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec.
    Butchery
    Rank 1-2
    1 1 Whenever you kill an enemy that grants experience or honor, you generate up to [10/20] runic power. In addition, you generate [1/2] runic power per 5 sec while in combat.
    Blade Barrier
    Rank 1-3
    1 2 Whenever your Blood Runes are on cooldown, you gain the Blade Barrier effect, which decreases damage taken by [2%/4%/6%] for the next 10 sec.
    Bladed Armor
    Rank 1-3
    1 3 Increases your attack power by [2/4/6] for every 180 armor value you have.
      Talent Tier Col Description
    Howling Blast
    Rank 1
    7 2 Blast the target with a frigid wind dealing 1151.87 to 1251.62 Frost damage to all enemies within 10 yards.
    20 yd range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown
    Threat of Thassarian
    Rank 1-3
    6 1 When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Rune Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a [30%/60%/100%] chance to also deal damage with your offhand weapon.
    Might of the Frozen Wastes
    Rank 1-3
    6 3 When wielding a two-handed weapon, your autoattacks have a [15%/30%/45%] chance to generate 10 Runic Power.
    Chilblains
    Rank 1-2
    5 1 Victims of your Frost Fever disease are Chilled, reducing movement speed by [25%/50%] for 10 sec.
    Hungering Cold
    Rank 1
    5 2 Purges the earth around the Death Knight of all heat. Enemies within 10 yards are trapped in ice, preventing them from performing any action for 10 sec and infecting them with Frost Fever. Enemies are considered Frozen, but any damage other than diseases will break the ice.
    40 Runic Power, Instant, 1 min cooldown
    Improved Frost Presence
    Rank 1-2
    5 3 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.
    Rime
    Rank 1-3
    4 1 Your Obliterate has a [15%/30%/45%] chance to reset the cooldown on Howling Blast and cause your next Howling Blast or Icy Touch to consume no runes.
    Pillar of Frost
    Rank 1
    4 2 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.
    Instant, 1 min cooldown
    Improved Icy Talons
    Rank 1
    4 3 Increases the melee and ranged haste of all party and raid members within 100 yds by 20% and your haste by an additional 5%.
    Brittle Bones
    Rank 1-2
    4 4 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%].
    Merciless Combat
    Rank 1-2
    3 1 Your Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Obliterate and Frost Strike do an additional [6%/12%] damage when striking targets with less than 35% health.
    Chill of the Grave
    Rank 1-2
    3 2 Your Chains of Ice, Howling Blast, Icy Touch and Obliterate generate [2.5/5] additional runic power.
    Killing Machine
    Rank 1-3
    3 3 Your melee attacks have a chance to make your next Icy Touch, Howling Blast or Frost Strike a critical strike.[/ Effect occurs more often than Killing Machine (Rank 1)./ Effect occurs more often than Killing Machine (Rank 2).]
    Annihilation
    Rank 1-3
    2 1 Increases the damage dealt by your Obliterate ability by [10%/20%/30%].
    Lichborne
    Rank 1
    2 2 Draw upon unholy energy to become undead for 10 sec. While undead, you are immune to Charm, Fear and Sleep effects.
    Instant, 2 min cooldown
    Nerves of Cold Steel
    Rank 1-3
    2 3 Increases your chance to hit with one-handed melee weapons by [1%/2%/3%] and increases the damage done by your offhand weapon by [8%/16%/25%].
    Endless Winter
    Rank 1-2
    2 4 [The cost of y/Y]our Mind Freeze [is reduced t/n]o [10/longer costs] runic power.
    Improved Icy Touch
    Rank 1-3
    1 1 Increases the damage of your Icy Touch ability by [5%/10%/15%].
    Icy Reach
    Rank 1-2
    1 2 Increases the range of your Icy Touch, Chains of Ice and Howling Blast by [5/10] yards.
    Runic Empowerment
    Rank 1-3
    1 3 When you use your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability, you have a [15%/30%/45%] chance to activate a random fully depleted rune.
      Talent Tier Col Description
    Summon Gargoyle
    Rank 1
    7 2 A Gargoyle flies into the area and bombards the target with Nature damage modified by the Death Knight's attack power. Persists for 30 sec.
    60 Runic Power, 30 yd range, Instant, 3 min cooldown
    Ebon Plaguebringer
    Rank 1-3
    6 2 Your Plague Strike and Icy Touch abilities also infect their target with Ebon Plague, which increases damage taken from your diseases by [10%/20%/30%] and all magic damage taken by an additional 8%.
    Sudden Doom
    Rank 1-3
    6 3 Your autoattacks have a [5%/10%/15%] chance to make your next Death Coil cost no runic power.
    Desecration
    Rank 1-2
    5 1 Your Plague Strikes and Scourge Strikes cause the Desecrated Ground effect. Targets in the area are slowed by [25%/50%] by the grasping arms of the dead while standing on the unholy ground. Lasts 20 sec.
    Anti-Magic Zone
    Rank 1
    5 2 Places a large, stationary Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party or raid members inside it by 75%. The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 10 sec or until it absorbs [ 200% of AP + 10000 ] spell damage.
    Instant, 2 min cooldown
    Improved Unholy Presence
    Rank 1-2
    5 3 Grants you an additional [2%/5%] haste while in Unholy Presence. In addition, while in Blood Presence or Frost Presence, you retain [8%/15%] increased movement speed from Unholy Presence.
    Ghoul Frenzy
    Rank 1
    5 4 Grants your pet 25% haste for 1 min and heals it for 120% of its health over the duration.
    1 Unholy, 45 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown
    Unholy Blight
    Rank 1
    4 1 Causes the victims of your Death Coil to be surrounded by a vile swarm of unholy insects, taking 10% of the damage done by the Death Coil over 10 sec, and preventing any diseases on the victim from being dispelled.
    Magic Suppression
    Rank 1-3
    4 2 Increases the spell damage absorption of your Anti-Magic Shell by an additional [8%/16%/25%], and [/in/in]c[/re/re]a[u//]ses[/ the runic power generated when/ the runic power generated when] damage[/ is/ is] absorbed by Anti-Magic Shell[ to energize the Death Knight with runic power//].
    Dirge
    Rank 1-2
    4 3 Your Death Strike, Plague Strike and Scourge Strike generate [2.5/5] additional runic power.
    Corrupting Strikes
    Rank 1-3
    3 1 Increases the damage of your Plague Strike and Scourge Strike abilities by [10%/20%/30%].
    Unholy Frenzy
    Rank 1
    3 2 Induces a friendly unit into a killing frenzy for 30 sec. The target is Enraged, which increases their melee and ranged haste by 10%, but causes them to lose health equal to 3% of their maximum health every 2 sec.
    30 yd range, Instant, 3 min cooldown
    Necrosis
    Rank 1-3
    3 3 Your auto attacks deal an additional [10%/20%/30%] Shadow damage.
    Ravenous Dead
    Rank 1-3
    3 4 Increases your total Strength by [1%/2%/3%] and the contribution your Ghouls get from your Strength and Stamina by [20%./40%./60%]
    Resilient Infection [NYI]
    Rank 1-2
    2 2 When your Blood Plague or Frost Fever is dispelled, you have a [50%/100%] chance to have the rune cost refunded. Does not apply to diseases spread via Pestilence.
    Unholy Command
    Rank 1-2
    2 3 Reduces the cooldown of your Death Grip ability by [5/10] sec.
    Morbidity
    Rank 1-6
    2 4 Increases the damage and healing of Death Coil by [5%/5%/10%/10%/15%/15%] and reduces the cooldown on Death and Decay by [5/5/10/10/15/15] sec.
    Vicious Strikes
    Rank 1-2
    1 1 Increases the critical strike chance by [3%/6%] and critical strike damage bonus by [15%/30%] of your Plague Strike and Scourge Strike.
    Virulence
    Rank 1-3
    1 2 Increases your chance to hit with your spells by [1%/2%/3%].
    Epidemic
    Rank 1-3
    1 3 Increases the duration of Blood Plague and Frost Fever by [6/12/18] sec.




    Rune Changes
    Originally Posted by Zarhym (Blue Tracker)
    Rune System Changes

    While we're satisfied with the way the rune system works overall, we're making a few major changes to the mechanics that will ultimately help death knight players feel less constrained. Here's the rationale behind the changes, followed by an explanation of how the new system will work.

    • In the current rune system, any time a rune is sitting idle, death knights are losing out on potential damage output. By comparison, rogues spend most of their time at low energy levels, and if they're unable to use their skills for a few seconds, that energy builds up and can be spent later, minimizing the net loss from the interruption.

    • A death knight's runes, on the other hand, cannot be used until they are fully active. If a death knight ever goes more than a few seconds without spending an available rune, that resource is essentially wasted. Because the death knight is pushing buttons constantly, it can be difficult to add new mechanics to the class because the player doesn't have any free global cooldowns to use them. We can't grant extra resources or reduced cost, because there is no time to spend them. Missing an attack is devastating, and it's impossible to save resources for when they're most useful.

    • Additionally, each individual death knight ability has a fairly low impact on its own, making it feel like most of the death knight's attacks are weak. The death knight's rotations are also more easily affected by latency or a player's timing being just a little off. At times, it feels like death knights aren't able to take advantage of their unique resource mechanic, which can diminish the fun.

    • The new rune system will change how runes regenerate, from filling simultaneously to filling sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. Essentially, you have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. (Haste will cause runes to fill faster.) Another way to think of this is having three runes that go up to 200% each (allowing extra "storage"), rather than six runes that go up to 100% each.

    • As this is a major change to the death knight's mechanics, it will of course require us to retune many of the class's current abilities. For example, each ability needs to hit harder or otherwise be more meaningful since the death knight is getting fewer resources per unit of time. Some abilities will need to have their costs reduced as a result.
    Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler (Blue Tracker)
    I'll take a stab at explaining the rune mechanic. Once you see it in action, it's pretty easy to understand.

    Just focus on Blood Runes for the moment. The big change is that rune #2 will never start filling up until rune #1 is full. They always fill 1 then 2. Today 1 and 2 can both fill at the same time.

    In Cataclysm, when you're killing things, you use rune 1. Then any extra "red" in rune 2 will fill rune 1 back up again. If both of them are full, you can use 2 Blood Runes immediately. But after that, rune 1 will fill up first and then rune 2. If it helps, imagine rune 2 is the extra tank.

    This sounds like it will slow down DK attacks, and it will to a point. That's part of what we're trying to accomplish. We can then fill those extra GCDs with things like free abilities or runic power abilities or we have room to add talents that make runes fill faster. Remember, slow attacks can hit harder though. Instead of DKs hitting fast like a rogue, they'll hit slower and harder, like a warrior, which fits a lot of player's image of a DK anyway. Dual wield will hit faster of course.

    I'll try another comparison. Imagine that all rogue abilities cost 100 energy. They have to wait until they get 100 energy, and then immediately use an attack so that they aren't wasting future energy. That's how DKs play now, except they have 6 runes to watch. Now imagine the same rogue except all his abilities cost 50 energy. If he hits an attack when he has 60 energy, then 50 is consumed but he has 10 energy still left and a head start on the next attack. That's the way we want DKs to play.

    If that still doesn't make sense, then focus on what the experience will be, which is that you'll have more breathing room in your rotation and won't have to hit a button every single GCD. If you don't use a strike the second it's available, that's more okay because the extra tank will store extra rune resources rather than just wasting it. You'll still be hitting a lot of buttons though. We're keeping double rune strikes and Death Runes and disease multipliers and all of that. We'll have to make some changes in some abilities to accommodate the resource change, but it won't be unrecognizable to you.

    We're not sure DKs even need Rune Strike any longer. If it survives, we'll turn it into an instant swing. But if we turn it into an instant swing, then it really isn't that different from existing strikes so it's possible we can just make a tanking rotation without it.


    Tanking as Blood in Cataclysm
    Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler (Blue Tracker)
    We're doing our Cataclysm preview on the death knight changes later this week, but we knew one change risked overshadowing all the others, so we figured we'd go ahead and drop the proverbial Blood bomb today.

    In Cataclysm, death knights will have a dedicated tanking tree, much like the other three tank classes. That tree will be Blood.

    We’ll go into more detail in the upcoming preview, but we wanted to take the opportunity to explain the reasoning for such a big change.

    Why the about face? We actually thought the “tri tank” experiment worked out okay. We suspected there would always be a “best” tanking tree, because that’s the way these things shake out, but we hoped it would be close enough that many players could tank with their favorite tree. When we tried out this design for Wrath of the Lich King, we were using it as a test case to see if we wanted to do similar things with the warrior and paladin talent trees.

    A lot has happened since that time. We introduced the dual-spec feature, allowing players to have a tanking spec and dps spec that they could switch between. We introduced Dungeon Finder, which makes it easier to find players who want to tank, and even let players level up using a dedicated tank spec. In Cataclysm, we are introducing the concept of passive talent tree bonuses and we think that feature is a lot stronger when the talent tree has a particular focus (such as damage, tanking or healing). For example, it’s safer to give more passive damage to a tanking tree than we can a dps tree. Above all, we were just spending a lot of effort trying to balance three trees (though it was really six trees, since each tree was trying to do two things).

    It started to feel unfair to the other tank classes that we had to spend so much effort tweaking three types of DK tanks, and it even started to feel unfair to the DK that we couldn’t focus their tanking experience. One bit of feedback that really struck home was the DK players who said, essentially, “I look at the Protection tree and I’m jealous of all of the cool tools they have to help their tanking. As a DK, I have to pick and choose tanking talents from within a sea of dps talents.” Rather than have a strong focus, the trees felt a little watered down because they were trying to do so much. With Frost as a dual-wield, spell and runic power focused tree, Unholy as a disease and minion focused tree, and Blood as a self-healing, defensive cooldown, tanking tree, we think the focus of each tree is a lot clearer and cooler.

    In Cataclysm, Blood will be the death knight version of a Protection tree. It will have passive talent tree bonuses that reflect tanking. It will have tools, such as a Demo Shout equivalent, necessary for tanking. Several of the more fun tanking talents from Frost and Unholy will be moved into Blood. We will be able to revise (or even remove) clunky mechanics like Rune Strike and focus on letting DKs generate threat with their normal Blood tanking rotation.

    This is major change, and we understand it will be met with some disappointment from players who really liked the flexibility, those who appreciated the unorthodox talent tree design, or those few of you who really liked Blood dps. Nevertheless, we are convinced that this is the right change for the game.




    Official Class Preview
    Originally Posted by Zarhym (Blue Tracker)
    World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. In this preview, you'll get a glimpse at some of the new abilities, spells, and talents in store for the death knight class, along with an early look at some improvements we plan to make to the rune resource system.

    New Death Knight Abilities

    Outbreak (level 81): Outbreak infects the target with both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at no rune cost. This ability allows death knights to apply diseases quickly when they are switching targets or when their diseases have been dispelled.

    Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike -- the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health.

    This ability is meant to bring back some of the old flavor from when death knights could dispel heal-over-time (HoT) effects. It also gives the class a bit more PvP utility without simply replicating a Mortal Strike-style effect.

    Dark Simulacrum (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent's next spell cast and unleash it. Unlike Spell Reflection, Dark Simulacrum does not cancel the incoming spell. In general, if you can't reflect an ability, you won't be able to copy it either.

    Rune System Changes

    While we're satisfied with the way the rune system works overall, we're making a few major changes to the mechanics that will ultimately help death knight players feel less constrained. Here's the rationale behind the changes, followed by an explanation of how the new system will work.

    • In the current rune system, any time a rune is sitting idle, death knights are losing out on potential damage output. By comparison, rogues spend most of their time at low energy levels, and if they're unable to use their skills for a few seconds, that energy builds up and can be spent later, minimizing the net loss from the interruption.

    • A death knight's runes, on the other hand, cannot be used until they are fully active. If a death knight ever goes more than a few seconds without spending an available rune, that resource is essentially wasted. Because the death knight is pushing buttons constantly, it can be difficult to add new mechanics to the class because the player doesn't have any free global cooldowns to use them. We can't grant extra resources or reduced cost, because there is no time to spend them. Missing an attack is devastating, and it's impossible to save resources for when they're most useful.

    • Additionally, each individual death knight ability has a fairly low impact on its own, making it feel like most of the death knight's attacks are weak. The death knight's rotations are also more easily affected by latency or a player's timing being just a little off. At times, it feels like death knights aren't able to take advantage of their unique resource mechanic, which can diminish the fun.

    • The new rune system will change how runes regenerate, from filling simultaneously to filling sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. Essentially, you have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. (Haste will cause runes to fill faster.) Another way to think of this is having three runes that go up to 200% each (allowing extra "storage"), rather than six runes that go up to 100% each.

    • As this is a major change to the death knight's mechanics, it will of course require us to retune many of the class's current abilities. For example, each ability needs to hit harder or otherwise be more meaningful since the death knight is getting fewer resources per unit of time. Some abilities will need to have their costs reduced as a result.

    Talent Changes

    Next we'll outline some of the death knight talent-tree changes we're planning in Cataclysm. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you a sense of how we're intending each death knight spec to perform.

    • One of the biggest changes we're making is converting Blood into a dedicated tanking tree. While we feel that having three tanking trees was successful overall, it's less necessary in a world with dual-specialization. In addition, the current breakdown isn't as compatible with the Mastery-based passive talent-tree bonuses we want to add (see below). We'd rather spend time tweaking and balancing one good tanking tree rather than having a tank always wondering if they picked the "correct" tree out of three possibilities.

    • Blood seemed like the best fit for tanking. Unholy has always had a strong niche with diseases, magic, and command over pets. Frost now feels like a solid dual-wield tree with Frost magic damage and decent crowd control. Blood's niche was self-healing -- fitting for a tank -- as well as strong weapon swings, which could easily be migrated to Frost and Unholy.

    • Our plan is to move the most interesting and fun tanking talents and abilities to Blood. For example, you will likely see Vampiric Blood and Will of the Necropolis remain, while Bone Shield will move over from Unholy.

    Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

    Blood
    Damage reduction
    Vengeance
    Healing Absorption

    Frost
    Melee damage
    Melee Haste
    Runic Power Generation

    Unholy
    Melee damage
    Melee and spell critical damage
    Disease Damage

    Healing Absorption: When you heal yourself, you'll receive an additional effect that absorbs incoming damage.

    Runic Power Generation: This will function as the name implies, and the new rune system will make generating Runic Power more appealing.

    Disease Damage: Unholy death knights will be able to get more out of their diseases, which are integral to the tree's play style.

    Vengeance: This new mechanic is designed to ensure that tank damage output (and therefore threat) doesn't fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will grant a stacking Attack Power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character's unbuffed health. For boss encounters, we expect that tanks will always have an Attack Power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Blood tree; these values will be smaller at lower levels.

    You only get the Vengeance bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Blood tree, so you won't see Frost or Unholy death knights running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to design tank gear more or less the way we do today; there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so their Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but the goal is that all four tanks will do about the same damage when tanking.

    We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.



    Blue Posts
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Outbreak
    Outbreak is free with a 1-minute cooldown. It’s not supposed to completely replace Plague Strike and Icy Touch. (Source)

    Rune costs of skills on medium/long cooldowns
    I don't think we can make them all cost runes. That would be too hard to manage. If I had to guess, some will be runic power and some will just be free. If we did move Bone Shield to Blood, then that one might be okay as a rune since it's something you do pre-emptively, but we have some more talent tree work to do first before we can really answer that. (Source)

    2H Weapons and Frost
    We want to provide a 2-handed style for Frost since we recognize that pets are an acquired taste. We think we have the design space to do that now that we don’t need to support Frost tanking. We’re definitely committed to making Frost work as a dual-wield tree though -- that isn’t going away. (Source)

    Presences
    We’re not sure how we’re going to handle presences yet. We recognize the oddness of Blood death knights playing in Frost Presence and Frost death knights not playing in Frost Presences. We might rename the presences or take some other action. (Source)

    Vengeance
    Vengeance is based on damage actually taken (physical and spell). This means it might take a bit to get stacked up to the max value, but it generally will get up there on longer fights and can even stay there in between pulls if you pull quickly.

    Remember, the problem we're trying to solve here is sustained damage and threat. We're not as worried about mobs sticking to you initially because you have plenty of tools to handle that now (including telling the mages they need to wait for half a second). Yes, your AP might start out a little lower if you get a string of avoidance, but with lower avoidance in Cataclysm, that is probably less of a problem as well.

  2. #2
    Outbreak.....*drool*
    Quote Originally Posted by Negridoom View Post
    Bolvar: Dammit! Kel'Thuzad, its happened again! I need you to go to get me more ice!
    Kel'Thuzad: But my master, the corner store is all the way in Kalimdor!

  3. #3
    Im not that overly happy! I see no reason to remove Corpse Explosion and they also removed on a pale horse wich both of them where fun in pvp..

    CE could be a new spell with a cd and some how implement the mechanics of on a pale horse

  4. #4
    High Overlord Fréyr's Avatar
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    Love these changes :3

    Also for the people below me crying of how "bad" the new trees are. I wonder if you totally missed the point of these new trees?
    They removed most of the boring talents with passive stuff - and I agree, these trees are ton better - and replaced them with fun stuff.
    Personally I'm really excited about frost tree, so many fun things in there and I don't have to worry about picking some essential PvE talents. I'm a high-end raider in Wotlk, and tbh. wotlk was bullshit.
    You werent allowed to do anything FUN with talents, there were the set talents you had to pick no matter what.
    Now we can just pick the fun looking talents and still work well. (There are still some mandatory talents, but there is still plenty space for fun stuff.)
    Tbh Ebon Plaguebringer still should gtfo, it might compromise my chances of getting to play Frost and still raid.
    Last edited by Fréyr; 2010-07-14 at 01:32 PM.

  5. #5
    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.

    that kinda sounds like it will copy healing from players

  6. #6
    Looking at the new 31 point talent trees for DK's alone I'm appalled to say the least.
    Please tell me that I'm not the only person outraged at how poorly the DK talent trees will be in the xpac......It is impossible to spec into a proper PVE unholy tree without putting points in pvp crap that is a COMPLETE waste......are other classes having the same issue????

    Talent trees are meant to allow players to slightly tune their spec to whatever specific challenge their presented with......what the hell is the point in having them if blizzard is making it so that there is only one way to spec in each tree and you have to cookie cut your way through it????

    Frankly I've NEVER had a problem with hit% because i cant get below the cap if i tried and yet when I'm in high tier gear ill still have to spec into Virulence because its the only way to get deeper into my tree unless i get the death grip cool down????

    Seriously blizzard needs to stop catering to the people too stupid to grasp the concept of the game. Even if this is just a rough draft of the DK trees I'm completely turned off at how dummed down the game has become to simplify things for the "beginner" players. TBC was a great xpac for both PVE and PVP but unfortunately it took a slight dive i both creativity and content in WotLK and now it looks like its going to plummet.

    As for the new spells, DS and NS look like good additions however outbreak offers little in place of well timed pestilence with the glyph.

    It's sad too see how handicapped friendly this game has become.

  7. #7
    I'm kind of annoyed that the new spells we get are for PvP.

  8. #8
    Oh my god ha hah hah hah hahahahhahahahhaha dude look at 2nd tier dk's can get scarlet fever to apply loloololololololooll thats what hellen keller had lol!!!!
    If you are reading this, Congratulations you have nothing better to read

  9. #9
    These trees are retarded. And they got rid of the 2H frost talents. You suck blizz.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Legend View Post
    These trees are retarded. And they got rid of the 2H frost talents. You suck blizz.
    you're trolling right?

    Quote Originally Posted by hobbeskabobs View Post
    .It is impossible to spec into a proper PVE unholy tree without putting points in pvp crap that is a COMPLETE waste.
    http://www.wowtal.com/#k=3AxJXMok.9mn.deathknight

    where's this PVP stuff?

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by hobbeskabobs View Post
    It is impossible to spec into a proper PVE unholy tree without putting points in pvp crap that is a COMPLETE waste......are other classes having the same issue????
    http://www.wowtal.com/#k=75FZdIw9.9mn.deathknight
    Wheres the PvP crap here ? Virulence will be allright, cause hit caps will be harder to obtain.
    P.S -b4 you say something bout IUP, it looks like UP will be unholy main pressence in Cata, so IUP is not a waste also.
    P.P.S - idk what is you HIGH TIER GEAR, but my mains char gear with SM and nearly all ICC BiS(no RS), is needed to chant for hit rating, and insert gems for hit, to be only meele capped.
    Last edited by iDielord; 2010-07-14 at 09:05 AM.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by iDielord View Post
    http://www.wowtal.com/#k=75FZdIw9.9mn.deathknight
    Wheres the PvP crap here ? Virulence will be allright, cause hit caps will be harder to obtain.
    I like your spec better than mine lol

  13. #13
    Looking at the new 31 point talent trees for DK's alone I'm appalled to say the least.
    Please tell me that I'm not the only person outraged at how poorly the DK talent trees will be in the xpac......It is impossible to spec into a proper PVE unholy tree without putting points in pvp crap that is a COMPLETE waste......are other classes having the same issue????

    Talent trees are meant to allow players to slightly tune their spec to whatever specific challenge their presented with......what the hell is the point in having them if blizzard is making it so that there is only one way to spec in each tree and you have to cookie cut your way through it????

    Frankly I've NEVER had a problem with hit% because i cant get below the cap if i tried and yet when I'm in high tier gear ill still have to spec into Virulence because its the only way to get deeper into my tree unless i get the death grip cool down????

    Seriously blizzard needs to stop catering to the people too stupid to grasp the concept of the game. Even if this is just a rough draft of the DK trees I'm completely turned off at how dummed down the game has become to simplify things for the "beginner" players. TBC was a great xpac for both PVE and PVP but unfortunately it took a slight dive i both creativity and content in WotLK and now it looks like its going to plummet.

    As for the new spells, DS and NS look like good additions however outbreak offers little in place of well timed pestilence with the glyph.

    It's sad too see how handicapped friendly this game has become.
    People don't seem to get that blizzard can't design one talent tree for every player out there that fits everybody's particular gear.

    But hysteria is gone from Blood . That really makes me sad; I've tanked as Blood for almost the entire expansion and popping Hysteria on the highest physical dps was somehing quickly debated in raids. Now every unholy DK will just use it on himself regardless of gear and dps. What's even worse is that they made the buff weaker so more classes can benefit from it.

  14. #14
    I'm playing a Blood tank and right now it feels like I can pick almost every talent in the blood tree and still be able to go further in other trees.

    Anyone here that can put up how they would go with their tanking specc?
    Can't post my own since I haven't made enough posts yet to be able to post links.

  15. #15
    Master of ghouls is gone, but i can't see any skill that takes his place. So it's the core ability we get when deciding to spec unholy or it's completely gone (so no more perma-ghoul)?

  16. #16
    wont Unholy DKs have a Ghoul as pet anymore? because i dont see a talent to remove the 1min duration

    but im somehow sure, even if its not implented yet, that unholy will still have their pet mainly because thats what a UH DK is all about ^^

  17. #17
    Nevermind it's one of the core ability for Unholy

  18. #18
    High Overlord Dralech's Avatar
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    http://www.wowtal.com/#k=ee_5Exr4.9mn.deathknight
    Thank God I don't ever have to have a pet again. If they still have the red glowing hand effect for the Icy Talons, I'm going to be pissed. It doesn't look icy at all. I'm also really disappointed that our level 85 spell is for PVP. I really hope that they change it.
    Last edited by Dralech; 2010-07-14 at 09:56 AM.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Dralech View Post
    http://www.wowtal.com/#k=ee_5Exr4.9mn.deathknight
    Thank God I don't ever have to have a pet again.
    This build looks promising.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Agarash View Post
    Nevermind it's one of the core ability for Unholy
    can you share that info source with me please?

    thanks

    €: google is my friend again ^^

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