Into the Unknown

Give me a light so that I may tread into the Unknown,
Give me a sword so that I may protect myself, my clan,
Give me a soul so that I may yearn,
Give me a mind so that I may create,
Give me a heart so that I may love,
'Tis all myself I give to you, take me far into the Unknown.

Well, it's been about a week since the patch from hellfire and my DK has somewhat ironed out his current nerfed skills. I figured it might be time to at least try Ulduar out and it just so happens the guild that my guildies and I raid with, planned out two 10-man groups for this past weekend. As you all know, I am in the guild, Reservoir Dogs, but myself (DK tank), Pinksky (my wife and guild Holy Pally), Hedwig (our GM and Disc Priest), and Matheo (our Feral Druid tank) all found a guild, Band of Misfits, that loves to have fun while raiding and needed a couple tanks and healers to top off groups for 25-man runs. Hence we have been raiding with them for a couple months and loving it. We've been through 25-man Naxx and the guild leader/raid leader of BoM decided that the next step would be 10-man runs of Ulduar and once through 10-man we would recombine the groups from 25-man. Great idea if you ask me.

So anyway Saturday found us in Storm Peaks, facing the awe-inspiring archway into Ulduar. Everyone had reservations.....we knew that huge repair bills awaited us. So in we delved!
Let me tell you, this was my first time entering this instance. I entered and was amazed at how vast the inside was. I mean I know there are Titans involved...but dang!

So our RL, Lierthes, gives us the rundown on the mobs and how we kill things with the vehicles we control. Everyone hops in to their assigned wheels. I was running one of the siege engines. Now when we first found out about the first boss and how vehicles were involved I was pissed. First of all, I hate, and I mean HATE, Oculus and Eye of Eternity (EoE). Explanations we heard sounded like it would be like this fight but once we started it, I found it was more like Wintergrasp. And Wintergrasp I love. So while Lier was finishing the explanations, this tiny little motorcycle, at least compared to the tank I was in, voomed out to the mobs and back, which the mobs apparently did not like and our run into Ulduar ensued. We kept in a tight little group and just mowed thru all these mobs. It was FUN!

We knew we had to kill all the Giants in order to get Flame Leviathan out so we found and destroyed everything up until the boss area. They were the last two Giants and a couple groups of mobs. I was figuring we would pull the groups way back so we can buff and repair before hitting FL but a couple cycles and engines decided to rush foward and kill everything thus pulling the boss. Turns out that someone wasn't in vent and didn't hear us say, Pull BACK! So in for a copper and in for a gold! We all rush in after taking a quick repair and kill everything and FL rushes through his gate and attacks. We all knew what needed to be done and went forewith into the flames. I have to say on a misguided pull, 37% health left on FL was dang good but we wiped. Now begins the repair bills!

We come back in, gather onto the Formation grounds and buff up. We load back into our machines and proceed to wipe out FL and take his loot! We get our Emblem of Valor and he drops Flamewatch Armguards. Well both myself and the warrior tank roll and I win these blessed bands, which I later have chanted with Expertise because of our Expertise nerf in the Blood tree.

We then proceed to mount up and head for XT-002. On our way there we see off to our left, two Molten Colossi. We decided to take them out before someone pulls them. This was before we knew about the silence and the massive damage they do when pissed off. We do wipe but we take one of them down with us, only to find out they respawn if both aren't dead and that the one we killed actually dropped good loot, for the master looter went into effect. We all rez'd and ran in, hoping for a purple drop. What do you know! An epic neck dropped! Fervor of the Protectorate, another tank purple! What a lucky day! I lose the roll to the other tank, but I got the bracers. No complaints from me.

So we blow off the Moltens and head straight to XT-002. And for the sake of my fingers, I'll give ya'll the run down. We wipe about 8 or so times on him, decide to call it and come back on Sunday. Come back on Sunday continue to wip 7 or so more times try Razorscale twice, scream and rant and yell, WTH!!!! and go back to XT-002. Hit him 3 more times and finally get him to the enrage timer with just the healers and myself alive and end the night quite happy knowing that next week he will die and give us purple pixels. :)

All in all, I'd say we all did pretty good and will be ready for more Ulduar next week!

Also a lot more dailies will be involved this week. Repair bills killed my savings on all my toons.

All Hail the Conquering Heroes!

*Cue Music! Lights! Action!!!*
We voom in on a body sprawled on the ground in Icecrown. It's a human. He's not dead...well maybe....he's a death knight. But he's covering his nether regions and moaning in pain.

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Yep. Matheo knew was going to happen. The DK got hit in the nads with the nerf bat, hard, in WoW patch 3.1.So my DK, Thereddeath, as a Blood specced tank just got mangled by the recent patch. You should have seen it. He was at the top of the world on Monday! He had his 4-piece tier bonus not all T7.5 but still quite up there. On Tuesday he was found in Icecrown clutching his nethers in the fetal position surrounded by ghouls of every size, laughing at him.Shards! That nerf bat can really hurt. Our parry was nerfed with Blade Barrier moving to damage reduction from parry increase with Blood Runes on cooldown. Expertise in the Blood tree was nerfed to Armor Penetration in the Blood Gorged talent. Blood tanks are starting to look a lot like Druid bear tanks with all the dodge and damage mitigation. WTH happened to our parry and expertise? I know people were whining and complaining about OP DKs but why mess with tanking abilities and stats?! Granted it's the defense mechanisms that causing all the problems but I guess the only way to cut out these problems is to turn us into Warriors with one tree for tanking and two for DPS. I wouldn't like that. I tend to play the underdog when it comes to playing my toons. Blood tree tanks are ranked 3rd in tanking compared to Frost and Unholy, Combat specs for rogues are ranked 3rd with Assasin/Mut spec leading followed closely by Subt/HaT rogues and at the moment Affliction locks are also ranked 3rd against Demon and Destro specs but I don't sharding care. I can still top DPS charts with each of these and out do most tanks be they warrior, druid, the pally rangers or the other DKs. Knowledge of your class makes the different of whether you will be good or not. Also to all the QQ'ers out there, knowledge of other classes and their abilities can be really helpful in killing them in PvP. For instance as a combat spec rogue with all cooldowns available I can take out a DK, and an Unholy one at that. I know rogues but I also know DKs and their weaknesses. I now when to Kidney Shot, when to Blind, when to Gouge when to switch weapons and when to run!

Anyway back the DK nerf at hand. So with nerfs firmly in place, I had more research and more Talent calculationg to do to reaffirm my Blood tank awesome-ness. Here's what I came up with: Talent Link. I still opted for Blood. Come on and face it. By the First Egg, there was no way on the Red Star I would have chosen Frost and Unholy for tanking specs. Blood is for the Elites of the Elites and baby, I'm the bloody god of the Elites. /flex and /pose! In the words of .... well me.....

/ResDog flex

/grr

I still took the Blade Barrier. 5% damage reduction is at least something to shake a stick at or whatever Bosses want to shake at the tank. Dammit Jim, I'm a tank, not a bloody lifeless sack of meat! I kept Blood Gorged. The extra ArmorPen just creates more threat for me. I also kept Spell Deflection. Now here is where I got mad at myself for not writing down some of my notes. I believe this talent used to be any magic damage and also based on Parry and Dodge, while the Dodge being taken out of this, is an apparent nerf, the damage reduction was increased.Now the Blood tree does have a new talent that came in the patch 3.1. Improved Death Strike was added as a rank 2 in tier 8 of the tree. The way I see it, is the more damage and the more crit that Death Strike packs, bigger the heals are going to be from it. Now I also happen to have the Sigil of Awareness that I have been testing in my DPS spec and is working out great for my dual spec. Since I am already defense capped and the Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight is just adding extra defense for dodge and to fortify Icebound Fortitude and I'm glyphed for the extra IbF damage reduction, I am planning on trying and replacing that Sigil with the Awareness to help with extra heals and damage.I did switch out glyphs for Heart Strike to gain that movement reduction to keep mobs from running away and one shotting healers and such. Will of the Necropolis is a definite nerf. The cooldown was added and the 5% triggers are gone. No more last second stands with Bosses.Now I'm pretty sure I have worked out the new talent tank spec for Blood enough to survive even the toughest Boss. ;)One other thing that I seem to have found has to do with Pestilence. I know Blizz took out the damage, which sucks, and added extra damage to Blood Boil, both of these I have macro'd together, but since the patch I keep getting error messages about 'Paths not Found' when trying to use Pestilence. I could be fighting the mob face on with nothing between us and still get that message. I remember seeing a note somewhere about a pathing change to Pestilence but can't seem to find it now. I will post it later when I find it.Well it looks to be that my awesome-ness has once again saved my fav'd Blood spec tank from extinction.

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*Camera vooms out and the music swells ominously in the background*

The once fallen knight is now standing again, on a pile of ghoul corpses, commanding his own Ghoul Army, awaiting the day he too can face the Lich King and offer his wickedly sharp blade the chance to meet Arthas' neck. But for now he has conquered the dreaded 3.1 patch.

/ResDog flex

/grr

QQing in the Grizzlies

Well here I am again. I know its been a little while, well 8 days to be precise. But between work and the game I couldn't find time to sit down and write. That and I had a little writer's block which you all think is probably weird since this is a fresh new column. Well, what do you expect. I'm new to this. I didn't quite plan every blog, if i did, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a blog.

Well there is a few topics out there that I am researching and writing on now. But today I'm taking one of those bunny trails that I told you all I would take now and then. Well, okay, this is a bear hunt. I'm going way off topic of DKs. But hey, this is my blog and I'll QQ if I want too.

(NOTE: All characters presented are level 73)
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So we begin our journey today in the Hills of Grizzly. Known for its vast and raw power in every animal able rip your face off if you so much as look at them wrong. A lone rogue named Redyps is plying his trade and skinning the fallen bucks he has taken down in the name of Master Woodsman Andorhol. Keeping the storehouse full of venison takes a lot of work with so many Alliance passing through these parts that some of us have taken it upon ourselves to help the locals in their duties. Redyps is always leary and is always looking around for possible interuptions. Rogues have to be always on their guard. You never really know when Horde will pop out of nowhere and lay into you. Like any other rogue, Redyps does his jobs for the coin, sure the prestige and the reputation he gathers is great but the coin is exceptional.

Now Redyps is also known for something else most rogues would deny. Redyps hates the Horde with a passion. Most rogues could care less for where their affiliations lay. Hence this young uppidty rogue always leaves himself open for attacks just for the pure pleasure of taking out a Hordie.

So here he was just skinning these bucks when he hears and feels a small brush of wind. Noting that the trees are not moving he quickly places his new leather and skinning tool into theirs respective bags. He hints a combined scent of feline and bovine on the air. Redyps smiles darkly. He knows not who is stalking him but he knows it's a druid, a tauren.

'Funny how these druids think they are rogues,' Redyps thinks to himself.

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Now I think I can stop there. I hope you enjoyed that little story. I know, I know, I didn't finish it. I could write more but this is where I need to stop to make my point. Most rogues and druids know whats going to happen, yes? A fight will ensue and a victor will come out on top. But which one?

Well several things are factors here. First we have the rogue. Most of us know rogues have tons of abilities and are actually capable of taking down all classes if the abilities are used correctly. Rogues are based upon instant spike damage to kill off their opponent.

Now druids(feral), are built one of two ways. Instant spike damage or damage mitgation while still doing a decent amount of damage. Which is good considering Druids are tanks and/or DPS. But in a one on one fight PvP style this is bad. Let me lay it out for you.

The druid is picking the fight here correct? Yes.

So given that fact, the druid must be pretty confident that he can take down the rogue using his instant spike damage? Yes.

So once this fights begins this druid should stay in kitty form to ensure maximum damage is dealt to the rogue? Yes.

But what happens if say the rogue, Redyps, is on top of his game and knows the ins and outs of a life and death PvP battle, and is able to overcome and demolish the druid, say like this.......

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Redyps instantly vanishes and applies a distraction to the side of him and forces the druid to wander into his line of sight. The druid is also able to target Redyps and does an instant pounce to stun Redyps, and begins to rake and rip Redyps and Redyps' life force drains from him. Redyps aware of imminent demise uses his racial ability, Every Man for Himself and Shadowsteps behind the druid and lays into the druid with Hemorrhage and then Kidney shots........

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Now again lets stop here. So what just happened? The kitty got over zealous and thought he could take the rogue out without making sure his prey ( yeah right ) couldn't get away. IE: he didn't make Redyps use his oh crap buttons. So what is the druid going to do now? This is where I start the QQ'ing i guess.

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The druid is stunned and realizing this he attempts a shapeshift to Bear form removing the stun adding to his health and armor. Redyps is now in a fight for his life.

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WTF!!
So that is TOTALLY unfair.
That kitty just became a bear and now that rogue barely has a chance. I mean, all that extra armor, the extra health and the avoidance?! No rogue is able to do that but yet here is a kitty wannabe rogue trying to out rogue a rogue, is unable to do so and now decides, 'oh what the hay!' Lets turn this into a long fight cuz I can win that way. This brings up another point. Shapeshifting for druids is basically a free get out of Dodge City card. All stuns and snares are removed when they shapeshift and there is no limit to the number of times they can shapeshift. Any and all stuns that Redyps can place on that druid just became null and void.

Well there you have it. My QQ. Shapeshifting for PvP should not be allowed, or i should say shapeshifting in PvP fights should have a cooldown attached to present more of a fair fight. Well I'm sick and just wanted a QQ post so that I would have one, even if it's not a good one. But I want to finish the story for ya all. :D


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Redyps smiles inside. He is always prepared! He quickly blinds the bear hoping to gain a crucial second or two. His daggers vanish from sight to be replaced with two Fool's Banes, both with the lovely magical chant of Executioner, then he prepared and vanished. Redyps came out with a Cheap Shot followed with a few Hemos and then a Kidney shot. A few more hemos later, he popped an Evicerate and the tauren dropped dead. MMMMM....Beef. It's what's for dinner!

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I'll probably cathc hell for this from my bud and fellow guildie, Matheo (go on and check his blog) but there you have it. My QQ about shapeshifting dinners...err i mean Taurens. But beware for I am always prepared.

I told you this was a BEAR hunt! Pun intended!

Death Knight Talent Spec

Well to begin this 2nd installment…..lol…..look at me! This sounds like a TV show. "Will Harry ever meet Eliza?" "And will Joseph be cured?" Find out in the next Episode of Drama Live!! Thursday at 10:00am!
Kidding!!
So my DK is now level 80. What do I do now? Dailies? Yes. Finish zone quests for Achievements? Yes. What about Heroics? YES!! But what about me? Am I a DPSer (damage per second)? Am I a Healer? Wait a minute…I wear plate! I always hated PuGs where the tank didn’t know what he was doing but acted like it and then caused the group to wipe. Why not become a tank? I can DPS, I can’t heal and I can wear tank gear to become a tank. I have two DPS toons already. Why not take a stab at being a tank?
So I settled with becoming a tank. A DK tank. Now to pick the spec and use my talents for the benefit of my group. With great power comes great responsibility. (oh no he didn’t.) Oh Yes I did!!
Being a tank is a big responsibility. So I have to be mature and make good decisions for my spec. What will keep me alive and cause enough threat to mobs around me to stay focused on me, not my DPS and certainly not my healer. Here’s what I came up with:
TALENT LINK
Blood specc’d : 56/10/5 I call this the Blood Gorged Tank.

First off, every DK tank and I mean ALL DK tanks should have the tier 1 rank 5 of Anticipation from Unholy tree, Toughness from the Frost tree and Blade Barrier from the Blood tree. All 3 of those are essential for DK tanks. If you don’t have those you’re not a tank.
Now prior to Lich King release and even after, rumors were abound that made people think and act and say that the Frost tree was the tanking tree for DKs. Well in an attempt to make these rumors stop, and for the pure fact that Blood DKs sound really cool. I went with Blood! Now I did my research. I checked talent calculators, websites, blogs, etc. to try and find information on DK tanks. At the time not much existed, but I found the stat requirements I needed to begin. Now I, myself love tanking with 2 handed weapons so all stats and talents are based on that. Dual wield tanking causes too much parry gibbing which you would need a lot of EXPERTISE for. Below are the stats needed:
DK Tank stats needed:
DEF 540 cap
HIT 293-296 cap /2handers
HEALTH 28k+
PARRY 20%
DODGE 20%
EXP 60
The main stat every DK should stack is STRENGTH. STRENGTH (STR) is Attack Power (AP) and PARRY. So no matter if you’re DPS or Tank....you cannot ever have enough strength. Right now the ratio is 4STR to 1PARRY. So all tanks out there stack as much as you can get! DPS same goes for you. For every 1STR is 2AP. Now for the sake of our non-weapon attacks and diseases. All of these are known as spells, basically magic effects. All spell power for DKs are scaled with AP. Under no circumstances should you be gearing in Spell power plate. Leave the pally stuff alone, they need it, we don't. Expertise: This statistic is actually relatively useful to DK tanks. It takes approximately 8.2 expertise rating to equal 1 expertise at 80. You'll need about 26 expertise to prevent dodges, which is all a DPS should need since mobs can't parry from behind, or about 60 expertise to prevent parries, which would be nice for tanks, but shouldn't be taken at the expense of too many mitigation or avoidance stats.
Now back to talents. I chose the Blood tree for a few reasons.
1: The self-healing the tree gives you, I feel, helps relieves some healers’ stresses. Improved Rune tap, Bloodworms and Vampiric Blood are great along with Blood Aura.
2: I like the Spell Deflection talent. It’s quite useful for most if not all bosses and mobs in Northrend instances and raids and paired with Anti-Magic Shell, negates most magic spells against you.
3: Veteran of the Third War talent has the rank 3 increase in STR for your PARRY and the STAM increase for your health along with the EXPERTISE boost that the tanks will need.
4: Will of the Necropolis talent is great for those last second stands against Bosses that have the last 1% you need to knock out.
5: Heart Strike talent offers a great tank action cleave for multiple target mobs.

I lean heavily on DPS talents if you notice. This is mainly for THREAT. I did try a couple spec twists by delving deeper into Frost for Lichborne and Unholy for Unholy Command but going through several instances and raids my THREAT was way too low and I was unable on some pulls to keep mobs on me. Blizzard has said that they wanted DKs to be tanks with DPS power to back them up. They meant it. Without the DPS to back up my tanking I would be a bad tank.
Now I know some of you out there will be saying that Frost has Unbreakable Armor and Unholy has Bone Shield. Wouldn’t it be better to spec into those talents? For the most part I would agree. On the other hand Vampiric Blood to comparable to both those talents, I might even be willing to say that VB is better in some regards. Vampiric Blood’s tooltip states ‘increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 35% for 20secs’. With all of the Blood trees self-healing abilities is where this comes into play. VB followed by Rune Tap (which by the way crits) could save your life if the healer just ran out of mana and needs a quick breather but you still have 17 secs of VB left! Death Strike, Bloodworms, Blood Aura and Health Pots are all multiplied by this effect! Shoot pop your dodge trinkets and bandage yourself! Even that is multiplied. I know, I’ve done it. Also Death Pact is awesome for that last second heal. Pop Raise Ghoul then Death Pact. All of these can be done while VB is active. I’ve tested the timing. You can be literally on the brink of death, but VB is flexible enough to bring you right back to full health plus some. Can Unbreakable Armor and Bone Shield do that? The answer is NO.

Now this post was quite long, but I hope it answers questions. Shoot I hope it asks questions. Please comment. Ask questions, reply about misconception, anything. Criticism is good. Just a reminder that this is my first time doing something like this and I hope to get better! See ya next installment! I hoping for questions in the comments to answer for that one.

Beginning of a new Death Knight Era (maybe)

Well I was thinking of kicking this blog off with a joke about a Priest and a Warlock but then maybe you wouldn’t laugh and then would stop reading. So I’ll just get right into it, eh?

Hi! My name (not real of course) is TheRedDeath. That is the name of my level 80 Death Knight I play in the World of Warcraft online MMORPG. My reason for starting this blog was the simple fact that recently I have been getting tells in game about my gear, my talents, my all around how to play a death knight, to be referred to as DK from here on. I had brought this up in guild chat because I felt it was kind of weird since I know I’m not the best player out there. A guildie who I always take advice from and respect for it, told me to start a blog. So let’s kick it off and see how I do!

First here is my character page. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Azuremyst&n=Thereddeath
When the expansion of WoW Lich King came out, I was excited. For several reasons.
Number one: More of the game to play.
Two: The hero class Death Knights, the ultimate Warlock in plate! I mean come on. Warlocks…in plate!!
A little history to start off. I played a Warlock and a Rogue (both at end game Burning Crusade) prior to Lich King but I wanted to know how it was to wear plate without having to level through 1 to 80. Well here was my chance, DKs started at level 55 if you had a toon at level 55. So I made a deal with myself, since I know most people on my server were going to shoot off and start Northrend quests and try to get to 80 first I would take a little time and before I start that and create a DK and see how it was.
Well before I knew I had leveled to 59 and was just starting my rebellion against the Lich King after killing innocent villagers for 3 levels. I was actually enjoying playing this DK. So I finished rebelling and was sent to Stormwind (I’m a human DK) to become a member of the Alliance. Since Northrend starting areas were still packed with ninjas I decided to keep playing the DK and hit Outlands for a little fun with the Demons and Orcs. Before I knew it I was sailing thru Hellfire, into Zangarmarsh and right into my favorite zone, Nagrand. The beauty of Nagrand is exquisite. But again I surfed thru those Nesingway quests in no time and was hitting 68-69 when I had the compulsion to hit Northrend.
So I started in Borean Tundra and before I knew it I was in Icecrown taking on 5 man group quests by myself and realized I was having fun and was not that far from hitting 80! Well I hit 80 on the Rider quests and was quite proud. Plate armor rocks! I had leveled my DK from 55 to 80. Now this is where my blog will take a different note on talents, specs and gear. Come back for the next installment to see what I did!