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Lichborne: BlizzCon cause and effect for death knights in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. So the past few weeks have actually been pretty exciting for death knights. We saw a lot of new info come out of BlizzCon, including getting a couple long-standing questions answered with new updates to the patch 4.3 PTR. Today, we'll cover the basics of what we discussed with the devs at BlizzCon and see what fruit those discussions have borne on the PTR itself. Bloody questions One of the first questions asked at the Class Q&A on BlizzCon 2011 day two was more of a laundry list of blood death knight grievances, such as our issues with spike damage and with avoidance working against mastery. While we have gotten a good bit of dev love on the forums on these beefs, it was actually pretty nice to see it answered candidly on stage, if only to see a dev give an on-the-spot, straight-up answer.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Replica armor, heirlooms, and death knight starting gear
The Darkmoon Faire is offering old sets as promised! Vendors Barum and Baruma currently sell replica armor -- that's armor with old models but no stats. For now, only Dungeon Set 1 and Dungeon Set 2 models are available to choose from, but perhaps we'll see other models added to the vendors' inventory over time. There's a bonus to that replica armor: It's not restricted by class. Though Dungeon Set 1 was never restricted, Dungeon Set 2 originally could only be obtained on a per-class basis. That's not all, however. Right next to the replica armor vendors is an heirloom vendor who sells all heirloom items for Darkmoon Tickets. Heirlooms that were only previously available through points are now available for playing games and racking up tickets at the Darkmoon Faire. And if that weren't cool enough -- hey death knights, remember how you wanted to get your hands on your old starter gear sets? If you hit Acherus on the 4.3 PTR server, Quartermaster Ozorg has all death knight starting armor sets and weapons available for purchase. For those who are not death knights -- no, you cannot purchase the death knight starter gear. It's for death knights, not for you! Check out the gallery for the full array of items on the heirloom, replica armor, and Ebon Hold vendors. %Gallery-138585% Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Ask a Lore Nerd: Like finding a needle in a boneyard
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.Welcome to another fine Sunday evening! Things are going to be shorter and sweeter than usual this week, as I've only recently gotten the internet back. Moving into a new apartment has its drawbacks, and needing to wait a week for Time Warner to get things installed is one of the worst. It's done now though, so next week will be grand, I just need to get my bearings back.Remember, the entire history of Warcraft is fair game in this column, not just Wrath of the Lich King. If you have a question that's a blast from the past, that's fine! We'll take it. Now, on with the show.Jardal asked...What's going on in the Ebon Hold where the DK trainer is killing a druid to explain how plague strike is the lifebloom eater? Wouldn't the alliance kind of frown on killing their allies or is this kind of a "what they don't know won't hurt them" thing?
Lichborne: The 2008 Death Knight year in review
Welcome to first 2009 installment of Lichborne, the WoW Insider Death Knight column.Welcome to 2009, which I am, completely arbitrarily, declaring the year of the Death Knight. Sure, Death Knights were first announced back in 2007, but 2008 was when they took shape and showed up in playable form, and 2009 will be the first full year that they've been on the live servers. Let's look back then, at 2008, and see some of the milestones in the creation of my favorite new class and yours.
Ask A Beta Tester: AABT's greatest hits, part 2
On to part 2! This series of questions spans August and early September, and we'll keep moving forward this week.Hoops asked.... How much gold roughly would you get from questing 70-77 (until you unlock the flying mount)? I was wondering if it would it be worth farming money beforehand or would the money from questing be enough. Elizabeth answers: I'm not 77 yet, so I can't exactly address the question as asked, but I can tell you that I've made about 400g leveling from 70 to 72. That's just from questing, vendoring trash & unneeded greens -- and it includes some stupid deaths, plenty of repair bills(I blame Dalaran for many of them!), and training a couple of professions (35g to train a primary profession to the next skill level and 100g to train a secondary profession to the next skill level). Allie adds: I finally started keeping track of how I was doing gold-wise while leveling. On the beta I leveled a lot through instance runs because the demand for healers was so high; on the live realms I've leveled mostly through questing. Between 70 and 76 so far (remarkably fast for me but my guild starts raiding next week) I've made somewhere in the region of 2K gold after training, repairs, professions, etc., mostly through questing and keeping my bags as open as possible to sell vendor trash. As Elizabeth observes, that part's key; Northrend vendor trash and greens sell for a LOT.
WoW Moviewatch: Lingering Memory
Hey there, I'm the new WoW Moviewatch blogger since Moo unfortunately had to leave our hallowed halls. My first pick is a new film by Count Vrenna called Lingering Memory. The story follows a young Paladin's conflict with The Scourge at Caer Darrow. It's told without dialog or voiceover, with just a few titles by way of setup and some emotional music to carry the mood. Count Vrenna asserts that this is his first time filming large battle scenes, but I wouldn't have guessed if he hadn't told me. The last scene showing rows of Death Knights -- including one of the Naaru, just like we find in Ebon Hold -- is chilling in its inevitability. Another scene I liked is where the hero confronts her fate and memories of her life flash before her eyes. It reminds me somewhat of Here Without You but without the love story. I've never quite gotten the hang of role playing but all these RP guilds making such cool recruitment videos sure make the idea tempting to try.[Via WarcraftMovies.]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Phasing is the new instancing
In an interview with Eurogamer, Blizzard's J. Allen Brack revealed just a little more about the advancements developers have made with Wrath of the Lich King. As I raved about in my post about the Death Knight starting experience, I effused about how the entire experience was instanced, creating a feel of progression through the world. It turns out I was wrong. The Death Knight starting experience isn't instanced at all. It uses what Blizzard calls "phasing technology". In my defense, even Tom Chilton made the same mistake in the interview, saying "(the Death Knight starting area uses) instancing quite a lot more... the world changes dynamically as you move through the story." This prompted Brack to interject a correction, "It's actually not instances. What we do is we have different world states, and depending on what quests you've completed, it changes what world state you're seeing." He also mentions that the new phasing technology is used in other parts and other quests all over Northrend.
Lichborne: Gearing up in Outland and beyond
Every week, Daniel Whitcomb brings you analysis, opinions, and advice on the world of the Death Knight in Lichborne. The Death Knight, as is expected, is still very much a class in flux. This sometimes makes it difficult to pontificate too much about certain aspects of the Death Knight class, because they may be completely different in the next Beta build. That said, a lot of aspects of the Death Knight class are solidifying nicely at this point. Itemization, or at least the way Death Knights use stats, is pretty solid, and worth discussing so that you have an idea of what gear upgrades to look for you as you exit the Ebon Hold and head out into the wider world.
Breakfast Topic: Where will you level your Death Knight?
While Death Knights start at 55, by the time they get out of the Ebon Hold, which is the instanced newbie zone that delivers the epic story of how a Death Knight becomes a Death Knight, they should be level 57 with a few bubbles in. Level 57 is pretty cool, but it's far from the level 68 or so you'll need to get to Northrend, and it's not even the level 58 that most people consider the minimum for heading to Outland. So, what's a fresh Death Knight to do? I'm taking my Beta Deathknight to Winterspring to start with. I figure that between Everlook, Starfall Village to the north, and Donova Snowden to the west, I should be able to get a good, solid mix of quests that'll allow me to hit 58 and decide if I'm ready for Outland -- Not to mention a Mechanical Yeti. Of course, there's other options as well. Eastern Plaguelands offers the chance to use Rune of Lichbane and mess up a bunch of undead in the name of the Argent Dawn, plus you can have your 70 collect Savage Fronds, Bone Fragments, Cores of Elements, Dark Iron Scraps, and Crypt Fiend Parts for some quick experience as well. With a good group, you could also hit up Scholomance and Stratholme for some revenge against the Scourge, maybe grabbing some Deathcharger's Reins or a Barov Peasant Caller along the way. Or you could trust in the power of the imba and try hitting Hellfire Peninsula straight up at 57. Then again, this is Beta, so they could always just switch things up, add a few more levels gained in Ebon Hold, maybe. Still, it's likely we'll still have a while to go before we can hit all the new stuff, regardless. So if you're rolling a Death Knight, how are you planning to start the level grind?
Taking a look at Runeforging
Death Knights certainly feel like a Hero class in every sense of the word. Aside from their impressive abilities, they also have a brand new resource system called Runes and Runic Power. These coupled with the fact that they jumpstart to Level 55 ensure that Death Knights feel epic. They are also unique in that they have a special bond with their weapon, called Runeweapons, and Blizzard wanted to give them a different mechanic here, too.Death Knights have a class-specific profession called Runeforging, similar to the Rogue-specific Poisons and to a lesser degree, Lockpicking. However, unlike Rogue poisons, Runeforging a weapon supercedes weapon enchantments. Inscribing Runes onto the Death Knight's weapon also requires a Rune Forge, kind of like a Moonwell for making Mooncloth or a Forge for smelting metals. Currently, Rune Forges can only be found in Ebon Hold, the Death Knights' exclusive clubhouse.There are currently six runes available for Death Knights to inscribe into their weapons -- Rune of Cinderglacier, Rune of Frostfever, Rune of Lichbane, Rune of Spellbreaking, Rune of Swordbreaking, and Rune of the Fallen Crusader. Some runes mimic existing enchantments, such as Crusader, while others seem very task-specific such as Spellbreaking for taking on caster-type mobs. Death Knights can change the rune on their weapon as often as they like, provided they have access to a Rune Forge. Inscribing weapons with runes also endow the weapon with an animation similar to enchants (Swordbreaking looks like Savagery, for example). Check out the gallery for screenshots of the Rune Forge and the different runes. %Gallery-28602%
More Runeforging weapon enchantments unveiled
We've already shown you screenshots of some of the new Runeforging abilities for Death Knights. Now, we have them all via MMO-Champion. As expected, they should let you customize your weapon for whatever role you expect to play, whether it be tanking or DPS, and what type of enemy you expect to go up again, be they undead, spellcasters, or melee. It looks to be an exciting system. Read on for a full list of the Runeforging Enchantments.
Death Knight starting cinematic unveiled
. With Death Knights getting their own starting zone and their own heroic storyline, it was often wondered whether they'd share the same opening cinematic as their individual races. We have the answer now: They do get their own unique cinematic, shown above. There's two major things I took away from the cinematic. First, it gives a solid origin story for Death Knights: You were apparently slain in combat with the Scourge, but raised to become a Death Knight. So the ideal of the PC Death Knight seems to be a hero who was made an unwilling victim, which makes the fact that he or she is welcomed back by the Horde or Alliance possibly much more believable. As you awaken as a fresh level 55, you are also apparently still under the thrall of the Lich King, which should make for an epic newbie zone experience as you struggle to regain your freedom. Secondly, the opening cinematic has a wonderfully ominous picture of Acherus, the Ebon Hold, home of the Death Knights, looming above Light's Hope Chapel -- a perfect setup for the coming war with the Scourge, that drives home how immediate the threat is. Oh, and do be cautious, this cinematic has a high chance of getting you way too fired up to play a Death Knight. [via Deathknight.info]
Death Knights get new starting zone, Runeforging skill
No more spawning at Tirion Fordring for new Death Knights, it looks like the Death Knight Citadel of Acherus, The Ebon Hold, is now implemented on the Beta servers, reports beta tester Jayde. The Ebon Hold, which is located on the eastern edge of the Eastern Plaguelands, will be where all new Death Knights start. What's more interesting is that some of the first new quest text seems to imply that new Death Knights are still under the control of the Lich King, as the quest "The Eye of Acherus" sends you to a beacon on top of the hold to report to the Lich King himself. So apparently, you will in fact have to quest to break free of the Lich King -- but you start the quests on the Death Knight. Of course, we'll know as soon as we can get more information from the servers. Another mechanic of the Death Knight that seems to have popped up for the first time is the concept of Runeforged Weapons. However, this is not the switching of Blood, Unholy, and Frost runes that has been previously discussed-- rather, it appears that the forging instead applies buffs to your weapons. The two examples shown by Jayde's screenshots are as follows: Rune of the Fallen Crusader: Affixes your Rune Weapon with a rune that has a chance to heal you for 3% and increase Strength by 30% for 15 seconds. Modifying your rune weapon requires a Rune Forge in Ebon Hold. Rune of Lichbane: Affixes your Rune Weapon with a rune that has a chance to strike the undead for extra fire damage and stun them for 5 seconds. Modifying your rune weapon requires a Rune Forge in Ebon Hold.
WWI '08 Death Knight Demo: General Impressions
We learned at the Q&A panel on Saturday that Death Knights will be starting at a new area just off Eastern Plaguelands called Ebon Hold, but for now, it remains unimplemented. Thus, these demo Death Knights start at Tirion Fordring's house in the west of Eastern Plaguelands.On Death Knight Gear and Gear Mechanics: They start with a complete outlay of green gear with DPS Warrior type stats: strength, agility, critical strike rating, and stamina. Their sword itself is blue quality 2 hander named the Massacre Sword. It does 127-191 damage at at a speed of 3.1 seconds, giving it 51.3 DPS. It also provides 22 strength and 23 hit rating. It should be noted that the gear did not have spellpower, and it doesn't look like Death Knights will need it at all. Almost every spell that did magic damage specifically stated that the damage was modified by attack power. This is perfectly in line with Blizzard's recent trend to simplify and consolidate gear, which they discussed in relation to Retribution Paladins at Saturday's class panel. Perhaps we'll even see this mechanic show up on other magical melee hybrids in the future. The Death Knight came loaded with 6 runes on their rune weapon bar: 2 Blood Runes, 2 Unholy Runes, and 2 Frost Runes. Talents points were unavailable with this demo, although we could see the talent descriptions themselves. Death Knight Starting Spells and Playstyle: The Death Knights started with a few basic skills: Blood presence:Requires level 55Costs 1 Blood RuneInstant cast, 1 second cooldownDescription: Strengthens the Death Knight with the presence of blood, increasing damage done by 15% and healing the Death Knight by 4% of damage dealt. Only one presence may be active at a time. Blood Strike:Requires level 55Costs 1 Blood RuneInstant cast, 1 second cooldownMelee rangeDescription: Instantly strike the enemy, causing 60% weapon damage plus 55 for each disease effect on the target.Icy Touch:Requires level 55Costs 1 Frost Rune Instant cast, 6 second cooldown20 yard rangeDescription: 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 seconds.Death Coil Requires Level 55Requires Runic PowerInstant cast 30 yard rangeDescription:Unleashes all available runic power, causing up to 460 shadow damage modified by attack power to an enemy target or healing up to 460 damage from a friendly undead target.Death GateRequires Level 55Costs 1 Unholy Rune10 second cast, 15 minute cooldownDescription: Returns you to Ebon Hold (Note: Since Ebon Hold is not yet implemented, in the demo it returned you to Tirion Fordring). Death GripRequires level 55Costs 1 Unholy RuneInstant cast, 35 second cooldown.30 yard rangeDescription: 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 seconds.Plague Strike Requires level 55Costs 1 Blood Rune and 1 Unholy RuneInstant cast Melee rangeDescription: A vicious strike that deals weapon damage plus 37 and plagues the target, dealing 350 shadow damage over 12 seconds. Casting these spells uses up the listed runes, which have a cooldown of 10 seconds. Our (lucky) play tester reported that the system felt a bit like having 3 seperate mana pools with their own spells, but that the pacing seemed to work well, and that she was now interested in actually trying one out in when beta rolls around where she hadn't been before. Introducing the Knights of the Ebon Hand After roaming about a bit and killing stuff, Elizabeth stumbled upon Light's Hope Chapel. This venerated base of the Argent Dawn had some new guests known as the Knights of the Ebon Hand, lead by a night elf named Siouxsie the Banshee, a Death Knight trainer. It's likely, of course, that these NPCs will be gone and moved to Ebon Hold once it's implemented, but for now, they gave us a sneak peek at the new Death Knight faction and some of the spells Death Knights will get post-55.
WWI '08 Death Knight Demo: Unholy spells and talents
Unholy was originally touted as the PvP DPS tree. What it appears to do rather well, though, are diseases and minions. If your vision of a Death Knight is close to a Diablo 2 Necromancer type, leading an army of undead minions and spreading plague and exploding corpses across the land, Unholy is probably going to be the tree for you. Of course, your crowd control is probably going to be a little peeved at you with all those DoTs, but that's what AE spells like Death and Decay and Unholy Blight are for, right? Unholy also seems to include quite a bit of utility, including the ability to resist lots of spells and status effects, and some debilitating debuffs, so it could be called a utility tree of sorts as well. Here's a list of some of the Unholy spells and talents available in the WWI Demo: Unholy Spells: Death GateRequires level 55Costs 1 Unholy Rune10 second cast, 15 minute cooldownDescription: Returns you to Ebon Hold (Note: Since Ebon Hold is not yet implemented, in the demo it returned you to Tirion Fordring). Death GripRequires level 55Costs 1 Unholy RuneInstant cast, 35 second cooldown.30 yard rangeDescription: 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 seconds.Plague Strike Requires level 55Costs 1 Blood Rune and 1 Unholy RuneInstant cast Melee rangeDescription: A vicious strike that deals weapon damage plus 37 and plagues the target, dealing 350 shadow damage over 12 seconds. Raise Dead Requires level 56 Costs 2 Unholy RunesInstant cast30 yard rangeDescription: Raises a ghoul from a corpse to fight by your side. if the target corpse is not humanoid, Corpse Dust must be supplied to complete the spell.Death Strike Requires level 58Costs 1 Unholy RuneDescription: A deadly attack that deals 60% weapon damage. if the target dies within 6 sec and yields exp or honor, Death Strike heals the Death Knight for 406 damage.Death and DecayRequires level 60Costs 1 Unholy Rune, 1 Blood Rune, 1 Frost Rune.30 second cooldown30 yard rangeDescription: 100 shadow damage modified by Attack Power is inflicted every 2 seconds to all targets in the affected area for 10 seconds. Has a chance to cause affected targets to cower in fearDegenerationRequires level 62 Costs 1 Unholy RuneDescription: Instantly attack the target, dealing 60% weapon damage and inflicting a disease dealing 91 damage over 21 seconds. Any existing heal over time spells on the target become corrupted, dramatically increasing the damage done by the disease and removing the healing effect. Stacks up to 3 times.Unholy PresenceRequires level 70 Description: Imbues the Death Knight with unholy fury, increasing attack speed by 15% and reducing the global cooldown on all Death Knight abilities by 0.5 seconds.Anti-Magic Shell Requires level 75Costs 1 Unholy Rune20 second cooldownDescription: Surrounds the Death Knight in an anti-magic shell, absorbing 75% of the damage dealt by the next harmful spell. Damage absorbed by anti-magic shell energizes the Death Knight with additional runic power. Lasts 5 seconds.Army of the DeadRequires level 80 Costs 2 Unholy Runes10 minute cooldownDescription: Summons an entire legion of your best ghouls to fight by your side.
