Riposte
Latest
Lichborne: A final look at the patch 5.4 patch notes for death knights
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. While we've certainly discussed the patch 5.4 changes for death knights in the past, this week is the big week when patch 5.4 finally comes out and we put it all in action. With that in mind, today will be devoted at look at the patch notes from a death knight point of view and making some quick pronouncements about what we can expect when the servers the come back up. The short version of the changes is this. All 3 specs are buffed overall, DPS more so than tanking. In PvE, blood is about the same, while unholy and frost specs are close enough together that you can either stick with your usual choice, or go with whatever you have the best weapons for. Unholy is slightly behind frost, but not so much that you'll suffer greatly. For a more in-depth look at what's changed, read on.
Lichborne: Patch 5.4 patch note analysis for death knights
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. The patch 5.4 PTR has seen its first round of updates, and with those updates has come a handful of death knight changes. We had most of our earth-shattering changes in patch 5.2, so while there's nothing completely major here, there are some welcome surprises and good quality of life changes, mostly focusing on making it easier for tanks, both in general and blood tanks in specific, to keep threat. Today, we'll take a look at the patch 5.4 patch notes as they stand at this writing. As always, this is the PTR, so class balances may change pretty drastically before the final patch goes live.
Patch 5.4 PTR: The Rise of Riposte and other tank changes
Okay, before we get into it, always remember this is datamined information from the next PTR and none of it is guaranteed to make it live. That being said, there are some interesting changes in the pipeline for tanks in patch 5.4, not the least of which is the creation of Riposte, an ability for warriors and death knights. The reason Riposte is interesting is because it seems to be a means to convert parry and dodge into critical strike, which means several things. First, you'll be less likely to stack critical strike as a tank (warriors were at least thinking about it with the change to Enrage, including Shield Slam and Devastate) and secondly, it makes those purely defensive stats work as threat generators, increased the low tank DPS of the warrior tank (and perhaps the DK tank as well, although I'd not heard any complaints about low DK tank DPS) and it must be noted, is not an ability that druid, paladin or monk tanks will be getting. I find this very interesting, especially combined with the changes to Dark Command, Reckoning, Growl and Taunt. All of these abilities will now not only force a target to attack the tank in question, but will also increase her threat by 200% for 3 seconds. This means that, even if you are tanking a boss or mob that you already have threat on, these four abilities will still increase your threat overall when used, meaning that if you hit a taunt while tanking it will still have a positive effect on your threat. It's worth noting that hunter pet Growl works exactly the same - hunter pets will also get the extra 200% threat over the three seconds. We're clearly not even remotely done with tweaks and fixes in patch 5.4, but by themselves these changes suggest that tanking is definitely going to see its fair share. The change to taunts is the biggest change to how taunting works that has ever happened, and the inclusion of Riposte goes one step further towards making avoidance also provide threat.
League of Legends reveals Fiora, The Grand Duelist
If you're fed up with all the recent mage champions added to League of Legends, you'll be happy to know that the next champion due to hit the scene is a true melee carry. Fiora is a competent initiator able to dash around a teamfight picking off fleeing heroes. Fiora's passive causes her to regenerate health every time she hits a target, stacking up to four times if the target is an enemy hero. Her first move, Lunge, is a double-dash that can be used to land a hit and escape, chase down a fleeing target, or initiate teamfights. As if that weren't enough mobility, Burst of Speed gives bonus movement speed for every basic attack or lunge that hits while it's active. Burst of Speed also provides an attack speed boost, and its cooldown resets if Fiora kills an enemy champion. Riposte gives Fiora a massive attack damage buff, causing the next basic attack or spell against her to be reflected back at the attacker. Fiora's ultimate, Blade Waltz, makes her rapidly bounce between nearby enemies, slashing each one for physical damage. Fiora is invulnerable during the move, but could easily be counter-attacked when it ends.
Wrath Beta patch notes: Rogue
The long awaited Wrath of the Lich King beta is hitting the masses and the patch notes are out. As you've seen regarding other classes there is a ton of really exciting news. Right off the bat Blizzard is changing stat itemization in regards to +Hit and +Crit to a more generalized Hit Rating and Critical Strike Rating. These stats, which in the past had been separated into melee and spell versions are now a single stat that can be attributed to any class. For classes with mixed or hybrid functions, this should greatly assist overall gearing. Rogues should see no overall changes in the way the Hit or Crit mechanic works on pre WotLK gear other than just wording on the tooltip.I have to say that the changes that Rogues can expect aren't of the world-shaking variety, but many of them serve as excellent clean up improvements.
