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Death Knight Gameplay Movies: Frost and more Blood leveling
We bought you Jadefury's Unholy and Blood Death Knight game play videos yesterday, and now he's released another batch. This time, his Death Knight is a bit higher level, and he puts two new talent builds through their paces. In the video above, he focuses on the Frost tree. You can see the control that Frost provides specifically - the freezing effects actually seem to last a remarkably long time, certainly long enough to set up a nice chain of abilities and spells for maximum damage. A Hungering Cold followed by a Deathchill and finished up with a Howling Blast can be particularly devastating. Jadefury also points out that if you have any lingering diseases on any of your targets, you can use Blood Boil to quickly wipe them out, doing extra damage and making them susceptible to being frozen again. Frost, reports Jadefury, is probably the least solo-friendly build. Because you need to go very deep into the frost tree to get all the abilities you need for maximum control and damage, You can't get the self-sustainability talents in the Blood tree such as Vendetta. That said, Frost should still be amazing for groups, since you'll be able to provide some very passable crowd control and damage, and I myself am still looking forward to seeing what a good Frost Mage/Death Knight team can do in PvP. Now that his Death Knight is a bit higher level, Jadefury also released a second Blood tree video that showcases a higher level build.
WotlK: Death Knight talent builds showcased in three action clips
With the WotlK NDA crushed and thrown away there's an information upheaval. WoW Insider is sorting through the overload and what will set WotlK apart from TBC is the Death Knight. It's the first new class introduction since World of Warcraft launched in 2004. Sure, there is some cause for concern. The big question on many minds is will the class be over powered? If you aren't in the beta maybe the following three videos will help you decide. Each video showcases a different talent tree: Unholy, Frost, and Blood. The videos are courtesy of Leiah, WotlK beta tester and MMOG blogger at World of Feedback. The video above displays the Death Knight thrashing around in the Pools of Aggonar and specialized in Unholy. What stands out is the Death and Decay, a powerful AE ability, which leaves a wake of destruction in its path. When used in conjunction with Corpse Explosion and two Blood tree talents: Butchery and Vendetta, a lethal combo ensues as each kill returns 6% health and 20 runic power. Lichborne, Bone Armor, and Death Gate are also used. You can also see the sacrificial ghoul explode and deal 2,000 extra damage. The other two Death Knight build videos are after the break.
Death Knight Gameplay Movies: Unholy and Blood trees
Jadefury, also known as Leiah, writer of the World of Feedback blog, has fast become one of the most recognizable names in Deathknighting of those following the Wrath Beta. Among his contributions have been 2 videos that showcase the leveling playstyle of Unholy and Blood trees. They're definitely worth a watch for anyone who's seriously thinking of playing a Death Knight in Wrath of the Lich King. The Unholy video, shown above, uses this spec. It actually relies quite heavily on two Blood talents: Butchery and Vendetta. Those 2 talents provide the Death Knight with health and runic power after every mob death, which helps power Corpse Explosions and allows the Death Knight to stand up to lots of monsters at once. Jadefury also shows the power of Death and Decay, Lichborne, and Bone Armor, and even throws in an exploding Ghoul or two, following it all up with a showcase of the awesome Death Gate animation. I have to admit that I have some concern that this style of AE farming won't be viable for Death Knights everywhere, since in this video, he relied extensively on getting Runic Power via Vendetta due to quick kills on the low HP slimes in the Pools of Aggonar. On the other hand, it looks like a lot of fun, and solidifies my personal resolve to try an Unholy build first. After the break, we'll watch the Blood video.
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.
More leaks from the Alpha forums on Shamans, Warriors, and Death Knights
Deathknight.info has just posted another batch of info from the Alpha forums, this time with Wryxian and Slorkuz talking about Shamans, Warriors, and Death Knights. Primarily, they focus on the tanking abilities of Death Knights and Warriors and delve into some possible improvements to the Shaman Enhancement tree in WoTLK, including possible new talents: Shamans Enhancement Shamans, says Wryxian, will probably see further review. It looks like a lot of the new Enhancement talents will see some changes as well: Weapon Specialization (which gives special abilities based on which weapon type the Shaman uses) will likely be removed Improved Shamanistic Rage (which made Shamans using SR immune to all movement impairing effects and stuns at 2 points) will also probably be removed. Wryxian mentioned a possible replacement for Weapon Specialization: Each melee critical hit would give a stacking buff that reduces cast time by 20% and lasts for 15 seconds. That would mean that at 5 stacks, you'd get a free instant cast spell. Feral Spirit, the 51 point enhancement ability that summons ghost wolves to aid the Shaman, may be getting a second look as well. For Enhancement DPS, they hope that totems and shocks make up for the lack of melee abilities to keep it interesting, though they may consider a new melee move for Shamans as well. In addition, he promises new totem changes soon. Read on for some juicy information on Warriors, Death Knights, and Blizzard's vision for tanking in WoTLK.
Death Knights and the new design directive
I've been having fun with Wowhead's new Wrath of the Lich King talent calculators lately. Since I couldn't fiddle around with my favorite class' talents just yet, I decided to play with the Death Knight talent trees. Although I have yet to actually playtest the class (keeping my fingers crossed for that elusive Beta key...), studying the new talents and spells made it apparent to me that Blizzard was now working on a completely different level. The class design is so bold, fresh, and completely unlike any class we've seen before.With each patch and expansion, Blizzard has demonstrated a keen sense of learning. One of the things I truly enjoy about their talks, such as the panels during the Worldwide Invitational event in Paris, France last month, is when they illustrate their learnings and what they've come up with in response. For the most part, each iteration of their designs is progressively better than the last. Take World PvP, for example. Their first attempts were silly and laughable, such as the sandlol in Silithus. In Outlands, however, they implemented several World PvP objectives that were more successful, particularly Halaa and the Bone Wastes. In Blizzcon 2007, they talked about the things they learned so far, which make me truly excited for Lake Wintergrasp.The Death Knight is another matter altogether. It's a new class. With the Burning Crusade, Blizzard simply added new races, which wasn't too difficult to balance. With the coming expansion, they've designed a class from the ground up -- and from what I can see so far, they've broken the mold and created something that doesn't quite follow the conventions we're become accustomed to. If anything, the Death Knight is a shock to the system. Looking through the talents and spells, a few key design points stood out for me.
World of WarCrafts: Banner of brutality
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.Show the world where your loyalties lie with this horde-riffic signage. The bold red backdrop is guaranteed to garner attention while the blood spatter technique would make even Thrall proud. Here is what you will need: Wooden Frame (I used a Make Me Frameous frame from Michaels) Wooden Letters (I used Provo Craft Carved Letters from Michaels) Acrylic Paint (deep red, black) Fine Red Glitter Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Spray Paint Brush Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions. %Gallery-26732%
Hands-on with the WWI '08 Death Knight demo
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Hands_on_with_the_WoW_Death_Knight_class_at_the_WWI_in_Paris'; One of the most anticipated features of the Worldwide Invitational for us here at WoW Insider was the promise of playable WoTLK demos, so you know our team was all over that as soon as they hit the convention floor. We got a chance to sit down at a Death Knight demo station for a while, and we're bringing you all the information we got from the experience on how WoW's new class is shaping up. Follow the links of a look at the gameplay, skills, and talents of the Death Knight: General gameplay impressions Blood spells and talents Unholy spells and talents Frost spells and talents If you missed the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, WoW Insider has you covered. Check out our complete roundup for articles covering every angle of all the new WoTLK news from the WWI, and check back with us for more features and analysis later today!
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: Blood spells and talents
The Blood tree was originally designated as the primary DPS tree, and a lot of the talents still reflect that, such as Dark Conviction, the ever-present critical strike talent, and Dancing Rune Weapon, the 51 point talent. However, it's also worth noting that the Blood tree provides quite a few healing skills and talents which may end up making it a useful type of tanking tree via allowing the Death Knight to keep himself healed and keep a bit of grief off his healers: for example, Death Pact will be useful for finishing off a ghoul who's about to die anyway and getting a bit of health back. Below is a selection of some of the spells and talents available to Death Knights in the WWI demo. Blood Spells: 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.Blood Tap:Requires level 64Description: Immediately activates a blood rune and temporarily converts it into a death rune. this rune counts as a blood, unholy, or frost rune. lasts 10 seconds.Death Pact: Requires level 66. Description: Sacrifice an undead minion, healing the Death knight for 1200 healthBlood Talents:Rune TapRequires 10 talent pointsInstant cast, 1 minute cooldown.Description: Converts 1 Blood Rune into 10% of your maximum health.Dark ConvictionRequires 10 talent pointsCosts up to 5 talent pointsDescription: Increases your chance to get a critical strike with melee weapons by 1% per talent point.Improved Rune TapRequires 15 talent points, Rune TapCosts up to 3 talent pointsDescription: Improves Rune Tap's health gain by 15% per talent pointVendetta Requires 15 talent pointsCosts up to 2 talent pointsDescription: Heals you for 3% of your total health per talent point whenever you kill a target that yields experience or honorScent of Blood Requires 20 talent pointsCosts up to 3 talent points Description: After being struck by a ranged or melee critical hit, you gain the Scent of Blood effect, causing your next 2 melee hits to steal life from the enemy. lasts for 12s. this effect can not occur more often than once every 12 seconds (Note: the effect of putting more than one talent point in this skill is not yet listed in the description). Blade Barrier Requires 20 talent pointsCosts up to 3 talent points Description: Whenever you have no runes active, your parry chance increases by 5% per talent point for the next 8 seconds.Mark of Blood Requires 20 talent pointsCosts 1 Blood Rune, 1 Unholy Rune Instant cast30 yard rangeDescription: Place a mark of blood on an enemy. whenever the marked target is healed, all party members receive 5% of that healing (up to a maximum of 5% of the Death Knight's health). if a marked target that grants experience or honor is killed, all party members are healed for 10% of their total health. Lasts 3 minutes.Hysteria Requires 30 talent pointsCosts 1 Blood Rune, 1 Unholy RuneInstant cast, 2 minute cooldown30 yard RangeDescription: Induces a friendly unit into a killing frenzy for 30s, increasing their physical damage by 20% but causing them to suffer damage equal to 1% of their total health every second.Heart StrikeRequires 40 Talent Points Costs 1 Blood Rune Requires melee weaponNext MeleeDescription: A debilitating attack that lowers the target's total health by up to 20% for 30 seconds.Dancing Rune WeaponRequires 50 talent pointsRequires Runic PowerRequires melee weaponInstant, 1 minute cooldownDescription: Unleashes all available runic power to summon a second rune weapon that fights on its own for 1s per 5 runic power, doing the same attacks that you do.
Blizzard changes the description of the Death Knight talent trees
Curse has noticed a very intriguing change to the Death Knight information page. The descriptions of each of the talent trees has been changed. Here are the old descriptions: Blood: Talents in this tree focus on damage dealing abilities. Blood Presence increases damage output by a percentage. Frost: Talents in this tree focus on tanking abilities. Frost Presence increases threat and lowers damage taken by a percentage. Unholy: Talents in this tree have a variety of functions including summons, diseases, and PvP-focused abilities. Unholy Presence increases attack speed and reduces the global cooldown on death knight abilities. And now, the new descriptions: Blood: Talents in this tree focus on weapons, armor, and strikes. Frost: Talents in this tree focus on control, counters, and combos. Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, and diseases. This is quite a drastic change, but what could it mean? Let's look at the possibilities after the break.
Frost Mages and Frost Death Knights
Over on the forums, Scorp brings up a Death Knight concern that I haven't heard before: as we all have known since last BlizzCon, the Death Knight's three talent trees are "Blood," "Unholy," and "Frost," and the one that Scorp has a problem with is the last one. Should Blizzard change the "Frost" tree on the Death Knight class so people don't confuse it with Mages?If you're asking me: no. "Restoration," "Holy," and "Protection" are all reused in a few different talent trees, and for both of those, while the talents are different, the intent is the same. "Frost," for both Mages and Death Knights, will have the same aim as well, as far as we've been told so far -- both classes will aim for DPS in those trees, with extra consideration given to crowd control and slow debuffs. In fact, depending on exactly how the Death Knight's talents work, the "Frost" title might help newer players understand the tree a little better anyway, especially if they've played with a Frost Mage before.Not that people don't have ideas -- "Ice" (yes, Ice, baby), "Chill" and "Really, really cold stuff" are all names being thrown around on the forums. But Blizzard will probably stick with "Frost" -- no reason to change it up, especially if the abilities line up with the Mage tree as much as we expect them to.
MadWorld finds a home online
A sparse official website has appeared for Platinum Games' MadWorld, along with the street-sign-through-cranium trailer the entire internet and its dog has seen by now, and three screenshots (which are also old, at least in internet terms).What is new is the text that's on display, which consists largely of the MadWorld team explaining (in endearing Engrish) some of their stylistic choices, namely the black-and-white visuals (which are there to help convey "brutality") and the buckets of blood (included to create a sense of "exhilaration"). There's also confirmation of North American and European releases in Q1, 2009, and a brief discussion about "linking and layering moves," which (not for the first time) recalls the likes of God Hand. It's all a bit devoid of content otherwise, though worth keeping an eye on.%Gallery-22964%[Thanks, HellAlucard!]
Mad World to make violence cheerful again
Are you sick to the back teeth of violence being so goddamn depressing? If so, Platinum Games, the developers formerly known as Clover, are right with you! In the latest edition of Famitsu, Platinum director Shigenori Nishikawa has declared that "cheerful violence" and "curb brawler" will be the themes of the company's first Wii title, Mad World. Echoes of God Hand, perhaps? Mad World was unveiled yesterday through a shaky, grainy and spectacularly bloody video. Sporting heavily stylized black-and-white visuals, the only color to be found in the game was in the fountains of blood that regularly filled the screen. According to Famitsu, ultra-violence is very much the name of the game, which stars a troubled protagonist dedicated to committing his ultimate slaughter. If you missed the footage (it was constantly being removed from video sharing sites), go past the break to catch up, and see how having a road sign lodged through one's face doesn't have to be a miserable affair.
The Death Knight class revealed
Via Gamespy and Worldofwar.net, we finally have a good idea of what rolling a Death Knight will be like. A lot of the rumors seem to have panned out, but others have not. All I know is that at this point, I am full speed ahead to make a Death Knight my new main come WoTLK. There's a lot of meaty info to dig into, so let's get to it after the break.
Age of Conan trailer is up, and it's bloody
Here's the Age of Conan trailer we've been waiting on (the whole thing is after the break) fresh off of its release on GameSpot. The environments look good, but I have to say that the character models seem a bit disappointing, at least from what I could see. But there are some cool-looking mounts in here, flowing cloaks, lots of boats and of course, plenty of blood and dismemberment: the heads, they are a-poppin'.Haven't got enough Age of Conan media yet? Be sure to check our Dark Templar and Barbarian hands-on, as well as the gallery of screens from CES, and a GDC PvP city preview. Could May 20th maybe come a little sooner this year?
New camera tech can detect blood and water content in your car. Ew.
Ever on the lookout for the next step in up in Big Brother policy, there's a new camera technology being developed in the UK at Loughborough University which can count car occupants by figuring out how much water and blood content there is inside the car. The obvious application is for trimming down those carpool lane offenders, trying to squeeze by the law with a dummy or a pet in the passenger seat. Look, privacy concerns aside, there's just something awkward about traffic cams tracking quantities of blood and water inside of commuter cars. Do we really want to let the Machines have that kind of inside (literally) information on us? [Thanks, Richard W]
CTC-chip isolates, analyzes rare tumor cells in bloodstream
Circulating tumor cells, which are more commonly referred to as CTCs, have thus far remained practically useless when it came to aiding in clinical decision making, but a new development could enable these rare cells to finally be used for guiding treatment. Reportedly, a crew of investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital have crafted a "microchip-based device (dubbed CTC-chip) that can isolate, enumerate and analyze CTCs from a blood sample," which has the "potential to be an invaluable tool for monitoring and guiding cancer treatment." Additionally, researchers can look forward to "better understanding the biology of cancer cells and the mechanisms of metastasis," but there's still quite a bit of work to be done before the device can be put to clinical use.[Via Physorg]
Suda and Wada behind bloodless No More Heroes
A recent announcement that Europe would be getting a bloodless version of No More Heroes didn't go down well with many of our bloodthirsty commenters. At the time, PAL publisher Rising Star Games refused to reveal what was behind the decision, but more light was shed on the omission earlier today, in a joint statement from director Suda51 and producer Yasuhiro Wada (pictured above unsuccessfully trying to give away free toilet roll and autographs on the streets of Akihabara).Turns out that it was Suda and Wada themselves who decided to drop the outrageous levels of gore from the European version, citing the "broadly growing Wii market" in the region.Not that this affects many of you, as the U.S. version still contains plenty of the crimson stuff. Buckets of it, in fact.
Age of Conan: 10,000 beta invites sent out so far
Funcom is not only proud of the fact that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will feature adult shenanigans such as "titties" (Male or female? Clearly a case for Veronica Mars), but they are boasting via a press release that the recent batch of invites put them over the 10,000 mark in total beta invites sent out. Funcom wants attention, and I'm falling for it! But if I were to jab them over something it would be about the specifics: How many players out of 10,000 are still playing? What's the average time those players spend playing the beta? etc. Yea, I doubt Funcom would disclose those numbers... Anyhow, I checked my entire array of inboxes again, and not one AoC beta invite was found. Mark my words Funcom, I will remember this tragedy. Maybe your luck is better than mine, be sure to thoroughly check your inboxes as I'm sure some invites are being crushed by the anti-spambot crusaders. I think Richard Garriot would wonder what in the hell Funcom is smoking by giving out so many beta invites almost four months before the game is due to launch on or about March 25th, 2008. On the other hand, I relish in all this beta madness; even if I do agree with some of Garriot's points in regards to Tabula Rasa's beta. Learn to develop? Don't hate. We love Tabula Rasa. errr.. Well some writers at Massively do. (Note: I am going to give TR another chance eventually -- it's in the bargain bin.) Woot? With so much content flooding the front pages here at Massively it's quite possible you didn't gander the new Age of Conan trailer. Here's a spoiler: Heads roll in splendorous Hyborian glory. It's hard to keep up with all the decapitations, so, if you made it this far check out the Age of Conan categorical goodness, and tell us how we need more AoC coverage in the comments. So, did you get lucky? Sign up for the AoC beta here before the next batch gets sent out.[via, TenTonHammer]Related Story
