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Death Knight Talent Builds

June 23, 2009 by Hodzy · 5 Comments 

death-knight-talent-buildHere at ZugGaming we have a great set Death Knight talent builds for you to check out. Death Knights are a very diverse class right now and all three specs are useful. Death Knights have a lot strong talents in each spec so these are a general outline of the Death Knight talent builds, feel free to adjust certain talents to your playstyle.

Death Knight PvP Builds

Death Knights are very powerful class in arena and can play in almost any arena team. For arena, there is really two main Death Knight talent builds. A lot of variety comes from these talent builds but these are the the basic building blocks for Death Knights in arena. A lot of the variety in the different specs are from personal play style and arena team makeup, but these builds can get you started in the right direction.

Death Knight PvE Builds

Death Knights have two main roles they can spec for in PvE. A Death Knight tank is very strong with lots of cooldowns to rotate and Death Knights can also spec into blood and put out some nice dps. Most Raids are filled with at least one Death Knight who is tank spec and some even use Death Knights for both tanks.

Death Knight Leveling Builds

For leveling Death Knights really don’t have a talent build outside of blood that is good. Blood spec leveling allows for a lot of dps while being able to heal yourself leaving very little down time and letting you solo elite quests. Don’t worry about pvp, any spec Death Knight can hold his ground while leveling with a lot of cooldowns to use to keep yourself alive. If you prefer to instance level feel free to use the blood Death Knight talent build for tanking instances.


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Hilarious Death Grip Bug

February 9, 2009 by Zuggy · Leave a Comment 

Yet another hilarious death knight bug, once again affecting the death grip ability. I don’t want to ruin the surprise so I’ll let you check out the video and see for yourself what you’ve been missing out on.

On a brief sidenote, do be aware that game masters are aware of this bug and have given warnings to players who they felt were exploting the bug. Never the less, it’s still pretty damn funny.

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Death Knight Macro Guide

January 7, 2009 by Zuggy · 8 Comments 

death_knight_macro_guide

Macros for any class are going to be important, but for death knights they are absolutely vital. This death knight macro guide will help you implement key combination macros into your death knight’s arsenal. These macros will help you consolidate keybindings and quicken your overall rotation and hotkey speed. If you have a macro you think should be added to this death knight macro guide please leave a comment below and I’ll add it into the compiled death knight macros list.

Death Grip + Chains of Ice Snare Macro

/startattack
/cast Death Grip
/cast Chains of Ice

Will cast death grip first, if death grip is on cooldown will cast chains of ice instead.

Frost Panic Button

/cast Lichborne
/cast Unbreakable Armor
/cast Icebound Fortitude

Ranged Ghoul Stun

/castsequence Leap, Gnaw

Your ghoul will leap then stun, requires 2 clicks.

Blood DPS Spamable Macro

/startattack
/castsequence reset=6 Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Death Strike, Death Coil
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Unholy DPS Spamable Macro

/startattack
/castsequence reset=6/combat/shift Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike, Blood Strike, Death Coil, Scourge Strike, Death Coil, Scourge Strike, Scourge Strike, Death Coil
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Pull Target and Taunt

/cast Death Grip
/cast Dark Command

One Button Sacrifice

/cast [target=pet,exists] Death Pact

Sacrifice your minion in one click to heal yourself.

Rune Strike Macros

/startattack
#show Blood Strike
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Blood Strike

Rune strike followed by Blood Strike.

/startattack
#show Heart Strike
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Heart Strike

Rune strike followed by Heart Strike.

/startattack
#show Scourge Strike
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Scourge Strike

Rune strike followed by Scourge Strike.

/startattack
#show Icy Touch
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Icy Touch

Rune strike followed by icy touch.

/startattack
#show Plague Strike
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Plague Strike

Rune strike followed by Death Strike.

/startattack
#show Death Strike
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Death Strike

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First Deathknight with Thunderfury!

January 2, 2009 by Zuggy · 4 Comments 

Words I thought I would never type…truly, now the DK community can rest easy knowing one of their own now wield the legendary blade, Thunderfury. My good friends over at deathknight.info broke the news a bit ago and I have to say it left me a bit baffled…don’t get me wrong, I think it’s cool that the guy got a thunderfury, really cool in fact.

But let’s be honest, to say the item is a novelty would be a gigantic understatement. With so much you could be doing at level 80 I just can’t even begin to understand why you would want to spend so much time, effort, and gold in a 4 year old instance. Maybe that’s just me though. Anyway, congrats to Dragoth, World’s First Thunderfury wielding Death Knight!

death_knight_thunderfury

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Wrath of the Lich King Wrap Up Post

November 12, 2008 by Zuggy · Leave a Comment 

The time has finally come, we are now just a few short hours away from the greatest expansion World of Warcraft has ever seen. I know I can’t hit all the changes in this wrap up, but I’ll do my best to hit all the major additions, changes, and other note worthy points regarding the WotLK.

WotLK Preparations

General

Classes

Patch Information

Achievements

Videos

PvE

PvP

Guides

note: more to come later

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WotLK Hunter Changes – Aspects and Pets

October 16, 2008 by Zuggy · Leave a Comment 

Mastery Changes

Aspects are now off the GCD. It’s true. There will still be a 1 sec cooldown to switch from one aspect to another. It should feel a lot more like warrior stances or death knight presences.

We’re also going to be putting a little bit of dodge (~10%?) onto Monkey. I’ll update when we decide on a final number.

Just for consistency, paladin auras will probably get the same treatment. These changes should go live before Nov 13. As always, thanks for all of the feedback, and please keep it up now that many of the changes are live.

EDIT: After further discussion, we’re not crazy about the “stance dancing” that hunters need to do to switch to Monkey when someone is in on you in melee. As we’ve said a few times, Disengage and Deterrence should be your go-to abilities at that time. If anything, removing Aspects from the GCD makes it feel like you are supposed to go Monkey every time you’re in melee.

Rather than revert the change, we are introducing a new spell!

Instead of getting new ranks of Hawk at level 75 and 80, you now get the new Aspect of the Dragonhawk. This powerful aspect combines all of the effects of Hawk and Monkey. Any talent or glyph that affects either Hawk or Monkey also affects Dragonhawk the same way. The idea is that you retire Hawk and Monkey at level 75 and go to essentially two Aspects: Dragonhawk for combat and Viper for mana regen.

Enjoy. (source)

New Hunter Pets?

Now that we have a better system for introducing pets, I have no doubt we’ll add more per family and more families over time.

Issues with Exotic Pets

On the exotic pets issue, I have said before that we want to be very careful with the balance here. If the pets are immensely better, then the talent becomes a non-decision (which isn’t so bad) but the exotic pets also becomes a non-decision, which means that the tree that is supposed to be all about pets has fewer options to choose from.

At a slight dps increase, the particular pet you choose is still up for debate. On a boss where you need to go all out and the pet’s debuff isn’t important and survivability isn’t important, then yeah maybe you take the devilsaur or core hound. But when farming, running heroics, PvP or in other situations you still can bring which pet you want.

We did a big pass at pet dps and found that while some exotics were near the top, others were near the bottom. We made a big numbers pass to consolidate things a little better, and make sure the exotics were all near the top or at the top. Cats and other pets without a strong debuff should also do good dps as well.

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Knights of the Ebon Blade Reputation Guide

October 12, 2008 by Zuggy · 1 Comment 

How do I gain reputation with Knights of the Ebon Blade?

There are several ways you will be able to gain reputation with Knights of the Ebon Blade.

  1. If you’re a Death Knight you’ll have the option of doing four quests which give you Knights of Ebon Blade reputation. These include: Taking Back Acherus, The Battle For The Ebon Hold, The Ebon Watch, and The Light of Dawn. Note: only Death Knights can complete these quests.
  2. For everyone else, you can complete the normal mode daily dungeon quests. These quests reward 1 of 4 reputation tokens, one of which is Ebon Blade Commendation Badge. This badge awards +250 Knights of the Ebon Blade reputation when used.

  3. Finally, you’ll have the option of championing the Knights of the Ebon. To champion this faction you must wear your Tabard of the Ebon Blade while you completing other level 80 5 man dungeons. This will award you reputation with the Knights of the Ebon Blade for any mobs or bosses you kill.

    • Non-Elite Mobs Normal – 0
    • Non-Elite Mobs Heroic – 1-2
    • Elite Trash Normal – 5
    • Elite Trash Heroic – 15
    • Super Trash Normal – 10
    • Super Trash Heroic – 30
    • Boss Normal – 50
    • Boss Heroic – 250

Knights of the Ebon Blade Rewards

Friendly

Honored

Revered

Exalted

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Death Knight FAQ Guide Compiled

October 7, 2008 by Zuggy · 2 Comments 

Part 1: Death Knight FAQ Guide (basics)
Part 2: Death Knight FAQ Guide (advanced)

Q. What races can be a death knight?
A. Every race has the availability of being a death knight.

Q. Who is eligible to create a death knight?
A. Players who have at least one level 55 character on a realm may create a death knight on that realm.

Q. What if I have a level 55 character on one realm but want to create a death knight on another realm to play with friends?
A. At the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, you will only be able to create a death knight on the same realm where you have an existing level 55 or higher character. In the future, we plan to allow the creation of a death knight on any realm (provided you have at least one level 55+ character).

Q. Can I create a death knight on one realm and transfer it to another realm?
A. Yes, you will be able to transfer a death knight, using either a free character move or a paid character transfer. Normal fees still apply.

Q. Can I create a death knight on one account and transfer it to a new account?
A. Death knights can be transferred with the same fees and restrictions as any other character.

Q. If I move a death knight to another realm now, can I get a refund later when the option to create a death knight anywhere is available?
A. We will not be giving refunds to players who have relocated a death knight to another realm prior to the open creation point for all realms.

Q. Can I create a death knight on the opposite faction?
A. You will be able to create a death knight on the opposite faction provided that it is on a PvE realm. The standard restrictions for character creation apply for PvP realms.

Q. Is there a limit on how many death knights I can create?
A. You will only be able to have one death knight per realm at any one time. Should you delete a death knight, you will still be able to create a new one.

Source: Blizzard

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Daily Blue and PTR Changes Wrap Up

October 6, 2008 by Zuggy · Leave a Comment 

The past few days have been a whirlwind of class changes and blue posts. Make sure you haven’t missed any of the past few days worth of updates.

Daily Blue Wrap Up

Other Important Posts

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Death Knight Changes

October 6, 2008 by Zuggy · Leave a Comment 

Nothing too major for this morning’s death knight changes. The change with the largest impact is definitely rune regeneration on misses. Now, when one of your attacks is missed / dodged / parried your rune regenerates in 1 second as opposed to 2, similar to the way only a percentage of energy is consumed when a rogue misses a finishing move.

Should certainly help to further improve damage output for the class. It’s unclear yet if all of these changes will make it to the next PTR build, at least the black ice change has been confirmed for inclusion in the next PTR build. The others are still up the air.

Here is my standard caveat that if you read notes from other websites, take them with a grain of salt.

* Black Ice – Frost damage doubled (Now 6/12/18/24/30) (Old 3/6/9/12/15)

Black Ice no longer affects Shadow damage. Unholy was continuing to do too much damage, even if you ignore the fact that they get more dps from their Ghoul.

We had to buff Frost’s expertise to keep their threat per second up there with Blood and Unholy. Frost doesn’t get enough boosts to white damage, even with their haste, to compete with things like Bloody Vengeance and Ebon Plague. Their dps is pretty close when doing dps though. They were just falling down tanking a little. Expertise and Rune Strike should help them make up for it, without changing their dps that much. Unholy has the lowest expertise, but they get enough buffs to damage (especially damage that can’t be parried, like Death Coil and diseases) to make up for it.

Yeah, I can’t tell you how pleasant that is. I’m also sure a lot of it is that DKs have gotten a lot of presents the other classes never got (mounts and blues from quests etc.) and that nobody has a DK with 3 years of /played on it yet. Meet me back here next year and we’ll see if it lasts. :)

Yes, we test with and without Ebon Plague and with and without Sunder and other buffs and debuffs too. We test on dummies and Mr. Patchwerk, front and back. And a lot more.

The Black Ice tooltip may very well still be wrong. Sometimes text doesn’t get updated at the same time. But the spell effect should be that Black Ice only buffs Frost. Frost got some other buffs and Unholy got some other nerfs too. These might not all be in the build. I am also going off of memory here, so I may be mistaken.

  • Tundra Stalker buffs Obliterate and Howling Blast. Adds double expertise.
  • Acclimation buffs Rune Strike (in addition to its normal effects).
  • Crypt Fever down to 10/20/30%.
  • And the big one… when you miss, your runes activate in 1 sec instead of 2. This makes misses, dodges and parries a lot less painful.


We are also getting reports of Tundra Stalker not causing extra damage as it should. I can’t verify that, but keep it in mind. (source)

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