Beautiful friend, the end.
This is the end. My only friend, the end.
Of our elaborate plans, the end.
Of everything that stands, the end.
No safety or surprise, the end.
I'll never look into your eyes... again.
Can you picture what will be?
So limitless and free.
Desperately in need of some... stranger's hand.
In a... desperate land...
It's been a long, tumultuous ride. Hundreds of boss kills, thousands of pieces of loot, players coming and players going, drama that would make most quit, etc etc etc.
Attumen the Huntsman, Moroes, Maiden of Virtue, the Karazhan Opera, The Curator, Shade of Aran, Netherspite, the Chess Event, Prince Malchezaar, Nightbane, High King Maulgar, Gruul the Dragonkiller, Magtheridon, Doom Lord Kazzak, Hydross the Unstable, Fathom-Lord Karathress, Doomwalker, Leotheras the Blind, The Lurker Below, Morogrim Tidewalker, Void Reaver, Al'ar, Lady Vashj, High Astromancer Solarian, Prince Kael'thas, Rage Winterchill, Anetheron, High Warlord Naj'entus, Supremus, Shade of Akama, Kaz'rogal, Nalorakk, Akil'zon, Jan'alai, Halazzi, Hex Lord Malacrass, Zul'jin, Azgalor, Archimonde, Teron Gorefiend, Gurtogg Bloodboil, Reliquary of Souls, Mother Shahraz, the Illidari Council, Illidan Stormrage, Kalecgos, Brutallus, Felmyst, the Eredar Twins, M'uru, Kil'jaeden.
Now, it's time to head north. It's also time to change classes again. Henceforth, you'll get to hear things from the point of view of a (badly played) Death Knight.
Goodbye Outlands. Hello Northrend. See you there!
(Hands up, everyone who thought this was an "I quit" post.)
Read more!
Wrath of the Lich King is due out in just under two days, and it's been a long, boner-inducing journey to get here. I managed to con my way into the Alpha back in May via sexual favors and a bet over a game of Chutes & Ladders, and since then I've gotten the chance to see most of what you guys are going to dive into in the very near future. Even so, I can't wait to see all of it again - Northrend is that good.
My PC is so exited to run Wrath that it can't contain itself.
"But Ekera," you're likely asking, "can you lay off the rampant fanboyism for like two minutes?" First, stop talking to your computer. It's embarrassing. Second, sure I can. PvP balance is still a long way off. Raiding and heroics are probably on the easy side. Wintergrasp needs some work to keep it from being Halaa 2.0 (aka: The PvP Zone That Time Forgot). Naturally, there are likely to be bugs still. Through all that though, this is a game that displays more polish in single zones than Burning Crusade had in almost its entire duration. Your mileage may vary, but I'm not concerned with what YOU think. (haha just kidding please don't stop reading :()
Anyhow, all that aside, I promised a Part 2 to this initial look at Death Knights, so that's what I'll deliver today. This time, I'll take a look at what kind of shit you should expect from DKs in groups, and what kind of loot they should (and shouldn't) be taking. This won't be a definitive guide on how to spot a shitty Death Knight, but if you really want a way to do that, just look at their name. Does it involve the words "death," "knight," "black," "dark," or "evil"? If so, do yourself a favor and kick them now.
Last time out, I gave you rundown of the different trees and what, in a basic sense, they were all about. I'd like to note at this point that, regardless of their choice of spec, most Death Knights will be using pretty much the same gear. DK tanks will use tank gear that mixes threat, avoidance, and mitigation, and DPS DKs will want the usual melee stats. One tree might favor, say, critical strike rating a bit more than another, but essentially you could spec to tank or DPS down any given tree and not have to switch gear much at all.
So, what kind of gear and/or stats should Death Knights be looking for?
Strength - A DK's primary threat and damage stat. Strength, and consequently Attack Power, will make everything they do better. DKs like strength probably about as much as Retribution paladins, and should try to snag gear with it at every opportunity.
Parry - Very yes. Helps keep Rune Strike lit up (DK version of the warrior ability Revenge), synergizes well with the Blood talent Spell Deflection, and of course it's a good avoidance stat besides. Tanking with a two-hander means a slow swing speed, and parrying an attack will hasten your next swing, so it's much more useful in that respect than it would be for a warrior or paladin using a 1.5 speed tanking weapon.
Critical Strike - PHAT CRITZ. This should go without saying.
Dodge - Like Parry, a good avoidance stat. Also helps with Rune Strike.
Defense - As good for DKs as it is for any other non-drud tanking class.
Stamina - Hey guess what having a huge health pool is a good thing as a tank derp a derp!
Armor Penetration - Useful to varying degrees depending on spec. Blood DKs will be ok with having this, Frost and Unholy less so as a great deal of their damage is from spells and ignores armor. Either way, a secondary stat - it's useful if it's on an already good item, but not worth going for exclusively.
Hit Rating - Doubly useful in that it helps both DK attacks and spells. Like other tanks, DKs will want to get to the hit cap as soon as possible to make their threat output smooth.
Expertise - See hit. Just like warriors, rogues, and ret paladins, expertise helps DK dps and threat output a ton.
Block/Block Value - NO. DKs do not use shields, so this stat is 100% useless for them.
Spell Power - NO. All, repeat, ALL DK abilities that do damage scale off of Attack Power. If you're an Unholy DK and take the talent Impurity, they'll scale even better. Spell Power does jack shit for a Death Knight. Period. Any DK taking spell damage plate in a group should be kicked immediately for being a dimwit.
Spell Penetration/Mana per 5/Spirit/Ranged Crit - ... are you serious?
So, as you can see, DKs gear much like any other melee class. How much weight one should give a particular stat over another isn't something I'm going to cover. If you're a DK player, you'll learn that over time or through judicious reading of guides/threads on Elitist Jerks made by people with better calculators than you.
As a final note on gearing, Death Knights CAN dual wield. Currently, they can use either one- or two-handed axes, maces, and swords, so if you see a DK rolling against a rogue on an offhand sword he's not an idiot. That said, at least at this early stage, two-handed weapons almost always have an edge over dual wielding - but that's not enough of a reason to brand a DK player as moronic.
Death Knights get to hang out with cooler people than you.
So, now you have a good idea of what loot DKs should be taking when they're in a group with you. On the other hand, what should they be giving? In this next bit, I'll cover some of the group utility that DKs bring to the table, both in the form of buffs and just all-around useful shit that they can do. Here comes... another list!
Horn of Winter
This is the DK version of Battle Shout, but its closest group buff analogue is actually a shaman's Strength of Earth totem. It increases the Strength and Agility of all party/raid members by a static amount, and must be recast every two minutes.
Blood Presence + Blood Aura
Presences are like the Death Knight version of warrior stances or paladin auras. Blood Presence is generally the damage-dealing one, increasing the DK's damage done by 15% and allowing 4% of their damage dealt to heal them. When the DK also has points in the talent Blood Aura, all party/raid members nearby will heal themselves for 2% of the damage they deal.
Frost Presence + Frost Aura
Frost Presence is generally the tanking presence for DKs, as it increases health, armor, and threat generated, and reduces spell damage taken. When combined with the Frost Aura talent, all nearby party members will gain spell resistance equal to the DK's level. So, at level 80, +80 to all resists.
Unholy Presence + Unholy Aura
Unholy Presence is generally the PvP stance, as it allows 15% faster movement speed, 15% melee haste, and reduces the global cooldown on all abilites by 0.5 sec (essentially giving DKs the same GCD as rogues). With Unholy Aura talented, that 15% run speed bonus for DKs will apply to all nearby party members as well.
Abomination's Might
This deep-Blood talent is similar to a shaman's Unleashed Rage, and is mutually exclusive with it. When using some of their most common melee attacks, the DK will provide their group members with a 10% bonus to Attack Power for 10 sec. Assuming they're keeping up their DPS rotations, this will seldom fall off of group members.
Improved Icy Talons
This talent lies partway down the Frost tree, connected to Improved Icy Touch and Icy Talons. The basic Icy Talons essentially makes Icy Touch steal haste - Icy Touch reduces an opponent's attack speed by 20%, and Icy Talons increases the DK's own attack speed by the same. Improved turns this into a group buff, giving all nearby party or raid members 20% melee haste for 20 sec. Does not stack with a shaman's Windfury Totem.
Ebon Plaguebringer
DKs specced deep into the Unholy tree will bring this debuff to the table. Essentially, as long as they keep at least one of their diseases on the target they will also keep this debuff up. It increases magic damage taken by the target by 13%. This does not stack with a warlock's Curse of the Elements or a Balance druid's talented Earth and Moon debuff.
Anti-Magic Zone
Unholy-specced tanks or PvPers (though DPS might pick it up as well, for utility) will have this ability at their disposal. Anti-Magic Zone creates a static bubble about 10 yards in diameter. Any party or raid member standing inside the bubble will take 75% less spell damage temporarily. The bubble lasts either 30 seconds or until it mitigates anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 spell damage in this manner.
Path of Frost
All DKs have this ability. When turned on, it generates an aura that affects all nearby party members, allowing them to walk on water until they take damage. Yes, this even works while mounted, so the DK can turn it on as the group is riding towards a lake, and the entire group will simply ride across the water. Pretty cool, eh?
I believe that covers most of the major abilities you'll run into. There are a few other things DKs can do, such as silence stray casters with Strangulate, potentially heal the group periodically if they have talented and Glyphed Rune Tap, or Death Grip runners back to be dealt with Scorpion-style, but this list encompasses the major group buffs that DKs will have when grouped with you.
That concludes this little primer on Death Knights and You. Hopefully you'll have learned something here, so when the expansion comes out in two short days you're not scratching your head wondering what the fuck. DKs, played right, are just as useful in your groups as any other class. Played wrong, they're just as stupid. Here's wishing you run into... the latter, actually, so you'll invite me to your groups instead. I'm not dumb, promise.
Read more!
