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PTR
10.2.7
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10.2.6
Beta
[Guide] Cata DK changes (Updated 10/12/10)
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Post by
woohaa
READ BEFORE POSTING
: I'll do my best to keep this updated. If i missed something or you have some constructive criticism about the layout let me know. I'll also do my best to answer any questions you may have about the changes being made to DKs in the upcoming expansion. This thread is aimed at keeping the wowhead DK community informed about the upcoming Cata changes and how the dk is currently working in the beta. Please refrain from trolling/flaming or complaining about the new changes, i cannot change anything and merely here to keep you informed. please direct any complaints to the official cata wow forums. Also one last thing, keep in mind these changes are from LIVE to CATA. so if my info looks different from a blue post it's because the blue post shows the info from the current beta build to the new beta build.
Table of Contents
Most Recent Changes
(updated 9/27/10)
New Rune System
Skill Changes
New Skills
New Talent Trees
Blood passive skills/abilities
Unholy passive skills/abilities
Frost passive skills/abilities
Cataclysm DK Changes
New Talents
Removed Talents
Changes to Existing Talents
Gameplay - How the specs are playing out in beta
Blood
Unholy
Frost
Raid Buffs/Debuffs
Cata Glyphs
Runic Empowerment: If your still clueless about this new mechanic read this
Post by
woohaa
Most Recent Changes
(this will change when new beta builds are released)
(updated 10/12/10)
Blood
Rune Strike now deals 150% weapon damage, down from 200%. No longer requires you to dodge or parry, only usable while in Blood Presence. Now costs 30 Runic Power, up from 20 Runic Power.
Improved Blood Presence now increases your rune generation by 10/20%
Post by
woohaa
New Rune System
The new rune system will change how runes regenerate, from filling simultaneously to filling sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. Essentially, you have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. (Haste will cause runes to fill faster.) Another way to think of this is having three runes that go up to 200% each (allowing extra "storage"), rather than six runes that go up to 100% each.
As this is a major change to the death knight's mechanics, it will of course require us to retune many of the class's current abilities. For example, each ability needs to hit harder or otherwise be more meaningful since the death knight is getting fewer resources per unit of time. Some abilities will need to have their costs reduced as a result.
Skill Changes
I decided to add this section because there are some people (believe it or not) that don't know everything there is to know about Cataclysm. So, though this change is pretty well known...i feel i should squeeze in any info that may be somewhat useful to people readin g this.
Scourge Strike has a base 140% weapon damage modifier, up from the current 70%.
Heart Strike has a base 100% weapon damage modifier, up from the current 50%.
Frost Strike has a base 110% weapon damage modifier, up from the current 55%.
Blood Strike has a base 80% weapon damage modifier, up from the current 40%. Also, additional damage has been changed to 10% per disease on the target down from 12.5%.
Plague Strike has a base 100% weapon damage modifier, up from the current 50%.
Icy Touch has had its damage doubled.
Death Coil has had its damage doubled.
Howling Blast only costs a Frost rune, has had its damage doubled, and now deals triple damage against targets affected by Hungering Cold. (not 100% on the triple damage part...it's in a beta patch notes but i need to see if it was removed in a later build)
Howling Blast no longer has a cooldown.
Frost Fever and Blood Plague have a base duration of 30 seconds, up from the current 15.
Diseases spread from Pestilence deal half damage.
Death Strike now heals you for 30% of the damage you have sustained during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 10% of your maximum health).
Horn of Winter now has a 45 yards range, up from 30 yards.
Disease Durations now 21 seconds. (down from 30)
Vampiric Blood no longer costs a Blood rune.
Rune Strike now deals 150% weapon damage, down from 200%. No longer requires you to dodge or parry, only usable while in Blood Presence. Now costs 30 Runic Power, up from 20 Runic Power.
New Skills
Dark Simulacrum
: Places a dark ward on an enemy that persists for 8 sec, triggering when the enemy next spends mana on a single-target spell, and allowing the Death Knight to unleash an exact duplicate of that spell. Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells.
20 Runic Power, 40 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown, req lvl 85
Only spells that can be
spell reflected
are possible to be copied
Heals cannot trigger this spell
Dark Simulacrum does not ABSORB any damage. It only allows you to copy the spell and unleash it at a target.
You do not need to be the target of the spell, nor do you have to use the spell on the target casting the spell
Necrotic Strike
: deals 100% weapon damage and absorbs the next healing received by the target. Additional Effect - For 15 sec, or until the full amount of healing is absorbed, the target's casting time is increased by 30%.
1 unholy rune, 5 yd range, Instant, req lvl 83
Outbreak
: Instantly applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever to the target enemy.
30 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown, req lvl 81
Festering Strike
: An instant attack that deals 150% weapon damage plus 840.54 and increases the duration of your Blood Plague, Frost Fever, and Chains of Ice effects on the target by up to 6 sec.
1 Blood rune and 1 Frost rune, 5 yd range, Instant, req lvl 64
Runic Empowerment
: When you use your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability, you have a 45% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune.
Passive, req lvl 68
Post by
woohaa
New Talent Trees
Talent trees have been reduced from 51 pt. trees down to a 31 pt. tree. Many Talents have been taken out of the game and some have been turned into passive abilities. Also when you get your first talent point as a DK you will choose a Talent Tree (Blood, Unholy, Frost) and choosing that tree will lock you into that tree until you have put in a minimum of 31pts. After that your free to sub-spec into any tree. Also choosing a tree will grant you a talent tree defining skill and some passive talents/abilities specific for that tree.
Blood Passive abilities/skills
Heart Strike
- Instantly strike the target and up to two additional nearby enemies, causing 100% weapon damage plus 125 on the primary target, with damage reduced by 25% on each subsequent target. Each target takes 10% additional damage for each of your diseases active on that target.
1 blood rune, melee
Vengeance
- Each time you take damage, you gain 5% of the damage taken as attack power, up to a maximum of 10% of your health.
Veteran of the Third War
- Increases your total Stamina by 9% and your expertise by 6.
Blood Rites
- Whenever you hit with Death Strike or Obliterate, there is a 100% chance that the Frost and Unholy Runes will become Death Runes when they activate. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost, or Unholy Rune.
Blood Shield
- Each time you heal yourself via Death Stike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Absorb increased further by mastery rating.
Unholy Passive Abilities/Skills
Scourge Strike
- An unholy strike that deals 100% of weapon damage as Physical damage plus 340. In addition, for each of your diseases on the target, you deal an additional 12% of the Physical damage done as Shadow damage.
1 unholy rune, melee
Master of Ghouls
- Reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 60 sec, and the Ghoul summoned by your Raise Dead spell is considered a pet under your control. Unlike normal Death Knight Ghouls, your pet does not have a limited duration.
Reaping
- Whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence there is a 100% chance that the Blood Rune becomes a Death Rune when it activates. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost, or Unholy Rune.
Unholy Might – Increases strength by 15%.
Blightcaller
- Increases the damage done by your diseases by 20%. Damage increased further by mastery rating.
Frost Passive Abilities/Skills
Frost Strike
- Instantly strike the enemy, causing 110% weapon damage plus 95.7 as frost damage.
40 runic power, melee
Icy Talons
- Your melee attack speed is increased by 20%.
Blood of the North
- Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 10%. In addition, whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence, there is a 100% chance that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost, or Unholy Rune.
Frozen Heart
- now increases frost damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases frost damage by an additional 2%.
Post by
woohaa
Cataclysm DK changes
New Talents
Blood
Scarlet Fever
- Your Blood Boil has a 100% chance to infect the target(s) with Scarlet Fever, reducing their physical damage done by 10% for 30 seconds.
Hand of Doom
- Reduces your cooldown on strangulate by 60 seconds.
Blood Parasite
- Your weapon hits have a 10% chance to spawn a blood worm, the blood worm attacks your enemies, gorging itself with blood until it burst to heal nearby allies. last 20 seconds
Crimson Scourge
- Increases the damage dealt by your Blood Boil by 40%, and when you Plague Strike a target that is already infected with your Blood Plague, there is a 100% chance that your next Blood Boil will consume no runes.
Sanguine Fortitude
- While active, your Icebound Fortitude reduces damage taken by an additional 30% and costs no runic power to activate.
Improved Blood Tap (Tier 2) *New* - Reduces the cooldown of your Blood Tap ability by 15/30 sec.
Unholy
Resilient Infection
- When your Blood Plague or Frost Fever is dispelled, you have a 100% chance to have the rune cost refunded. Does not apply to diseases spread via Pestilence.
Shadow Infusion
- When you cast Death Coil, you have a 33/66/100% chance to empower your active Ghoul, increasing its damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Dark Transformation
- Consume 5 charges of Shadow Infusion on your Ghoul to transform it into a powerful undead monstrosity for 30 sec. The Ghoul's abilities are empowered and take on new functions while the transformation is active.
1 Unholy, 60 yd range, Instant
Contagion
- Increases the damage of your diseases spread via Pestilence by 50/100%.
Frost
Might of the Frozen Wastes
- When wielding a two-handed weapon, your autoattacks have a 45% chance to generate 100 Runic Power.
Dark Transformation
With the new Dark Transformation ability the ghouls attacks change to the following.
Gnaw becomes - Strike an enemy with a smashing attack, dealing 125% of normal melee damage and stunning for 4 sec.
Huddle becomes - Unleash a fortifying roar, reducing all damage taken by 50% for 10 sec.
Claw becomes - Rakes an enemy with deformed claws, dealing 150% of normal damage to the target and up to 2 additional targets.
Leap becomes - Charge an enemy, interrupting spellcasting and immobilizing them for 2 sec.
Removed Talents
Blood
Subversion
Spell Deflection
Improved Rune Tap
Bloody Strikes
Vendetta
Mark of Blood
Might of Mograine
Blood Gorged
Bloody Vengeance
Frost
Black Ice
DeathChill
Glacier Rot
Frigid Dreadplate
Guild of Gorefiend
Tundra Stalker
Improved Icy Touch
Unholy
Night of the Dead
Desolation
Wandering Plague
Corpse Explosion
Necrosis
Changes to existing Talents
Blood
Blood Presence
changed to The death knight takes on the presence of Blood, increasing Stamina by 8%, armor contribution from cloth, leather, mail and plate items by 60%, and reducing damage taken by 8%. Increases threat generated. Only one Presence may be active at a time.
Improved Blood Presence
now reduces chance to be crit by 6%, also increases your rune generation by 10/20%.
Blood-caked Blade
moved to Blood
Bone shield
moved to Blood
Toughness
moved to Blood
Dancing Rune Weapon
now also increases your parry by 20%
Will of the Necropolis
- When a damaging attack brings you below 30% of your maximum health, you generate a Blood Rune and the cooldown on your Rune Tap ability is refreshed, and all damage taken is reduced by 25% for 8 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 45 seconds.
Rune Tap
now heals you for 15% of your maximum health, down from 20%.
Vampiric Blood
now increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 25% for 10 sec, down from 35%.
Frost
Frost Presence
changed to Strengthens the Death Knight with the presence of Frost, increasing damage by 10% and increasing Runic Power generation by 10%.
Improved Frost Presence
now increases dmg by an additional 5% and you retain 4% runic power regeneration when in blood or unholy presence.
Annihilation
no longer increases crit chance and no disease consumption is now baseline, talent now increases Obliterate damage by 45%
Runic Power Mastery
has been reverted back to Live's current implementation.
Icy Touch
no longer generates very high threat when in Frost Presence.
Chains of Ice
now reduces movement speed by 60% for 8 sec. (Down from 95% + 10% movement each sec over 10 seconds)
Improved Icy Touch
now increases the damage of Icy Touch by 10/20/30%. (Up from 5/10/15%)
Chill of the Grave
now has a chance to generate 5/10 Runic Power. (Up from 2.5/5)
On a Pale Horse
moved to Frost tier 2
Endless Winter
no longer increases strength
Rime
- Crit chance on Obliterate and Icy Touch removed. Now has a chance to make your next Icy Touch or Obliterate cost no runes. (Howling Blast removed)
Unbreakable Armor
changed to
Pillar of Frost
, armor increase removed and now makes you immune to external movement such as knockbacks.
Improved Icy Talons now increases the melee and ranged attack speed of all party and raid members within 100 yards by 10%. (Down from 20%)
Unholy
Unholy Presence
changed to infuses the death knight with unholy fury, increasing attack speed and rune regeneration by 10%, movement speed by 15%. Also reduces the GCD on your abilities by 0.5 sec. Only one Presence may be active at a time.
Improved Unholy Presence
changed to you retain +8/15% movement speed in other presences, and gain +2/5% haste while in unholy presence.
Anti-Magic Shell
no longer costs Runic Power and no longer converts magic damage absorbed into runic power.
Magic Suppression
causes your Anti-Magic Shell to convert magic damage absorbed into Runic Power. the reduced 6% magic damage passive was removed.
Dirge
Dirge – Now provides 5/10 Runic Power from Blood Strike, Plague Strike, and Icy Touch. No longer affects Scourge Strike and Festering Strike.
Virulence
now increases your chance to hit with spells by 2/4/6%. (Up from 1/2/3%) disease
Hysteria's
name changed to
Unholy Frenzy
and moved to unholy. now increases melee haste by 20% and instead of physical damage now causes the target to lose health equal to 2% of their maximum health every 3 sec.
Epidemic
now increases the duration of Blood Plague and Frost Fever by 4/8/12 sec.
Outbreak
changed to
Corrupting Strikes
now increases damage of your Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, and Festering Strikes by 30%
Sudden Doom
moved to Unholy now gives your auto attacks a 15% chance to make your next Death Coil cost no Runic Power.
Crypt Fever
removed and disease damage added to
Ebon Plaguebringer
Morbidity
– Now increases damage of Death Coil and Death and Decay by 5/10/15% and 10/20/30%, respectively. No longer reduces the cooldown on Death and Decay.
Ghoul Frenzy - now
Dark Transformation
- Consume 5 charges of Shadow Infusion on your Ghoul to transform it into a powerful undead monstrosity for 30 sec. The Ghoul's abilities are empowered and take on new functions while the transformation is active. / 1 Unholy, 60 yd range, Instant
Ravenous Dead has been replaced with
Shadow Infusion
- When you cast Death Coil, you have a 33/66/100% chance to empower your active Ghoul, increasing its damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Vicious Strikes renamed
Rage of Rivendare
no longer increases critical strike chance and critical strike damage bonus. Now Increases the damage of your Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, and Festering Strike abilities by 15/30/45%.
Necrosis gone and replaced with Runic Corruption - Reduces the cost of your Death Coil by 3/6, and causes your Runic Empowerment ability to no longer refresh a depleted rune, but instead to increase your rune regeneration rate by 50/100% for 3 sec.
Unholy Command now also gives you a 50/100% chance to refresh Death Grip's cooldown when dealing a killing blow to a target that grants experience or honor.
Misc Changes
Sigils have been reworked. All relics will now be universal and have general stats for tanking, melee dps, caster dps, and healers. They will not be class specific and will not be linked to certain spells or abilities. For a preview you can check out the changes made to current
WotLK relics
.
Raise Dead
no longer cost a reagent.
Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle now increases Armor by 4% and total Stamina by 2%. (Old - Increased Defense by 25 and Stamina by 2%)
Rune of the Nerubian Carapace now increases Armor by 2% and total Stamina by 1%. (Old - Increased Defense by 13 and Stamina by 1%)
Post by
woohaa
Gameplay
- How the builds are currently working in beta
Please keep in mind that it is beta. Numbers aren't as important yet since blizzard is still trying to figure out how they want our RP generation to coincide with our runes. if you must know DW frost is doing more damage overall. Also, i will be refering to all trees "rotations" as systems because due to Runic Empowerment all trees use a priority system some more difficult then others.
Blood
With the release of 4.0.1 Alcotraz has released a nice
tanking guide
. Currently, there's only a few things in beta not in the 4.0.1 patch. Aside from the extra 5 talent points. the Rune Strike change hasn't been implemented on Live servers nor the new Imp Blood Presence. The Rune Strike change will be a large change as it completely changes our priority system from what you'll be using in 4.0.1. With the avoidance requirement removed you no longer place it at the top of your priority list, but it'll be more of a GCD filler. Also, since it's your only source of proccing RE you'll only want to use RS when you have empty Runes as to not waste procs. Other then that please check out the guide and GL HF. =)
==================================================================
Unholy
(Updated: 10/4/10)
This is the general Unholy spec
(7/0/32 + 2)
. 2pts are left over for whatever utility you feel you may need. The exception to the spec is the 1pt into desecration which is required to reach tier 3...that can be spent elsewhere if a aoe slow is something you don't want.
Optional Talents
- see link if you need more details about optional talents.
Runic Power Mastery
Scent of Blood
Blade Barrier
Desecration
Resilient Infection
Magic Suppression
Scarlet Fever
Hand of Doom
Rotations
Single Target
Diseases > Dark Transformation > SS if both Unholy and/or all Death runes are up > FeS if both pairs of Blood and Frost runes are up >
DC if SD, 100 RP, will overcap RP with anything else or if RC isn’t up > SS > FeS > DC > HoW
Basically the idea here is don't let your runes or RP cap out. Also, it's a good idea not to spam DC. Using DC every other CD is probably better. When RC procs it has a 3 sec duration and can't be stacked or extended. Your Ghouls DT has priority over everything other then diseases.
AoE
Diseases > Dark Transformation > Death and Decay > SS if both Unholy and/or all Death runes are up > BB + IT if both pairs of Blood and Frost runes are up >
DC if SD, 100 RP, will overcap RP with anything else or if RC isn’t up > SS > BB + IT > DC > HoW.
This isn't a whole lot different from the single target. You sub in a DnD for a SS when it's up and use BB+IT instead of FeS. Pestilence is part of applying diseases so keep that in mind.
Stat Priorities
Hit to cap > Strength > Haste > Crit > Mastery > Expertise to cap > Agility
Hit and str are still our best stats. Also, let me add that haste does have a soft cap even though it's relatively high on our list. Crit also being a relatively good stat as diseases and our ghoul is affected by crit now. Mastery is low due to it only affecting disease damage. Even though Exp is low you'll still want it on your gear. Your ghoul is affected by most of your stats str/stam/hit/exp/haste/crit. So having some exp will also boost your ghoul's exp. Agility is basically not even worth using. Honestly, just don't do it. You lose the 5% str boost from wearing plate, you get zero AP from mail gear and agi only gives you alittle crit. So don't do it.
Reforging
- this is relatively new so i thought i'd add this in for you guys.
Reforging takes 40% of a secondary stat* already on an item and converts it into a secondary stat not already on an item. This lets you optimize your gear to a level like never before, and diminishes the gap between the best items and their lesser counterparts.
Follow this thought process when reforging as an Unholy DK:
Are you hit capped?
If yes, then reforge any excess hit into haste, if it’s not already on the piece as well, and to crit if haste is.
If no, then reforge any expertise, mastery, and then crit – in that order – until you reach the hit cap.
Does the piece already have haste?
If yes, then go to the next question.
If no, then reforge any excess hit, expertise, mastery, and then crit – in that order – into as much haste as possible.
Does the piece already have crit?
If yes, and it also has haste/hit (as it should following the previous two questions, then there’s no need to touch it.
If no, and it already has haste/hit (as it should following the previous two questions) and another stat, then reforge the extra stat into crit.
For more info check out
EJ's Cata Unholy DPS Guide
==================================================================
Frost
Generalized Spec
On the upside, both dual-wielding and 2-hander versions of Frost are alive and well, with their dps being quite competitive with one another. On the downside, unlike many other trees in Cataclysm – such as Death Knight’s own Unholy – Frost unfortunately doesn’t actually offer you much in the way of individual choice. The below “cookie-cutter” specs are basically your only options, as there’s nothing beyond tier 2 which is debatable, and you’re left with absolutely zero remaining points at your discretion.
7/31/3
In tier 1, you can freely choose between two points in Runic Power Mastery and two points in Icy Reach: it makes no noticeable impact on dps. As well, in tier 2, you can split three points between Lichborne, Endless Winter, and On A Pale Horse at one’s own best judgment, as it’s similarly unimportant what you choose. Aside from that, everything is essentially set in stone: you grab every DW-relevant dps talent in reach! DPS as this spec is done in Frost Presence. Obliterate will be the largest fraction of your total damage, followed closely by Frost Strike and then your auto-attack.
7/31/3
The two hander build isn’t radically different than the dual wielding build. You lose any semblance of choice in tier 1; you have to max out both RPM and Icy Reach, on account of Nerves of Cold Steel being utterly worthless. You have the same three points in tier 2 to distribute between whatever talents there that you would like. You grab Might of the Frozen Wastes instead of Threat of Thassiran, which I would hope is common sense! Nothing else to note. DPS as this spec is done in Unholy Presence (which will be discussed later; that isn’t a typo, I assure you). Frost Strike will be the largest fraction of your total damage, followed closely by Obliterate and then your auto-attack.
single target priority system
Diseases > Ob if both Frost/Unholy pairs and/or both Death runes are up, or if KM is procced >
BS if both Blood Runes are up > FS > Rime > Ob > BS > HoW.
Stat Weights Dual Wield
Hit to cap >= Expertise to cap > Strength > Mastery > Crit > Haste > Agility > Hit to spell cap
Stat Weights Two Hand
Hit to cap >= Expertise to cap > Mastery > Strength > Haste > Crit > Agility > Hit to spell cap
Reforging
Reforging takes 40% of a secondary stat* already on an item and converts it into a secondary stat not already on an item. This lets you optimize your gear to a level like never before, and diminishes the gap between the best items and their lesser counterparts.
Follow this thought process when reforging as a Frost DK:
Are you hit capped?
If yes, then reforge any excess hit into expertise if uncapped, if it’s not already on the piece as well and if you’re not already capped for it, and to mastery (then crit, if DW, or haste, if 2H).
If no, then reforge any excess expertise, crit then haste or haste then crit(for DW/2H respectively) in that order – until you reach the hit cap.
Are you expertise capped?
If yes, then reforge any excess expertise into mastery and then crit or haste (for DW/2H respectively) in that order .
If no, then reforge any haste, crit then mastery or crit, haste, then mastery (for DW/2H respectively) in that order – until you reach the expertise cap.
Does the piece already have mastery?
If yes, then go to the next question.
If no, then reforge any haste then crit or crit then haste (for DW/2H respectively) into mastery.
Does the piece already have crit (if DW) or haste (if 2H)?
If yes, and it also has hit, expertise, or mastery (as it should following the previous two questions, then there’s no need to touch it.
If no, and it already has hit, expertise, or mastery (as it should following the previous two questions) and another stat, then reforge the extra stat into crit (for DW) and haste (for 2H).
If you want to read the full EJ guide check it out
here
.
Post by
woohaa
Raid Buffs/Debuffs
increased agility and strength (raid buff) - Also provided by shamans and warriors
10% attack power (blood, raid buff) - Also provided by Marksmanship Hunter, Enhancement Shaman, Paladin
10% melee/range haste (frost, raid buff) - Shaman, Retribution Paladin, Survival Hunter
reduces physical damage dealt by 10% (blood, debuff) - Warrior, Druid (probably bear), Protection Paladin, Warlock
20% reduced melee attack speed (debuff)-- Warrior, Feral Druid, Protection Paladin
4% increased physical damage taken (Frost, debuff) - Arms Warrior, Combat Rogue
8% increased magic damage (unholy, debuff) - Warlock, Balance Druid, Assassination Rogue
Cata Glyphs
Prime
Death Coil
Increases the damage or healing done by Death Coil by 15%.
Death Strike
Increases your Death Strike's damage by 2% for every 5 runic power you currently have (up to a maximum of 40%). The runic power is not consumed by this effect.
Death and Decay
Increases the duration of your Death and Decay spell by 50%.
Frost Strike
Reduces the cost of your Frost Strike by 8 Runic Power.
Heart Strike
Increases the damage of your Heart Strike ability by 30%.
Howling Blast
Your Howling Blast ability now infects your targets with Frost Fever.
Icy Touch
Your Frost Fever disease deals 20% additional damage.
Obliterate
Increases the damage of your Obliterate ability by 20%.
Raise Dead
Your Ghoul receives an additional 40% of your Strength and 40% of your Stamina.
Rune Strike
Increases the critical strike chance of your Rune Strike by 10%.
Scourge Strike
Increases the Shadow damage portion of your Scourge Strike by 30%.
Major
Anti-Magic Shell
Increases the duration of your Anti-Magic Shell by 2 sec.
Blood Boil
Increases the radius of your Blood Boil ability by 50%.
Bone Shield
Increases your movement speed by 15% while Bone Shield is active. This does not stack with other movement-speed increasing effects.
Chains of Ice
Your Chains of Ice also causes 144 to 156 Frost damage, with additional damage depending on your attack power.
Dancing Rune Weapon
Increases your threat generation by 50% while your Dancing Rune Weapon is active.
Death Grip
Increases the range of your Death Grip ability by 5 yards.
Hungering Cold
Your Hungering Cold ability no longer costs runic power.
Pestilence
Increases the radius of your Pestilence effect by 5 yards.
Pillar of Frost
Empowers your Pillar of Frost, making you immune to all effects that cause loss of control of your character, but also freezing you in place while the ability is active.
Rune Tap
Your Rune Tap also heals your party for 10% of their maximum health.
Strangulate
Increases the Silence duration of your Strangulate ability by 2 sec when used on a target who is casting a spell.
Vampiric Blood
Increases the bonus healing received while your Vampiric Blood is active by an additional 15%, but your Vampiric Blood no longer grants you health.
Minor
Blood Tap
Your Blood Tap no longer causes damage to you.
Death's Embrace
Your Death Coil refunds 20 runic power when used to heal.
Horn of Winter
Increases the duration of your Horn of Winter ability by 1 min.
Path of Frost
Your Path of Frost ability allows you to fall from a greater distance without suffering damage.
Raise Ally
Increases the health of your Risen Ally by 25% and its run speed by 15%.
Resilient Grip
When your Death Grip ability fails because its target is immune, its cooldown is reset.
Post by
woohaa
Runic Empowerment
Since i'm done with the guide and have some space i thought i'd write some things about Runic Empowerment. Most of you are already aware of what it does, how it works, and how you probably should use it. For those that are still confused or want to theorycraft the new mechanic with me, this section is for you.
How it Works
Runic Empowerment
- When you use your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability, you have a 45% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune.
It's pretty self-explanatory, but let's go over the glaringly obvious that some people misinterpret. This will proc only on a FULLY DEPLETED rune, meaning if it's currently recharging the ability will not proc on that rune. For instance. if you use IT/PS/OB/BS...your runes should look something like this
.B..B..F..F..U..U
(
C
)(
_
)(
_
)(_)(
_
)(_)
(
C
) = Fully charged
(
_
) = Charging
(_) = Fully Depleted
okay that's not easy to draw but let's say your runes currently look like that after using those abilities. Now you hit FS twice and get a RE proc. Since 1 Blood rune is charged and 1 is charging...you can't get a proc on a blood rune. But your Frost and Unholy Runes both have a fully depleted rune so it can proc on one of those.
Also, RE can proc off free deathcoils via Sudden Doom. So Frost and Unholy will most likely see around the same amount of procs.
How You Shouldn't Use Runic Empowerment
There are always gonna be people that don't understand class mechanics and thus will do things the wrong way. I think we all know who those people are. There was the guy who had this rotation IT/IT/PS/PS/BS/BS, we had the 2/3 Reaping guy, and the infamous Bloodelf guy located in my signature. When RE was first introduced everyone was still in the mindset that if you let your rune sit, your losing DPS. So, our first impression was to use the ability the moment it procced.
Blood
Blood rune = HS
Unholy rune = PS or NS(necrotic strike)
Frost rune = IT
Frost
Blood rune = BS
Unholy rune = NS
Frost rune = IT or HB
Unholy
Blood rune = BS
Unholy rune = SS
Frost rune = IT
Most people were pretty upset and hated the mechanic. Well there's still alot of people that hate the mechanic, but more so then now. This, of course is not the way you should use it.
How You Should Use It
This will be the easiest and probably the most optimal way to use the new rune system with Runic Empowerment. Every tree has it's own 1 rune ability and 2 rune ability. So literally all you need to do is not be A.D.D. and make sure that those are the only 2 abilities you use your procs on.
Blood
Blood rune = HS
Frost/Unholy = DS
Frost
Blood rune = BS
Frost/Unholy = OB
Unholy
Blood/Frost = FeS
Unholy rune = SS
This of course will free up around 1/3 the GCDs you would have used if you were doing the wrong way, not to mention the increase in damage you'll most likely see from using say an OB over a IT/PS. This is also the reason every Talent Spec now uses a Priority System over a rotation. The tree that may see the most difficulty in following this of course Frost. However, if you stick to your priority system everything will continue to work the way it should and i'll make an example. Let's say you used an OB when you had a Frost and Death rune up and now your runes look like this
.B..B..F..F..U..U
(
_
)(_)(
_
)(_)(C)(
_
)
So now you have 1 unholy rune fully charged but the frost rune that is SUPPOSED to go with it for OBs is recharging. After a few FS's you get a proc on a Blood rune. So you use it on BS...You continue to follow the priority system and do some more FS's until you get another proc. This time on a Frost rune. At this point you should look something like this
.B..B..F..F..U..U
(
_
)(_)(C)(
_
)(C)(
_
)
So basically since you always had 1 fully charged unholy rune, your procs would be forced on a Blood or Frost rune and eventually you'd get the matching Frost rune for your OB.
So i hope i didn't confuse you more. But for those wondering...you really don't need to use ERW to fix your runes...eventually they'll be forced to fix themselves thru RE's mechanics...however, if you get into that situation, remember that you'll have 2 fully charged runes of the same type. Currently on Live it's a DPS loss if you let your rune sit for any amount of time after it finishes recharging. In Cata it will only be a DPS loss if you have 2 runes of the same type fully charged and sitting.
How RE Could Be Used
So right now, what i'm going to propose wouldn't work because of the GCD issues that frost and unholy have. However, if that does get fixed and we have alittle more free GCDs to make our rotation how we want this will work and may be the way to increase your DPS. Since, RE can only proc off fully depleted runes and there will be times that your runes go unsynched, eventually it will fix itself because it'll eventually force certain runes to proc. So with that in mind it's perfectly feasible to think that you could force RE to proc on runes you want them to proc on. I'll use Unholy for example since it has an easy system, and also for the sake of this example we're going to assume they fixed Outbreak. so you open up with Outbreak/SS/FeS/SS....
now your runes look something like this (yes i'm going to draw again...run for your lives)
.B..B..F..F..U..U
(C)(
_
)(C)(
_
)(
_
)(_)
So the only fully depleted rune is the Unholy one. If you get any RE procs off a DC it'll of course be on the Unholy rune. The difficulty here would be to watch your Blood/Frost runes and use a FeS before the 2nd runes completely finish recharging and to only use DC, when your only fully depleted rune is the unholy ones. Also, i'd have to assume you'd have to ignore the fact that you'd have Death runes. Keeping the BF runes synched and 1 of each always fully charged would be difficult if you accidentally used one on a SS. Now, i can't say this would be the most optimal way to increase your dps because for one we don't know exactly how much damage our abilities will put out until they finish beta. For all we know SS could be pathetic like it used to be, so why would we want to waste all our procs on it. But if we assume it'll be our hardest hitting ability for Unholy and using this nice
Graph
that Consider made on Unholy's current 1min. rotation (excluding RE procs). You can see he has about 11xDC's. With a 45% chance to proc your looking at 5 procs a min...meaning 5 extra SS's every minute and that's not including RE procs.
Now i'm not good with SIMs so i have no idea if something like this could be tested with a SIM, but you could test it on target dummies or Bosses to see which system did more damage...the one i just proposed or the one you should use.
Just a reminder this is just a theory and i'm not saying this is the best way to DPS, for all i know this could suck, but at the same time it could work. The only thing i'm certain of is that if your bad at watching procs or managing your resources...this would definitely not work for you.
Post by
woohaa
reserved in case
Post by
apocalypsa
Really nice job! Links in table of contents = awesome, and nice youre going to keep it updated - my guide kinda failed at that point. You might want to explain a bit better how DaSim works: The first time you cast it it absorbs a spell, and the second time you cast it it casts a duplicate of that spell. You also might want to have some consistency in the use of capitals: half the abilitys have them and half dont. In the list of recent changes, the unholy header has a list dot in front of it - probably not intended.
Thats about all i came across, keep it up!
Edit: ewps, shouldnt post yet!
Post by
woohaa
it's coo i got all the slots i need...i hope *crosses fingers* and thanks i'll try to fix it up a bit. i did everything in a text document and then started copy/pasting and some things didn't work because i couldn't preview it till i pasted and even then i couldn't catch all my mistakes lol >_<
Post by
495174
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Post by
hellsslayer
Very nice Woohaa.
Doesn't it seem like dark simulacrum could be incredibly awesome if there are any fights where the boss casts massive single target spells (think deathwhisper 25 Heroic frostbolts) and they can be reflected? 30k frostbolts from a death knight tank? Jesus Christ that would be incredible.
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474779
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Post by
Victarious
Thanks for taking the time to make this thread, woohaa.
Post by
woohaa
Doesn't it seem like dark simulacrum could be incredibly awesome if there are any fights where the boss casts massive single target spells (think deathwhisper 25 Heroic frostbolts) and they can be reflected? 30k frostbolts from a death knight tank? Jesus Christ that would be incredible.
Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells.
Unfortunately, Blizzard knows it would be incredible. I guess it's balance issues - it would be quite OP if boss wouldn't be able to use his abilities because of a load of DKs reflecting them. Too trivial.
actually 30k isn't too far off for a spell hit from a boss in cata. considering your healthpool with first tier epics will probably be around 100-120k. a 30k hit isn't even half your HP. I think certain boss abilities won't be reflectable, most likely hardmodes and i'm sure certain magic based bosses will cast multiple spells with only 1 being reflectable. this way not to trivialize the encounter.
and thanks alcotraz imma add blood in a bit.
Post by
312967
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495174
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Post by
628750
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Post by
woohaa
Nice one, cheers
In your 'changes' section, 'blood', the hyperlink for DRW points to annihilation btw.
ty will get that fixed
For Bone Shield;
I haven't had the chance to test this due to Class Trainers being bugged but I believe with Runic Empowerment Unholy Runes we should be able to constantly re-fresh Bone Shield, albeit in a rather RNG way.....
Rune Tap has also been buffed, 20% Healing compared to the 11% it does on Live.
Bloodworms are also pretty nice now :P (And hell they get massive!) Got 4K Healing while Questing from one once.
I've actually been trying to find out how good the new worms are. i've gotten some mixed reactions. But, i think any type of self healing you can do to relieve some stress off the healers is gonna be beneficial in Cata. I think i should put a little "(20% healing)" for my Rune Tap info. I covered it but didn't put the actual healing. I think the best use we're gonna get out of Bone Shield is the initial pull of the boss. Since, the shield last 5min you can pop it way before the pull and have all your runes up. That way you don't take huge hits when the healers aren't quite ready and your still trying to position the boss.
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