WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com WoW Insider http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif WoW Insider http://wow.joystiq.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Lichborne: Ghostcrawler discusses death knights]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/22/lichborne-ghostcrawler-discusses-death-knights/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/22/lichborne-ghostcrawler-discusses-death-knights/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/22/lichborne-ghostcrawler-discusses-death-knights/#comments Image
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

To say that the death knight community has been a little grumpy this past week is probably an understatement. Essentially, what happened is that we got a post from Ghostcrawler discussing some of our Mists of Pandaria beta issues, and in almost all cases, he wasn't quite on board with our complaints. This week, we'll hit some of the highlights of what Ghostcrawler said and what they mean for our class, as well as look at some of the changes we have seen coming from the beta.

It's not a disadvantage -- it's a feature

In the list of perennial death knight complaints, there are three that are probably pretty near the top and have been for a while. First, unholy pets and summons do not scale with mastery. Second, unholy has very little in the way of burst AoE. Finally, critical strike is incredibly undervalued for frost due to Killing Machine.

Ghostcrawler pretty much breezed through all three of these complaints with a classic "working as intended." That's not to say he didn't explain all three reasonings to some extent, but they all boiled down to the idea that the dev team is perfectly happy with the skills working this way, because they're all calculated differences that separate the death knight trees from each other.

Continue reading Lichborne: Ghostcrawler discusses death knights

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Lichborne: Ghostcrawler discusses death knights originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> army-of-the-deadbeta-death-knightblood-death-knight-lichbornedeath-coildeath-knight-betadeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-damage-rotationdeath-knight-dpsdeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-glyphsdeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-mists-of-pandaria-glyphsdeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichbornefrost-presenceguide-to-death-knightshastemasterymists-of-pandaria-betapresencessudden-doomsummon-gargoyleunholy-death-knight-lichborneunholy-presencewow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: Error 37 edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/22/last-week-in-wow-error-37-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/22/last-week-in-wow-error-37-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/22/last-week-in-wow-error-37-edition/#comments Image The big Blizzard news this past week, of course, is that the Error 37 boss dominated just about every Diablo III player, preventing them from even logging into the game. Blizzard issued a mea culpa for the issues, and to be fair, the servers seem a lot more stable as of this writing.

Don't think WoW's been letting its sister franchise hog the spotlight, though. Mists of Pandaria development does continue apace, including a few new beta builds, and we got all the news on what's changed and what's new. Downtime today is from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. PDT, so you should have some time to read up.

Hot news and features

Continue reading Last Week in WoW: Error 37 edition

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Last Week in WoW: Error 37 edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 22 May 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-weeklast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 22 May 2012 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Death knights remain in holding pattern in Mists of Pandaria beta]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/lichborne-death-knights-remain-in-holding-pattern-in-mists-of-p/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/lichborne-death-knights-remain-in-holding-pattern-in-mists-of-p/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/lichborne-death-knights-remain-in-holding-pattern-in-mists-of-p/#comments Image
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

When one takes a two-week vacation, one generally looks forward to things having changed, even slightly, when one returns. This is especially sure when speaking of the Mists of Pandaria beta test. Strangely, that hasn't been exactly the case for death knights. There have been changes, certainly, but not as drastic as we might have hoped -- and not as well-explained, either.

Today, we'll take a look at a few of the more important changes and what they imply for our class. In addition, we'll see what Ghostcrawler did and didn't say about death knights in a recent post.

Plague Leech and disease issues

There've been a few changes to death knights, but the most interesting one comes with Plague Leech. This first-tier talent, which replaces Vile Spew, will allow you to generate a death rune by canceling the diseases from your target.

The nice thing about this skill is that it gives us another much-needed Blood Tap replacement now that Blood Tap itself has been turned into a somewhat more restricted talent. The bad thing about this skill is that it's probably going to become mandatory for min-maxing DPS death knights. If your diseases are about to expire anyway and you can eat them for an extra death rune, it's hard to see how that won't become a DPS increase. Once we all reach level 90 and the math has been sufficiently mathed, it seems relatively obvious that Plague Leech will be considered mandatory by the hardcore PvE community, for better or for worse.

Continue reading Lichborne: Death knights remain in holding pattern in Mists of Pandaria beta

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Lichborne: Death knights remain in holding pattern in Mists of Pandaria beta originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 15 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blood-death-knight-lichborneblood-presencedeath-coildeath-knight-beta-newsdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-diseasesdeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornediseasesdk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichbornefrost-presencefrost-strikefrost-striokeghostcrawlerglyph-of-outbreakguide-to-death-knightsmists-of-pandaria-betanot-diablooutbreakplague-leechunholy-death-knight-lichborneunholy-presencevile-spewwow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 15 May 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: El Diablo edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! As you probably know, Diablo III's release date is today. With over 1 million Annual Pass subscribers set to receive free digital copies of the game, chances you or a guildmate is going to playing this game. As someone who's been a huge fan of the Diablo series for over a decade, I can vouch for the series. If you need something else to keep your attention while we wait for Mists of Pandaria to go live, you could easily do worse, that's for sure.

If you're interested in checking out Diablo III, I'd suggest you look at the following articles we've published to get you up to speed.
If you're not into Diablo, don't worry. We still have plenty of the WoW coverage you expect. With new beta patches coming all the time, there's a lot of it, too. Downtime today is just a series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, so that's at least enough time to read a quick article or two.

Continue reading Last Week in WoW: El Diablo edition

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Last Week in WoW: El Diablo edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 15 May 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 15 May 2012 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: Is loot drama worth it anymore?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/25/breakfast-topic-is-loot-drama-worth-it-anymore/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/25/breakfast-topic-is-loot-drama-worth-it-anymore/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/25/breakfast-topic-is-loot-drama-worth-it-anymore/#comments Image So the other day, I jumped into a Raid Finder group on my hunter. Early in the instance, a lockbox dropped. Most of us, of course, rolled greed. One rogue rolled need and won the box. I don't know why he rolled need. Maybe his finger slipped. Maybe he assumed that since he could lockpick the box, he had a right to roll need. Maybe he was just a jerk. Whatever the reason, he rolled, and he won. Immediately, a couple of other players made a pretty huge outcry. Ninja looter, they said. Kick him, they said. He eventually apologized, but they would have none of it. Finally, they got a kick vote started and kicked him out of the group.

You know what I was thinking the whole time this was happening? I was wishing the other players would shut up so we could finish the instance. Honestly, all that chat was getting on my nerves. I just wanted my valor points -- who cared about a lockbox? In all honesty, it would have probably had around 50 to 100 gold total, assuming he got a good price on the AH for the green item inside. I can make that much in a half-hour of dailies, no problem. Besides, the ninja was in the top 10 DPS for the raid, much higher than the two people shouting the loudest for his removal. I would have rather kept the ninja than risk getting someone else with much lower damage potential.

Continue reading Breakfast Topic: Is loot drama worth it anymore?

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Breakfast Topic: Is loot drama worth it anymore? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuredgame-discussiongamer-discussionworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-topics (Daniel Whitcomb) Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Unholy first impressions in the Mists of Pandaria beta]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/24/lichborne-unholy-first-impressions-in-the-mists-of-pandaria-bet/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/24/lichborne-unholy-first-impressions-in-the-mists-of-pandaria-bet/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/24/lichborne-unholy-first-impressions-in-the-mists-of-pandaria-bet/#comments Image
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

The strange thing about talking about the unholy tree since Cataclysm is that nothing ever seems to change. Don't get me wrong, unholy's been on a roller coaster of nerfs and balances, it's true, but the basic gameplay stays the same -- and more importantly, the basic problems never really get fixed.

So as we come into Mists of Pandaria, where are we with unholy? It still has a relatively unique playstyle, with a pet and less difficulty keeping diseases up (but more difficulty applying them because of the rune spending issue), but this same playstyle gives it a lot of trouble, as weapon damage scales horribly and strength becomes more important -- some would say too important. This is how it continues to go with unholy.

Today, we'll take a look at the upsides and downsides of unholy as it currently exists in the Mists of Pandaria beta and maybe make some suggestions for things Blizzard could focus on fixing once the death knights' turn for class balancing comes around.

Continue reading Lichborne: Unholy first impressions in the Mists of Pandaria beta

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Lichborne: Unholy first impressions in the Mists of Pandaria beta originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> dark-transformationdeath coildeath-and-decaydeath-coildeath-knight-betadeath-knight-beta-unholy-dpsdeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichborneDeathCoildesecrated-grounddk-guidedk-infodk-talentsdreadbladefeaturedfestering-strikeguide-to-death-knightsmists-of-pandaria-unholy-levelingscourge-strikeshadow-infusionunholy-death-knight-lichborneunholy-dpswow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: Monkly business edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/24/last-week-in-wow-monkly-business-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/24/last-week-in-wow-monkly-business-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/24/last-week-in-wow-monkly-business-edition/#comments Image Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With a new wave of 400,000 Mists of Pandaria beta invites having gone out this past week, everyone with an Annual Pass should now have their invites. If you have yours, you may want to read up on our guides to being a better beta tester.

I have to admit, when I am not testing my death knight, one of the things I have been doing is creating monks of various races to get a feel for whose combat animations look the coolest. Of course, none of them quite face up to pandaren just because they all have the whole issue of being old models, but you get some cool moves. I'm finding I really like Forsaken monks. They almost hearken back to the old ghouls of WCIII that they came from.

Whether you're in the beta or not, you'll want to keep reading. We have all the latest beta news you'll want to know about, as well as class news, opinions, and the rest. Downtime today is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have time to get caught up. Keep reading for more.

Hot news and features
  • Patch 4.3.3 is live, and with it, some changes to the customer support UI. We'll show you the ropes.
  • Check out the latest patch 4.3 hotfixes for April 17.
  • World bosses are coming back with a vengeance in Mists of Pandaria, and Matt has a quick guide to etiquette and expectations for taking them down.
  • Chase takes a look at three monk abilities that call back to classic fighting games.
  • Rossi offers a beginner's guide to WoW lore.
  • Anne offers some advice for dealing with in-game harassment.
  • Brian takes a look at what WoW players search for on Google.
  • We offer more transmogrification looks based off old Nintendo favorites.
  • Rossi wonders if flying mounts caused more harm than good.

Continue reading Last Week in WoW: Monkly business edition

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Last Week in WoW: Monkly business edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: The latest Mists of Pandaria beta updates for death knights]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/17/lichborne-the-latest-mists-of-pandaria-beta-updates-for-death-k/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/17/lichborne-the-latest-mists-of-pandaria-beta-updates-for-death-k/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/17/lichborne-the-latest-mists-of-pandaria-beta-updates-for-death-k/#comments Image
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

Since the last time we talked, we have seen a couple of new updates to the Mists of Pandaria beta. There haven't been many earth-shattering changes for death knights, but some of the changes have been significant enough that it's worth talking about both what they mean for the class and what they may imply about future updates.

It's difficult to say where Blizzard is going with our class in Mists, if only because they haven't said much. They've started talking on the beta forums, but they haven't directed anything at the death knight class yet. This isn't completely surprising. Our class is not in a horrible place right now, and the beta's young. Chances are we'll get our turn eventually.

That said, having developer feedback is useful for figuring out how to mold your own feedback. Knowing what a developer intends with a certain change can help us test that change with a better understanding of how it fits in to a larger vision. In absence of that, however, we can still look at the implications of these changes to see what we come up with.

Continue reading Lichborne: The latest Mists of Pandaria beta updates for death knights

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Lichborne: The latest Mists of Pandaria beta updates for death knights originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blood-death-knight-lichborneblood-tapconversiondeath-knight-beta-changesdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-changesdeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-glyph-changesdeath-knight-glyphsdeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedeath-pactdeath-siphondk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichbornegeistgeist-petglyph-of-dancing-rune-weaponglyph-of-horn-of-winterglyph-of-shifting-presencesglyph-of-the-geistguide-to-death-knightsmists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-betamists-of-pandaria-death-knight-changesrunic-corruptionrunic-empowermentunholy-death-knight-lichbornewow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week In WoW: Another day in panda-land edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/17/last-week-in-wow-another-day-in-panda-land-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/17/last-week-in-wow-another-day-in-panda-land-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/17/last-week-in-wow-another-day-in-panda-land-edition/#comments Image Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. We seem to have settled into a nice, mid-beta groove with Mists of Pandaria. There's nothing earth-shattering going on, maybe, but we're still getting a steady diet of awesome news coming our way and the promise of even more as the beta continues. Overall, it's a pretty exciting time to be a fan of WoW.

Scheduled realm maintenance this morning is from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have plenty of time to get caught up the week's news. Keep reading for our usual roundup.

Mists of Pandaria news and features

Continue reading Last Week In WoW: Another day in panda-land edition

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Last Week In WoW: Another day in panda-land edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimeextended-downtimeextended-maintenancelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: The DPS presence issue in Mists of Pandaria]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/10/lichborne-the-dps-presence-issue-in-mists-of-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/10/lichborne-the-dps-presence-issue-in-mists-of-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/10/lichborne-the-dps-presence-issue-in-mists-of-pandaria/#comments Image
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

In Cataclysm, there were many hot-button death knight balance issues, but one of the biggest was Unholy Presence vs. Frost Presence. Frost Presence fell out of vogue very quickly in Cataclysm, since all DPSers found themselves running into a global cooldown wall pretty quickly. We were producing resources so fast, we needed the 1-second GCD provided by Unholy Presence to have any hope of spending them all.

This issue has come to the forefront even more in Mists of Pandaria beta testing. This is because a loss of runic power generating talents have put the dual wielding frost style at a disadvantage, enough that it needs the extra runic power regeneration from Frost Presence. Unfortunately, when it loses the 1-second GCD of Unholy Presence, it starts to stutter, with many testers using the dread descriptor "clunky" to describe the resulting rotation. Part of this could be trying to adjust going from Unholy Presence to Frost Presence, admittedly, but it feels like a problem.

If you want to see a comparison, switching to two-handed frost provides it. Thanks to the improved runic power generation on Might of the Frozen Wastes, two-handed frost can use Unholy Presence with ease, and its rotation plays nice and smoothly, very close to what it is on live.

Continue reading Lichborne: The DPS presence issue in Mists of Pandaria

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Lichborne: The DPS presence issue in Mists of Pandaria originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 2-handed-frost2-handed-frost-DPSdeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsdual-wield-frostdual-wield-frost-DPSfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichbornefrost-presencegcdglobal-cool-downglobal-cooldownglobal-cooldown-reductionguide-to-death-knightsunholy-death-knight-lichborneunholy-presencewow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: More than a feeling edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/10/last-week-in-wow-more-than-a-feeling-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/10/last-week-in-wow-more-than-a-feeling-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/10/last-week-in-wow-more-than-a-feeling-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone. As the week gets in full gear, we here at WoW insider are mostly still basking in the post-PAX afterglow. Alas, I was not among the attendees, but my coworkers who did make the trip to Boston had a blast, and the panel went well. If you missed it, why not use this week's downtime as an excuse to listen to the panel? We even have footage of the first 10 minutes.

If you can't make time to listen right now, don't worry. We still have plenty of news for you to catch up on. In addition to all the juicy stuff from the Mists of Pandaria beta, we have some pretty big site news. Yes, that is a new comment system you're seeing. Luckily, the world hasn't ended, as some were predicting, so you should still be able to use it. Downtime today is limited to a series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, but with all this good stuff to read or listen to, you may want to stick around anyway. Read on for more.

Mists of Pandaria news and features

Continue reading Last Week in WoW: More than a feeling edition

Last Week in WoW: More than a feeling edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerolling-restartrolling-restartsrounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Mists of Pandaria beta first impressions for death knights]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/03/lichborne-mists-of-pandaria-beta-first-impressions-for-death-kn/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/03/lichborne-mists-of-pandaria-beta-first-impressions-for-death-kn/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/03/lichborne-mists-of-pandaria-beta-first-impressions-for-death-kn/#comments A Death Knight in the Jade Forest
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

Having finally had a chance to play the Mists of Pandaria beta, I'll be looking this week at the basics of the experience for a level 85 death knight coming into Jade Forest, the first zone in the leveling experience.

The setup

Upon logging in to Mists of Pandaria for the first time, you will, of course, have to choose new talents. With the talent system being so radically changed, there's really no around it. Luckily, it's a relatively painless process. Having played around a bit with most of the choices, I'm not sure if many of the choices are that dynamic, but your mileage may vary.

On tier 1, you may see some blood death knights going for Unholy Blight to have a nice bit of runic power AoE, but other than that, the three choices are pretty clearly split between the three specs. That said, it's not a horrible tree, either. You can pick some cool stuff that'll help with your desired role and keep on playing, and I like that. It's just not going to be a free choice, per se. At the moment, it just appears that there's almost always a clear winner for most situations on any given tier based on your preferred spec, role, and playstyle.

Continue reading Lichborne: Mists of Pandaria beta first impressions for death knights

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Lichborne: Mists of Pandaria beta first impressions for death knights originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> betaconversiondeath-knight-betadeath-knight-beta-changesdeath-knight-beta-talentsdeath-knight-beta-testingdeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-mists-of-pandaria-beta-testdeath-knight-talentsdk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedguide-to-death-knightskilling-machinemists-of-pandariarimeunholy-blightwow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: All aboard the beta wagon edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/03/last-week-in-wow-all-aboard-the-beta-wagon-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/03/last-week-in-wow-all-aboard-the-beta-wagon-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/03/last-week-in-wow-all-aboard-the-beta-wagon-edition/#comments Pandaren woman in a cart Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The beta invite floodgates have opened. If you didn't get a beta invite yet (or even if you did), have no worry. Our tireless team is constantly scouring the beta, ready to bring you the latest news and guides to exploring the new areas, using the new features, and taking in the sights of Mists of Pandaria.

You can check after the break for a special Mists of Pandaria section, along with a roundup of the rest of the past week's news. Downtime is currently scheduled for 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have plenty of time to read through it all.

Mists of Pandaria news and features

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Last Week in WoW: All aboard the beta wagon edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimeextended-downtimeextended-maintenancelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Testing notes and goals for death knights in the Mists of Pandaria beta]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/27/lichborne-testing-notes-and-goals-for-death-knights-in-the-mist/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/27/lichborne-testing-notes-and-goals-for-death-knights-in-the-mist/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/27/lichborne-testing-notes-and-goals-for-death-knights-in-the-mist/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

With the Mists of Pandaria beta test under way, I'm reminded of an interesting discussion I've seen going around the death knight community. Coming out of Wrath, we were most definitely seen as overpowered, and starting a few patches later, we started off on a balance roller coaster we've never quite disembarked from, getting nerfs, de-nerfs, tweaks, and even the removal or redesign of entire spells and systems.

Some argue that we could have avoided this by being more thorough and honest while beta testing in Wrath. By not only advocating for what we needed but being honest that some stuff (such as, say, the stun effect on Death and Decay) was overpowered, we might have avoided a lot of heartache down the road.

Whether you believe this is true or not, it does highlight the importance of beta testing. Blizzard certainly has its own internal numbers and testing methods, but for those of us lucky enough to get hands on in the beta, this is our chance to help make sure our class gets through this great period of balancing. This week, let's look at a few things we'll need to focus on when we finally get those invites and get to beta test our death knights.

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Lichborne: Testing notes and goals for death knights in the Mists of Pandaria beta originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> beta-testsblood-death-knight- lichborneBlood-death-knight-Lichbornechill-of-the-gravedeath-and-decaydeath-coildeath-knight-betadeath-knight-beta-testingdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-glyphsdeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-mop-beta-testingdeath-knight-mop-glyphsdeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichbornegcdglyph-of-tranquil-gripguide-to-death-knightsmists-of-pandaria-betamists-of-pandaria-beta-testingmists-of-pandaria-glyphsmop-betapandaria-betarune-tetrisrunic-corruptionscourge-strikeunholy-death-knight-lichbornewow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week In WoW: Where's my beta invite edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/27/last-week-in-wow-wheres-my-beta-invite-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/27/last-week-in-wow-wheres-my-beta-invite-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/27/last-week-in-wow-wheres-my-beta-invite-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The Mists of Pandaria beta is now under way, but if you don't have an invitation yet, don't feel too bad. Blizzard hasn't even opened up the continent of Pandaria yet. That said, there's still plenty of stuff to uncover, both from datamining and from exploring changes to the system and to the old world. Even if your beta invitation never comes, though, don't worry. We have you covered.

Keep on reading for a roundup of all the juicy beta info we've uncovered over the past week, and stay with us in the weeks to come as we keep you abreast of all the panda news that's fit to print. Downtime today is scheduled for 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have plenty of time to get caught up.

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Last Week In WoW: Where's my beta invite edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm- maintenancerealm-downtimeRealm-Maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Death knight group utility in Mists of Pandaria]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/20/lichborne-death-knight-group-utility-in-mists-of-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/20/lichborne-death-knight-group-utility-in-mists-of-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/20/lichborne-death-knight-group-utility-in-mists-of-pandaria/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

So Mists of Pandaria just got a pretty huge info dump, and while there weren't large amounts of class information in there, who am I to buck the trend and talk about something else? Luckily, there's plenty of gold still be mined from what we do know about death knights. This week, we'll be looking at a couple of the skills, talents, and mechanics coming our way and how you can use them to add a little extra utility and fun to your group experience, outside the normal tanking or DPSing.

Control Undead

Control Undead is honestly something I'm pretty excited for. Coming to us as a new level 69 skill, it allows us to take temporary control of almost any basic (or, I assume, elite) undead mob. Sure, it could be seen as mostly fluff, but it's awesome fluff, and I expect it to have some unexpected benefits.

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Lichborne: Death knight group utility in Mists of Pandaria originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> control-undeaddeath-and-decaudeath-and-decaydeath-knight-group-utilitydeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-fevergroup-utilityguide-to-death-knightsicy-touchmists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-death-knight-guidemists-of-pandaria-death-knight-talentsmists-of-pandaria-talentsoutbreakplague-strikeremorseless-winterwow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: Pandas everywhere]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/20/last-week-in-wow-pandas-everywhere/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/20/last-week-in-wow-pandas-everywhere/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/20/last-week-in-wow-pandas-everywhere/#comments Female Pandaren I'm sure by now, everyone's heard the biggest news of the week. With the NDA expired on the press tour, we've been hit with a glut of information the new Mists of Pandaria expansion. I'm not sure what my favorite part is. Is it the identity of Mists of Pandaria's final boss? Is it the fact that I'll get to play some Team Fortress? It's hard to choose, really.

But don't let me decide for you. After the break, we'll have our usual roundup, including a section devoted to all the new expansion news you can handle. You'll only have to deal with rolling restarts this morning at 5:00 a.m. PDT, but expansion news is worth a few extra minutes, right? Keep on reading for the full rundown.

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Last Week in WoW: Pandas everywhere originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-weeklast-week-ilast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerolling-restartrolling-restartsrounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:30:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Why I play a death knight]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/13/lichborne-why-i-play-a-death-knight/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/13/lichborne-why-i-play-a-death-knight/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/13/lichborne-why-i-play-a-death-knight/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

You know, starting at level 55 and not being a vanilla WoW class, you arguably have to go through a unique process to decide to play this class. It's true that you make a conscious choice to play what class you play, but somehow, starting from level 1, it's as much a dabbling as anything, a solid start point that could branch off. With a death knight, you're already in the game. You make a solid choice to leap from one class to another. It's probably more true of those of us who started at the beginning of Wrath, deliberately choosing to leave our mains to start anew, but on some level I think it can apply to just about anyone who plays a main death knight.

With this in mind, I thought it might fun this week to establish why we play our class, focusing on my own reasons for playing it and sticking with it.

A storied history

I will admit, I tend to be sort of a sap when it comes to stories. I like stories that are clashes between good and evil, with defined boundaries. I like my knights in shining armor fighting the forces of darkness. Some people find that too simple and tidy, but if I want shades of gray, I can find plenty of that in real life. Sometimes, I just want to kick some evil ass.

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Lichborne: Why I play a death knight originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blood-death-knight-lichborneclass-choiceclass-choicesdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichbornefrost-strikeguide-to-death-knightsobliterateoutbreakPlayStationunholy-death-knight-lichbornewhy-we-playwow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: All the panda ladies edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/13/last-week-in-wow-all-the-panda-ladies-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/13/last-week-in-wow-all-the-panda-ladies-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/13/last-week-in-wow-all-the-panda-ladies-edition/#comments female pandaren silhouette Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The big news for this week dropped, oddly enough, in the wee hours of Sunday night -- or if you prefer, Monday morning. We have a silhouette of the female pandaren, with a promise of a full model on March 19, likely with all the rest of the Mists of Pandaria press event information. Personally, I was hoping males and females would just look the same, if only to subvert expectations and play with the lack of visually detectable dimorphism in wild pandas, but hey ... She still looks like a pretty cool lady, and I'm excited to see her in all her glory.

While we wait with bated breath for the Mists of Pandaria press event, do not fear. We still have plenty of articles and analysis to sate your hunger, including news and blogs from Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street. Downtime today is a series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, but that still gives you at least a little time to get caught up. Read on for the usual weekly roundup of news and awesome stuff.

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Last Week in WoW: All the panda ladies edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: The effect of the new stat changes on death knights]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/06/lichborne-the-effect-of-the-new-stat-changes-on-death-knights/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/06/lichborne-the-effect-of-the-new-stat-changes-on-death-knights/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/06/lichborne-the-effect-of-the-new-stat-changes-on-death-knights/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

We're still a couple of weeks away from the dam burst that is the Mists of Pandaria press event, but in the meantime, Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has posted a new Dev Watercooler. He listed some stat changes coming in Mists that, while ostensibly not as complicated as those in Wrath, still hold some interesting and possibly major implications for class balance in the coming expansion. Let's dive right in and see what they mean for death knights.

Blocking takes a week

While it doesn't directly affect us, the blocking changes will certainly shake up the tanking hierarchy that we're a part of, so it's worth pointing out that the usual single roll combat table for dodging, parrying, or blocking a hit is gone. Instead, the chance to block will be calculated only after the dodge and parry chance is calculated. This essentially means that being unhittable is gone. You can't just stack to 102.4%. Of course, death knights and druids have never been able to do this, but they will now be joined by the shield tanks.

Continue reading Lichborne: The effect of the new stat changes on death knights

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Lichborne: The effect of the new stat changes on death knights originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> avoidanceblockblockingblood-death-knight-lichbornecritical-strikedeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsdodgeexpertisefeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichborneghostcrawlerguide-to-death-knightshitmistsmists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-changesmists-of-pandaria-death-knight-changesmists-of-pandaria-speculationmists-of-pandaria-stat-changesparrypvp-defensepvp-powerresiliencerunic-focusstat-changesunhittableunholy-death-knight-lichbornewow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week In WoW: Reapers edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/06/last-week-in-wow-reapers-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/06/last-week-in-wow-reapers-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/06/last-week-in-wow-reapers-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone. If you're reading this, congratulations. You're one of the lucky few to survive the reaper onslaught. Alas, you cannot take comfort in WoW, as it's going to be down for an extra-long maintenance from 1 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST. That's fine, though -- I'm sure quite a few of us are going to be too busy taking back Earth anyway. I know I am. I owe Emily Wong that much.

WoW news is still a little sparse as we wait for the Mists of Pandaria press event, but don't think we're in a drought here. Ghostcrawler gave us some inside info on new stat changes coming to the game, Dave "Fargo" Kosak talked about Cataclysm quest design, and as always, we had lots of analysis and information of our own to do. Read on for a roundup of the good stuff.

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Last Week In WoW: Reapers edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morning (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: Yak it up edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/28/last-week-in-wow-yak-it-up-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/28/last-week-in-wow-yak-it-up-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/28/last-week-in-wow-yak-it-up-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday, everyone. As we inch closer and closer to the Mists of Pandaria press event, the Mists news still continues to come out in a small trickle. This week, hot on the heels of Mat's mount speculation, Blizzard announced that we'll be getting yak mounts in the upcoming expansion. Whether those will be the pandaren racial mount or come from some other source hasn't been clarified -- but hey, yaks are cool.

We should also repeat the warning here that patch 4.3.3 may be dropping this morning, and when it does, it will break the 64-bit client, so beware if you've been trying that out. Luckily, a new version is expected soon. Other than that, it may be a slow news week, but that doesn't mean that we've slowed down. Stay with us for our usual roundup of news, features, and opinions, including more analysis of the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator changes from last week. Maintenance this week is from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so you'll have plenty of time to catch up.

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Last Week in WoW: Yak it up edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Further reflections on death knights in Pandaria]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/28/lichborne-further-reflections-on-death-knights-in-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/28/lichborne-further-reflections-on-death-knights-in-pandaria/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/28/lichborne-further-reflections-on-death-knights-in-pandaria/#comments Bridge in Pandaren Temple Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

Now that we've all had a couple of weeks to absorb the latest updates to the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator, it's worth going back and taking a second to look to see if we can dredge up anything else. I've been keeping track of various errata, as well as discussions among the death knight community, and I feel it's worth taking another week to take a second look at a few skills and talents and see where we lie as we wait for a new update, the Mists beta, or both.

Those annoying rune costs

You remember that Death Siphon and Soul Reaper have no rune cost in the current calculator, right? Alas, it's not that simple, and I must make a mea culpa here for not noticing this sooner: Blue posts have clarified that those two skills do cost a single death rune each.

This, of course, throws their proper use into a little more question. Is it worth it to use Soul Reaper when you could be spending that rune on a Scourge Strike or half of an Obliterate? Is the healing of Death Siphon worth giving up the extra damage from one of those weapon strikes? This is, again, where we'll need solid numbers to make that choice. At the least, though, I'd say it makes Death Pact an even more tempting choice for unholy death knights on the level 60 talent tier. As beta progresses, we'll definitely want to keep a close eye on these type of talents and try to answer that question. Are they worth the rune they're spending? If not, how do we fix them?

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Lichborne: Further reflections on death knights in Pandaria originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> death-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdk-guidedk-infodk-talentsguide-to-death-knightswow-death-knightwow-dk (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: New Mists of Pandaria talent updates for death knights]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/lichborne-new-mists-of-pandaria-talent-updates-for-death-knight/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/lichborne-new-mists-of-pandaria-talent-updates-for-death-knight/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/lichborne-new-mists-of-pandaria-talent-updates-for-death-knight/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Blizzard treated us to a nice new chunk of news this past week with an update to the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator. Death knights received some new talents and new skills as well as adjustments to old ones that definitely deserve some analysis. We'll start by looking at the talent tiers, then move on to some of the new modified skills we're seeing in this build.

Level 15 begins our journey with a couple pieces of very welcome news. Outbreak is back to a general class skill, once again taking its place at level 81 for all three specs. In its place for tier 1 talents is the old-school Unholy Blight, in all its AoE glory. That's right, you can once again have that awesome semi-permanent damage aura. Alas, this welcome change is accompanied by the similar removal of Corpse Explosion in favor of Vile Spew, an ability that will explode an undead minion for AoE damage and disease infection.

Continue reading Lichborne: New Mists of Pandaria talent updates for death knights

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Lichborne: New Mists of Pandaria talent updates for death knights originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> anti-magic-zoneblood-death-knight-lichbornebone-shieldclass-helpcontrol-undeadcorpse-explosiondeath-coildeath-gripdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedeath-pactdeath-siphonDesecrated-Grounddk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichbornefrost-presenceguideguide-to-death-knightsicy-griplichbornemists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-talent-calculatormists-of-pandaria-talent-changesmists-of-pandaria-talentsmopoutbreakpandariaRemorseless-Winterrunic-corruptionSanguine-fortitudesoul-reapertalenttalent-calculatortalentsunholy-blightunholy-death-knight-lichbornevampiric-bloodvile-spewworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-talent-guide (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: Talented panda edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/last-week-in-wow-talented-panda-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/last-week-in-wow-talented-panda-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/21/last-week-in-wow-talented-panda-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Well, things may seem deceptively lull-like, signs seem to point to the idea that the Pandaria train is building up steam. This week bought us an update to the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator. You can check the class news section below to see if we've dissected the updates for your favorite class yet. If we haven't, it's coming soon (maybe even today!).

Scheduled maintenance this morning is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so you should have time to catch up on all the latest WoW news while your realm's down. Read on for a list of some of our best articles from the past seven days.

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Last Week in WoW: Talented panda edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Divining the direction of death knight lore in Pandaria]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/14/lichborne-divining-the-direction-of-death-knight-lore-in-pandar/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/14/lichborne-divining-the-direction-of-death-knight-lore-in-pandar/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/14/lichborne-divining-the-direction-of-death-knight-lore-in-pandar/#comments Forsaken Death Knight in Ebon Hold Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

Let's face it: We had it pretty good in Wrath. Since that expansion was our grand debut, we were everywhere. We had an opening experience where we connected with our origin and found out that our own factions, for obvious reasons, barely trusted us. We were instrumental to the battle in Northrend, doing things other factions wouldn't do, with a clear goal of destroying those who wronged us. We were perfect tragic figures with some robust story and great characters in the form of Thassarian, Crok Scourgebane, and Darion Mograine, among others.

In Cataclysm, things have been, to say the least, a little bit sparser. With Arthas dead, do death knights have a purpose in lore anymore, or are we just around because it'd be sort of silly to remove the class and have everyone reroll? I tend to think death knights are still a pretty interesting and dynamic class, story-wise, and this week, we'll look at where we are at the end of Cataclysm and where our story might go in Mists of Pandaria.

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Lichborne: Divining the direction of death knight lore in Pandaria originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> andorhalblood-death-knight-lichbornebolvarbreakingclass-helpcrok-scourgebanedarion-mograinedeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-loredeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichborneguideguide-to-death-knightsguide-to-loreknights-of-the-ebon-bladekoltiralich-kinglich-queenlorelore-guidemists-of-pandaria-talent-changesmoviespandaria-pvprole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideshasylvanas-windrunnertalenttalentsthassarianthe-shaunholy-death-knight-lichborneworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rpingwow-talent-guide (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week in WoW: What is Pandaria edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/14/last-week-in-wow-what-is-pandaria-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/14/last-week-in-wow-what-is-pandaria-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/14/last-week-in-wow-what-is-pandaria-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. As expected, we marked yet another week without any significant Mists of Pandaria news, but it's all good. We did get some gaming news about another pretty huge upcoming release, including a glimpse at the girl I'm spending Valentine's Day with. So I'm fine. Pandaria can wait.

That said, there was still some prime WoW news in the pipeline over the last week. We had the Activision Blizzard investor conference call, where we learned that WoW lost only 100,000 subscribers since last count, mostly on the strength of the WoW annual pass. Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street held a discussion on class roles. We also got a new Blizzard representative on the story forums, Nyorloth, who's already starting things off we a bang with a shipping thread. Heck, we even heard that a Warcraft Monopoly game is in the works. There's a downtime filler for you.

Downtime this is week is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so in lieu of Warcraft Monopoly, we have plenty of stuff for you to read, both in the paragraph above and in our usual roundup below.

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Last Week in WoW: What is Pandaria edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-week-in-warcraftlast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:30:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Dev Watercooler: Ghostcrawler on class roles]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/08/dev-watercooler-ghostcrawler-on-class-roles/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/08/dev-watercooler-ghostcrawler-on-class-roles/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/08/dev-watercooler-ghostcrawler-on-class-roles/#comments With the Mists of Pandaria press event still a month down the road, Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has posted a new Dev Watercooler to keep us busy. This time, he philosophizes on the role of class roles. He cautions up front that this is not meant to be any sort of announcement or even hint at what's to come in Mists of Pandaria.

But at the same time, the struggle of what to do with class roles is one that's always relevant and ongoing within the game, and that includes Mists of Pandaria. Ghostcrawler gets right into the meat of it with this blog, asking questions and discussing various methods of balance. Do we strive for perfect balance among all DPS specs? Is it fine to leave certain specs with specialties? Should we return to the days of the solid divide between PvP and PvE specs, as it was in the vanilla era? Should each class just have one DPS talent tree? Read on for all of Ghostcrawler's comments.

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Dev Watercooler: Ghostcrawler on class roles originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blue-postclass-roleclass-rolesdev-watercoolerGhostcrawlerghostcrawler-blog (Daniel Whitcomb) Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:30:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Useful consumables your death knight should stock]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/07/lichborne-useful-consumables-your-death-knight-should-stock/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/07/lichborne-useful-consumables-your-death-knight-should-stock/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/07/lichborne-useful-consumables-your-death-knight-should-stock/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

So you've geared out. You've memorized your rotations. You've practiced them at the testing dummy. What's the next step? What do you do now to get your game to the next level and get some good habits going that will set you apart from the pack? One of the easiest ways to do that is to pay attention to your consumables.

Consumables are one-time use items that can heal you or give you a stat boost of varying lengths of time. The downside is that they do cost money or time to acquire. The upside is that they can have a significant boost on your DPS or survivability. Any player who's trying to play at the top level or even the middling level can and should use them. Today, we'll take a look at some of the most basic consumables death knights should be using and discuss how to get them and when to use them.

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Lichborne: Useful consumables your death knight should stock originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> beer-basted-crocoliskblackbelly-mudfishblackbelly-sushiblood-death-knight-lichborneclass-helpcrocolisk-taildeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-consumablesdeath-knight-flasksdeath-knight-fooddeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-potionsdeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedense-embersilk-bandagedk-consumablesdk-flasksdk-fooddk-guidedk-infodk-potionsdk-talentsearthen-potionfeaturedflask-of-steelskinflask-of-titanic-strengthfortune-cookiefrost-death-knight-lichbornegolemblood-potionguideguide-to-death-knightsinvisibilityliving-action-potionmushroom-sauce-mudfishseafood-magnifiqueswiftnesstalenttalentsunholy-death-knight-lichborneworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-talent-guide (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Last Week In WoW: The cruelest month edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/07/last-week-in-wow-the-cruelest-month-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/07/last-week-in-wow-the-cruelest-month-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/07/last-week-in-wow-the-cruelest-month-edition/#comments Pandaren Monk Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This week, we were treated to an update about an update about an update, as Zarhym first tweeted about the announcement of an upcoming press event for Mists of Pandaria and Nethaera posted about it the next day. The gist of it all, though, is that we have to wait a whole month for any major amount of expansion news. However, once that goes down, the floodgates should open. Still, because of this, I am officially declaring February the new cruelest month.

Don't worry about the meantime, though -- we here at WoW Insider will continue to keep you informed and entertained as we wait for the next big thing. Right now, we've got all the news about the recently released patch 4.3.2, as well as end of Cataclysm retrospectives, guides to avoiding the most common mistakes your class makes, and much more. In addition, there are three world events going on right now, and we have guides to them all. Downtime today is a quick series of rolling restarts at 10 a.m. PST, so while you wait for server to stabilize, why not see what we have to offer?

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Last Week In WoW: The cruelest month edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimelast-weeklast-week-in-wowmaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerolling-restartsrounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: 5 common death knight mistakes]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/31/lichborne-five-common-death-knight-mistakes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/31/lichborne-five-common-death-knight-mistakes/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/31/lichborne-five-common-death-knight-mistakes/#comments A blood elf death knight outside molten core Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

A guide that tells you how to play is pretty helpful, don't get me wrong. But just reading that and following along often isn't enough. Sometimes, we make mistakes anyway. If it were simple as reading a guide, we'd all be in heroic raid groups never doing any less than 40,000 DPS on Madness of Deathwing and/or never dying due to our constant chain of Blood Shields while tanking. But human error will always enter into things.

Of course, realizing what mistakes you're making and getting them fixed is easier said than done, especially when they're being yelled at you by an irate guild leader or that especially grumpy member of your Raid Finder group. This week, we'll look at some of the most common mistakes death knights make and offer some short and sweet commonsense tips to avoiding them.

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Lichborne: 5 common death knight mistakes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> anti-magic-shellarmy-of-the-deadblood-death-knight-lichborneclass-helpdeath-gripdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichborneguideguide-to-death-knightsicebound-fortitudepillar-of-frostraise-deadsummon-gargoyletalenttalentsunholy-death-knight-lichbornevampiric-bloodworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-talent-guide (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Tuesday Morning Post: Third time's the charm edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/31/tuesday-morning-post-third-times-the-charm-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/31/tuesday-morning-post-third-times-the-charm-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/31/tuesday-morning-post-third-times-the-charm-edition/#comments For the past few weeks, Blizzard's toyed with us just a bit. Monday night bought a posted announcement of extended downtime, only for the morning to feature naught but rolling restarts. As of this writing, we're once again starting with a 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST downtime announcement. Will it stick this time? I suppose by the time you read this, we'll know.

Still, it's a win-win situation. If I'm right, I'm right. If Blizzard changes back to rolling restarts, we get to play the game again sooner. In the meantime, there's still stuff to read while the game's down. The biggest news we've gotten out of Blizzard thus far has been one of negatives: BlizzCon is gone, at least for this year. This means we'll have to party even harder in 2013, but what do we do in the meantime? For now, I suggest we catch up on reading. We've kept busy even with the dearth of news, offering guides and opinions you'll want to read. While you wait for the servers to come back up, why not read on? Our usual roundup of the best stuff from the past seven days awaits.

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Tuesday Morning Post: Third time's the charm edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimeextended-downtimeextended-maintenancemaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: 3 predictions for death knights in Mists of Pandaria]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/24/death-knight-mists-of-pandaria-predictions/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/24/death-knight-mists-of-pandaria-predictions/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/24/death-knight-mists-of-pandaria-predictions/#comments A Temple in Pandaria Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

Let's face it. The Mists of Pandaria information drought is ongoing and likely to keep up for quite some time. As a result, we're stuck in a holding pattern. We know the class needs some changes. We know we have been promised (or threatened with, depending on your viewpoint) changes for blood death knights, if only via a general change to the tanking paradigm. None of that information is forthcoming, however, and the blues lately have indicated it won't be coming for a while.

With that in mind, what we're left with is speculation. Today, I'd like to discuss three major changes I think we'll probably see with the new patch 5.0, one for each death knight tree. We already know change is a pretty huge constant for our class. It comes with the territory. We'll roll with the punches, as always, but it's nice to know what's coming. It helps you brace for it.

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Lichborne: 3 predictions for death knights in Mists of Pandaria originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> active-mitigationavoidance-capblockblock-chanceblood-death-knight-lichborneclass-helpdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-speculationdeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfeaturedfestering-strikefrost-death-knight-lichborneguideguide-to-death-knightshowling -blastHowling-blastmists-of-pandariamists-of-pandaria-speculationmists-of-pandaria-talent-changesmists-of-pandaria-talentsscotlandtalenttalentsunholy-death-knight-lichborneworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-talent-guide (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Tuesday Morning Post: Are we there yet?]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/24/tuesday-morning-post-are-we-there-yet/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/24/tuesday-morning-post-are-we-there-yet/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/24/tuesday-morning-post-are-we-there-yet/#comments Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The steady trickle of blue posts hinting at the possibility of maybe kind of sort of somewhat having some new news about Mists of Pandaria keep coming, but they also speak of a long time before we get something like an alpha test or any meaty updates. And so we are in something of a drought, and it looks like we'll be journeying toward Pandaria for some time yet.

Of course, that's not say we've had no news at all. The Dragon Soul nerf news came down the pipe this week, for example, and as you might expect caused a whole lot of uproar. In addition, the Lunar Festival has started up for the year, and we have our usual achievement guide ready to guide you. We even have an interview with a guy who made 1 million gold and gave it all away. Realm maintenance this morning is a nice, extended 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so you'll have plenty of time to get caught up on everything. Read on for our usual roundup.

Continue reading Tuesday Morning Post: Are we there yet?

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Tuesday Morning Post: Are we there yet? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimeextended-downtimeextended-maintenancemaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: The top death knight DPS gear of patch 4.3]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/top-death-knight-dps-gear-of-patch-4-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/top-death-knight-dps-gear-of-patch-4-3/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/top-death-knight-dps-gear-of-patch-4-3/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

I will be honest: I am still not impressed with our tier 13 set. The whole bone motif just isn't working for me. The set bonuses are also a little iffy for me, what with half of them being sort of OK and half sort of lackluster. It all leaves a bit of a lukewarm feeling. That said, I'm not too disappointed with the final tier of Cataclysm, because we have definitely received some pretty nice surprises from the itemization team.

Every tier should have those one or two items that make you stop and look again, items that, more than their superior stats, have a look or feel that just makes you feel warm and fuzzy and makes you want to get it no matter what the cost. We'll look at some of those items from the Dragon Soul raid today, starting with everyone's favorite sword that summons horrible visions from the depths of the earth, Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps.

Continue reading Lichborne: The top death knight DPS gear of patch 4.3

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Lichborne: The top death knight DPS gear of patch 4.3 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bone-link-fetishclass-helpcreche-of-the-final-dragondeath-knight-dps-trinketsdeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-geardeath-knight-gear-guidedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-dps-trinketsdk-geardk-gear-guidedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsdk-trinketsdps-trinketsdragon-souldragonsouleye-of-unmakingfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichborneguideguide-to-death-knightsgurthalakgurthalak-voice-of-the-deepstalenttalentstrinketsunholy-death-knight-lichborneworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-talent-guide (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Tuesday Morning Post: Extended downtime is back edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/tuesday-morning-post-extended-downtime-is-back-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/tuesday-morning-post-extended-downtime-is-back-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/tuesday-morning-post-extended-downtime-is-back-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. After a somewhat calm spate of rolling restarts the last few weeks, it looks like we have some extended downtime today, starting at 3:00 a.m. PST and lasting until 11 a.m. Don't worry, though. Even if Blizzard's been tight-lipped with the news lately, we haven't, and you'll find our usual roundup of interesting stories and informative guides coming up to keep you company during the downtime. Be sure to stay tuned here, too. If there's more patch 4.3.2 or Mists of Pandaria news coming down the pipe, we'll be on it.

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Tuesday Morning Post: Extended downtime is back edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Fall of Deathwing Raid Finder tips for death knights]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/-fall-of-deathwing-raid-finder-tips-for-death-knights/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/-fall-of-deathwing-raid-finder-tips-for-death-knights/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/-fall-of-deathwing-raid-finder-tips-for-death-knights/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

I will be frank: Every death knight should have a solid goal to defeat Deathwing this expansion. It's not for the experience, it's not the glory, it's not even for the achievements. No, it's for one thing: It's for the tentacle sword. This baby is everything that one can aspire for in a WoW weapon. It's a sword. It can be transmogrified into our signature runeblade. It has an awesome creepy pet proc. What's not to love?

Of course, to get to the sword, you'll first have to take down four bosses, hope the sword drops, and then hope you win the roll against who knows how many other plate DPSers in the raid -- but hey, you have to start somewhere, right? Let's dive into the Fall of Deathwing.

To be frank, the most annoying part of the fight with Ultraxion, the first boss, is his trash. Dragons will fly in slowly from the skies above and must be pulled down where you can DPS and/or tank them. If you can get past that, Ultraxion himself should be a breeze.

Continue reading Lichborne: Fall of Deathwing Raid Finder tips for death knights

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Lichborne: Fall of Deathwing Raid Finder tips for death knights originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blood-death-knight-lichborneclass-helpdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-raid-finderdeath-knight-raid-guidedeath-knight-raidingdeath-knight-raiding-guidedeath-knight-raiding-tipsdeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedeathwingdeathwing-raiddeathwing-raiding-guidedeathwing-raiding-tipsdk-guidedk-infodk-talentsfall-of-deathwingfall-of-deathwing-lfr-guidefeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichborneguideguide-to-death-knightsguide-to-raidinglfrlfr-fall-of-deathwingmadness-of-deathwingraid-finderraid-guideraidfinderspine-of-deathwingtalenttalentsultraxionunholy-death-knight-lichbornewarmaster-blackhornworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-talent-guide (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Tuesday Morning Post: Raids with friends edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/tuesday-morning-post-raids-with-friends-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/tuesday-morning-post-raids-with-friends-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/tuesday-morning-post-raids-with-friends-edition/#comments Ahn'Qiraj raid Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The big news of this week is probably patch 4.3.2, which is on the PTR. For the most part, it's bringing us minor balance changes and bug fixes, but there are a few big things in there, including a 64-bit client and the advent of raiding with your cross-realm friends. You still can't raid Dragon Soul with your friends from that PvP server you refuse to roll on, but you can at least do Raid Finder runs, as well as any classic raid your heart desires. Now you can sucker even more people into those legendary farming runs!

With a new patch on test the servers and the last of the post-holiday doldrums more or less shaken off, you better believe there's plenty of good news and interesting stuff to read from the past week. Downtime this week is a series of rolling restarts at 10 a.m. PST, which of course gives you time for a nice mid-morning or early afternoon break to catch up on the news. Read on for the usual run-down.

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Tuesday Morning Post: Raids with friends edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> downtimemaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerolling-restartrolling-restartsrounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Lichborne: Siege of Wyrmrest Raid Finder advice for the death knight]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/03/lichborne-seige-of-wyrmrest-raid-finder-advice-for-the-death-kn/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/03/lichborne-seige-of-wyrmrest-raid-finder-advice-for-the-death-kn/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/03/lichborne-seige-of-wyrmrest-raid-finder-advice-for-the-death-kn/#comments Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

Once you've finished the new patch 4.3 dungeons and gained a bit of loot from them, you may ask yourself: What's next? One of the most obvious answers is the Raid Finder tool. You'll get better loot and faster valor point gain, as well as some starting experience in the raid game if you ever get the desire or chance to join an organized raiding group.

Still, the idea of heading into a raid (even a simple one) can be a little daunting, so today I'd like to help allay your fears by giving you a quick look at the first of the Raid Finder scenarios, the Siege of Wyrmrest.

Before we get into the boss strategies, though, there are a few things you should get down.
  • Make sure your gear's good enough. If you can, get it gemmed (with strength gems) and enchanted. While you can head into Raid Finder as low as ilevel 372, don't be afraid to pick up an extra piece of gear or two from the heroic dungeons. A good weapon upgrade, for example, will do wonders for your DPS.
  • If you can afford them, consider grabbing some consumables. A Flask of Steelskin and some Lavascale Minestrone for tanks or a Flask of Titanic Strength and some Beer-Basted Crocolisk for DPS will put your performance at the next level, and for a good group, you'll only need one flask to face the whole dungeon. Morchok's easy enough that sometimes I save the flask until we engage the second boss, just to make sure it stretches.
  • Follow your raid leader. A raid is only as good as its raid leader and its members' abilities to follow their raid leaders' instructions, even in Raid Finder. Use these boss strategies, but defer to your raid leader where you can. They don't always know what they're doing, but in Raid Finder, sometimes that doesn't matter; either way, the more everyone works together, the easier things become.
  • Don't Panic and don't get uptight. This is a pickup group, so things will go wrong and people will randomly drop between groups. Just stay loose, have fun, and be prepared to wait a bit for replacements in between each boss. Griping just makes it less fun for everyone.

Continue reading Lichborne: Siege of Wyrmrest Raid Finder advice for the death knight

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Lichborne: Siege of Wyrmrest Raid Finder advice for the death knight originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blood-death-knight-lichborneclass-helpdeath-knight-blood-lichbornedeath-knight-frost-lichbornedeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-raid-guidedeath-knight-raidingdeath-knight-raiding-guidedeath-knight-talentsdeath-knight-unholy-lichbornedk-guidedk-infodk-talentsdragon-soulfeaturedfrost-death-knight-lichborneguideguide-to-death-knightshagarahagara-the-stormbinderlfrmorchokpatch-4.3raid-finderraid-guideraiding-guideraidstalenttalentsunholy-death-knight-lichborneworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-4.3wow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-guidewow-lfrwow-patchwow-patch-4.3wow-patch-4.3-newswow-patch-newswow-raid-finderwow-raidingwow-raidswow-talent-guideyorsahjyorsahj-the-unsleepingzonozz (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST WoW Insider <![CDATA[Tuesday Morning Post: Good night, sweet corgi edition]]> http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/03/tuesday-morning-post-good-night-sweet-corgi-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/03/tuesday-morning-post-good-night-sweet-corgi-edition/ http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/03/tuesday-morning-post-good-night-sweet-corgi-edition/#comments Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This week has had its share of silence, for sure. I'm not sure if the folks at Blizzard's just enjoying the last bit of the holidays or secretly playing that other game, but either way, they didn't have much to say this week. That's not say there wasn't activity and stuff to discuss, not at all. The Darkmoon Faire's back in town, for one, and we've all been looking back at some of the best and worst stuff to come out of 2011. This is also the week we had to say goodbye to that freaking sweet corgi in the picture above. We can only pray Blizzard gives him back to us a pet some time in the future. If they do not, it shall surely go down in the annals of history as one of the greatest MMO tragedies of all time.

Downtime this morning is a series of rolling restarts starting at 10 a.m. PST, so you should have time to dig in to all the retrospectives and guides we have ready for you. Read on for the usual roundup.

Continue reading Tuesday Morning Post: Good night, sweet corgi edition

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Tuesday Morning Post: Good night, sweet corgi edition originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> corgidowntimemaintenancerealm-downtimerealm-maintenancerolling-restartrolling-restartsrounduproundupsscheduled-downtimescheduled-maintenanceserver-downtimeserver-maintenanceserver-statustuesdaytuesday-downtimetuesday-maintenancetuesday-morningtuesday-morning-post (Daniel Whitcomb) Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EST WoW Insider