At the moment, there’s nothing for DKs in this patch. I suspect and hope it means Blizzard are still rejigging our rune mechanics, about which beta testers have given plenty of constructive (albeit negative) feedback.
Masteries are not implemented in this beta version. See my embedded video for Gravity in mastery-stat gear, which uses ugly placeholder material, and a few death strikes that do nothing special at 0:56 onward.
In case something turns up, we’ll report on it in the patch thread.
Also, if you’ve not seen it, look at this lovely ring from an early Vashj’ir quest in Kelp Forest.
Zao has done some testing on the blood parasites on beta. My impression is they’re very good, giving a group to nearby allies (ie. not party or raid, proximity-based like a Druid’s wild growth). He’s got some figures on their mechanics. Extract of Zao’s post, the rest is in his forum post.
Since I was able to finally log on to the EU realms again, I could do some testing on the Blood Parasite on the heroic testing dummy in Acherus.
What I can say definetly are these things: Bloodworms healing and Health is based on your own health pool.
with
33850 Health they had 8164 HP and healed me for 408 per stack of Blood Gorged.
58400 Health they had 14192 HP and healed me for 709 per stack of Blood Gorged.
They always spawn inside the Mob and then move behind it...continue reading.
I completed the Stonecore a few days ago in beta 16404. I did all four bosses, but accidentally only recorded FRAPS of the first three. This shows that I’ve improved my Beta tanking skills, helped along by the 16404 patch which made Morbidity accessible.
Whilst we hear that Blizzard will be reducing the need for AOE tanking, I’m not seeing it. There are spawn waves on the first and fourth bosses of this instance. There is a gauntlet in Throne of Tides. There are large pulls regulalry. I’ve used cc on one mob on nearly every pull of three or more. I’m not seeing an implementation of the “less AOE” from a tanking perspective.
However, from a DPS perspective, you can’t AOE these mobs. Their HP is too high. Some trash pulls in the current tuning take a minute or more to clear. They really take a while to kill. Whilst this is happening, the tank needs to hold AOE threat.
The current beta for DKs lets us pick up Morbidity, which is required, but it’s still tough to hold threat on them all.
That said, here is the video of DK tanking in Stonecore. I’ve edited them a bit more than usual, but haven’t shorted the boss fights even if they get a bit long. » continue reading
Here’s some perspective on how large the Vashj’ir zone is. I have completed all the quests in the first sub-zone, Kelp Forest. I’ve previously written about my first impressions and how you get over there initially.
The zone, like Mt Hyjal, is storylined in the new way that quests unfold in Cataclysm. You have breadcrumb quests which lead you to the next quest hub, who may have been phased-out before. You only have a few quests in your log
Images of what happens when you ding, with the new 31-point talent system, on a new DK.
The new DK still feels pretty powerful, and the spells you gain at L56 are sensible.
Currently I cannot complete the DK starter zone because the quest where you kill a fellow of the same race doesn’t have a goblin, so no quest giver lights up. » continue reading
GC has made a long post describing their design intent and current status of talent trees over here. He made a few follow-up posts too, so it’s worth looking over the whole thread with a bluetracker.
In another thread, he posted that their is a design intent for Frost to be more proc-based and Unholy more predictable. I point out there’s no such preference in the general tank population and describe the rune-lockout we currently see on beta as
Some thoughts on Beta tanking, which I originally posted in the official forums.
Morkarion makes a good post earlier. I too am well aware it’s beta. No need for anyone to remind me that means there will be bugs and changes. I too am just stating the awkwardness of giving useful feedback, or performing focused tests, when it’s complicated by both bugs and AOE.
Two very short videos showing you how the runes recharge, are embedded below.
You can see the lockouts. Runic Empowerment would help give you some randomly recharged runes if you get a rune strike and it procs the RE random chance. Beta 12604. Note in the video, at the beginning, I should say ‘outbreak’ but say something else.
I’m not so comfortable with how it plays out for tanking. I regularly have rune blackouts, where I need to do an attack (usually an AOE situation) and simply have nothing I can do (other than blood tap or ERW). » continue reading
Insolence has documented the incoming changes, many for us DKs.
General
Frozen Plate Specialization *New* – Increases your Strength by 5% while wearing only Plate armor.
Blood
Crimson Scourge is now a 2 rank talent. Increases damage dealt by Blood Boil by 20/40% (Down from 15/30/45%) and 50%/100% chance to proc. (Up from 33/67/100%)
Improved Blood Presence is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 5.
Thankfully, Blizzard are tuning up the mobs in Mt Hyjal.
I commented on an earlier video that I “was cutting through these guys like butter, not even caring about health”. It was too easy. We also had a chat in the forums about how, worse, the named and elite mobs could be solo’d. You are supposed to use some kind of mechanism to kill them. Forgemaster Pyrendius, for example, is meant to be kited over ‘portal runes’ which I
I have been trying to catch this bug on fraps too, but no luck. However, Raxxnamus has got it! This is another reason I have been having trouble tanking. Watch his death runes carefully. See how even when trying to use an ability, it doesn’t work, yet there are death runes ready and waiting.
Update, I later got a video of a rune error at 0:56 in this video.
Some of the things I do when testing. Thought I’d share this one. No major insights, just some documentation of a world of logs analysis I did of the damage from a blood tank.
On live, here are my stats.
live stats
On beta 12539, with exactly the same gear, my stats.
I’m posting for your curiosity, but also with secondary benefit of linking to these images in a bug report. Beta 12539. Images below. » continue reading
I tanked Blackrock Caverns the other night. I had been in once before in Alpha. Didn’t get any further on this attempt; the second boss isn’t intuitive. That’s good. It’s nice to have a boss who you can’t just work out on-the-run. I had not watched any videos on strategy for her (I prefer to do that, so I can give more accurate testing feedback). I’m happy to only have people tell me what they know in party chat.
I tanked all the bosses of Throne of Tides and have uploaded all the footage, including my many failures, onto YouTube.
This was the first time I’d got past the trash in the initial corridor, since in Alpha that was about success as I could muster during the Australian timezone. Now with a larger beta test base, there are a lot of people running around from US EU and other regions too.
Hi guys, back after two weeks’ off; a week’s holiday then a week working abroad. A lot happened during that time! Blizzard’s announcement of the revamp of the entire talent and ability system is quite something. I like a lot about it. Getting something cool for each ‘ding’ is a welcome change,
Some people might complain about the loss of diversity in talents specs. Tanks, who used to have three talent trees to choose from, now have one. Within
1:20hr of footage, high-def, of Mt Hyjal, with my talking commentary the whole time. I’m on Gravity, transferred over, in both frost and unholy DPS specs. I swore a bit, and called a lot of mobs noobs, and ramble on a lot about the alpha and current beta. Details here.
I have uploaded several videos of the Worgen hunter. One example is embedded here, showing the character screen. The others are listed on this forum post. They’re in HD. I also have footage of the animation changing from human to worgen, with the quest that grants the power. » continue reading
Since addons are disabled in Cataclysm Beta, but the player and target frames are in such a remote position, I came across this script which allows you to move the default Blizzard frames. » continue reading
I have now uploaded several videos of questing in the underwater zone. This is a beautiful zone. The phasing used here, with many breadcrumbs from one hub to another, is superbly done. It’s really captivating and immersive (no pun intended).
You get to the zone in the very first place on a boat. You’re led to that boat by a quest giver who’s just standing at the front gate of Orgrimmar. Then, you watch an animation play out on the boat. It’s entertaining.
Picture shows the guy you talk to for Vashj’ir.
You’re then sunken, and begin the quests underwater to save your fellow travellers, and uncover the secret behind whoever attacked your ship.
On this premade DK, I’d done a good number of starting quests during Alpha in Vashj’ir. The videos below are further into the zone. » continue reading
I’m recording a few hours of content tonight, and uploading to YouTube as I go.
Check the pwnwear channel to see it first there. Later on I’ll compile a post and add links to the blog. YouTube also twitters each time I’ve uploaded. Note sometimes they need a few minutes to post-process to higher res.
Right now I’m levelling my pre-made DK in Vashj’ir to see some new content, and record some for you. Fighting in 3D is
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