[WoW]Wotlk:Raid instances to have 10 and 25 man versions, Death Knight starts at 55

[Everlast]

# Mark of Blood (spell or talent?) - "Place a Mark of Blood on an enemy or ally. Whenever the marked target is healed, all party members receive a fraction of that healing. If a marked target that grants experience or honor is killed, all party members are healed for 10% of their total health. Each person can be healed for a maximum of 3000 per Mark."


uhhh 1 raid spot guaranteed for death knights

[Zehn - Vhex]

Meh. Depends on the fraction. If it was 5% you're talking like 500 hp on a 10k heal. If it doesn't take into account overhealing then it's even worse. Duration, recast, etc...etc...

[Incognitogamer]

Guardian Spirit - "Calls upon a guardian spirit to heal and watch over the friendly target. The spirit heals the target for 624 every 2 sec, and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself. Lasts $48151d."

Mark of Divinity - "Marks the target with Divinity, causing 30% of all of your healing to also heal the target."

Wow, very nice for healing priests. Especially for MT healing.

[FoghornDeadhorn]

What do they say in ball games when the officials make a terribad call?

Bulllllllshit....bullllllshit....bullllllshit...

PS, Blizzard, did you REALLY have to start alpha with KJ not even open yet? Do they have any idea how many guilds are struggling with attention spans already?

[Itzena]

Final talent in Demonology tree looks hilarious.

[Northerner]

The alleged DW 2-handers thing for fury warriors would have a few other consequences as well. Double savagery enchants for fury would have some merit as example plus the obvious perks to whirlwind.

Keep in mind however that Blizzard knew well that this stuff would be mined asap. There are certainly fakes, fabrications and outright red herrings to distract and confuse us.

[Izuldan]

Originally Posted by Northerner

What do you mean really?

Other than key runs or specific quest runs, when were you in a dungeon in EQ where you were not setting up to camp a specific area? Perhaps HS or Chardok I suppose but in general it was more fun and better AA/hr to pick a general part of the zone and farm the shit out of it. That was true in vanilla and it was true up to GoD at least (for the non-instanced shit) and frankly, I liked it better. I could jump in and play for an hour or two or I could join a group and stay for ten with new members as time went on. WoW's system means if you want to pug (and no, I don't for this reason amongst others) you will need to replace someone after the one-hour romp through who-the-hell-cares_001273.

Is this for real? Are you really trying to say EQ was more casual friendly than WoW? Since when do you have to PUG in WoW at all to get exp? I would say 95% of all the quests can be completed solo as well.

This is in direct contrast to getting exp in EQ unless you happen to be one of the soloing classes like a necro or druid. God help you if you were a warrior and had to LFG all fricken day long if you were not in a good guild. You could burn away your 1 or 2 hours of free time just looking for a group.....oh yeah, also 30 minutes just trying to get a friendly wizard or druid to port you and then running to Sebilis or Chardok or whereever.

EQ more casual-friendly than WoW? Now I've seen it all.

[Zerai]

MMO-Champion - World of Warcraft Guides and Raid Strategies

Has some new info up about Death Knights and 10-25 man raids. I'm sure you can find it at your standard website you browse but whatever~

The fearsome death knight, World of Warcraft’s first Hero class, is not your average adventurer seeking to prove his or her worth on Azeroth’s fields of battle. No longer servants of the Lich King, they begin their new calling as experienced, formidable adversaries, heavily armed and armored and possessing an arsenal of deadly and forbidden magic learned in the Lich King’s thrall. Here is an introduction, subject to change, of some of the death knight’s core gameplay mechanics and abilities:

Unlocking and Creating the Death Knight
Simply have a character of at least level 55 on the World of Warcraft account you play, and you will be able to create a new level-55 death knight of any race (if on a PvP realm, the death knight must be the same faction as your existing character). Upon entering the world, your neophyte death knight will undertake a series of quests designed to teach you your new abilities. You will be able to create one death knight per realm, per account.

Class Roles

* Tank: The plate-wearing death knight is a capable tank for small groups as well as raids. His or her damage output while tanking will be respectable.
* DPS: The death knight can also spec and gear for a melee DPS role, which will draw upon many debilitating disease effects as well as direct damage and instant attacks.

Talent Trees
Death knight talent trees are complemented by Presences -- self-only auras that benefit the death knight. Selecting the matching Presence for each tree augments the class abilities for that school of magic.

* Blood: Talents in this tree focus on damage-dealing abilities. Blood Presence increases damage output by a percentage.
* Frost: Talents in this tree focus on tanking abilities. Frost Presence increases threat and lowers damage taken by a percentage.
* Unholy: Talents in this tree have a variety of functions including summons, diseases, and PvP-focused abilities. Unholy Presence increases attack speed and reduces the global cooldown on death knight abilities.

The Rune System
The resource mechanics for death knights are runes and runic power. A skilled death knight makes efficient, timely use of runes and runic power to maximize his or her damage-dealing or tanking abilities.

* Runes: Every death knight ability requires runes, which come in three varieties: blood, frost, and unholy. Depending on the ability, it may require runes of a single type or a combination of types. When a rune is used, it has a cooldown period before it can be used again. Death knights can customize which array of six runes to have available at a given time, which can aid their ability to perform certain roles. For example, a tanking death knight may wish to load his or her rune array with more Frost runes.
* Runic Power: As rune abilities are used, the death knight also generates another resource called runic power. The death knight will have certain abilities that consume all available runic power, with varying levels of effectiveness based on total runic power spent. Similar to a warrior’s rage, runic power decays over time if not spent.

Summoned Creatures
Creating minions from the ranks of the unliving is a core ability of the death knight.

* Raise Dead: The death knight can raise a ghoul companion from the corpses of fallen creatures, as well as those of both friendly and enemy players. If cast on a friendly player, that player will have the opportunity to actually play as the ghoul, controlling its movements and actions.
* Army of the Dead: This channeled spell raises a group of undead followers who will attack the death knight’s enemies but only exist very briefly before disintegrating.
* Summon Deathcharger: Every death knight can summon the level-40 version of a deathcharger land mount. At higher levels, they can complete a quest to learn the epic version.

Paradigm Shift: Dungeons and Raids in Wrath of the Lich King
Heroic dungeons were one of the most popular innovations of the previous expansion, so it’s no surprise Heroic mode will return in Wrath of the Lich King. Just as in The Burning Crusade, every five-person dungeon will have a Heroic variant that will present players with an added challenge and improved rewards.

One exciting new feature in Wrath of the Lich King is that all raid content will be available as either a 10- or 25-person dungeon with completely independent progression paths. Both the 10- and 25-person versions will be the same dungeon; the look, layout, and design of the dungeon will remain the same. However, each will be adjusted, tuned, and balanced for its respective player size.

In Wrath of the Lich King, players can expect both 10- and 25-person raid progression paths to get increasingly difficult as they adventure to their final battle with Arthas. This new gameplay mechanic will allow more players to enjoy the raid content of Wrath of the Lich King in their preferred play style. Because it takes more effort to get 25 people together than it does for 10, players who participate in the 25-person raid progression path will receive higher quality and more loot than those who play the 10-person versions.

In addition, players will never be required to attune in a 10-person raid to progress to a 25-person raid in the progression path. Raid lockouts are same-size as well, so joining a 25-person raid for a dungeon will not lock a player out from the 10-person version of the same dungeon. This freedom of choice between raid-progression paths will let personal preference play a much bigger role in how players experience the raid content of Wrath of the Lich King.


New Quest Mechanics
The quest designers are hard at work to make sure that the road to level 80 will be paved with quests unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. The Burning Crusade innovated with bombing runs and daily quests, and Wrath of the Lich King will continue this trend with still more unique and varied adventures to undertake.

Just one example of the new mechanics you can expect from the expansion is the new vehicle-based content, which puts an interesting spin on some of the concepts originally developed for PvP siege gameplay. Certain types of vehicles and mounts can now carry passengers, making it possible for players to, for example, break a prisoner out of a tightly guarded compound by attempting a daring escape on horseback. While the NPC steers the horse, the player lobs explosives at a pack of pursuing worgen. In another quest, the roles are reversed as the player takes to the skies in a flying machine to track down and rescue survivors of a catastrophic event. Even beyond the ability for vehicles to hold passengers, Wrath of the Lich King introduces an aerial combat system that will add a new dimension to gameplay.

[Etoille]

WoW Forums -> Do the Math, 10 is harder than 25.

i have some issues believing 10 ppl could down any form of arthas. thats fine.

but heres what my biggest concern is.

in vanilla wow all we heard from casuals was:

LOLZ WE WANT PURPLEZ

so in TBC they got them.

in tbc all we heard from casuals was:

LOLZ WE SHULD BE ABLE TO DO ALL CONTENT

so in WOTLK they got that.

is the thread i linked going to be the new casual theme of WOTLK?

its sad times.

im casual now but i dont argue that all this nonsense should be as accessible to me as it is to full time raiders. but it just seems like casuals are NEVER bloody happy. as soon as they get one thing they want the next step.

[Jubee]

Yes, how dare players want a form of progression after heroics. They should be happy to run heroic mechanar every day for badges so they can get better gear... to run heroic mechanar better.

Sad times indeed.

[Zerai]

Except that guy is a complete fucking retard. Wanting to see content, especially lore such as Illidian is a valid desire. I know I beat WC3 on god mode just for the storyline (I'm terrible at rts..and I don't like them..which sort of goes hand in hand).

I think blizzard is going about the right steps. I used to be a hardcore raider, these days, I'm definately not. But I wouldn't mind the ability to see stuff like the lich king. Gear difference should remain and I'm pretty sure it will.

But yeah, actually taking that post as anything besides drivel, and even applying it to previous occurances is inane. It's obvious the guy has never raided. It's like he's assuming the 10 man and 25 man are the same difficulty. Everyone that has ever raided AQ (c'thun at least, you needed 40 people), Naxx, or TBC knows you need all your people doing shit. Losing 1 person out of 25 or 40 was irrelevant, you'd still wipe.

The gear system was stupid from the outset with the colour scheme. The only people that cared were a lot of casual players. Now they make purple gear for casuals and they are happy. Raiders never cared because stats > all. And we'd wear blues if they were better.

[The Ancient]

Originally Posted by Etoille

it just seems like the WOW forums are NEVER bloody happy. as soon as they get one thing they want the next step.

fixed for ya

It's just a cesspool.

[Deathwing]

Originally Posted by Itzena

Final talent in Demonology tree looks hilarious.

As opposed to the one right below it?

[Etoille]

Originally Posted by The Ancient

fixed for ya

It's just a cesspool.

yeah i actually approach that forum like the national enquirer - for laughs.

however this actually concerned me a bit.

[Rezz]

They're keeping the gear/accomplishment disparity with the 10 mans, I don't see how it infringes on the "uber" in the slightest. Timmy gets to see Arthas instead of read about him on a Nihilum post, call the leetpolice? Epeens will still be stroked just as they were prior to Lich King release, don't be afraid.