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

[TheYanger]

Dumar, even if you completely take numbers away, they are ALWAYS there behind the scenes dictating everything, and people will ALWAYS figure them out one way or another if the game is good enough for them to waste the time doing so. We're talking about computers here numbers are the only things that make up any of it. Heck, even street fighter moves are all very much based on damage ranges and priorities and all of that.

If AoC manages to keep people playing long enough and feel they've got a need to, they WILL figure out what's going on behind the scenes. Don't wanna know? Then don't pay attention to it. WoW is no different, there's no reason you HAVE to do a lick of math at all. I enjoy math, I made my own spreadsheet for dps back in BWL before others were commonly available, now people much better at math than me make em and I don't worry about it, I just read the thread, download the sheets, and plug in my gear.

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by Believe

Been posted like 2 times, but yeah they look pretty good.

I'm really looking forward to playing a Deathknight.

I'm kinda hoping that even though a shit ton of people make one, only a handful (in comparison to the regular population) actually level one up and gear it up.

I know Draenei Shaman are still pretty rare compared to every other class.

My personal suspicion is that there's going to be quite a few DKs who hit L62-63, run into Zangarmarsh and suddenly remember how much more levelling they have to do before they catch up with their guildmates (who will be then linking green veliium cobalt weapons better than T5 stuff from WotLK in chat), and go back to their mains.

[Zerai]

Originally Posted by Dumar

yeah, it's proof i'm a complete fucking idiot, right? i mean, silly me. what are graphics for, right? graphics aren't a way to display information to the user, right? heck no. graphics are for inept animators to bump map and specular highlight their games to the shit bin, ya? graphics aren't for finding new and unique ways to display information to the user, nope. that's what all the numbers are for right? we can have the coolest looking spreadsheet game out there.

You know what an rpg is right? You know underlying system is built from something like D&D right? You know what a game without numbers is? It's called an action game. An FPS basically. People would just figure it out anyway. Because..the numbers still have to be there. It's a computer system..run on numbers.

[Jabberwhacky]

DK question: Can they only use certain swords? That end-tree talent says it summons "a second runeblade to fight with the caster" and coupled with the DK's whole rune-system makes it seem like it wouldn't work on a generic Shin Blade of the Wolf. Sounds like they can only use "runeblades."

[royo]

It's still under heavy development, so it'll probably take another month or two to get solid info on that.

[Believe]

If I remember correctly, the 'runes' the Deathknight uses to perform abilities are etched into the Sword by the Deathknight, effectively making it a 'runeblade'.

Edit:
Should Death Knights get one runeblade for life? - WOW Insider

We haven't fully decided on this at this time, we will try things out in the beta, but at the moment we are thinking that death knights can probably inscribe any weapon with runes.

Personally, I like this idea too, but taking weapon drops out of the equation for death knights removes a big chunk of the itemisation side of the game from them - it would have to be something pretty special to replace the feeling you get with your first epic weapon.

Not to mention the awkwardness this could cause in balancing loot tables as Ilsevele pointed out.

[Pyros]

I don't think they'll vastly limit itemization by having DK only weapons, this goes against what they were trying to do lately(have sets for multiple classes, like hunter/shaman or rogue/feral gear etc). You'll probably be limited to swords, but any swords will do. Maybe have some kind of random spell or whatever that makes it into a runeblade, for the sake of lore.

I believe the summon another runeblade just summons a sword that moves around(like ghost stuff you can see in various dungeons, probably popping those blue whirlwind attacks like trash in BT).

[Fadaar]

Dear fucking Christ don't let it end up like Luclin with a Pal/SK weapon dropping off every third boss. Except you replace Pal/SK with DK.

[Cybsled]

That end-tree talent says it summons "a second runeblade to fight with the caster

As was previous stated, I believe this is like the old Wizard pet skill in EQ1 where you summoned a floating sword that attacked crap.

[Jabberwhacky]

Sorry I miscommunicated there. I figured it was a pet-like spell, but I was just noting their emphasis on "runeblade" and how that might figure into the DK as a class. Course, someone already mentioned that the DK could simply gouge his fingernails into whatever sword is in his hands et voila, a "runeblade."

[DisgruntledOrangatang]

Disclaimer: Yes I know this is alpha, I am just commenting on current build.

Right now I think the frost tree is a bit underwhelming. It looks like the majority of talents are for increasing their attacks for more threat. There are only 3 talents in the whole tree that increase survivablity: Toughness, acclimiation, and frost aura. Possibly frozen dread plate too if it stacks with Tclap. But otherwise it looks like they are gonna get torn up. It likens back to warriors in the BWL days, where prot really had not much offering of talents that increased their tanking ability after 15 in.

I am worried they are gonna be suck tanks for anything other than spell casters. Even if their DK description on the website they claim that DKs can tank 5mans. But lets look at what DKs got right now. 45% armor, but no shield. So they are going to have a little more armor than pals/wars, but less than druids. They get less health than druid/pal and equal to wars, and can be crushed. Currently I like the tanks as they are now, there are times when using a certain tank is optimal, but not required. On Archimonde, druids are best because he can't crush, but I've had a pal and war tank it to fine. They are still able. Here the deathknight is going to have standard tank hp, be crushable, have only a tad more armor than standard tanks, and their frost tree does nothing except for spell damage, which only has a 15% chance, and dread armor which may stack with tclap/icy touch. They get no attack debuffs and a slow inferior to wars as well. The only advantage seems to be their ablitiy to snare/freeze the shit outta stuff so hopefully they are only tanking 2 or so mobs at once on top of normal cc.

Depending on how hard it is to use all your runes before cooldown. I'd almost say this kind of spec would be better for IN GENERAL tanking:

War Pirate :: Talent tree Deathknight

In blood you get a 30% parry chance here and there, 15% less spell damage when you parry, and a nice self heal (assuming blood tap has more than 1 rank).

[Fammaden]

Originally Posted by Itzena

My personal suspicion is that there's going to be quite a few DKs who hit L62-63, run into Zangarmarsh and suddenly remember how much more levelling they have to do before they catch up with their guildmates (who will be then linking green veliium cobalt weapons better than T5 stuff from WotLK in chat), and go back to their mains.

Zanger? In raid guilds this will happen before they finish the DK tutorial quests. More casual people will probably level up without regard. I would imagine in raid guilds there will be the poopsockers who get 80 done and have a DK to 63 by the time the guild's average is about 75 in many cases.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Well, if our paladin rerolls are any indication, we had about 8 people go paladin. 2 never made it to 70. 1 burned out and quit, another realized how inane the class was to play and that he didn't care for PvE content anyways. Another one pretty much just vanihsed off the face of the earth. Of the remaining 3 of us, one is now prot, unless Holy gets a huge revamp in wotlk I'll probably go prot as well and the last one rerolled shaman.

I imagine the same thing will happen with the DK. Once the 'new class smell' wears off, most people will realize how much prot spec's suck when you aren't tanking and go back to their fotm arena class.

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

I don't know what exactly the DK's will function off of, without knowing numbers for anything... but the talent trees seem jumbled and bloated. The best specs will probably include frost no matter what, if simply for the 5% to hit.

I was under the assumption that Runic Power functioned like rage, and the Runes themselves regenerated like Energy. Lots of abilities are X damage per 10 Runic Power, or Y duration per 10 Runic Power... but some abilities also generate Runic Power, and have talents to increase the generation by 150%... so... I guess I'm confused a bit.

I agree with the above assessment of tanking, but who knows. I'm always a fan of two-handed anything, so maybe they can pull it off without fucking the other tanks over.

[Fammaden]

I get the impression they will step more on enhancement shamans' toes than anything. If so, and even in any other scenario, I'm not sure how they are supposed to really find many raid slots. Probably either be OP and overrepresented or a one or two is good enough status.