Weekend Warrior 3

Decided to drop the "Wrath" fom the title. I guess that can be assumed at this point.

I wanted to run Nexus, but decided not to with the recent connection issues.

I moved into Dragonblight, which involves sailing from Unu'pe in Borean Tundra.

Daddy?

Yes, that is a giant turtle. Yes, the captain is using carrots on a stick to guide it. Yes, the freaking thing takes forever when you're waiting at the port.

The Tuskarr in Moa'ki Harbor will send you on some quests, including Slay Loguhn, where you have to kill the leader of the local Wolvar tribe. At first, I was pronouncing this "lo-GOON." However, once I saw the guy, it sank in. Humanoid wolverine, wearing claws... Logan.

At Wyrmrest Temple, I ran into a few old friends.


Alexstrasza and Krasus

Alexstrasza, Aspect of the Red Dragonflight and Krasus, aka Korialstrasz. For those of you who don't know Krasus, he was a major character in the War of the Ancients novels.


Nice to see she found her way out of Andorhal

Well... not exactly, she's still in Andorhal. AND at the Temple. She is a Bronze Dragon. They can do that.


Fun!

A very fun quest, Defending Wyrmrest Temple. This is a daily. If you can accomplish it in under 2 minutes, you will earn the achievement Rapid Defense.


Ysera, Aspect of the Green Dragonflight


How... awkward...

This is from the quest The Best of Intentions.

Reached level 73. More Dragonblight next week.

Comcast Issues

Apparently, Blizzard and Comcast are not getting along this week.

What SEEMS to be the issue is that, after a server crash Monday night, most, if not all, of WoW-playing Comcast subscribers are having lag issues. Comcast users are having no issues with other games, and non-Comcast players are not experiencing additional lag. The only ones who do are in former Comcast territories still running off Comcast servers.

Normally, I have a latency of around 100 ms. This weekend, I was at a constant 300-400, with spikes of up to 1000.

Blizzard has a post on their Tech Support forum here.

Now, I'm not expert once these things leave the local level, but it appears that once the data hits the AT&T owned hardware on the route, things get hosed up. So, there are potentially THREE companies that need to get together to figure this one out. I seem to recall a similar issue this summer with Time Warner, but I'm not sure how that turned out.

T's Death Knight Guide, Part 3: Talents

This is part 3 of an ongoing guide that will later be compiled into one large "uber-guide" for up-and-coming Death Knights.

Part 1 can be found here.
Part 2 can be found here.

TALENTS

As previously mentioned, a Death Knight's talent spec does NOT determine his role. Each tree is capable of performing all 3 roles, just in differnt ways.

Here I'll give some sample talent builds and look at a few key talents within each build. This is by no means a definitive list, but I feel it hits all the major options. I won't do any full talent-by-talent breakdowns like I have in other guides, as the only tree I have any real experience with is Frost.

What makes this so difficult is there really is no WRONG way to talent a Death Knight. Sure, some are better than others, but across all 3 trees, there is no bad talent.

Blood

51/13/7 Cookie-Cutter DPS build.
Abomination's Might: Awesome group buff. Does not stack with Hunter's Trueshot Aura or Shaman's Unleashed Rage.
Hysteria: Can be cast on yourself or another player. Make sure NOT to cast it on someone low on health, though.
Heart Strike: This attack will replace Blood Strike in a Blood Knight's default spell rotation.
Dancing Rune Weapon: Amazing DPS boost, but do NOT use unless you're at full Runic Power, otherwise it's a waste.

50/0/21 Blood with Gargoyle.
Dancing Rune Weapon scales with gear. So, for DKs with limited high-end gear, the Gargoyle spec will provide superior DPS.

52/14/5 Blood Tank Spec
Honestly, probably the least effective tank spec. However, will help out your healers if they're undergeared. Make sure to keep those Blood Runes on cooldown for Blade Barrier.

63/8/0 Sam's Crazy, Super-Bloated, Insane Survivability Build
Honestly, the only real purpose this build serves is never dying. Ever.

Frost

17/50/0 +4 Frost DPS
This is essentially my Frost DPS build. The points in Rune Tap, Hungering Cold and Frost Aura are Wild Cards and can be spent elsewhere.
Note: Between Annihilation, Rime, Subversion and Dark Conviction, your Obliterate has an extra 32% chance to crit. That is what this build is designed around. Frost may not give the highest sustained DPS, but it has great potential.
Why only 2 points in Runic Power Mastery? Simple. 120 RP grants you 3 Frost Strikes. 130 grants you 3 Frost Strikes with 10 useless RP left over.

5/59/7 Frost Tanking, arguably the best tanking build for early gear levels.
Excellent physical mitigation from Toughness and Frigid Dreadplate.
Acclimation and Frost Aura also help with heavy magic-dealing enemies.
Lichborne and Unbreakable Armor give Frost Tanks other skills to use while Icebound Fortitude is on cooldown.
While Hungering Cold may seem like a great AoE tanking ability, I don't feel it's necessary. A 1 minute cooldown means you can only use it once on most AoE pulls. I feel you're better off using a combination of Death and Decay, Pestilence, Howling Blast and Blood Boil for multiple mobs. Plus, that RP cost means you're more than likely only using it part way through the battle.

17/54/0 Frost PVP Build
Frost's incredible burst potential makes it perfect for PVP.
This is really the only time I suggest taking Icy Reach and Deathchill.
This is where Hungering Cold really shines. Death Knight Frost Nova FTW.

10/56/5 Dual-Wield Tanking Build
Insanity! As everyone knows, Dual-Wielding causes extra parries. Every time (most) mobs parry, their swing timer resets and the next attack comes faster. Dual-Wield tanking leads to getting Parrygibbed. Right?
First of all, read this. Long story short: A DK Dual-Wielding 2 slow 1-handers actually has LESS chance of being parried than a Warrior using a fast 1-hander, as tanking Warriors do.
I've seen DW tanking builds that weren't heavy Frost, but I don't like them. Frost Strike cannot be parried. That is essential, as far as I'm concerned.
Dual-Wielding allows you to equip 2 good, defensive 1-handers. This should give better tanking stats over a 2-hander in most situations. However, the tradeoff is slightly reduced threat generation.
Please note, this build requires VERY good gear and is not recommended for entry-level tanking.

Unholy

17/0/54Unholy DPS
Keep Bone Shield up at all times.
Don't forget your Ghoul Master of Ghouls gives you a very potent source of extra damage.

17/0/54Unholy DPS - AOE Variant
This build drops Night of the Dead for Corpse Explosion and Unholy Blight. Although, I am unsure how useful Corpse Explosion is in a group setting.

5/8/58 Unholy Tanking
Once again, keep Bone Shield up.
This build excells at higher gear levels, when Frigid Dreadplate is no longer necessary from the Frost build.

0/11/60Unholy-Bloat PVP
This build is geared toward GROUP PVP. I feel Frost is a better option for Lone Wolf PVPers. But, hey, go with what you want. I've said over and over how each tree is viable.
This is the only build where I suggest Desecration. Movement impairing effects are always great in PVP.

Hybrid

15/37/19 The famous Dual-Wield Tri-Spec
**Due to only one talent that increases melee hit rate, TONS of hit rating is needed.
This build relies on 4 factors:
1: Speed
Icy Talons and Improved Icy Talons are required.
2: White Damage
On average, 2-Handed builds will only have 20% of their attacks as white damage. Dual-Wielders will have far more. This is really the only time Necrosis is worth talent points for anything other than getting down to the next level.
3: Procs
Killing Machine and Blood-Caked Blade will go off all the time.
4: Howling Blast
Unlike Obliterate and the various Strikes, Howling Blast does not scale off weapon damage. This makes it the attack of choice for Dual-Wielders.

Part 4: Combat

Small Update

I have slightly updated Part 1 of my Death Knight Guide.

A Cry for Help

Tell your Guild.

Post on your message boards.

Tell your kids.

Call your mom.

Write your Senator.

Whatever you do, for the love of the Light, spread the word.

Death Knights can DPS, Tank or do anything they want REGARDLESS OF TALENT SPEC.

After pounding my way through Hellfire (for the FIFTH time, mind you) and being surrounded by fellow Death Knights, I can unquestioningly report that I am sick of the ignorance.

DK1: "what should I spec?"
Tarmr: "Whichever tree seems the most interesting, they're all viable."
Yes, I punctuate and use correct grammar in General Chat. Shocking! Maybe that's why nobody pays any attention to me...
DK2: "Blood FTW"
DK3: "everyones unholy"
DK4: "blood for dps, frost for tanking, unholy for pvp"
Tarmr: "Wrong, wrong and wrong. Each tree can perform each role, it's a matter of playstyle."
DK2: "lol, blood is by far the best raiding spec"
Tarmr: "Blood is by far nothing. How much raiding are you doing in Hellfire Peninsula? I've seen Dual-Wield Hybrid specs topping Naxx damage meters."
True story. Well, not personally, but I've read the accounts and seen the WWS reports.
DK1: "Frost seems like it can do some nice burst"
Tarmr: "Absolutely, I currently have an almost 50% chance to crit with Obliterate."
DK4: "bliz said frost is tanking"
Tarmr: "Yes they DID..."
Tarmr: "...last year."
Tarmr: "They've since changed their design philosophy."
Ruh-roh, big word.
DK5: "what should I spec?"
Tarmr: /facepalm

NOTE: This is not a direct transcript, but rather a compilation of several chat sessions. They all went about the same.

Trust me. I've been researching specs for the past week and a half for part 3 of my DK guide. (Why do you think it's taking so long?) Thus far, I've come up with almost a dozen serious talent builds, with a few more that still function, if not optimally.