Unholy Post-8885 Review

Only 2 diseases applied. I LOVE IT, but something is amiss...



So Friday brought us Build 8885, and the Unholy tree finally got some love. Some bugs remained, some new ones popped up. All in all though it is finally getting the attention it deserves. Here is my current stance on the issues.

- [Bug] Ghoul is still permanent if you "dismiss" it via zoning, flying or mounting.

They still can't get this right, and I wish they would see this as a sign from the Gods. The Unholy DKs would love a Minion without duration. It adds flavor and saves us Gold and resources in regards to Corpse Powder. It also helps with situations where there are no Humanoid corpses about. On the subject of Corpse Powder...

- [Bug] Corpse Powder is not working atm.

Even a Perma-Ghoul isn't permanent, and this is a bummer. Hope it gets fixed soon. As it stands if there is no Humanoid Corpses around you are screwed.

- [Bug] Death Coil not healing Ghoul, Death Pact not sacrificing it.

Probably connected to the Perma-Ghoul bug. Fortunately bandages are everywhere. Yes, I bandage the bugger.

- [Bug] Scourge Strike OP?

Not so much a bug per se but a numbers issue. As you can see from the above Screen Shot a critting Scourge Strike can do huge numbers even without diseases effecting it. This may be a scaling issue or it may be a bug.

- [Change] Desecrate procs off Plague Strike now

HUGE boon. Before Desecrate when attached to Obliterate found itself at the end of a rotation, which limited it's use and was brutally unplayed unless you took Annihilate in the frost tree to keep the Oblit from consuming your diseases and screwing up your work. Now it becomes a starter or secondary strike and effect, helping to keep Chains of Ice for when they do slip free.

- [Change] Scourge Strike becomes the Unholy Oblit

Scourge Strike has been overhauled to pay in dividends for those who go deep Unholy. Think of it as Oblit with Annihilate free of points and ignoring armor on top of it. Perfect burst finisher even when "fixed".

- [Change] Reaping only gives one Death Rune, procs off Pestilence and Blood Boil now

A bit of a nerf here; before we toss D&D and we got 3 Death Runes. Still useful to allow rotation manueverability, but not as much so.



Overall this most recent build has brought Unholy into its own. Immediately in PvP situations I found controlling the enemy's positioning became alot tighter. Between Chains of Ice, Desecrate and Death Grip we have quite a few anti-kiting techniques at our disposal. All we need to do is time them right for maximum control.

The new Scourge Strike frees up those points previously invested in annihilation and serves as a great follow up to Blight running. Even after it's "fix", we'll still be good.

Once the issues effecting our zombified minion get resolved, we are looking at a damn good tree.

Battle of the DoTs

I'd like to thank all the people I had to gank to get here...*sniffle*

Encountered my first Warlock today. FG spec with a secondary in Affliction. Strangulate is an amazing opener against casters, that is for sure. Still, I can honestly say that the fight came down to DoTs. When he was able to cast he unloaded them on me in quick succession, and had it not been for that Strangulate in the begining it may have been him bowing over my corpse.

The trick is to keep them spell-locked and up close best you can. If they can get a fear off then they will repeatedly do so, especially thanks to new talents like Improved Fear. After blowing my trinket I had to deal with a full fear and probably would have dealt with a second had I not Death Gripped then Mind Freezed him. It was damn close though.

Death Dealers, watch out for Fel artists.

Judgement coming...

The website Gamona.de recently interviewed Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack at the German game convention in Leipzig. A number of issues in regards to WotLK and it's Beta testing was brought up. Here is a nice one.

Question: "What about the paladin, is there any plans to nerf the DPS Paladin's damage from what it is on beta servers now?"
Tom Chilton: "We are just now beginning on going through the heavy tuning phase, we really don't do that until the end of the beta generally, where we start going through all of the classes and finding the things that are way out of balance and there's no doubt right now that the ret paladins are doing a lot more damage than what we would expect."

Translation? Expect Ret Pallies to get the Nerf Bat in the Beta soon.

*ahem* Excuse me a moment...

*Sacrifices a goat to the Allfather*

Mighty Odin, I thank you for this blessing that will allow me to once again serve Blizzard faithfully in bug reports and questing. And I assure you, I will headhunt every one of those broken motherf*@%ers who 2 shot me mid-survey and attempted to camp me. May Hugin and Munin watch over me as I vindicate myself. Thank you.

Do unto others....

I tried being nice to people today. Don't ask me why. Maybe the RIDICULOUS amount of xp needed to level made PvP a lower priority for me. I dunno.

I ran into a Shaman and Shadow Priest in the Borean Tundra. Guildmates it seemed. I bowed to the Shadowpriest, he bowed to me and we continued questing in the same area. I was pleasantly shocked.

Later I encountered a Mage and did the same. He started unloading on me. Lemme tell you, if you have Anti-Magic shell USE IT against casters. I forgot and despite it being close he killed me. He then ran before I Rezzed. Grr..*shakes fist*

Fortunately while exploring about 15 minutes later I caught him. I saved Death Grip for the Blink and tossed Chains of Ice and Strangulate when I could. The Death Grip REALLY did him in though, as once he was in my killzone my Ghoul easily stunned him while I dotted him up and blasted him with a crit Obliterate. Vengeance tastes great. And abit like chicken.

Later on another person refused to play nice; a Rogue. Let me tell you, I've faced three rogues counting this one, and I have 3 wins and 1 loss under my belt. I'm starting to see DeathKnights as the new Rogue Killers.

So I bow to the guy and he Stealths. Uh-huh. I prep myself mentally and hope to catch him out of the corner of my eye before the Sap. No good. I get brained and sit on my trinket waiting for the assault to begin. Rogues will usually start with a Sap in the hopes that you will panic and trinket. I know. My old main was a Rogue.
So I eat the ten seconds and here comes the CS. As soon as he does so my Ghoul stuns him. I love my Ghoul. <3 Everyone ignores him hoping he is random. Nope.
Thanks to Pale Horse the stun wears out as his does so I pop D&D followed by Chains of Ice to keep him around as I tag him with Scourge Strike. Dot is applied and he smartly uses blind after the D&D fades. I trinket and Icy Touch him, followed by an Oblit. Dead Rogue.

He never raised as quested in the area. I was greatly amused.

Unholy DK's keep that Ghoul tame and he'll return the favor a dozen fold. That stun is a Gods' send when trying to break up a Stunlock.

Exhausted and still 70,
-Dahnek

Rogues, Hunters and the revenge of the Ret

Busy, busy, busy. Been very busy. Got a few RL things I'm prepping for(good stuff though, no worries), and trying to level in Northrend. Make no mistake folks, if Blizz keeps the exp required as high as it is, there won't be any 80's in the first weeks of WotLK launching. Not that it's a bad thing.

And FINALLY! People to fight besides other DK's! They are everywhere in Northrend and it's been great fun(for the most part)testing them with my Unholy DK. We'll take a quick look at those I've encountered so far;

- Rogues. Two of them so far. I'm glad I put my PvP Trinket on. Stunlocks can still be nasty but Bone Armor and heavy armor values as a whole help with surviving them. Our AoE's are a great way to set up our Plague/Scourge Strike and Mind Freeze, and a Ghoul's stun is invaluable at breaking up their concentration and giving you time to put up IB Fort.

- Hunters. I was really worried about these guys kiting me, and they certainly tried. Once again I insist that anyone looking to PvP with a DK invest in Unholy Command at the very least. Improved cooldown on Death Grip is essential against kiters.
Between Death Grip, Chains of Ice and Concecration procs it can be easy to keep them in your kill zone. Once again D&D cannot be forgotten about here. A great pet killer when coupled with throwing a pestilence out to spread those diseases from the hunter to his buddy. Second fight with another Hunter didn't go as smoothly; he killed me as well as two others at once. Hmm...
Seems the pet talent Roar of Sacrifice is horribly bugged and some less scrupulous Hunters are taking advantage of the 95% dmg absorbtion exploit. Seems unscrupulous to me, and I hope they fix it soon. No fun is to be had in fighting someone it's impossible to beat.

And that brings us to the most broken class in WotLK. They were once laughing stocks, now they are maniacs. Moreso than any other class in the Beta they have the potential to be douchebags. We are talking about.....

- Ret Pallies! There is no fun to be had currently if these guys are around. And rest assured, they WILL camp and grieve the hell out of you. Most Beta testers Horde-side are finding it impossible to even leave towns because these fuckers are invading on a steady pace.
So what happened to make a niche group so hated and feared? Simply put, a series of changes and twists to the class has pushed these guys to an unforseen lvl of OP. I've seen full Brutal gear PvPers two-shotted by them. At 70. Not joking.
As I understand it, it has something to do with their AP now being based on BOTH Strength and Magic Power, as well as the Seal of Command Judgement. This is a ridiculous situation and I hope Blizz fixes it soon. You just can't fight these guys atm. Hell, for the first time in my life I took Rez Sickness to get away from someone. That says alot. If WotLK went live like this the community as a whole would be in an uproar and PvPers would lead the charge.

Hopefully I'll get a few more tumbles in with different classes soon. In the meantime wish me luck folks. I just did my first Tanking run (Utgarde Keep) and i'll attempt the Nexus next.

Determination pays off.

I have arrived in Northrend.

Good battle spoiled.

67 now and ripping through Nagrand trying to hit 68. Then I head to Northrend. Terrokar and Nagrand both have been pretty tame. A few scraps but nothing big.
Today though I ran into a Blood DK and he tore me a new one. I'm glad to see the burst ability and self-regen of a Blood DK in action finally. Several times we got very close to the wire and his runes were up before mine. Each big Death Strike healed him for a good chunk. Maybe too good at this point. Blizz should really look into reverting DS back to it's original form or drop the cost and healing of it so other specs can have the ability to toss it in rotations as well.

So heading back to my body I see his lil' Gnome self waiting. We are gonna go again. Cool I think. He mounts up only to return seconds later trying to bushwhack me. It works but I see where I'm having problems besides the previous points.

-Escape Artist makes the lil' bastard slippery! He got out of my Chains of Ice with ease and smartly removed himself from the unholy ground of Desecration. I have to plan ahead better.

I look over the combat logs and head back to my body. He's gone. I rez, bandage and Bone Armor up. I know he's coming back. A friendly skirmish became something negative as he laughed as I died last time.

Charming.

Third go. Here he comes and I run the perimiter around him unloading on his back. I toss strangulate at him to negate his casts and use my ghoul to stun when he can. I switch to frost presence and pop Icebound Fotitude to keep up. Another close one, but my ghoul form takes him down with me. Feeling better about the results I head back to my body and see him for a second before he logs. looks like the fun is over.

Until his 70 Warrior main in Brutal gear shows up, dismounts from his Glad Netherdrake and spams laughter as he kills me.

I spend the next ten minutes rezzing repeatedly and trying to get to shelter as he camps me, thinking A) Kinda a sore sport for getting killed and B) What a waste of a Beta Key. Instead of checking out Northrend he's wasting time with grudges.

There was one silver lining though. At one point with several mobs on me I get dismounted and decide I better fight this out to save myself from durability loss. With mobs and him on me I get him down to 56% before I die. Me, a 67 new class. Him, a Gladiator.

Wonder if I'll see him when I hit 70?

Always learning,

-Dahnek

Unholy vs Blood in low 60's

I'm convinced Death Grip is the new Cheap Shot. Had it happen to me several times now and each time it's like "Whoa! WTF?"

I encountered a Unholy Gnome DK today, and HOLY SHIT was it close. I recognise the validity of Blood Spec as a lvling Spec with little downtime, but I've yet to see it properly implemented in PvP amoungst the DK's I've encountered. Even with the buff to Blood Worms active they simply couldn't outheal the damage I was inflicting. Death & Decay helps with that too. I can't wait to hit the 70's and see how the early Beta and Alpha testers rock it.

Unholy v Unholy on the otherhand has been great fights. I really underestimated Shadow of Death as an unpleasant surprise. That earlier-mentioned Gnome was very knowledgeable and almost caught me after he turned Ghoul.

Time to hit Terrokar. One step closer..

Sword and boarding in PvP. DK-style

Finally things are looking up!


Finally getting used to using different rotations for different situations, and I'm growing alot more comfortable. Even ran into a few Alliance today and tested the waters. They were just fine. :)

One thing I noticed is that Frost Presence is a great "Last Stand" presence. At lvl 63 my armor is in the mid 4000's. If I tumble with multiple foes or a really good DK and my health drops below 45%, I'll pop Frost Presence on. My armor goes up to the mid 6000's and my attack power gets a nice boost thanks to Bladed Armor. Frost Presence + Bone Armor = Win. Give it a shot some time.

Just hit 64 tonight. Thinking of heading to Terrokar next. Just 4 more levels til Northrend..

New build, new headaches

I wish I was still this busy.

Finally made it to Zangarmarsh. No Alliance DKs to be found. Just leveling and it's pretty damn boring. Currently 63. At 64 I'll head to Terrokar.

The new build has made Unholy a joy, and would be even better if there wasn't a ton of bugs. Ravenous Dead is currently all bugged out, and I really would like to see that fixed.


We'll see what happens though.

Who is up for Camping?!?

Aren't I pretty?


I've come to actually love Shadow of Death. Not just because of my now unrivaled dueling skills(see previous post), but because there is a certain satisfaction to be had in taking someone with you when you die. :P

This Draenei DK also solidified a solid camping bug I found in the Beta for the other testers to have fun with. If you Ghoul someone after ganking them and you have your combat log set to all, you can keep track of what he is doing well after he thought he got away. This particular fellow I left to his own devices after several clashes, and I was able to track him down easily via what he was killing in HP an hour later.

Have fun folks!

Dr Warcraft or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Shadow of Death

So apparently there is a bug regarding duels and Shadow of Death that is FAR more broken than I realized. If you right click the Ghoul buff after you die, you'll be transformed BACK into a DK with full health. This can be done over and over and makes you unbeatable in Duels.

Enjoy it while you can, Unholy DK's. I know I am. <3

Welcome to Hellfire...

I never liked Outland. It's a gaudy and garish nightmare. Look at Hellfire Peninsula for example; it looks like the Gods ate too much pumpkin pie and followed it up with ipecac.
But if you need to lvl past 60, what option is there?

I'm greeted by the Local Defense Channel blowing up. Not a good sign. I head to Thrallmar anyway because, honestly, what choice do I have?

I die seconds later to a mid-70 Rogue and Deathknight rampaging through the area.
*sigh*
Eventually they must get bored because I log in about an hour later and they are gone. They will return though, as my entire stay in HP is filled with that damn defense channel going off like a screaming baby.

Questing goes pretty well, and I'm getting used to different attack rotations. My bank alt gets copied and my now 61 DK is armed with a Blade of Misfortune with Savegery on it. Also a ton of Gift of Arthas vials.
I test my theory and it is correct. I see a noticable difference when the Curse of Arthas disease applies and I hit Blood Strike or Oblit. Oblit and Blood Boil both consume the disease. I can see this being a Tanking must, as well as useful in World PvP.

I also learn quite a few other lessons on the road;

-ALWAYS keep Bone Armor up. Only one Unholy and well worth it. If another DK ambushes you it will come literally out of NOWHERE, and every defense helps.

-Save your Death Strike til you know he's going down. At 61 my rotation goes like this...
Icy Touch-Plague Strike-Blood Strike-1 to 2 Death Coils-Death Strike and Oblit if needed.

-Corpse Dust is too damn expensive, but will make or break an Unholy DK. To summon a controllable Ghoul at any given time is a huge benefit.

-"Ghouling" somebody after ganking them will be the new Teabagging

I'm grinding to 62 and getting my ass out of Hellfire. Northrend is on my mind, and I'm determined to get there as soon as possible.

The real beginning.

I went into this with ground rules for myself:

-I'm going with (currently) a Heavy Unholy/Light Blood spec for lvling and basic PvP. This will not be my Arena spec (That will go all the way to Blight), but it will be a very versatile Build for BG's and World PvP.

Current Build:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=253050000321000000000000000000000000000000000000000000023205231020211112011000000000

End Build:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=253050000321000000000000000002000000000000000000000000023205231023211112011055203000

-Accept any duel, regardless of level or class.

-Kill any Alliance I see (if possible. <_<).

Now I'm not going to go into the DK starting quests because they've been covered extensively. Maybe if I was able to beam you all into my mind I'd be capable of trumping the epic Videos and Screen Shots that everyone else posted by now. But I can't, and this is a PvP Blog. Yes yes, there is a duelling quest early on at Death's Reach, but unfortunately there was no one to duel but NPC's at 4am. =/

So we cut to the present day Plaguelands. Lights Hope Chapel. I touch down, think about whether I should quest here or not (I'm 58 at the time) and look around for Alliance. And hot damn there is one on a hill JUST outside the guards aggro range. A 58 DK like myself.

I mount up and haul ass over to where he is, zipping by and going to the edge of Death Grip's range. I pull.

Apparently, those Argent Dawn guys are VERY aware of their surroundings, as I die for the first time in game. Fortunately the graveyard is literally two feet away.

I sit there eating thinking to myself "Well shit, that wasn't what I had in mind" , when I'll be damned if he doesn't attack me. The guards knock his head in and now we are both eating together typing /shrug to each other.

I decide to head off into the EPL to do one quest and gage the amount of exp for it. I arrived at the town (No I can't remember the name. It is the one where you need to kill ghouls to free tortured souls), and found another Horde DK doing the same quest. The Forsaken challenges me to a duel. Woot.

VERY close, but I go down. Literally.

I DIED.

My zombie self (Shadow of Death talent) raises and I think "Ah cool, I can keep going".

Nope. The duel is over technically and he is once again green to me.

So there I am, an ugly ghoul with a huge Runesword and a thumb up my ass.

Here is the conversation we had as I watch the ghoul duration tick down;

"You..died. lol"
"I think I better report this bug to Blizz"
"lol"
"Well, I got ten seconds to fail. Good day!"
*explodes*
*whispers him from the GY*
"I think I'll respec out of this particular talent later. <_<"
"lolz"

I don't of course. As it stands currently Shadow of Death is USELESS except for Ghoul Mastery. And I want that so I am stuck with a useless utility. I think I've only surprised and killed one person with my reanimation since this incident. The rest see the Ghoul raising and they keep focusing on DPSing me so my shambling self drops right as I raise. Woo-hoo.

I raise and I see a Gnome Deathknight in the area. I eat and Death Grip. I remember lots of flashy graphics, abit of lag and him dying. My first real honor kill, and I'm damn proud of it.

I ended up finishing the quest and saying nuts to the EPL scene. I need to power level as I gank, so I headed to the Dark Portal.

What I find there is a real trial by fire...

It almost was over before it began.

Have you ever been actually dumbstuck? Or pulled a double-take? It's an odd sensation that causes a person to REALLY do that; a feeling that you've left reality behind and wandered into a cartoon. The absurd is not only possible, it's happening.

Since Beta Opt-Ins began I've gone through a sad daily routine. Hop onto my hotmail account, sigh heavily as I see I have messages, and look at said messages knowing they aren't from Blizzard.

Sunday night was like any other. A night where with insurmountable odds crushing me I checked my Email without hope.

I'd like to say it was suntle realization that crept over me as I saw the Email from Blizzard in my Inbox, but it wasn't. I think that was why I was dumbfounded by what I saw. The Title line reading "Wrath of the Lich King Beta Invitation!" hit me like a salmon to the face. Me getting a Beta Key seemed so absurd and impossible that I just could not believe it.

I had won the nerd lottery.

My hands trembled and I felt mildly faint as I did the rough math to decipher my odds. I am pleasantly surprised to this day that I didn't have a stroke right there. How ironic would that have been? Done in by what I wanted all along.

So the next day I was off and running. saddened by the one choice of skin per DK race, but pleased with the look with helm.

Dahnek was ready to enter the psuedo-live World of Warcraft, and I was ready to start mastering the class.

An introduction is in order.

I go by the name of Dahnek, and I'm a Warcraft player. I started with Burning Crusade (I affectionately refer to myself as a "BC Kid"), and have a 70 Demo Warlock (retired) and a 70 Shadowstep Rogue (soon to be retired). My obsession and future main is the new Death Knight class from the upcoming WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King. A fan of the class since the days of Lord Soth in Dragonlance (yes Gods dammit, I know I'm old), I knew upon hearing the first press releases that this would be the class for me.
I've had the pleasure of first-person accounts of the Alpha testing and am now proudly a member of the Beta Testing. My focus is PvP in all it's forms, and during the Alpha/Early Beta testing I wrote a series of articles focusing on DK PvP entitled "Mister, we deal in Death." for the http://deathknight.info/ website. (how's that for a shameless plug, Kenzi?)

So with that said I thought I'd invite you all to hear my insights, trials and tribulations through the Beta and beyond as I get knee deep in ganking and other adventures.

We ready?

Then here we....GO!