I hear Frost is pretty bad for leveling, but I'm most interested in it. Is overall damage and downtime too bad to consider it for leveling, or does it only get good at certain level, etc.
All three trees are great for leveling. Blood is the easiest, because it's really hard to die, but it takes longer. Frost is a lot faster if you play it smart. Especially once you get Death Strike - then all specs get a vampirism attack.
Frost EASILY does more damage than Blood. Unholy is pretty good for leveling too - it feels a lot like playing a 'lock.
EDIT: Blizzard has really outdone themselves with how they've implement Death Knights. Not even counting the story and lore standpoints (soooooo cool), and just approaching ability- and spec-wise, DKs are extremely impressive in how diverse they can be. You can spec to pretty much exactly what you want, and the class supports a wide variety of playstyles, without overshadowing any other classes.
I have very few alts (My main is a healing priest) but is the Frost Tree's obvious focus on crits synergistic with it's supposed focus on dual-wielding?
I have very few alts (My main is a healing priest) but is the Frost Tree's obvious focus on crits synergistic with it's supposed focus on dual-wielding?
I haven't had much time to try out dual-wielding yet with Frost, but I'll give it a look when I get a chance.
How does the threat gen for blood spec work, since there's a lot of healing potentially going on?
Threat-gen? You mean, as a tank? I'd say that there shouldn't be much problem - I mean, you can still use Frost Presence to increase your armor and threat output dramatically. That, plus a lot of the heals you'll be doing should make it no problem to generate threat.
I'll certainly level my druid to 80 (since I'll have some guildies to level with), but I'm seriously considering switching to DK as main after that once the guild starts raiding again.
Does the ghoul one, just last for a couple minutes like shitty warlock pets? Does it stick around long enough to justify the mana cost? How about the undead army one?
Also, how hard/easy would it be to two box a DK probably blood or frost heavy with a resto druid?
EWom on
Whether they find a life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet.
I'm not sure exactly how frost would work in leveling. A lot of the talents and such are about slowing down or freezing enemies. It all seems more PVP oriented, because it doesn't seem to make much sense with regards to soloing with a heavy melee class like the DK. Unless I'm just missing a key aspect that makes it all click.
Unholy looks to be the DPS tree for parties or raids where you're not the tank. Stuff like Corpse explosion would shine in instances with groups of enemies, not solo hopping outside. Especially Bone armor too. Increases damage done by 2% and reduces all damage by 45%, but you only get 4 bones, each hit on you removes a bone, and it's a 5 min cooldown. It's only going to last you one mob while soloing, where in groups you should be able to just keep it on indefinetely.
Blood though is frickin' insane. There are at least 5 talents that give you so much passive healing that you finish every fight at full health. There's zero downtime at all. It's to the point where I think they may nerf something here, it's that crazy.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I take it the Blood tree is what people will usually want for PVP? What with all that self-heal and stuff.
Rune Tap + imp. Rune Tap looks plain nasty. Is that additive for the improved feat? 55% health back once per minute?
It's not 55% of your health. It's the initial 10% healing, and then an additional 45% of that if you have the talent. Whatever wacked out math they use for that kind of stuff. But it sure ain't half your health every minute, that would just be way too broken.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Does the ghoul one, just last for a couple minutes like shitty warlock pets? Does it stick around long enough to justify the mana cost? How about the undead army one?
Also, how hard/easy would it be to two box a DK probably blood or frost heavy with a resto druid?
Unspecced, the ghouls get summoned, do their thing for a bit, and then die. They're okay. When you pet-spec for them, though, you get a full pet bar, so you can use their interrupts and stuns and guarding abilities. If you're Unholy, you'll have your ghoul up all the time - you can spec to have it up all the time with minimal investment.
Dunno about the undead army one - I don't have it yet. My understanding is that it's a chanelled ability that's more-or-less an AoE.
I take it the Blood tree is what people will usually want for PVP? What with all that self-heal and stuff.
Rune Tap + imp. Rune Tap looks plain nasty. Is that additive for the improved feat? 55% health back once per minute?
I don't recommend Blood for PVP - you don't do enough damage to make it worth it. Frost is probably the best for Arena, with Unholy easily being the best for BGs. Frost gives you excellent single-target damage and control, and Unholy gives you pets and lots of AoE and spreading diseases.
Caedere on
0
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
How does the threat gen for blood spec work, since there's a lot of healing potentially going on?
Threat-gen? You mean, as a tank? I'd say that there shouldn't be much problem - I mean, you can still use Frost Presence to increase your armor and threat output dramatically. That, plus a lot of the heals you'll be doing should make it no problem to generate threat.
Oh, I'm sorry, I totally should've clarified. >.<
See, I've had my eye on the blood talent line as a group support thing (aside from solo'ing). Which means the aura talent and all the healing type talents. I wanted to know if you've seen or experienced what happens if you're in a group as not the tank, doing this healing aside from DPS.
I'm not sure exactly how frost would work in leveling. A lot of the talents and such are about slowing down or freezing enemies. It all seems more PVP oriented, because it doesn't seem to make much sense with regards to soloing with a heavy melee class like the DK. Unless I'm just missing a key aspect that makes it all click.
Unholy looks to be the DPS tree for parties or raids where you're not the tank. Stuff like Corpse explosion would shine in instances with groups of enemies, not solo hopping outside. Especially Bone armor too. Increases damage done by 2% and reduces all damage by 45%, but you only get 4 bones, each hit on you removes a bone, and it's a 5 min cooldown. It's only going to last you one mob while soloing, where in groups you should be able to just keep it on indefinetely.
Blood though is frickin' insane. There are at least 5 talents that give you so much passive healing that you finish every fight at full health. There's zero downtime at all. It's to the point where I think they may nerf something here, it's that crazy.
Frost works just fine - you're going to be in melee range anyway, so slowing only helps you since it keeps enemies from fleeing. Tag an enemy with Death Coil, they run into melee, you unload. Also, you have Death's Grip to instantly-teleport any enemy to you, so that helps. Really, there's no problem soloing with Frost at all. I like it a lot more than Blood.
I agree with Unholy being a great raiding tree, but again, it's fine for leveling. It really plays a lot like being a Warlock.
Blood is too boring - yeah, you never die, but there's so little downtime with the other trees anyway. It basically plays like being a Feral druid while you're leveling and I've already done that before.
See, I've had my eye on the blood talent line as a group support thing (aside from solo'ing). Which means the aura talent and all the healing type talents. I wanted to know if you've seen or experienced what happens if you're in a group as not the tank, doing this healing aside from DPS.
Just dicking around and not really knowing what's what I came up with this as a leveling spec. I like being support, so I may stick with Blood when it's time to raid too, but I'm not averse to go Frost and tank if needed. And we'll see what they do with that dual spec Blizzard are talking about...
How does the threat gen for blood spec work, since there's a lot of healing potentially going on?
Threat-gen? You mean, as a tank? I'd say that there shouldn't be much problem - I mean, you can still use Frost Presence to increase your armor and threat output dramatically. That, plus a lot of the heals you'll be doing should make it no problem to generate threat.
Oh, I'm sorry, I totally should've clarified. >.<
See, I've had my eye on the blood talent line as a group support thing (aside from solo'ing). Which means the aura talent and all the healing type talents. I wanted to know if you've seen or experienced what happens if you're in a group as not the tank, doing this healing aside from DPS.
Ohhh. I see.
Well, you're going to be pulling a lot of aggro, that's for sure. Fortunately you're resilient enough to take hits without any trouble - it's like, "Shits, I have aggroz - FROST PRESENCE" and you're fine.
Caedere on
0
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
How does the threat gen for blood spec work, since there's a lot of healing potentially going on?
Threat-gen? You mean, as a tank? I'd say that there shouldn't be much problem - I mean, you can still use Frost Presence to increase your armor and threat output dramatically. That, plus a lot of the heals you'll be doing should make it no problem to generate threat.
Oh, I'm sorry, I totally should've clarified. >.<
See, I've had my eye on the blood talent line as a group support thing (aside from solo'ing). Which means the aura talent and all the healing type talents. I wanted to know if you've seen or experienced what happens if you're in a group as not the tank, doing this healing aside from DPS.
Ohhh. I see.
Well, you're going to be pulling a lot of aggro, that's for sure. Fortunately you're resilient enough to take hits without any trouble - it's like, "Shits, I have aggroz - FROST PRESENCE" and you're fine.
Yeah, not to mention there's a talent in there that becomes active if you drop below a certain % health that adds... I think armor.
How does the threat gen for blood spec work, since there's a lot of healing potentially going on?
Threat-gen? You mean, as a tank? I'd say that there shouldn't be much problem - I mean, you can still use Frost Presence to increase your armor and threat output dramatically. That, plus a lot of the heals you'll be doing should make it no problem to generate threat.
Oh, I'm sorry, I totally should've clarified. >.<
See, I've had my eye on the blood talent line as a group support thing (aside from solo'ing). Which means the aura talent and all the healing type talents. I wanted to know if you've seen or experienced what happens if you're in a group as not the tank, doing this healing aside from DPS.
Ohhh. I see.
Well, you're going to be pulling a lot of aggro, that's for sure. Fortunately you're resilient enough to take hits without any trouble - it's like, "Shits, I have aggroz - FROST PRESENCE" and you're fine.
Yeah, not to mention there's a talent in there that becomes active if you drop below a certain % health that adds... I think armor.
So our 'oh shit' button is frost presence. Grand.
I think the "Oh shit" button might be the Mark of Blood talent. 30s debuff that, whenever that person hits a target, that target is healed for 2% of their max health. 3 min cooldown. I can see that ability being the one that lets DK's solo a lot of elites.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Oh, an AOE taunt on 15 second CD? Schweet. Balanced by needing a disease to taunt the target, though.
Pestilence. Spreads an existing disease onto 2 additional targets.
So, Plague strike on enemy to disease it. Pestilence to spread it to 2 more targets, and then Blood boil to erupt those diseases to gain instant aggro on 3 targets without ever having to tab at all. Fun times.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
0
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Oh, an AOE taunt on 15 second CD? Schweet. Balanced by needing a disease to taunt the target, though.
Pestilence. Spreads an existing disease onto 2 additional targets.
So, Plague strike on enemy to disease it. Pestilence to spread it to 2 more targets, and then Blood boil to erupt those diseases to gain instant aggro on 3 targets without ever having to tab at all. Fun times.
Oh, an AOE taunt on 15 second CD? Schweet. Balanced by needing a disease to taunt the target, though.
Pestilence. Spreads an existing disease onto 2 additional targets.
So, Plague strike on enemy to disease it. Pestilence to spread it to 2 more targets, and then Blood boil to erupt those diseases to gain instant aggro on 3 targets without ever having to tab at all. Fun times.
Reading some more: Death and Decay causes a six-second disease. :winky:
Oh, an AOE taunt on 15 second CD? Schweet. Balanced by needing a disease to taunt the target, though.
Pestilence. Spreads an existing disease onto 2 additional targets.
So, Plague strike on enemy to disease it. Pestilence to spread it to 2 more targets, and then Blood boil to erupt those diseases to gain instant aggro on 3 targets without ever having to tab at all. Fun times.
Reading some more: Death and Decay causes a six-second disease. :winky:
Death and Decay is so outrageous right now, the radius is HUEG.
Oh, an AOE taunt on 15 second CD? Schweet. Balanced by needing a disease to taunt the target, though.
Pestilence. Spreads an existing disease onto 2 additional targets.
So, Plague strike on enemy to disease it. Pestilence to spread it to 2 more targets, and then Blood boil to erupt those diseases to gain instant aggro on 3 targets without ever having to tab at all. Fun times.
Reading some more: Death and Decay causes a six-second disease. :winky:
I don't have it yet, but I've seen someone cast it. The bloody size of it is huge. I'd say maybe at least twice that of Concecration.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Oh, an AOE taunt on 15 second CD? Schweet. Balanced by needing a disease to taunt the target, though.
Pestilence. Spreads an existing disease onto 2 additional targets.
So, Plague strike on enemy to disease it. Pestilence to spread it to 2 more targets, and then Blood boil to erupt those diseases to gain instant aggro on 3 targets without ever having to tab at all. Fun times.
Despite having not played one yet, the Death Knight talent trees are looking pretty fantastic. I'm not seeing any talents in the trees that look almost mandatory like ones in the past like Improved Arcane Explosion, Tactical Mastery, etc, and yet I'm also not seeing talents that look useless. The number of possible builds that should be viable looks like it might be higher than any other class.
However, combine that with my having not actually played a Death Knight, I can't decide what kind of spec I would go for.
eelektrik on
(She/Her)
0
Options
Kevin CristI make the devil hit his kneesand say the 'our father'Registered Userregular
edited July 2008
I would love it of Death Rune Mastery in the Blood tree became non-talented. Other then that, I agree. the trees are looking good on paper.
Right now actually I'm liking the idea of dual wielding with Icy Talons and Nerves of Cold Steel in the Frost tree along with Unholy Presence on. But what else I would go for, I'm still not sure.
I'm sort of hoping they make the Unholy talent that turns your pet into a fully controllable thing into an untalented standard ability, and then have that talent double the length of the ghoul's durations, along with a percentage boost to all of their abilities.
Posts
Frost EASILY does more damage than Blood. Unholy is pretty good for leveling too - it feels a lot like playing a 'lock.
EDIT: Blizzard has really outdone themselves with how they've implement Death Knights. Not even counting the story and lore standpoints (soooooo cool), and just approaching ability- and spec-wise, DKs are extremely impressive in how diverse they can be. You can spec to pretty much exactly what you want, and the class supports a wide variety of playstyles, without overshadowing any other classes.
I have very few alts (My main is a healing priest) but is the Frost Tree's obvious focus on crits synergistic with it's supposed focus on dual-wielding?
Threat-gen? You mean, as a tank? I'd say that there shouldn't be much problem - I mean, you can still use Frost Presence to increase your armor and threat output dramatically. That, plus a lot of the heals you'll be doing should make it no problem to generate threat.
So, I'll have a Doomkin AND a Doomcow .
Does the ghoul one, just last for a couple minutes like shitty warlock pets? Does it stick around long enough to justify the mana cost? How about the undead army one?
Also, how hard/easy would it be to two box a DK probably blood or frost heavy with a resto druid?
Rune Tap + imp. Rune Tap looks plain nasty. Is that additive for the improved feat? 55% health back once per minute?
Unholy looks to be the DPS tree for parties or raids where you're not the tank. Stuff like Corpse explosion would shine in instances with groups of enemies, not solo hopping outside. Especially Bone armor too. Increases damage done by 2% and reduces all damage by 45%, but you only get 4 bones, each hit on you removes a bone, and it's a 5 min cooldown. It's only going to last you one mob while soloing, where in groups you should be able to just keep it on indefinetely.
Blood though is frickin' insane. There are at least 5 talents that give you so much passive healing that you finish every fight at full health. There's zero downtime at all. It's to the point where I think they may nerf something here, it's that crazy.
It's not 55% of your health. It's the initial 10% healing, and then an additional 45% of that if you have the talent. Whatever wacked out math they use for that kind of stuff. But it sure ain't half your health every minute, that would just be way too broken.
Dunno about the undead army one - I don't have it yet. My understanding is that it's a chanelled ability that's more-or-less an AoE.
I don't recommend Blood for PVP - you don't do enough damage to make it worth it. Frost is probably the best for Arena, with Unholy easily being the best for BGs. Frost gives you excellent single-target damage and control, and Unholy gives you pets and lots of AoE and spreading diseases.
Oh, I'm sorry, I totally should've clarified. >.<
See, I've had my eye on the blood talent line as a group support thing (aside from solo'ing). Which means the aura talent and all the healing type talents. I wanted to know if you've seen or experienced what happens if you're in a group as not the tank, doing this healing aside from DPS.
Frost works just fine - you're going to be in melee range anyway, so slowing only helps you since it keeps enemies from fleeing. Tag an enemy with Death Coil, they run into melee, you unload. Also, you have Death's Grip to instantly-teleport any enemy to you, so that helps. Really, there's no problem soloing with Frost at all. I like it a lot more than Blood.
I agree with Unholy being a great raiding tree, but again, it's fine for leveling. It really plays a lot like being a Warlock.
Blood is too boring - yeah, you never die, but there's so little downtime with the other trees anyway. It basically plays like being a Feral druid while you're leveling and I've already done that before.
Just dicking around and not really knowing what's what I came up with this as a leveling spec. I like being support, so I may stick with Blood when it's time to raid too, but I'm not averse to go Frost and tank if needed. And we'll see what they do with that dual spec Blizzard are talking about...
MS is not fun to me
Ohhh. I see.
Well, you're going to be pulling a lot of aggro, that's for sure. Fortunately you're resilient enough to take hits without any trouble - it's like, "Shits, I have aggroz - FROST PRESENCE" and you're fine.
Yeah, not to mention there's a talent in there that becomes active if you drop below a certain % health that adds... I think armor.
So our 'oh shit' button is frost presence. Grand.
I think the "Oh shit" button might be the Mark of Blood talent. 30s debuff that, whenever that person hits a target, that target is healed for 2% of their max health. 3 min cooldown. I can see that ability being the one that lets DK's solo a lot of elites.
Pestilence. Spreads an existing disease onto 2 additional targets.
So, Plague strike on enemy to disease it. Pestilence to spread it to 2 more targets, and then Blood boil to erupt those diseases to gain instant aggro on 3 targets without ever having to tab at all. Fun times.
Paladins eat your heart out?
Reading some more: Death and Decay causes a six-second disease. :winky:
Death and Decay is so outrageous right now, the radius is HUEG.
There's Icebound Fortitude, too.
I don't have it yet, but I've seen someone cast it. The bloody size of it is huge. I'd say maybe at least twice that of Concecration.
A lot of this may end up depending on how Blizz decides to go on frost strike which was at least briefly, quite high damage.
I think theres a skill for that too
And this is the build I am considering for my main DK. Of course, things can change by the time Wrath is released.
And I'm using Blizzard's offical Talent builder because it's been updated often with upcoming changes.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
It is I, smiling through the eternities.
yes, yes! destroy wow!
However, combine that with my having not actually played a Death Knight, I can't decide what kind of spec I would go for.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless