Death Knight Frost tree changes in latest Wrath Beta build

Between Blood's lack of downtime and Unholy's AE abilities and Ghoul control, Frost is starting to feel a bit like the unwanted orphan of the Death Knight trees. While it's heavy on the tanking talents and has some burst potential, we've been there done that, perhaps, already have Frost Mage alts, and so on and so forth.

Luckily, Blizzard recently made some changes to the tree on Beta which look like they may be nudging the tree in the right direction toward equality with the other two trees. Here's a concise list of the changes via MMO-Champion:

• Improved Icy Touch now increase the damage of your Icy Touch by 10/20/30/40/50% and its damage against Frozen Targets by 20/40/60/80/100% (Old version : Reduces the cooldown of your Icy Touch spell by 1/2/3/4/5 sec and increases its critical strike damage bonus by 10/20/30/40/50%)


• Nerves of Cold Steel has been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2.


• Annihilation has been moved from Tier 6 to Tier 3.


• Aneurysm has been moved from Tier 8 to Tier 7.


• Merciless Combat has been moved from Tier 8 to Tier 6.


• New Talent - Blood of the North - Tier 8 (5 Points) - Whenever you use a Blood Strike there is a 20/40/60/80/100% chance that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates


• Frost Aura increases your Frost Resistance by 32/65 instead of 22/45.


• Frost Strike prerequisites have been removed. (Merciless Combat was required before)

The Nerves of Cold Steel and Annihilation changes are probably made primarily so that Blood and Unholy Death Knights can have a chance at grabbing them. Annihilation should be especially nice for Unholy Death Knights, since it will allow them to use Obliterate for massive damage with a very low chance of removing the massive amount of disease that they use to do most of their damage and debuffing.

Of course, a build that takes Annihilation will probably have to give up Vendetta, which could make grinding a bit more difficult, though Death Strike, Death Coil, and Death Pact may help make up for that somewhat.

Blood of the North should also be very helpful for Frost Death Knights, as they've probably suffered the most from the decision to forego runeswapping and standardize runeblades at 2/2/2. With all the talented Frost moves they use, being able to activate an extra Death Rune should be very helpful in giving them some leeway to set up massive freeze damage combos.

The Improved Icy Touch change's benefits are a bit more nebulous. At the least, it should allow for a quick freeze damage combo with Chains of Ice, but overall, Frost Knight freezes are still rather random, and Hungering Cold's Freeze will likely always be saved for the Deathchill/Howling Blast combo, so it's hard to say how much mileage a Death Knight will get from this change.

Of course, Ghostcrawler's still actively seeking feedback on the changes it seems, and has said that they're looking to make Frost Death Knights less dependent on rotating all their abilities and keeping more of them situational, so it's likely that Frost will see a few more changes before live for sure, as Blizzard contines the painstaking process of building and balancing a new class fom the ground up.

How to fly through the cold winds of Northrend

Blizzard has stated that they'll be disallowing the use of flying mounts in Northrend for the first few levels in order for players to appreciate the geography and not miss anything in the latest expansion. Given the amount of work they've put in so far, and looking through the fantastic scenery, it seems like a fair charge. It's recently come to light that the 'attunement' process, which was under much speculation, will not be an attunement at all or cost any money.

In fact, the ability or key to fly in Northrend, called Cold Weather Flying, is a reward from a quest chain obtained in Sholazar Basin at Level 77. The so-called attunement process for flying will actually even reward money, rather than cost anything. MMO Champion has screenshots of, and Wowhead has information on the ability and quest chain. It seems like the mad rush won't necessarily be to Level 80, but a first stop at the all-important Level 77.

Death Knight Gameplay Video: Unholy PvP

Jadefury continues to deliver with the Death Knight videos. This time, he runs around in one of the Northrend starting zones and preys upon unsuspecting Alliance. It's a bit of a gank video, so fair warning if you're not into that. He uses this level 73 Unholy/Blood build.

Jadefury himself admits, of course, that the first thing he had going for him was the element of surprise -- not only ganking, but people panicking as they had to face down an unfamiliar class. We wouldn't be surprised if PvPing with a Death Knight for the first few months of Wrath is easy if only because of that deer in the headlights phenomenon.

Still, he also showcases some very nice uses of Death Knight PvP skills. My favorite is his use of Death Grip, which looks like it's fast becoming the signature Death Knight move -- not only does it take care of people trying to run away, but he uses it as a spell interrupt in a pinch. There's also some freezing action going on as well with what looks to be Chains of Ice. Of course, having Magic Suppression probably helps a lot as well.

Of course, it's worth noting that he leapt upon people in combat (with some rather sweet looking Nerubians at that, we can't believe we'll be able to solo those, Wrath is going to be so epic), and this is only at level 73, so level 80 organized PvP may look somewhat different. Still, it's yet another good look at Death Knight gameplay to prepare all of us rerollers.

New pets from the Wrath beta

Our favorite Hunter (although BRK comes close), Mania, has had some help from the Wrath beta, and has now updated the great Petopia with all the new pets seen in Northrend so far. No penguins yet, but there are some great new bears in there, and some awesome wolves (is it just me, or are wolves underrated as pets?). Unfortunately, there are no new families up yet, but Mania says updates are coming, and of course Wrath is still in beta anyway.

She's also got a Beta pet FAQ up, with everything you'd ever want to know about being a Hunter in the beta, from pet talents to "exotic pets" (the real ones, not the ones BRK dreamed up for us).

It's going to be an exciting time to be a Hunter in Northrend. Pet versatility makes Hunters one of the most interesting classes in the game, and it looks like Blizzard is set to open it up wide in the expansion.

Guilds and WotLK preparation

While sifting through my over-stuffed RSS feeds this morning, I came upon a post from Mark of the Wild, a druid blog, that addressed the changes players are making to prepare for the expansion, and the effect this is having on guilds.

With all of the juicy information trickling down daily about the Beta, it does seem that everyone has Wrath on the brain. At the very least, it must make it difficult to focus on other goals. For example, do you really want to start farming to make that epic crafting set, when Northrend is around the corner?

Players have already been noticing a decrease in raiding activity because of summer vacation, but how is the preparation for the expansion affecting your guild?

Are you losing players to other raiding guilds, or beginning to realize that many people are spending more time soloing to gear up or level their alts? Is your guild working together to reach specific pre-expansion goals?

Beta class changes on the way

MMO-Champion has posted a list of changes that are seemingly going to go live in the WotLK Beta with the next patch. The official talent calculators have also been updated to reflect the changes.

Here is an overview of some of the major changes on the way:

Death Knights

• Blood: Will of the Necropolis and Frost Aura buffed, and Blood Gorged will affect on melee damage.


• Unholy: Corpse Explosion and Unholy Aura buffed. Improved Corpse Explosion will have a longer effect time until full damage is done.

Druid

• Moonkin Form and Force of Nature will have a reduced cooldown. Those spells, in addition to Tree of Life Form, will have set mana costs instead of a percentage of base.


• Balance: Typhoon and Starfall will have increased range, but will also cost significantly more mana.


• Restoration: Flourish will cost less mana (585 to 450), but it will also heal for less (1610 to 672).


• Feral: Primal Tenacity will be changed back to a chance to resist stun and fear effects by 5/10/15%. The range of Faerie Fire is being increased by six yards.

Hunter (Survival)

• Hunting Party will be nerfed. It will now have at most, a 60% chance to proc on a critical strike, instead of 100%.

Mage

• Arcane: Arcane Impact will be called Spell Impact, and will affect Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Ice Lance, and Cone of Cold, in addition to the current effects on Arcane Explosion and Arcane Blast.


• There will be a new tier 3 talent called Student of the Mind, which will increase spirit by 4/8/12%. Potent Spirit has been removed.
  


• Arcane Potency will require one point in Presence of Mind instead of five in Arcane Concentration.


• New tier 8 talent called Arcane Flows. It requires one point in Arcane Power, and reduces the cooldown on your Presence of Mind, Arcane Power and Invisibility spells by 30 seconds.


• Netherwind Presence, rather than causing several of your spells to have a chance to grant you an instant spell, will increase spell haste by 2/4/6%.

Paladin

• Holy: Holy Shock is being buffed, with the amount that it heals increased by 66%.


• Protection: Holy Shield will grant 6 charges instead of 4. Avenger's Shield will cost 70% less mana, but will do less damage. Guarded by the Light will reduce the mana cost of your Consecration, Holy Wrath and Avenger's Shield by 15/30%.


• Retribution: Improved Blessing of Might will increase the attack power bonus of your blessing by 10/20/30/40/50% instead of 4/8/12/16/20%.


• Vindication will have the chance to reduce target's attributes by 10/20% instead of 5/10%.


• Pursuit of Justice will require only 2 talent points (down from 3) and will increase mounted movement speed by 9/15% (old was 5/10/15%) and reduce chance to be hit by spells by 1/2% instead of 1/2/3%.

Shaman

• Elemental: Convection (Tier 1) is now a 3 points talent, reducing the mana cost of Shock, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Thunder and Lava Burst spells by 4%/8%/12% (Old version : 5 points and 2/4/6/8/10%).


• Elemental Precision increases your chance to hit with Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 2/4/6% and reduces the threat caused by these spells by 4/7/10% (Old version : 1/2/3% hit and 10/20/30% threat).


• Astral Shift now has a 33/66/100% chance to shift into the Astral Plane reducing all damage taken by 30% (Old version : 100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 10%/20%/30%).


• Thunderstorm range increased from 10 to 12 yards, damage increased from 595-679 to 640-729, knockback stays 20 yards.


• Enhancement: Improved shields now increases the amount of Mana Shield orbs by 10% instead of 5%, improvements to Lightning Shield and Earth Shield stay the same.


• Shamanistic Rage now gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 15% of your attack power. (Old version : mana regeneration equal to 30% of your attack power)


• Maelstrom Weapon now reduces the casting time of any spell by 4/8/12/16/20% when you critically hit with a melee weapon. (Old version : was only affecting Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst)


• Feral Spirit now lasts 45 seconds instead of 30 seconds.


• Restoration: Nature's Guardian cooldown has been changed from 8 to 5 seconds. Spirit Link now also breaks if a shared damage would reduce a target's health below 20%.

Warrior

• Arms: Bloodletting has been renamed to Improved Rend once again and doesn't increase the amount of damage caused by Bloodbath anymore.


• Protection: Shield Specialization now gives you a chance to generate 1 rage when a block occurs. (Old version : 2 Rage).

Warlock

• Affliction: Haunt (Tier 11) has been changed from a 10 sec cooldown to a 15 sec cooldown.


• Destruction: Aftermath (Tier 2) changed to 2%/4% chance to daze the target for 5 sec. (Previously 5/10% for 5 sec). Chaos Bolt (Tier 11) changed to an 8 sec cooldown. (Previously 12 secs).

Death Knights and racial bonuses

Death Knights are in the unique position of being open to every race (Warriors can choose any race but Blood Elf). This means you will have a lot of options for trying to pick the best racial bonuses for your new DK; complicating the matter is the fact that DKs can both tank and DPS. Milkgas, of Anvilmar (US), recently wrote in with the opinion that Dwarves would be optimal for a tanking DK, due to their frost resistance (speculating that frost will be prevalent in Wrath. But let's go over the options (listing only the racials that seem relevant to DKs):

Horde:

• Orc: Blood Fury would be handy for DPS, not so good for tanks; Hardiness, on the other hand, would be nice, if not essential, for a tank to have; and Axe Specialization is helpful, given that axes will be available for DKs to use as rune weapons (as well as swords and maces)


• Tauren: War Stomp is great for PvP. Endurance is probably the best overall tanking racial out of all the races. And Nature Resistance will probably be handy somewhere, though it's not a huge deal.


• Troll: Berserking is a useful, if occasional, boost.
  
• Forsaken: I still contend that Will of the Forsaken is overpowered. May certainly come in handy while tanking, and of course in PvP. Shadow Resistance, like Nature Resistance, is a marginal benefit.


• Blood Elf: It remains to be seen how the Mana Tap/Arcane Torrent system will work with DKs' Runic Power, but this has the potential to be very useful. Magic Resistance is, numerically, stronger than any other race's inherent resistance - you wind up with 25 points of resistance overall.


• Alliance:


• Dwarf: Stoneform can be very useful to remove certain debuffs while tanking. If Frost ends up being a major damage type in Wrath, Frost Resistance might be the best inherent resistance to have, though this is still a small amount.


• Gnome: Escape Artist is lovely for PvP. Also Arcane Resistance.


• Human: Diplomacy is very pleasant to have in late-game PvE for faction grinding. Sword and Mace Specialization will both be usable to the Death Knight.


• Night Elf: Quickness is good for a tank. Nature Reistance again, too.
  
• Draenei: Gift of the Naaru is especially useful given that the DK is not a healing class (with the exception of various talented abilities like Blood Tap). As far as I know, it has not yet been revealed whether Draenei DKs will get Heroic Presence or Inspiring Presence, but either would be helpful. And Shadow Resistance, woo.

So which is best? My vote would be Orc for DPS, Tauren for tanking on the Horde side; and Human or Draenei for either role on the Alliance side. There are, of course, many reasons to choose a race other than racial bonuses, which after all tend to be fairly minor in the long run, but if you really can't decide, this might help give one race the edge. What race are you going to make your DK?

Neth hints at the next gold sink

With the advent of the Burning Crusade, flying and epic flying mounts at 70 became a sink for the extra gold floating around Outlands in player's pockets. There has been speculation ever since about what a similar sink might be in Wrath of the Lich King.

In jest, Nethaera put forth the following:

Animal rescue centers will be set up by D.E.H.T.A (Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals) and the movement to rid the world of Nessingwary will need funding! Save the penguins! Save the world!

Considering what a pain the Nessingwary quests can be, it's almost sad that he gets to continue recruiting for the butchering of beasts. Still, at least there will actually be penguins to "save!"

She also hinted at some of the actual possibilities for our next big purchases. Inscription will be the next trade skill, which will likely see many players dropping other professions and paying to level it, as well as all players shelling out hard-earned gold in order to purchase inscriptions on a regular basis.

Similarly, many players will start a Death Knight alt, and use their mains to finance its gearing, enchanting, inscribing, professions, and other expenses.

Neth also suggested that new mounts might be a factor, although we've already been told that Northrend mount attunement will be affordable. She also mentioned that the new hairstyles might find you parting with some of your gold.

Already, in preparation for WotLK, we are seeing more reasons to spend, spend, spend. With Haris Pilton finally live as of this afternoon, players will be flocking to purchase her 22-slot bags (1200g a pop) and other wares. Will you be saving up for Wrath, or decking out your characters with new bags?

Wrath: DK description

Ooh, someone on the Blizzard web team is going to get in trouble. I took the above screenshot straight from the official Classes page, and obviously it wasn't ready to be published quite yet (click for a slightly bigger version). But can we actually glean anything new from the Death Knight text? (The "Find out more about death knights" link returns to a 404, so no help there.)
No. There is absolutely no new information here. There are some obvious mistakes though:

Type: should probably be "Tank and melee DPS" or some such (so should Warriors, come to think of it).

Available weapons: as far as we know, DKs won't be able to use daggers, fist weapons, staves, or polearms. I guess that may have changed, but I'm just not seeing "rune staff."
Standard Bars: no mention of runes or runic power.
And it's pretty amusing that they clearly made the Death Knight section by copying and editing the Warrior section (which is how these inaccuracies crept in there). Anyway, I take this as a sign that development on Wrath is moving forward and the beta is approaching

Wowhead releases Wrath talent calculators

For some of you, it may strike you as a little early to be thinking about your level 80 talent builds - especially given that Wrath is still in alpha and everything we think we know about it may change - but I say, it's never too early to theorycraft. That is why I'm pleased to report that Wowhead, having gotten a chance to play some Wrath at WWI, made talent calculators for the Wrath alpha talents, including Death Knights. Now we can play with our shiny new builds to our hearts' content. Paladins and Hunters have not had their talents implemented in the beta yet, so you won't find them there, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
Inveterate priest fan that I am, the first thing I did when I got my hands on this was make a build for my holy priest, and this is what I came up with: 14/57/0. Yes, I'm finally excited enough about Holy to spec away from Improved Divine Spirit; Guardian Spirit just looks too good to pass up, at least in its current form. As far as my Rogue goes, it depends on how Murder Spree ends up working, but I'm thinking either 21/50/0 (Cold Blood combat, yay!) or 20/51/0. Death Knights I still can't quite get my head around, but it sure is fun to play with their talents.

Wrath of the Lich King box revealed

Tipster Nigel sent in these curious-looking photos of what appears to be the packaging for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. We've already gotten wind of the possible packaging for a Collector's Edition, so why not the basic box? Apparently, the person who leaked the Collector's Edition photo is still working at the printing press and puts his cell phone camera back to work with these photos of the regular edition.

Could it be the real thing? I'm not so sure myself, but if they're fake, they're pretty good ones. The box design includes clever elements that I didn't consider were I to make a mock-up myself... such as a small disclaimer stating that the game requires The Burning Crusade. The layout of the box closely resembles that of the previous expansion, too, with the exact same font used for the words 'expansion set' and identical placement of logos. One of the most telling signs that point to its authenticity, however, was a printer's mark usually found on print material before they're cut (and made into a box). Nigel smartly states that he didn't take the pictures himself. Check out the pic of the inside flap with the telling printer's mark after the jump.


With all the buzz about the Beta opt-in, it seems like Blizzard is actually getting close to finishing the game. At the very least a playable version of it. Now we've seen possible box designs, as well, which -- if they are authentic -- means that the company is moving full tilt towards a definite, foreseeable release. Who knows? Perhaps we'll actually be trudging around in Northrend by the time Blizzcon rolls around.

Why should you be in the Beta?

Not long ago Blizzard opened up the expansion content to selected friends and family. We've had a few days to sign up for the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Blizzard has made it clear that assignment in the Beta test that aside from a better chance of selection among* World Wide Invitational attendees, the beta testers will be selected by a random lottery. But what is it that makes a good beta tester?

I've entered twice for the Beta, as I have two accounts. I'm not sure how many participants will be selected, but I really hope I get in. If I wasn't with WoW Insider, I probably would avoid the beta. I'm rather in favor of delicious surprised once the expansion is actually released. Recent iterations of the Public Test Realm have invited everyone to come and play. Many have taken that challenge to see nifty, new gear and test new mechanics. Blizzard has proven open to feedback through progressive testing.

If beta entry were an application process, I have much to offer as a tester. I have a more keen awareness of balance and mechanics than I once did. If they're offering character copies, my five level seventies would be a boon as I'd be able to discuss a range of classes. I'd certainly be all over PvP mechanics. If I were selected, I'd supply Blizzard with comprehensive feedback about the way things work (or don't work,as the case may be). I'd be both excited and critical as a beta tester. Of course, I'd share as much information as of official policy allows with the wonderful readers of WoW Insider.