Q & A with DST

Here are some questions one of my guildmates asked, and I thought they were worth sharing the answers to. I've also updated these answers since I last answered them two days ago, so if you're in DST, and you think you've already seen this, think again!

Q! What is your spec? (Click here to see the latest DK talent calculators!)

A! I'm currently Unholy. I chose that because to me that feels like what the Death Knight should be. It is a lot of fun. There are lots of boosts to your disease damage, some cool AoE talents, defensive stuff, lots of variety. The Master of Ghouls talent allows you to treat a risen ghoul as a pet, giving you a pet bar and actually lets you control it as a Hunter or Warlock would a pet. Normally they wander rather aimlessly. =P Below are some examples of Unholy talents:

Q! Have you tried any other specs?

A! I have! They are all fun and viable in their own ways, whereas Unholy features those points I just made above, Blood really focuses on crits, big dps, and health regeneration. Heart Strike in the Blood tree applies a debuff which negates any haste effects on your target (I think this includes built in melee/spell haste, too, but that could be a bug right now. =P). There are also some good party/raid buffs like Blood Aura, Hysteria, and Abomination's Might.




Frost can be pretty fun, too. It's more oriented toward heavy burst dps and (obviously) Frost damage. It's also considered the tanking tree because there are a lot of defensive abilities here, though any tank is going to have to dip into Blood and Unholy some, I believe. I have experimented with the Frost tree, but I have not experimented with tanking. Frost Presence seems to equate to a spell-oriented version of a Warrior's Defensive Stance, increasing threat generated, armor, and spell resistances.

Those talents I pictured above highlight the defensive stuff in the Frost tree, so you might be wondering, "Well, where's this supposed burst damage coming from, then?!" Here. =P





Q! Are all specs mainly melee or is there a ranged dps spec?

A! The class as a whole is primarily a melee class. There are a few talents and skills that are ranged in nature, notably Death Coil and Icy Touch early on. But the DK also has a skill called Death Grip which will actually pull a target TO you from up to 30 yards away. It's actually kinda funny to hurl your enemies around. =P The Frost tree does offer a Howling Blast talent which would add another ranged option to your repertoire. So, in short, the class is mainly melee with a flair of ranged thrown in.

Death Knights also have a few anti-caster abilities in Mind Freeze and Strangulate. Mind Freeze is an interrupt that requires melee range (think Rogue Kick), but Strangulate is a ranged Silence for 5 seconds. Furthermore, it damages the victim when it wears off. >=) Death Grip can ALSO be used to interrupt a caster, since it hurls them toward you. Kinda hard to cast a spell when you're flying through the air. =P



Q! Have you tried any new trade skills?

A! Not yet, sadly. The only new one is Inscription, and I haven't been to Dalaran to train it. I plan for my Death Knight to go Herbalism/Inscription, so hopefully in the days to come I can provide some updates on that. But! If you look at the Links section on the right-hand side of your screen, check out Whitehand's blog. He recently posted a bunch of new screenshots regarding Inscription. I believe the cap for Inscription skill is 132? But that was last patch.

As far as other skills, DKs start with 270 in several areas. Here's a pic:



Also, Death Knights have a class-specific profession: Runeforging. This basically allows you to enchant your weapon for free. ^^ Some of the effects are pretty cool, too. Mmo-champion.com has a list of Runes here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=773

Q! What is your favorite part thus far?

A! There's a lot to like in Beta. They're toning up their graphics and sound options, for one. By typing /console extShadowQuality [1-6], you can seem some AMAZING lighting and shadowing upgrades if your video card can handle it. I use quality 2 and my FPS tanks from 75 to 25-30, though. XD Hopefully they can fix it to make it less demanding on graphics cards.

But when it comes to play, I'd have to say the Death Knight is really holding my interest. They kill things fast. Probably too fast, and it will probably be nerfed before it goes live, but it's fun for now. =P Dumal solo'd Araj the Summoner, the level 61 elite in Andorhal, EPL when he was level 58... without a problem! Anti-Magic Zone FTW!

I did toy around the Borean Tundra in Northrend a bit on Daejin, though, and the few quests there that I did were really fun. ^^ The zone itself though was disappointing, at least aesthetically. It felt... bleak. Well, I guess it IS the tundra, afterall. Maybe I'm expecting too much. But with the new PoM (Daej is back to his Arcane roots!), Daejin was up to almost 60% crit ALL the time. And with the extra crit from clearcasting, he was frequently hitting 90% crit rate. It actually got to the point where I'd be going, "WTF!" when I WASN'T critting. XD Here's a tooltip Arcane Potency:


Now, keep in mind that whenever Clearcasting procs, that's another 30%. =P So use PoM, get your 30%, and just don't use any spells with a cast time! Being Arcane, I just use Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage (new instant-cast arcane talent (51 points)), and Fire Blast. If I get in trouble, Frost Nova and Ice Lance. The only problem with keeping PoM up is that in a PvP setting, it's prone to be spellstolen, dispelled, purged, Arcane Shot... you get the picture. =P


But my favorite part is the experience in general. It feels cool to be helping Blizzard balance things, to help make sure things are working as they should be, to make suggestions regarding ANY aspect of the game, and to help make this expansion pack perfect, so that when we all go buy it in retail, everything runs smooth as butter. ^^