Yipeeeee!!! Level 68 gives you 'permission' to head to the fertile xp grounds of Northrend. Given the increased experience from questing and killing mobs, you'll hit 70 before you can say "Death Knights are OP!"
You won't get a lot of new abilities, but as you add talent points to your blood tree, you'll find it a breeze to solo your way to max level, or find a group of buddies and farm instances for the same.
So, congratulations! You've made it to Northrend!
Whether this is your first time here, or your 8th alt, take a few minutes to enjoy the scenery. Northrend has some truly incredible vistas to offer, from the soaring bluffs of Howling Fjord to the savage green wildlife in Sholezar Basin, to the rugged blue peaks of Icecrown. Enjoy!
Now, about getting that DK to 80......
;)
Monday, October 5, 2009
Raiding DK professions (a few comments)
You raid as a dps DK, right?
Ok, I'm not going to write a long post here on min/maxing professions. It's been well-established since Lich King was released that Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing are the way to go for providing the best raid benefits. There's been plenty of posts and blogs covering the topic in detail; if you want more info, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.
Can you raid effectively with other professions? Sure, you can. They're not quite as good, but you can get by.
For now, however, I'll assume you're like me and are JC/BS. So, two things about raiding with those professions, just as simple reminders.
1. Don't forget to create your three gem sockets: bracers, gloves, belt. I have forgotten a time or two when I got a new piece to make those sockets, and I lost out on the very nice stat bonuses they provide.
2. Distribute your gems carefully. If you armory Hinenuitepo, you'll see I have two +20 hit gems. This gets me to the cap, which is very important. Other than hit/expertise cap issues, you should ignore socket bonuses and gem strength. The only other exception to this is to ensure your meta gem activation; use a Nightmare Tear to fulfill your blue gem requirement, and do so where it will get you a +6 strength socket bonus (legs/chest).
This brings up a related point: DON'T BE CHEAP. There's no reason to skimp on your main. There's no reason to put non-epic gems in your slots or have suboptimal enchants. It's just too easy to make money in the game. Wowenomics and many other sites can give you plenty of ideas, but the simplest tip of all with the two professions above comes from jewelcrafting. Do the daily every day - it takes 10 minutes at the most. You can find all the mobs that drop the quest items nearby in Icecrown or Storm Peaks. People forget that most animals, including the rhinos up in SP drop the northrend ivory. Anyway, you can turn your token into quick cash either by trading the token into a Dragon's Eye or by getting five infinite dust and creating a nightmare tear. I usually make the tear as it is worth more than selling the raw eye and five dusts sold seperately on my server - but check your own server for prices.
Happy Monday, and more to come!
-finish my leveling guide, and more
Ok, I'm not going to write a long post here on min/maxing professions. It's been well-established since Lich King was released that Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing are the way to go for providing the best raid benefits. There's been plenty of posts and blogs covering the topic in detail; if you want more info, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.
Can you raid effectively with other professions? Sure, you can. They're not quite as good, but you can get by.
For now, however, I'll assume you're like me and are JC/BS. So, two things about raiding with those professions, just as simple reminders.
1. Don't forget to create your three gem sockets: bracers, gloves, belt. I have forgotten a time or two when I got a new piece to make those sockets, and I lost out on the very nice stat bonuses they provide.
2. Distribute your gems carefully. If you armory Hinenuitepo, you'll see I have two +20 hit gems. This gets me to the cap, which is very important. Other than hit/expertise cap issues, you should ignore socket bonuses and gem strength. The only other exception to this is to ensure your meta gem activation; use a Nightmare Tear to fulfill your blue gem requirement, and do so where it will get you a +6 strength socket bonus (legs/chest).
This brings up a related point: DON'T BE CHEAP. There's no reason to skimp on your main. There's no reason to put non-epic gems in your slots or have suboptimal enchants. It's just too easy to make money in the game. Wowenomics and many other sites can give you plenty of ideas, but the simplest tip of all with the two professions above comes from jewelcrafting. Do the daily every day - it takes 10 minutes at the most. You can find all the mobs that drop the quest items nearby in Icecrown or Storm Peaks. People forget that most animals, including the rhinos up in SP drop the northrend ivory. Anyway, you can turn your token into quick cash either by trading the token into a Dragon's Eye or by getting five infinite dust and creating a nightmare tear. I usually make the tear as it is worth more than selling the raw eye and five dusts sold seperately on my server - but check your own server for prices.
Happy Monday, and more to come!
-finish my leveling guide, and more
Friday, October 2, 2009
Raid Weekly Quests
Brilliant, Blizzard, just brilliant (said with every possible nuance included).
I would consider Blizzard's latest incarnation of daily heroics a raging success. LFG was starting to look like a true ghost town before 3.2. Often, the entire lfg interface had one or two people in it. Now, at least for the daily heroic, it never takes me more than a few minutes to get a group. People are motivated to do heroics, they usually go very quickly unless you're unlucky enough to get a fail group, and the rewards feel worthwhile.
RAID DAILIES??? (Weekly). Wow. We're going to feel compelled now to run Ulduar/Naxx/etc again every week, at least up until whatever boss it is we're supposed to be killing. It will make lfg for these instances viable (at least up until that target boss) in a way that it's never been before. Shoot, my guild will be doing Naxx at least a couple times when it's the weekly - for mains and alts... ugh another time sink. And, yay! A nice way to keep old content interesting and viable.
I would consider Blizzard's latest incarnation of daily heroics a raging success. LFG was starting to look like a true ghost town before 3.2. Often, the entire lfg interface had one or two people in it. Now, at least for the daily heroic, it never takes me more than a few minutes to get a group. People are motivated to do heroics, they usually go very quickly unless you're unlucky enough to get a fail group, and the rewards feel worthwhile.
RAID DAILIES??? (Weekly). Wow. We're going to feel compelled now to run Ulduar/Naxx/etc again every week, at least up until whatever boss it is we're supposed to be killing. It will make lfg for these instances viable (at least up until that target boss) in a way that it's never been before. Shoot, my guild will be doing Naxx at least a couple times when it's the weekly - for mains and alts... ugh another time sink. And, yay! A nice way to keep old content interesting and viable.
Ulduar 10, Ony revisited
Just your typical 'blog/journal' post today.
I went back to Ulduar 10 the other night after a regular toc clear.
Actually, let me clarify. When Ulduar was released, I raided it in 25 mans for two weeks before I took a break from wow due to RL (Real Life) concerns. I actually didn't do any 10 man Ulduar at all.
After I came back to the game and transferred to a new guild/server, I really didn't get into U10 either - we were focused on U25 and then TOC. So when we went into Ulduar with several alts and several mains, I had forgotten my lack of U10 experience. It was certainly funny to see achievements popping up every kill as we finished out our evening with this fun partial clear.
I went back to Ulduar 10 the other night after a regular toc clear.
Actually, let me clarify. When Ulduar was released, I raided it in 25 mans for two weeks before I took a break from wow due to RL (Real Life) concerns. I actually didn't do any 10 man Ulduar at all.
After I came back to the game and transferred to a new guild/server, I really didn't get into U10 either - we were focused on U25 and then TOC. So when we went into Ulduar with several alts and several mains, I had forgotten my lack of U10 experience. It was certainly funny to see achievements popping up every kill as we finished out our evening with this fun partial clear.
3.3 super early advance reactions
By now you've checked out the Icecrown Citadel maps and info.
Suh - weet!
This looks like an epic 5-man like we haven't seen since..... well since.... well, vanilla wow? I wasn't even playing until BC, so I don't have a comparison point. I enjoyed a number of the 5-mans in Burning Crusade, and I admit to really enjoying the first time I stepped into both the Nexus and Old Kingdom. I like most of the LK 5-mans, honestly. Too much of the time we don't stop to look at the artwork and focus on just getting through the instance, killing the mobs/boss, and /collecting the loot.
This new instance looks wonderful to me so far. Better, really, than perhaps any 5-man I've seen at an appropriate level. Epic comes to mind.
For DKs, the good news is there's almost no news. During this first year since Lich King was released, we've gone through more adjustments, tweaking, and changes than your grandmother's prescription list. I'm ready to just settle down for a bit and 'be' a Death Knight for a while. I'm pleased with the reduction of aoe damage to pets, and the stoneskin gargoyle change makes sense. Otherwise, hopefully we don't end up with major mechanic-modifying changes in 3.3.
I can't wait for more info on the Icecrown raids!
Suh - weet!
This looks like an epic 5-man like we haven't seen since..... well since.... well, vanilla wow? I wasn't even playing until BC, so I don't have a comparison point. I enjoyed a number of the 5-mans in Burning Crusade, and I admit to really enjoying the first time I stepped into both the Nexus and Old Kingdom. I like most of the LK 5-mans, honestly. Too much of the time we don't stop to look at the artwork and focus on just getting through the instance, killing the mobs/boss, and /collecting the loot.
This new instance looks wonderful to me so far. Better, really, than perhaps any 5-man I've seen at an appropriate level. Epic comes to mind.
For DKs, the good news is there's almost no news. During this first year since Lich King was released, we've gone through more adjustments, tweaking, and changes than your grandmother's prescription list. I'm ready to just settle down for a bit and 'be' a Death Knight for a while. I'm pleased with the reduction of aoe damage to pets, and the stoneskin gargoyle change makes sense. Otherwise, hopefully we don't end up with major mechanic-modifying changes in 3.3.
I can't wait for more info on the Icecrown raids!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Leveling your DK: 60-68
So you've made it to Outlands! Welcome! The land of the Burning Crusade - home of lurid skies and lurid gear :)
Level 60 gives us an important tool for leveling: Death & Decay. Now we can really aoe! Combined with pestilence to spread your diseases, and blood boil, you can now do some serious damage to as many mobs as you can pull. Your leveling will never be the same. Read on, McDuff for more suggestions on burning your way to Northrend...
Level 60 gives us an important tool for leveling: Death & Decay. Now we can really aoe! Combined with pestilence to spread your diseases, and blood boil, you can now do some serious damage to as many mobs as you can pull. Your leveling will never be the same. Read on, McDuff for more suggestions on burning your way to Northrend...
Raiding DKs in 3.2.2: Review of Week 1
As you know, I've spent the last couple of weeks before and after the 3.2.2 patch testing dps with the various raid specs that have been exhaustively theorycrafted. Now that we've seen what Onyxia has to offer (no drakes yet on my server) and seen how the 'new' Scourge Strike builds and nerfed Heart Strike perform, where does that leave us as dps DKs in raids?
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