Talent Build Examples for Blizzard's New Death Knight

With Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King NDA out of the way, there has been the inevitable flood of information about the new expansion hitting the streets. One of the most sought-after pieces of information is anything about the new class being introduced, the Death Knight. Massively has a great summary, with video examples, of the three different avenues available to the Death Knight. From the AE strengths of unholy, to the life-stealing blood tree, to the control of the frost tree, it seems that this new juggernaut is certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Comments

Re:Age of Conan much more interesting.

[ivan256]

Translation: Not to start a flamewar, but let's talk about something off topic, since it's sure to be something that will get under the skin of the types of people who would read this particular article..

Maybe it's just me, but isn't that the definition of trying to start a flamewar?

Class balance finally revealed

[Wylfing]

Now we finally understand Blizzard's strategy of class balance and all this "e-sport" nonsense! You see, they'll introduce a new class that is so vastly superior to all the others that everyone stops playing the other classes.

Balance issues solved!

Re:Class balance finally revealed

[archen]

Things will be changing however. Currently tanks (and healers somewhat) simply cannot do enough damage to solo things very well. In the expansion everyone will do more damage, and thus have some solo viability. Threat generated will also be changed and it looks like people will be able to tank more with an off spec. And from what I've seen the tank shortage (aside from the large responsibility) often comes down to the fact that when you are spec'd to tank, that's about all you can do, and many would like to do other things.

The Burning Crusade made a lot of good changes and made many classes viable, but it also seemed to pigeon hole just about everyone into one spec and/or one job. It looks like Blizzard is trying to allow people to have much more versatility in the way they play, while still being viable.

Re:Class balance finally revealed

[bwindle2]

If they really want to fix the soloing problem AND the tank/healer shortage all at once, they need to make respecs free. My paladin has a great healing set, and a decent tanking set, and a meh ret set. I am not willing to drop 100G to respec prot and back again to tank some pug that'll likely suck anyway. I also can't afford to drop 100G to respec Retibution to do (some) better damage for soloing.

But if re-specing were free, or at least a heck of a lot cheaper, I might.

Re:news?

[MooseMuffin]

You're in the games section. The newsworthy requirement is significantly reduced.

Let me be the first to say...

[Digitus1337]

Deathknight needs a nerf.

Re:Age of Conan much more interesting.

[Krater76]

I like the way Tycho on Penny-Arcade put it, that standing in Lakeshire makes you wonder why they don't bother making a game out of all the raw material they have in the world.

It might not be the game Tycho wants. They made their game, and while somewhat entertaining it wasn't what I wanted.

And that's the heart of the problem. Some people want crazy continent-wide PvP. Some people just want to explore. Some people want to destroy the largest monsters in the world. Some people want shiny stuff. Some people want to be involved with, or be the focus of, a story. And some people just want to buy/sell/create stuff and never leave town. And everyone wants to do it at varying speeds (the casual vs. hardcore).

You can't please everyone. You can certainly try, but Blizzard has certainly given up in a lot of places. World PvP and crafting are definitely two that come to mind right off the bat. They are going to try for some things in regards to world PvP in WotLK but we'll see how that goes. They tried updates to world PvP in BC as well and that didn't turn out so great. Crafting is more of a money sink than anything else and is considered by many to be one of the worst crafting systems in MMOs. I doubt that will change.

Re:Too soon!

[4D6963]

*woosh*

A bit off topic but I see so many people missing jokes on Slashdot and people replying "whoosh" that I seriously think we should have a -1, Whoosh moderation option.

have you looked in a mirror?

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

Most of the people whining about how their game is ruined by others ARE jerks, assholes, and selfish pricks out to ruin everyone else's day. Normal people just stop playing.

Re:Age of Conan much more interesting.

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Any game that features PvE and PvP is never going to please everyone. It takes a great deal of effort to fairly balance a game for either PvE or PvP - it's almost impossible to do. People who play PvE want big weapons (or spells or whatever) that do massive damage, and if it can kill your opponent in one swing (casting, etc.) that's even better. In PvP, no one wants to go into a fight knowing that they can be one-hit-killed, so weapons, spells, etc. have to be toned down.

Crafting is another touch situation. If you can craft anything that is profitable, then everyone will jump on that wagon and drive the value down.

I have played a lot of MMORPGs (the original Neverwinter Nights on AOL back in the early 1990s, right up through WoW and have yet to find a game that can fairly and accurately balance a PvE and PvP situation to keep a majority of people happy - WoW comes closest, but there will always be people who are unhappy.

BTW - I'm playing Dungeon Runners right now and it's a blast (if a bit simple) and you can't argue with the price (free, or $5/mo if you want all the features).