Inflation – A Glimpse Of 85

Update: If you’re solely looking for the specific stats on some level 85 items, jump down to this comment.

Up until now, I’ve pretty much overlooked specific numbers (aside from weapon damage, as it inherently scales) on abilities and items in regards to Alpha. There’s a couple reasons for this: many numbers are likely still placeholders, without knowing the stat/rating conversions numbers don’t mean a whole lot, numbers are generally the last thing to be balanced, and so on.

That said, it’s obviously a very important aspect of the expansion, at least in terms of spec balance and the like, and it doesn’t hurt to take a look at it. Although individual numbers may be tweaked, the overall trend of stat growth likely won’t drastically alter (i.e, if we have roughly twice as much stamina, it’s doubtful Blizzard would pull a 180 and just cut stamina in half globally. Individual items and buffs might have their values tweaked, but the big picture is what’s of more importance, and that’s unlikely to drastically shift one way or another).

The reason I’m approaching this topic now is largely due to the fact that although this build didn’t contain any DK-specific news, it did include one of the first glimpses at level 85 itemization which is obviously of incredible interest.

For reference, in terms of item budget: 10 str/agi/int/spi/crit/haste/dodge/parry/def/hit/exp/mastery = 11.5 spell power = 15 stam = 20 AP

Burning Crusade JC ring enchant: +12 spellpower
Wrath JC ring enchant: +23 spellpower
Cataclysm JC ring enchant: +50 int (equivalent of 57.5 spellpower)
BC – > Wrath = 92% increase, Wrath -> Cata = 150% increase

Burning Crusade flask: +70 spellpower
Wrath flask: +125 spellpower
Cataclysm flask: +300 int (equivalent of 345 spellpower)
BC -> Wrath = 79% increase, Wrath -> Cata = 140% increase

Burning Crusade 70 Strength of Earth: +86 str/agi
Wrath 80 Horn of Winter: +155 str/agi
Cataclysm 85 Horn of Winter: +419 str/agi
BC -> Wrath = 80% increase, Wrath -> Cata =170% increase

Burning Crusade 70 bandage: 3,400 healing
Wrath 80 bandage: 5,800 healing
Cataclysm 85 bandage: 34,800 healing
BC -> Wrath = 71% increase, Wrath -> Cata = 600% increase

Burning Crusade 70 spellthread: +35 spellpower, +20 stam
Wrath 80 spellthread: +50 spellpower, +30 stam
Cataclysm 85 spellthread: +60 int (equivalent of 69 spellpower), +45 stam
BC -> Wrath = 45% increase, Wrath -> Cata = 42% increase

Burning Crusade 70 craftable epic 2hander: 127 dps, 579 top end
Wrath 80 craftable epic 2hander: 186.5 dps, 761 top end
Cataclysm 85 craftable epic 2hander: 623.3 dps, 2836 top end
BC -> Wrath = 47% increase, Wrath -> Cata = 234% increase

I could go on and on with other comparisons, and if anyone is interested in a specific one just say so in comments, but I’m sure the picture is rather clear. It’s pretty crazy stuff, and in almost all cases it’s a drastic leap compared to the jump in stats we saw in the Burning Crusade to Wrath transition (and from the Vanilla to Burning Crusade one as well).

Of course, what’s of most interest is the weapon, to which I’m sure many people’s first reaction would be “wtf” – if they weren’t left utterly speechless by the absurdity of it.

Expected – New Alpha Build

Update: Nothing specific to Death Knights, quite unfortunately. Still, there are some interesting nuggets of information to be analyzed regardless.

Unsurprisingly, Blizzard just pushed a new build (12232) of the Alpha client. Nothing DK related as of yet, but obviously if there’s anything of notice, it will be thrown up asap.

I will say though that this is an absolutely incredibly looking mount, especially considering the lightening spark effect it has (which, unfortunately, you can’t see from that shot).

Who knows what the story behind this could be!

New Build – New Changes

More or less finished settling down in my new place, and thus back to regular posting. But before I could get to that, a new Alpha patch dropped, with the following:

• Rune Strike – Damage reduced, reading as the following: Strike the target for 200% weapon damage plus [200.0 * AP * 10.0 / 10000.0]. Only usable after the Death Knight dodges or parries. Can’t be dodged, blocked, or parried. This attack causes a high amount of threat.
  • For reference: Was 300% weapon damage plus [300.0 * AP * 10.0 / 10000.0] in the previous Alpha build. Currently 150% plus [150.0 * AP * 10.0 / 10000.0] on live.
• Brittle Bones – Now grants 2/4% increased strength, in addition to its previous effect.
• Endless Winter – No longer grants increased strength, although it still reduces the cost of Mind Freeze.

The Rune Strike adjustment is a given. Although overall avoidance rates may be down in the expansion, one has to remember that parry is being reworked to affect the next two strikes (albeit by 50%, and thus even though we might only have 15% dodge and 15% parry, RS will be activated by far more than a mere 30% of the enemy’s attacks.

The Brittle Bones change is equally obvious. It had to have some personal incentive given to it, otherwise no one would take it. It’s as simple as that. If anyone didn’t see that coming, then they apparently did not read my Frost analysis!

Endless Winter is the most interesting of this trio. On the one hand, I’m an advocate of the top of Frost being nerfed (at least insofar as its value to Unholy is concerned), and Endless Winter is a key aspect to managing that. On the other hand, Endless Winter isn’t the primary culprit (on Alpha, that is) – Pillar of Frost (and, to a lesser extent, Icy Talons) is. PoF is 20% strength with a 33% uptime – 8.33% strength over time, in other words, for a single talent point! That’s very over-budget for a talent, especially for one which is so high up in the tree. It either needs to be nerfed (longer cooldown or less potent effect) or moved down in the tree, such that Unholy can’t get it (meaning down at least two tiers, which would require the sacrifice of the mastery and of Gargoyle). Still, it’s a step in the right direction. So long as it’s not the only one but, instead, a sign of things to come, consider me thrilled with Blizzard.

At any rate, Notes updated, and expect a ‘full’ post on whatever topic I decide to dwell on sometime late tonight/early tomorrow!

Blood Parasite – The Specifics

Since many people seem curious:

• Blood worm: Initial Health: 10187. Stacks Blood Gorged – May burst, healing neraby allies for 10% of its maximum health. Stacks 14 times.

I’m not entirely sure if it has a chance to burst each time it gains a stack, then heals for 10% of its health * the number of stacks or whether it simply heals for a flat 10% of its health. Either way, pretty potent talent, as even if you interpret that as negatively as possible, that’s still a 10k AoE heal fairly regularly.

Still, 10k health might not be all that much in Cataclysm. Stat inflation appears to be rather huge, at least relative to past expansions. Simply look at the new HoW:

• Horn of Winter now increases your total strength and agility by 419 (up from 155).

Even so,  10k is greater than the current Circle of Healing numbers and the like, so as long as healers actually have to manage their mana, it might actually be a welcome addition, even if it isn’t as crazy as it might appear were it live today.

Cataclysm Notes – Updated

Just a quick little point of interest; the Cataclysm Notes have been completely updated and reformatted. It now includes all of the talent changes/additions, as well as the changes/additions to base abilities, separated into those two categories by tree. All information is up to date as of Alpha build 4.0.0.12122, which was pushed on May 28th.

If there is anything missing or otherwise incorrect, certainly let me know, but there shouldn’t be. Similarly, if you have any complaints as to the format of the page, just leave a comment, and I’ll see how I can improve it. It’s a lot of information to take in and list, so it was somewhat difficult to think of a user friendly manner in which to organize it all, but hopefully what I did works.

Anyways, enjoy, and have a good weekend.

Alpha – Blood Talents

The best for last. Or, rather, the most complicated for last. View it how you will!

Reminder: Complete trees can be viewed here.

Talents removed:

• Subversion
• Dark Conviction
• Mark of Blood
• Bloody Vengeance
• Sudden Doom
  • Moved to Unholy
• Hysteria
• Blood Gorged

Talents added:

• Sanguine Fortitude – “While active, your Icebound Fortitude reduces damage taken by an additional 10/20/30% and costs 33/66/100% less runic power to activate.”
• Hemorrhagic Fever – “Your Blood Boil has a 50/100% chance to afflict enemies with Hemorrhagic Fever, reducing their physical damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec.”
• Crimson Scourge – “Increases the damage dealt by your Blood Boil by 15/30/45%.”
• Blood Swarm – “When you Plague Strike a target that is already infected with your Blood Plague, there is a 20/40/60/80/100% chance that your next Blood Boil will consume no runes.”
• Bone Shield – Same as present, simply taken from Unholy.
• Blood-Caked Blade- Same as present, simply taken from Unholy.
• Toughness – Same as present, simply taken from Frost.

Talents modified:

• Might of Mograine now increases the damage dealt by your Blood Strike, Heart Strike, and Rune Strike abilities by 5/10/15/20/25%, instead of increasing the critical strike damage bonus of Blood Boil, Blood Strike, Heart Strike, and Death Strike.
• Improved Death Strike is now a three point talent, instead of a two point talent. Effect per point (15% DS damage, 3% DS crit, 25% DS heal) remains unchanged.
• Blood Worms now heal for one large amount at the end of their duration, instead of tiny amounts each hit. The heal affects you and nearby allies.
• Veteran of the Third War no longer increases strength, but instead increases stamina by 4/7/10% (up from 1/2/3%). Expertise amount remains unchanged.
• Improved Blood Presence now reduces the chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks is reduced by 3/6% in Blood Presence.
  • See this entry for information on the presence overhaul.
• Heart Strike now has a base 100% weapon damage modifier (up from the current 50%) and strikes two nearby targets (up from the current 1).
• Will of the Necropolis heavily redesigned, and reads as follows: When a damaging attack brings you below 30% of your maximum health, you generate a Blood Rune and the cooldown on your Rune Tap ability is refreshed, and all damage taken is reduced by 10/20/30% for 8 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds.”
• Dancing Rune Weapon now grants 20% parry while active, in addition to its current affect.
• Vendetta moved up two tiers, increased to a three point talent.
• Death Rune Mastery moved down four tiers.

For the time being, I am going to hold off on my commentary of all of this until the talent trees are viewable, as the linked site is currently down, and I know of no other public, permissible source of seeing the information. I don’t quite remember where each talent was, tier wise, and thus it would be hard/impossible to reflect on how the talents all interact with each other in reality, not to mention potential builds.

Presences – Cataclysm Style

As promised, the specifics on the presence overhaul:

• Blood Presence – The death knight takes on the presence of Blood, increasing Stamina by 8%, armor contribution from cloth, leather, mail and plate items by 60%, and reducing damage taken by 8%. Increases threat generated. Only one Presence may be active at a time.
• Frost Presence – Strengthens the Death Knight with the presence of Frost, increasing damage by 10% and increasing Runic Power generation by 10%. Only one Presence may be active at a time.
• Unholy Presence – Infuses the Death Knight with Unholy Fury, increasing attack speed and rune regeneration by 10%, and movement speed by 15%,. Only one Presence may be active at a time.

As I’ve already pointed out in the Unholy and Frost Alpha talent discussions, based on these and based on the Improved Presence talents, it’s almost guaranteed that each tree will run in its respective presence, as is only logical.

Alpha – Frost Talents

Reminder: Complete trees can be viewed here.

Talents removed:

• Toughness
  • Moved to Blood
• Deathchill
• Frigid Dreadplate
• Unbreakable Armor

Talents Added:

• Runic Empowerment – “When you use your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability, have a 8/16/24/32/40% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune.”
• Brittle Bones – “Your Frost Fever chills the bones of its victims, increasing their physical damage taken by 2/4%.”
• Pillar of Frost – “Calls upon the power of Frost to increase the Death Knight’s strength by 20%. Icy crystals hang heavy upon the Death Knight’s body, providing immunity against external movement such as knockbacks.”
  • Costs 1 Frost rune, lasts 20 seconds, has a 60 second cooldown.
• Might of the Frozen Wastes – “When wielding a two-handed weapon, your autoattacks have a 15/30/45% chance to generate 10 Runic Power.

Talents Modified:

• Improved Icy Touch no longer further decreases the target’s attack speed.
  • Likely baseline.
• Annihilation no longer causes Obliterate to not consume diseases and no longer increases crit chance. Instead, it increases the damage of Obliterate by 10/20/30%.
  • Obliterate likely does no consume diseases baseline, now.
• Rime no longer increases the critical strike chance of Obliterate and Icy Touch, but has a 15/30/45% (up from 5/10/15%) chance to reset the cooldown on Howling Blast and to cause your next Howling Blast or Icy Touch (instead of just Howling Blast) to cost no runes.
• Improved Frost Presence now increases damage dealt while in Frost Presence by 2/4%.
  • Presences redesigned, with each tree using its own namesake. Exact details of the new presences still unknown.
• Frost Strike now has a base weapon damage modifier of 110%, up from the current 55%.
• Guile of Gorefiend no longer increases the duration of IBF.
• Howling Blast now costs a Frost rune, down from an Unholy and Frost rune.

These changes aren’t quite as interesting as they may first appear, unfortunately, but then again – Frost probably needed much less work than the other trees, even considering the new rune system.

Alpha – Unholy Talents

Although it’s difficult to completely analyze any one tree without taking into account the changes of the other two, there’s simply too much here to try and do otherwise. Tackling all three at once would be suicide. Since Unholy is currently the least modified tree, it’s what I’ll start with.

Reminder: Complete trees can be viewed here.

Talents removed:

• Blood-Caked Blade
  • Moved to Blood
• Bone Shield
  • Moved to Blood
• Anticipation
• Corpse Explosion
  • Made baseline

Talents Added:

• Resilient Infection – “When your diseases, other than those applied via Pestilence, are dispelled, you have a 50/100% chance to have their cost refunded.
• Unholy Frenzy – “Induces a friendly unit into a killing frenzy for 30 seconds. The target is enraged, which increases their melee and ranged haste by 10%, but causes them to lose 3% of their maximum health every 2 seconds.”
  • Currently no resource cost and a 3 minute cooldown.
• Sudden Doom – “Your autoattacks have a 5/10/15% chance to make your next Death Coil cost no runic power.”

Talents Modified:

• Epidemic increased from a two-point talent to a five-point talent. Moved up two tiers.
• Outbreak renamed Corrupting Strikes. Now increases the damage of Plague Strike and Scourge Strike by 10/20/30%, up from increasing the damage of Plague Strike by 10/20/30% and the damage of Scourge Strike by 7/13/20%.
• Virulence no longer provides disease dispell protection.
• Morbidity moved down two tiers.
• Night of the Dead no longer provides AoE reduction for pets.
  • Presumably baseline.
• Magic Suppression no longer provides passive magic damage reduction. Still increases AMS by 8/16/25%. Now causes AMS to provide RP when it absorbs damage.
  • Considering AMS already provides RP when it absorbs damage, it’s most likely that it no longer does so without the talent.
• Anti-Magic Zone reduced to a 45 second cooldown (down from 2 minutes).
• Improved Unholy Presence no longer reduces the refresh time on runes, but instead grants 3/6% haste.
  • Note: Based on the new Imp Blood Presence, BP appears to be the tanking presence. FP and UP are both changed, although who knows by what extent.
• Ghoul Frenzy had its duration and heal doubled.
• Reaping moved down two tiers.
• Wandering Plague damage reduced from 33/66/100% to 17/33/50%.
• Ebon Plaguebringer now increases magic damage taken by 3/6/9%, down from 4/8/12%.
• Scourge Strike redesigned. Now costs one Unholy rune (down from one Unholy and one Frost) and has a base 100% weapon damage modifier (up from 70%).
  • Because you know it has to change every at every opportunity.

My first impression: Quite incomplete, but one hell of a start.

Alpha – DK Talent Trees

June 4, Update: The below linked site is unavailable, potentially permanently. Currently, I know of no other site with the physical talent trees for Cataclysm, but fear not: all the information which was contained therein is still available from the Cataclysm Notes, and that page will still be updated every time a new Alpha/Beta build is pushed. In some ways that format is weaker than actual trees, and in some ways it’s stronger – regardless, hopefully it suits the needs of most.

Yeah. Self-explanatory title. A new build was recently pushed, and we get one of the most important things for our class – talent info:

http://wiki.raevyn.net/files/talent/deathknight.html

I just got home from work, and am in the process of making dinner, so I’ll leave my thoughts and analysis for later this evening – and although it’s obvious the trees are far from complete, there’s still a ton of new talents to dissect and debate. I simply wanted to post this as soon as possible, so people could get their own minds wrapped around it all.

I will say this much: Sudden Doom + Runic Empowerment will go a long, long way in eliminating most of our empty GCDs as Unholy. Might of the Frozen Wastes just might make 2H Frost a possibility (coexsiting with DW Frost). Blood is actually a real tank tree, with tons of utility (although I have mixed feelings on the new Will of the Necropolis).

Anyways, off to eat. Actual talent-by-talent analysis, along with heavy edits to the Cataclysm Notes page, later on.