Choice Made

So even though ret pallies are the bullies and gankers of the WOTLK beta right now, I have decided that my main will be a deathknight. Chickenpox will live !!!

Theres been some discussion on the Heroes Inc boards about the DK in PVP which has led me to really consider how I would go about playing a DK in BG's and arenas. All 3 specs have things that look appealing for PVP, Frost and unholy in arenas, blood would be hella fun in a bg, and any of them would be a blast for world PVP. My goal was to play a character that I wouldn't mind PVPing with so I could include myself in all of Heroes' activities; but now I find myself excited about the prospect. How bizarre. So even if by some miracle ret pallies remain the gods they currently are, I will be switching my main to Chickenpox and trying to level like a freight train.

You have been pwned by Chickenpox.

Pets & Mounts Huzzah

Probably the best change I've seen in a long time. Pets (non-combat) and mounts are being changed into spells that you learn and a special tab will be put into your spellbook. Finally, collector's such as myself will no longer have to find space for the multitude of pets or mounts that we have collected. I usually roll with about 6-10 small pets in my bag at any time, this will be an enormous space savings. Woot.

Chickenpox has cast Mechanical Squirrel.
Mechanical Squirrel has crit.
Chickenpox has been killed by Mechanical Squirrel.

Runeswapping ...... Denied

As an addendum to yesterday's post where I said I was concerned about runeswapping, Blue has came out and said that as of now the plan is to use 2 of each rune instead of customizing. While that is a little dissappointing I'm glad that it is known and now I can move on knowing my limitations. This should make balancing the DK much easier, but hopefully they will work on improving the talent trees so that they work together better since we will be forced to use skills from all 3 trees.

From observation Frost seems to suffer the most from the 2/2/2 rune configuration so I hope they work on it next, as I really liked the look of it from early Alpha leaks. Several skills got nerfed when beta opened and the lack of frost runes really hurt the spec. Of course all of this just conjecture at the moment since I have no beta key. Phooey.

*edit* I also forgot to mention that Blizzard is reducing the levelling requirements from 60-70, currently the reduction is ~30%. Hopefully this stays, it'll make levelling my DK that much easier (probably about 30% easier ;P). However, this will lessen the only significant barrier to the world being flooded with DK's. I don't expect to be unique but hopefully some variety is retained.

You have been bored by Chickenpox.

Beta has begun, so much confusion

So it has been several days since beta began and I have had a chance to digest lots of tasty info. I don't understand all of it since I have no beta key (YET!!). I have basically been ignoring the mage stuff, I guess that means I am REALLY uninterested in progressing Brambles. I've been looking over the Pally and DK details as closely as I can. Unfortunately, I have concerns about both and am actually very excited about both. So without further adieu:

Pally Stuff:
I am going to focus on the Ret changes as that would be what I would spec toward. I have tried my hand (albiet briefly) at Pally tanking and while I had a small amount of success with it, it didn'y feel natural to me and so I look at the Pally as DPS/Heal hybrid. I will leave the Prot changes to Honors who has a definite gift for it.

Looking at the talents alone Ret looks very viable especially in PVE, PVP I have no real idea but I doubt they are worse off than they are now. The mana issues appear to be history, although there may be a bug or two, and the seal/judgement system has been changed in such a way that makes perfect sense to me, I love it. I'm not ecstatic that Seal of Casino is still around but now that allies have access to Seal of Blood (Martyr) and Seal of Righteousness may be more viable I have less complaints about that. Another instant cast damage ability will also make fighting with the pally less dull. Also, preliminary glances suggest that the Shockadin spec may be more viable as well a Spell-damage Ret build may be finally possible (something I wanted to do in TBC but was never able to do).

The biggest question for me about pallies is gearing. The devs have said that Ret pallies will be sharing gear with warriors and DK's, and the AP -> SP talent enforces that opinion. However, with no intelligence where is the mana pool coming from ? Now, it may be that the mana return from Judgement of the Wise is good enough to compensate for a very small mana pool, but I am still concerned. Also, currently Ret pallies are getting ridiculous damage from judging Seal of Command, as high as 17k I have heard. Now the math from talents actually backs it up so I'm guessing that changes will be made. I haven't looked as closely at the Holy talents so I will not comment on them yet.

Death Knight:
The biggest concern I have for the DK is that it appears you are no longer able to customize the runes on your weapon. For those that don't know, many DK abilities use runes as the cost, they have 3 types: Blood, Frost & Unholy. Several DK spells cost 1 or more runes and when used they take 10 seconds (untalented) to be ready for use again. Now, it was said by the devs that you would be able to customize the runes on your blade which promised great flexibility and customization for your play style. The current setup (in beta 2/2/2) is all you are allowed, 2 of each rune. I am hoping that they are only doing this for testing purposes as the 2/2/2 configuration allows the use of all the DK's abilities.

I won't go into much detail about how the trees are looking since this is a new class in beta and I know that tweaks will be coming. Currently from comments and videos, blood looks ungodly awesome and efficient, Frost is weak and cumbersome, and unholy is very, very cool. I expect Blood will be nerfed a bit, Frost will be buffed and unholy will stay about the same. As for DK tanking, I will definitely be considering this and have been thinking about spells/talents to use for threat generation and mitigation. I was and still am very excited about his class because I could immediately see how certain ability/talent combinations could be used effectively for leveling/PVE DPS/PVP and tanking. I was/am excited by the amount options available to me. I am a little less excited right now due to the lack of rune customization but as I said I am hoping that is for testing alone and it will be available, maybe at a higher level.

One thing is for sure, I will have a class (maybe 2) that I will be excited to level to 80 and contribute to the Heroes Inc raiding effort. I am drooling over the 10 man progression idea and the idea of seeing all the available content with the friends I have made, and probably new ones too (the way it is with mmo's, some leave some stay some join). So in conclusion:

BETA KEYZ PLZ!!!

*ahem* thank you, that is all.

You have been killed by Chickenpox.

Goodbye Ret/Holy/Prot Pally & Arcane/Ice Mage, Hello DK

I thought for the opening post I would try to explain why I will be foregoing my established characters in favor of the great unknown. I have two decently geared 70's, a Mage (currently Frost) and a Pally (Holy or Ret with some Prot gear), I also have a 63 Rogue and a 60 Druid, either of which (or both) I could have at 70 in time for the expansion.

I'll start with the mage. I don't maind raiding with Brambles, I understand the class, I can improvise when needed and I know how to gear and DPS. My favorite spec is by far arcane, which looks to be receiving some interesting things in the expansion, although an elemental build will most likely be the spreadsheet favorite. Since I am now finished school and have become a full-time working stiff, I probably won't have quite as much time to play as I would like, so I am hoping to have 1 main that I enjoy both PVE and PVP with. The big problem with the mage is the fact that I hate PVPing with it. Even with a Frost spec I just don't enjoy it.

Now the pally. I originally joined Heroes Inc as the token Ret pally. Unfortunately I soon discovered that Ret pallies were broken, and not really feasible for Alliance. (Damn SoB). I switched my raiding main to Brambles and that went well for a while. At some point our guild had a deficit of healers and I respecced Rhubarb to Holy and healed for quite a long time. I tried out prot and build a tank set, had some success and some not-success, lol. *Hats off to Honorshammer, he made it look so easy.... it wasn't* When Ret got a little buff, I tried it out again and there was definite improvement, however to be most viable raiding ret pallies need to gear up with PVP gear. So into the BG's I went, at times it was fun and I had some success, but I found pally PVP boring with very few spells to use and a VERY small mana pool. I am still waiting on the new stuff for pallies in WOTLK which may still persuade me to keep Rhubarb as my main, but I am very doubtful.

As for Fynn, and Sonar my Rogue and Druid, I'll say this: I have no reason being a rogue, I wanted to gank people and I find I'm too lazy or timid. Rogues have to be jack*sses and I apparently don't fit the bill. As for the druid, it is very appealing as I do love the hybrid playstyle but I lost interest in levelling it and our guild is very druid heavy as it is.

When the Deathknight was announced last summer, Wichita mentioned to me that it seemed right up my alley, a melee class with spellcasting, and I was quite excited. As I delved into the alpha information I have become more excited, I have made build after build utilizing all 3 trees: blood, frost and unholy for both melee dps (2H and DW) and tanking. I am currently planning on going 2H Blood for levelling but Frost/Unholy looks fun too. I will be updating my preferences as more info comes out and *finger-crossing* I get into the beta.

The main downside to rolling a Deathknight for my main is that while my guildies will start the expansion at 70, I will be trucking from 55. I will have to work very hard to catch up or at least not fall too far behind. I have begun making some preparations to speed my levelling to at least move ahead of the herd of DK's that will be rolled when the expansion goes live.

My Deathknight will be a female Dranei named Chickenpox. I currently plan to be an engineer and the 2nd profession is undecided at the moment. I will have mats for 375 enggineering/cooking/first aid all stockpiled and ready to go. Also I plan to have ~10k in gold waiting for epic mount hotness.

The hardest part is the waiting, I anticipate the expansion will be in about 3 months which leaves plenty of time to get everything ready. In future posts I will be expounding on my plans for raiding, PVPing, professions, and how I am going to go about collecting mass amounts of non-combat pets. Wish I could transfer from Brambles *sigh*.

One last comment: I chose my name based on what I want people to see in their combat log after I killed them.

You have been killed by Chickenpox.

Pinkeye was taken.