I don’t have beta access, didn’t get it an invite on either of my active accounts. I don’t feel motivated to really cover this stuff in great detail because it’s second-hand information.

This latest build, #12604 introduced some new talent and ability changes. Looking at what’s been published so far, it looks to me that Blizzard is trying to make every DK play style mimic the priority system of pre-Cat frost. I liked Frost, but I don’t think I totally enjoyed having to watch the procs so much. I felt like running a buff mod like DebuffFilter or Power Auras was mandatory for top-level DPS. I’m not sure that I agree that a third party add-on should be required equipment for ANY class.

Frost

•Festering Strike *New* - An instant attack that deals 150% weapon damage plus 840.54 and increases the duration of your Blood Plague, Frost Fever, and Chains of Ice effects on the target by up to 6 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant

•Runic Empowerment *New* is now baseline - When you use your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability, you have a 45% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune.

•Chains of Ice now reduces movement speed by 60% for 8 sec. (Down from 95% + 10% movement each sec over 10 seconds)

•Chill of the Grave now has a chance to generate 5/10 Runic Power. (Up from 2.5/5)

•Nerves of Cold Steel is now a Tier 1 talent, down from Tier 2.

•Improved Icy Touch now increases the damage of Icy Touch by 10/20/30%. (Up from 5/10/15%)

•On a Pale Horse is back as a Tier 2 talent.


Unholy

•Anti-Magic Shell no longer costs Runic Power.

•Ebon Plaguebringer is now a 2 ranks talent (Down from 3) and now increases damage taken from Disease by 15/30%. (Old - 10/20/30%)

•Dirge now has a chance to generate 5/10 Runic Power. (Up from 2.5/5)

•Virulence now increases your chance to hit with spells by 2/4/6%. (Up from 1/2/3%)


Blood

•Crimson Scourge is now a 2 rank talent. Increases damage dealt by Blood Boil by 20/40% (Down from 15/30/45%) and 50%/100% chance to proc. (Up from 33/67/100%)

•Improved Blood Presence is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 5.

•Blood Parasite is now a 2 rank talent with a 5/10% chance to proc. (Up from 3/6/9%)

•Toughness is now a Tier 3 talent. Down from Tier 4.

•Sanguine Fortitude is now a Tier 4 talent, down from Tier 3. 2 ranks instead of 3.

•Hand of Doom *New* - Reduces the cooldown of your Strangulate ability by 60 sec.


  -  Mmo-Champion Class Changes ( Source )

It has been a long time belief for me, that 10 man instances, are harder as you have less room for error then the average 25 man raid. I have recently come to understand this is not necessarily the case. It is significantly easier to coordinate 10 people, then it is 25 mans.

It would seem that many people have become complacent, or accepting of the idea, that gear be it, lvl 245, or 251 is sufficient. Most of this gear can be acquired by Triumph or Frost badges. Why quit there? Why not head into Icecrown Citadel, see the content, kick the Lich King, and get more gear, see some ugly monsters, and have a good time. There is much to see in the Citadel. Many people have found this new add-on relating to gear score is the end all be all of raiding. While gear score does play a role in raiding, it does not mean that a player not be worthy of the experience. Don't get me wrong, gear does play a role, but gear does not make the player. While it does insure a certain level of acomplishment, why settle for the minimum. The other thing that I don't like about this add-on is that. Anyone could say. ICC 10man Fresh run, must have GS 6k. What they don't tell you is, that they just bought their account, or have less then the GS they require, and are looking for free loot.

Several weeks ago I was invited by chance into a PuG ICC 10, with several members from the guild Distorted. For the first time, I got to see bosses past Marrowgar. This was a truly exciting time for me. Since then the past few weeks, have been an eye opening experience. Raiding with Distorted. A group of highly skilled, patient, and dedicated people - they are what raiding should be all about. Having seen both 10 man and 25 man Icecrown Citadel has been the experience I was hoping it would be. Though the continual repetition of dialog from the NPC bosses can be - annoying at times, over all the interaction is nothing short of fun.

MARROWGAR

Marrowgar can be a boss that will undo most raids with the whirlwind, and the AoE fire. Causing most groups to scatter, become distracted, and disoriented. Thus bringing an quick and abrupt end to the raid. No one likes repair bills, lets face it - that is a fact.

However, if you keep your cool, and stick to the plan, Marrowgar is a push over. Most people recommend that everyone be at least 4k dps, while this will help, and becomes more important in later fights, you can drop Marrowgar with patience, some skill, and coordination.

LADY DEATH WHISPER

Lady Death Whisper - well she's just a push over. The simplicity of this fight can be confusing, or a straight up win. Melee takes down Melee, Ranged drops casters. Unless a skeleton is raised,then it's opposite time.

In between groups of adds, DPS should be focusing on Death Whisper's shield. It is imperative that you have someone watching the shield to ensure it does not drop until all the adds, have been handled. Once the shield is down, it's an old fashioned tank and spank, eith the exception of her Frostbolt. The unique thing about this, is it is perfectly timed to the Deathknight's Mindfreeze. When your Mindfreeze is up, she's casting a frostbolt. Nail her! This will save your healers, and your raid.

The Airship Battle

It's a pretty straight forward fight. If you consider hopping from the Sky Breaker, or Orgim's Hammer straight forward. You have a Tank, tank Surfang, while the DPS drops the battle mage.

Ranged sits in the cannons, and fire on the enemy ship.

More or less it's free loot.

At this point, it gets to be a bit - odd. After the battle at the Wrath gate, Varian goes ballistic, and declares straight up war on the Horde, then after the air battle he gets all sentimental. I wonder if he's bipolar...

Surfang Jr.

He's a tank and spank, and crowd control the adds. This particular boss, is where the a fore mentioned DPS comes into play. As he does have an enrage timer, and most bosses here on out, have something of the sort.

At some point you should have if not already hit Friendly with the Ashen Verdict. It is important if you are either a Warrior, Paladin, or Death Knight. Each step of the way with this faction you can trade up a ring, similar to the way you could with Karazhan, back in The Burning Crusade days. Eventually you will reach Revered. Once you have, Darion Mograine will have a quest for you.

This particular quest is reminiscent of the old Thunderfury the Windseeker quest. It will require you to acquire 25 Primordial Sarronite, Lights Vengeance.

Light's Vengeance is where this particular quest becomes of personal interest to me at least, As I am always intrigued by the implementation of Lore into the World of Warcraft. Anyway, Light's Vengeance is Arthas's mace from when he was a Paladin. It can be found in Frostmourne Cavern. If you are not particularly confident in your abilities, or have gear, that is - well less then adequate, I would recommend that you find a friend or two, maybe a pally, if you are not one, and a healer. However if you have been raiding the Citadel, your gear should be sufficent to get you through this.

When you enter, the cavern will be empty. As you approach the mace, the Lich King will appear, there is some dialog here, that more or less points to the fact that Arthas knows about the plans. Indicating that Darion had this planned for some time. Likely while he was still under the Lich King's control.

The Lich King will throw the mace to the other side of the room, and raise a significant number of undead, and one Elite to thwart your endeavor. Drop the elite, and make your way to the mace.

Once you get the mace, and the saronite, you will need to get blood off of Festergut, and Rotface. Not to worry there is nothing special that you have to do during the battle. The blood drops as a quest item.

Once you acquire the blood, you can turn the items in to Darion, well his forge. Once this is done, you get to listen to Darion, advise you further on the situation. His tale is one of caution. After listening to Darion, you acquire Shadow's edge. This weapon is probably the single most devastating, and truly awesome weapons currently in the game.

The quest goes on, to have you acquire 1000 souls from the scourge in Icecrown Citadel. This part of the quest seem eerily reminiscent of Arthas's fall from grace, in his acquisition of Frostmourne.

Eventually following this quest you will receive Shadow Mourne. Anyone who wields this axe in any form, is unmistakably noticeable. The final piece of this unique weapon is the goats head hilt from Frost Mourne.

Raiding, questing, for a truly bad ass weapon. It all ties in nicely. Blizzard actually accomplished something on this particular expansion.

So many seem to think that they can form any guild of 10 people, and clear ICC. While some may very well succeed, I would much more encourage people to return to guilds with a track record, of success. If seeing, or experiencing the content of the game is your desire. I encourage you to follow through, make new friends, find a guild that suites your needs, and accomplish your goals.

I’m disappointed. If you haven’t seen this announcement, here’s a link to worldofraids and their summary of the information. I need to shut my mouth. Every time I say that a feature is good, it gets axed.

So Long Guild Talents

One of the two banner features of the expansion was the new Guild Progression and talent system. The feature will still exist in some form, but the feature won’t be as pro as they originally planned. We’ll still get guild experience for doing raids, however the perks will be mandatory and there won’t be any choice involved.

If you’ve been playing for a while, you’ve no doubt noticed the current glut of guilds. Everybody has a raiding guild and thinks they can manage raids, qualified or not. Since Burning Crusade, there are so many guilds that recruitment is impossible and 10-man raiding guilds are becoming a norm. I was hoping that the guild talent system would separate the good guilds from the mismanaged ones and give players incentive to stick in one place and not switch guilds at the drop of a hate. If the guild could provide players with some other innate value other than managing raids, people would be less apt to gquit for silly reasons.

Path of the Titans GONE

Secondly, Path of the Titans has been axed. This was one of the big banner features in the original expansion teaser trailers. Path of the Titans was supposed to be a new alternate advancement system and character customization opportunity; their redesigned take on the original hero class ideas. With Path of the Titans gone, Archeology is going to be a useless afterthought; relegated to crappy visual items which are probably going to be similar to the useless trivialities given out for holidays. It took me less than 5 seconds to decide hat Archeology is going to be useless and not worth the time and cost to level. Less than 5 seconds to go from a banner features to an annoyance; GG.

Since Path of the Titans is gone, they felt they needed to throw us all at least a small bone for taking away such a talked-about feature. So, they’re going to enhance the Glyph system. But wait, shouldn’t they have already been doing this as a part of the general profession upgrade for Cataclysm; like every other profession is getting. The answer is, yes, you know that this was probably in the works anyways. They’re only mentioning it as a fallback because they eliminated PotT.

OMG Fix Inscription

I’ve mentioned several times that I think Inscription is a broken profession, and I have zero confidence that this will improve it or fix the problems associated with it. Inscription has little money-making value. To make money off Glyphs and such, you have to literally sit in front of the AH all freaking day, making a few gold here and there off the glyphs your auction spamming. I hear they have a little new app that can help you, all Scribe should go out and purchase mobile auction house service! Ca-ching Ca-ching, $15\month in Activision’s pockets.

Here’s what I think they should do; first off, remove Minor Glyphs, they’re irrelevant and useless. Most minor glyphs suck. For Death Knights, we have 3 useful minor glyphs; most sites quite all three no matter what your spec is. There’s no possible variation that’s provides and different value to us. According to these announcements, they have no plans to change them.

Secondly, Inscription provides some value in the form of Shoulder Enchants, however it has little money-making value. Everyone can make glyphs, I’m betting most players have Scribes, everyone has the potential to spam the auction house with low-priced glyphs and try to make money. Inscription needs some value that it can provide to others; such as epic craftable recipes that require whatever the current equivalent is of Frozen Orbs or Runed Orbs. Make a few droppable recipes like Enchanting. Another option would be to make some of the popular Major Glyphs require these crafting materials.

Blizzard Doesn't Like Bloggers

Blizzard isn’t doing me any favors as a blogger, so I feel no reason to hold back my opinions. I don’t really think they like criticism. Just look at how they screwed over my man Skeleton Jack. I don’t really mention him here. I don’t think he knows or cares that there are other Death Knight blogs besides his; He doesn’t link to me; so I’m in no hurry to link or mention him. But, I’ll make an exception this one time.

He recounts a story about how he was all set to get into the Cataclysm Alpha, but was blocked in the final hour because they told him “they don’t allow bloggers or media types to participate in NDA-related activities” like alphas and betas and such.

It’s pretty inflammatory to me that Blizzard intentionally excludes us, the people that help to spark interest in their products. They want you as the consumer, but don’t care about the community that assists the players in understanding the game. Doesn’t that seem counter-productive to you. Oh, and this policy seems to make a huge exception for BRK; whose blog is read by gazillions more than mine or the Skelinator.

As a fellow blogger, I feel for people when I hear how Blizzard treats bloggers. I know they don’t care about me, and would probably be happy if I canceled this domain name; all the more reason to give my accurate analysis and opinions on the game.

$$ is the Bottom Line

This has been one huge side-track. I think that this recent announcement has everything to do with the bottom line. Somebody somewhere is forcing the developers to put a date on the shipping of the expansion; which is HIGHLY un-blizzard-like. Blizzard is known for slipping release dates when they can’t get stuff done in time. In this case, a shall we say, outside source is forcing their hand to commit to a release date. Consequently, some of their announced and looked after features won’t make the cut.

What are we to do when the game begins to feel tedious and annoying? Why reroll of course. I’ve had a lot of issues in the past with my guild. I know a lot of them will come back to the game when Cataclysm hits; it’s the same ol’ cycle that we go through in every expansion. I logged on the other night, it was a Tuesday, usually a good night for us, and I was the only person online. It’s hard to raid with a guild of 1. Even when they decide to pick it back up, I know that it’s going to be raiding their way and not my way; their times, not my times.

Me and my pal Astar, and possibly Seeathis, if assuming we can persuade him are going to reroll on a new, low-population RP server. We’re going to start a new guild and start at the beginning again, AS HORDE. With Cataclysm, all the new areas are getting revamped, it’s time to go back and enjoy them all again. Raiding is the ultimate goal, but its only part of the new content being released in the expansion. I’m going to take my time and enjoy it.

Our new guild is going to be called “Evil to the Core”. I feel like a fresh start, on a new server is what I need. I’m planning on rolling an Undead or Orc Death Knight, and a Blood Elf Paladin. I’m going to play and try out both the new races and their starting areas, but I definitely don’t want to stick with a Goblin as my main class; to gnomey, never liked gnomes. Gnome and Night Elf Death Knights strike me as oddities, like Gnome warriors. People play them because they look like contradictions. I’ve never felt that either of those races fit Death Knights. You’re free to have your own opinions, but that’s mine. I don’t think I’d want UnholyGnome and BloodyNightElf in my guild (because those are the wonderfully original names they’d have).

Speaking of names, you people are getting lazy. I’ve ran into waaay too many stupid named in Silvermoon while I’ve been leveling yet another Blood Elf. Every time I see a HoofnHots or TrollTamer, I want to gouge my eyes out and quit Wow; another reason why I want to be on an RP server.

What I want from the expansion

I’ve had a lot of time to sit and think what I’m looking forward to, or what I want out of the expansion. I have a number of expectations, for us as a class. I’m hoping that, like last year, I’ll get a beta invite so I can work out some of the details for you all before release. If I were Blizzard, I’d make sure that all us blogger and community people got them. If I get one, I get one, if I don’t; that’s how the system works. I’m not pandering for an invite here, just stating that it’s in their best interest to make the bloggers excited about new releases.

Death Knights Beyond Northrend

The Death Knight storylines are linked to Northrend and the Lich King. As a Death Knight, and a lore fan, I’m looking to see how Blizzard keeps the Death Knights relevant to the storyline following the defeat of the Lich King. I’ve devoted considerable time, both in the game and here on my site to the Death Knight; I don’t want to play the one-trick pony. Blizzard needs to give us a reason to keep playing (sub fighting) after Arthas gets his clock cleaned. They can’t just ditch the “hero” class after the expansion it’s themed after has been completed. I’ve beat the de-heroization horse to death, so I won’t drag that back out now.

Death Knight Playstyles

Our class is undergoing a ** HUGE ** change in the expansion. We’re getting a dedicated tanking tree; gone is the “each tree fits all” mantra of Wrath. This will undoubtedly create confusion when lots of the classic talents are changed and swapped around. I also can’t possibly see how Blizzard can leave the presences the same as they are now. I expect the presence system to be completely redesigned as well, or even reimagined. In the least case, Blood Presence and Frost Presence will have to be swapped. Their effects are too confusing taking into account the talent tree changes.

Our resource system is undergoing drastic changes. Rune refresh times are being altered. This change is going to fundamentally alter how we craft our attack rotations. It should have the effect of reducing the impact of lag on our dps cycles and eliminate the “GCD starvation” that plagues most Death Knight specs. This change wasn’t as well received as others, but in the end, I think it will play to our advantage; assuming that Blizzard can re-baseline our abilities to match. However, I predict buffs and nerfs in the future, much like the rebalances that occurred following the release of Wrath. I’m not a fan of the buff\nerf cycle, please don’t jerk us around.

Guild and Raid Changes

I haven’t heard too much about this since the Cataclysm rumors and blue posts started. I hope that this feature has not been quietly dropped. There were comments early on about “guild advancement”, almost like a talent tree for guilds. I hope this feature has not been eliminated, because it’s the one thing that I think will help to return guilds to what they were in the beginning. Making raid content available to everyone is good, but it’s also served to create a glut of guilds. It’s hard for guilds to recruit and retain members, when the marked of available guilds is so large. The content has been changed such that anyone can form a guild and run raids; guilds aren’t the pinnacle of achievement they once were. By providing some form of “alternate advancement” for guilds, the guild provides a larger benefit to members, discouraging them from jumping ship. Such a system would need to be balanced such that it provides enough benefit, and that the benefits have staggered effects such that a new guild is not as attractive as an established guild.

With their philosophy of making raids available and attractive to everyone, I just don’t know if Blizzard is going to be able to bring themselves to execute this feature like I’d want them to.

Blizzard, if you’re listening, I’m looking for awesomeness. When I start raiding in Cataclysm, I want it too feel like that first time I walked into Molten Core or Blackwing Lair. You’re overhauling the world we’ve known and loved for 5 years. I also want you to overhaul my enjoyment of the game. Draw me back in and make it feel like that first shot of wow-crack in the vein. You’re on top of the market and you have the money to make Cataclysm everything that we expect it to be; and we expect AWESOMENESS.