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Beta Build 8788

Kenzi August 15 2008 6:11 am 9 Comments

Better late than never. Wednesday brought yet another beta build, just 5 days after the last. At the rate they are pushing these changes, I am hoping this is a sign of a quicker release. And considering that my beta key seems to have been lost in the mail, retail release is starting to look like my only option at a DK.

Here is a list of the newest Death Knight changes as well as some other notable game changes.

Death Knight Death Knight 8788

Blood

  • Bloodworms (Tier 7) now gives you a 4/8/12% chance on hit to spawn 2-4 Bloodworms. (Previously was 20/40/60% chance on Death Strike to spawn 1/1-3/3-5 Bloodworms)
  • Sudden Doom (Tier 8 ) lasts 15 sec now. (Previously 10)

Frost

  • Improved Icy Touch (Tier 1) changed to make your Frost Fever reduce melee, ranged and casting speed by an additional 2%. (Previously was 1%)
  • Icy Talons (Tier 3) changed to affect targets afflicted by Frost Fever. (Previously affected targets afflicted by Icy Touch only)
  • Lichborne (Tier 3) reduced to 10 sec. (Previously was 30 sec)
  • Runic Power Mastery (Tier 4) Scaling runic power abilities behave as if you had an additional 20% runic power. (Previously was 2%)
  • Frigid Deathplate (Tier 5) changed to: Enemies who hit you in melee have a 30/60/100% chance to become unsettled, decreasing their chance to hit for 5% for the next 12 sec.
  • Aneurysm (Tier 7) Removed
  • Endless Winter (Tier 7) is now a 2 point talent and Your Chains of Ice has a 50/100% chance to cause Frost Fever and the cost of your Mind Freeze is reduced to 20/0 runic power.
  • Acclimation (Tier 9) now affects the whole raid.

Unholy

  • Virulence (Tier 2) and Morbidity (Tier 1) have swapped spots in the talent tree.
  • Blood-Caked Blade (Tier 4) reduced to 50% weapon damage times the number of your diseases on the target. (Previously was 60%)
  • Desecration (Tier 7) increased to 7 yards around the target. (Previously was 2 yards)
  • Night of the Dead (Tier 8 ) reduces the cooldown of Army of the Dead by 30 sec now. (Previously 1 min)
  • Scourge Strike (Tier 9) damage slightly increased.

 

Say Bye-Bye to Downranking

No more casting lower ranked spells to save mana. All spells will not cost a % of the casters mana instead of a fixed cost. The new formula was out into place specifically to stop downranking.

Blizzard Zarhym
This is not a bug.In the latest WotLK beta push, we made a large change to the mana cost of spells. All player spells now cost a percentage of base mana rather than a fixed cost. Base mana is a special value determined by the player’s level and class, regardless of any effects or items that increase intellect. It is the size of a player’s mana pool if the player has zero intellect.

This change was made primarily to prevent downranking, as it’s a technique that was never quite intended. Rather than continue to find ways to penalize players for casting low-rank spells, we decided to essentially make doing so obsolete. If rank 5 and rank 6 of a spell cost the same amount of mana, but rank 6 does more damage/healing, then there is no reason to consider casting rank 5.

So, each spell line (eg. Frostbolt, Shadowbolt, Greater Heal, Rejuvenation, etc.) has a fixed percentage of base mana that it costs for most of its ranks. That means each time a player gains a level the cost will go up some. The percentages were picked to attempt to keep the costs relatively similar to what they are currently in World of Warcraft. For most spells, that percentage will drop some when the player receives their highest-rank spell in existing Burning Crusade content. This was done to better fit the existing cost curve, and to keep the mana cost for level 70 players as close as possible to existing costs. Level 70 characters will see most of their maximum rank spells change in cost slightly up or down, but not by significant amounts.

We anticipate there being some balance concerns due to this change, and our development staff will be ready to implement new spells, abilities, or talents to resolve those issues as the testing process continues

 

You can see the full beta patch notes HERE.

You can also see the updated talent calculators at both MMO-Champion and Wowhead

Boubouille also has a comprehensive 8788 build change list at MMO-Champion.

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9 Comments »

  • Beta Build 8788 said:

    [...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBetter late than never. Wednesday brought yet another beta build, just 5 days after the last. At the rate they are pushing these changes, I am hoping this is a sign of a quicker release. And considering that my beta key seems to have been lost in the mail, retail release is starting to look like my only option at a DK. Here is a list of the newest Death Knight changes as well as some other notable game changes. Death Knight 8788 Blood Bloodworms (Tier 7) now gives you a 4/8/12% chance [...]

  • GuineaWorm said:

    Promoting DW with the new blood worm talent?

  • Bigstackstwo, Lord of the Night Elves said:

    Oh well about downranking, but I’m not gonna bring sorrow here.

    I cannot wait for Death Knights!!

  • sillysausage said:

    What aload of bullshit how the fuck are we meant to stop those cowardly pathetic rogues sneaking up on us when we are defending towers in AV. Bloody terrible idea.

  • goatman said:

    wow bloodworms looks like itl make it so u have almost no downtime

  • De-C said:

    offs; the reason why healers downrank in the first place is so they DO NOT OVERHEAL and generate INSANE AGRO. it was the ONLY way for us to watch what we were doing as any decent healer already knows that overhealing is what causes the most agro. they really freaking want the healers to die; they are constantly nerfing us and now we essentually have NO way to watch our agro. gg freaking blizzard; you enjoy screwing up your game.

  • Kenzi (author) said:

    You dont gain threat from overhealing

  • Volke said:

    @Kenzi
    you do not gain threat from over healing, true.
    However the more points you heal the more aggro you get, so in a sence you gain aggro if you overheal

  • Juztice said:

    Actually the reason people downranked was for mana efficiency. Nothing to do with aggro. Since a max rank HL can heal for 9k+ crit and the tanks usually don’t take such big hits, a max rank would just cause overhealing which is 300-400 mana wasted. Wheras a R5/6 heal would heal them right up but cost half the mana and no over healing.

    It’s a shame, but blizzard will make changes as needed.

    I just hope Blizzard realise now that in PvP rogues can get away with anything…we can’t R1 Concercrate, AE etc now so they will almost always get the opener. Might aswell rename “Stealth” to “Invisability” because thats what it’s going to effectively become.

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