Taste my Blade will now cover the supposed changes for the Warrior class once patch 3.1 hits.

General Patch 3.1 Changes
I’m not quite informed of ALL the changes this coming patch will have but I do know some that are worth of note. Probably the basic among the changes is the change to how often players can go home. Hearthstone cooldown has been reduced to 30 minute from a 1 hour cooldown. This is a very welcome change indeed but what everyone is excited about is the coming of the Dual Spec System. With such system, anyone can basically change spec when out of combat. This means that a Warrior can freely switch from DPS role to Tank role whenever the need arises. A Warrior can now truly be a Hybrid class able to fulfill both damage dealing and tanking roles. Dual Spec is available for a price of 1000 gold which is pretty cost efficient if you ask me. I might as well have a “re-spec anytime” skill than spend more than 20 re-specs, not to mention Warriors are known to be the class that has to re-spec the most. In addition, a Warrior has a different Glyph Set and Action Bars as he switches spec. Dual Spec is trainable from any Warrior trainer.

Warrior Class changes
Perhaps the most anticipated change is the change to how Rage is spent when changing Stances - a Warrior now loses 20 rage when switching Stances. This, however, is met with both positive and negative feedbacks. This change in mechanic saves Rage when the Warrior has too much of it but it certainly devours Rage when in low Rage situations, which is usually the case. Another generic addition in Rage generation include Warriors gaining Rage even when an incoming damage is absorbed. Blizzard seemed to focus this patch’s development on Warrior PvP performance. Some talents were added in the Arms tree making it look bloated now. Battle Stance now has Armor Penetration attached to it which could prove useful in PvP. Damage done through Blood Frenzy is increased making the Warrior a much useful addition in raids. Weapon Mastery from the Fury tree is moved to Arms, boosting Warrior PvP effectiveness against dodges and Disarm by other players. Sunder Armor now reduces armor by rate not by a fixed amount and was reduced due to its rather overpowered utility against cloth wearers in PvP.

I am aware that there are more changes I haven’t covered. I will edit this post once I update myself of such changes.

Starting out a Frost Death Knight Tank Level 55 - 60

The Way of the Rune will be the new section on this gaming website which revolves around the Wrath of the Lich King’s newest class, the Death Knight. The experiences will be told from the point of view of a Blood Elf named Kimurra from Thaurissan realm.

Frost Tank

I decided to try out the Death Knight class and I must say that the new class is fun to play. The quest storyline of the Death Knights is just awesome! How I wish every class had something of such. The class itself is not bad either but I do agree that it is an overpowered class and requires much balancing.

Having played the Rogue class, a Death Knight’s diseases could be comparable to a Rogue’s combo point in that you need to apply them first for your other skills to be more effective. Runic Power also acts quite similar to a Warrior’s Rage except that runic Power increases as you use up Runes. Like all other classes, the Death Knight have been given three specializations and all 3 of them are said to be viable as tanks. I’ve heard that Blood specializes on self-healing while Unholy focuses on AoE damage and tanking. Frost is said to have the most mitigation among the other specs and it excels at single target tanking thus, I decided to specialize in Frost. This Death Knight will be known as Kimurra.

Death Knight Skills and Abilities
Level 55
Combat
Blood Presence is the first Presence a Death Knight will get access to and it not only increases damage and but it heals the Death Knight as he damages a target.

Icy Touch is a ranged spell that damages the target and infects them with Frost Fever, a disease that reduces the target’s attack speed. Reduction to enemy attack speed could also mean less number of hits taken and is therefore a tool when tanking. Icy Touch is also the preferrable spell to initiate combat as compared to Death Grip because it instantly applies a disease.

Death Grip draws the target towards the Death Knight and forces the enemy to attack the Death Knight. Death Grip is a tanking long ranged spell which acts like the Warrior’s skill Taunt and is better off saved when a mob is making a go for your squishier allies. This ability truly defines what a “Pull” is.

Plague Strike infects the target with Blood Plague, a disease that deals Shadow damage over time. This skill is usually used after Icy Touch and these two abilities will put two different diseases on the target. It is best followed by a Blood Strike.

A Blood Strike is best used ater an Icy Touch and a Plague Strike because this skill will deal damage according to how much diseases is applied on the target. The more diseases there are on the target, the more damage it will cause.

Using Icy Touch, Plague Strike, and Blood Stike will consume a Frost, Unholy, and Blood rune respectively. Consuming runes enables the Death Knight to produce Runic Power which will be used for other supplementary powerful abilities. One of such abilities is Death Coil, a ranged Shadow damaging spell which also heals a friendly Undead target. Death Coil will be your first Runic Power dump ability and must be used when enough Runic Power have been reached.

Utility
Acherus Deathcharger is the Death Knight’s free level 60 mount which aids in travelling great distances.

Runeforging is somewhat similar to Enchanting in that it boosts the Death Knight’s weapons and effectiveness with various abilities. You need to be near a Rune forge in order to emblazon a rune on your current weapon.

Level 56
Death Strike is an attack that heals the Death Knight for a decent amount. More diseases placed on the target means more heal recieved so it’s best to place after an Icy Touch-Plague Strike combo.

Pestilence deals Shadow damage to the target and spreads the disease of the current target to all nearby enemies.

Raise Dead summons a Ghoul companion from a Humanoid corpse or by expending a Corpse Dust.

Level 57
Frost Presence will be the second Presence accessible to the Death Knight and is known to be the tanking Presence since it increases threat, total health and armor as well as also reduces damage from spells. However, only one Presence can be used at any given time.

Mind Freeze is another spell that is reliant on Runic Power and it Interrupts targets from casting a spell.

Level 58
Blood Boil causes any disease near the Death Knight to erupt and thus dealing Shadow damage. This is best cast after spreading diseases to other targets via Pestilence.

Chains of Ice is a ranged spell that acts as a snare. It reduces the enemy target’s speed to 0 then the target slowly regains his normal speed over time. I believe this to be a useful PvP tool.

Level 59
Strangulate silences the enemy for a short duration and deals Shadow damage afterwards. This is effective in PvP when confronted with spell casters.

Level 60
Death and Decay corrupts the ground and deals Shadow damage in an area for a short duration. This is an AoE spell which generates a large amount of threat, crucial for AoE tanking. Kimurra usually casts this after pulling a group of mob with Icy Touch.

Death Knight Frost talents
Due to the fact that a Death Knight starts at level 55 and some quests rewards a single or more talent points, talent distribution according to level is difficult to determine. Kimurra decided to take the talents according to priority and requirement and most are focused on mitigating damage and tanking.

Frost
Toughness - increases armor
Improved Icy Touch - improves attack damage reduction caused by Frost Fever and Icy Touch damage
Glacier Rot - diseased enemies will recieve more damage from Icy Touch, Howling Blast and Frost Strike
Lichborne - causes melee attacks from enemies to miss while making the Death Knight immune to Charm, Fear and Sleep effects.
Icy Talons - increases attack speed
Killing Machine - melee attacks have a chance to make the next Icy Touch, Howling Blast, and Frost Strike a critical strike.
Frigid Dreadplate - reduces the chance melee attacks will hit
Death Chill - when activated, makes the next Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Frost Strike and Obliterate a critical strike.
Improved Icy Talons - increases melee haste of the Death Knight as well as the melee haste of his allies
Rime - casting Icy Touch has a chance to make your next Howling Blast free of Rune cost and increases critical strike chance of Icy Touch and Obliterate
Icy Reach - increases range of Icy Touch, Chains of Ice and Howling Blast
Howling Blast - spell that deals damage to enemies near the Death Knight and deals double damage to targets infected with Frost Fever
Annihilation - increases critical strike chance of melee special abilties as well as causing Obliterate to not consume diseases.
Unbreakable Armor - increases armor, total Strength and parry chance.
Blood of the North - increases Blood Strike damage and using Blood Strike or Pestilence will turn a Blood Rune into a Death Rune. A Death Rune can be treated as either Frost, Blood, or Unholy Rune.
Guile of Gorefiend - increases duration of Icebound Fortitude and also increase critical strike damage bonus of Blood Strike, Frost Strike, Howling Blast and Obliterate.
Frost Strike - skill that deals damage and consumes Runic Power. This is a replacement to Death Coil as a Frost Death Knight’s Runic Power dump.
Tundra Stalker - increases expertise and also increases damage from a Death Knights spells and abilities to targets infected with Frost Fever.

I missed out two tanking talents that deal with spells: Frost Aura and Acclimation simply because I intend to get the basic tanking/damage talents first which can be more useful for now (in my opinion anyway). One could always respect and take these talents if the need arises. but I doubt there are many encounters that causes spell damage to be troublesome. Seeing that Frost talents have been well taken care of, Kimurra decided to move on to the Unholy tree.

Unholy
Anticipation - increases dodge chance

To be continued…

War against the Burning Crusade
…and so Kymeth made his way through the Dark Portal and into the Outlands in search for honor of slaying demons…and better swords and shields.

…running away from a creature of imminent Doom, the towering Doom Reaver.

Noteable Items
Kymeth was able to acquire a polearm from Hellfire Ramparts located in the center of Hellfire Peninsula. This two-handed weapon, Hellreaver, is dropped by the Fel Orc Vazruden. He was also able to get his first epic tanking boots, the Eaglecrest Warboots, from Keli’dan the Breaker, the end boss of Blood Furnace(in Heroic mode). Kymeth was also honored to get the rare Shield of the Void from Pandemonius as well as the Scimitar of the Nexus-Stalkers from Tavarok, both bosses are located in the Mana Tombs. Another item of note is the rare tanking sword from Shirrak the Dead Watcher, the Shaarde the Lesser, which can be found in the Auchenai Crypts. The first tanking trinket, the Regal Protectorate, was a quest reward from Cruel’s Intentions which is given by Nazgrel in Thrallmar.

…checking out the “goods” from a hot and dead Doomwhisperer.

Talent Progression
Kymeth has changed his previous critical Protection Warrior talent build to a more situational Protection Warrior talent build. This is achieved by getting off 3 talent points from Incite and getting Last Stand, Concussion Blow, and Vigilance. This may have reduced the critical strike chance from abilities such as Heroic Strike, Thunder Clap, and Cleave but the additional situational abilities surely improved Kymeth’s efficiency as a tank. Last Stand spells the difference between defeat and victory as the Warrior can call upon his last breath to greatly increase his health for a short duration. Concussion blow not only generates high threat but also is a stun attack and is therefore a welcome addition to the many stun attacks the Protection Warrior already has. Vigilance also greatly reduces the risk of losing an ally because it not only transfers the threat generated to the Warrior from the ally target but it also refreshes the Warrior’s Taunt ability.

Having acquired the required talents from the Protection tree, Kymeth must now decide which tree to consider for the additional 10 talent points acquired from levels 61-70. Kymeth opted to maximizing mitigation by investing points in Arms, specifically Deflection and Iron Will as the key talents. Deflection increases total avoidance by adding an extra 5% chance to Parry. Iron Will increases resilience by reducing Stun and Charm duration. The extra 2 points could be placed not only in any available talent from Arms but also in Fury. Kymeth placed those two extra points in Improved Charge, which goes well with Warbringer in terms of Rage generation.

Warrior Skills
As training becomes more intense, Kymeth gains more skills and abilities in able to better survive battles. Here are the few Warrior skills that Kymeth learned while fighting demons in Outlands. Victory Rush (Available at Level 62) is an Instant attack which can be activated after a kill and requires the Warrior to be in either Battle Stance or Berserker Stance. A Warrior has also learned to use his shield to ricochet back spells to the enemy through Spell Reflection (Available at Level 64). A Warrior must have a shield equipped and he must be in Defensive Stance to reflect spells that would have otherwise damaged him. When a Warrior’s life is at stake, he can do a Commanding Shout (Available at Level 68) which increases not only the Warrior’s health but also the health of his allies as well. This does not stack with a Warrior’s own Battle Shout but it will stack if another Warrior is around. A Warrior, being the toughest one in the group, is tasked to protect his squishier allies at all cost and Intervene (Available at Level 70) enables the Warrior to rush up to an ally and take one hostile damage that would have landed on his ally instead.

…with the druid Talisax, the hunter Sgtlopit and his loyal pet Cat - the gang pose with pride, admiring their remarkable Skill of decieving the Shadow Council.

The skill Rotation still did not change from the previous Protection Warrior skill rotation. Shield Slam is the top priority skill and should be activated if in case it is available when the Warrior hits with a Revenge or Devastate. Concussion Blow is a welcome addition to the Protection Warrior’s rotation and should be cast whenever it’s activated. I believe it is best cast after a Shield Slam. It can also be used as a CC (Crowd Control) ability by casting it to a nearby target other than the current target thus minimizing incoming damage.

The Burning Legion has made their presence known predominantly in Outlands where most adventurers progress from levels 61 - 70. Now how does one get there? Easy! Just follow these steps: Starting from either Undercity or Ogrimmar(only for the Horde faction), you take the goblin Zepellins and head to Stranglethorn Vale.

From there, travel North to Duskwood and then head to the East.

You will now find yourself in Deadwind Pass. Continue the journey by heading East until you reach the Swamp of Sorrows.

It would be wise to take the Flight Path in Stonard before heading out South to Blasted Lands.

Somewhere South of Blasted Lands, you will see the Dark Portal which leads to the Outlands.

Hellfire Peninsula (60-63)
The key areas in Hellfire Peninsula for the Horde are Thrallmar, Falcon Watch, and Spinebreaker Post. From these places, one will get the needed quests to level up as well as the needed NPC’s to upgrade your professions.

Terokkar Forest(62-65)
Terokkar is probably the most strategic place to continue questing since most of the level 60-70 instances such as Mana Tombs, Auchenai Crpyts, Sethekk Halls, and Shadow Labyrinth can be found here in Auchinodoun. Shattrath City is not only the center of the Terokkar Forest but is also the main refugee city in Outlands as a whole. This is also the city where one will find more quests to gain levels and rewards as well as the option to choose either Scryer and Aldor faction which will significantly impact one’s access to items. Portals to key cities in Azeroth such as Thunderbluff, Ogrimmar, Undercity, and Silvermoon city can be found inside the center of the city. One may also find more quests in the nearby Horde encampment of Stonebreaker Hold.

Hearthstone tip: Once you see an innkeeper, it is best to make it your home. If a need arises for you to go to a major city such as when you need to auction your goods, re-spec or train class skills, all you have to do is take the flight path to Shattrath City and make use of the portals there. Once you’re done, you just Hearthstone back to Outlands where your innkeeper is and resume questing.

Blade’s Edge Mountains(65-70)
Once you’ve decided to go to Blade’s Edge Mountains, take a flight path back to Falcon Watch in the Hellfire Peninsula and then travel West. From Zangarmarsh, travel North and past a cave until you reach Blade’s Edge Mountains.

The first camp one should be heading out for is Thunderlord Stronghold and later on either move to Evergrove or Mok’Nathal Village to find more quests.

Author’s Note; I decided to separate this from Of Swords and Shields Warrior post mainly because although this was how Kymeth progressed, this also happens to be how other classes of mine progressed so this does not necessarily apply to the Warrior class alone. This is currently how the Death Knight Kimurra is progressing.