Nerf mammoths!

mammoth.avi

(via Trizophenie’s Weblog, aka Eglador)

EDIT: Eglador’s done it again; here he is riding off the Temple of Storms.

mammoth_temple_of_storms.avi

I’d been putting off writing a post about my n52te layout for a while now; then someone had to go and ask about it. :) Ready for an in-depth look at the peripheral I can’t game without? Here goes. (Besides, how often do I get to put something in both the ‘IRL’ and the ‘Guides’ categories?)

Inspired by Matticus and Kestrel, I figured I’d shoot up a photo of my workspace. It’s a bit dim, sorry ‘bout that - I had to take it with my cameraphone because I haven’t seen my real camera since I moved in November. (Click to see it full-size!)

The monitors, left to right: the one on the left is connected to the Mac mini that it is sitting on top of. The other two are connected to the PC you can’t see on the bottom right. All three are connected via Synergy and controlled from the keyboard and mouse on the right; the keyboard and mouse on the left are there for when I’m rebooting or in WoW and need to control iTunes, pretty much.

Sitting in front of the Mac are two speakers, a pile of blank CDs, an iPhone dock, and a copy of the Persona 4 soundtrack (Shin Megami Tensei games are my non-WoW weakness). The Mac’s external hard drive is next to the mini. There’s a subwoofer hiding down there somewhere on the lower left. There’s also a tiny plastic Mega Man next to the speakers. See? Lots of junk on my desk.

Special note: next to the black keyboard, on the left, is my n52te; I blame Nibuca for turning me on to the n52 in the first place, and it’s terribly awkward to play without it these days.

The mug is from Graceland, and used to contain coffee; the red plastic cup has gin & tonic in it. This picture is from raid night, after all.

(Not pictured: player; chair.)

… or at least be-lessened. (Why isn’t that a word?)

One of the biggest complaints about death knights as tanks (especially in 5-mans, though I hear the complaint at times from those healing uncrittable death knight tanks as well) is how “spiky” their health loss is - that is, they lose an even amount of health, followed by a lot of health, followed by a little, followed by a lot… like a row of spikes. This causes undue stress on healers, especially healers who’re used to healing the even keel of druid, paladin, and warrior tanks.

Well, good news, healers: some of this will be evening up in 3.0.8, whenever it finally chooses to arrive. Let’s take a look at three of the important changes (and a couple bonus ones) in the official PTR notes as of today, and see if I can point out why.

Bone Shield: The mitigation has been reduced from 40% to 20%. (Tangentially related, on the PTR, Glyph of Bone Shield adds two extra charges instead of one.)

Frost Presence: The bonus armor has been increased from 60 to 80% and magic damage reduction increased from 5 to 15%.

Icebound Fortitude now reduces damage by 20% instead of 50%. The amount of damage reduced increases with bonus Defense (to about 35% for 540 Defense, but can go higher).

Will of the Necropolis will now reduce the damage of any attack that takes the DK below 35% health by 5 /10/15% instead of boosting armor when wounded. It no longer affects the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell and retains the current damage reduction bonus.

Vampiric Blood changed from 20% health / 50% healing to 15% health / 35% healing. (This spell’s actually changed significantly - on the PTR, it now generates 15% of your max health as temporary health, like Last Stand, and grants a 35% boost to healing received.)

(Okay, okay, I know, almost no DK tanks are (lol)blood. Will of the Necropolis is laughable in its changed state and even worse right now, and a tank built around self-heals just doesn’t seem plausible, especially when you hold it up next to the talents in the other two trees. But I’m sure someone out there is doing it, so I mention it.)

At first glance, almost all of these look like nerfs. Less mitigation from the admittedly OP Bone Shield? Less reduction on IBF? What the heck? But in the end, while this might make the DK work a little harder, this is going to be a boon for healers. IBF now becomes kind of a “shield wall” type effect, while Bone Shield becomes less essential to keep up and running at all times. Will of the Necropolis adds a more predictable effect to wounded DKs. But in return, Frost Presence - a good DK tank’s “always up” presence - will be granting 20% more armor and 10% more magic damage reduction (lessening the need to constantly pop Anti-Magic Shell/Zone, too).

That’s huge! And more importantly, that’s steady. That’s damage reduction that the DK doesn’t have to work to keep up, that no one has to time, that the priest doesn’t have to assume will wear off - that’s damage reduction that’s always there. That’s some important stuff. So yes, in the end, there might be a slight hit to overall mitigation in bursts, but overall steady damage-soaking will be gaining a boost, in my opinion. We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose.

So healers, you can prepare to breathe a little easier behind the auspices of a DK tank (who will probably be sporting Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle as well - 25 Defense skill is pretty huge, too), and not have to worry about when that last bone charge is going to go away and you’re going to have to worry about popping the big buttons out.

And death knights, yes, we’ll be taking a bit more damage at our most defended - this is unavoidable, because at the heart of it, these are nerfs to our defensive abilities. But we’ll be taking less spiky damage, and more even damage, which means healers will be better able to heal us. Really, it’s a buff to healing classes, disguised as a nerf to death knights. ;)

I can’t play WoW!

I’d like to play WoW - I mean, I’m only 15 points or so from getting my blacksmithing to where I can make stuff with cobalt; I’ve got achievements I could rack up; I’d like to run dailies for lots of the factions, including Netherwing and Argent Crusade… Heck, I’d even like to level my priest.

But I can’t do it, gang. Why?

Yeah, that sums it up just about perfectly.

Granted, I play from the east coast of the US, on a west coast server, so there’s always a little latency, but it hovers at 190 - 230: what I consider the “barely noticeable” range. Lately, though, as soon as it hits 7pm EST, 1900ms is a low point. 2300ms is more likely. I’ve seen pings over 5000 and 6000ms. I get randomly disconnected walking from point A to point B. Casting an instant-cast like Bone Shield takes 10-20 seconds; mining takes an eternity, by which time the node’s been stolen from me.

And it’s not just Northrend. I know Blizzard is aware of the Northrend lag, and claims it’s due to Wintergrasp - but I somehow doubt Wintergrasp is making it impossible to dig up fel iron ore, or giving my priest 3200ms lag trying to lolsmite a bear in Feralas.

Is it on my end? Well, sure, I’d ordinarily think so, except that WoW is the only thing I have any problems playing - I’ve been playing Shin Megami Tensei Online when WoW is too unbearable, and there’s no lag at all.

In short, WoW is unplayable right now, and until it clears up, I’ll have to find my amusement elsewhere for most of primetime - and until that happens, the posts here won’t be terribly informative, I’m afraid. Sorry!

I took the opportunity last night to parachute into Dalaran, which yielded some phenomenal panoramic views of the city. I also took one from the Purple Parlor, which looks… surprisingly similar. I’m using them as wallpapers, feel free to do what you like with them (they’re all 1680 x 1050).

A reader question today, from Hydra:

You need to do a post about runic power and how it works. all I know is it is like rage. but not. it is like energy . but not.

A good way of summing it up. What is Runic Power (often abbreviated RP)? Wowwiki says the following:

Runic power is an extra resource that builds up as the death knight uses his or her abilities, displayed as an empty bar that fills up with a light sky blue color similar to rage under the Death Knight’s healthbar.

So far, so good. As you use abilities that require Runes - any Rune - you’ll build up Runic Power (it’s actually sort of like Rage, only a lot faster, and you don’t get any for getting hit). You’ll also gain 25 Runic Power if you use Empower Rune Weapon - it’s sort of an emergency button.

After patch 3.0.8, any move that costs multiple runes will give you 15 Runic Power, while single-rune moves will give you 10. The Runic Power bar goes up to a max of 100, although Frost Death Knights can up this to 110, 120, or 130 with talent points.

Obviously, if it’s maxed, getting more won’t help you, so you’ll want to use Runic Power in your ability rotations. But what’s it for? The idea is to use your runes to fuel your strikes and blasts and what-have-you: all well and good. Runic power, though, is what you use after (or in some cases, in-between) your runes. What are some of the various uses of runic power?

Buffing and Healing:

• Horn of Winter - For now, that is. Right now, Horn of Winter costs 20 Runic Power (10 glyphed) and offers the same exact buff as a Strength of Earth totem for two minutes. In 3.0.8 it’ll cost 0 runic power, will actually generate 10 runic power, and the glyph will extend its duration by a minute. If you’re soloing, you’ll want to keep this up as often as you have the RP to do so. If you’re in a group, there’s a good chance that something is overwriting this, so you’ll be freed up to use your RP elsewhere.

• Death Pact - A spell you get at 66, Death Pact blows up your ghoul to give you 20% of your max health back. It’s a good emergency health measure, and if your ghoul’s about to die after a fight, it’s a convenient way to get rid of him and summon another one. Also, unlike many pets, blowing up and resummoning your ghoul will actually get rid of any debuffs he’s carrying.

• Icebound Fortitude - Many a DK has had their life saved by Icebound Fortitude. For 20 runic power, the Death Knight becomes immune to stuns and takes 50% damage for 12 seconds - from everything. I tend to pop it often on fights where the melee’s taking a lot of damage, just to make my healers’ lives easier. In 3.0.8, this will be changing to be 20% base reduction, scaling with defense (at 540 defense skill, it will reduce 35% damage).

• Anti-Magic Shell - The little green bubble is another runic power-consuming ability. It’s pretty self-explanatory, and if you’re under attack it’ll generate RP for you - it uses 20 RP to cast, but you get roughly 2% of the damage it absorbs back as Runic Power.]

Interrupts and Direct Damage:

• Mind Freeze - Another of the anti-magic abilities in the DK’s arsenal is Mind Freeze. On a 10-second cooldown, Mind Freeze lets a DK expend 20 RP to interrupt a spell and lock the caster out of the school they’re currently casting for 4 seconds. It’s fairly self-explanatory, but a caveat: it’s melee range only. I’ve gotten bit by this a few times and had to rely on Strangulate instead. Also, interestingly: Mind Freeze is not on, and is not affected by, the global cooldown. You can toss out a Mind Freeze pretty much anytime you’re able.

• Rune Strike - You’ll likely see this one a lot of you’re soloing or tanking. Rune Strike does 200% weapon damage (in 3.0.8: 150% weapon damage and 150% threat) plus a bit more. It’s usable whenever you parry or dodge an attack. Unlike everything else ending in “Strike,” Rune Strike is “on next melee” - it’s sort of fire-and-forget (meaning it, too, is not affected by the global cooldown). Just use it and continue on your way, and next time your auto-attack kicks off, you’ll Rune Strike. This can do some ludicrous damage, especially if it crits, but DPS DKs will probably want to stay away from it in groups after the patch. Of course, odds are you won’t see it that often anyway (I pretty much only see it if I get an add on me, for instance).

• Death Coil - Not to be confused with the Warlock spell of the same name, the Death Knight’s Death Coil is the first Runic Power ability you get, and is a staple of some specs (such as Blood), with talents to improve it in both Blood and Unholy. Death Coil costs 40 RP and is an instant-cast ranged direct damage attack - one of the few in our arsenal. Generally, if you’ve got nothing else to do with your RP, Death Coil is a good fallback.

• Frost Strike (41-point Frost talent) - The signature strike of the Frost tree is, appropriately, Frost Strike. An instant-cast ability that does 60% of weapon damage plus more, Frost Strike is interesting because it’s spammable - you can keep using it until you run out of Runic Power. Remember when I said if you’ve got nothing else to do with your RP, you can cast Death Coil? If you’re Frost-specced, replace “Death Coil” with “Frost Strike” and you’re good.

• Hungering Cold (51-point Frost talent) - Hungering Cold? Don’t you mean Frost Nova? For a whopping 60 RP (40 after 3.0.8), Hungering Cold will freeze everything around you and infect it with Frost Fever. Any damage whatsoever will break them out of their cold, except your diseases. It’s a great way to inflict a lot of damage when soloing (Hungering Cold + Deathchill + Howling Blast, for instance), but generally if you use it in groups you’re just going to waste 60 RP.

• Corpse Explosion (11-point Unholy talent) - After 3.0.8, Corpse Explosion will be changed from costing 1 Unholy rune (which made it very awkward in most rotations) to costing 40 Runic Power (which it probably should’ve cost all along), along with receiving a big damage bump. None of these are bad things! It also adds to Unholy’s AOE arsenal. Corpse Explosion can still be useful now in some situations, but you’ll probably like it a lot more once it costs Runic Power.

  • Tip: Target your ghoul before casting it for bonus damage - you’ll see him channel for 1.5 seconds, then explode for much more damage than usual.

• Unholy Blight (51-point Unholy talent) - The capstone of the Unholy tree is Unholy Blight. Right now it costs 60 RP… but it’s pretty sweet, and will b e moreso after 3.0.8, when it will cost 40 Runic Power. Unholy Blight deals more-or-less constant damage in an aura around the DK, and you get to be surrounded by an obnoxious cloud of buzzing flies! Sweet! In all seriousness, Unholy Death Knights will want to keep this up as often as possible - in groups, according to recount, this is often my #2 or #3 source of damage. It’s that good.

Summoning Combat Helpers:

• Dancing Rune Weapon (51-point Blood talent) - I’ve talked before about the Dancing Rune Weapon. It’s an interesting one in that when you use it, it will drain all of your Runic Power immediately to summon a Dancing Rune Weapon. The weapon copies any move that you do, with your stats, and the more Runic Power you have when you initially summon it, the longer it stays (it’s really not worth casting before you have the full 100 RP). It’s a great form of burst damage for the fully Blood-specced death knight.

• Summon Gargoyle (21-point Unholy talent) - Our little flying buddy is just a little bit too good right now, unfortunately, and that’s why Summon Gargoyle is getting a nerf soon. Still, don’t overlook it. For 50 RP, you summon an Ebon Gargoyle, who swoops into the area, targets your target, and begins pummeling it once a second with nature-damage magic modified by your attack power at the time of summoning. Yes, this means that if you’re fully raid buffed and pop a trinket or two, the Gargoyle will remain powerful after those wear off. The Gargoyle is a great way to take down bosses. The cost? Once you summon him, he constantly drains Runic Power from you - but you should be generating it while fighting, so it’s not a huge deal. Just be careful using expensive powers like Unholy Blight. He’ll stay until your RP runs out or one minute is up (30 seconds in 3.0.8).

  • Tip: If you summon him while fighting the Gargoyles at the entrance of the Plague Wing in Naxxramas, you’ll generally freak your raid out because he swoops down by your side after you’re finished. Not that I’ve tried that. /grin

Hopefully this gives you a good summary of what our sky blue bar is for. The general idea is this:

(normal Rune-powered attack rotation to build Runic Power) -> (use Runic Power abilities) -> (loop to beginning)

But use your judgment: obviously you’ll want to interrupt spells when you can with Mind Freeze, or pop Icebound Fortitude or Anti-Magic Shell to save yourself a little damage here and there.

This is ordinarily where I’d give you an update on how I’m doing or what I’ve been up to but, to be honest, it’s not that interesting: I’ve done some heroics, I’ve gotten some new gear, I’ve skilled mining an unreasonably high amount considering I’m still in Outland for mining, and so on. I even tanked King Ymiron in an emergency situation, and the only person who got killed was the tank (the tank prior to me… not me… which is why I was tanking to begin with). Hooray!

No, instead, I’m going to focus on something interesting in Wrath: just how damn touching some things are, both in a good and a bad way. I’ll put it behind a cut for my Icecrown-impaired viewers; part of this is a minor spoiler.

A quick plug ‘cause Fimlys asked so nicely (and so repeatedly…): TNB wants your best moments of 2008!

TNB wants your moments…

WoW moments that is!

We want you, our gentle listeners, to tell us your most “twisted” moment of 2008. A great save, a funny death, an awesome trick, that amazing gift, whatever your best moment is, share it with us! We want to know!

There’s submission info on the original post on the Twisted Nether Blogcast’s blog; you should submit something! I probably will too… as soon as I can nail down one thing.

That rotting, gibbering mass of bandages is your friend and mine, the ghoul. Ghouls are, in many ways, a death knight’s best friend. Any death knight can summon one ghoul; any max-level death knight can summon an army of them. Some death knights even love theirs so much that they convince them to stick around. Fascinating, yes?

Well, Raise Dead has a secondary effect (soon to be separated into Raise Ally). In addition to raising the death knight’s best undead pal from a body (or, sometimes, nowhere at all), it can also raise a party or raid member! A lot of the time, this’ll happen by accident - a DK will be attempting to retrieve the NPC ghoul and instead will raise, well, you. Soon if it happens, it’ll be on purpose. If this happens during, say, a boss fight?

Don’t stand there like a ninny, go hit the boss! All DPS is good DPS - smack the boss around a little (from behind, please - your tank will thank you later). Not sure how to perform to your ghoulish best? Luckily for you, here’s a short guide.