Next up.. the Death Knight.<\/p>\n
Biggest change coming to the DKs with Cataclysm, is the class design change to go from 3 viable tanking trees.. to 1.\u00c2\u00a0 The Blood tree is being turned into the ‘tank’ tree, leaving Frost and Unholy as DPS trees. There goes my dual wielding DK tank =(<\/p>\n
Next change is a rework on the way runes recharge.. this looks to be a pretty interesting and decent change.<\/p>\n
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Linky to Original Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. In this preview, you’ll get a glimpse at some of the new abilities, spells, and talents in store for the death knight class, along with an early look at some improvements we plan to make to the rune resource system.<\/p>\n New Death Knight Abilities<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Outbreak (level 81)<\/strong>: Outbreak infects the target with both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at no rune cost. This ability allows death knights to apply diseases quickly when they are switching targets or when their diseases have been dispelled.<\/p>\n Necrotic Strike (level 83)<\/strong>: Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike — the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health.<\/p>\n This ability is meant to bring back some of the old flavor from when death knights could dispel heal-over-time (HoT) effects. It also gives the class a bit more PvP utility without simply replicating a Mortal Strike-style effect.<\/p>\n Dark Simulacrum (level 85)<\/strong>: The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent’s next spell cast and unleash it. Unlike Spell Reflection, Dark Simulacrum does not cancel the incoming spell. In general, if you can’t reflect an ability, you won’t be able to copy it either.<\/p>\n Rune System Changes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n While we’re satisfied with the way the rune system works overall, we’re making a few major changes to the mechanics that will ultimately help death knight players feel less constrained. Here’s the rationale behind the changes, followed by an explanation of how the new system will work.<\/p>\n Talent Changes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Next we’ll outline some of the death knight talent-tree changes we’re planning in Cataclysm. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you a sense of how we’re intending each death knight spec to perform.<\/p>\n Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Blood<\/span> Frost<\/span> Unholy<\/span> Healing Absorption<\/strong>: When you heal yourself, you’ll receive an additional effect that absorbs incoming damage.<\/p>\n Runic Power Generation<\/strong>: This will function as the name implies, and the new rune system will make generating Runic Power more appealing.<\/p>\n Disease Damage<\/strong>: Unholy death knights will be able to get more out of their diseases, which are integral to the tree’s play style.<\/p>\n Vengeance<\/strong>: This new mechanic is designed to ensure that tank damage output (and therefore threat) doesn’t fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will grant a stacking Attack Power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character’s unbuffed health. For boss encounters, we expect that tanks will always have an Attack Power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Blood tree; these values will be smaller at lower levels.<\/p>\n You only get the Vengeance bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Blood tree, so you won’t see Frost or Unholy death knights running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to design tank gear more or less the way we do today; there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so their Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but the goal is that all four tanks will do about the same damage when tanking.<\/p>\n We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.<\/p>\n Cataclysm Stat & System Changes<\/strong>: http:\/\/forums.worldofwarcraft.com\/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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\nDamage reduction
\nVengeance
\nHealing Absorption<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMelee damage
\nMelee Haste
\nRunic Power Generation<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMelee damage
\nMelee and spell critical damage
\nDisease Damage<\/strong><\/p>\n