E
Eldorian
Guest
On Saturday at the event Tom Chilton presented a panel about the classes in World of Warcraft - present and future. In this panel some new things were discussed about Death Knights and the other classes and what to expect in Wrath of the Lich King.
Death Knight
The Death Knight starting zone will be in an extended area in the northern plaguelands. The reason for this is the developers still wanted incentives to keep players interested in the old Azeroth world. Death Knights can of course be any race (even gnomes). The Death Knight's use runes in their swords for their abilities (blood, ice, and unholy). We learned during the discussion that the runes will have a 10 second cooldown which is relatively short if you think about it. The Death Knight is also going to be a primarily tank role (with some DPS options) for dungeons and raids as the developers say they're trying to balance the game a bit with the tank shortage there currently is.
The rest here is taken from the power point presentation given at the panel:
Abilites:
-Death Coil
-Rise Dead (players get brought back)
-Death and Decay
-Haste
Resource System:
-Class distinction is the key
-Runeblade is core to Death Knight lore
-Runes seemed like a natural fit for the Death Knights resource mechanic.
Spells and Abilities
-Class-Defining spells Death Grip
- Raise Dead
- Army of the Dead
- Anti magic shell
Core Tanking and DPS Mechanics
- Blood & Frost Presence
- Anti-Magic Shell & Mind Freeze
- Death Grip & Blood Boil
Blood Boil causes mobs to attack you -- it is
part of the Death Knight aggro management. Death and Decay being an
area of effect serves to gain threat of multiple mobs too.
Talents
Philosophy
- Spread the Tanking
- Avoid Rune pigeonholes
- Define each tree
Blood is physical damage and life
Frost is frost damage and control
Unholy is evi stuff and minions
- Introduce new types of Runic Power mechanics
Dancing Rune Weapon
Unholy Blight
The rest of the panel was used to discuss the future of the current classes in the game -
Hunter
-Steady shot will no longer clip auto shot - the devs acknowledged that hunters actually lose their DPS by using their abilities.
-Pets will get Talent Trees (Utility tree, tanking tree, and DPS tree)
-New ability revealed "Cornered" - Your pet does an additional 20% damage when you are at 20% health
Mages
-Will get Frostfire Bolt to help out the elementalists
Priests
-Divine Hymn - Priest casts a hymn that heals party members. If an opponent hits a party member the opponent goes into a trance. Allows the holy priest to have a bit of crowd control while healing.
-Dispersion - Reduce damage 90% regen 6% health/mana per second. 51 point shadow, a
way to turtle against incoming attacks and regen. Can move but not cast
spells
-Guardian Spirit - Allows the priest to cast a spirit on a party member. When the party member takes a killing blow, the spirit dies instead.
Druids
-Entangling roots can now be cast indoors
-Flourish - Short time cast healing spell, 1.5 cast time, it's effectiveness is dependent on the HoT's on the character.
Shaman
-Devs feel the Shaman have too many totems to keep track of
-Strength of Earth and Grace of Air will be combined
-Totems will now affect the entire raid instead of just the individual party
-Rockbiter weapon will be removed. Will be replaced by Earthliving which gives a plus to healing
-Flametongue will give spell damage. Frost will more effectively snare.
-Hex - limited emergency crowd control for Shamans. Hexed players will have movement control, but no casting ability.
Rogues
-Fan of Knives - Short AoE burst with a 1 minute cooldown.
-SAP has more targets now - Humanoids, beasts, dragonkin, demons, etc.
Warriors
-Wanted to make the class feel more like Warcraft 3. Put the Bladestorm Shockwave in and tweaked arms and protection. Shockwave will help with Prot damage problem.
-Titan's Grip - Dual wielding 2H weapons
Paladins
-Hand of Purity - Reactive healing spell, referred to it as a preemptive healbomb.
-More non exclusive blessings - Freedom and Protection.
Warlocks
-Demonic Circle - scribe a circle in the ground and teleport back when you need to (this TOTALLY seems like Mark/Rune from UO!)
-51 point Demonology is a demon form. Blizzard employees are calling it the Illidian Form.
-In demon form you can cast AoE Shadowbolts.
More...
Death Knight
The Death Knight starting zone will be in an extended area in the northern plaguelands. The reason for this is the developers still wanted incentives to keep players interested in the old Azeroth world. Death Knights can of course be any race (even gnomes). The Death Knight's use runes in their swords for their abilities (blood, ice, and unholy). We learned during the discussion that the runes will have a 10 second cooldown which is relatively short if you think about it. The Death Knight is also going to be a primarily tank role (with some DPS options) for dungeons and raids as the developers say they're trying to balance the game a bit with the tank shortage there currently is.
The rest here is taken from the power point presentation given at the panel:
Abilites:
-Death Coil
-Rise Dead (players get brought back)
-Death and Decay
-Haste
Resource System:
-Class distinction is the key
-Runeblade is core to Death Knight lore
-Runes seemed like a natural fit for the Death Knights resource mechanic.
Spells and Abilities
-Class-Defining spells Death Grip
- Raise Dead
- Army of the Dead
- Anti magic shell
Core Tanking and DPS Mechanics
- Blood & Frost Presence
- Anti-Magic Shell & Mind Freeze
- Death Grip & Blood Boil
Blood Boil causes mobs to attack you -- it is
part of the Death Knight aggro management. Death and Decay being an
area of effect serves to gain threat of multiple mobs too.
Talents
Philosophy
- Spread the Tanking
- Avoid Rune pigeonholes
- Define each tree
Blood is physical damage and life
Frost is frost damage and control
Unholy is evi stuff and minions
- Introduce new types of Runic Power mechanics
Dancing Rune Weapon
Unholy Blight
The rest of the panel was used to discuss the future of the current classes in the game -
Hunter
-Steady shot will no longer clip auto shot - the devs acknowledged that hunters actually lose their DPS by using their abilities.
-Pets will get Talent Trees (Utility tree, tanking tree, and DPS tree)
-New ability revealed "Cornered" - Your pet does an additional 20% damage when you are at 20% health
Mages
-Will get Frostfire Bolt to help out the elementalists
Priests
-Divine Hymn - Priest casts a hymn that heals party members. If an opponent hits a party member the opponent goes into a trance. Allows the holy priest to have a bit of crowd control while healing.
-Dispersion - Reduce damage 90% regen 6% health/mana per second. 51 point shadow, a
way to turtle against incoming attacks and regen. Can move but not cast
spells
-Guardian Spirit - Allows the priest to cast a spirit on a party member. When the party member takes a killing blow, the spirit dies instead.
Druids
-Entangling roots can now be cast indoors
-Flourish - Short time cast healing spell, 1.5 cast time, it's effectiveness is dependent on the HoT's on the character.
Shaman
-Devs feel the Shaman have too many totems to keep track of
-Strength of Earth and Grace of Air will be combined
-Totems will now affect the entire raid instead of just the individual party
-Rockbiter weapon will be removed. Will be replaced by Earthliving which gives a plus to healing
-Flametongue will give spell damage. Frost will more effectively snare.
-Hex - limited emergency crowd control for Shamans. Hexed players will have movement control, but no casting ability.
Rogues
-Fan of Knives - Short AoE burst with a 1 minute cooldown.
-SAP has more targets now - Humanoids, beasts, dragonkin, demons, etc.
Warriors
-Wanted to make the class feel more like Warcraft 3. Put the Bladestorm Shockwave in and tweaked arms and protection. Shockwave will help with Prot damage problem.
-Titan's Grip - Dual wielding 2H weapons
Paladins
-Hand of Purity - Reactive healing spell, referred to it as a preemptive healbomb.
-More non exclusive blessings - Freedom and Protection.
Warlocks
-Demonic Circle - scribe a circle in the ground and teleport back when you need to (this TOTALLY seems like Mark/Rune from UO!)
-51 point Demonology is a demon form. Blizzard employees are calling it the Illidian Form.
-In demon form you can cast AoE Shadowbolts.
More...