Short Update: Pallie and DK in Northrend, one Week to XMas
I managed to get some playtime in this weekend.
On the Death Knight, I quested a bit more and then parked the toon in Howling Fjords, about 3/4 exp to go to level 71. I respecced the dead guy to Frost for a while to see if I could get it to work for me, using a build with more avoidance than what I had so far to make for a bit more versatility and try out the ice cold version of DK AoE killing.
The build I’m using is this one, and in practice, it has a good rhythm to it. Hungering Cold is like a pallie bubble, it buys you time to apply a bandage before getting back to arse kicking. Frost Strike and Obliterate create some massive arse kicking when needed.
That being said, in terms of sheer survivability for solo leveling, I like Unholy better and will be respeccing once I pick the toon up again. The added damage generated from the third disease at my current gear level as well as the ghoul to make quite some difference, not to mention that two glyphed death strikes on 3 disease are enough to replenish a good 60% of my HP. It’s just plain smoother leveling.
And the third tree, you ask? Well, I still can’t be arsed to spec blood. I know it has some serious butt-kicking potential but for some reason the tree just doesn’t appeal to me so far.
On the paladin front, she’s earned the I’ve Toured the Fjord achievement, obviously cleared the zone, passed level 72 and moved to Borean Tundra.
The one striking thing is that at now roughly similar gear levels, the DK still outdamages my ret pallie by a good 20%, which tends to convince me that the level-70 based nerfs have definitely gone too far. The other thing is that despite the changes to the class, the paladin remains too passive in terms of gameplay compared to all other classes I’ve played. There’s just still too much time when you’re merely autoattacking and waiting for the cooldowns to give you something to do. Perhaps with patch 4.0.3…
At the end of my session, and seeing how various quest rewards have been of the tanking plate variety, I’ve decided to respec to prot for a while to see how the tree plays. I’ll try that one out after my next business trip.
In Howling Fjord, looks like Kamagua is the new STV or something. I’ve been ganked by level 80 players a lot more than anywhere else. I blame the walrus people dailies.
The transportation between Kamagua and (with intermediary stops) and Borean Tundra is original and fun, BTW. Just a tad too much waiting for my taste, but at least I now have a complete flight path between the Fjord and the Tundra.
Been trying to level my fishing and my cooking as well. The buff food I can make from the drops / fish in the Fjord is very nice for a healadin, but for Ret or the DK… not so much. Except for the Dalaran Clam Chowder, which is, however, a bit of a pain to prepare, since the Succulent Clam Meat doesn’t actually stack has to be stacked manually (thanks for the hint, Tritax). Since I’m a bit slow-witted, it took me quite a while to realize that the best way was actually not to open the clams containing it before cooking, since the unopened clams do stack.
I’ll probably hit a wall soon until I reach Dalaran, where it appears the next set of recipes can be obtained.
And that concludes the present episode of my adventures in Northrend.
I really liked unholy for leveling and the way it played, but I admit I haven’t tried the other specs yet.
I REALLY have to level my cooking…I love all the new recipes (except those difficult ones to prepare…ack!), but I just never get around to it. Something else comes up and I’m like, Well I’ll do that instead! =P
Succulent Clam Meat does, in fact, stack. It’s strange though, because it doesn’t auto-stack always. It stacks – automatically – on my Fishing/Cooking Paladin, but on my DK, it doesn’t. I have to manually stack them.
Wow. Talk about a bug…
When I was frost, my favorite combo was:
Wait for Killing Machine to proc (reasonably often if you’re DW) -> Hungering Cold -> crit Howling Blast (due to KM) -> Deathchill + crit Howling Blast. If you’re level 75+ you can then hit Empower Rune Weapon for two MORE Howling Blasts (you’re on your own for crits here unless KM procs again).
That is a real burst of AoE if ever you’ve seen one. That said, I definitely agree that it’s a bit hard to justify giving healing and/or pets to get there.
I have seen a lot of DK’s specc’d unholy, and while you get more diseases and more disease damage, I prefer blood. You get more self healing with blood and smoother health regen, plus you are using 3 rune types for healing (death strikes are expensive!)
I tried out Blood and Frost in the beta, liked them both but Blood seemed to give more survivability. Didn’t try Unholy til live, and I’m liking it so far, my DK is only 59 right now so gonna stick to Unholy til I get a better feel for it.