The Michael Whitt Blog

Below is the build I am going to focus on for my Death Knight.  45/0/26 isn’t a tanking build but should be a decent soloing and DPS build.

The key talents of this build:
A) On a Pale Horse (20% boost to mount speed = a lot of time saved traveling)
B) Shadow of Death (Already Shadow of Death has helped me finish up a couple group quest solo.  Being able to finish a quest even after you died is nice)
C) Master of Ghouls (While Ghouls are not as powerful as a Hunter’s pet or even a Warlock’s having the extra dps and crowd  control.  it is nice having the ability to have one out at all times.)
D) Butchery (Anything that speeds up the ability to us a large portion of our skills/spells always helps)
E) Bladed Armor (Since DK’s get their spell damage bonus not from Spell Power but from AP this is a overall damage boost)
F) Rune Tap <Improved>(Being able to have the ability to heal yourself for 20% of your Max health every 30 seconds for a single rune is nothing to laugh at)
G) Vendetta (Yet another solid self heal, though dependant on a fresh kill)
H) Vampiric Blood ( When used with Improved Rune Tap you are talking about a 30% heal of your max health every minute depending on Rune availablity)

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIocotzhZZf0MItfo00o

Level 80 Death Knight (45/0/26)
Blood (45 points)

Butchery - Rank 2/2
Whenever you kill an enemy that grants experience or honor, you generate up to 20 runic power. In addition, you generate 2 runic power per 5 sec while in combat.

Subversion - Rank 3/3
Increases the critical strike chance of Blood Strike, Heart Strike and Obliterate by 9%, and reduces threat generated while in Blood or Unholy Presence by 25%.

Bladed Armor - Rank 5/5
Increases your attack power by 5 for every 180 armor value you have.

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization - Rank 2/2
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 4%.

Rune Tap - Rank 1/1
Converts 1 Blood Rune into 10% of your maximum health.

Dark Conviction - Rank 5/5
Increases your chance to critically hit with weapons, spells and abilities by 5%.

Improved Rune Tap - Rank 3/3
Increases the health provided by Rune Tap by 100% and lowers its cooldown by 30 sec.

Vendetta - Rank 3/3
Heals you for up to 6% of your maximum health whenever you kill a target that yields experience or honor.

Bloody Strikes - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage by 30% and the bonus damage from diseases by 60% of your Blood Strike and Heart strike.

Veteran of the Third War - Rank 3/3
Increases your total Strength and Stamina by 6%, and your expertise by 6.

Mark of Blood - Rank 1/1
Place a Mark of Blood on an enemy. Whenever the marked enemy deals damage to a target, that target is healed for 4% of its maximum health. Lasts for 20 sec.

Bloodworms - Rank 3/3
Your weapon hits have a 9% chance to cause the target to spawn 2-4 Bloodworms. Bloodworms attack your enemies, healing you as they do damage for 20 sec or until killed.

Hysteria - Rank 1/1
Induces a friendly unit into a killing frenzy for 30 sec. The target is Enraged, which increases their physical damage by 20%, but causes them to suffer damage equal to 1% of their maximum health every second.

Sudden Doom - Rank 5/5
Your Blood Strikes and Heart Strikes have a 20% chance to make your next Death Coil consume no runic power and critically hit if cast within 15 sec.

Vampiric Blood - Rank 1/1
Increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 50% for 20 sec.

Heart Strike - Rank 1/1
Instantly strike the enemy, causing 60% weapon damage plus 220.8, and an additional 110.4 bonus damage per disease. Prevents target from using haste effects for 10 sec.

Might of Mograine - Rank 3/3
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Blood Boil, Blood Strike, Death Strike, Heart Strike, and Obliterate abilities by 45%.

Frost (0 points)

None

Unholy (26 points)

Vicious Strikes - Rank 2/2
Increases the critical strike chance by 6% and critical strike damage bonus by 30% of your Plague Strike, Death Strike and Scourge Strike.

Morbidity - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage and healing of Death Coil by 15% and reduces the cooldown on Death and Decay by 15 sec.

Unholy Command - Rank 2/2
Reduces the cooldown of your Death Grip ability by 10 sec.

Ravenous Dead - Rank 3/3
Increases your total Strength 3% and the contribution your Ghouls get from your Strength and Stamina by 60%

Outbreak - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage of Plague Strike, Pestilence and Blood Boil by 30%.

Necrosis - Rank 5/5
Your auto attacks deal an additional 10% Shadow damage.

Corpse Explosion - Rank 1/1
Cause a corpse to explode for 220 Shadow damage to all enemies within 20 yards. Will use a nearby corpse if the target is not a corpse. Does not affect mechanical or elemental corpses.

On a Pale Horse - Rank 2/2
You become as hard to stop as death itself. The duration of all Stun and Fear effects used against you is reduced by 20%, and your mounted speed is increased by 20%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.

Blood-Caked Blade - Rank 3/3
Your auto attacks have a 30% chance to cause a Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 25% weapon damage plus 12.5% for each of your diseases on the target.

Shadow of Death - Rank 1/1
Increases your total Strength and Stamina by 2%. In addition, whenever you die, you return to keep fighting as a Ghoul for 45 sec.

Master of Ghouls - Rank 1/1
The Ghoul summoned by your Raise Dead spell is considered a pet and is under your control. Unlike normal Death Knight Ghouls, your pet does not have a limited duration.

-=-=-=-=

Blood (45 points)

2/2 Butchery
3/3 Subversion
5/5 Bladed Armor
2/2 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
1/1 Rune Tap
5/5 Dark Conviction
3/3 Improved Rune Tap
3/3 Vendetta
3/3 Bloody Strikes
3/3 Veteran of the Third War
1/1 Mark of Blood
3/3 Bloodworms
1/1 Hysteria
5/5 Sudden Doom
1/1 Vampiric Blood
1/1 Heart Strike
3/3 Might of Mograine

Frost (0 points)

None

Unholy (26 points)

2/2 Vicious Strikes
3/3 Morbidity
2/2 Unholy Command
3/3 Ravenous Dead
3/3 Outbreak
5/5 Necrosis
1/1 Corpse Explosion
2/2 On a Pale Horse
3/3 Blood-Caked Blade
1/1 Shadow of Death
1/1 Master of Ghouls

So I ended up playing to 4:30 last night even though I shouldn’t have.   That being said I got my Death Knight to around 58 1/2.

Things I liked:

* The Death Knight starting zone is fun and the fact that the world actually changes from the quest you do is neat and I wish the rest of the game was that way.

* The Death Knight spell Death Grip is too much fun.   Pulling a mob directly to you for many yards away is just too fun.

* The fact that you get a 100% land mount for free after a very simple yet fun quest.  No only that but you get him by level 56.

* The fact that when you leave your starting area you already have nice gear.

Things I don’t like:

* Ability rotation is rough.   You get thrown into learning dozens of skills in just a few hours time.  Even after doing a ton of reading on the class I still don’t have a clue what some of the spells are best for.

* Overpopulation of DKs.   Last night at 4am I rode into Stormwind thinking that I would be at least still semi-unique but nope there were far more DKs than everyone else combined.  I am sure this will die off but for now it was a bit annoying.

* The thought of having to go thru Outlands for the 6th time.  I know that 3.x brought XP needed to level down by 30% or so but still the thought of having to dig through Clefholf dung yet again really is a downer.

* Knowing that you are at best going to hit 80 a couple weeks after most of your friends do.

I am an American… I believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
I am an American… I believe that it takes hard work to excel in life.
I am an American… I believe that it is our country that is great not it’s government.
I am an American… I believe that it is up to me to protect my family.
I am an American… I believe that it is up to me to provide for my family.
I am an American… I believe that it is up to me to be responsible for my actions.
I am an American… I believe that the government that governs least governs best.
I am an American… I believe that we were graced by God with our beautiful nation.
I am an American… I believe that capitalism is the best way to prosperity for the nation.
I am an American… I am not defined by the color of my state during elections.
I am an American… I stand by my right to own a firearm and speak my mind.
I am an American… I do not need government to tell me to help my fellow man in times of need.
I am an American… I stand honored to be protected by those brave men and women of the military.
I am an American… I know that if I want to improve my life that I can if I am willing to do so.
I am an American… I am an Individual…. I am an American… And I will continue to be proud of that
fact no matter how my country’s government attempts to change those very things that make me
proud of what I am.

United forever in friendship and labour,
Our mighty republics will ever endure.
The Great People’s Republic of Amerkia will live through the ages.
The dream of a people their fortress secure.

Long live our Amerikan motherland,
Built by the people’s mighty hand.
Long live our people, united and free.
Strong in our friendship tried by fire.
Long may our crimson flag inspire,
Shining in glory for all men to see.

Through days dark and stormy where Great Lenin lead us
Our eyes saw the bright sun of freedom above
And Obama our leader with faith in the people,
Inspired us to build up the land that we love.

Long live our Amerikan motherland,
Built by the people’s mighty hand.
Long live our people, united and free.
Strong in our friendship tried by fire.
Long may our crimson flag inspire,
Shining in glory for all men to see.

We fought for the future, destroyed the invaders,
And brought to our homeland the laurels of fame.
Our glory will live in the memory of nations
And all generations will honour her name.

Long live our Amerikan motherland,
Built by the people’s mighty hand.
Long live our people, united and free.
Strong in our friendship tried by fire.
Long may our crimson flag inspire,
Shining in glory for all men to see.

I don’t want to vote for McCain in the least bit. But if it comes to voting for him vs. voting for a man with plenty of questions as to his relations with known racist and terrorist both domestic and abroad and that is going to lead this country into socialism then I will pick McCain even if begrudgingly so.

I am just sick and tired of the media … fawning over Obama like he is some Messiah. And no NBC he is not the first legitimate black man to run for President. I voted for Alan Keyes twice before for President and last time I checked he was black and a legitimate candidate. Oh wait I forgot since he is conservative that must not count.

Sorry I am just ready for this mess to get over with. I really, really don’t like that I am going to have to pull that lever for McCain but there is no way in heck I could vote for a Marxist socialist like Obama no matter how good of speaker he is. Look up Castro. He used “change” just like Obama does and see where that got Cuba.

I can not believe the number of people that blindly listen to the likes of NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN newscasters that continue to spread their near communist propaganda.  I am tired of the fact that very few places cover things such as Obama saying that the Warren Court “wasn’t that bad” and “could have been more liberal”.   I am tired of hearing the Obama camp say that they aren’t going to raise taxes on the middle class.  But what they don’t tell you is that they are going to let the Bush tax cuts expire, thus raising your taxes without ever having to pass a single bill.

I am tired of the fact that the Obama camp has crusified so to speak Joe the Plumber simply because he asked a question that Obama didn’t want to answer.   I am sick of the fact that they continue to dive into Joe’s personal business simply because he took a stand for small business owners.  This country was founded on the backs of hard working individuals not on government loans and handme outs.

And George Bush actually I am tired of you.  I have stood behind you on the Iraq deal.  But you lost me when you decided to prempt the liberals by doing your best to further our great nation’s slide into socialism by huge government bailouts.  I am tired of McCain too for not calling Obama a socialist to his face.

Honestly though at the point I almost rather see this country go 4 years without anyone in the oval office or congress.   Hell I think 4 years without those lazy bastards would be the most prosperous years ever for this country.   With no special intrest to keep us from drilling and working towards energy independance.  With no new government social programs robbing those that earn their money to hand out to those that don’t want to work.

Maybe we need a new box on the ballet that says NO ONE.   People forget that the American People are in fact selecting a candidate for a position.   Just like any good business owner sometimes it is best to leave a position unfilled for some time while you get your business in order than bringing in someone to cause your business further burden.     I think we need to look at our government in this light.

It is time we the people protect our country from it’s government.    This country is about personal rights and freedoms and the responsiblities that go along with those rights and freedoms.   This country is not about socialism and hand me outs.

Wake up.

Click HERE to see more awesome photos like the above.

After taking the Morality Based Political Test I found that I am an Economic Conservative and Ultra-Capitalist.  Not that I was suprised.

I scored: scored 1 on Moral Order and -8 on Moral Rules.

Economic Conservatism is the variation of Conservatism that emphasizes Independence over Conformance.

People in this category will tend to have stronger opinions about favoring individual initiatives (lower taxes, less corporate and environmental regulations, …) than about enforcing the moral order (religious conformance, strict family values, lesser freedom of expression, stricter laws…).

Ultra Capitalism is an extreme form of Economic Conservatism.

It is the view (sometimes called Minimal Statism, or Minarchism) that government should be as small as possible.

Ultra-liberalist usually agree that government should be restricted to its “minimal” state functions of government (courts, police, prisons, defense). Some other minarchists include in the role of government the management of essential common infrastructure (roads, money).

Unlike Ultra_Liberalists, Ultra-Capitalists believe in a strong and unliform moral order, this means that the role of government is limited to enforcing traditional values (lifestyle, religion, laws, ..) and maintaining its strength (army, police, justice).

Still staying away from MMOs other than a new SRPG that I have been playing called Atlantica Online.   Other than that playing a little Crysis Wars and King’s Bounty.   Fallout 3 comes in a few weeks until then I am just going to play a bit of everything I guess.

So I decided over the weekend after spending time in Warhammer Online that I wanted to take a break from the MMO scene for a bit.   I just had feeling like I have to play every night and keep up with everyone.

I have also been missing the FPS and Strategy genres and think that I will play some Crysis and Total War for a while and take a break from MMOs.

Well I have went back and forth (as I usally do) and finally decided that in WAR to settle down with my Shadow Warrior - Elwina and a new Shaman named Yaa.   My Shadow Warrior is on Wasteland in the guild FORCE and my Shaman is on Badlands in the guild Gears of Waaagh.  This is my final decision and will be the two characters I am going to focus on in WAR.

I have decided to only focus on my Druid come WotLK in WoW.  I think with the latest talent changes that I may actually switch her to Feral instead of Balance.   Will have to wait and see.

Well later this month Fallout 3 is released.  I am curious how much it will affect my time playing WoW and WAR.    Guess time will tell.

Well I finally think I have found my Warhammer home server.   Saphery.  It is a low population server with plenty of room to grow.  I have joined the guild Merk Legion and rolled up a Black Orc named Toto.    I am planning on making me a big old meat shield by going down Da’ Toughest and Da’Boss lines.

We are in a troubling time.   The Government seems to think that a bailout will protect the economy.  Honestly I think all it will do is prolong the misery.   Either we can bit the bullet and struggle for a few year economically speaking or we can prolong our troubles for 10-15 years by letting the Government get into something that it shouldn’t be in.

I haven’t been playing WoW much though lately because I am having a blast in Warhammer Online.   It is pretty much like WoW but a little more less cartoony.  Also the PvP (which I normally don’t like) is actually quite fun and rewarding.  They have these things called Keep Battles.   Pretty much you try to take over the other realm’s castles and such.

I got in one keep battle that I lasted for hours.   I played in it for about 2 1/2 hours and heard that it went on for about twice that.

We got a huge group of people together, somewhere around 80 people.   We then formed 4 Warbands (paties of 20 people each) and one of the Warbands went to take a keep to get all the people on the other realm to go to that keep, leaving the other keeps unprotected.    Then 60 people blew though the nearly unmanned keeps.

This one keep called Barrak Varr was the main one that we wanted to hold.   It is up on a hill so with 60 people we were able to defend it from about 100 players of the oppositie faction.   Then the 20 people that went to distract the other faction’s addition came back and we pinched the enemey in between those of us on the hill and in the keep and those of us on the ground.

I have mainly been playing on Wasteland with FORCE.   But last night I decided to roll up a Marauder which I had originally wanted to do and joined this cool guild called Within Oblivion on AveLorn server.

Waaaagh is the battle cry of goblins and orcs from Warhammer Online.    Got to love hearing them scream Waaaagh just before you chop them into pieces.

I got my Shadow Warrior up to 10 last night.   Leveling wise (10 in WAR is like 20 in WoW) as far as time involved goes.   I am still liking the Shadow Warrior okay and manage usually to get in the top 3-4 damage wise.

Tonight however I am going to try the White Lion out again.   I still have some what of a hankering to level a melee class.   On my server “Wasteland” there are very few White Lions and in my guild FORCE there is only one that I know of.

I mean how bad arse looking is this…..

http://www.barackobamatest.com

My results:
You DISAGREED with the Barack Obama position on 50 of the 52 test questions. This means you disagree with the Obama position 96% of the time.

Found which I agree with him on:

2. Do you agree or disagree that Homeland Security should have to seek out a warrant in federal court in order to perform search and seizure on an American citizen suspected of being involved in terrorism?

I agree.

15. Would you support or oppose a ballot measure in your state that prohibits preferential treatment for any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, public education or public contracting?

Phew, that’s good looks like the things I agreed with on him are the only two things he agrees on that are constitutional.

So I thought I had decided once and for all to go with an Engineer but the guild I am with on Wasteland (FORCE) has a fair amount of good Engineers but only had one Shadow Warrior so I started using my Shadow Warrior a bit last night.  The game play didn’t seem quite as active as my Engineers nor was my damage as high but I noticed that I was able to hold back zergs from the other realm fairly well.    I really want to fit into underfilled niches in the guild.    I do love the ranged abilities of the Shadow Warrior though if I get into melee I am pretty much a goner where my Engineer seemed to last a bit longer.

Right now My Engineer is only level 7  with 6 Renown and my Shadow warrior is 7 with 7 Renown.    So a long ways to 40.   Wow leveling in WAR is so much slower at low levels than WoW.

I am really liking the guys in the guild.  Last night we did a bunch of scenarios and I had a blast.

As have mentioned Warhammer Online has hit retail.  I thought that I would point out some things that I think Blizzard could learn from Mythic…..

1) Battleground queuing from anywhere.   In WoW if you want to do some PvP it usually will revolve around Battlegrounds since World PvP is all but dead.   So you head to the nearest Capitol city or Shat and queue yourself for AV, AB, WSG or EotS.   Then pretty much you sit on you butt waiting for time to pass before the match starts.  Sometimes it is only a few minutes, sometimes it is 20-30 minutes.   But you can’t really go out and quest or anything because as soon as you get to an area to quest most likely the match will start and then you have just wasted your time walking somewhere that once the match is finished you will no longer be at.

In WAR to enter a battleground queue (called Scenario) all you have to do is click a little button to add yourself to queue from wherever you are.   In combat, no biggy, if your match starts you are given 90 seconds to finish your mob fight and enter the queue.   And best of all once your match is over you are returned to the exact location you left.   So you can actually do productive things while you wait for a match and you don’t have to travel to a capitol city just to sign up for a queue.

2) Paul Barnett was a hit after he made his famous bear podcast in which he talked about how in WAR if you kill 10 bears getting to a quest giver that has a quest for you to kill 10 bears, the ones you killed on the way to him should count.    How often have you grinded on say Murlocs to get to a quest giver only to have that quest giver tell you he wants you to kill murlocs.    Warhammer actually avoids this by dynamically keeping track of your kills and gives you credit for those if a questgiver ask for you do kill a particular type of creature, even before you get the quest.

3) Public Quest rule.  Public Quest in WAR are areas that have certain events happening on a timer.   Usually they are 3 parts to a PQ.   Anyone in the area can participate in the public quest.  PQs offer decent awards and gear  The thing is that they are like huge open raids that you can just walk up and partake in.  Totally awesome.

Wow what a week it has been.  From being without power for over two days, to the release of two games I have been waiting for for a long time, to the government proving even more than normal how bad at business they are.   Certainly a big week.

We finally got our powr back on around 3pm yesterday.    It was out for around 55 hours.   Not fun.   Amazingly it looks like a lot of our food in the freezer actually kept frozen.   We ended up staying at a hotel on Monday night so we could get a shower and have AC.  I am just sooooooooooooo releved that it is back on.   If I ever bitch about the cost of utlities again slap me.

I missed out on the CE early start of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning due to the power outage.  It had started on Sunday.   At least I was able to pick up from the start of the standard edition launch.   As I have mentioned before I tried out every class during closed and open beta.  Amazingly the class that I ended up selecting was the one that I had played the least during beta, the Engineer.

I went back and forth about the class selection that I wanted to play.   I kept saying that I wanted to play a melee class this time around but the more I thought about it I favor ranged attacks a lot more.   I almost went for the Squig Herder as I really like the class and also like the goblin’s look but in the end I just didn’t want to play for the side of destruction mainly because it is over populated plus I wanted to play on the side of good.   Kind of funny since I don’t role play. So at any rate I rolled up a Dwarven Engineer on Wastland server last night.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed came out yesterday and I picked up a copy for our PSP.   I only played it for a few minutes this morning before coming into work but it looks good and has smooth game play from what I can tell.

And for my rant today I am upset that the U.S. Government continues to buyout businesses.   This time A.I.G. Insurance.   The object of a Capitalist Democracy does not include businesses being owned by the governement.

80 words

Speedtest

The remains of Hurricane Ike hit our region yesterday morning and it was still packing a heck of a punch.   A large portion of our area was without power, and as of now we are still without power at home.   I don’t like being without TV and Internet if you could not guess.  It drove us batty last night.   I don’t know how people made it prior to TV and Internet.   It sure must have been boring.

Of course to make matters worse it happened on the day of the Collector’s Edition Early Start for Warhammer Online.   Boohoo.  I wasn’t able to get in game and most likely will not be able to tonight.   I just hope that it is back up by Tuesday night so I can at least get in with the Standard Edition Early Start.