World of Warcraft

Blizzard Changes Death Knight Talent Trees

It appears as if Blizzard has updated the official Death Knight page on the Wrath of the Lich King website.

The major changes are to the Death Knight's talent trees. There's no longer a heavy focus on tanking in one specific tree; instead, each tree will be capable of offering a different flavor of DPS capability as well as tanking ability.

This seems like an excellent decision on Blizzard's part, as it means that for one of the first times ever, players truly are capable of choosing whichever talent spec they prefer, and are still able to perform each role their class is designed for.

Is this a hint at the future for World of Warcraft's other classes? It's hard to say, as Wrath of the Lich King is still in very early Alpha, but the changes to the Death Knight talents are definitely a step in the right direction.

Here's what the old page said:

Death Knight Talents -- Original Description

And the new description for each tree:

  • Blood: Talents in this tree focus on weapons, armor, and strikes.
  • Frost: Talents in this tree focus on control, counters, and combos.
  • Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, and diseases.

As you can see, none of them really mention a specific role -- each offers its own flavor on playing the class instead -- allowing the player to both tank and dish out DPS effectively, regardless of their talent spec.

What are your thoughts on this new direction with the class?

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  • Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    im soo gunna make a Gnome Deathknight, I want try out the alliance sides on my realm for this next expansion :p

  • watchout said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    I'm pretty sure that the author is wrong and that blizzard just changed the wording of the explanations so they could still tune the roles of the talent trees, what I'm quite sure they will do often during alpha, without having to update the page continuously.

  • ulic said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    I agree with watchout, they just changed the wording/layout of the page, if you look at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/deathknight/gameplay.xml, you'll see a seperate section that discusses the Presences for each tree almost word for word as it used to.

  • McDeth said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    If they DO make it that each tree can tank / dps most DKs will *probably* be forced to be off-tanks like feral druids :S

  • Roerek said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    Reminds me of a druid kinda: "Would you like me to tank or to dps, cuz i can do both equally effectively"

  • Roerek said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    if you go to the DK page on WoW, you will notice that they took the old layout, and just separated the abilities from the trees. I.E. Frost Presence is still there as a ability it is just lower than expected on the page.

  • Kody said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    Considering I was asked to post this to make the community aware, no I don't think I'm wrong in this particular case. :)

  • jasdub said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    blah blah blah, blah blah blah.. blah

  • Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    Do we really need another tanking class? http://angryraidleader.com/death-knight-lfg-hello-anyone/

  • Shakari said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    Well given that there meant to be a caster/magic tank mitigation is rather usless, as for increased threath from a stand they may not need it and have a buff like a pally, or built in increased threat to there abilities

  • Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    Considering you can't ever find a tank for a dungeon (especially heroic) to save your life.... yeah, it's necessary.

  • Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    well if he can tank in whatever speck what will be the reason for warriors any longer and i guess you wont need druids as tanks any longer. Just so many questions? If you dont make the other class as good everyone will be a Death Knight why would you want to be anything else. Just like the druid is the most popular build on now..that will soon change where you wont see anything any more but knights in there tight leater gear be oh so gay... I myself will stay with my priest and get drug down in the the mud that much more... leave me as a target for other dark nasty knights...NOT HAPPY

  • Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    god i have a feeling blizzards gunna say runic power is the new combo point, no more rogueage....

  • thew175 said 
    Wed, Jun 4 2008 2:15 AM ()

    O.o "the area under Kara is now populated with terrain " from curuTH. they are doing something with it in Wotlk?!?!?!!

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