Welcome to the first edition of Wipe Insurance, Waranvil.com’s new raiding column. This will be posted every monday, so make sure you come back every week for new strategies, tips and tricks! This week we are going to discuss when you are ready to raid. So you’ve just dinged 80 and all you’ve heard about since level 5 is endgame raiding – many people will tell you its where the real game is, you level up and may even do some raids at your level along the way. But entering the current endgame raiding is different. Theres tiers, caps, stat weights, enrage timers, gearscore, jerks, death knights in full tier 9 doing 2k dps (Theres a lot of them…), casual, hardcore, no-lifers, hard modes…its enough to make your head spin.

What should you run?

The number one thing I can recommend to people who want to start raiding is to know your limits.
The way blizzard tunes instances (Gearwise anyway) is so that it is just hard enough for people wearing gear from the last tier of content (and assuming a reasonable amount of skill). The problem with this is…people want the newest gear and freshly dinged 80’s want to run ICC. If you get into that ICC 10 group in your Naxx 10 or Uld 10 gear, there is a very (very) good chance you will not be up to the minimum requirements for that instance. This, boys and girls, is a carried player. Being carried will not get you invited back to runs, and it will most likely put you on a few players ignore lists, hurting your future raiding attempts – even after  you have the gear to pull your weight. Stay in your bracket and get gear, it doesn’t take long to move up the ladder.

Disclaimer: The badge leap

When WotLK first came out, there were 2 badge types you could get: Heroism and Valor. You got heroism from running heroics, and the 10 man tier 7 raids. The gear you got from badges was on par with running the raid content. These days, you can get a full set of tier 9, and its 25 man counterparts (245 gear) just from chain-running heroics. Thats great, its a great way to gear up -  but I still suggest doing the tier 7/tier 8 raids before jumping straight into ToC or ICC, they give excellent experience in your class and in raiding techniques. Below are the raid tiers and a dps mark of where you should be to do them. These are numbers are based on the way the encountered are tuned and failure to meet them may lead to your raid having difficulty. Think of it this way – if you dont meet the minimum, everyone else in the raid has to work harder to make sure it succeeds.

Tier 7

• Tier 7 is the entry level raiding tier in wrath – as such, the gear requirements are lax and you can pretty much jump into these raids with heroic gear.
• This tier comprises of Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum and The Eye of Eternity. To run tier 7, you can pretty much be a fresh 80. A few heroic drops, some level 200 craftables – your good to go. The main purpose for these raids is to wet your feet in raiding, give you a taste of its glory. By the time you have completed these raids and gotten a few pieces – you will be ready for the 25 man version of tier 7 and the 10 man Tier 8 stuff.
  • Fasttrack: The ToC 5 man dungeon will drop Naxx 10 level gear in normal mode and Ulduar 10 in normal. The ICC 5 man dungeons also drop Ulduar 10 level gear on normal. These are a great way to get gear without raiding the tier 7 stuff.
  • DPS Mark: 1.5-2.5k

Tier 8

• Tier 8 is comprised of the Ulduar raid, which is an amazingly well done raid that most players these days will never do. The prerequisites for this tier are gear from Tier 7 or higher.
  • Fasttrack: The ICC 5 man dungeons drop ToC 10 level gear on heroic. If you are in mostly Tier 7 or ToC 5H/ICC 5N gear these heroics are manageable and an excellent way to gear up.
  • DPS Mark: 2.5-3.5k

Tier 9

• Tier 9 is comprised of Trial of the Champion , which gets a real bad rep, and Onyxia’s Lair 2.0 (Which is easy if you understand the basics of movement) . Once you have farmed tier 8 or heroics, this will probably be where most of your upgrades are. As I said before, I highly suggest you do the previous tier raids before this. There is not a whole lot of room for error in these fights – you need to know how to play your class, what your utility is and how not to stand in the fire/slime/cloud.
  • DPS Mark: 3.5-5.5k

Tier 10

• Tier 10 is the final tier of raiding in Wrath, and is comprised of Icecrown Citadel and the soon to be released Ruby Sanctum.|
  Icecrown Citadel is the culmination of all that  you have done in wrath, and the fights are great – but some of them come with serious gear and skill checks.
  • DPS Mark: 5.5k-7.5k

With the badge changes in this expansion, it will be easy to get geared in a matter of time, but until you meet the gear requirements – try to resist the urge to go into runs you are not ready for. Now, I am a firm believer that skill heavily outweighs gear, and that a 200 piece can be better itemized than a 219, it happens. This brings me to my next point.

Know your class.

I know you know your class, but do you really know your class? Do you know what buffs you bring to the table? Is your spec giving you the best tools you need to do your job? Are you stacking stats that give you more of what you need to do your job?

Ok, I’m probably going to catch some flack for the numbers above, but if you are in a gear setup that the instance is tuned for (see above), you should not have problems meeting these numbers. If you are in all ToC 10 and 25 gear and can just barely hit 3k, ask yourself – “Do I really know my class?”. Blizzard tunes the enrage timers and add health around what they expect (from lots of data gathering) players wearing a certain gear setup to put out.

If you happen to be a tank, here are some numbers that are good checkpoints to START tanking a specific raid.Keep in mind these numbers are unbuffed. As you can see, health requirements scale up significantly, this is due to bosses progressively hitting harder as you go up in tier.

Minium Tank Requirements per instance: (ALWAYS at least 540 defense.)

• Heroics/Naxx 10: 20-23k health, 20-30% avoidance, 20-23k armor.
• Naxx 25/Ulduar 10: 23-25k health,30-40% avoidance, 22-25k armor.
• Ulduar 25/ToC 10: 27-29k health, 40-50% avoidance, 25-27k armor.
• ToC 25: 33-35k health, 45-50% avoidance, 27-28k armor.
• ICC 10: 35-38k health, 45-55% avoidance, 29-30k armor.
• ICC 25: 39-44k health, 50%+ Avoidance, 30k+ armor. (The icecrown numbers reflect the current 20% buff).

Be prepared.

There are mountains of information out there regarding raids, bosses and abilities. Videos, if you like to watch – text guides otherwise! Its all out there, It will even be here in this column. Theres no excuse for going into a run dry – if you have at least a passing familiarity of what the encounter is like, it will go a little smoother when you attempt it. Also, if this is content that is challenging for you (or geared towards you) be prepared with consumables. Bring your own flasks, pots, elixirs and food. Most groups will provide fish feasts, but is that the best food buff you can get? Always try to do your best.

Ok,I’m Ready! I got my flasks, know my class, and studied the encounters!

Great! Come back next week when we discuss the art of being a good pug, and until then happy raiding!

What’s got me thinking though, is wondering how deep the class changes are going to go. Blizzard have given a few hints and tips about what’s going to happen, but at this stage most of it is meaningless noise. That doesn’t stop us from being able to speculate and hope though, right? That’s what these guys were doing after a jaunt through Karazhan the other day:

A change that I’ve found interesting is the decision to make Tree of Life a cooldown, as opposed to a permanent form change for Druids. I only ever got into the early 30s with my Druid, but the defining feature of our nature loving friends is that they are capable of changing their form at will to augment and improve the abilities of their chosen spec. A Druid that stays in caster form… I don’t really know how to approach that idea. On the one hand, Tree of Life is currently a flat buff that happens to change the way you look, but then again so is Moonkin form and Shadowform. As yet, we’ve no suggestion that those forms are going to be altered in any way. Tree of Life will be something to keep an eye out on, I think. It’ll be… interesting, to see how that works out.

Warriors are getting their Rage normalised come Cataclysm, which sounds like a good idea on paper but I suspect will take a lot of tweaking come the time. At the moment my experience of Warriors in dungeons seems revolve around an equal split of them either having so much rage they don’t know what to do with it or so little that they either can’t keep aggro or can’t do enough DPS to stay on the meters at all. Normalising that vital component is going to take some work.

Death Knights… well, I don’t know how much change they’ll see. We already know that Blood is going to be the tanking tree, Frost the dual wield tree, and Unholy the 2hand DPS tree… so, basically it’s going to be how it is at end game now pretty much. Sounds like a big change, but really most of the ground work has already been done by the players. I’m intend to enjoy the last hurrah of Unholy tanking as I level my Death Knight, but I won’t be gutted when Blood becomes THE tree for that. As long as Unholy keeps the permanent Ghoul, I’m happy.

Now… a class close to my heart. The Paladin. I rolled mine well after they became popular. I started healing just after Holy got nerfed. I tanked before Ardent Defender got fixed. I even played Retribution, despite my deep dislike of DPSing. Whatever they do to Paladins, it can’t be enough. Despite my love my tankadin, Paladins are… boring. That’s it. They are boring. As Retribution, you get a choice 5 buttons to press. The way you decide which of these to press is simple. You press whichever button is linked to the ability which isn’t on cooldown. It’s mind numbing. As a tank, you start your 6969 rotation, and once you’ve started, you’re locked into it until either you or the mobs you’ve attacked are dead. Boring. As Holy, you cast Beacon of Light, maybe Judgement of Wisdom, and the Flash of Light, pretty much for the same duration as the tank does his rotation, i.e. until either you or the group of mobs are dead. BORING.

Whatever happens, I hope Blizzard do something to mix up the Paladin class a bit. It’s referred to as a face roll class, and as one of it’s staunchest supporters, I can honestly see why. It’s just so… BORING! The new cooldowns and abilities that are being added should be interesting, and provide a bit more in terms of choice and rotation for all 3 specs, but it’s going to take more than a few new shiny spells to make the class less dull and listless.

Part 2 will be up later in the week, after I’ve found things to moan about with my Priest and Shaman.

A couple weeks back as I was levelling an alt through Hillsbrad, when a level 71 Deathknight sends me a message.

Hey, I’m leaving the game do you want my gold?

Never in all the years I’ve played has anyone ever given me gold!  In fact its usually me giving out the gold to such choice characters as Kirioth (I’m sure he’ll only but agree).  So you can imagine, when I received this message I was in a state of shock.

Then it struck me, this can’t be real.  Its clearly somebody taking the piss.  Hell, this is World of Warcraft.

I replied, saying I’d only be to happy to get hold of this money as it could be put to good use.  Alts don’t magically get flying you know, some poor fool has to pay for it.  The Deathknight then assured me he’d send all his Azerothian wealth to me over the mail system.  If I get the money it would be great, if not….its just another goon messing around, I’d just have to take it on the chin like any other hero.

The next day, I have this waiting for me:

Holy shit!  He actually sent me the money.  Now I’m in a total state of shock and awe.  A random player contacts me, sends me a large sum of gold and waves goodbye.  I’m not a rich man in game by anyone’s stretch of the imagination so this gold will help me out loads.

Has this happened to anyone else?  Share it with us in the comments if it has!

So to you Daplff, if your out there.

Thanks /bow

I don’t know about you folks, but I’m pretty excited about 3.1. Granted, since I’ve rerolled Priest and am only at level 70, I can’t take advantage of the new raid (although I might break out my Paladin for a sneak peak), but one thing I can take advantage of is the swathe of changes that have been made to my class, and of course the other classes. As we’ve said, Grim has also rerolled, bringing in his Mage, ditching his obsession with tanking for an obsession with massive numbers. He’s even gone so far as to respec Fire for levelling. Last night we were hacking up some corpses, and discussing the changes in 3.1, and the subject of Glyphs came up. I was complaining as usual about the lack of Discipline glyphs when Grim reminded me that we have a swathe of new glyphs arriving. So, filled with enthusiasm I headed onto Google and got looking for the glyphic goodness that would arrive with 3.1.

Read on after the break to see what we’re getting!

First up, Glyphs:

Death Knight

• Glyph of Hungering Cold – Reduces the cost of Hungering Cold by 10 runic power.
• Glyph of Unholy Blight – Increases the duration of Unholy Blight by 10 sec.
• Glyph of Death Coil – Reduces the cost of Death Coil by 8 runic power.
• Glyph of Pestilence – Your Pestilence ability now refreshes disease durations on your primary target back to their maximum duration.
• Glyph of Howling Blast – Your Howling Blast ability now infects your targets with Frost Fever.

Now that is what I’m talking about.  Cost reductions aren’t really anything special, but the Glyphs of Pestilence, Howling Blast, and Unholy Blight are incredible. Unholy Blight can be devastating when used correctly, and the added duration makes it even more viable. Howling Blast infecting targets with Frost Fever is really good as well. Widespread plagues, anyone? In a similar vein, Pestilence will be excellent for keeping your main target in the hurt locker.

Druid

• Glyph of Berserk - Increases the duration of Berserk by 5 sec.
• Glyph of Wild Growth – Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets.
• Glyph of Nourish – Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.
• Glyph of Savage Roar – Your Savage Roar ability grants an additional 6% bonus damage done.
• Glyph of Typhoon – Reduces the cooldown of your Typhoon spell by 3 sec.
• Glyph of Barkskin – Reduces the chance you’ll be critically hit by melee attacks by 1 to 0% while Barkskin is active.

Ah. Now here we have a problem. My knowledge of the Druid extends to the fact that they have 4 year old models. Still, from my limited experience, Savage Roar has been given a significant buff with that Glyph, as has Wild Growth. In fact, it seems Druids have been given some pretty good options. There’s a distinct lack of “reduces cooldown” rubbish.

Hunter

• Glyph of Chimera Shot - Reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 sec.
• Glyph of Explosive Shot - Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 4%.
• Glyph of Kill Shot – Reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 sec.
• Glyph of Explosive Trap - The periodic damage from your Explosive Trap can now be critical strikes.
• Glyph of Scatter Shot - Increases the range of Scatter Shot by 3 yards.
• Glyph of Raptor Strike - For 5 sec. after using Raptor Strike, you take 20% less damage.

The Glyphs of Explosive Shot and Trap should be a cause for happiness to all Survival Hunters everywhere. Raptor Strike looks pretty good, damage reduction is always welcome in PvP. Not too bad for those “Oh sh*t” PvE moments either.

Mage

• Glyph of Deep Freeze - Increases the range of Deep Freeze by 10 yards.
• Glyph of Living Bomb – The periodic damage from your Living Bomb can now be critical strikes.
• Glyph of Arcane Barrage – Reduces the mana cost of Arcane Barrage by 20%.
• Glyph of Mirror Image - Your Mirror Images gain the Winter’s Chill talent, granting their Frostbolt spell a 100% chance to apply the Winter’s Chill effect, which increases the chance spells will critically hit the target by 1% for 15 sec.  Stacks up to 5 times.
• Glyph of Ice Barrier – Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Ice Barrier by 30%.

Well, I know Grim will be happy about the glyph of Living Bomb! Ice Barrier stands to be a very powerful survival tool with that extra 30% of absorbtion. Mirror Image looks to be even more devastating with the ability to increase crit chance on the target as well.

Paladin

• Glyph of Beacon of Light - Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 sec.
• Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous - Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.
• Glyph of Divine Storm – Your Divine Storm now heals for an additional 15% of the damage it causes.
• Glyph of Shield of Righteousness - Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness by 1 to 6%.
• Glyph of Divine Plea - While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.
• Glyph of Holy Shock – Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 sec.
• Glyph of Hand of Salvation – When you cast Hand of Salvation on yourself, it also reduces damage taken by 20%.

Well… this is nice then. Hammer of the Righteous, Shield of Righteousness, Divine Plea and Hand of Salvation all seem to have become a Protection Paladins dream. Extra mana conservation, reduced damage taken and an extra target for the Hammer? Incredible. Holy Shock is a bit meh, but Divine Storm is even better with this new Glyph.

Priest

• Glyph of Guardian Spirit – If your Guardian Spirit lasts its entire duration without being triggered, your Guardian Spirit cooldown is reset to 60 sec.
• Glyph of Penance – Reduces the cooldown of Penance by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Mind Sear – Increases the radius of effect on Mind Sear by 5 yards.
• Glyph of Hymn of Hope – Your Hymn of hope provides 3 times the normal amount of mana per time, but its duration is 50% shorter.
• Glyph of Pain Suppression – Allows Pain Suppression to be cast while stunned.

Good lord. That Guardian Spirit glyph is out of this world. Makes we want to spec Holy just so I can use it. Glyph of Penance, while only being a cooldown reduction is pretty nice since it’s the main Discipline heal. Hymn of Hope I’m not sure about, but time will tell. Pain Suppression is excellent.

Rogue

• Glyph of Killing Spree – Reduces the cooldown on Killing Spree by 45 sec.
• Glyph of Shadow Dance – Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 4 sec.
• Glyph of Fan of Knives – Increases the damage done by Fan of Knives by 20%.
• Glyph of Tricks of the Trade – Your Tricks of the Trade grants an additional 10% bonus damage to your target.
• Glyph of Mutilate – Reduces the cost of Mutilate by 5 energy.
• Glyph of Cloak of Shadows – While Cloak of Shadows is active, you take 40% less physical damage.

Killing Spree looks good. That’s a very significant amount of time to have taken off the cooldown. Shadow Dance is excellent, as is Fan of Knives. Cloak of Shadows is incredible, and will end up being nerfed in short order.

Shaman

• Glyph of Thunderstorm – Reduces the cooldown on Thunderstorm by 7 sec.
• Glyph of Feral Spirit – Your spirit wolves gain an additional 30% of your attack power.
• Glyph of Riptide – Increases the duration of Riptide by 3 sec.
• Glyph of Earth Shield – Increases the amount healed by your Earth Shield by 20%.
• Glyph of Totem of Wrath - When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem’s bonus spell power for .
• Glyph of Hex – Increases the damage your Hex target can take before the Hex effect is removed by 20%.
• Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem – Your Stoneclaw Totem also places a damage absorb shield on you, equal to 4 times the strength of the shield it places on your totems.

Glyph of Feral Spirit is awesome. So is Earth Shield. And Riptide. And Hex. In fact, there is not a single new Shaman glyph that doesn’t impress me. Thunderstorm is a little dull, but hey it all helps with the mana regen doesn’t it?

Warlock

• Glyph of Haunt – The bonus damage granted by your Haunt spell is increased by an additional 3%.
• Glyph of Metamorphosis - Increases the duration of your Metamorphosis by 6 sec.
• Glyph of Chaos Bolt – Reduces the cooldown on Chaos Bolt by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Demonic Circle – Reduces the cooldown on Demonic Circle by 0.4 sec.
• Glyph of Shadowflame – Your Shadowflame also applies a 70% movement speed slow on its victims.
• Glyph of Soul Link - Increases the percentage of damage shared via your Soul Link by an additional 5%.
• Glyph of Life Tap – When you use Life Tap, you gain 20% of your spirit as spell power for 20 sec.

I’ve always been underwhelmed by Metamorphosis. Does this make it any better? I don’t know. The whole ability seems rather lacklustre in my opinion. The movement slow on Shadowflame looks good, and Life Tap looks good as well.

Warrior

• Glyph of Bladestorm – Reduces the cooldown on Bladestorm by 15 sec.
• Glyph of Shockwave – Reduces the cooldown on Shockwave by 3 sec.
• Glyph of Vigilance – Your Vigilance ability transfers an additional 5% of your target’s threat to you.
• Glyph of Enraged Regeneration – Your Enraged Regeneration ability heals for an additional 10% of your health over its duration.
• Glyph of Spell Reflection - Reduces the cooldown on Spell Reflection by 1 sec.
• Glyph of Shield Wall - Reduces the cooldown on Shield Wall by 3 min, but Shield Wall now only reduces damage taken by 40%.

Three cooldown reductions? Not brilliant… but Bladestorm is a great ability, so being able to cast it more often is never a bad thing. Same goes for Shockwave. The reduction of Spell Reflection is negligable really. Vigilance was good enough before, and now it’ll be even better. Enraged Regeneration is even more ridiculous, and looks even better for this glyph.

“I wan level DK. Gimme best level spec plz! kthxbai!” -Random Forum Noob (Spelling intended)

I’ve seen those forum posts thousands of times.  Its not just specific to the Death Knight forums.  Its with all classes.  I challenge you now to visit the WoW Class Forums and not be able to identify at least one of these on the first page in each class forum.

My response for a question like this when pertaining to Death Knights is simple, “I don’t know”.

I’ve spent tons upon tons of gold in respecs on my DK and I can honestly tell you that no matter how you build your Death Knight you are going to have strength and weaknesses but it is all pretty viable.  I’m going to discuss the different options from a level 70 standpoint.  This is the point you should be now in Northrend and have began to understand the complexities of the your DK.

Lets continue after the break.

The First Spec we are going to look at is a pretty cookie cutter Blood Leveling spec. 53/8/0

This build is designed to allow you to spam Heart Strike that is where the majority of the damage in this spec will come from.  It self maintains you quite well through blood worms and gives you a quick heal with Rune Tap and Improved Rune Tap.  First thing you probably will ask yourself why didn’t I go ahead and pick up Vendetta?  Well Blood Worms combined with Blood Presence combined with Blood Aura do plenty of healing by themselves.

Also come next patch, Heart Strike will strike up to 2 targets at the same time even more increasing the viability of this spec.  I found the following rotation worked the most efficiently with this spec.

Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Obliterate, Death Coil, Plague Strike, Icy Touch,  Heart Strike(X4), Death Coil

By level 75 you can continue up the Frost tree to get Annihilation and your Obliterate will no longer consume diseases and you can replace the second set of IT/PS with another Obliterate.

This spec was extremely efficient in taking multiple mobs not because I could aoe all the mobs down quickly but because I could efficiently dps each target down without having to worry about health.  With Mark of Blood this spec actually allowed me to take several Elite Group quests and solo them effortlessly. This spec was also much more effective for being caught off-guard in World PVP.

At level 80 the spec’s natural progression would be: 53/18/0

Stat’s I would choose for a build of this nature in Order from most important to least important (remember we aren’t trying to hit cap this is just for leveling) Attack Power, Crit Rating, Strength, and Stamina.

This build actually became my personal preference at level 75.  I was ending up in several PUGs with sub-par healers and the Vampiric Blood / Rune Tap Combo saved us from several wipes while tanking. With the upcoming buffs in the next patch blood will be very impressive for heroic/raid tanking builds.  Only time and testing will tell for certain.

The next part will cover Frost Specs for leveling.  My personal Preference for it was Duel Wielding of all things.  But that’s best left discussed in another article.

‘Death Knight – Death and Decay is brought to you by Darkdeeds of http://www.of-2minds.com/ fame!’