Death Knights in Mists of Pandaria, Subtle Changes Make Big Differences

Online, July 27, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Although a lot of World of Warcraft (WoW) players are looking forward to the new wow monks (http://www.wowmonkguide.org/), realms, and quests inside Mists of Pandaria (MoP), existing class favorites like the Death Knight are going to be changing with Mists as well. While most of those changes appear largely superficial, they will make a big difference to the experienced Death Knight player.

Talents are one of the first things players will notice have changed in MoP, at least so far as Death Knights are concerned. Most classes start their talent tier rewards at level 15. For Death Knights, that's changed in a big way: talents don't begin until level 56 and then are rewarded as you level gain through to level 60, gaining a tier with each level.

In other words, instead of gaining talents through (generally) random quests as rewards, you will gain them automatically starting at level 56. This is meant largely as a game mechanic nerf to help even the class differences. Although it makes the Death Knight harder to play in many respects, that's balanced by the fact that it makes the challenge and rewards even better.

Unholy rotation was already a point of complaint for Death Knight players and it's been changed again for Mists of Pandaria as noted in the WoW Pandaria Leveling Guide(http://www.pandarialevelingguide.net/). Namely the opening of talents like Lichborne and Death Siphon to all specs, making them less singular and making other specs more appealing. In mechanics, this comes down to when you receive the talent and when it can actually be used - you receive talents like Scourge Strike at 58, but can't really use it until level 6, for example. For blood and frost specs, you can use the talents gained at the level at which they're gained.

Still, the biggest changes to Death Knights in Mists of Pandaria are the multitude of little ones that all add up while playing. New players won't notice this much, but experienced Death Knights will see some subtle changes.

The first thing noticed will be ranged slots. They're gone. Only Hunters will have one. This can make a lot of changes for the play style some have used. It also means that many formerly cool quest items (like the Sigil of the Dark Rider) are now replaced with trinket mementos worth a few coppers or as boring display pieces.

Another change is mounts. It's not as drastic as losing a ranged slot, but the system may be a little confusing for old timers. Mounts are still shared between characters, but you don't start out ready to ride as a newcomer, you have to go through the starting level area in MoP first and cannot ride until you get to the open air gryphon master, but at least the goofy little blur-footed pony is still there for the Deathcharger quest.

Blizzard schedules to launch World of Warcraft's newest expansion, Mists of Pandaria later this fall. Mists of Pandaria takes the appearance of East Asian themes, focusing its environment on monasteries, serene scenery and pandas. Not only does Blizzard focuses on new location, monsters, quest system and more, Blizzard has taken this opportunity to enhance existing mechanics in the game. Through patches and bug fixes, Mists of Pandaria is a game that should not be missed.