The numbers of sales Wrath

That's right -Activision's own Call of Duty: World at War beat out Wrath for the number one spot, but before you start worrying whether WoW has lost its charm, don't: not only was Wrath an expansion pack (expansion packs obviously don't sell as well as standalone games, sequels or otherwise), but the Call of Duty game has already outsold its prequel, the extremely successful Call of Duty 4, by a 2:1 ratio. Unfortunately, we don't have numbers yet, but all indications are that, in the UK alone, Wrath did almost as well as a game that outsold last year's best selling game. That all make sense?
If not, hear this: Blizzard made a lot of money last week, and pretty soon we'll hear how much. Even more amazing, Activision Blizzard, who owns Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft, accounted for a full 25% of all UK game sales last week. The merger has already paid off.Unfortunately, as of this writing, Blizzard hasn't yet released actual numbers for Wrath sales last week (we were expecting around two million, but we'll see what they say eventually). But that won't stop us from guessing -the list of top ten games sold last week in the UK is out, and Wrath...is number two.

How to Transition the role

Last night was my first 25 man as fury. We raided Sarth and Naxx. My DPS was tolerable, but not where I'd want it to be and the fault mostly lies with my gearing, as I'd been focusing most of my attention on tank gear and have lackluster DPS gear for the moment. My hit rating is adequate, but my crit and AP both need to come up. I knew that going in, though. I also need to relearn my rotations so that I'm makingt the best use of Bloodsurge (especially when the changes come in) but that will come in time. The primary task before me now, and one that faces any warrior, raider or not, who decides to change from DPS to tanking or tanking to DPS is to unlearn my habitual playstyle and learn a new one, and in some cases to make sure you don't assume that you can just jump in and do what worked for you before.
Both DPS and tanking have been changed pretty significantly for warriors, and trying to revive my old style of DPSing would be absolutely futile.It was a decision made harder by the glory of prot spec in its current form, but as Adam's post this week pointed out, fury is getting some nice changes that will make it even more viable, and when you come down to it, I have wanted to dual wield 2h weapons for years now. When an old friend of mine ‘put the band back together', so to speak, and told me that the guild I'd raided all the 40 man original raid content with was back and that they were looking for a fury warrior for Wrath, it took a lot of time for me to decide what to do. Changing guilds was hard, as the guild I'd raided with in TBC was an excellent one and i know they'll have lots of success in Wrath, but in the end I felt like this was a move that would help keep the game fun and interesting for me.
The first task is, of course, to relearn gearing. (Well, okay, the first task is to determine if your current guild is willing to let you switch or if you have a place to go that is, but we'll just assume that is the case.) While I plan to still collect a set of tanking gear in case things change down the road (since every single time I've ‘gone DPS' I've ended up tanking again) my priorities for badge gear and what I roll on is now DPS gear. I also have to relearn what's good: Armor penetration has been heavily nerfed which was a change from the last time I was paying attention to DPS gear while picking up offset gear while raiding in SSC and TK, something I stopped doing once we moved into Hyjal, BT and Sunwell because I was never DPSing, only tanking. At present my goals are to maintain 360 hit rating while increasing my AP and crit rating, looking to badge loot like the Mirror of Truth and the Bladed Steelboots for the most immediate bang for my emblems now that I have a solid set of 2h weapons to build around. I might go for the Death-Inured Sabatons instead, the problem being that I was grinding Kirin Tor rep for the tanking gloves which I now no longer require, but that's what dalies and tabards are for. If I were arms instead (which I've considered) my priorities would change...the same stats, but I'd weight hit less as the amount of hit I have right now would absolutely remove misses entirely. In either case, while I'm focusing on crit and AP right now, I also need to start finding expertise to try and get to 148 expertise rating as soon as I can arrange it.
So we have gearing to relearn (and to be honest, all warriors should try and be familiar with tanking and DPS gearing in case you need to fill one of the roles you don't normally) and change our playstyle. With Dual Specs constantly looming on the horizon, it can only benefit any warrior to start looking at being up to date on more than one role in order to maximize the benefit we get from it. Also, and this is something that older players like myself really need to watch out for, don't just assume you can jump back into a role because you used to play it extensively. All three warrior specs have an extra 10 talent points in Wrath from the BC days, and if you were a tank back in vanilla WoW but have been DPS ever since, you cannot just slap on tanking gear and go. You need to familiarize yourself with your new abilities...prot in particular plays nothing like it did in the old days...and don't just assume because you tanked C'thun that you can just tank anything that's coming your way now. (Also, tanking a tentacle doesn't really count as ‘tanking' C'thun, nor does wailing away from inside his stomach, and you were probably 31/5/15 or 31/0/20 back then, admit it. There was no Devastate, no Shockwave, things were very different.)
When all of it falls into place, though, changing your role can really help you enjoy your class more. While I still love tanking and expect to go back to it eventually, I'm absolutely thrilled to death to be throwing myself into packs of mobs and throwing cleave and whirlwind around, and can't wait to see how fury looks when the changes go live. It's a good time to be a warrior.
If I were going from DPS to tanking, my problem would be the same but the specifics would differ. Are you gearing for threat or for survival? Do you want to gear for survival through high stamina or high avoidance/mitigation? Most tanks I know assemble at least two sets (closer to four in some cases) to balance all of these factors, and if you're moving to tanking from a DPS role where you probably have one set of gear for that role which contains your highest stats, moving to the role of tanking where your ‘best' set might not be the set you want to wear for a specific fight can be a bit of a paradigm shock. I've seen tanks new to tanking become overwhelmed by the options on gear and wonder why you'd want certain stats. It takes a while to learn about things like parry gibbing for example, which I don't think is as much of an issue in Wrath as it was. Nothing you're tanking can crush you and you should be uncrittable, meaning that a hasted counterattack simply isn't going to hit all that hard...if a boss' normal swing is for 6k on plate, being parried will still be pretty bad, but when your tank has 32k or more health it's simply not as critical as it was back when you could cause a crushing blow for 10k and you only had 20.
Outside of the gearing issue, the major issue is simple and yet takes some of us (including me) a while to get used to. We both have to unlearn our current skill set and prevent our current habits from creeping in. I'm not saying forget how to DPS if you become a tank, but when you're tanking you shouldn't be constantly trying to get behind the mob, you shouldn't be in berserker stance, and more importantly you should be making sure you know what your cooldowns are and what they do for your current role. Don't miss a Shield Block because you've not yet familiarized yourself with how it works now. LIkewise, as DPS you need to get used to moving around a lot more even on fights like Patchwerk (we were using the strat where the melee DPS runs in and out of the goo next to him in order to ensure that the soak tank takes the hatefuls.) I'm not used to being behind a mob, so I had to stop myself several times from crossing in front of them or even worse, standing in front to attack. I also had to learn that abilities like Death Wish and Recklessness are to be used whenever possible, especially on bosses, as more damage is exactly what I'm there to do. Meanwhile, seeing my name at the top of Omen? It's bad now! I actually wiped us on a drake because I instinctively tried to go balls out on threat. DPS meters, yes, I want to be high on those. Threat meters? Bad warrior! Wicked, naughty warrior!

The changes of Death Knight in Patch 3.0.8

it's not all buffs we see in the 3.0.8 notes, but there's certainly a lot of them. Let's examine how 3.0.8 will affect you and your plate-armored dreadnaught.And then a few unfortunate nerfs. Shadow of Death, I can live with. The Bone Shield change is probably the most painful one, though. Good death knight tanks realized that the bones only disintegrated with melee attacks, so it was possible to keep your mitigation up for a considerable amount of time against certain mobs/bosses. Sorry, tanks. It's probably for the best.
The pain from nerfs to the main Unholy and Frost tanking mitigators (IBF, Bone Shield) are lessened somewhat by the big mitigation boost from Frost Presence (which any respectable tank will be in to begin with). The change to Vampiric Blood and Heart Strike mean Blood tanking came out the best of the three where this patch's changes are concerned.
All in all, we made out pretty well. There were a few tanking nerfs, a few tanking buffs, and most everything else is of good-to-fantastic benefit to the class. It's a good time to be dead.
I keep thinking to myself, "Something has to change! I can't have this much fun all the time!"
Well, guess what, WoW community? You've gone and done it. You've gotten us buffed. Great. Just great.
Unholy, come on down!

Anti-Magic Shell: The cooldown has been lowered to 45 sec from 60 sec. Bone Shield: The mitigation has been reduced from 40% to 20%. Corpse Explosion: Damage increased substantially, added 5 sec. cooldown, and changed cost to 40 runic power. Death Pact now grants 40% instead of 20% healing. Night of the Dead now grants 40/70% passive area spell avoidance to your pet in addition to its current effects. Outbreak will no longer receive bonus damage from Pestilence. The bonus from Plague Strike and Blood Boil has been increased slightly. Raise Dead has now been split into two spells:

Raise Dead now raises a ghoul or pet ghoul (if talented). Requires corpse dust if no humanoid corpse is nearby. Raise Ally now raises a fallen party member as a ghoul and has no reagent. Available at level 72. This should now last for 4 minutes. Shadow of Death: The duration has been changed from 45 seconds to 25 seconds. Unholy Blight had had its cost reduced from 60 to 40 runic power. Wandering Plague will now properly reset after being cast So, we've got some good buffs up there. A reduced cooldown on AMS is welcome, doubled Death Pact healing as well. Unholy Blight got a cost reduction too.
Corpse Explosion, I'm not sure how I feel about you. When I was Unholy, pretty much all of my RP was spoken for, and this change means that I need another few GCDs before I can use you. On the other hand, your damage was improved significantly. Sleep on the couch tonight and maybe we can work it out.
Unholy Blight's cost reduction means tanks (and DPSers!) can fit it into their rotations sooner, and that's a welcome change.
The Night of the Dead change brings the ghoul back in line with other summoned pets, which is important. Now your Glacierhammer or Ratface or Corpsethief can get right in the thick of things (not that they didn't before, of course, but if you had a really good name for them...)
The Raise Dead/Raise Ally split basically means you can summon an ally for twice as long as the normal untalented Raise Dead would allow, which would be great during long fights where you're low on battle rezzes.
Blood, buddy, step right up. Let's see what you've won!
Blood Aura now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing. Blood Presence now grants 2/4% instead of 1/2% healing. Bloody Strikes will receive extra bonus damage from Pestilence. Heart Strike no longer has a haste debuff but will now be able to strike two targets. Pestilence no longer has a 10 seconds cooldown. Vampiric Blood: In addition to its current effects, also adds 20% health temporarily. Will of the Necropolis will now reduce the damage of any attack that takes the DK below 35% health by 5 /10/15% instead of boosting armor when wounded, Dark Command: Range increased to 30 yards. Dancing Rune Weapon cost reduced to 40 RP from 60 RP.
So, first and foremost, the added healing to Blood Aura/Presence is good. I love self-healing, but the 2% healing was a little paltry, I thought. 4% is a nice number, and with the nerf to the Death Strike Glyph (d'oh) I'll take what I can get.
Heart Strike being changed to a cleave is a fantastic change. The current HS debuff just isn't terribly useful and, as Ghostcrawler said, it never even worked right in the first place. I've often lagged behind in DPS on AOE/trash pulls as Blood because of my lack of good AOE damage, so an on-demand cleave as well as the extra Pestilence damage should help out with that considerably. I'm pleased. Just be sure you're not that guy that breaks CC by spamming Heart Strike. You might want to put Blood Strike back on your bar for occasions that require some delicacy.
On the tank side of things, Vampiric Blood functioning like a latter-day Lifegiving Gem on top of its already-good original effect is wonderful, especially on a one-minute cooldown. I've never specced into Will of the Necropolis, it being more of a tank talent and me being a single-minded DPS fellow, but this new version seems like a draw.
Lastly, most every taunt in the game was changed to have a 30-yard range, so the change to Dark Command is expected and welcome. As if we needed another ranged pull, of course.
Frost, you lucky scamp. Come open door number two.

Frost Presence: The bonus armor has been increased from 60 to 80% and magic damage reduction increased from 5 to 15%. Horn of Winter now has no cost and grants 10 runic power in addition to its stat buff, but has a 30 sec cooldown. Icebound Fortitude now reduces damage by 20% instead of 50%. The amount of damage reduced increases with bonus Defense (to about 35% for 540 Defense, but can go higher). Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle (New, two-handed only) now grants 25 Defense and 2% Stamina. Rune Strike: Damage decreased from 200% to 150% but threat increased to 150% from 100%. Hungering Cold: cost reduced to 40 RP from 60 RP.

The change to Frost Presence increases our built-in mitigation considerably and brings us closer to other tanks in terms of armor. We have no block, for example, so we have to increase our mitigation in other ways (armor, parry, dodge, etc).
The Icebound Fortitude change is unfortunate but in line with Ghostcrawler's comments regarding reducing reliance on the ability (and the fact that it's horribly overpowered in PVP). I have to admit that I was pretty happy to have what amounted to Shield Wall on a one-minute cooldown, but this change is probably necessary for balance reasons.
Rune Strike's damage decrease was pretty expected; my Rune Strikes were hitting for 6-9k. That's great, but given Ghostcrawler's comments on how it was supposed to be a tanking tool, the damage decrease and threat increase is pretty fair.
Speaking of runes and tanking-a new tanking rune! Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle is perfect for tanks who want to free up some stat points that would've been allocated to defense, or for tanks who aren't quite capped yet. Yes, this is 25 skill, not 25 rating. It's a good rune.
The reduced cost of Hungering Cold means more room in DPS rotations if you so desire. I don't know of many tanks that use it, but the cost reduction is nice regardless.
And finally, Horn of Winter! What a great change. 10 runic power free in exchange for a GCD every 30 seconds, plus a buff? Maybe I'll actually remember to keep it up now.

Tags: death knight, Patch 3.0.8