PTR, Round 1

The maintenance was taking too long so I decided to play around some on the PTR since it was up. Last week I wasn't able to transfer Faerune because the service was busy. Instead I transferred one of the pre-made Death Knights so I could see what tanking was like. Ugh.

There's still a problem with trade skills so I wasn't able to gem any of the "ZOMG FREE EPICS!" gear they give you. Nor did I have any glyphs. So it wasn't going to be the best test. Yet it was fun to look at the new talents and see that I now have even more defensive cool-downs, namely Bone Shield and Dancing Rune Weapon. BS has always been BS because it gets eaten so fast, but might as well take it now since it's in the tree. DNR was always novel but impracticable yet now it adds 20% parry while active. Good times.

Was really strange being in Blood Presence, which now adds the stamina, armor, and damage reduction along with threat increase that Frost used to. Started creating my usual macros, binding Rune Strike to my four main strikes. Thankfully I tried this out on Coren Direbrew first. None of my strikes were landing. Looking closer, it turns out that RS no longer function like Heroic Stike and landing "on next swing." It's now it's one strike and eater of a GCD. *sigh*

Trade Chat was filled with whining, trolls, and garbage—more plentiful as there's only one PvE server. People claimed that the LFG tool didn't work but I got one readily as a tank. Zoned into Drak'Tharon keep and immediately apologized, explaining that this was my first tanking experience with the new talents.

It's immediately apparent that AoE threat has been nerfed. While it's nice that Death and Decay only uses on Unholy rune, it doesn't do much. Pestilence has also been nerfed, doing only 50% damage to the targets it spreads diseases too. Not having any addons, I don't know for sure but it felt like Icy Touch isn't doing as much threat as before.

It went pretty well considered. The warlock with us still went wild with AoE. He pulled the whole room before Trollgore and I could do nothing to save him. Yet I was able to hold Trollgore with no problem when I pulled him. The healer and two of the DPS DC'd as we killed King Dred. The remaining ret pally, Dyley, was game to continue. Was dicey at a few spots but Death Strike and Rune Tap kept me going. Felt accomplished to two-man the rest of the instance.

I'm still unsure if the Death Strike change is a nerf, the whole "healing you for 30% of the damage you have sustained during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 10% of your maximum health)." When I was getting hammered it did nearly 20%. Yet without meters or parsing addons, I can't be sure. It doesn't mention that having one or both diseases is required for the healing so it may be a buff overall.

Anyway. Will have to get Faerune transfered for some real testing. Having to work in another key for Rune Stike is rather annoying. And people are going to have to re-learn restraint when DPSing groups. Hopefully the live servers are back and I can get my last day of Direbrews in.