I spent a little time last night experimenting with the rune system in Unholy Spec using a two handed weapon. I’m not sure how this is going to work, but my instincts are leaning to having a steady pace on the runes now, firing them off as they come up, in turn.

This is different from the current play style, since it is more important to not waste any Global cool downs and can make a hectic experience. This seems much slower and methodical, which also may make tanking much less stressful.

I think that the waste of a rune or a rune power dump is going to be the new Cardinal Sin for DPS Death Knights, since this seems to fall into a steady pace and almost a rhythm.

I started playing with a 5/31/0 Dual Wield spec yesterday and thought I would document it. I am not sure that the simplification of the talent trees is going to be as game breaking/making as people make it out to be. (To be honest the mastery bonuses are not in yet so I have no idea if it will get better or worse.) Frost is definitely going to be a spec to be watching, as it has a lot of nice toys for both DW and 2 hand style play.

I had to remember to switch into Frost Presence, since Blood is now the “Hi, Have I made you mad yet? How about Now?” presence. It is interesting, because the self healing aspect of the DK is gone in this build. The bonus healing we got from blood presence is completely absent now, with only Death Strike having healing abilities. I am not sure how this will change leveling, but it does make DKs much more squishy on normal content. I will try to get into an instance and see what happens. (Well that and I want to see how tasty this spec can be in DPS land.)
edited to add: They appear to be still processing it, please have patience!

I bring you a quick tour of the troll starting area, now with more horn section!
They did a good job here and it is a very fast five levels and they managed to expand on the Polynesian/Afro-Carribbean/Meso-American feel of the troll and make the story very interesting for new players.
Without Further Ado:

Video by Jaramon of http://deathcoil.org
Music: GB Rastaman by AJT (http://www.musicalley.com/music/producers/producerLibrary/artistdetails.php?BandHash=c3d42bda0c13c7d38256564352db3ba0)

I was busy yesterday doing the *squee* and the *tap tap tap* waiting of downloading the Cataclysm Beta. While I waited, I found myself reading through the Beta Forums for what I needed to be looking at. The list was fairly extensive, but one caught my eye after Big Red Kitty ( http://bigredkitty.net ) had given a little preview of it earlier this week (or last.) “Feedback on Durotar” was requested. Now this I could dig! Getting to play with the new Troll Druid and an Orc Warlock. I rolled my new Troll Druid “Jaratroll” and entered the game.

We got a nice fly by of what was some hazardous bits in Vanilla when the zone was level appropriate; but Vol’jin (bless his Trolly heart,) managed to clean out the place and set up a Troll town to be proud of!

The Echo Isles is now a 1-5 zone that has a lot of good bits to make trolls interesting, expanding on the back story and involving the new Troll in the story. Blizzard did an excellent job making the zone feel more like the Death Knight starting area which engages the player who wants some immersion and lore right off the bat.

The zone gets you familiar with your basic abilities, and you get introduced to some basic concepts and what’s going on in the world. This is nice because it gets you involved in the greater story of the World level plots as well as the quests you are working on currently.

The Orc starting area has shown some nice enhancement and a bit more organization that it used to, with less pointless runs and a better handle on combining quests trips. It does lack the polish of the Troll area, but that could be because the rest of Durotar may be steeped in Orcishness where the troll area and Sen-Jin Village may be all we see of the trolls for a while.

So far so good!

I have been peering at the screenshots of the various zones in Cataclysm
over at www.mmo-champion.com and in addition to the strains on the vanilla
world we know and mostly love, I see some strains in the relationships of
the various groups, who up until recently, were pretty darn tight.

SPOILERS BELOW- NO FOLD

I see this mostly in the Horde, as we see that the Tauren have now gated
off the little path that leads to Mulgore. In some ways this could be
because of the increased presence of Alliance troops in the Barrens, but
also because Garrosh Hellscream is now running the show over in Orgrimmar.
I think that the Tauren expansion throughout Kalimdor is a good thing,
but it seems like there may be some tension with the more war-minded
Garrosh at the helm. The bit I read about Sylvanas using the Vrykul to
raise new Forsaken has got to be sitting poorly with the other groups
within the Horde, as creating new undead is not really a comfortable
thought for the living. The Blood Elves appear to have redeemed
themselves at the end of the Burning Crusade and are more in line with the
Tauren and Trolls (which could explain the Troll Druids and the Tauren
Paladins.)

I find it hard to believe that the current political structures are going
to remain static for many more expansions, but I am not sure how to
implement a change. I would prefer to see the Tauren, Trolls and Blood
Elves move into their own arrangements, possibly picking up the Draenai as
an unlikely ally, as it seems these groups are all headed in some similar
direction.

Having the Orcs, goblins, forsaken, and perhaps a new race group (Ogres?
Living Vrykul? BOTH??) form an warhorde would make sense as well, though
the reasons for such might have to be looked at closely.

The Alliance would be fine with the current structure (Gnomes, Night
Elves, Dwarves, Humans and Worgen.)

I don’t know that the balance would work out for things like Wintergrasp,
but I think that it would be an interesting change for the game in the
long run. Blizzard has shown that they are willing to kill a few sacred
cows to make things interesting, so I wouldn’t put anything off the table.

Taking a break from my frantic schedule of trying to get the Loremaster before the world blows up, I noticed that the fine folks over at Blog Azeroth had dropped a new topic for this week and since my office is watching the Earthly World Cup I would play along with my own version. (Besides I have found a few interesting things but only finished Durotar, Ashenvale, Mulgore and The Barrens so far.)

The folks at Blog Azeroth asked:

Now imagine: What if, instead of laying waste to two continents, Deathwing actually came up and said “Let’s determine which race of Azeroth is best once and for all – by having the World Cup of Warcraft!”

I think the bracket would go something like this (assuming a bracket)

Kalimdor Division:
Tauren
Night Elves
Orcs
Draenei
Darkspear Trolls
Goblins
Southsea Pirates
Theramore Humans

Eastern Kingdoms Division:
Forsaken
Blood Elves
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Dwarves
Gnomes
Stormwind Humans
Worgen of Gilneas
Scarlet Crusade

Outlands/Northrend Division:
Fel Orcs
Lost Ones
Burning Legion
Nexus Stalkers
Taunka
Vargul
Scourge (Ice Crown)
Kalu’ak

Now, this being my warped little tournament I am not going for football / soccer. Oh no. We are going to go with Ullamaliztli with the losing teams being eaten by Deathwing.

The First Round:

Kalimdor

Tauren 2
Night Elves 1
The Night Elves initially have a leg up with an early goal, but their stamina fades after the halfway mark and they are literally stunned by Tauren thunderstomps, which eliminates the advantages of a shadowmelded defense.

Orcs 3
Draenei 4
A fairly even match, both teams played hard but they were evenly matched and the game went into sudden death. (literally) The Draenei manage to distract the Orc team in a desperate Wiggling bellydance offense.

Darkspear Trolls 5
Goblins 1
The Goblins were clearly outmatched, even with their shredders on the field. The lack of turning radius on rockets took out half of the Goblin team within seconds.

Southsea Pirates 0
Theramore Humans 10
Taking the field full of grog is a poor strategy. Deathwing commented on the fact that the pirates came pre-pickled.

Eastern Kingdoms

Forsaken 3
Blood Elves 5
The Blood Elf Arcane Torrent made it very difficult for the Forsaken to change strategy on the fly in this matchup.

Ebon Blade 7
Dwarves 2
Stumpy legs. Nuff said.

Gnomes 6
Stormwind Humans 2
A surprise upset occurred when the humans assumed they were playing children. Then the Ice Magery began.

Worgen 3
Scarlet Crusade 0
Librarians can’t run. Dogs Can. Fetch!

Outlands/Northrend

Fel Orcs 0
Lost Ones Forfeit
The Lost Ones’ did nt have the spirit to take the field. Deathwing sped things up.

Burning Legion 12
Nexus Stalkers 2
This game initially started with two very fast Nexus Stalker goals. The Dreadlords then brought the pain. And the infernals.

Taunka 3
Vargul 2
The game was tied right up until the end, when the Vargul tried to hit the Taunka between the eyes with a 2 x 4. The fact that their face is already smashed should have been a clue about how thick their skulls really are.

Scourge 7
Kalu’ak 4
Things went well initially, until the fans threw a squid on the court and the Kalu’ak all dove for the snack, ignoring the ballgame entirely.

Second Round: (Division Semi Finals)

Kalimdor

Tauren 2
Draenei 1
It was a very defensive game until the Draenei offended the Tauren who trampled the “Bellydance Offense” to score the winning goal.

Darkspear Trolls 3
Theramore Humans 1
The humans learned their lesson about dismissing the Trolls as “Primitive Screwheads” when they realized that the Trolls were not impressed by the “Boomstick”.

Eastern Kingdoms

Blood Elves 3
Ebon Blade DQ
The Death Knights were disqualified for too many players on the field after someone mistakenly cast Army of the Dead

Gnomes 3
Worgen 2
Realizing their opportunity, the Gnomes brought a Stick which totally was better to fetch than some old boring ball.

Outlands/Northrend

Fel Orcs 1
Burning Legion 121
The Fel Reaver came off the bench for this game.

Taunka 6
Scourge 0
The star player of the Taunka had an unfortunate heart attack from a life time of over consumption of red meat. The Scourge wished to follow his example by starting with him.

Round 3: (Division Finals)

Kalimdor

Tauren 2
Trolls 4
Halfway through the game, the Troll Spear throwers learn to make Beef Kabob.

Eastern Kingdoms

Blood Elves 4
Gnomes 1
The gnomes finally meet their match in the Blood Elves who are not fooled one bit. Nor are they amused.

Outlands/Northrend

Burning Legion Forfeit
Taunka Dead
Adding a second Fel Reaver broke the Court, Killing the Taunka team.

Round 4: (Finals!) (GRUDGE MATCH!)

Darkspear Trolls 5
Blood Elves 2
The Darkspear trolls managed to get half of the Blood Elves arguing over the borders of the Amani Empire, while the rest happily followed a particularly tasty magic wand over the edge of a cliff.

The WINNER: Darkspear Trolls.