The Pally Man

The Shiny Kodo of Change

2010-07-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

Once again I have corpse run all the way back to here to do some wittering on. But of course if I didn't at least comment on the new Cataclysm info, what sort of a paladin would I be? So without any further ado, let's dive in to the new talent and ability changes. UPDATE: Mere hours after I wrote this Ghostcrawler came out and said most if not all of the talents we see are not going to be there. Luckily this will force me to write another post later on.

My first point is the new 31 point trees in general. I like them. I was worried at the beginning of Wrath that talent trees in general were going to get too complicated, and with such cookie cutter builds for classes making it easier for someone to spec wrong somewhere down the line. This looked like it was going to be made a bit easier during the original announcement of Cataclysm, when we were told talent trees would be made simpler and we would have Path of the Titans, where we could customize our character to suit our play style and be rid of cookie cutter builds. Then, lo, Path of the Titans was scrapped.

Happily the new talent trees we have, if still unfinished, are looking much better and it seems to me they have incorporated the Path of the Titans mind-frame into them. After going down the trees, it seems that there's generally only 1, maybe 2, talents that you could do without, but again this is down to personal choice. For instance, when I went through the retribution tree I chose Repentance, an old favorite, instead of the new and improved Eye for an Eye.

Eye for an Eye has been changed so that now any damaging attack against you has a chance to trigger a judgement, which is much more useful in a PvE situation than the current one, as more than likely you will come against some sort of boss that fire AOE attacks like there's no tomorrow. This brings me neatly on to Seals of Retribution. This replaces seal of command in the retribution talent tree, and instead of being a new seal it acts as a general damage buff. It now gives 15% extra damage from your seals on weapon swings and still gives the multiple target hitting buff the current SoC has to Seal of Righteousness. There's also the matter of Sanctified Wrath. This works the same as the current talent, except with one big difference. Instead of allowing 25% of damage to bypass damage reducing effects, it now allows us to cast Hammer of Wrath like the target has below 20% health whilst avenging wrath is active. Which is just sweet.

On a Prot note, it's interesting to see the damage increasing talents swamping the tree. Improved Exorcism and Improved Crusader strike both feature. Improved Exorcism reducing cast time of said spell by 0.8/1.5 seconds and increasing damage by 10/20%. Improved Crusader strike features a reduced cooldown of 2/4 seconds and an improved damage of 50/100%. This makes sense with crusader strike now being a baseline ability (more on that further down) and with it's nature. Because CS deals 100% weapon damage, I have no doubt that with a 1 handed weapon this would have been way down on the priority scale of protection without the increased damage. Along the same theme, there's also Hallowed Ground, which is basically improved consecration. It increases damage by 20% and, this is awesome, duration by 30 seconds, when fully specced. It has 2 points, 10/20% damage and 15/30 second duration.

In the last of our talent trees, we have Holy. First thing to note is the migration of Divinity from Protection to Holy. This makes sense purely through the nature of the spell. Next, we have the appearance of Divine Light, our big heal. Don't be fooled by the "Heals a friendly target for 50 to 60" description. With a cost of 30% base mana and a 2.5 second cast, this will be our most expensive, longest and most hard hitting heal. I'm a bit disappointed with this one, if only because it seems like it's there to fill a hole and will only be useful in a what-if situation, now that Holy shock is baseline (more on that further down too). Moving on, the next point is a sneakily hidden one, that implies more than it says - Sacred Cleansing. The description is simply "Your Cleanse spell now also removes 1 magic effect". Since Cleanse already dispels magic, it doesn't take Steven Hawking to realize that Blizzard's promise about dispels becoming more costly and less effective was kept, as Cleanse will now not cleanse magic when cast by just anyone. Generally there are no big surprises in the rest of the tree, all increasing critical hit chance and healing done by one thing or another, but there are 2 more talents I wish to touch on. First, Purifying Power, a 2 point talent which, when you cleanse a friendly target of an effect, gives you a 50/100% chance to unleash a judgement on the caster of that effect. This could potentially mean almost no manual judgement casting, but also this will increase you haste when tied in with Judgements of the Pure, making this a useful talent. Lastly is actually the last talent - Divine Illumination. An old friend with a new face, this no longer reduces mana consumption, but instead increases crit chance for spells and attacks by 30%, which is quite a change.

I shall now lightly touch on Crusader Strike and Holy Shock, 2 abilities which have made the jump from talents to baseline. Crusader Strike, firstly, is going to be introduced at the beginning of a paladin's life. This was sorely needed, as I was recently leveling a new paladin on an old realm, and realized that all I could do for many levels was judge and auto attack. Crusader strike will provide much needed variety into the play style of an early paladin.

Holy Shock is another spell made available to all. We don't really know much about how useful this will be for damaging, but in terms of healing this is going to be buffed a lot. This will be our second go-to heal after Holy Light, providing much needed diversity to suit a situation. It can be cast on the move and it's looking at seeing a lot of healing due to critical hits, mainly from talents. I can see this being used whenever it's ready, as a follow-up to holy light casts. I'm predicting a longer cooldown, but only because it seems so efficient and powerful.

All in all I think it's looking good for us so far. It's also worth remembering we will be locked out of the other 2 trees once we spec into one of them, and with mastery included we're set to see the rise of the hybrid, with each spec set to do it's job and not replace the others. We're far from the end of the changes, but I'm hopeful for the future of paladins.

Re-sealed delivery

2009-07-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

In case you're a paladin who's been living under a rock, you probably know that seal of blood/the martyr is being removed, and being replaced by having the damage for seal of vengeance/corruption increased; crusader strike is having it's damage and cooldown reduced; exorcism is having a cast time in return for being PvP usable again. This is pretty big for retribution paladins, and I can see what Blizzard are trying to do here, I really do.

And actually, I'm looking forward to it. All this is in an effort to stop burst damage and concentrate on sustained damage. For starters, no matter your rotation, there will usually be a gap of 1 or 2 seconds between cooldowns. This time period is the lul, a time where most other classes can shove in another 8k damage. This is the end of that 'burst'. I find it's usually because of a ruined rotation. The cooldowns are too different. Hopefully, the crusader strike cooldown reduction should help counter this.

The change for the seal of vengeance/corruption reads as follows:

Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack.

This is a nice change. This means that even in a 'cooldown period', auto attack should deal a lot more damage, effectively chopping off a bit of the top of the damage we currently get from SoB/SotM, and giving it to the auto-attack, spreading the damage out. Or at least this seems to be the plan. It gives an even bigger reason to stack a bit more crit too. The more crit, the more chance to double your damage.

Of course, Exorcism is changing too. Most spells will simply get nerfed and buffed and different intervals, for all classes, but I don't think I've ever seen a spell straight-out grow like this one. It grew from demons and undead, to everything, and now can be used on players. I think the original PvP use was just a side effect, but I'm glad to see it make a return. I've started PvPing a lot more now, and I can honestly say that a 1.5 second cast time shouldn't hurt. Actually, I thought it was a little to powerful in PvP before and I often ended up dropping an opponent within a second of being in melee range. I don't this should make too much difference with a 30 yard range. It simply means running a bit further towards the fighting before using it, just to give it that second and a half, which is really where you should be heading anyway.

Overall, I don't think the changes are bad. I think it simply means we're going to have to work a little harder to push out our dps constantly, other than being able to hit keys and still have some time before we can hammer them again. In short: it's going to give some much needed skill.

Tier 9 is...different. I like it!

2009-07-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

Blizzard has released (most) of the tier 9 models, both for Horde and Alliance. mmo-champion has a complete list of them, so it's worth popping over there for a gander. The post also lists all the set bonuses. I am of course only covering the paladin ones here.

Horde

First impressions? I'm not sure. I like the whole Blood Elf colour scheme thing Blizz has going on, but I'm not sure if it works with the models. Still, the shock of something that isn't yellow or pink has worn off and I think it's starting to grow on me. The more I think about it, the more I think it will probably look good. Throw in a cape, some boots, and voila. Yes, it's definately growing on me.

I must say though, I really like those shoulder spikes.

Alliance

Overall: nice. I liked this straight from the get-go. It sort of looks paladin-like, and the colour scheme is reminiscent of tier 4 (remember that?). I took me ages to think why this armour is so fitting, and it finally came to me. As a kid, did you ever get stories read to you about knights in shining armour who would come to save the day and slay the bad guy? Well this is the kind of thing I imagined. It's very "I'm alliance and I'm here to save the day from the evil of the horde".

Actually, having said that I now like the Horde version a lot, lot more. I think it's from expressing it in that way. "I'm a weapon, and I will stop those who threaten my people". Speech is handy, isn't it?

Set Bonus

This looks useful. The increased crit chance for judgements is very nice, especially a 5%. I'm usually quite worried about dropping crit for other stats on pieces of armour, but this would make me feel better. Of course, we'll have to see what sort of stats the gear ordinarily gives. As for the righteous vengeance crit chance, I'm not sure. This is one I'd actually have to see in the flesh to work out how useful it is.

Holy. The 10 second increased judgement time. At this point I will say that, although I used to be holy, it's been quite some time since I've done it "seriously", and I don't have much experience on the use of seals as a healer (I specced retribution before the seal changes). However, I'm pretty sure that the HoT healing increase is quite useful. It should see an increase of the use of sacred shield I should imagine.

As for protection, I have never tanked. Thus I am unsure as to how often Hand of Reckoning is used during combat. If it's used quite a bit then -2 seconds could be a nice little time saver. If it is hardly used in combat, then it's pretty useless. As for the divine protection cooldown reduction, I think that's pretty good. That should make it a lot easier on the healers and less stressful. (The divine protection bit has been edited, as I got my spells mixxed up. Thank you to Braundo on wow.com for spotting that!)

Overall, I think the tier is coming up rather nicely. The splitting between factions (for all tier 9 sets) is an interesting idea, and a brilliant one at that. It adds come flavour to the game and some much needed seperation between the factions, ever since we started chumming up in Burning Crusade. I'm quite looking forward to it.

(A big thanks to mmo-champion. The pictures are second-to-none.)

EDIT: Holy Tauren, linked on wow.com :O

The Quest to Blog Starts Here

2009-07-13T14:43:00.001-07:00

This is a small post to be used as a marker. From this post and all future posts, they are done under the new site.

Lich King Deemed Cold, Many Frozen

2008-12-15T14:45:00.000-08:00

Hello? Anyone there? I'm back. No really, I am! Yes I have been away for 2 and a half months. Zombie invasions, new patches, new level cap, new areas...my paladin's legs are bloody stumps. Yes I am 80 and I must say, it's far cry from level 70. The spells are better, the quests are more interesting, and my gear has sexy spikes on it.

I began levelling in Borean Tundra. It's a nice place, bar the undead eating everyone. I reached 71 in a day with quite a bit if money to show for it, and wide eyes. The changes to the class were imemdiate. Divine storm really started to stand out and spells immediately fell into a nice routine. There was everything in borean tundra that Wrath stands for. Siege vehicles, Ke'Thuzad, scourge of course, taunka, kal'uak and (oddly) the odd death knight. Stupid power levellers. There were some nice loregasms and enjoyed it all the way to dragonblight. And then oh my god. Dragon's, the wrath gate quest chains, the scarlet onslaught. Dragonblight remains my favourite Northrend zone even now. It is simply stunning. I must have watched the wrathgate quest chain 15 times before i tore myself away. Then went back twice more.

Also, I got divine plea. Now although this a holy talent, it is really quite useless for those of a healing disposition. It really should be ret. My mana isn't what you'd call existant all of the time, but it was after divine plea. Combined with arcane torrent, my mana really isn't much of a problem anymore.

Howling Fjord was average, and I liked Grizzly Hills so much that I did every quest there. Dalaran is amazing, although I wish I hadn't bought that bear. Especially as my money management is the same as that of a gambling addict (I am still 2k gold away from epic flying). Strangely, Dalaran doesn't destroy my framerate nearly as much as Shattrath did. It's probably the absence of a million Shattered Sun Trainees that suck so much they will never, ever leave that city. But it also feels more invloved. The directions are given to you not by guards, but by NPC's with individual names. The sewers are a great touch, and seeing Rhonin made me pass out for 5 minutes. It is a proper, magely city. And Violet Hold is great on heroic.

Zul'drak is great, especially that daily quest. It's got the feel of a region torn by war, not the small battles we were presented with in the past. I've yet to go to Gun'drak, but I'm looking forward to it immensely. Especially as people don't mind having retribution paladins in a group, ven in a heroic. For the first time I feel useful, not universally hated. I was surprised when I out dpsed a hunter and a mage (Ghostcrawler, hunters are NOT overpowered at this time. Take note), and it just proved that the balance is right. I'm not overpowered. I was simply better geared. If was worse geared I probably wouldn't have done as well. Which just goes to show that we are finally on par with what a class should feel like in dps.

As I'm talking about instances I would like to note Drak'tharon keep as a particular favourite. The Drakuru storyline is particularly intersting and it's brilliant the way that it smoothly transfers you from Grizzly Hills to Zul'drak. The entirity of the expasnion is as such. "Can you go look for my scout in Sholozar?" Certainly, and while I'm there I may as well quest for Hemet Nesingwary and ride on the back of a mammoth shooting a proto drake, whilst helping a titan avatar crush scourge with a titan golem from un'goro. Little wolf men? Sure I'll help, you cute little munchkins.

Stormpeaks is generally awesome, though theres a bit of a bug in mount size whilst near Brunnhildar village. The model's head goes through my helicoptor's rotor blades. And whilst I've not been to Icecrown to quest as of yet, it is visually stunning, and the zepplins add a nice touch. Oh, and Tirion Fordring kicks ass. A true paladin to be sure.

All in all, Wrath feels pretty polished. I've not been to Naxx yet simply because time is a little thin on the ground recently, although content sounds pretty good. VoA in Wintergrasp is a strok of genius in my opinion. Actually, Wintergrasp itself is too.

Have I said enough to make up for my prolonged absence? I don't know. But I'll be posting again soon because patch 3.0.8 is ont he horizon, and opposed to "TO THE GROUND" , we may have just sprouted wings and hit the ceiling. Anyway, I'll shut up now. See you in the next installment.

Ret - Well it's about time

2008-09-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

So I've been on the PTR recently. Because of the free respecs I specced retribution, euqipped my hammer-lol, and then set out to check out the changes for myself. In short - wow. Read on for my full "review".

Now I want to tell you I wore 2 pieces of season 1 holy gear; a mage cloak; a ret hammer and blue ret pvp legs; and a hell of a load of holy pve gear. And let me say this - it was still awesome. The conversions in stat mechanics help a lot. Especially the spell crit merge. If you didn't know, spell crit and melee crit have been combined to be simply crit. This means my holy gear suddenly had a lot of crit for my lovely hammer to deal. As sis my judgements. I think this is far better, as the previous problem with a ret paladin was the balance between spell and melee. Too much melee enhancement, and you suffered because your judgements, hammer of wrath, seals, etc. weren't dealing enough damage to make up for 2 handed weapon speed. Too much spell damage, and you lose all your melee power, crusader strike power, etc. So this means crit itself balances, and there is little compromise.

Also, spell damage has been changed. Bonus healing and spell damage both now come under spell power. Again, this helps a bit because now you can affectively heal yourself when needed. This may sound like a "So what?" situation, but remember this: the talent "Art of War". Increases the crit damage of your judgements, crusader strike and divine storm by 10%/20%. This is good, but the healing comes in next: the first point reduces the cast time of your next flash of light by 0.75 seconds. That's half the time, math fans. And the great bit? The second point in gives your next flash of light an instant cast. And this happens when you critically hit with those spells it mentions. Combine this with a larger crit chance, and this procs quite often. In a raid, this means you can top yourself up enoug health to stop the healer having to move to you. It really is very handy.

This is also very handy in PvP where you're fighting constantly and you can suddenly throw in an instant heal to keep yourself topped up.

Another thing that changed is the way seals and judgements work. Seal of justice and the crusader have been removed, but now all seals do base holy damage when judged. They still do what they did but now it's just holy damage on judgement. However, judgements now remain on the target for a few seconds, and seals now last 2 minutes, without being removed by using judgement. Handy for mana conservation. The judgement spell has been split in 3: Judgement of the Wise (similar to seal of wisdoms previous mana regen judgement), Judgment of Light (similar to seal of lights previous health regen judgement) and Judgement of Justice (the replacement for seal of justice, so now any seal can be used for the same effect when needed.)

Judgement of Light is what I find myself using most. The mana regen now with talents and what-not, means that my health went down slower than my mana. What health I did use was restored when I hit the target after using this judgement. But judgement of the wise would probably come in useful in raids, with another paladin applying light, which would really help tanks and other melee dps. Judgement of justice dastically reduces movement speed and prevents Npc's from fleeing, which is great for a bit of cc every now and again, and great in pvp. Run now, mage.

The judgement switching and what not seems a bit confusing at first, but it becomes instinct after about 5 minutes.

Finally I want to talk about divine storm. This is a melee attack that applies holy damage to 4 targets within 8 yards, and also heals any 3 party/raid members in range for 20% of that damage. I'll let you absorb that. Nice isn't it? There really is no reason not to have a ret paladin in a group any more. Oh and of course this has it's critical strike damage increased with art of war, which means a hell of a lot of damage. In my opinion, this is slightly better than consecrate, if only because it deals more damage at once, and is more controllable. If a polymorphed mob wandered into your consecrate before it was a nightmare. But this lasts a considerably shorter time than consecrate and thus as long as your not in range of said sheep/pig/turtle/penguin then you should be fine.

So in conclusion, I think the seals and judgement has been buffed for better management; divine storm is a great spell; stat changes (itemisation) allows for better spec balance; and art of war is very handy.

Oh and I almost forgot. Auras now affect whole raids, not parties. Woo!

The wind of change: part 1

2008-09-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

The expansion is almost upon us. And it will bring some welcome, some not so welcome and some baffling changes. The PTRs are live, with the new talents incorporated; the news spells embodied; it's going to be a pretty big adjustment, especially for the paladin community. For a class that was average at best, we suddenly have a lot to deal with. Of course first, we have to get to level 80.

Of course most people will be speccing retribution for leveling through Northrend. Some will be going protection, for the aoe grinding, and some will be holy for no reason that I can see. And this brings up an interesting thought: Although gear has been promised to be more paladin-esque, what's going to happen when we first get there? Will you slowly replace bits of gear whilst trying to level in your healing gear? Are you going to stomp through in your Tier 6 retribution gear? Or are you going to try and collect some base line epics before launch?

I have opted for the third. I am of course going to be retribution, and it's surprisingly easy to get gear. Heroics provide some blues and the occasional epic. Karazhan no only supplies epics quickly and frequently but also gives 22 badges per full run, and those shattered sun badge rewards are oh so nice. There's season 2 gear available for honour, some people will even have season 3 and 4 from their arena teams. All raids provide good gear as long as no-one minds you taking it. And then theres blacksmithing plans, engineering schematics, the auction house, boe items, quests; all these will easily get you blues and epics. Some ways are cheaper than others, but some are quicker and some are just plain easier. It really is, an open book/libram.

Of course getting gear in the expansion could work too. I haven't seen much of the gear from early quests and drops, but I'm willing to guess that it will fill some holes. Of course, if you're wearing holy gear as retribution, it could be a bit slower to level at first, but your getting there pretty well. I can also see the problem of being a bit...underpowered. It's not a nice experience to be in greens whilst everyone else's TBC gear lasts them till the late 70's. A 70 epic can still be better than a 73 blue. But it is the cheapest option, and requires the least work.

Personally I prefer to collect some gear now. It will last well into the 70's, maybe even to 80 if you're in tier 6, and then all those greens and blues from quests can be vendored or put up for auction. That way there's money for when you reach 80, and for getting skills. I can also recommend the shattered sun offensive badge rewards, and the pvp rewards as a good way for some quick epics. I bought a breastplate from SSO today because I had 1o5 badges left in my inventory. Even if you haven't been hording them like me, they're easy to get.

So, let's get moving, let's get geared, and lets get ready. Because the wind of change is starting to blow, and this is only the beginning...

Revamp [UPDATED]

2008-09-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted very recently, mostly because I've been planning some site overhauls. These will probably already have started by the time you read these, even if you can't see them yet. So let the games begin!

[UPDATE] Well that was fairly quick. I'll probably still fiddle with it at times, but for now, it'll do.

Race Your Paladin

2008-08-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

So you're making a paladin. Good choice. Now what race do you want to make it? Well obviously if you want to play horde there's no question, it has to be a blood elf. Alliance has the choice: human, dwarf or draenei? Which do you choose? And if you aren't bothered whether you're horde or alliance, then what's the best? Well, it depends how you play.

For a kick off let's look at the blood elf racials. Mana tap, arcane torrent, increased enchanting and increased resistance by 5. Now enchanting we can discard. The resistance increase is alright but it won't do much. It's handy but fairly un-noticable. The mana tap and arcane torrent however. For soloing, this is great for any blood elf. A paladin's biggest weakness is his mana, until the expansion at any rate and we'll see how that goes, so being able to suck mana with the mana tap-arcane torrent routine is very nice for soling, and can give you that extra boost in PvP. The silence is also a nice bonus for both roles, and also if you're a tank in dungeons.

Dwarves have Stoneform, find treasure, gun specialization and 10 frost resistance. OK, well we can get rid of the gun specialization and the find treasure as, like enchanting, they won't affect you as a paladin. The 10 frost resistance is ok, but if that were the only clincher then this race would be next to useless compared to the rest. Fortunately, it isn't the only clincher, as stoneform is very nice. Immunity to poison, bleed and disease and +10% armour. That's very nice for any paladin, no matter your role. Maybe a little less for a healer, but for the rest this can be a nice little booster.

Humans have The human spirit, diplomacy, sword and mace specialization and perception. diplomacy and perception are useful, but again not relevent here. Extra spirit is nice, but for a paladin there are better stats. The sword and mace specialization (one handed) is good for tanks and healers. Not retribution paladins as the don't use one handed weapons, but for tanks and healers it gives you that extra bit of skill, and that increase of 1.25% dodge rating as a result. nice for tanks especially.

Draenei have gift of the naaru, heroic presence, inspiring presence and gem cutting. Now lets chuck out gem cutting and inspiring presence. Don't need them. Inspiring presence is for squishy casters, we don't need spell hit. Heroic presence is nice. It's like a permanant aura, which increases melee hit rating by 1%. That's alright. And gift of the naaru. This may seem like a small heal, but it doesn't cost any mana and is a heal over time, which paladins have none of as a class. It can give that edge when cast before a silence, and can help the healers a little if you're a tank or melee dps.

So each race has it's own little traits that help a paladin in little ways. I cannot decided which one you should take, that's down to how you plan to play. Also, a little known fact among non-paladins (and even a few level 70 paladins I've met) there are 2 special seals. Seal of blood is horde only and is nice for melee dps, and the alliance equivelant is seal of vengeance which is nice for tanking. It differentiates between the factions a little more than appears on the surface.

Well hopefully you weren't bored to death by me (and if you were, then why read to the end?), and good luck with your paladin. Any tips for improvement are gratefully accepted.

Pv3 in PvP

2008-08-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

I was doing some pvp the other day (gasp, shock, horror!), for the fun of it. So I went into my least favorite battleground: Warsong Gulch. Let me give you a taste of how much I don't like it. I'm not quarter way through neutral standing, whereas I am revered with the rest. I really detest it, but I was bored and I decided to see how pvp viable my realm is at the moment. And I hit upon a strange truth, a crystalizing moment. It is possible to tank in pvp.

Let me explain how this works. I wear plate. I am holy specced. I slap on my concentration aura (that and crusader aura are the only ones I use really) and stand there healing people. Then, of course, this annoys the enemy and they start dpsing me down to stop me healing. At which point I spam flash of light. As long as you take all the silences and stuns early, you can then bubble, top up, and spam heal yourself for a good ten minutes. That's what I timed on this fateful day. I had 2 hunters and shaman attacking me, and kept myself topped up for ten minutes before a friendly warlock came and beat the living hell out of them. They didn't attack him. Why? Because after 10 minutes of dpsing me two things had happened.

First is something anyone would do. They thought "I've been attacking this @!'#*$ for the past ten minutes and I am not stopping until he's rotting on the floor!". The other thing was they had barely anything left. I thrw in a consecrate every now and again and the hunters, obsessed with me as they were, failed to notice their pets turning into HFC: Holy Fried Chicken. Also, after dpsing me solidly for ten minutes, they had run out of mana. Barely an earth shock or viper sting left in them. Easy pickings for a fresh from the graveyard warlock.

I can see this being useful in arenas. Stand and survive, then heal the others if their attention draws away from you. Perfect. Of course this could be being used already. I'd appreciate some comments. What strategies to you use in pvp?

Fell Off the Train

2008-08-18T16:36:00.001-07:00

Yeeeaaah. Never, ever go on holiday just as you're starting a blog. It doesn't help you get off the ground ans spread those journalistic wings. Straight to the point - I've been lazy. But busy too. After an influx of holidays, weekend breaks, being hacked, and family life, I have finally begun raiding again. Which meant our guild has started progressing again. I don't know why, but still, loot for me.

It got me thinking. I'll explain a little first. I still haven't got my shiny mace from SSO. I'm still a karazhan run short. But I began to wonder if there was a point in it. Wrath is just around the corner. And whilst Blizzard assures the punters that you won;t be replacing those hard-earned epics until about mid 70's, I'm not sure the same holds true for paladins. Why? 2 words. Retribution itemization.

Think about it. The majority of us are going to respec retribution again for levelling to 80, and we're thankful for the improvements to said spec. But if itemization is changing, does that mean we will be replacing non-tier loot sooner than most classes? Will it make our greens better suited to our class than the warrior dps gear that usually gets picked up at high-end raiding? If this is the case, it could mean our tasty purples could be replaced as soon as 71.

Of course I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure this would be the case. Especially with pvp gear. Those greens will take the pvp gear and run it through a meat grinder, no matter how bad it looks.

I feel this has been overlooked in the heat of it all. I would really appreciate comments on this, especially from a beta tester. And I'll try not to bunk off the blog again. Maybe.

See you in 2 weeks

2008-07-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

This is just a short post to say I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks starting today, and won't be able to post.

Also, the beta invites for Europe should be opening soon, so good luck! I know I'm checking my inbox constantly before I set off.

The Light is Released!

2008-07-18T03:28:00.000-07:00

Wow. Just wow. This will be a long post. The WotLK beta has been released. And with it comes our tasty paladin news. Believe me this is good. Read the rest of the post to see the changes we're getting.

So I give my gratitude to patch notes and WotlKWiki. So take a deep breath. In. And out. Let's begin with the new talents. This is the table given under the paladin page, showing the new talents introduced to us in the new expansion. And look at them. Aren't they tasty?

Blessed Hands	05 (20 Pt Req)	Holy	Reduces the mana cost and increases the resistance to Dispel effects of all Hand spells by 15/30% (2 Ranks)
Infusion of Light	08 (35 Pt Req)	Holy	Your Holy Shock critical hits reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 1.25/2.5 secs. (2 Ranks)
Sacred Cleansing	09 (40 Pt Req)	Holy	Your Cleanse spell has a 10/20/30% chance to increase the target's resistance to Disease, Magic and Poison by 30% for 10 sec. (3 Ranks)
Enlightened Judgements	09 (40 Pt Req)	Holy	Increases the range of your Judgement spells by 10/20 yards. (2 Ranks)
Judgements of the Pure	10 (45 Pt Req)	Holy	Your Judgement spells increase your casting and melee haste by 2/4/6/8/10% for 30 secs. (5 Ranks)
Beacon of Light	11 (50 Pt Req)	Holy	The target becomes a Beacon of Light, healing all party or raid members within 10 yards for 2000 over 15 sec. (Rank 5, Level 80, 2330 mana, 1.5 sec Cast)
Divine Guardian	04 (15 Pt Req)	Protection	While Divine Shield is active 15/30% of all damage taken by party or raid members within 30 yards is redirected to the Paladin. (2 Ranks)
Touched by the Light	09 (40 Pt Req)	Protection	Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your Stamina and increases the amount healed by your critical heals by 10/20/30%. (3 Ranks)
Guarded by the Light	09 (40 Pt Req)	Protection	Whenever you parry or dodge an attack you have a 10/20% chance to reduce the mana cost of your next Consecration, Holy Wrath or Avenger's Shield spell by 25/50%. (2 Ranks)
Shield of the Templar	10 (45 Pt Req)	Protection	Increases the damage and reduces the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 5/10/15%. (3 Ranks)
Judgements of the Just	10 (45 Pt Req)	Protection	Your Judgement spells also reduce the melee attack speed of the target by 10/20%. (2 Ranks)
Hammer of the Righteous	11 (50 Pt Req)	Protection	Hammer the current target and up to 2 additional nearby targets, causing 100% of weapon damage as Holy damage. This ability causes high threat. (1 Rank)
Heart of the Crusader	02 (05 Pt Req)	Retribution	In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by 1/2/3/4/5%. (5 Ranks)
Sanctified Retribution	05 (20 Pt Req)	Retribution	Damage caused by targets affected by Retribution Aura is increased by 2%. (1 Rank)
Sheath of Light	05 (20 Pt Req)	Retribution	Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 20/40/60% of the healed amount over 12 seconds. (3 Ranks)
Sanctified Wrath	08 (35 Pt Req)	Retribution	Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 25/50%, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 30/60 secs and while affected by Avenging Wrath 25/50% of all damage caused bypasses damage reduction effects. (2 Ranks)
Swift Retribution	09 (40 Pt Req)	Retribution	Your Retribution Aura also increases casting, ranged and melee attack speeds by 1/2/3%. (3 Ranks)
The Art of War	09 (40 Pt Req)	Retribution	Your damaging Crusader Strikes have a 5/10/15% chance to cause your next Judgement spell to cause double damage. (3 Ranks)
Righteous Vengeance	10 (45 Pt Req)	Retribution	Increases critical damage bonus of all attacks by 3/6/9/12/15% (5 Ranks)
Divine Storm	11 (50 Pt Req)	Retribution	An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to ${$i-1} enemies within $a1 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totalling $s2% of the damage caused. (No rank/cost information available.)

Now, as a holy paladin, I'm very excited by the talent Beacon of Light. It's a HoT! We finally get a HoT! And a good one too. It heals more than one person. And look at the ret talents. This is looking good. But not as good as the patch notes for paladins (taken from the forums here):
Paladins

All Auras now affect all party and raid members within the area of effect.
Anticipation (Protection) moved to tier 1, now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Avenger's Shield (Protection) cast time reduced to .5 seconds, duration increased to 10 seconds.
Avenging Wrath no longer causes Forebearance, damage increase reduced to 20%, now increases healing done by 20%.
Blessing of Freedom renamed Hand of Freedom. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.
Blessing of Light and Greater Blessing of Light removed. Their effects have been folded into all relevant abilities.
Blessing of Protection renamed Hand of Protection. Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. All ranks now cost 6% of base mana.
Blessing of Sacrifice renamed Hand of Sacrifice, is now only 1 rank and transfers 20% of the damage taken to the caster, duration reduced to 12 seconds, cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
Only one Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.
Blessing of Salvation renamed Hand of Salvation, now reduces total threat on the target by 2% per second for 10 seconds while also reducing all damage and healing done by 10%. Only one
Hand spell can be on the target per paladin at any one time. Now costs 6% of base mana.
Conviction (Retribution) now increases critical chance with all spells and melee attacks.
Divine Intellect (Holy) moved to tier 2, increases total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.
Divine Intervention cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.
Divine Protection and Divine Shield now cost 3% of base mana.
Divine Purpose (Retribution) now reduces chance to be hit by spells and ranged attacks by 1/2/3%.
Divine Strength (Holy) moved to tier 1 in the Protection tree.
Greater Blessing of Salvation removed.
Hammer of Justice now costs 3% of base mana.
Hammer of Wrath is now considered a Retribution spell, moved from Holy, mana cost reduced, missile speed increased, now usable on targets below 35% health.
Healing Light (Holy) moved to tier 2.
Holy Shield (Protection) cooldown reduced to 8 seconds.
Holy Shock (Holy) range changed to 20/40 yards when used on enemies/friends respectively, cooldown reduced to 6 seconds.
Holy Wrath is now instant cast, causes a 3 second stun, cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, radius reduced to 10 yards.
Illumination (Holy) moved to tier 3.
Improved Concentration Aura (Protection) moved to the Holy tree.
Improved Concentration Aura moved from the Protection tree to tier 4 in the Holy tree.
Improved Devotion Aura (Protection) moved to tier 4, reduced to 3 ranks, now increases armor of Devotion Aura by 17/34/50% and increases all healing done to units affected by Devotion Aura by 1/2/3%.
Improved Hammer of Justice (Protection) now reduces cooldwon by 10/20/30 secs.
Improved Righteous Fury (Protection) threat bonus folded into base spell, talent still reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
Improved Sanctity Aura (Retribution) renamed Sanctified Retribution, now causes all units affected by Retribution Aura to cause 2% more damage.
Improved Seal of Righteousness (Holy) moved to tier 1, renamed XXX, now affects Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption.
Improved Seal of the Crusader (Retribution) renamed Heart of the Crusader and the effects now apply to all Judgement spells.
Judgement of Justice will no longer prevent Fear effects, only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).
Lay on Hands no longer drains all mana, cooldown reduced to 20 minutes.
Pure of Heart (Holy) reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces duration of Curse and Disease effects by 25/50%.
Redoubt (Protection) moved to tier 2.
Repentance (Retribution) mana cost changed to 9% of base, duration increased to 1 minute (10 second PvP duration), now usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
Retribution Aura damage increased and now gains damage based on Holy spell power.
Righteous Fury now increases threat caused by Holy damage by 90%.
Sanctified Light (Holy) now also increases the critical chance of Holy Shock.
Sanctity Aura (Retribution) removed.
Seal of Justice/Judgement reduced to 1 rank with all the effects of the previous rank 2, the
Judgement effect no longer prevents Fear.
Seal of the Crusader has been removed. The effects of Judgement of the Crusader have been folded into all relevant abilities.
Seal of Vengeance damage over time effect duration increased to 18 seconds.
Spiritual Focus (Holy) moved to tier 1.
Stoicism (Protection) moved to tier 2, now reduces duration of Stun effects by 10/20/30% and reduces chance your spells will be resisted by 10/20/30%.
Toughness (Protection) moved to tier 3.
Turn Undead (ranks 1 and 2) removed. Turn Evil now granted at level 24, mana cost changed to 9% of base.
Unyielding Faith (Holy) moved to tier 2.

That is great. Paladins across the talent tree have been improved. Let's see here.
- Holy: Greater Blessings and auras now affect the whole raid. We get a HoT. We get a heal bomb. The changes in the talent trees mean we get better, quicker. They also improve our healing.
- Prot: Again greater blessings and auras affect the whole raid. Pretty much all the talents in the prot tree seem to do the exact same but with added affects included! Better itemization will also mean that prot paladins will be able to tank with more mana and more threat. Spells such as avengers shield have had their cast time reduced, and duration increased.
- Ret: Greater blessings and auras now affect the whole raid. Particularly important now that retribution aura now increases cast speed. Faster heals anyone from the healers. And more damage from the paladins! Better itemization will improve damage a lot, breaking into the upper echelon of melee damage.

I must say this is all very exhausting. Which talents and news bits are you most excited about? Keep a look out here for more information.

Pretty in Pink?

2008-07-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

On the most part, tier armor is very varied. Some are great and some are frankly embarrassing. Our tier 2, in my opinion at least, is awesome. I don't know why but it just makes the character look...powerful. Except for the kilt. What are we, shamans? Tiers 1 and 3 were decidedly average, and then with the expansion came shiny new tier 4.

Let's face it; Justicar was the first properly brilliant looking tier set for paladins. It looks very paladin like. A true warrior of the light. Oh and the shoulders are shiny. Seriously, zoom in on those babies in a well lit area and the shine is like real life metal. I also like the jewels in the armor. Nice and bright. Then there's the season 1 armor to go with it. That's alright, but it looks a bit plain next to the justicar.

Of course then we have the crystalforge, tier 5. Pink. They laughed at us. We laughed at us. We then realized it was our tier and stopped laughing at us. But I must say. It's grown on me. It's still pinky-purple yeah, but that doesn't matter. I think it still looks good. It has a certain "Yeah, I'm pink, but I'm so much your superior I can wear pink and still own your ass" about it. Then there's season 2. Tier 5's exact replica apart from the fact the shoulders look like 2 turds. I really don't like it. It looks like a mage just set fire to me and burnt me to a crisp.

Then tier 6. Freaking. Awesome. A halo, shoulders with light shooting from them. It makes your character look really badass. An angel of death, if you will. Season 3 looks awesome too. It's often hard to distinguish the two, but it doesn't matter because both should make your enemies shake in their boots. And that with that nice, new shattered sun shield? I may have just drooled on my keyboard. This is the best looking tier set to date in my opinion, out of any of the classes. Except perhaps the warlock tier 6 helmet, with the wings. Damned warlocks, Blizzards babies.

So then we have to look to the future. Season 4 came out the other week. The weapons look great. The armour does not. We just have to hope, that the gods will have mercy and tier 7 won't look like this. It would break my heart to have to wear this. I cannot imagine going to smack Arthas in the face looking like the black knight from Monty Python's Holy Grail. Only blue and gold.

Of course these are my opinions. This post was primarily a rant about armor, but if you disagree, just drop a comment.

Uther the Lightbringer

2008-07-12T14:15:00.001-07:00

Welcome! I decided that I needed to combine my two favourite things about the game: paladins and lore. So who better to profile than the big man himself?

For one of the first posts I decided to go with the big cheese of paladins. Uther the Lightbringer. uther started as a follower of the light, as a cleric under Bishop Faol (now Archbishop Alonsus Faol). The bishop became close with Uther during this time, becoming a friend and mentor, teaching him about the light, and all was well with the world. Until a rather powerful being called Medihv opened the Dark Portal, and demonic orcs from Draenor flooded into Azeroth. In short, Stormwind fell to the horde legions, and this shook Faol. He knew that the immense size of the orc's armies could soon topple Lordaeron as well, and fait in the light would have to be put into practice. Thus, the Knights of the Silver Hand came into being, and Uther was the first to be accepted into the ranks, admitted in Stratholme, and the paladins were born. The alliance had found a new army of powerful humans, who would be aided by the light. This was quite obviously a huge moment for the people of the alliance.

Durning the second war, Uther led the paladins into battle against the orcs. The last battle was Ogrim Doomhammer's seige of Lordaeron, in which Doomhammer led the horde from Blackrock Mountain to Lordaeron. uther and the paladins managed to defeat the orc hordes, as Anduin Lothar and the paladin Turalyon killed Doomhammer. Turalyon was the first to dub Uther "The Lightbringer". The two paladins destroyed the remnants of the Burning Blade at the Dark Portal, and the paladins grew into the role of the protectors of Azeroth.

Now an established hero of the Alliance, Uther even started to train King Terenas Menethil's son, Arthas (Yes, that Arthas. We'll get to that soon), and the two became fast friends. The two worked together a lot in battle, including the attack by the Blackrock clan orcs on Strahnbrad. Then one day, Jaina Proudmoore came to Uther, bringing the news that undead armies were destroying the town of Hearthglen. Arthas had attempted to to protect the town, but was close to defeat, and he and Uther left for Stratholme to defeat Mal'ganis, the dreadlord who they currently thought was the leader of the scourge. Upon their arrival, they realized that the city had been infected with the undead plague. Arthas, disturbed by the power of the scourge when he had battled them at Hearthglen, demanded that Uther help him burn the town to the ground. Uther refused. He could not kill his own people. Arthas, who had apparently snapped under strain, became enraged. He burned Stratholme, disbanded the Knights of the Silver Hand, and branded Uther a traitor to the Alliance for refusing.

Uther returned to King Terenas and together they decided that Arthas had become mentally disturbed by the battle at Hearthglen, and this was what drove him to go to Northrend. Upon his return, Arthas murdered his father having become the Lich King. Uther was distraught. The undead scourge had rettunred, and both his best friends had been taken by this force; Arthas mentally and Terenas physically. He took Terenas' remains to Andorhal, and guarded the urn that contained his ashes. Until Arthas appeared with his undead armies. As the town lay under siege, Uther and Arthas fought it out, and eventually Uther was slain.

His tomb lies in Western Plaguelands near Sorrow Hill. Horde have a quest to defile his tomb, in which Uther appears at the end and says he is disappointed in you.

Well that's it for the now. Please give me your thoughts on this post, and if you have any suggestions any posts, please add your comments.

Flashes of Light - What does Wrath of the Lich King mean to me?

2008-07-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

We paladins haven't had a lot of news from the WWI, or at all in fact, about what's going to happen to us. What we do have is very vague, and I could write it down on the back of my hand:

Promised that Retribution will be "improved".
Improved itemization.
New healing spell "Hand of Purity". Will function sort of like a priest's prayer of mending.
Lot's of Blizzard employees feel the same way as we do. Paladins need an overhaul.

That last one is the most important. This implies that a lot of work will be going into changing the paladin class to make them more useful across the board. The paladin class is being calculated last. They're finishing off all the other classes and then starting to tweak and fiddle with the paladins. Hopefully this means they;re going to concentrate all their energy on it, after getting the other classes out of the way.

Also, the itemization is one to keep an eye on. Time upon time again, I have searched for healing gear with spell crit on it, and, the fact is, there just isn't that many items with spell crit and bonus healing on it. The same goes for ret, with itemization swaying towards non-mana users for the most part. Prot is identical to ret, with itemization again going to warriors and the such. Basically, we have to make do with what we get, but hopefully that will soon change. The retribution changes will be half done with just better itemization!

Finally, HoP is a seriously needed spell. We may be good at raids where we are traditionally assigned to single targets, or maybe 2. But as the sole healer in a group of 5, we struggle immensly to keep the entire group topped up. This should change that, and who knows, maybe Blizzard will implement a few more?

So we haven't got that much to go on at the moment. But in the next few weeks, I expect we will see quite a few changes to the paladin class, and I'll be here to comment on every bit.