Word of the day, 12/29/05

"Hammer of GG". (click the link to read Edrik's article as well, it's interesting)

Just an observation.

Mind you that when Caydiem says that the developer consider the changes complete, she always also adds "for 1.9". Why? 1.9 has to come out sometime. The development period can't last forever.

I seriously think that they've already planned for what changes will come in 1.10. The Protection tree is hopefully going to get *something* in 1.10 in a form of a change, because it's a rather mashed up tree.

One change I wish they could do would be to alter Seal of Light so that when it proccs, it affects the entire party. Proc rate and healing amount would be balanced accordingly, of course. It would be a simple change that would change things so much.

Caydiem's on a roll

There's a ton of new posts by Caydiem on the Paladin forum -- since I don't have time to write about them all, my favorite one is this one (a point I've been bringing up in the last few days). Finally we're going to get an answer on this question... I feel relieved.

I'm a coward?

After a lot of philosophing, reading various opinionated threads and such I've now decided to withdraw my judgements of the class review and when 1.9 is released next week have a completely open mind about it (again). I know I'm bouncing around on this issue, but I will find it interesting to experience the changes in a PVP and raid environment which I have been unable so far to do. When I've experienced that, I will make my final judgement. I will find it very interesting to see how a full Ret build will work in raids (though I'm not expecting much).

I just wanted to say that I admire those who've taken considerable steps and practices to retire their characters (such as L'Emmerdeur). It's a tough decision. Really, sticking with the Paladin is much like a vicious circle because you say to yourself, "this was my first character" and "I really want to play the Paladin". It makes it even harder to pass away from the class when you reflect on all the time invested and such. I mean, for example grinding reputation is time consuming and isn't exactly done over night.

To those you've taken the steps to retire, good for you. To those who like me are a bit more afraid of change will have to really wait for the patch to come to draw our last judgement.

He said, she said - part 2.

Hats off to Killian for this one.

12/22/2005 - An update on Paladins, Caydiem:

Regarding raids, it's a simple social fact that if a class has a heal spell, they'll be asked to heal in a raid...

vs

He said, she said.

12/22/2005 - An update on Paladins, Caydiem:

Regarding raids, it's a simple social fact that if a class has a heal spell, they'll be asked to heal in a raid...

vs

5/24/2005 - Uther's Hammer, Fangtooth:

The improvements to the talent trees...should help define the Paladins role in groups. The developers liked the idea of being able to make Paladin’s into a healer with the Holy Tree, a fighter with the Retribution tree, or a tank with the Protection tree.

(Sure, you can always battle over the definition of Fangtooth's use of the word "groups").

Ouchie.

It's final: I've decided to make the druid my new main. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm probably just going to do the epic mount quest for my Paladin to just get it over with and then park her in Stormwind to occasionally fly out wherever she might be needed.

I've decided to still keep this blog going though. I didn't really meant to retire it "seriously" -- I was just so upset when I wrote that. So don't worry guys...

Doh!

I'm a complete noob. I put on comment moderation because I decided to get a bit fascist (with a good reason; I was trying to restrict trolls).

And guess what? I *forgot* to moderate the comments :D

Edit: My first smiley ever here! (Trust me, if you don't believe me you're welcome to find one). I guess I'll have to do something to break the mold...

Anyways, sorry about that. I'll turn moderation back off now.

It's fine, learn 2 play.

I'm now considering retiring this blog.

Caydiem gives explanation to why we're stuck at the Healbot/Cleansebot role in raids and regarding the concerns of Holy Shield. She ends with saying the following, "I apologize if you were seeking large changes from the way Paladins are in 1.9 -- they will not be coming, to my knowledge. The developers consider their work on the talent review complete."

Jobs done. Nothing more can happen. It's over. Happy holidays everybody.

Woah!

Sorry for the long hiatus. You know why? I'm sitting in a room that's half-around the world from the room I just sat in four days ago. In other words I've moved from Europe to the United States, and that move is now complete (finally!). There's a lot of stuff that I'm going to miss, much of it the food and culture from Sweden, especially Ramlösa. Lucky enough though there's always IKEA! Woot!

Enough personal stuff though... Back to work! Here's the latest news:

Caydiem's pissed and fed up with the constant trash talking that's going on at the Paladin forum. I don't condone actions like that and I hope you guys keep it civil. It's nevertheless interesting that she's really paying attention to the forum, so I really hope that they take notice that many of us don't approve of (a couple of) the changes in 1.9.

Here's an unexpected bit of news as well: She also says 1.9 might come up on PTR soon again! Hopefully a week worth's of silence regarding our changes is for the better when they get (if they) back up and we get to see the latest revision.

And last but not least, remember Loke who was the only Paladin who won in the Test of Honor contest a couple of months ago? Well, he shot me an email and told me he's finally gotten to Rank 14 and made a movie, go download it here. Congratulations Loke!

It's ending.

The PTR has now officially ended.

Virgilsainti asks why there's a lack of updates, Caydiem responds:

Because I have no information for you at the moment.

I will post again when I have information. If you'd like me to say more "nothing", as many of you are fond of saying, that's what you can get, but I have nothing substantial for you at the moment.

It's quiet.

The silence disturbs me. Why hasn't there been any new changes to the trees? Can these mean that the changes are now final?

Word of the Day?

It's Paladin!

paladin \PAL-uh-din\, noun:
1. A knight-errant; a distinguished champion of a medieval king or prince; as, the paladins of Charlemagne.
2. A champion of a cause.

Fun builds

Stunmaster Fun: Repentance, Imp. HoJ, SoJ = Fun (with SoC).

PVP 4 Life: Imp. Concentration Aura, Unyielding Faith, Reckoning, SoC. Notice that when getting Imp. Concentration you only need four points in Spiritual Focus, hence splitting six points between Divine Strength and Wisdom in Holy.

Cookie Cutter Holy with more damage, or Cookie Cutter Holy with more versatility. Holy Shock, SoC, etc.

I actually can't decide which one of these to get.

Protection, Schmotection.

The Protection tree is now the worst tree:

- Anticipation works against Redoubt and Reckoning.
- Improved Concentration Aura is out of place, because Concentration isn't exactly going to be the aura of choice when tanking.
- Its first tier talents still suck; Improved Devotion is useless at level 60, Redoubt is useless if you don't use a shield.
- Blessing of Sanctuary and Holy Shield got nerfed real bad in the latest revision; don't get bonus from +spell damage, Holy Shield got bumped up to 31 points (definitely not worth it) and BoSanctuary got it's block damage reduced.
- About only the half of the tree I like: Guardian's Favor, Blessing of Kings, Improved Hammer of Justice, Reckoning and Improved Concentration Aura. The rest is useless to me.

How to fix:

- Slap together Anticipation and Improved Devotion. Nerf it to give something like +5 defense.
- Change Redoubt to be flat chance to block.
- Change Reckoning to get charges from a flat percentage when hit.
- Buff Holy Shield. Make it last longer, whatever. Just make it worthy.

I felt like this was going to happen because all the focus was at the fact that Holy was superior while Retribution was lacking. It was the truth yes, but there wasn't enough discussion on what the condition of Protection. This was mainly because the tree was so-so to begin with, it had a couple of good things and a couple of bad things... And now we're here.

Super-mana regen is back!

Onweo:

Basically you've got so many procs going off, with each one having a chance to trigger Judgement of Wisdom, that on average you'll see 2 JoW procs per swing (that's +118 mana per swing). It's sick. When you see JoW proc 4 times off a single hit (not uncommon), you'll laugh at how rediculous this is.

I don't get that logic

Caydiem:

Before you ask why numbers weren't buffed during the shift, please understand that talent trees aren't necessarily designed to get much stronger as you get deeper into the tree, but rather unlock more options along the same basic line. Other class trees are designed in precisely the same way.

Leader of the Pack or Innervate as 11 talent point skills? Yes, please! I know she's saying "not necessarily", but, let's face it; neither of the Paladin's talent obtained abilities are that powerful or "hard" has Moonkin Form, Leader of the Pack and Innervate for example.

Tip to developers:
- Please swap Blessing of Kings and Consecration. I know you don't like that Divine Strength and Divine Intellect is in the same tree, but please, it's pretty easy to do now.
- Buff Holy Shield. Make it block more, or whatever.
- Make Repentance do a small amount of Holy damage. Something like 80, 100, 150 upon usage. It'd make it much more interesting.

Interesting development changes

As mentioned in the comments below, Caydiem's given the scoop on the latest changes (or talent swap, rather) for 1.9:

- Blessing of Kings, the former 31 point talent in Retribution, has been shifted to the 11 point talent in the Protection tree.
- Blessing of Sanctuary, the former 11 point talent in Protection, has been shifted to the 21 point talent in the same tree.
- Holy Shield, the former 21 point talent in Protection, has been shifted to the 31 point talent in the same tree and has had its mana cost slightly reduced.
- Repentance, the former 31 point talent in Protection, has been shifted to the 31 point talent in the Retribution tree.

Very interesting changes... However, I wish Blessing of Kings would be the 21-st talent point in Protection instead. Read more about it in the actual thread.

Why are you still poking me?

Ask your one question. (thread will be locked within an hour)

Edit: locked now

It's happened before.

By the way, this isn't the first time Blizzard's answered your questions and have it completely devoid of answers. Remember when they payed a visit to Slashdot? They got bit back. Read the thread for insightful comments on the "interview".

It's up.

Here's what we've been waiting for the last couple of weeks, an explanation of the changes in 1.9. Read it here.

Edit: I read it and still disappointed. They just didn't seem to explain that much at all... Most of it was just about the philosophy of the trees and the switch of Consecration and Sanctity.

Now, each tree has an overall theme for what it's meant to accomplish... but they aren't completely specialized towards these goals -- creating a tree that's completely specialized in one direction causes players to be pigeonholed even further, which is something the designers want to avoid. As such, there are some diverse elements in each tree, such as Blessing of Kings in the Retribution tree. (A similar effect is seen in the Druid talent trees, with both beneficial feral and casting abilities spread throughout.)

For Druids' Restoration tree both Feral talents are at the bottom tiers, making it super easy for Feral builds to get them.
In the Feral tree there's Heart of the Wild (gives a bonus depending which form you are in) -- but it benefits Feral just as much as casters.
In Balance there's Natural Weapons (increases physical damage), Omen of Clarity (PPM proc to make your attacks free of charge) and Natural Shapeshifter (Shapeshifting cheaper, arguably meant for Ferals the most) and these are at the relatively bottom tiers of the tree, making them easy to get for Feral Druids who arguably want them the most.
Then at the bottom of Balance there's Moonglow (reduces spell costs of many spells) and Nature's Grace (critting makes next spell casted faster), but they benefit Balance just as much as they would for Restoration.

I just think that... The Druid trees simply are more intelligently designed. For neither of the Druid trees the 31st talent is against the genre of the tree. Moonkin Form, Leader of the Pack and Innervation are at the right spots. Blessing of Kings simply isn't. Sure... It's a nice buff and all, but really, c'mon -- you'd rather want Blessing of Might because you get more DPS with it, right?

Edit 2: As someone said in the thread as a response, it's really just a whole post that says "it's fine, learn 2 play".

Know your role, noob.

Vaelin reports that the latest Blizzard Insider has the scoop Caydiem was talking about with the developers, dubbed "Know Your Role". Here's snips of the Paladin excerpt:

Paladins are unique in that they can serve a dual-role in a party. Capable of wearing heavy armor and dealing huge amounts of damage, Paladins are frequently cast as tanks in a group; however, the healing abilities of the Pally also offer the potential for them to serve as primary healers....

Dealing huge amounts of damage... Primary healers... Waaaah?

Last time I played AB I was defending a node all by myself against an Undead Priest. I used Seal of Rightousness with my Ice Barbed Spear and attacked him trying to do as much damage as I could -- he just did the /laugh emote at me, very well knowing that there was no way in hell I was going to put a dent on him. I got so upset that I decided to take some time off from Arathi Basin after that...

...PvP on a one-on-one basis can be difficult for Paladins, however, due to their limited range (although, future patches are rumored to correct this issue)...

Interesting.

How to travel with style

Very cool, you can do it yourself here.

Slip of the tongue?

During a discussion on someone complaining about 40-man/20-man raid dungeons, Caydiem says:

The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj brings us up to three full-on 40-man raid dungeons, and Naxxramas brings us to four, thus evening out the score.

Naxxramas has not been announced.

Though it's kind of expected since:
- The Book of Medivh is needed to open the Dark Portal
- Blizzard has said there's need to do a high-end raid to obtain something to open the portal.
- Inside Naxxramas, Kel'thusad holds the book of Medivh.

Anyways, I expect this to really be one of the last big raid dungeons for vanilla WoW before the expansion.

Edit: As anonymous mentions in the comments, here's some cool map views of Naxxramas.

Imp. LoH = nerfed

Improved Lay on Hands got nerfed today. Down from five minutes to two minutes. Read about comments of it here.

Caydiem's back!

Alright, enough with my pessimistic rant from yesterday. Cay's got some more info, here she explains the reason why the Critadin was, in a sense, removed:

...Many are lamenting the perceived loss of the infamous "critadin" build. The crit-focused Paladin was making the best out of what was given to him, and I understand that it's difficult to adjust. The developers wanted to bring the line more controlled DPS rather than relying on chance and having the damage numbers wildly across the board. It's true you may not see those huge, incredibly-gratifying numbers much anymore, but your DPS will be more reliable and predictable, allowing you to perform better on the whole. Give it a chance.

Then Virgilsainti immediately asks, "What about the 31 Point Talents? Many have been concerned over the adjusting or complete removal of the current ones since 1.9 was mentioned." and she responds:

That's covered more in the writeup going through editing.

Excellent, I guess we'll get to hear the reason to why not a single of the 11-21-31 talent points were removed/drastically changed.

And here she explains what's left of the developer response. (in other words, Soon™)

The Crusade

I guess these are the talent trees we'll be getting. That the talent tree preview is up on the community website pretty much set them in stone. I'll summarize what I think of this with one word:

Disappointing.

Sorry, I just can't help feel kind of cheated that we waited an entire year for this. For a class that was completely overhauled and tested for only two weeks prior launch, I fail to see why they require so much testing for this! I hope many realize the irony that these changes in 1.9 was given a larger test period than the entire basis for what became our class was given.

So much feedback, so many comments -- for what? We expected more, we expected bigger changes. What signals and expectations were we given? Certainly nothing that corresponds with what was given to us.

Judgement of Justice wasn't touched (nice to see that one full year of nagging about this was taken in to consideration).
Retribution sucks beyond the first couple of tiers. Blessing of Kings confuse many.
Protection has an identity crisis with talents that weaken each other (Anticipation vs Reckoning and Redoubt).
Holy, I guess, is the only tree that's sort-of viable.

If there's something we've learned now from this is that we can't change anything... So my message to you is to just give up; because nothing's going to change despite how many flaws you can point out and despite how much constructive criticism you give them.

In a nutshell: Pursuit of Justice still is the same talent it was when we first lobbied our complaints about it two weeks ago.

I hope the Caydiem chat with the developers outline and explain a lot of things, because, frankly, this is just tiring.

It is time.

As reported our talent calculators have "finally" come up on the US website. Caydiem mentions it here. (by the way, where's the developer response that was promised?)

I've been fooling around with a build, and here it is. The unconventional first ten points in to Holy is there just because my build is mainly meant to be used with Concentration Aura (providing a total 106% damage interruption immunity). Mind you that this build is meant for PVP:
- SoC for good damage, I don't want them to laugh at me.
- Reckoning for Reckoning-bombs, because I love one-shotting cloths.
- Imp. Concentration Aura for silence resistance, because Warlocks, Priests and Mages are annoying.
- Unyielding Faith for fear resistance, because Warlocks, Priests and Warriors are annoying.

"I've got detailed files"

The Paladin's Loot List v1.1, a good loot list for Paladins.

And the talents are up on the Europe-WoW website. Link.

New test on PTR: 0.9.3

Looks like some very minor upgrades, if any at all.

Edit: Looks like Judgement of the Crusader was buffed up back to what it was in 1.8. Judgments are soundless now.

Me and Vaelin had some fun out at Burning Steppes.

I actually lagged out during that fight and he didn't notice; the Paladin in a nutshell!

New test on PTR: 0.9.2

As Vaelin mentioned, a new version of the PTR is up. Here are the changes:

- Two-handed Weapon Specialization fixed: now capped at three points.
- The Protection tree was untouched.
- Benediction is pretty much the best five talent points you can spend since it now reduces the cost of Judgement and Seals. Judgement is now only 76 mana for this!
- The Holy tree got a few changes: Divine Favor and Consecration switched with each other, to get Divine Favor now you have to invest in Illumination and you have to get both of these to get Holy Shock.
- Spiritual Focus got nerfed? Says only 70% now, I recall it saying something like 76% before.
Edit: I'm the original noob. It's always been 70%.

Things that need to be fixed:

This is on the Paladin talent changes:

- Make Protection more attractive and less weird. Anticipation, Reckoning and Redoubt work against each other. IMHO just remove Anticipation or change Redoubt and Reckoning to work differently. For example, change them to work without relying on being critted so that Paladins can stack up on +defense gear just like tanks ought to (this is what I really hope for). Then also consider slapping together Anticipation and Improved Devotion Aura to make that talent more attractive (make it only got up to like +5 or whatever instead, due to the tier bump).
- Consecration wasn't changed to be a Heal over Time spell, which was asked for. I know it'd bring up really complicated balance problems, but if it lets you heal as much as it do damage nobody will will find it overpowered. It'd make it much more versatile. Very nice that it was bumped down though to be easier for Protection Paladins to get.
- Divine Favor still says it doesn't make Holy Shock crit, as was asked for. Please make this happen Blizzard, it'd spice up the Holy tree and make it much more interesting. It'd make up for the loss of Sanctity Aura.
- Pursuit of Justice is still unchanged. Make it better than just a 5g boot enchant. It might be really cool for those who don't know all the in-and-outs of the game, but when they've had it for a while they'll realize that they just "wasted" two points.
- Improved Retribution Aura/Retribution Aura overall will never be used by Retribution Paladins. Ever. Consider moving it somewhere else, just don't let it be next to Sanctity Aura. Put it in to the Protection tree since Holy damage increases threat?
- Move Improved Concentration back to Holy now that they lost Sanctity. Tanks won't use Concentration Aura anyway!
- Blessing of Kings is still there, taunting with it's weirdness. I guess Retributionists must get some boost or another to their grouping abilities, and that BoK is the way for this. But still, it just feels lacking.

Saturday morning

Sorry for the lack of updates... Just got Mario Kart DS (I know, it's not "cool" to play Nintendo -- but seriously, this game is just too darn fun).

Are you a big fan enough to try to obtain the rights to play the tavern theme at your wedding? Looks like some people have, here's what the WoW composer Jason Hayes says:

...For example, there is a high school in Illinois that recently competed with a "World of Warcraft" suite of music arranged for marching band (they got a 'superior' rating in their division!) and even a request by a couple that wanted to perform the "human tavern" music (of all things) at their wedding :D

Laugh out loud.

As anonymous reported below in the comments, Tigole said the following about PTR 1.9:

We're still making numerous changes to the Fankriss and Satura fights.

Unfortunately, those changes are 2 PTR builds away from the public at this point. For now, I'd recommend testing the 20 person dungeon. We welcome feedback on the 40, but we've already made so many changes that until we get those changes live, testing time is best spent on the 20 for now.

In other words, at least two more builds on the PTR.

Caydiem's made her meeting with the developers regarding the Paladin changes. Read about it here and here. Hopefully we'll the summary either today (i.e. what's left of Friday for California) or this Monday.

/cry

New Test Realm patch

New version on the test realm, and this is the news:

- Divine Intervention now spawns a shield on the target for 3 minutes.
- Seal of Command is (most likely) fixed to proc at 7 PPM.
- Two-Handed Weapon Specialization has been buffed from 5% to 10%.
- IMHO the funniest and actually least expected change: Consecration and Sanctity Aura have been switched with each other. Yep, you heard that right.