Just Five More Things...

According to Frank Pierce, each class will get five new spells and abilities with the expansion pack. Hmm..wonder what spells we might get. Hopefully something good, and not another RNG-based Seal attack.

Update: Tseric adds:

Just wait 'til we start talking about specific spells and abilities for classes. The air will be thick with theorycraft.

a/s/l/r?

In WoW, the only class that has true strict religious fervor arguably must be the Paladin even more so than the Priest (!). We're the zealots, the dogmatists, the persecutors - all in the name of the Light (IMHO, a religion which looks like Christianity but acts like Buddhism).

Curiously enough, fellow player Peacelight asks in the Paladin forum if Pallys are religious in real life. Interesting thread, though obviously the ultimate example of a thread which will be filled with flames and trolls if it carries on long enough.

I enjoy religion and have studied the major religions several times. All of them are very interesting in their own ways, but naturally I have a couple of close favorites. But this is probably why I am very attracted to the Paladin to begin with. Die hard religious jingoists who are the "good guys" (in an strictly opinionated Warcraft-sense), for some reason, I find very appealing. Nice to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

Hottest Pally Player?

About three weeks old, but cool nevertheless. From a wow.net thread, on page 2:

Yes... I was playing WoW for a few months... level 60 human paladin.

Read it.

Back Soon

I know lots of people still are kind of bummed at the infrequency of this blog. Don't worry though, as I'll resume my activities starting at the end of next week, when I get back from my two month vacation. To be honest, I think I've been able to give a descent amount of updates when being away to begin with! Hehe.

Enjoy the remainder of the summer!

This is no joke

A nice Mr. Bech just sent me an email about 8 minutes ago detailing this, um, how shall I say, interesting development of the expansion?

As we draw closer to the release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, more of the secrets shrouding the Draenei and Blood Elves are being revealed....

Lore detailing this comes after that. But here's the juicy bit:

...The Burning Crusade will allow Alliance players to create shamans, and Horde players to play as paladins...The ability for players of both factions to use any class opens up exciting new gameplay opportunities, with fresh group-play dynamics...While Alliance shamans and Horde paladins mostly share the same talents as their counterparts across the battlefield, they will also enjoy some unique abilities to themselves, similar to the priest class’ racial specialties.

This is no joke.

Seems like, instead of trying to balance classes, Blizzard decided to cop out by altering lore. Or is that the right assumption? It's an awfully convinient solution to please Horde vs Alliance faction imbalance whiners. I'm not that mad at this though. I just think it removes a bit what's so special about Shamans and Paladins. They probably thought about that too, but decided to do this anyways.

Shamans Win

As Anonymous mentioned in the post below, the Shaman community has won the battle over the Windfury Totem nerf (remember the last time they won?). Nice to see that the developers don't mind letting something they considered just to be gamebreaking be in the game to score political points with the community and players. Not that I'm against the Shamans victory here; I'm all for as a balanced playstyle between Alliance and Horde as possible. But the intention by them sends signals, that in my interpretation, they are willing to sacrifice things in what they consider to be good, in effort to please a whining community.

My question is...why haven't us Paladins had that happen to us? I thought we were considered the largest whiners!

We're cool now!

After the info about Windfury Totem nerf in 1.12, Horde players have been going beserk both in the Shaman forum and the Raids and Dungeons forum. This thread asks a good question. Funny is how many people say "I wish I rolled a Paladin" in that thread.

Much if it is attributed to that Alliance guilds have demonstratedly progressed faster in Naxxramas. Is this due to that there are more Alliance end-game guilds, or that the Paladin is vastly superior augmentor in raids? Good question.

I have to agree with Horde players' griefs - despite my lack of Horde end-game experience. The tools for our disposal by far give greater impact to our teammates than what is available for the Shaman. I know they're different classes and are supposed to behave and play differently, but they're simply not balanced. For what we have in blessings and judgements just doesn't properly balance out for what they have in faster healing and better caster/melee strength. Of course, this is from a 40-man end-game perspective. Oh, and don't forget: To add insult to injury we also got Fear Ward. Hehe.

Obviously this issue has been brewing on for quite a while now. The nerf to Windfury Totem unleashed everyones' feelings in droves on this. I wonder what Blizzard will do in response.

REAL 1.12 notes

Thanks to Anonymous to alert the new Paladin changes that came in the official 1.12 notes:

Paladins
- Divine Shield: The tooltip has been changed to 100% due to the haste effect change.

Ugh.

Though, to cheer me up...finally. A feature that I've been waiting FOREVER for!

V key now shows both monsters and player enemies.

YES!

1.12 "World PvP" a Flop Before Release?

Yesterday I happened upon this article from IGN describing the up and coming world pvp additions for 1.12. Today, I see that forum hillarity ensued.

I could not help but laugh heartily when encountering this post and the blue response.

Ok, so it's "magic sand" - LOL.

Just to be obnoxious and add fuel to the bonfire, I made a post of my own, reproduced for you here.

==================================

What the playerbase wanted:
http://www.jeux-strategie.com/upload/warcraft/battle-1024.jpg

What the playerbase got:
http://el-campo-de-la-rhea-venezuela.org/images/Falcon%20sand%20dunes.JPG

Expect complaints.

==================================

In all fairness, I'm looking forward to the Eastern Plaguelands setup. It will give my pvp buddies and I something to do during the wait times (which I fully expect to remain long, given that the Alliance outnumbers the Horde on almost all servers).

Some "leaked" 1.12 notes

The "leaked" 1.12 list has been popping up around a bit everywhere. Anyways, it promises pretty much only good stuff - so that's what's leaving me with the conclusion that it has to be fake. Just to cut things down for you, here are the Paladin changes:

Paladin:

Reckoning no longer resets the auto-attack timer.
Holy Light no longer sends two messages to your combat log.
Libram of Divinity will now give the correct healing bonus to Flash of Light.
The added armor from Lay on Hands no longer appears on the character sheet as a permanent armor value.

Random stuff:
New relics have been added to Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Ruins of AhnQiraj, and Naxxramas.

Ah yes.... 1.12 is scheduled to be the last true patch before the Burning Crusade. If these notes are true (which I heavily believe they are not), we got shafted. Ugh. I'd love it though to see more relics drop everywhere. That'd be kick-ass. I still (!) don't have a relic on my slot (though keep in mind I haven't played the game for about two months).

Seems like the plan now is to wait for the expansion beta test signups to come, wait for Blizzard to go through them and pick testers, then have the actual beta test come for at least a month, then wait for the game to go gold with an additional month because the boxes and CDs need to be created and shipped to the stores.

Flibble's Guide to the Galaxy

Doh, sorry for not catching up on this earlier (really sorry). But better late than never: Flibble has an excellent list of common Paladin topics in the Paladin forum. It has a rightfully deserved sticky - which is kind of peculiar since it has some stuff that probably would make Eyonix frown! And to top it all off, he sums the topics up perfect and accurately too. Take some time to read it, it's good stuff.

14th of July bits

Coincidentally the post to celebrate one year was also the 400th post! Yay!

A friend of mine has thankfully spent some time with me and given me some options and tips on how to improve the blog's look. Changes are definetly under wraps. Don't expect anything that HUGE (for example, unfortunately no flash gimmicky stuff - despite the coolness). Feel free advance comments on what should be included! I'd like comments on what colors are the most appropriate (since this is Paladin-themed blog overall).

I was reading around the WoW-boards a couple of days ago and thought of something. But since I forgot the links so I could quote the CM's I didn't write it. Now I finally got the links. Yay!

The deal is...guess what - the Protection tree! I know this issue has been run in to the ground over and over again. But it's important because it's a full talent tree that signifies that when we got our review we only got two-thirds of the attention we deserved. We waited ten months for more polished and increased options granted through more proper and fine-tuned talents, and when it's been an extra ten months after that and we still don't have seen anything (yet after statements and hints of promises thereof), of course it's the top issue!

The deal is that, if you expect anything to happen before the Burning Crusade, you're wasting your time. Simple as that. Why?

Tseric 7/13/2006 3:49:42 PM PDT:

New abilities and talents are being reserved for the expansion. Class balance will resume at that time, when we have set a new level to balance around.

CM to Player Translator: Sit on your ass, roll your thumbs and wait for the expansion.

I had to literally rub my eyes when I read that. You've gots to be kidding me? They push back the rightfully-deserved changes weeks, months - so far back that it's come to the point of where the attitude is "Meh, it's not worth the time investment anymore because the expansion will be out soon and mess things up". This brings up the question: Why didn't they just spend the time promised to do a full review when they promised to do so, and not just make an entire fanbase sit and wait for changes that they probably knew wouldn't happen in the first place?

Tseric 7/13/2006 4:07:16 PM PDT:

New abilities, talents and level caps are what we are providing with the expansion. Therefore, attempting to 'balance classes' right now is time poorly spent, as large and defining changes are not that far off. The effort to 'balance classes' is going into expansion, where a new balance will have to be struck due to the aforementioned changes.

Sigh.

Happy Birthday!

One year of blogging is celebrated...today! It was all started in July the 11th 2005. Yay!

Paladin Popularity on Steady Decline

Flibble, a rising star on the Paladin forums drawing attention to the class's dilemma, has posted data from WarcraftRealms showing the population trends for various classes for over a year. His thread can be viewed here. A direct link to the website with the data is available here.

Eyonix's Evaluation

Ryan (thanks!) just sent me a email on a Eyonix post in the General forums. He's trying to sort out the issue of where Holeran sent complaints to wowcmfeedback@blizzard.com about his lack of activity and Pally forum presence.

Blizzard seriously needs to completely alter the way they publically are in touch with their users, especially through the Community Managers. That they have to explain and excuse themselves over and over again for the same things such as lack of information, lack of area of responsibilities, etc, ought to have ring some bells at headquarters.

I've got the feeling that the Community Managers simply aren't as open-minded and connected to the players as probably what was originally intended with their role. They just aren't open enough with what they say and what they do. Maybe this ultimately is a failure due to conflict of policy. Blizzard are reknowned for having a very tight-lipped atmosphere and trying to balance that with community managing where the objective is to be in touch and open with players must be a delicate, if not, impossible act.

Vanguard Paladin: Learning from WoW Mistakes

A quote from OGaming:

"The Paladin class will be tank, therefore expect to be at the forefront of the action and possibly jump in to control a situation gone bad. Expect to have the edge over all undead, as well as a boost in proficiency with 2 Handed Swords. Heavy Armors and Armored Steed is probably something that will be common amongst the Paladins. A few Magic spells here and there, but probably more in the form of prayers"

From the Vanguard May newsletter:

Featured Class: Paladin

Combat Forms
The Paladin has combined the Combat Forms with their Auras. Having them separate before seemed a bit cumbersome in general.

Aura of Divine Power - This aura gives you and those around you increased melee damage and accuracy. While slightly less than the Warrior's offensive form bonus, you also do not pay the mitigation penalty the Warrior must endure.

Aura of Shielding - This aura increases mitigation for you and those around you. When combined with the Swell of Conviction (detailed below), this adds an addition 25% damage rune. This aura rivals the Warrior's defensive form for mitigation.

Aura of Replenishment - This aura increases regeneration of major expendables for you and those around you. This includes health, mana, power, and psionic points.

Aura of Radiance - This aura makes you immune to undead based magical attacks. This aura also cleanses you and your group of undead related effects such as poison and disease. Any undead in the aura's area of influence take minor damage.


Melee Attacks
The melee style of the Paladin has also changed a great deal. In the past, the Paladin had unique attacks for all phases of chains. Now, each of your attacks can be used as both a bridge or a finish attack, and each takes on different properties when used as such.

Blessing of Steel - This attack delivers moderate damage and grants increased defensive capability for a short time. When used as a bridge attack, these defensive capabilities are passed along to your group members, and when used as a finishing attack, these defensive capabilities increase in both power and duration.

Hammer of Judgment - This attack is relatively low damage initially, but generates substantial hatred in your enemy, and receives significant increases to both damage and hate when used from a frontal position, or in conjunction with an ally. When used as a bridge, this attack also feeds your muscles with increased endurance, and used as a finisher, heals both life and endurance for you and your group members in range.

Sentinel's Might - This attack inflicts moderate damage and infuses you with increased offensive capability for a short time. When used as a bridge, this offensive power is granted to your group members, and used as a finish, these offensive bonuses grow in both power and duration.


Rescues
The Paladin is the premier class when it comes to sacrifice. Taking the damage for another and rescuing them from certain death is the Paladin's Forte. And woe be to the adversary that continues to press the attack. If the Paladin rescues the same friendly a second time in rapid succession, significant harm is visited upon the enemy.

Argent Guardian - This rescue fends off a great deal of damage and strikes back at your enemy for minor damage. When used a second time, this defensive attack completely blocks incoming damage, delivers massive damage in return, and stuns the enemy for a long duration.

Shattered Will - This rescue fends off moderate damage when successful, and slightly lowers the damage capability of your enemy. If used a second time on the same enemy, this completely blocks incoming damage and severely cripples that target's ability to attack your group for 60 seconds.

Contention - This rescue stops an enemy from hitting a friendly target, and locks your enemy in a stalemate for a period of time leaving them unable to attack anyone else.


Spells
Let's not forget that the Paladin is a spellcasting tank. A hybrid if you will between magic and melee. This however does not take away from the primary job of the Paladin, that being to take damage. In fact, these spells augment their ability greatly. One major change is how you acquire these spells as you grow. No longer do you need to visit a trainer. All spells are now learned when available through the Prayer of Enlightenment.

Gifts of Virtue
Gifts of virtue are powerful special abilities. The Paladin gains the ability to perform a limited amount of gifts per day. The paladin may choose which of his available gifts to use, but he cannot perform more than his daily allotment.

Lay on Hands - The classic healing touch of the Paladin. This spell allows you to deliver mighty healing power instantly at a simple touch and may be used on anyone, however this consumes Virtue Points when used upon another Paladin (including yourself).

Mass Shield - This spell allows you to project the shielding powers to your group members for 2 attacks.

Shining Beacon - This spell casts a divine light upon you radiating to your group giving immunity to fear based effects. This light also generates an intense hatred towards you in undead creatures.

Sun Burst - This spell calls down a ray of sunlight to sear the decaying flesh off your undead foes. This light is so powerful, any summoned undead enemies are utterly destroyed.

Zeal - This spell causes your attacks to strike twice for a period of time.

Paragon - This spell greatly bolsters your power in combat for a period of time. Constitution, Dexterity, Agility, Accuracy, and Damage are all increased.

Final Stand - This spell gives all players in your group who are below 25% health an extra life boost for 30 seconds. This boost is lost when the spell expires and players can die if not careful.


Regular Spells
These spells consume power and may be used as often as your power permits.

Barrier of Faith - You extend your shielding powers to a single friendly target, granting invulnerability for 5 seconds.

Blood Oath - You swear a blood oath to destroy your target giving increased ability until you switch enemies.

Courage - This spell increases your health points and armor class.

Healing Touch - This spell allows you to heal your target or yourself for a moderate amount.

Anointed Blade - You anoint your blade, giving increased damage against the undead for five minutes. You cannot have more than one blessing upon your blade at a time.

Blessed Blade - You bless your blade, increasing your ability to do damage for five minutes. You cannot have more than one blessing upon your blade at a time.

Prayer of Life - This spell revives the dead.

Sanctify Corpse - This spell sactifies the corpse of your dead enemy preventing them from being raised by a necromancer.

Summon Holy Water - This spell summons a vial of holy water, which when thrown burns the undead as it strikes them.

Swell of Conviction - This ability causes all of your auras to become more powerful at a substantial power cost.

Righteous Command - This spell instills great hatred towards you in your enemy, and can influence enemies around you as well.

Rallying Cry - This war cry emboldens you and your allies, greatly increasing your accuracy and ability to do damage for two attacks.

Cry of Inspiration - This war cry heals endurance and mana to small extent for yourself and your groupmates.

Cry of Relief - This war cry heals a small amount of health.

Things are certainly looking up for the Vanguard Paladin. Then again, we ought to take a lesson from the annals of WoW development. In beta, the WoW Paladin was destined to be a true tank. Crusader strike generated nearly as much threat as Sunder Armor, and we had Holy Strike for controllable burst damage. There was Dominance Aura (group AP buff), Healing Aura, etc. If Sigil is smart, they'll continue with their design vision and provide a tempting alternative to a lot of WoW Paladins out there who feel like they were misled from publicity and leveling and ended up playing a Cleric in PvE.

If you're into PvP, don't expect much from Vanguard. Information regarding the Paladin class from Warhammer Online is all but non-existent so far. If I find out more, I'll be sure to pass it along. I was originally turned off to Vanguard when I found out that it will be almost entirely PvE. The more I raid with my WoW Paladin, though, the more I'm drawn to try it out when it goes live.