Warsong Gulch Weekend = JoJ2 Reigns

I thought I'd take this Warsong Gulch weekend to highlight a new spell that has been largely underrated (unless you've been browsing the Druid forums).

Seal of Justice - Rank 2

Requires Level 48 225 Mana Instant cast Fills the Paladin with the spirit of justice for 30 sec, giving each melee attack a chance to stun for 2 sec. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy for 10 sec, preventing them from fleeing and limiting their movement speed. Your melee strikes will refresh the spell's duration. Only one Judgement per Paladin can be active at any one time.

I've been having the most fun with this new little spell in what I formerly called "Hordesong Gulch." No longer are Rogues and Druids grabbing the flag and zipping away, leaving me in the dust. It even negates the speed boost given by the boots in the tunnel.

No, it's not a snare per se, unless one is mounted. What the judgment does is limit their speed as if they were running on foot. Throw it on a mounted player and observe the ensuing hilarity as they try to keep going, hoping it wears off, unaware that every time you whack them the debuff refreshes. Laugh heartily as that Druid shifts frantically into a variety of forms, trying to shake it. Grin with malice as that player runs for the speed boots in vain, only to find out that in spite of seeing the buff icon, he's still putting along at run speed.

Let Justice be done!

I'm from Holland. Isn't that vierd?

Schwick (one of my gods) just emailed to tell me that the Burning Crusade has gone gold!

January 16th...start scheduling your sick days!

CayCounter One Year Anniversary

I almost totally missed this: the Caydiem counter just passed 365 days!

Here's the big question: why do I still have it up? I don't know - because obviously with the Burning Crusade we didn't need to get her to answer. All of our concerns have been solved. Blizzard did a great job for us. We got pretty much everything we wanted. Also add to the fact that she was promoted to another position at Blizzard making it even more irrelevant to try to keep that counter up.

So...what should I do with it?

Spotlight: Hottt Christmas Lewtz

I'm going to break from the mudslinging briefly, and incite a bit of jealously. Peep the mighty Acer AL1916WAbd. I fully expect it to take my WoWing to all new flavors of awesomesauce. So did you guys get anything fapworthy for Christmas?

The Ultimate Sigh, With Caps!

You suck ass playing the Paladin if...

...you don't use Divine Shield when you're about to die and it's not on the cooldown. USE IT, DON'T EXPECT HEALS BECAUSE PLENTY OF HEALERS EXPECT YOU TO KNOW HOW TO PLAY YOUR CLASS AND SHIELD WHEN YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE. USE YOUR EFFIN TRADEMARKED ABILITY. If you're at red and you don't shield you shouldn't come asking me in a private tell for a rez when I'm on my Druid.

...you don't Blessing of Protect cloth when they're being pounded on. You hardly use Blessing of Protection anyway! USE IT ON THE CLOTH WHEN THEY NEED IT THE MOST! SPAM IT AND MAKE SURE IT'S ON THE COOLDOWN AT ALL TIMES. IF YOU HAVE GUARDIAN'S FAVOR FEEL THE URGE TO BE TRIGGER HAPPY.

...you are CC'd by a Frost Nova and just stand there. WHAT THE HELL! YOU HAVE CLEANSE AND YOU HAVE BLESSING OF FREEDOM. WE ARE NEXT TO DRUIDS THE CLASS THAT HAS THE EASIEST TIME DISPELLING SNARES. DON'T JUST STAND THERE YOU MORON!

...you are in melee range or melee DPS and don't throw up Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Light or Judgement of Sanctified Crusader. IF YOU'RE IN MELEE RANGE CONSIDER USING ONE OF YOUR FRIGGIN' CLASS DEFINING ABILITIES WHICH HELP THE RAID/GROUP IMMENSELY. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE OTHER THAN THAT YOU SUCK AT YOUR CLASS.

...you have a full mana bar and a lot of healers in the raid are running out or are at very low levels SWITCH TO YOUR HEALING WEAPON AND EFFIN START HEALING YOUR GROUP. IF THE WARRIORS START DYING YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO. YES I KNOW HOW FUN IT IS TO LOLDPS BUT WHEN THERE ARE NO HEALERS BEYOND YOU LEFT IT'S PRETTY MUCH UP TO YOU OR NOT WHETHER THE GROUP MANAGES TO PULL OUT OF THAT TOUGH SITUATION.

...you use Avenger's Shield when CC pulling. WHAT THE EFF! YOU'RE BREAKING THE SHEEPS AND HIBERNATES. STOP BEING A COMPLETE IDIOT AND REALIZE WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE DOING WRONG.

...you on specific fights are out of mana because you x, y and z. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY POTS (which you should have) GO JUDGE WISDOM ON SOMETHING (which you should have already done) AND ACTIVATE SEAL OF WISDOM AND START POUNDING. DON'T EXPECT AN INNERVATE BECAUSE PALLIES HAVE CRAP FOR SPIRIT SO THEY ARE BETTER RESERVED FOR PRIESTS AND DRUIDS. You have various mana regeneration tools to your disposal that other classes don't.

This one is on a gray-zone so far because I figure most people haven't fully learned to use this ability yet:

...you see that cloth have just got aggro and the mobs are running towards him. USE RIGHTEOUS DEFENSE AND SAVE HIS ASS (if your BoP is on a cooldown or if it's not a mob that specifically does melee damage). YOU HAVE PLATE ARMOR AND DIVINE SHIELD AND LOTS OF OTHER STUFF TO SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE AND YOU ARE A LOT STURDIER THAN THAT PAPER-THIN CLOTH YOU ARE ABOUT TO SAVE. YOUR A TANKING CLASS, LEARN YOUR NEW ROLE.

Sometimes I wonder if we are the hardest class to play. I really do.

2.0.3 = Talent Sync With Website

What does this mean?

Retribution is now nerfed. CS at 10 second cooldown, and Vengeance at 10% for 5 talent points.

Protection is now buffed. Improved Righteous Fury now additionally reduces damage from all sources by 6% if all points are spent in it, and Improved Divine Shield is now Sacred Duty, with the accompanying 6% stamina boost.

Holy is now nerfbuffed at the 41 point end, with Divine Illumination now lasting 15 seconds, with a 3 minute cooldown.

My WoW forum sig goes into effect upon the release of this patch:
WoW Paladins - Wholly PvE since 2007

2.0.3 PTR is Out

Log in and download.

The Honor Grind - A Paladin Opportunity

If I've been absent from Paladinsucks.com over the past week, it's because I've been waiting in queues and striking faces in the battlegrounds. Unless you've been living in a cave, by now you should know all about the change to the honor system. If you're one of the aforementioned hermits, then here's how it works in a nutshell.

The first thing you'll notice is that you gain honor at an abysmally slow rate compared to before. That's because it's no longer relative in strength, but more of a currency now. You PvP and gain honor points, which you can spend - coupled with the required number of honor tokens from various battlegrounds - on all of the PvP gear that previously required a certain rank to gain access to.

What does this mean?
You no longer have to PvP 80 hours a week for 6 months to be able to snag a Grand Marshal's Claymore (or Battlehammer for the traditionalists, or the healing mace for you former EQ Clerics out there, etc.).

Two-handed Grand Marshal weapons cost 45,000 honor, with 1H weapons/shield/offhand items running half that at 22,250 honor. The entire Field Marshal's Aegis set is available for a total honor cost of just under 100,000, though you're able to pick and choose and earn it a piece at a time.

This is a rare and beautiful opportunity for those of you who have been grumbling about our presently poor raid itemization. The FM set is perhaps the best Retribution Paladin set out there (aside from Avengers) and you don't even need to be able to raid to get it.

Up and coming Paladin plebes will be able to snag the blue set and completely bypass the agonizing dungeon grind for Lightforge.

There's the obvious fact out there that expansion gear, including greens and blues, will start replacing raid gear very quickly. For hybrid classes like Paladins, though, we now have the ability to gear ourselves up once again in "leveling mode." From what I've heard via close sources participating in Beta, much of the questing to level is soloable or doable in small groups. We're going to want a well balanced set to do this, and the FM set fits the bill rather nicely. Paladins have a golden opportunity before them. If you can stand the queue times and jump into some premade groups before TBC hits shelves, I guarantee it will be time worth spent.

For those that are curious, I'm just over halfway to my GM Claymore, with plans to snag a few or all of the FM pieces after that. My AV queue is nearing, so this is all you'll be getting out of me for a while.

Strike faces diligently,
Vaelin

Precise with Precision

Anyone else noticed this? Ghmou saw that Precision didn't seem to do anything.

Anyone else noticing weird effects from their talents?

Jiminy jillikers!

You know that World of Warcraft is an increadibly large project, right? It cost 40-50 million dollars to make. According to Paul Sams it is in the top three of the most expensive games ever made. Basically Blizzard bet their entire company on it, and it certainly paid off because they're by far the largest MMOG out there right now.

Anyways, Interplay Entertainment which is under some financial problems, is doing the same, and hope that a massive online Fallout game form will save their company. What is their expected budget? 75 million dollars.

I know you have to adjust for inflation. But wow...Seventy five. Arguably it will be the most expensive game ever made. I know the Fallout games were popular, but does it really have the brand recognition that they think it has? Even if they make the game and ship it in time, will it be good enough? Do they realize that 93% of the market are fantasy games?

Seems to me that we're just beginning to scratch the surface. And even if their game is going to compete with World of Warcraft, I wish them the best on it. Hate to see a company go down in flames when they bet everything on such a massive project.

Tier 5 Sets

Here's the Tier 5 set stats, thanks Nonnobis.

Not To My Surprise

Honor gain nerfed by 30%. Thanks Ryan to forward me that.

2.0.2 Tomorrow Mebbe?

Extended Maintenance scheduled.

Nerfed Crusader Strike and Vengeance, buffed Improved Righteous Fury and Divine Illumination together with Improved Resistance Auras replaced by Spell Warding and Improved Divine Shield replaced by Sacred Duty?

We'll see tomorrow.

GIVE ME BACK MY SON!

From WoW Insider: Appearantly the Goon Squad on the US Mal'ganis server kidnapped the Theramore Flight Master and had a very expensive item on the Goblin Auction House as ransom. Check the thread here.

Dispellable Divine Shield Drama Situation

Micah with the latest scoop:

I know that there were rumors and whatnot about DS being purgeable/dispellable (apart from Mass Dispel), but it seems that some people might have some "proof" that, in rare cases, DS can be purged. Whether or not this is really the case it up for debate. I don't think that it is intentional, but perhaps a bug has slipped in that makes it so that DS can be accidentally purged, or perhaps the spell was made to have a very small (non-zero) percentage chance to be dispelled so that the new functionality in Mass Dispell can remove it. I'm not sure.

Go to this thread and check post 29 on page 2:

It's a battleground and arena bug. It's fairly rare, and it never happens in world pvp. The purge has to hit as you pop the sheild, there's a bit of coding lag between you gianing the buff for the sheild and gaining the actual immunity. If a purge hits at the right time the sheild is dispelled before it's actually there.

Gold Dupe Bug, for real

No joke. The Mannorofl economy is in the tanker. Appearantly people've been successful at duplicating gold. Read this guy's story on the worldofwar.net forums.

WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T ACCEPT GOLD FROM PEOPLE WHO GIVE YOU LIKE 25,000 AND DON'T TRY TO DUPLICATE THE BUG! You will definitely get hit by the ban stick.

Trust me...the forum mods are making sure there are zero traces of this. They're cleaning up their realm forum pretty good.

Edit: My server's cross-server battlegrounds was deactivated like 20 minutes ago. Might be related.

Edit 2: It's over now. They've fixed it. Check the first link and go to page 6. There's a GM pic there that says it's over.

Change the Baseline Blessings

This guy is complainig about BoK and how raid leaders FORCE Pallies to spec for it. I completely agree with that. It's the same issue as Druids had with Innervate.

Here's my idea:

Make Blessing of Kings baseline at level 60.

Un-baseline Blessing of Light, add it in to the Aura Mastery talent.

What Needs to be Done

First of all. Micah wants you to check this thread out, it deals with Pally concerns. Why no resiliance on our PVP set? Why still +20 JotC on PVP gloves? Why no Holy 1h Swords? Why doesn't Crusader Strike proc Judgements after the 10 sec 10% nerf? etc...

In other news - if anyone can post this on the Pally Beta forums I'd be thankful, cause I'd really like the developers to read this:

What needs to be done is to move Deflection to Tier 1 Retribution. This is so that Protection Paladins have better options for the first tier. Right now they're forced to have to spend ten points in to Retribution just to get a great tanking talent. The first one deals with Blessing of Might which tanks arguably don't use. The second one deals with lowering mana consumption which is good, but not necessary. Warriors have this as a Tier 1 option so I don't see as to why we can't either.

With Tier 2 losing out on a five-point talent the best idea would be to move Improved Retribution Aura up and place it next to Improved Seal of the Crusader. This is entirely possible due to the fact that we don't get Retribution Aura until level 16. Right now the talent is right next to Sanctity Aura and is definitely being overshadowed, especially considering the fact that Imp. Sanctity is so lucrative. If it's moved I'd recommend to bump the amount of points you can put in the talent to 3 points (I'd suggest 20/40/60) so it competes with Imp. Seal of the Crusader and not Imp. Judgement.

If this is accomplished then it's fully possible for a Prot Pallies to take Deflection, Imp. Judgement, Imp. Retribution and finally get up to Seal of Command without the feeling of having to "waste" points. And I don't see any harm at all as to why Imp. Retribution Aura should be easier to get for a Prot considering the fact that it's mainly them who use that aura anyway!

What's Your Spec?

Here's mine. I had to grab Guardian's Favor because I can't live without it. It's just so damn good.

Say whhhaaaaaat?

Some are saying they can Divine Shield out of Counterspell. Anyone else able to do this?

I lol'd IRL

Me and the Warrior had a great time there.

Lamest Blue Response Ever

All the loot you want just got harder to get with this patch.

Your guilds just got a boost to the nexus crystal stash.

Don't believe me? If there are any responses that undermine themselves it's crap responses like that. Basically it's:

"Question! Why is Pally loot dropping for Horde and Shaman loot dropping for Alliance?"

"It's fine, l2p. It's not a bug. It's a feature. ENJOY IT AND IGNORE THE FACT THAT I DONT EVEN ADRESS YOUR QUESTION DIRECTLY BUT SPIT OUT MARKET LANGUAGE BULLCRAP!"

This is Why I Love Playing my Pally

Man...I had such a great time tonight just fooling around. Even though I already had done it on the PTR, it's such an experience. I went 44 Holy and 7 Protection because that's what I felt was the best build that suited me. And now when trying it on in PVP I feel that my role is extremely powerful, much than previously. A very large contribution to that is the faster Holy Lights. Trust me, Light's Grace truly is amazing. And when you've got Illumination and 11% spell crit...daemn! Pumping them out is the same feeling of when using the shotgun together with bullet time in Max Payne.

Playing in PVP for me is like a game of Pokemon. If there are two or more Warriors I inspect them to see who has the best gear and "adopt" that one. By that I mean I cater to them by following them around. You know why I love Guardian's Favor? Because a 16 second Blessing of Freedom is extremely powerful. Even more on a Warrior. The blessings I use the most and end up switching between each other is Blessing of Freedom and Blessing of Sacrifice (to stop me from being crowd controlled). Otherwise I just spam Holy Lights and Cleanse the guy. If things get really tough I can pop my Scrolls and spam heals insanely fast or pop Divine Illumination when I'm low on mana.

Divine Illumination by a cool spell. My first reaction right now as I am typing this is that I probably underestimated it. Arguably the best use for it is when you you're out of mana. It cuts all spell costs in half so the mana you have left is virtually doubled for ten seconds. What's best about it is that the cost cut isn't just Holy Light or Flash of Light - it's everything! From Holy Shock to Hammer of Wrath and so forth. I could imagine it to be great if you're oom and want to activate Seal of Wisdom and judge Wisdom on the target when fighting elites to gain some of it back. I haven't run out of mana that often and I'm not that accustomed to using it just yet, but so far I've had very good use of it two-three times tonight. Is it still underpowered? Probably. 10 seconds is nothing. And for being a 41st talent its use is still very limited.

And Holy Shock...what can I say? The backbone of Holy's spell damage contribution. With Holy Guidance, probably increased spell damage coefficiency and and shorter cooldown it's more amazing than what it was before. Now it actually feels like a spell you can use when you want instead of having to tap your fingers due to the previous thirty second cooldown. I feel like I can DPS pretty darn well with it. Together with the buffed Seal of Righteousness my DPS is up and fairly good I'd say for being sword-and-bord!

So far I'm having a blast, and the arenas aren't up plus I haven't raided yet! So tomorrow will be the first day I "officially" arena and try this build out in a raid setting. Doing a pug Molten Core - which also by the looks of it will have a Pally that's going to tank some stuff too. And I'll definitely try to make certain that the arena group I'm in has a Warrior...

2.0.1 Uses Latest Verison of Beta Talents

According to this guy, who came to the conclusion by looking at notes about the reduction of Imp LoTP.

So...Crusader Strike 10 sec is in. Vengeance 10% is in. Improved Righteous Fury with damage reduction in. Spell Ward in. +6% stamina bonus in. 15 second Divine Illumination in.

Update: Nope.

What I Love, and the Quest for Perfection

I am so giddy! The patch is slated to come out tomorrow! I haven't been this excited about a patch before since...ever. Tonight in my guild's Vent we spent a lot of time just talking about talents, about the Pally class and what just the 2.0 patch brings overall (stacking HoTs! 40 debuff slots! ZOMG!).

One of my favorite things in World of Warcraft is talking about talent builds. Sharing talent builds is such an extraordinary process that I find a lot of joy in. How someone spent their talent points is a reflection upon that person's persona in so many aspects.

Depending on where the talents are you can tell so many things: if they want to go healing or tanking or DPS, if they raid or if they PVP, if they know the class very well, if they know the synergy of the trees or if they know the power and weakness of specific talents, or perhaps even if they simply are experimental and make you go "damn, I've never thought about that before!". It makes you able to draw general assumptions and kind of go through their character and in to the player's mind.

Personally, I love it. You know why this is so fun? Because there truly is ever no "wrong" build. There certainly are ones that are unanimously can be considered weaker or stronger than others - but still, if you analyze what that person was thinking you might go "Oh yeah, that's right". Finding the perfect build that suits your needs to the max is a constant struggle and process. We all are individuals with different goals and needs, and that's why there can't be a perfect build that fits everyone. Not only because this game is so dynamic in the sense of where and how we use are characters, but because what we do and what philosophy we have might change over time.

So, that is what I thought about tonight as we were talking. One of the guys who is a really great fellow (you just know when he's talking that he's a sweet guy) shared with us his planned build for his Pally. He would probably considered to be a relatively casual player (my guild encompasses all different kind of people). And tonight he told us to check his planned build out. So after looking at it, me and a Sulfuras Pally were in a bit of awe at how he could spend the points in the way he did. The Sulfuras Pally tried to be as constructive and as in a compassionate way possible convene the message that maybe he could redirect his some of his points elsewhere to make complete it and make it more well-rounded.

As we were going through we kind of realized that, despite the fact that what we thought looked like a pretty bad build, was something that was he was perfectly striving for with his character. We let him reason with us and he gave us his arguments. For example he had picked Improved Seal of Righteousness plus Seal of Command. An experienced player would probably consider that to be a bad move as most of the time you always end up using one specific Seal any way, plus that SoR kinda stinks in its current conception. But he reasoned with us that he wanted to improve SoR so he got get a more constant stream of Holy damage to make better use of Improved Righteous Fury to aid his tanking, whereas he went up to pick SoC so he could use that Seal when he feels like DPS:ing. I mean, here's a guy who wants to be able to tank, heal and do DPS when he wants to - so he specs for it.

Argue against it all you want, but he's not wrong: Imp SoR will aid his tanking and SoC will aid his DPS. He got what he wanted. Is it optimal for what he wants to do? Arguably not. Are the other solutions? Definitely. But to him it made perfect sense because it suits his needs. When it comes to the point where he feels it doesn't, he'll learn from it, respec, and construct a build that's more fluid to his developing playstyle.

So in conclusion: where we spend our points reflects who we are what we want. All of us think differently and have different goals and objectives. What I learned from this experience tonight was that there are people out there who play the Paladin in such a different way from me. When that guy looked at the Pally talent tree he didn't go like I do and ask myself "should I tank, heal or DPS?". He went "I want to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that!". I ended up giving him some tips and as a suggestion to him made my own tri-spec build, which was fun to create.

Now it's way late at night and I'm dirt-tired. I've slept only seven hours in the last three days. Can't wait to wake up tomorrow and try out the new patch.

Lotso' Info

Schwick has updated his information guide on the Burning Crusade. I suggest you check it out. It's extremely comprehensive.

3.0 version of 2.0

Gharr asks:

Are we getting the latest version of the client - available on the beta... I know it's off topic but there are talent changes/differences between the two systems.

Slouken:

You're actually getting newer code than either the PTR or the Beta.

So...don't expect Crusader Strike to be at 6 seconds on Tuesday, if Slouken interpreted his question correctly.

I've Got the Talent!

Apparently Divine Illumination got buffed to 15 seconds now. You know what signal this sends? The talent ain't gun be replaced.

No change for Weapon Expertise (still junk). The nerfs on Crusader Strike to 10 sec and Vengeance down to 10% still are in it seems.

Here's a good thread which details many talents which are pretty bad (except Ardent Defender! It rocks!).

You know what they should do? Move Improved Retribution Aura to Tier 2 on the Retribution tree. It's completely possible because we don't get the aura until level 16. That way Prot users can get it more easily and it doesn't get completely overshadowed by Sanctity. Also gives freedom to get something else besides Improved Seal of the Crusader.

I also wouldn't mind see Improved Seal of Righteousness shortened down to three points. It's absolutely too expensive for being five points. I wouldn't mind seeing it bumped up to Tier 1 Holy either.

PTR: 35 Paladin Raid Downs Onyxia

Yes, you read that correctly. Paladin history in the making. Read all about it here.

Daybreak asks:
How in the world did you get out of phase 2? CS from below?

Fredster answers:
CS and judgements.
Was a lot of fun albeit a bit of a giant cluster.
I don't think a group of Pali's laughed so hard at once...ever.
-Fred (aka Fredadin)

Nachsturm adds:
Crusader Strike, Judgements, Holy Shock, and Avenger's Shield for Phase 2. Oh yeah...
And yes, I was there.

A few screenies. I've rehosted them to prevent sucking up too much bandwidth.