No 1.10 up on test.

It's Tuesday and server maintenance is over. No 1.10 up on test. Darn, I guess next week -- which sucks 'cause it's during the midterms!

This looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me..

...cause we need a little controversy. It'd feel so empty without me!

Poster Ghmou actually had a link to this blog in his signature (cool, thanks!), and that prompted a blue response from Eyonix. Here's the passage where I object:

If you, as your signature suggests, believe the Paladin "sucks"...

Thanks, but as I've written many times over and over before, this blog is called "PaladinSucks" just to stir up controversy and catch people's eyesight. Ironically my thesis has been proven correct as it worked on Eyonix in this case (he found the name to be controversial).

Question: Where can you find a single piece of text that have me claim that this class sucks?

Here's the answer:

Nowhere.

I am blogging out of love for the class. Then again, is criticism wrong? No. An honest relationship is where you take the good with the bad.

Thus I hereby welcome you (Eyonix) with open arms to post in the comments section or to continue to read this blog, if wish to do that. After all, this is an opinionated blog where the purpose is to read the thoughts of someone interpreting the situation, occurrences and world around him. Some people find my opinions entertaining or informative, some don't. I'm not forcing you to stay.

Edit: The tone of this message has been a bit too negative. Here's a funny picture to cool things off:


(Inside joke of my guild, nobody will get this -- so don't worry about it)

Edit 2: When reflecting upon it, if you read the last couple of post's made it this week it looks like I'm taking an awful harsh stance on the issues. This isn't the usual case as I consider myself to be quite lenient and optimistic, actually.

Eyonix is back, with our safety guaranteed.

Suicidal Zebra alerted this in the comments below, there's a new post by Eyonix where he details the current situation on Paladin tanking, what we can do and what's to be expected in the future. Here's a slightly shortened up edit:

...The Paladin class is designed to be a great support character with high survivability and very efficient heals. Not only should the Paladin serve any group well as a useful off-tank, if played well they can be used effectively as a main tank in smaller dungeons.

We don't intend for the Paladin to ever be as effective in tanking as the Warrior or even the Druid, which was designed specifically to be a replacement tank in the case that a Warrior wasn't present.

...one of our goals is to improve the Paladin's ability to main-tank since currently they are not as effective as we'd like them to be....We're looking to improve the Paladin's tanking abilities in such a way that players who take advantage of their class strengths can main-tank in instances capped at 5, 10, 15 and even 20 player instances...

...Players should be aware that damage caused by Holy Shield does in-fact cause 20% additional threat. This has been active since 1.9, but was undocumented. The tool-tip will be updated accordingly for patch 1.10...we are in the process of evaluating the amount of threat this spell generates.

Righteous Fury is not generating the correct amount of additional threat on all holy damage... Once 1.10 is live, this will be fixed and Righteous Fury will be a more effective threat generating ability.

We're taking a pass at all threat generating abilities, and it's likely that players will see some mathematical improvements to abilities over the course of the next few patches. In addition, we're in the process of reviewing the Protection tree with plans to make it more appealing for players choosing to follow the protection path.

Interesting stuff there. Nice read and I strongly appreciate Eyonix's investment in time for us.

As anonymous also mentioned, Eyonix actually said "we're in the process of reviewing the Protection tree with plans to make it more appealing for players choosing to follow the protection path". Yes, rub your eyes and read it again. Finally admission that Protection is severely underpowered compared to the other two. It's about time, because I have to say I was getting worried.

I'm sorry if I was strongly worded on this issue previously, but -- I just feel like Protection is a the son that never really gotten the attention he deserved because he was the middle child. It hasn't been the most desired tree, ever. All focus has always been on Retribution and Holy, and that's pretty apparent due to the situation where we are now, because we know where all the focus of 1.9 went.

Holy is too good; why this is evidence of failure.

When 1.10 is released, will it prove that the 1.9 actually is a failure? You tell me. This guy is on to something:

Holy Tree makes you a plenty good healer, infact holy does everything

Better Heals
Better Damage
Better Aggro

Holy has everything, it's time to pay attention to the other two trees

The talent review has did not achieve the basic task of balancing all trees to make them equally attractive. 1.10 sets this in stone.

Protection is in shambles -- I only know of a single on my server Paladin who has gone up all the way to Holy Shield. It wasn't a good idea to nerf Holy Shield (they actually increased the mana cost of it at the start of 1.9 test), then move it two tiers higher in Protection to then nerf it again. Hello? Paladins aren't stupid.

Attempting now to bring back spell damage co-efficiency on it as well as slightly lowering the mana cost isn't going to accomplish anything. Protection still sucks ass, and I stand by that sentiment. Sorry if I am being harsh, but that's the truth. You gutted Protection and there's no reason to go any higher than Blessing of Kings anymore.

Retribution was supposed to be the best tree for damage, but now with the up-and-coming changes in 1.10 Holy will see increase in power to actually let you do a Holy Shock crit every two minutes. That's guaranteed ranged burst damage or burst healing.

What's that? Holy gets the best control of their damage, ranged, as well as it being the most versatile (healing)?

The standard build for every Paladin in 1.10 will be the following:
- 11 points in Retribution for Seal of Command.
- 31 points in Holy for Holy Shock.
Whereas the remaining talent points scattered around (personally I will get Guardian's Favor).

It simply is the most powerful build build available. The only thing I it would lack in comparison to the two other main builds is that you lose crowd control due to lack of Repentance (and another opportunity for burst damage with JoC) and shield abilities due to lack of Holy Shield. But if you raid a lot (like me) it doesn't matter anyway, since Repentance isn't working on raid bosses and you're not going to tank them anyway.

I know 1.10 hasn't been released yet, but still, this is just ridiculous. Seems to me they achieved the complete opposite of what the talent review was sought out to do: they've actually homogenized the builds available. Hopefully (I'm not kidding) I am wrong on this. But so far it seems to me this is inevitable for 1.10.

List of all Paladin changes

Verdan found the list of all changes for our class in 1.10 on the Chinese WoW forums and translated them:

1. Blessing of Light - different ranks are no longer stackable - the ability for this to stack was not intended.
2. Judgment of Righteousness - accuracy incresed(?) (note: i want to say 100%, but i am not quite sure how it works...i don't have a pally alt) [note: this most likely is the +damage spell bonus increased change]
3. Righteous Fury - can now cause appropriate extra threat with all holy damages.
4. Holy Shock - can now be used with divine favor and illumination
5. Holy Shield - mana cost reduced by 15%, and +spell items will now affect this spell.
6. Eye for an Eye - Can be triggered while mounted.
7. Blessing of Sacrifice - this blessing cannot use to stop the target from dying due to other spell effects (curse of doom, sacrifice, etc).
8. seal of command - will trigger when the paladin is silenced.
9. improved seal of righteousness - tooltip updated to reflect actual usage. this talent increases 3-15% damage for both seal of righteousness and judgment of righteousness
10. Lay on hands - range increased.
11. Divine Intervention - range increased.
12. Holy Shield - tooltip updated to reflect extra damage done.
13. all improved blessings have their ranges increased.
14. holy shock - mana cost reduced.
15. monsters that are immune to scorpid sting will now be immune to vindication as well.

I hope getting Seal of Rightousness is more worth it in 1.10 as I'd gladly use it over SoC if possible.

Sad to see that beyond restoring Holy Shield to what it was pre-1.9 (though still severely nerfed), Protection saw no further improvement. The tree still sucks ass as far as I am considered.

Eyonix is back!

Eyonix:

First, thank you for taking the time to offer your feedback. Moving right in to address some of the specifics of your comments, I'd like to begin by stating that we actually had a Holy Strike during beta and currently have no intention of returning to those times.

As far as the Paladin having a taunt ability, we're just not convinced that a tank is required to have the warrior "Taunt" ability in order to be a tank. We're striving for something different, but still very effective. If players have suggestions along those lines that's what I'd be interested to hear.

All three suggestions are simple, effective, but do over compensate. It's a very fine line between where we are now with the Paladin and where they were in Beta where they were too good in too many areas. Proposals to add a Taunt or a Strike to the Paladin just aren't very constructive at this point.

We've heard these ideas many times and don't want to cut and paste other class abilities. Continue providing your feedback though, we're definitely getting somewhere.

Why do they have no intention on bringing back Holy Strike? Certainly they must have a reason for it, and I'd love to hear why.

Interesting to see that the reason we didn't get a Taunt-ability was cause they want us to be different, and that they're willing to give us something that would improve our tanking if it's a good idea. Nice to see!

Otherwise a very nice gesture by Eyonix to spend some time with the Pally community.

Why'd they make Holy Shield unbalanced again?

Eyonix (2/23/06):

Next patch for instance, we've made a few tweaks. ... Holy Shield's mana cost will be reduced by approximately 15% and the effect will have a small bonus coefficient from spell damage items and effects.

vs

Caydiem(12/22/05):

...under certain easily achieveable conditions and combinations, Holy Shield was devastating with + spell damage applied. Rather than decrease the effectiveness of the base ability and still have the problem later on, they changed it so + spell damage no longer applies to it. I'm aware this is unpopular ... but please understand that we don't make such calls unless they're absolutely necessary. They tested these changes time and again and the results with Holy Shield were unbalanced.

Why are the developers risking these huge imbalance problems as described by Caydiem with these new changes to Holy Shield for 1.10? What convinced and made them fall over? Could it be the fact that nobody got Holy Shield anymore?

Eyonix vs Paladin no more?

Hotchild from Silvermoon sent me an email about this (thanks!), turns out Eyonix has written something for us:

I'm posting here today in an attempt to initiate an improved relationship with those playing the Paladin class. The class specific forums have always been the number one source of information for me when attempting to gather player feedback. Moving forward however, I'd like for these boards to become the number one source of information for you when attempting to gather news and information.

It should be a relationship of mutual benefit.

I'm not going to dance around any issue. In patch 1.9 you had an extensive review which resulted in many changes to the makeup of your class. Many of you aren't happy with some of the changes, and some of you aren't happy with many of the changes.

Overall, we are happy with the majority of changes introduced for the paladin in patch 1.9. It definitely brought the class much closer to what our original design goals were when creating the Paladin. With that being said, we're still not completely satisfied with class and intend to review specific elements of the class over the next few patches.

Next patch for instance, we've made a few tweaks. Holy Shock will work with Divine Favor and Illumination. We're also reducing its mana cost. Holy Shield's mana cost will be reduced by approximately 15% and the effect will have a small bonus coefficient from spell damage items and effects. Seal of Command will be able to proc when the Paladin is silenced.

We're also increasing the damage per swing and the contribution from +spell dmg gear on Seal of Righteousness when using a 2-handed weapon in order to make it more competitive with Seal of Command with a 2-handed weapon.

Lastly, we're also increasing the range of Lay on Hands, Divine Intervention and all Greater Blessings.

These changes are all fairly minor and don't address your major concerns, I'm aware. I'm sharing them with you because this is how I'd like things to work from here on out. I gather feedback from this forum and provide you with information, both big and small as soon as it's available.

Some of the other items which we're going to focus on over the next few patches relate specifically to the Paladin's ability to tank in groups, and the overall interactivity of the Paladin in raids.

The increased range of the spells are definitely needed. I actually came in the situation where I was literally 0.5 seconds off from casting Lay on Hands, but couldn't come in range quickly enough to save the MT (and he died and wiped the party in ZG). Nice small changes that definitely are appreciated.

Yeah, and SoR needed that buff. It's simply to darn bad compared to SoC right now, especially in +spell damage bonus.

The changes to Holy Shield were expected. It was overly nerfed and the Protection tree, frankly, stinks at its current inception. Hopefully there'll be more than just that as a change in 1.10. Protection needs more utility, especially at the last tiers, to make up for it's lackluster power compared to the other two. When Repentance was moved, Protection took a severe hit in attractiveness.

Priest Talent Review tomorrow

Eyonix confirms, the updated Priest talent points will be previewed tomorrow. In the meanwhile, here's the one they gots now -- learn it and compare it.

Update.
Here they are.

Doesn't matter if it's fake or not...

...but this post brings up valid points of what might be the explanation for many things, Ghmou who claims his brother has a chat with a Blizzard employee (I know, original -- isn't it?), says:

...In the email discussion, the unnamed Blizzard employee indicated that Paladins were a bit of an Enigma.

With their defensive nature, they could excel at tanking, but cannot due to balance issues. [My brother] broke it down like this:

1) Paladins could be decent tanks if they had a taunt, but they cannot be made "main tanks" because they are both Alliance specific and because this could possibly anger and devalue Warriors.

2) Paladin healing is fine in a raid setting, but increasing their PvP healing capacity (other than the new 15% non-interrupt bonus from Imp. Concentration Aura) would be too "powerful" considering their other abilities. This could also discourage or devalue Alliance Droods and Priests.

3) Paladin DPS is the big problem. With plate and heals, it makes it difficult to balance DPS. Paladin DPS is largely reliant on Holy Damage, which is unresistable. If Paladins were given more "white" DPS while keeping the current level of Holy damage, Invulnerability shields, heals and cleansing, they could potentially become overpowered, resulting in a serious imbalance. Especially considering the number of high-level Paladins that exist in the game.

His brother also said "They don't know what to do with Paladins."

Interesting tidbits which give you a whole new perspective on things. Read the entire thread if you want.

Know your role, noob 2.

"Know your role":

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).

Where's the patch to correct our limited range? The Blizzard Insider who had this quote was sent out *after* the Paladin changes for 1.9 became public. Is there more in store for us in 1.10 or is this just a fluke? We'll get to see soon (next week?), as apparently 1.10 did not pop up on the test server today.

Speaking of the new Alliance race...

My bets?

Ogres.

- It will be a twist of lore, as described by Chris Metzen:

"When we finally reveal [the alliance race], it's gonna blow your mind. At first, you are gonna say 'whaa?', but then 'wow...'. It's gonna be awesome."

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisit... I mean -- nobody expects the Ogres!

- It will give an ugly race to Alliance, much like Blood Elves is a pretty race for Horde:

"We really wanted an attractive race on Horde," Associate Designer Jeff Kaplan straightforwardly admits.

Then why not follow the logic out and expect them to give a gruesome race for the Alliance?

- An April fools joke in 2004 detailed how playing an ogre would work, check it out. Seemed awfully thought-out for for just being an April fools. Except last year's -- >many of Blizzard's april fools've turned out to be true, for example Secret Cow Level and the Pandarens.

- During the release of Dire Maul they redesigned the Ogre models for "future use". These ogres have as it seems most, if not all, animations in game, quoting player Aftershock who raises a good point:

They already have an updated Ogre model in the game, that already has darn near every single player animation, including a mining animation, multiple dance animations, sit, kneel, the whole thing... and they wouldn't put that much work into it just so players could have fun when they put on their Gordok Ogre Suits, I think.

- There are plenty of Ogre clans, giving a wide variety of different clans to choose from to play around with lore. Just look at the ogres who are in the game today: you've got your Gordok's, your Gordunni's, your Stonemaul's, your Splinter Fist's, your Mosh'ogg's, your Dustbelcher's, your Mo'grosh's, your Crushridge's, your Boulderfist's, your Dunemaul's, your Dreadmaul's and Firegut's and of course those who are employed by the Venture Company.

So in other words, Metzen could always create a new one which simply hasn't been mentioned before. Nobody would care because it's an already established fact that there's a buttload of Ogre clans already.

- Ogres are a race that came from the Outlands. They have a goal to get to the Outlands much like the Blood Elves. Caydiem:

...with a world of possibilities in what has already been written, particularly surrounding the subject of the expansion, do you really think we'd introduce a race ... that has absolutely no relation to Outland whatsoever? ;)

- Ogres and Goblins hang out a lot (example through the Venture Company), and my speculation (*pure speculation*) is that they will likely start at the Goblin island of the Undermine. It'll give a balanced tilt of race starting locations since the Blood Elves start in the Eastern Kingdoms whereas Ogres start in the Undermine who in turn is connected to the Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris, Kalimdor (mild hint at it here in-game already).

- Game Masters used to be able to play as Ogres during the World of Warcraft beta. This image is *not* fake!



Arguments against are:

1. Ogres have Shamans!
Could always be ogre reformists who gave up Shamanistic roots. Could always have be assimilated to become void of their Shamanistic roots -- much like the Orcs were in Warcraft II!

2. Ogres exhibit limited cognitive abilities!
Puh-leaze: Ogre Mages. Don't tell me they're all still still brainless? Though I admit that it's farfetched since the reason for their increased intelligence was due to Gul'dan's dark magicks.

Update:

Oh, and Worgen? They're supposed to "start" at Gilneas, which completely contradicts what Chris Metzen said during BlizzCon which was:

How do we say we forgot about [Gilneas] without saying we forgot about it?

Makes no sense why they'd admit to completely forget about a zone which would be the starting location for the new Alliance race. Sure, he could be lying -- but, please. I don't think he'd be lying straightly in people's faces like that. Just google and read interviews with him, he's quite candid. For that matter, all interviews with Blizzard personnel are quite straight forward.

Nothing's been going on.

Slow news week. My prediction is that we'll see some more stuff on 1.10 next week, cause early reports were that they were slating to release 1.10 at the beginning of March. Usually a patch of the magnitude requires extensive testing.

Either 1.10 up on test next week or the Priest talent tree calculator up or whatever.

Funny anti-totem trick.

Yes, I know this isn't for Paladins -- mainly for Druids, but fellow guild member Silentghost came up with this macro to auto-one shot Shaman totems in PVP. Pretty darn clever if you ask me!

/target Wind
/target Trem
/target Strength o
/target Stone
/target Sentr
/target Seari
/target Poiso
/target Mana
/target Magm
/target Healing S
/target Groundi
/target Grace o
/target Fire N
/target Flameto
/target Earthb
/cast Moonfire(Rank 1)
/script TargetLastTarget();

You could as a Paladin probably replace the Moonfire with Holy Shock. I'm not certain if it's possible to replace with a Seal's judgement, most likely not.

Edit: according to comments, seem to not work.

Naxxramas in 1.11 and a simple wee comment...

Yesterday it was confirmed that Naxxramas will be in 1.11, or rather, scheduled to be in that patch from producer Shane Dabiri . Here's the list of goals for 2006:

- In patch 1.11: Naxxramas! – the massive necropolis floating above Stratholme, home to Kel’Thuzad
- More content tailored for casual level 60 players
- Greater focus on outdoor PvP
- Talent improvements for the remaining classes; Shaman, Rogue and Mage
- More world events and holidays
- Fee-based character transfers
- Improved forums and web sites, including more interactive content such as the PvP Honor rankings and the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort pages
- A new data centre and continual upgrading of the existing ones to accommodate for the tremendous growth in Europe

This patch is most likely 2-3 months away from now. Wierd, right? Cause I could swear that Kel'thusad had the Book of Medivh which is needed to open the Dark Portal, which in turn is where you have to travel to experience most of the content in the expansion pack. Hmm?

Oh, and that talk about Eyonix's "Troll elsewhere, Palli", if you haven't heard. There's plenty of outrage on this and my stance is this:
- I don't think the original poster trolled. Annoying for some people? Yes. I thought it was more of a sly, sarcastic way of saying "don't expect much, cause I know".
- Eyonix comments was unnecessary and in my opinion the same level as the person who he quoted, if not even more unnecessary. The matter of fact that he had to go defensive to explain why he said it reveals that he had realized it was an stupid thing to say. Since CMs can never delete what they say they'll have to explain it and defend it or just ignore the criticism and continue. Eyonix chose defending and got cornered down in to a semantics battle.
- By using the word "Palli" it will be interpreted as-if it was directed to the entire Paladin community, once again bolstering on the part that the CMs just don't give a darn about having a nice relationship with the Paladins.
- There's always the scenario that Eyonix wouldn't even care about giving that comment if the person who he quoted wasn't a Paladin, which makes you think about the status of the relationship between the CMs and the Pallies.

"Who wants to play Hungry, Hungry Hippos?"

Caydiem's locked the part 2 thread of "Just one question, Cay..." got locked and with her saying:

"I'll mention it to them and see if I can get an explanation" is in no way a promise. I did mention it to them. I do not have an explanation I can give you at this time. When I have more information, I will share it.

I guess we'll just have to be patient.

What I don't understand though how an answer to this question can take over a month to answer. Maybe if she explained why it's taking so long, people wouldn't make up conspiracy theories. Apparently she has already met with them and told them about it, so what's the hold up?

And, really... It's stuff like this that kind of makes the Paladin community upset; told that they could be given an answer, then there's a long delay, then there's backtracking and redefinement of statement through change of semantics, ultimately resulting in increased distrust.

If you can't get the answer, just say so then! Don't leave the door open for an opportunity of an answer!

I have to say though that the underlying confidence from the Pally community towards the community management is very low and this will bolster their already defined opinion.

Relic preview!

Eyonix has given out a couple of examples of upcoming Relics in the game, it'll be Idols for Druids, Totems for Shamans and Librams for Paladins (was librams anything else than what was expected?). Here's a sneak peak at one of ours, by the way:

Paladin

Libram of Hope
Relic
Requires level 57
Equip: Reduces the mana cost of your Seal spells by 20

Totally overpowered? I wonder how easy that libram is to obtain.

1.9.3 is out

Here's the Paladin changes:

Paladin
- Eye for an Eye - This talent will now still do damage when the paladin is stunned. In addition, if the critical hit kills the paladin, damage will still be dealt to the spellcaster.
- Greater Blessing of Sanctuary - Paladins with Righteous Fury will now generate extra threat correctly when this Blessing procs.

I expect, however, 1.10 to carry some changes to the Paladin talents -- especially the Protection tree. That however is pure speculation from my part.

Frost shock!

I think I've missed posting on this, and according to a mail from bmmp I should! So go watch it.

Frost shooock!

By the way...

Did I mention this already? This blog has surpassed 60 000 hits now. Holy smackaroonies!

No more Egan's Blaster in 1.10!

Eyonix says:

We're in the process of implementing a relic slot for the Paladin, Shaman and Druid. Ideally, this will be live upon the release of patch 1.10. Basically, this slot will allow these three classes to equip a relic item, since currently these classes are unable to reap the statistical benefits associated with equiping a ranged weapon...and we're tired of seeing you run around with Egan's Blaster. ;)

"You have wronged the paladin community"

Read this thread, cause Jaxon hit the nail on the head (though excessively worded at that). He is saying what we're all thinking right now and presents the arguments to boot.

It won't get a blue response. They ignore threads like that. But, we can successfully force them to more or less respond to this issue if we keep lobbying for it. It's possible. It happened after the Test of Honor campaign when our community was extremely grumpy and upset.

It's all about staying focused on the message and repeating the talking points.

(It's threads like these that keep me out from the Blizzard Fansite Program, doh)

You don't need more than just a pair.

This thread discusses the notion that, technically, you only need two Paladins in a raid. They're on to something... I've thought about for some time now:

Paladin #1: Judgement of Light.
Paladin #2: Judgement of Wisdom.

Paladin #1: Blessing of Kings.
Paladin #2: Blessing of Salvation.

Both: Cleanse. Put them in melee groups and use Fire Aura.

And you can go on and on with that...

The rest of them are just dead weight: Paladins are not the most craved healers. Worst tanker. Worst damage dealer. Etc... make your pick.

A sneak preview of the Priest changes is up

Eyonix has posted a list of the upcoming Priest changes. Guess what? Holy Fire changed in to a purchasable ability and all trees will have 1 to 4 new talents.

I'm jealous at the fact that they've actually reconsidered/changing the talent gained abilities with the Priest class, whereas with us Paladins it was just a fact of reorganizing them in to different tiers and trees (exception to BoSanctuary/Holy Shock which gained usability).

Bored?

Watch.

Postmodern humor.

Soulforge Set Bonuses and General Fear

As posted by Anonymous in a comments of the sneak peak of our Soulforge set:

They have the helm up on the underdev section at Blizz. The set bonuses were the same as the screenshot yesterday, but are now different:

New:
(2) Set: +40 Attack Power.
(5) Set: +8 All Resistances.
(6) Set: Chance on melee attack to increase your damage and healing by up to 95 for 10 sec.
(8) Set: +200 Armor

Old:
(3) Set: +50 Armor
(5) Set: Increases damage and healing by spells and effects by up to 12
(6) Set: +6 All Resistances
(7) Set: +10% chance to resist fear spells and effects
(8) Set: Chance on melee attack to increase your damage and healing by up to 140 for 10 sec

Losing the 10% fear and the +spell off the set bonuses sucks. The set's bonuses now closely mirror the Warrior's Heroism set.

Kyosei adds:

Ugh even some of the LF set bonuses are better than that.

3: Increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 11.
5: +30 Attack Power when fighting Undead.
5: +30 Attack Power when fighting Demons.
6: +6 All Resistances.
7: +10% chance to resist Fear spells and effects.
8: When the victim of a critical hit in combat, 1% chance to be sheathed in a magical shield absorbing the next 500 damage.

I think that's what they were originally shooting for by mirroring some of LF's bonuses. I guess they thought combined w/the stats I'd be too overpowering...
Heaven forbid.

Looking at the warlock's set bonus it makes me cringe. Don't locks already have a lot of fears as it is? Being chain-feared by 2 locks in pvp is disgusting.

Chain fearing sucks. I tear my hair out when I get Seduced, Feared then Death Coiled. It's completely ridiculous. The developers said that the reason why they don't want Taunt to work on player controlled characters is because they want to limit the use of skills that take away the control of people's characters in PVP. What's been given to the Warlock throughout the year? Improved god darn skills that take control of your character. Same thing for Warriors. While we shouldn't be able to complain so much since we got the ability to take the cooldown of Hammer of Justice down to 45 seconds as well as the diminishing returns not hampering Seal of Justice the whole issue is still damn crappy -- and stupid.

As for the Soulforge Set bonuses, it's sad to see that the fear resist is taken away. The +200 armor bonus is a complete joke though. It's probably the crappiest set bonus out of all set bonuses I've seen. The fact that *all* classes's 8 piece set bonus is the same doesn't please. It's still damn crappy -- and stupid.

(I'm in a grumpy mood today!)

Three bites

Ugh. The location for the Lightforge gloves is a true disaster. It's disgusting really where they are right now. I've done Emperor probably hundreds of times and only seen them drop once (and lose). It just makes me more frustrated when it's the only piece I need to complete my Lightforge Set. I really want to do it before 1.10 -- you know, just to enjoy the fact (and gloat) that I have the entire set.

In other words, you EU people have already seen this thread, but you guys in the US should as well. You won't find any more comprehensive guide to what's going to be included in 1.10 and the Expansion than that. It's a pretty darn interesting read and very resourceful. Awesome job by Schwick keeping it all together.

Feels great to blow away the dust from this blog a bit. I've had a pretty steep downfall in visitors -- and I can't blame you. It's really hard to find something to write about, as well as the fact that I'm very busy with having to adjust myself from slacker-mode to study-mode in real life.