Open Challange to Kalgan

If you haven't checked this thread out on the EU Paladin forum, please do so. Quantumdelta made a very comprehensive list of complaints. While I wish he could've kept his tone a wee bit more constructive, he arguably hits the weak points for massive damage.

Thanks Reeve.

More BC Paladin Info

I've unearthed a few more rumored changes/new information regarding the Paladin in the Burning Crusade. Take it at face value.

New Ranks

Flash of Light
Rank 7
Requires Level 66
40 yd range180 Mana
1.500 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 448-503.

Holy Light
Rank 11
Requires Level 70
40 yd range840 Mana
2.500 sec cast
Heals a friendly target for 2196-2447.

Blessing of Light
Rank 4
Requires Level 70
30 yd range180 Mana
Instant cast
Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing the effects of Holy Light spells used on the target by up to 580 and the effect Flash of Light spells used on the target by up to 185. Lasts 5 min. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time.


Misc.

Paladin's "Empowered Judgement" renamed to "Sanctified Judgement"


Buffage

Seal of Vengeance's stacking DoT and Judgement effects went from 80/stack and 86/stack respectively to 120/stack on both effects.

Nerfage

Judgement of Command Rank 6 nerfed to 228-277 from 289-320, stun damage 456-505 from 579-639.

Avenger's Shield
Rank 3
Requires Level 70
30 yd range780 Mana
1.000 sec cast
Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing 494-603 Holy damage, Dazing them and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Lasts 6 sec.

(currently its 825 mana and 581-709 damage)

Holy Shock
Rank 5
Requires Level 70
20 yd range435 Mana
Instant cast
Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 530-575 Holy damage to an enemy, or 530-575 healing to an ally.

(Its 475 mana/640 damage/healing now)

Gloating Priests...

...upsets me.

Talent Trees to Troubles to Treants

Our Burning Crusade talent tree has been updated today with the latest round of changes. For example, the rumored Divine Illumination nerf mentioned earlier is implemented and confirmed to be real now. Also several icons have been replaced in the tree and given new, unique ones. I don't see any visible changes beyond that.

Druids were given their talents today too. Many probably know that my other char is a Druid, and, speaking strictly as a 100% Feral Druid (zero points in Restoration beyond Furor) I just find the 41st talent in the Feral tree to be...unappealing. Much of the stuff before that seems relatively good though.

To be frank, I can't decide whether I should make my Druid or my Paladin my main when Burning Crusade comes out. When I finish my Judgment Set and get a relatively good 1h and shield I consider my Pally to be finished. I really have no desire to obtain Redemption - I'm more or less an all-around guy when it comes to gear. Avengers would be cool though. I like to be able to not bother switching gear between fights unless it involves resists. I know it's kinda lame, but, when it comes to spending DKP on gear and all that stuff, I would rather spend it on that benefits me both in raids and soloing than either-of.

The thing is that I'm three pieces away from completing the Judgement set and I lost the breastplate in last BWL this Friday because the loot distributor forgot I sent a tell (no joke). When he announced who won it, the Pally looted the breastplate pretty quick. What was worse is that I had enough DKP to lock him out, but it wasn't realized until afterwards. It hurt a lot and I didn't feel so well throughout the entire weekend... I didn't go frenzied at them or anything since I knew it was a mistake. I know both guys very well and I could never get mad at them. But I still couldn't stop feeling like shit though, so I had to calm myself down by listening to some music. Downing Sartura the following day for the first time cheered me up though. I know it'll drop again eventually, and I still need the boots and the belt anyway. So by the time I get both of those it might drop once more. By the way, I think next time it does I'm going to just ninja it immediately for jokes. Haha.

With my Druid, since I just don't take it to raids that much, I've just been trying to get to Exalted with Stormpike. Mainly for Don Julio's Band and the Unstoppable Force. Thing with my Druid is that he's 100% Feral and I'm enjoying PVPing with him like crazy. It's just insanely fun to stealth around and smack cloth down from behind (Feral Druids really are just anti-cloth in general). Funny thing is that, people assume that Druids are weak and can't do much so they just don't seem to pay attention to me that much initially. It's not until they see that I top the kill charts or until I've pestered them much that they start to pay attention to me. Man...stealthing in this game must be one of the most fun things to do. I can stealth so good I get surprised at it myself - I got improved stealthing through the Feral talent combined the Night Elf racial. It's increadible, really. One time in AV me, another Druid and Rogue stealthed past Horde's defenses and captured one of their flags. Pretty cool since I healed, the Druid was tank and the Rogue was DPS. Holy stealth trinity FTW.

I enjoy playing my Druid more (I find the class to be more fun overall), but I simply have invested more time in my Paladin. Also I just don't find the Druid Feral tree as appealing compared to the Balance tree. I've also always wanted to be able to summon Treants! We'll see what happens before the expansion does come out I guess.

New Legendary One-hander?

Probably fake, interesting nevertheless. Arthirius posts a link at the offical Pally forums. Remember to take this with a great deal of skepticism (+spell damage, but no +int? That's weird). Tyralyon was one of the people who traveled over beyond the Dark Portal, so this definetly would be a BC item.

Yay...nerfs already.

Curse-Gaming forums has some leaks of the latest changes and talents for the Burning Crusade. Here's our stuff:

Paladin:
Edit: Divine illumination cooldown increased to 3 minutes from 2, and duration reduced to 10 seconds from 20.

PaladinSucks Song (Epic Maneuver Remix)

Snow mentioned that the Pally PVP sets for Arenas in the Burning Crusade have leaked. For some odd reason they're in French though! Click here and scroll down to check Snow's translation. Quite awesome that we get a choice between a Retnoob and Healadin set!

In other matters, don't judge a book by its cover. Many people have a misconception about this blog. I play the class every single day. In fact, I dare everyone here to search through the archives and find a statement where I claim "this class sucks". This doesn't mean though that I don't have my fair share of criticism. I have no problem speaking my mind.

For convenience I'll quote a post I made on BrokenToys.org:

Woah there! I'm not emo!

[This blog] was originally just a project meant to create some form of effort of a grass roots organization towards our Paladin review in 1.9.

After our review was finished I contemplated to shut it down, but feedback from the readers prompted me to continue.

I even asked before the one-year anniversary the readers if I should change the name. They didn't want to do that, so I kept it.

But Stephen W is right...that this thing has been going on now for over a year wasn't something I expected. The only real reason why I continue with it is because it happens to provide a service to people and that I also happen to be a selfless utilitarian by heart.

I've also gotten an email regarding a post made by Vaelin, so I need to clarify: I found myself sometimes to be dry on commentary and things to talk about and I considered many of Vaelin's comments on this blog to be thought-out and articulate, so decided to give him the ability to post. I don't tell him what to say and it's not vetted by me either.

While I like the spotlight, I really don't enjoy spending the time talking about insignificant stuff like this. But for clarity's sake I don't mind doing it one more time.

Two Items

- Read up on the new mount changes coming in next patch. Thanks Eddie!

- Easter Egg on the Outlands map. Click the zones in the following order:

SM valley > BE mountains > Nagrand > Netherstorm > Zangarmarsh > HF Peninsula > Terokkar Forest.

Open Thread

Outland Map Up - WTF?

Blizzard has released an interactive map of Outland and the zones contained therein. One's eye is immediately drawn to the image in the upper lefthand corner:

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you'll recognize that the elf is wearing Redemption armor - our tier 3 raid set. Note also that he is holding an imposing 2H sword (probably the High Warlord's blade). See what's wrong with this picture? He's wearing the only Paladin-specific armor set in the game with 0 strength, and carrying around a 2H sword. The sad thing is, people who have never played the game and are glued to the hype surrounding the expansion will have no clue how rediculous this looks.

Expansion Paladins - Just Don't PvP

That's the overall message I'm getting from Blizzard.

First, Warlocks become able to shut down the only widely lauded role of Paladins in PvP - keeping your allies free of harmful effects.

Healing was never really an option against intelligent opponents who knew that all they had to do was keep you crowd controlled and CS you when you managed to get up and start casting. Earthshock Rank 1 > Holy Light/Flash of Light

Now Priests can remove the single ability around which our class was designed and balanced - an ability that still retains its long 5 minute cooldown, while Mass Dispel lacks a cooldown. The high mana cost of MD (which, honestly, will be trivial for TBC Priests and their 10k+ mana pools) and risk of taking damage and eating a silence from UA means they'll only be whipping this spell out in the most dire of situations - to get rid of that bubble. As far as we know, the Forbearance nerf will remain in place also - especially considering it was taken into consideration with regards to Avenging Wrath (it wouldn't surprise me if they just went ahead and made Avenging Wrath a simple, dispellable/purgeable magic buff).

What are we to do?

Just don't PvP on your Paladin. That's right, log over to your disease infesting Warlocks or dual-wielding Shamans and own it up in the battlegrounds.

It's not all that bad. I mean, sure we can't enjoy a major aspect of the game anymore, but our Paladins will be a blast in PvE - where our bubbles will stay up for their full duration, our heals are rarely interrupted, and we can actually keep a seal up. Go out, and slay the evil computer controlled minions of Azeroth. Tankadins rejoice, as you'll now be pushing Warrior capability in the tanking arena (I actually read this in a blue post).

As far as Blizzard is concerned, their faction has the cake and can eat it too. They get their perceived PvE "EZ Mode," and can now finally bring a close to the bubble-hearth era. If you play a Paladin on a PvP server, you're even allowed to transfer. My advice is to do so. You won't have to worry about being caught in the open, unable to defend yourself with even your most potent abilities, and you can tank up a storm in the new dungeons.

It's not over yet...

Ranelan poses an interesting question on the forums:

If DS is dispellable. What makes you think Avenging wrath wont be? This means a priest can prevent us from shielding but also take away our new DPS spell....sigh I had high hopes for this expansion. Blizzard needs to stop posting, so I can go on in blissful ignorance :/

This is why we need Blessing of Spell Warding. It's been proven to exist thanks to the screenshot on the ability website (combat log of Avenging Wrath pic). So we know that Blizzard's still fooling around with it, so I really, really, really hope that they strongly consider to put it in. Here's how it would work to benefit us:

Step 1: Activate your Seal
Step 2: Cast Blessing of Spell Warding on yourself.
Step 3: Charge at them and attack their weak points for massive damage.

Unfortunately your probably not going to be able to stack Avenging Wrath and BoSW due to Forbearance.

Reflections

To be honest, I'm not that upset about the change. Sure, it's a negative thing since it will make fights tougher, but I'm not mad. I'm just more or less in shock right now because I never expected something like this to happen. I remember way back when plenty of players pleaded over and over again to the developers during our talent review to change DS so they could reorganize and rebalance the class without it in consideration, but alas - they did not consider such a thing, not even with our BC re-review.

No more is our bubble the safety lever we've grown accustomed when we need it. Dunno, just feels like, when you mess around with Divine Shield you're messing around with the most strongest part of the identity of the class. Altering Divine Shield in any way is like changing our identity, especially since Blizzard themselves have reinforced this image upon us players from day 1. So when thinking about it, it's not really the nerf that I'm upset about - it's just that it takes away a part of what we used to hold dear to our hearts: our 12 seconds of pride on the battlefield.

The Worst Paladin Nerf Ever Conceived

Ahh yes...after several days, almost weeks of lack of stuff to talk about it all comes out in one burst. Something bad has come up: the list of new Priest spells. One of them is Mass Dispell:

Dispels magic in a 15 yard radius, removing 1 harmful spell from each friendly target and 1 beneficial spell from each enemy target. Affects a maximum of 5 friendly targets and 5 enemy targets. This dispel is potent enough to remove Magic effects that are normally undispellable.

(emphasis mine)

What does that mean? Hello Divine Shield nerf.

One person asks:

You designed the Paladin around Divine Shield. If it is now dispellable, you can adjust your design around that

And this is what Kalgan has to say about it:

This is actually true to some degree. It does allow us to adjust our designs accordingly. We felt that complete immunity with no viable counter has too significant an impact on group pvp.

At this point, we'll be better able to evaluate how much of an effect this counter has in group pvp during BC testing, and make other changes as necessary. Bear in mind that everything you see in the class/talent preview page is a reflection of what things are like in testing now, but not necessarily how things will be once the expansion is live.

And Kalgan continues with:

I don't know that you can necessarily call it negated
- It has a 1.5 second cast time, which means you have plenty of time to stun them as they cast Mass Dispel. It also means any other friendlies have an opportunity to interrupt it.
- Casting Divine Shield would still get you out of any form of crowd control and remove any debuffs, even if it got dispelled after the fact.
- You're talking about 1 of 9 classes that can counter it.
- Using your words, if it's "already on a 5 minute cooldown", then that implies to me that you've already learned to survive without it most of the time. :0
- It costs the priest a substantial chunk of mana, so it isn't something they can throw around carelessly.

Priests are just going to completely decimate us in 1 vs 1 now.

Andonisus

Thanks Al for emailing me this pic. Apperantly Risen after downing Kel'thuzad (second world kill) they finished the staff of Ateish. And with it, it's possible to conjure a sword that's only usable within Stratholme. Eh..? The sword is totally overpowered.

No News Sucks

I couldn't play WoW sucks too. My server (Medivh) was one of the the bunch which were taken down for a 36 hour maintenance. At least I got some study stuff done.

Rest In Peace

Pally Tier 4-set?

Our Questions Might Be Answered

Tseric's been going around, giving pieces of information both to the Mages and Warlocks today. Hopefully we'll get ours soon. Not tonight though because it's too late.

Tracking BC Talent/Spell Changes...

Head on over to the preview page for our new spells and talents, and you'll start to see some changes per Tseric's post.

Here's what's been altered thus far:

Improved Devotion Aura has been buffed, increasing the armor bonus by 8% per talent point invested (up to 4o% bonus, previously 5% per point for up to 25%). This was a no brainer, and I'm glad the developers have finally heard the cries and logic.

Avenger's Shield (41 point Prot talent, AKA "ZOMG Captain America!") tooltip now shows two additional trainable ranks of the spell, the top costing 825 mana and dealing 581-709 Holy damage. Adding in the snare effect from the daze, this is shaping up to be a really cool ability.

Righteous Defense, our AOE "taunt" ability, has had its cooldown increased from 13s to 15s. In case you were wondering, the Warrior AOE taunt Challenging Shout has a 10 minute cooldown, while their standard Taunt cooldown is 10 seconds. Some are crying about it on the forums, but for now I'm not finding it to be that significant a change.

The Redoubt talent has had its mechanics altered. It no longer reacts to critical strikes. The tooltip now reads: "Successful melee and ranged attacks against you have a 10% chance to increase your chance to block by 6% (up to 30% with 5 invested points). Lasts 10 sec or 5 blocks."

• Plusses: It is much improved and in-line with tanking - the gear for which generally adds defense skill and reduces the chance you will be critically struck.
  
• Minuses: It is now yet another RNG ability which we will observe to be very effective at times, and endure dry spells in others.
  

Reckoning, that quirky old talent, has finally been changed a bit. The tooltip now reads: "Gives you a 20% (100% with 5 talents) chance after being the victim of a critical strike that the next 4 weapon swings within 8 sec. will generate an additional attack.

• Plusses: You now only need to get critted against once in order to deal four extra attacks. It will hopefully have eliminated the auto-attack swing timer problem. If used as I believe it was originally intended, it is vastly improved. Remember, also, that (assuming it hasn't been changed) the extra attacks will carry with them the effects of whatever seal you have up at the time.
  
• Minuses: With only an 8 second window, you will need to be using a weapon with a speed of 2.0 (Quel' Serrar) or faster in order to get the full benefits out of this ability. I'm assuming it no longer stores attacks, bringing an end to the fabled "reck bomb" era - something I always found pretty cheesy anyway.
  

Holy Shock (Rank 5), as described in the tooltip, eliminates the range of damage/healing and states that it will deal 640 damage/healing. Note, this is prior to factoring in spell damage gear and such.

Seal of Command tooltip now shows additional trainable ranks, up to 6. The judgment damage for rank 6 is disproportionately higher than the preceding ranks - 579-639 Holy damage if the target is stunned. Looks like a buff overall here.