Back into MC again to kill Ragnaros. On our first attempt, Ragnaros hits the raid with an AoE knockback right before he submerges, when we were all gathered at our collapse point. That leads to a heart-breaking 1% wipe.
No worries, even though no soulstone or DI was up. A druid sneaks back to Ragnaros and begins ressing.
The second attempt is beautiful. We are destroying Ragnaros, no one is dying, I'm pumping Judgements of Righteousness into Ragnaros like there's no tomorrow. The 3-minute mark comes up, and we collapse perfectly as the Sons of Flame come up. The Sons are being intercepted by our warriors and druids when all of a sudden we hear "BY FIRE BE PURGED!" and people go flying. "DIE INSECT!" It turns out that if Ragnaros decides not to submerge, he and Sons of Flame together will easily wipe the raid.
So kind of annoyed at Ragnaros, we regroup for attempt three. Third time is the charm, and Ragnaros goes down easily. Loot is linked and he drops the [Eye of Sulfuras] to make up for our troubles. Our guild is amused by this, as we only have 3 out of the 8 or 9 [Sulfuron Ingots] needed to craft the Legendary Weapon. Because it is Sulfuras, I bid on the Eye, but another warrior wins it (we go by Total Earned DKP for Legendaries). Honestly, I'm kind of relieved that I didn't get it. I hate farming, and the mats required for Sulfuras are insane.
So that's how raiding is going. No paladin gear is dropping, but that's pretty much par for the course.
Blizzard nerfed Crusader Strike and Vengeance, so the paladin forums have descended into a pit of whining and despair (the natural state, in many ways). For some reason, people thought that Crusader Strike means that you would have three paladins judging, but only one paladin in melee spamming Crusader Strike in order to refresh all three judgements. It's like it never occurred to them that maybe we should have all three paladins meleeing and each refresh her own judgement.
CS being nerfed is expected, but Vengeance is a bit unusual, given that it has been untouched for such a long time. Current theories are that an 31/0/30 build proved too strong, or that with the additional attacks given by CS it was easier to achieve a perma-Vengeance state.
Ah well, Burning Crusade is a long way aways, so I shall not worry about it.
"It's like it never occurred to them that maybe we should have all three paladins meleeing and each refresh her own judgement"
ReplyDeleteHave you even read the description of CS? It specifically says *ALL* Judgements" on the target. Given that we lost Lasting Judgment (not crying here), it's kinda obvious that they expected 1 Ret Paladin to keep all judgements refreshed.
True, all 2-3 paladins *can* melee. But it's only to keep a particular judgement up, and not so much for the DPS we can bring. In short, it's like hunters and tranq shot; a gimmick to feel useful.
"Current theories are that an 31/0/30 build proved too strong, or that with the additional attacks given by CS it was easier to achieve a perma-Vengeance state."
Laughable at best, considering Paladins can achieve a perma-vengeance state already. Hell, I have a paltry 10% crit rate, and I can crit often enough to have it up 70% of the time. As long as Blizzard has crit gear, a Paladin can always get enough to keep it up. And if that's the problem, nerf Fanaticism, or remove it altogether.
The 31/0/30 is a better explanation, but I personally think it's a bad one. If they feel that strongly, return Holy Shock to 30 seconds. Even if it's 15, I don't see it as a big deal.
The real reason, that I've heard in the grapevine, is that they test these things with the absolute highest gear, and Paladins were actually doing good DPS. Nevermind that 80% of the paladin population won't even reach that high plateau, so it's stupid to test things at that point. Either that, or perhaps the design of the high end gear is flawed.
Don't ruin the experience of the many, because of the few.
I see the "refresh all judgements" as a neat bonus, not the meat of the ability.
ReplyDeleteI see nothing wrong with all the paladins in the raid being in melee. It's how I play now, and how the paladins in my guild run. I look forward to more of the same in Burning Crusade.
I think having one Retribution paladin spamming CS to maintain judgments, and 2 other paladins standing back healing, is a silly, inefficient plan.