Floating Rage
Thanks to the people who suggested floating Rage from encounter to encounter. That makes a huge difference. At these levels, a Sunder and Revenge are enough to hold a mob until it dies, leaving lots of Rage for the next encounter. I only needed to use Bloodrage when the healer needed to drink.
The Best Laid Plans of Blizzard Designers...
I was in this one Wailing Caverns run with a 18 Ret Paladin, who seemed to be a newish player, or at least new to paladins. He was a pretty good guy, but he seemed to be putting out a ton of threat. I'd Sunder and Revenge, and then move on the next mob. But then I'd notice that the mob was attacking the paladin. I checked for Righteous Fury, but he didn't have it on.
This kept happening until I had a suspicion and checked Recount. The paladin was using Hand of Reckoning as part of his DPS rotation!
When I asked him about it, he responded that it did damage to the mobs, which I couldn't refute.
In a way, I can't really blame him for that (at least, not that much). All the poor guy has for DPS abilities is Judgement every 8s. When he got HoR at level 16, he must have been excited that he got another button to press. And HoR does pretty good damage for Ret and Prot specs.
I couldn't really get him to stop doing that, so I just let him take some hits, and Sundered to grab the mob back. Still, it is an amusing side-effect of having a damaging Taunt.
It's also funny that death knights have to wait until level 65 to get their real taunt (the grip has a 35s cool down). That means you have to learn tanking with a death knight without a taunt. :)
ReplyDeleteto be honest, Hand of reckoning is dealing way too much damage. With a scaling of 50% of AP, it can actually output enough damage to out damage exorcisms at that low levels. I have managed to put out in a space of 3GCD 600 damage before just using Hand of Reckoning and Exorcism.
ReplyDeleteHehe, not done any instances on my lowbie (25) Ret Pally, but when levelling with a Mage, the HoR helps tremendously with damage and to keep the mob on me and not go running for the clothie. Not that it would mean death, but it's much more comfortable not having to play ping-pong after the first bolt lands, which happened with only a Judgement.
ReplyDeleteI am guilty of using HoR in my rotation when solo'ing as Ret. Its just a nice way to pull a mob at range. HoR, Judge, DS...and loot. Best part is the all three attacks are done at range and most non-elites die before they even touch you.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part is when the muscle memory creeps into raids...
Maybe that could be used to your benefit: body pull and have him taunt the first DPS target, then you taunt back and end up with massive aggro.
ReplyDeleteBah! If you taunt it, you keep it. I don't think it has any place in a dps rotation. Like Eric said, it becomes a habit, and the last thing you want to do is taunt Saurfang when you finally have (had) him to 1%.
ReplyDeleteI figure it's okay at the lower levels. Everyone was a newbie once and he'll probably grow out of it soon enough. :)
ReplyDeleteOn my paladin tank, I am starting pulls more and more with HoR then tossing my shield. Then I see it crit for 4K or something like that.
ReplyDeleteBecause the stupid shield consumes 25% of your mana and if you chain pull you often don't have the mana to use the shield anyway. :)
ReplyDeleteIm tanking low level (15-25) instances with my lil prot pally and HoR is godly at those levels.
ReplyDeleteSo little mana use, massive initial damage means no-one ever gets close on threat.
Tanking at Level 15 before HoR - now thats a challenge.
Ellifain @ Khaz'Goroth
Does anyone use rage potions? I have no idea if thats a good idea.. but if they were cheap and you could get some that could start you off right?
ReplyDelete