Another week, another MC run. This one didn't go quite as smoothly as the first, probably due to class imbalance. We had about 8 warriors, 8 paladins, and were very low on actual dps classes. We did get our 8 bosses, but we ran about 20 minutes over our scheduled time of 3 hours. We didn't get any paladin loot, but one of our paladins got a [Vendorstrike].
In any case, I got 3 melee DPS in my group, so I had to healbot most of the instance just to keep them alive. Oh well. I did try to get in some melee.
I also downloaded and tried out a DamageMeter for this raid, just to see if I could quantify my performance. I also respecced (yet again!) to 19/32/0. Curiously, I know (and DamageMeter confirmed it) that I do less DPS with this build, but it feels much more satisfying. I guess I really don't like the whole guessing-game that is Seal of Command.
Anyways, I'm not really sure how accurate the stats are. I have no idea if it synchronized itself with other people, or whatever. But I like my results, so I will pretend it's accurate. Here are some stats that I think are probably the important ones for paladins:
Damage Done: #30, 12% of lead
Healing Done: #2, 88% of lead
Curing Done: #4, 58% of lead
Net Healing: #6, 77% of lead
Overheal %: #40, 14%
Now, the position values are not that useful, mostly because who I'm comparing results to changes. But I'll leave them in just for comparison.
I think the numbers show that I healed a lot. 88% of lead is quite good, even if it drops to 77% when you consider that some of that was healing myself. The damage is low, but understandable in light of the healbotting with a 1H healing weapon. The curing amount is pretty weak. I need to be much closer to the top value. I think part of my problem is that Cleanse has a 30 yard range as opposed to the 40 yard heal range, so I am misjudging distances.
The overheal %, or amount of my heals which were wasted on a target with full health, was really good in comparison to the entire raid (including the non-healers somehow). However, 14% seems a bit high, especially as I wasn't healing tanks for a lot of it. I think the raid in general needs to work on our overhealing, and I would like to get my number down to less than 10%.
So basically, I need to do a bit more damage, heal a little bit less, and cleanse a little bit more. Sounds like a plan.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Interactivity
To me it seems like paladins don't have as wide a range of abilities as other classes. Every other non-dps class has a different set of abilities that it uses while soloing. This makes soloing as interactive as grouping. As well, the game enforces this difference through different means.
Paladins, on the other hand, only use a subset of their abilities while soloing. So soloing is far less interactive than grouping.
Look at warriors. For soloing, they have Battle and Berserker Stances, along with all the associated abilities only used in those stances. Then in group play, they have Defensive Stance and the high threat moves. The different forms enforce the different ability sets.
Druids have different forms (cat, bear, moonkin!) and abilities that they use while soloing. Then in groups, they use a different set of abilities to heal. Like the warrior, the different forms enforce the different ability sets.
Same with Priests. Soloing with a priest is interactive because of abilities like Smite, and various damage spells. Being a priest in a group uses a completely different set of spells. In the priest's case, the different ability sets is more enforced by threat. Mindblast is the perfect example. You don't cast Mindblast in group play because it's high threat. You cast it all the time in solo play.
Shamans have possibly the opposite problem from paladins. In solo play, they can use all their abilities, while in group play they generally use a smaller portion. I believe the game enforces the different ability sets by limiting their mana. A lot of their moves have a high mana cost, making those moves sub-optimal for group play, but perfectly fine while soloing.
A paladin, meanwhile, is pretty interactive in group play. Run in, judge, seal, auto-attack, and then start healing, cleansing, tactical buffing as needed. However, in solo play, it's: run in, judge, seal, auto-attack ... and that's it. The healing, cleansing, tactical buffing that makes paladins somewhat interactive in group play simply doesn't exist in solo play.
The paladin needs a set of moves that it can use in solo play, but CANNOT use in group play.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be that much hope for us. We have no forms, unlike the warrior and druid. We can't be limited by threat, unlike priests, because that would make us godlike tanks. And being limited by mana is at cross-purposes with our highly efficient heals.
Paladins, on the other hand, only use a subset of their abilities while soloing. So soloing is far less interactive than grouping.
Look at warriors. For soloing, they have Battle and Berserker Stances, along with all the associated abilities only used in those stances. Then in group play, they have Defensive Stance and the high threat moves. The different forms enforce the different ability sets.
Druids have different forms (cat, bear, moonkin!) and abilities that they use while soloing. Then in groups, they use a different set of abilities to heal. Like the warrior, the different forms enforce the different ability sets.
Same with Priests. Soloing with a priest is interactive because of abilities like Smite, and various damage spells. Being a priest in a group uses a completely different set of spells. In the priest's case, the different ability sets is more enforced by threat. Mindblast is the perfect example. You don't cast Mindblast in group play because it's high threat. You cast it all the time in solo play.
Shamans have possibly the opposite problem from paladins. In solo play, they can use all their abilities, while in group play they generally use a smaller portion. I believe the game enforces the different ability sets by limiting their mana. A lot of their moves have a high mana cost, making those moves sub-optimal for group play, but perfectly fine while soloing.
A paladin, meanwhile, is pretty interactive in group play. Run in, judge, seal, auto-attack, and then start healing, cleansing, tactical buffing as needed. However, in solo play, it's: run in, judge, seal, auto-attack ... and that's it. The healing, cleansing, tactical buffing that makes paladins somewhat interactive in group play simply doesn't exist in solo play.
The paladin needs a set of moves that it can use in solo play, but CANNOT use in group play.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be that much hope for us. We have no forms, unlike the warrior and druid. We can't be limited by threat, unlike priests, because that would make us godlike tanks. And being limited by mana is at cross-purposes with our highly efficient heals.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Shamans vs Paladins
Onto a controversial topic: Shamans vs Paladins, which one is better? I've never played a shaman to any significant level, only fought against them in PvP, so my impressions of them may be flawed.
In PvE, my thoughts on which are better is a bit complicated. I think a group with paladins is better than a group with shamans. Most people would agree, and say it is because paladin buffs cover the entire raid, while shaman buffs only cover the group. I don't think this is true though. A normal 40-man Alliance raid gets 200 person-buffs (5 paladins x 40 people). A normal Horde raid gets 100 person-buffs (5 shamans x 5 people in party x 4 totems). So on a strict level, shamans give about half the buffs of paladins. However, shamans have far more flexibility with buffs. I believe that they have 16 different totems to chose from. In contrast, paladins only have 6 (and 2 of them are talents). Additionally, the tactical blessings erase the raid blessings, so they are rarely used.
The lower number of buffs is the price the shamans pay for flexibility. I actually think that in terms of number of buffs, Horde and Alliance are reasonably balanced. Alliance covers more people, but with limited choice. Horde covers less people, but has a lot more options available.
In my opinion, the reason an Alliance raid is stronger is because a single Blessing, Blessing of Salvation, is overpowered. Salvation basically allows the Alliance dps and healers to do 20-40% more damage or healing than the Horde equivalent, or never worry about pulling aggro. Quite honestly, Salvation spoils the Alliance. I find that Horde warriors and dps are far more tuned to the nuances of aggro. In fact, I think if you removed Salvation (and Tranquil Air Totem), an Alliance raid would be significantly underpowered compared to a Horde raid.
(As an aside, you often see Horde complaining on the message boards about Blessing of Kings, which amuses me. If you ranked the Blessings in order of importance, Kings is #4 behind Salvation, Wisdom, and Might. It's really only good for tanks, and while it's a strong Blessing, it's not necessary in the same manner as Salvation.)
In PvP, on the other hand, I think shamans are clearly more powerful. They do significant damage, and have a lot more options than a paladin does. Their greatest strength, however, is their mobility. This includes effects like Earthbind Totem. A good shaman has a lot more options that allow them to control the battlefield. The shaman's advantage in PvP is the fact that she has a wide variety of tools. The paladin's advantage is her survivability. A paladin has a few very powerful tools on long cooldowns. A Hammer of Justice may be strictly better than a Shock, but HoJ is once a minute and there is a choice of 3 different Shocks available every 6s.
In my opinion, mobility and flexibility trump survivability and rare powerful effects, especially in games with 30s ressurrection timers. The fact that a shaman can do more damage than a paladin is not what makes her superior. It is the arsenal of options available to a shaman that gives her power.
Comments from any shaman readers are appreciated.
In PvE, my thoughts on which are better is a bit complicated. I think a group with paladins is better than a group with shamans. Most people would agree, and say it is because paladin buffs cover the entire raid, while shaman buffs only cover the group. I don't think this is true though. A normal 40-man Alliance raid gets 200 person-buffs (5 paladins x 40 people). A normal Horde raid gets 100 person-buffs (5 shamans x 5 people in party x 4 totems). So on a strict level, shamans give about half the buffs of paladins. However, shamans have far more flexibility with buffs. I believe that they have 16 different totems to chose from. In contrast, paladins only have 6 (and 2 of them are talents). Additionally, the tactical blessings erase the raid blessings, so they are rarely used.
The lower number of buffs is the price the shamans pay for flexibility. I actually think that in terms of number of buffs, Horde and Alliance are reasonably balanced. Alliance covers more people, but with limited choice. Horde covers less people, but has a lot more options available.
In my opinion, the reason an Alliance raid is stronger is because a single Blessing, Blessing of Salvation, is overpowered. Salvation basically allows the Alliance dps and healers to do 20-40% more damage or healing than the Horde equivalent, or never worry about pulling aggro. Quite honestly, Salvation spoils the Alliance. I find that Horde warriors and dps are far more tuned to the nuances of aggro. In fact, I think if you removed Salvation (and Tranquil Air Totem), an Alliance raid would be significantly underpowered compared to a Horde raid.
(As an aside, you often see Horde complaining on the message boards about Blessing of Kings, which amuses me. If you ranked the Blessings in order of importance, Kings is #4 behind Salvation, Wisdom, and Might. It's really only good for tanks, and while it's a strong Blessing, it's not necessary in the same manner as Salvation.)
In PvP, on the other hand, I think shamans are clearly more powerful. They do significant damage, and have a lot more options than a paladin does. Their greatest strength, however, is their mobility. This includes effects like Earthbind Totem. A good shaman has a lot more options that allow them to control the battlefield. The shaman's advantage in PvP is the fact that she has a wide variety of tools. The paladin's advantage is her survivability. A paladin has a few very powerful tools on long cooldowns. A Hammer of Justice may be strictly better than a Shock, but HoJ is once a minute and there is a choice of 3 different Shocks available every 6s.
In my opinion, mobility and flexibility trump survivability and rare powerful effects, especially in games with 30s ressurrection timers. The fact that a shaman can do more damage than a paladin is not what makes her superior. It is the arsenal of options available to a shaman that gives her power.
Comments from any shaman readers are appreciated.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Gorgeous MC Run Today
7 Paladins. 8 Bosses. 3 Hours. 0 Wipes. 1 Portal/Summon chain to get an Aqual Quintessence to put out the last rune.
(Yeah, we're noobs. :) )
I didn't get any loot but it was a ton of fun. The raid leader apparently decided that we were good enough, and started chain pulling like crazy. I don't think I was out of combat at all for the first 20 minutes. I only died once, I think, on Gehennas where I took a 3k Shadowbolt fairly early. I don't think I've ever survived that fight, for some reason. No idea what I'm doing wrong.
I ran around with my [Earthshaker] for the first half, and it was a great deal of fun. Too bad everything in MC is immune to stuns. Though now that I think about it, this could have been really bad during Lucifron when I was Mind Controlled ([Earthshaker] has an AoE stun proc). I'll have to remember that for next time.
The more I run with this guild, the more I feel that paladins meleeing is the best way to go for an Alliance raid. If our paladins had all been standing back and spamming Flash of Light, I think it would have gone much slower and not nearly as cleanly.
Also, a random thought about damage meters. I think an absolute ranking is misleading. For example, in today's raid, the #1 guy had slightly more than 5% of the total damage, and the #10 guy had slightly less than 5%. With such a small spread like that, position is very misleading. I think a much better metric would be % of the #1 person's damage. Someone being position #15 isn't that much of a problem if she's doing 90% of the top person's damage, but it is potentially an issue if she's doing 40%.
But then again, I don't think this guild cares too much about damage meters. As long as we're killing everything, life is good.
(Yeah, we're noobs. :) )
I didn't get any loot but it was a ton of fun. The raid leader apparently decided that we were good enough, and started chain pulling like crazy. I don't think I was out of combat at all for the first 20 minutes. I only died once, I think, on Gehennas where I took a 3k Shadowbolt fairly early. I don't think I've ever survived that fight, for some reason. No idea what I'm doing wrong.
I ran around with my [Earthshaker] for the first half, and it was a great deal of fun. Too bad everything in MC is immune to stuns. Though now that I think about it, this could have been really bad during Lucifron when I was Mind Controlled ([Earthshaker] has an AoE stun proc). I'll have to remember that for next time.
The more I run with this guild, the more I feel that paladins meleeing is the best way to go for an Alliance raid. If our paladins had all been standing back and spamming Flash of Light, I think it would have gone much slower and not nearly as cleanly.
Also, a random thought about damage meters. I think an absolute ranking is misleading. For example, in today's raid, the #1 guy had slightly more than 5% of the total damage, and the #10 guy had slightly less than 5%. With such a small spread like that, position is very misleading. I think a much better metric would be % of the #1 person's damage. Someone being position #15 isn't that much of a problem if she's doing 90% of the top person's damage, but it is potentially an issue if she's doing 40%.
But then again, I don't think this guild cares too much about damage meters. As long as we're killing everything, life is good.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Paladin Guide to Meleeing in Raids
In all the threads and posts on the paladin boards, I don't think I've ever seen a decent guide for paladins new to raiding on how to melee in raids safely and effectively. So here is my stab at it.
1. Know your responsibilities.
A paladin's responsibilities in a raid are, in order of importance:
2. Know your strengths.
Every other class can only do one thing at a time. Paladins are different. Our greatest strength is that we can fulfill ALL our responsibilities at the same time. Embrace your hybrid nature. You can easily heal and cleanse while meleeing.
As well, our combat system is boring for a reason. Go into melee, judge, seal, and then concentrate on your raid.
There are significant advantages to being in the melee zone. You do not have to worry about losing Line of Sight on the tanks, or being out of range. If Judgement of Wisdom is up, your mana regeneration will be great, and you never have to worry about running out of mana.
3. Know your limitations.
Paladins are not a dps class. You will not do as much damage as a hunter or mage. Trying to compete with them on the damage meters is a fool's game. However, your damage is not insignificant. It adds up and is free. You don't need to spend mana to do damage. In my experience, fights with meleeing paladins go faster and smoother.
What this means is that you shouldn't try and increase your dps at the expense of your other priorities. Wear balanced or healing plate. For example, I have [Cloudkeeper Legplates], but I wear [Chitinous Plate Legguards] in raids (a terrible sacrifice given how ugly Chitinous is). Refrain from judging Command constantly. Personally, I often use Seal of the Crusader, as it adds a little dps but also gives more JoL/W procs.
4. Follow the rogues in.
As a general rule, if it's safe enough for the rogues to melee, it's safe enough for a paladin. If the rogues aren't going in, stay back as well.
5. Open with Judgement of Light or Wisdom.
JoL/W is awesome for the raid! If you are meleeing, make sure that they are up at all times on your target.
6. Do not expect heals.
Priests and druids have better things to do than heal paladins. Your health is YOUR responsibility. Make sure you keep yourself healed. If you take a big hit, or your health drops a bit too far, STEP BACK. Back up out of combat and only go back when you have a safe amount of health.
(Actually, as a healer, I would love it if rogues followed this advice as well. There are many times when a rogue's death could be avoided if she'd only step back for a few seconds and let me complete two or three heals.)
7. Know when NOT to melee.
If you find you are taking too much damage, or need to heal a lot, stand back. These fights are rarer than you think, though. Also watch for certain fights with Silences or Interrupts. For example, the Bat priestess in ZG has an AoE Silence effect. Do not melee if meleeing prevents you from fulfilling your other responsibilities.
8. Attack your tank's target.
If you are assigned to a tank, attack her target, opening with Judgment of Light. JoL helps heal her, and attacking her target means that you will always be in range of your tank for heals and cleanses. Let the DPS classes take care of burning down targets.
However, if your tank is not specifically off-tanking something, attack the main target specified by the raid leader.
Okay, that's my guide to paladin meleeing in raids. Any thoughts or other tips before I actually post this on the paladin boards?
1. Know your responsibilities.
A paladin's responsibilities in a raid are, in order of importance:
- Cleanse
- Keep the tanks alive
- Keep the party alive
- Buff
- Judgement of Light / Wisdom
- Add extra damage
2. Know your strengths.
Every other class can only do one thing at a time. Paladins are different. Our greatest strength is that we can fulfill ALL our responsibilities at the same time. Embrace your hybrid nature. You can easily heal and cleanse while meleeing.
As well, our combat system is boring for a reason. Go into melee, judge, seal, and then concentrate on your raid.
There are significant advantages to being in the melee zone. You do not have to worry about losing Line of Sight on the tanks, or being out of range. If Judgement of Wisdom is up, your mana regeneration will be great, and you never have to worry about running out of mana.
3. Know your limitations.
Paladins are not a dps class. You will not do as much damage as a hunter or mage. Trying to compete with them on the damage meters is a fool's game. However, your damage is not insignificant. It adds up and is free. You don't need to spend mana to do damage. In my experience, fights with meleeing paladins go faster and smoother.
What this means is that you shouldn't try and increase your dps at the expense of your other priorities. Wear balanced or healing plate. For example, I have [Cloudkeeper Legplates], but I wear [Chitinous Plate Legguards] in raids (a terrible sacrifice given how ugly Chitinous is). Refrain from judging Command constantly. Personally, I often use Seal of the Crusader, as it adds a little dps but also gives more JoL/W procs.
4. Follow the rogues in.
As a general rule, if it's safe enough for the rogues to melee, it's safe enough for a paladin. If the rogues aren't going in, stay back as well.
5. Open with Judgement of Light or Wisdom.
JoL/W is awesome for the raid! If you are meleeing, make sure that they are up at all times on your target.
6. Do not expect heals.
Priests and druids have better things to do than heal paladins. Your health is YOUR responsibility. Make sure you keep yourself healed. If you take a big hit, or your health drops a bit too far, STEP BACK. Back up out of combat and only go back when you have a safe amount of health.
(Actually, as a healer, I would love it if rogues followed this advice as well. There are many times when a rogue's death could be avoided if she'd only step back for a few seconds and let me complete two or three heals.)
7. Know when NOT to melee.
If you find you are taking too much damage, or need to heal a lot, stand back. These fights are rarer than you think, though. Also watch for certain fights with Silences or Interrupts. For example, the Bat priestess in ZG has an AoE Silence effect. Do not melee if meleeing prevents you from fulfilling your other responsibilities.
8. Attack your tank's target.
If you are assigned to a tank, attack her target, opening with Judgment of Light. JoL helps heal her, and attacking her target means that you will always be in range of your tank for heals and cleanses. Let the DPS classes take care of burning down targets.
However, if your tank is not specifically off-tanking something, attack the main target specified by the raid leader.
Okay, that's my guide to paladin meleeing in raids. Any thoughts or other tips before I actually post this on the paladin boards?
Back Again, Thoughts on Tier 3
After a two week vacation from WoW, I decided to reinstall. Yeah, I'm an addict. Still, taking a break from WoW every once in a while is a good thing. So let me post with some thoughts on Tier 3.
There is a schism in the paladin and raiding community. On one side you have restrictive guilds, who believe that paladins should just stay back and heal. On the other side you have free guilds who believe that paladins should melee and heal. And because the stakes are so low, both sides regard the other as heretics.
(Personal bias: I am firmly in the 'melee and heal' camp.)
The problem with Tier 3 is that it is a clear sign that Blizzard thinks the restrictive guilds are correct.
Of course, the counter-argument is that Blizzard just made a healadin set, like Avenger was a Retribution set. However, I don't think that people really see the Tier sets in that manner. To my mind, Tier sets are your default upgrade path as you progress through the endgame. A warrior replaces her Might armor with Wrath. She will replace Wrath with Dreadnaught. A similar progression happens with the other classes, and should happen with paladins. Redemption should replace Judgement which replaced Lawbringer.
Judgement is the perfect 'base' armor for paladins. It's not the best healing armor, it's not the best damage armor, but it's a solid base set. A hybrid set for a hybrid class. There have always been healing pieces (Peacekeeper, for example) and damage pieces (Legguards of the Fallen Crusader), but the Tier set functions as a solid base.
If Redemption had been an extra set in Naxx, it would have been great. I have extra pure healing gear, just like every other paladin. But for Redemption to be the base, the 'default' set, is an argument that almost totally destroys the 'melee and heal' side of the paladin schism.
There is a schism in the paladin and raiding community. On one side you have restrictive guilds, who believe that paladins should just stay back and heal. On the other side you have free guilds who believe that paladins should melee and heal. And because the stakes are so low, both sides regard the other as heretics.
(Personal bias: I am firmly in the 'melee and heal' camp.)
The problem with Tier 3 is that it is a clear sign that Blizzard thinks the restrictive guilds are correct.
Of course, the counter-argument is that Blizzard just made a healadin set, like Avenger was a Retribution set. However, I don't think that people really see the Tier sets in that manner. To my mind, Tier sets are your default upgrade path as you progress through the endgame. A warrior replaces her Might armor with Wrath. She will replace Wrath with Dreadnaught. A similar progression happens with the other classes, and should happen with paladins. Redemption should replace Judgement which replaced Lawbringer.
Judgement is the perfect 'base' armor for paladins. It's not the best healing armor, it's not the best damage armor, but it's a solid base set. A hybrid set for a hybrid class. There have always been healing pieces (Peacekeeper, for example) and damage pieces (Legguards of the Fallen Crusader), but the Tier set functions as a solid base.
If Redemption had been an extra set in Naxx, it would have been great. I have extra pure healing gear, just like every other paladin. But for Redemption to be the base, the 'default' set, is an argument that almost totally destroys the 'melee and heal' side of the paladin schism.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Funny Paladin Analogy
From the paladin boards (courtesy of Ctpnplanet):
We are Vegetables. Excellently healthy when grown correctly with skill and patience. Most people underestimate us because of our taste.
However, supporting the human body over and over does get trivial.
We wish to be a fruit, moderately healthy, yet still fun to eat and they get to fufill their true role.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Updated Paladin Description
Blizzard updated the description of the paladin on their website. However, it's not quite accurate yet. I'll finish the job for them (changes in italics):
Upholders of the Holy Light and defenders of the Alliance, the Paladins can be found from the northern forests of the Tirisfal Glades, fighting back the advance of the Forsaken, to the southern reaches of the Blasted Lands, ceaselessly upholding their vigil against demonic forces from beyond the Dark Portal. Wielding their mighty hammers and the strength of the Light, these holy warriors command forces in battle, continuouslythrowing themselves into the frayhealing the warriors wherever the fighting is the thickest.
The Paladin is amix of a melee fighter and asecondary spell caster. The Paladin is ideal for groups due to the Paladin's healing, Blessings, and other abilities. Paladins can have one active aura per Paladin on each party member and use specific Blessings for specific players. Paladins are pretty hard to kill, thanks to their assortment of defensive abilities. The Paladin can also heal with Holy Light, unlike other combat classes. The Paladin is an Undead specific fighter as well, with several abilities designed to be used against the Undead (not the Forsaken though, they aren't Undead).
Paladins are the consummateknightsclerics in shining armor, meant to bein the thick of thingsstanding in the back. Their defensive abilities allow them tostand toe to toe with monsters andtake a beating if the monster gets away from the front-line fighters.This is not theThe sole purpose of a Paladin, of course, is to use their auras, seals, heals and resurrection spellsgive them the chanceto act as a support healer.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Extensive Paladin Changes, Part II
Continuing on from Part I.
15. Make Spiritual Focus a baseline ability and apply to all spells.
We are melee characters. Spellcasting in melee should be second nature to us.
16. Increase Righteous Fury to 2.0x threat, and Improved Righteous Fury to 2.5xthreat.
No more Salvation, so we need to up our threat output.
17. Put Seal of the Crusader as an 11pt talent in the Holy Tree. Increase the attack power bonus by 25%.
To give the trees a bit more identity, each tree gets a unique seal at 11pts, and a unique aura at 21pts. Crusader is a good seal for the Holy tree, working nicely with Judgement of Light and Wisdom.
18. Add Seal of Faith as an 11pt talent in the Protection Tree. "Your attacks instead deal Holy damage equal to 80% of weapon damage."
Converts your physical damage to Holy damage. Really good against heavily armored opponents and for tanking with Righteous Fury. However, damage against an average opponent should still be slightly less than Righteousness.
Against 30% damage reduction:
Comand > Crusader = Righteousness > Faith
19. Add Ablation Aura as a 21pt talent in the Protection Tree. "Damage taken by party members is reduced by 0.02% of their Intellect."
Our answer to the 10% damage reduction of Defensive Stance. A decent amount of mitigation for characters with high Int, but relatively little for warriors. A tanking warrior should still prefer Devotion Aura. 500 Int = 10% reduction. Also continues our subtheme of protectors of the cloth.
20. Replace Sanctity Aura with Dominion Aura as a 21pt talent in the Retribution tree. "Damage done by party members is increased by 3%."
We make our allies stronger. Plus, with the loss of Salvation, this is a double-edged sword in PvE. And unlike Sancity, this works all the time and for all damage. 3% may be a little low, could be as high as 5%.
21. Add a new Aura to the Holy tree. Quite honestly, I can't think of anything particularly stylish to add here. Maybe something offering extra resistance to stuns, interrupts, and fears.
22. Add in the Guard talents to flesh out the Protection tree.
Between Guard, the new Reckoning, Seal of Faith, and Ablation Aura, Protection should be pretty interesting.
23. General clean-up of talents. Most talents are okay, but you'd need a replacement for Spiritual Focus, Improved Seal of the Crusader, and Improved Concentration. I'd also improve Pursuit of Justice to 6/12%, but still not stacking. It's now strictly better than the enchant, but not overly crazy.
24. Make Hammer of Wrath still fire once it has started casting.
People drinking a potion when you're in the middle of a cast and thus cancelling the spell is silly. The potion will probably save them from being killed by the Hammer, they shouldn't also avoid it entirely.
So that's about it for changes I'd I'd make to the paladin. Nothing major is changed, the paladin is still a melee character, with relatively low damage, but high survivability. It's just cleaned up a little, a few of the more outrageous abilities removed, and some more options and flexibility added in.
Note that I am not adding new Blessings. I think the Horde have a point with the way our Blessings scale with the entire raid. Having four good blessings is enough.
15. Make Spiritual Focus a baseline ability and apply to all spells.
We are melee characters. Spellcasting in melee should be second nature to us.
16. Increase Righteous Fury to 2.0x threat, and Improved Righteous Fury to 2.5xthreat.
No more Salvation, so we need to up our threat output.
17. Put Seal of the Crusader as an 11pt talent in the Holy Tree. Increase the attack power bonus by 25%.
To give the trees a bit more identity, each tree gets a unique seal at 11pts, and a unique aura at 21pts. Crusader is a good seal for the Holy tree, working nicely with Judgement of Light and Wisdom.
18. Add Seal of Faith as an 11pt talent in the Protection Tree. "Your attacks instead deal Holy damage equal to 80% of weapon damage."
Converts your physical damage to Holy damage. Really good against heavily armored opponents and for tanking with Righteous Fury. However, damage against an average opponent should still be slightly less than Righteousness.
Against 30% damage reduction:
Comand > Crusader = Righteousness > Faith
19. Add Ablation Aura as a 21pt talent in the Protection Tree. "Damage taken by party members is reduced by 0.02% of their Intellect."
Our answer to the 10% damage reduction of Defensive Stance. A decent amount of mitigation for characters with high Int, but relatively little for warriors. A tanking warrior should still prefer Devotion Aura. 500 Int = 10% reduction. Also continues our subtheme of protectors of the cloth.
20. Replace Sanctity Aura with Dominion Aura as a 21pt talent in the Retribution tree. "Damage done by party members is increased by 3%."
We make our allies stronger. Plus, with the loss of Salvation, this is a double-edged sword in PvE. And unlike Sancity, this works all the time and for all damage. 3% may be a little low, could be as high as 5%.
21. Add a new Aura to the Holy tree. Quite honestly, I can't think of anything particularly stylish to add here. Maybe something offering extra resistance to stuns, interrupts, and fears.
22. Add in the Guard talents to flesh out the Protection tree.
Between Guard, the new Reckoning, Seal of Faith, and Ablation Aura, Protection should be pretty interesting.
23. General clean-up of talents. Most talents are okay, but you'd need a replacement for Spiritual Focus, Improved Seal of the Crusader, and Improved Concentration. I'd also improve Pursuit of Justice to 6/12%, but still not stacking. It's now strictly better than the enchant, but not overly crazy.
24. Make Hammer of Wrath still fire once it has started casting.
People drinking a potion when you're in the middle of a cast and thus cancelling the spell is silly. The potion will probably save them from being killed by the Hammer, they shouldn't also avoid it entirely.
So that's about it for changes I'd I'd make to the paladin. Nothing major is changed, the paladin is still a melee character, with relatively low damage, but high survivability. It's just cleaned up a little, a few of the more outrageous abilities removed, and some more options and flexibility added in.
Note that I am not adding new Blessings. I think the Horde have a point with the way our Blessings scale with the entire raid. Having four good blessings is enough.
Restrictions are Good
Maybe writes in a comment:
I agree that Holy Shock as a baseline ability would not be overpowered. However, I do not think it would be a good idea.
Restrictions define us. What we cannot do is as important as what we can do. And one of the fundamental restrictions for a paladin is that we do not have ranged attacks. It's a class-defining restriction.
Restrictions also breed creativity. Paladins need to learn to body-pull, to fight multiple enemies at once, to use Judgement of Justice effectively. I find that paladins are very sensitive to the aggro radius of mobs. Because we cannot pull, we play very differently from the other classes. A profession such as engineering is very valuable to a paladin, as is Linken's quest in Un'goro (to get the Boomerang). More so than to other classes. And this difference is good. It makes playing a paladin a unique experience.
So while a baseline Holy Shock may not be overpowered, I think it would weaken one of the major restrictions on the paladin class, leading to a less creative and unique class.
I saw a post saying that "Holy Shock" should be a baseline ability. I actually like this idea. Tanks can use it to pull/get aggro, Healadins can use it like a instant mini LOH, and Ret and PVP pallies can use it for an extra kick in damage. I don't think it's over powered either as it doesn't to a tremendous amount of damage or healing. It's just a versatile spell that all types of Pallies can use.
I agree that Holy Shock as a baseline ability would not be overpowered. However, I do not think it would be a good idea.
Restrictions define us. What we cannot do is as important as what we can do. And one of the fundamental restrictions for a paladin is that we do not have ranged attacks. It's a class-defining restriction.
Restrictions also breed creativity. Paladins need to learn to body-pull, to fight multiple enemies at once, to use Judgement of Justice effectively. I find that paladins are very sensitive to the aggro radius of mobs. Because we cannot pull, we play very differently from the other classes. A profession such as engineering is very valuable to a paladin, as is Linken's quest in Un'goro (to get the Boomerang). More so than to other classes. And this difference is good. It makes playing a paladin a unique experience.
So while a baseline Holy Shock may not be overpowered, I think it would weaken one of the major restrictions on the paladin class, leading to a less creative and unique class.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Extensive Paladin Changes, Part I
Now, if by some miracle I got to go nuts with paladin design, this is what I'd do. This is pretty crazy wishlist stuff, and is only somewhat balanced, so don't take the numbers for granted when complaining it's overpowered.
1. Remove Flash of Light
2. Change Seal of Light to heal all party members when it procs and add a +heal coefficient.
3. Reduce the effect of +heal on lower ranks of spells.
See here for reasons.
4. Remove Blessing of Salvation and Tranquil Air Totem.
Seriously, how is Salvation balanced? Do paladins suck so much that allowing Alliance dps classes 20-40% higher damage is acceptable?
5. Remove Blessing of Light. Increase the amount Holy Light heals by 200.
This is a silly, pointless, make-work blessing. Since I've already killed Flash of Light, its usefulness is even lower.
6. Make Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Sanctuary trainable.
I've already killed two Blessings, so let's bring down two replacements. Now we have four base Blessings (Blessing of Sanctuary, Kings, Might, Wisdom). As a general theme, I'm going to try for four of everything. I like symmetry.
7. Increase Blessing duration to 15 minutes. Increase Greater Blessing Duration to 1 hour. Double mana costs.
Constantly recasting Blessings every five minutes is just lame. There is no meaningful choice to be made.
8. Reclassify the short term Blessings as "Invocations" (Invocation of Protection, Freedom, Sacrifice). Invocations are tactical buffs, and do not overwrite Blessings or other Invocations.
The biggest downside to using the short term Blessings is that they overwrite the longer Blessings. The longer Blessings are seen as more important, and so short Blessings are only used in very specific situations. Making them Invocations makes them much more usable, and gives the paladin some much needed flexibility.
9. Add a new Invocation, Invocation of Knowledge. 5 minute cooldown. "Whenever target party member casts a spell, the mana cost is deducted from the paladin's mana instead. If the paladin has no mana, cost will be deducted from party member's mana. Lasts 15s."
Why? I need a fourth Invocation, and this seems like a somewhat cool ability. In the same way that Sacrifice shares health, Knowledge shares mana. The actual way it'll probably end up working is something like Illumination, where you get a refund of the mana you spend, and the mana is then deducted from the paladin.
10. Remove Seal of the Crusader as a base Seal.
I'm going to do something with this once I get to talent trees. Plus it leaves me with four base Seals (Seal of Justice, Righteousness, Light, Wisdom).
11. Have Seal of Light and Wisdom's effect be based on weapon damage, like Seal of Command.
We're a melee hybrid, and so our melee skills need to make a difference, even if it is not dps-wise.
12. Change Reckoning as described in this post.
I'm pretty sure my dislike of Reckoning is well known. :)
13. Implement Guard.
I like Guard. Kind of unique tanking mechanism, and fits nicely with our image of protecting the weak.
14. Change Sense Undead to Sense Evil, and allow it to detect demons and undead. Change the warlock's Sense Demon to Sense Outsider, and allow them to detect elementals and demons.
Why not? We can Exorcise things and they can Enslave them. Seems fair enough to me.
Hmm. Okay, 4 Blessings, 4 Seals, 4 Invocations, Reckoning and Guard. Seems like a good start.
1. Remove Flash of Light
2. Change Seal of Light to heal all party members when it procs and add a +heal coefficient.
3. Reduce the effect of +heal on lower ranks of spells.
See here for reasons.
4. Remove Blessing of Salvation and Tranquil Air Totem.
Seriously, how is Salvation balanced? Do paladins suck so much that allowing Alliance dps classes 20-40% higher damage is acceptable?
5. Remove Blessing of Light. Increase the amount Holy Light heals by 200.
This is a silly, pointless, make-work blessing. Since I've already killed Flash of Light, its usefulness is even lower.
6. Make Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Sanctuary trainable.
I've already killed two Blessings, so let's bring down two replacements. Now we have four base Blessings (Blessing of Sanctuary, Kings, Might, Wisdom). As a general theme, I'm going to try for four of everything. I like symmetry.
7. Increase Blessing duration to 15 minutes. Increase Greater Blessing Duration to 1 hour. Double mana costs.
Constantly recasting Blessings every five minutes is just lame. There is no meaningful choice to be made.
8. Reclassify the short term Blessings as "Invocations" (Invocation of Protection, Freedom, Sacrifice). Invocations are tactical buffs, and do not overwrite Blessings or other Invocations.
The biggest downside to using the short term Blessings is that they overwrite the longer Blessings. The longer Blessings are seen as more important, and so short Blessings are only used in very specific situations. Making them Invocations makes them much more usable, and gives the paladin some much needed flexibility.
9. Add a new Invocation, Invocation of Knowledge. 5 minute cooldown. "Whenever target party member casts a spell, the mana cost is deducted from the paladin's mana instead. If the paladin has no mana, cost will be deducted from party member's mana. Lasts 15s."
Why? I need a fourth Invocation, and this seems like a somewhat cool ability. In the same way that Sacrifice shares health, Knowledge shares mana. The actual way it'll probably end up working is something like Illumination, where you get a refund of the mana you spend, and the mana is then deducted from the paladin.
10. Remove Seal of the Crusader as a base Seal.
I'm going to do something with this once I get to talent trees. Plus it leaves me with four base Seals (Seal of Justice, Righteousness, Light, Wisdom).
11. Have Seal of Light and Wisdom's effect be based on weapon damage, like Seal of Command.
We're a melee hybrid, and so our melee skills need to make a difference, even if it is not dps-wise.
12. Change Reckoning as described in this post.
I'm pretty sure my dislike of Reckoning is well known. :)
13. Implement Guard.
I like Guard. Kind of unique tanking mechanism, and fits nicely with our image of protecting the weak.
14. Change Sense Undead to Sense Evil, and allow it to detect demons and undead. Change the warlock's Sense Demon to Sense Outsider, and allow them to detect elementals and demons.
Why not? We can Exorcise things and they can Enslave them. Seems fair enough to me.
Hmm. Okay, 4 Blessings, 4 Seals, 4 Invocations, Reckoning and Guard. Seems like a good start.
Basic Paladin Changes
I still have a bunch of ideas running through my head that I never actually got a chance to write down. So I may as well put some down now. (Plus no WoW is slightly boring. :) )
I mentioned in a comment that paladins were very close to being fixed, in my view. These are the basic, essential changes that I would make.
1. Remove the Flash of Light spell.
Reason: Flash of Light is the real problem with the paladin class. A single cast of FoL heals for a trivial amount, but at a trivial cost. This means that a paladin generally casts multiple FoLs in quick succession to actually do anything. I've heard Flash of Light described as a "channelled heal-over-time spell." And this is precisely what it is. The paladin stands there and channels her mana into the tank's health bar.
The problem is that if you are channelling, you cannot do anything else. And the essence of a paladin is doing multiple things at once! The mechanics of Flash of Light cut across the very grain of paladin playstyle. So remove Flash of Light in its entirety. Soloing will not miss it. PvP will not miss it. And PvE will be better for its absence.
2. Change Seal of Light to heal all party members when it procs.
Reason: The paladin is a support character and needs to help heal her party. This ensures that while the paladin is attacking and cleansing, her party is getting a small heal. A heal-over-time in essence, one that requires the paladin to attack, but forsakes any extra damage the paladin can do. This mechanic is much more in line with the feel of a paladin.
3. Reduce the effect of +heal on lower ranks of spells.
Reason: See this post. As well, makes spamming Holy Light (Rank 4) a less useful tactic, especially with the new Seal of Light.
I think these changes are all that is necessary to push the paladin to a front-line role, one more in line with the vision. They are not overpowered changes. Indeed, the paladin is arguably worse off than before, in terms of raw power. "We had to nerf the paladins to save them," as it were. :)
(I would probably consider adding a small +heal coefficient of ~10% to Seal of Light to compensate.)
I mentioned in a comment that paladins were very close to being fixed, in my view. These are the basic, essential changes that I would make.
1. Remove the Flash of Light spell.
Reason: Flash of Light is the real problem with the paladin class. A single cast of FoL heals for a trivial amount, but at a trivial cost. This means that a paladin generally casts multiple FoLs in quick succession to actually do anything. I've heard Flash of Light described as a "channelled heal-over-time spell." And this is precisely what it is. The paladin stands there and channels her mana into the tank's health bar.
The problem is that if you are channelling, you cannot do anything else. And the essence of a paladin is doing multiple things at once! The mechanics of Flash of Light cut across the very grain of paladin playstyle. So remove Flash of Light in its entirety. Soloing will not miss it. PvP will not miss it. And PvE will be better for its absence.
2. Change Seal of Light to heal all party members when it procs.
Reason: The paladin is a support character and needs to help heal her party. This ensures that while the paladin is attacking and cleansing, her party is getting a small heal. A heal-over-time in essence, one that requires the paladin to attack, but forsakes any extra damage the paladin can do. This mechanic is much more in line with the feel of a paladin.
3. Reduce the effect of +heal on lower ranks of spells.
Reason: See this post. As well, makes spamming Holy Light (Rank 4) a less useful tactic, especially with the new Seal of Light.
I think these changes are all that is necessary to push the paladin to a front-line role, one more in line with the vision. They are not overpowered changes. Indeed, the paladin is arguably worse off than before, in terms of raw power. "We had to nerf the paladins to save them," as it were. :)
(I would probably consider adding a small +heal coefficient of ~10% to Seal of Light to compensate.)
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Time to Go
I had a mental image of my paladin, forged by 59 excellent levels. Unfortunately, the reality of the endgame in WoW proved to be different than my image.
I guess I kept hoping that Blizzard would realize this, and make changes that would make the reality more closely match my image. With the advent of Tier 3 armor, and looking at the Paladin review of 1.9 in hindsight, I believe this hope to be futile. Paladins are as Blizzard envisioned them, and if I do not like that vision, I should reroll or quit.
Accordingly, I have chosen to quit.
World of Warcraft was a spectacular game from levels 1 to 59. It was merely a decent game at level 60. There is a bit too much emphasis on raiding, and very little content for other playstyles. I enjoyed raiding, but there was no variety. All the non-raid content, such as PvP, was seriously flawed in implementation.
Still, I enjoyed my stay in Azeroth quite a bit. I met and played with a lot of good people in the various guilds I was part of.
This was really the first MMO that I spent time with, and it was a fun experience. Though next time, I seriously doubt I will pick a hybrid, or jack-of-all-trades, class. It seems like far less hassle to pick a specialist class.
In any case, thanks for reading this blog.
Coriel, 60 Paladin, Bronzebeard/Etrigg, 59 Days Played
I guess I kept hoping that Blizzard would realize this, and make changes that would make the reality more closely match my image. With the advent of Tier 3 armor, and looking at the Paladin review of 1.9 in hindsight, I believe this hope to be futile. Paladins are as Blizzard envisioned them, and if I do not like that vision, I should reroll or quit.
Accordingly, I have chosen to quit.
World of Warcraft was a spectacular game from levels 1 to 59. It was merely a decent game at level 60. There is a bit too much emphasis on raiding, and very little content for other playstyles. I enjoyed raiding, but there was no variety. All the non-raid content, such as PvP, was seriously flawed in implementation.
Still, I enjoyed my stay in Azeroth quite a bit. I met and played with a lot of good people in the various guilds I was part of.
This was really the first MMO that I spent time with, and it was a fun experience. Though next time, I seriously doubt I will pick a hybrid, or jack-of-all-trades, class. It seems like far less hassle to pick a specialist class.
In any case, thanks for reading this blog.
Coriel, 60 Paladin, Bronzebeard/Etrigg, 59 Days Played
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Tier 3 Armor
Community Manager: The paladins are complaining that they are not being allowed to melee in raids, and are being forced to stand in the back and spam heals.
Blizzard Developer: Okay, if they're in the back, they won't need any melee stats on their armor.
I surrender. The healbots have won. God forbid that a melee class--a class with zero ability to do damage from range--actually enter the front lines of a battle.
Blizzard Developer: Okay, if they're in the back, they won't need any melee stats on their armor.
I surrender. The healbots have won. God forbid that a melee class--a class with zero ability to do damage from range--actually enter the front lines of a battle.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Silithus Field Duty Quests
I've been playing with the Silithus Field Duty quests a bit. They seem flawed to me. The actual quests are okay, but I really dislike the method of obtaining them.
The quests are elite, which means you need a group to do them. However, there is no way of sharing the quest you are working on with the entire group. So basically, you get a group of five people doing something which can only benefit one person. This just doesn't seem to work.
It's one thing if everyone in the group is working on the same quest, but when each person has a different Field Duty quest, it just becomes uncomfortable. So realistically, what people do is get a whole bunch of Field Duty quests, and hope that there is some overlap between quests gained, then do the quest with the most overlap.
This seems terrible awkward to me. There should be some way to easily share Field Duty quests, so that your entire group can work on one together, and be rewarded together.
The quests are elite, which means you need a group to do them. However, there is no way of sharing the quest you are working on with the entire group. So basically, you get a group of five people doing something which can only benefit one person. This just doesn't seem to work.
It's one thing if everyone in the group is working on the same quest, but when each person has a different Field Duty quest, it just becomes uncomfortable. So realistically, what people do is get a whole bunch of Field Duty quests, and hope that there is some overlap between quests gained, then do the quest with the most overlap.
This seems terrible awkward to me. There should be some way to easily share Field Duty quests, so that your entire group can work on one together, and be rewarded together.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Is the Spell System Breaking Down?
Lately, I've begun to see some posts saying that the spell system in WoW is breaking down at the very high end. I think that there is some truth to the matter. Here is my description of the problem:
The amount of damage done or healed by a spell or ability is given by:
Total = Base + Modifiers
During levels 1-59, the Base damage is greater than Modifiers (+dmg/heal), so getting new ranks of spells is important, as it's the only way to significantly increase your damage.
At level 60, the Modifiers start becoming larger than the Base. Eventually, you can stack enough modifiers so that the Base is negligible compared to Modifiers. At this point it effectively does not matter what rank of spell you use, as the Total damage is determined mostly by the modifiers.
Total = Modifiers
However, the cost of the spell is still determined by the Base spell. So you choose the cheapest spell you can cast. Your cost is significantly reduced, but your damage is still roughly the same.
The second problem is that there are ways to reduce the cost even more: Spell Crit, via Illumination; and Mana/5s. With enough of these stats, you can reduce your costs to zero, while still keeping about the same total damage.
In effect, the old paradigm of 'Significantly larger effects require significantly larger costs' no longer really holds at the very high end of Warcraft, and this is game-breaking.
Honestly, the best solution would be to dissuade casters from casting lower ranked spells, probably by nerfing the effect of Modifiers such as +heal on lower ranked spells. If a lower rank of a spell costs 50% less mana, it should heal about 50% less damage.
This isn't a problem specific to paladins, but the existence of Illumination and a really cheap Flash of Light makes it very visible when looking at our heals.
The amount of damage done or healed by a spell or ability is given by:
Total = Base + Modifiers
During levels 1-59, the Base damage is greater than Modifiers (+dmg/heal), so getting new ranks of spells is important, as it's the only way to significantly increase your damage.
At level 60, the Modifiers start becoming larger than the Base. Eventually, you can stack enough modifiers so that the Base is negligible compared to Modifiers. At this point it effectively does not matter what rank of spell you use, as the Total damage is determined mostly by the modifiers.
Total = Modifiers
However, the cost of the spell is still determined by the Base spell. So you choose the cheapest spell you can cast. Your cost is significantly reduced, but your damage is still roughly the same.
The second problem is that there are ways to reduce the cost even more: Spell Crit, via Illumination; and Mana/5s. With enough of these stats, you can reduce your costs to zero, while still keeping about the same total damage.
In effect, the old paradigm of 'Significantly larger effects require significantly larger costs' no longer really holds at the very high end of Warcraft, and this is game-breaking.
Honestly, the best solution would be to dissuade casters from casting lower ranked spells, probably by nerfing the effect of Modifiers such as +heal on lower ranked spells. If a lower rank of a spell costs 50% less mana, it should heal about 50% less damage.
This isn't a problem specific to paladins, but the existence of Illumination and a really cheap Flash of Light makes it very visible when looking at our heals.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Mmm...Epic Hammer
I picked up an [Earthshaker] in Molten Core today. I was kind of surprised I won it, as I was in the middle of the pack for DKP. I guess the other paladins are waiting for Lawbringer pieces.
I'm pondering respeccing to take advantage of the proc. As it's a stun, I could Judgement of Command for extra damage. However, I'm currently 30/21/0 for Blessing of Sanctuary and raid healing. If I kept Sanctuary (I'm the only paladin in the guild who has it), I could do something like 14/21/16. Or I could forget about Sanctuary and go for a more normal Holy/Retribution build.
(Another option is a Reckoning build, but I really dislike Reckoning.)
As well, I need to enchant it. I'm currently using a 1H and shield (non-epic) inside MC, but I could put +22 Int on the [Earthshaker] and use that as my primary raid weapon. I could also just forget about it in raids and put a combat enchant on it for farming or PvP.
Of course, I actually need gold to do any of this, so its all theoretical at this point. :)
Blizzard's Paladin Vision
After thinking about it for a while, I think that Blizzard intended for paladins to be in melee on raids. To heal and cleanse from melee range.
Proof: Lawbringer armor
Lawbringer is our Tier 1 set. The first armor we get from 40-man raid instances, armor specifically designed for us, and the armor that prepares us for what Blizzard thinks our should be our role in raid content.
So let's look at Lawbringer. It has +Int and +heal, which implies that we should be helping to heal. But it also has a bit of +Str which adds to our damage. As well, take a look at the set bonuses:
3 pieces: Increases the chance of triggering a Judgement of Light heal by 10%.
5 pieces: Improves your chance to get a critical strike with spells by 1%.
5 pieces: Improves your chance to get a critical strike by 1%.
8 pieces: Gives the Paladin a chance on every melee hit to heal your party for 189 to 211.
Three out of four bonuses only work if the paladin is meleeing!
Lawbringer is meant to help us fulfill our role in raiding. It has +Str and bonuses that reward the paladin for meleeing. It has +Int and +heal that reward the paladin for healing.
I believe that it is clear from Lawbringer armor that Blizzard intended us to melee in raids and heal from melee range.
This is their vision, and it is a good vision.
The problem is not with Blizzard, but with guilds who are too timid to let their paladins live up to the role that Blizzard intends for us.
Proof: Lawbringer armor
Lawbringer is our Tier 1 set. The first armor we get from 40-man raid instances, armor specifically designed for us, and the armor that prepares us for what Blizzard thinks our should be our role in raid content.
So let's look at Lawbringer. It has +Int and +heal, which implies that we should be helping to heal. But it also has a bit of +Str which adds to our damage. As well, take a look at the set bonuses:
3 pieces: Increases the chance of triggering a Judgement of Light heal by 10%.
5 pieces: Improves your chance to get a critical strike with spells by 1%.
5 pieces: Improves your chance to get a critical strike by 1%.
8 pieces: Gives the Paladin a chance on every melee hit to heal your party for 189 to 211.
Three out of four bonuses only work if the paladin is meleeing!
Lawbringer is meant to help us fulfill our role in raiding. It has +Str and bonuses that reward the paladin for meleeing. It has +Int and +heal that reward the paladin for healing.
I believe that it is clear from Lawbringer armor that Blizzard intended us to melee in raids and heal from melee range.
This is their vision, and it is a good vision.
The problem is not with Blizzard, but with guilds who are too timid to let their paladins live up to the role that Blizzard intends for us.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Monday, May 08, 2006
What I Miss...
You know what I, as a 60, miss the most from levels 1 to 59?
I miss the sound you get when you discover a new area and piece of the map fills in.
Such a nice sound. The sound probably doesn't play at 60 because it's tied to the experience gained for the discovery, and you no longer get experience at 60. It's a pity though. Hopefully it will return when the level cap goes up.
I miss the sound you get when you discover a new area and piece of the map fills in.
Such a nice sound. The sound probably doesn't play at 60 because it's tied to the experience gained for the discovery, and you no longer get experience at 60. It's a pity though. Hopefully it will return when the level cap goes up.
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