With the advent of Retribution Paladins actually being USEFUL in raids, a big debate has popped up over Seal of the Martyr versus Seal of Command. (where Alliance Martyr = Horde Blood)
Seal of the Martyr: All melee attacks deal [0.22 * mw] to [0.22 * MW] additional Holy damage, but the Paladin loses health equal to 10% of the total damage inflicted. Lasts 30 min.
Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing [.36* MW + .25* SP + .16* AP] Holy damage at the cost of health equal to 33% of the damage caused.
Seal of Command: Gives the Paladin a chance to deal [0.45 * mw] to [0.45 * MW] additional Holy damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 min.
Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing [0.24 * mw + 0.16 * AP + 0.25 * SPH] to [0.24 * MW + 0.16 * AP + 0.25 * SPH] Holy damage. This attack will always be a critical strike if the target is stunned or incapacitated.
Now, a lot of people will argue that Command is better, because of the Glyph of Seal of Command, which increases your chance of dealing Command damage by 20%.
The big difference between Command and Martyr, in my mind, is that Command is a proc ability, meaning it does not hit on every attack, and Martyr is an 'on melee hit' ability.
The numbers (crunched by people smarter than I am) say that Command unglyphed will proc 7 times per minute, glyphed it will proc a little over 8 times per minute.
Martyr will deal damage with every Crusader Strike, every melee swing, every Divine Storm (and have the potential to crit with every strike).
When I was first playing around with switching from Command to Martyr, having grown up in the era of pre-Martyr Alliance Paladin, where Command was IT... I had the Command Glyph and I was rockin' the Command bandwagon.
Then I noticed in a raid that I was in that another ret paladin was using Seal of the Martyr. They were doing more DPS than I was (unpossible, but it happened). And so ... I started to take a look.
On Recount, using Seal of Command, my #1 ability was Melee, followed by Judgement, followed by something else, often CS or Seal damage. (It's been a while since I've used SoC, so forgive me that I can't remember.)
On Recount, using Seal of the Martyr, my #1 ability was Seal Damage, followed by Melee, followed by Judgement.
So, a lightbulb flicked on in my head... if my melee damage is constant (and there's no reason it shouldn't be, since Seal damage counts as it's own section in recount), the only thing changing is my seal damage and judgement damage... and OMG, my Seal damage is blowing past my overall melee damage.
My DPS jumped up by a bunch, I don't know exact numbers, but all of a sudden, Martyr was lookin' pretty hot, even unglyphed compared to Command as it is.
Actually, let me bring pretty pretty pictures!
Or numbers... here is a comparison of my WWS on a recent Nax25 run compared to Vialora, who used mainly SoC (he switched to Martyr briefly at one point, then habitually went back to SoC)... if I could figure out how to list us both side by side, I'd do that. But I'm dumb.
We both did about 4 million damage overall with just Swing damage.
His Seal of Command did 2 million damage.
My Seal of the Martyr did 5.5 million (of which, 10% of that was done to myself, but 10% of 5 million still means somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.9 million damage done to the mobs, unless I'm doing numbers TOTALLY wrong).
His Judgement of Command did about 2 million.
My Judgement of the Martyr did a little higher than that. Again, 33% of that damage was done to myself, but that still leaves my judgement damage to other mobs comfortably over the two million mark.
And he is using the Glyph of the Seal of Command.
The argument 'It puts a strain on the healers', is largely negated by Judging Light, Art of War and Divine Storm.
Now, there are stories untold of people killing themselves with Seal of the Martyr/Blood on Prince in Karazhan, and even some talking about Thaddius in Naxx. Are there going to be situations where if you're expecting to take a ton of splash damage that MAY drop your health low enough where you can kill yourself, you need to WATCH yourself (or use a different seal)? Yes.
However, I haven't had a problem yet. I use it on Gluth and his decimates. I use it on Thaddius with his polarities. I use it on Malygos with his vortex and falling damage. I use it on Loatheb with his unable to heal yourself debuff.
I have yet to kill myself.
And I kick ass.
Showing posts with label retribution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retribution. Show all posts
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Retribution Paladin Glyphs
This post is going to focus mainly on the glyphs (mainly major) that are beneficial for retribution paladins, and you will see why Blizzard really doesn't love us. :(
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Avenging Wrath
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Avenging Wrath
- This glyph has the potential to really boost your DPS, if used at the right time and in the right cirumcstances.
- It reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Wrath by 50% when Avenging Wrath is active. What this means it that if you save your Avenging Wrath to when a boss has 20% or less health, then pop it, you can cast Hammer of Wrath every 3 seconds.
- The thing to consider is the fact that this is a glyph that only applies at a very specific set of circumstances. You need your avenging wrath to be on cooldown and the boss has to be at 20% or less health, and for the best use of this, once the boss hits 20% or less health, and you pop your avenging wrath and start hammering away, it needs to live for 20 seconds to get the MOST use and DPS out of this combination of things.
- That set of circumstances often applies to most raid bosses. Go go HoW!
- Now, back in the OLD days, a lot of people I spoke to said that they never used Consecration, simply because of cooldowns and the lack of damage/mana spent. But these are the new days. We young whippersnappers are slapping down consecration on a regular basis, and what's more... we're dancing in it.
- The glyph itself is pretty simple and straightforward, this increases the duration and cooldown of your consecration by 2 seconds.
- What this means is that there will hopefully be one less time when your consecration goes off at the same time you need to hit another ability or spell. It puts it on the same timer as your divine storm, judgement* and 4 seconds longer than your crusader strike.
*If you have four pieces of your T7 set, judgement cooldown is 9 seconds, not 10. - Paladins don't think of ourselves as having a casting rotation as strict as say, a mage or warlock, but in actuality, we do. It is possible to screw things up so that instead of being able to use crusader strike every 6 seconds, we're actually using it every 8-10 because we hit a cooldown right before crusader strike is up. If we start our rotation wrong, and we say to ourselves 'zomg, need to keep judgement of wisdom up!' and we hit judgement before we hit crusader strike EVERY TIME... it eats into your DPS. But that's a whole other story in and of itself.
- Crusader Strike is the bread and butter for single target DPS for us RetLoL's. We loves our Crusader Strike, yes we do!
- Now, if this glyph increased DAMAGE, I would be in hog heaven. However, a decrease in mana is still not a bad price to day, considering our ever shrinking mana pools. Having to replace your Seal of Command or Martyr with Seal of Wisdom because you're running out of mana, even chain-casting Divine Plea... makes us sad pandapaladins.
- One word. Nifty.
- If this glyph doesn't change when Exorcism affects all creatures, not just undead, it will be a handy ability to have. Finally, we can pull a caster without having to find a hill to hind behind or a corner to duck around! However, it's PROBABLY more for solo-play than group-play.
- HoJ has its uses in PvE, but I don't know if an extra 5 yards is worth it. I can EASILY see this being useful in PvP.
- Free HoW? Pair that up with Glyph of Avenging Wrath and you're one hammer swinging bad-ass.
- However, again I find this glyph very situational. Yes, you do cast your hammer of wrath frequently, but usually just once on your average fight... boss fights is a different story. And again, if you're pairing it up with Glyph of Avenging Wrath, this is definately a nice one to take. Lets you whackitywhack for free!
- This is a must have for us, imnsho. Not only do our judgements cause Heart of the Crusader, but also have the potential to put up Righteous Vengeance, two very important things.
- We should be judging whenever the cooldown is up, not just when our judgement is going to fall off the boss. The duration of Heart of the Crusader is shorter than the duration of our judgement, so please, pretty please, especially if you are the only ret paladin in your group, JUDGE. Cast your righteous vengeance on them! Be the Judge, Jury and Executioner!
- In short... increasing the damage of our judgements? Gravy.
- I currently HAVE this, but that will change since I've started to use Seal of the Martyr and I no longer really use Seal of Command. But it's very useful for times when you aren't using seal of the martyr (pvp?).
- No seriously, if you're thinking that Seal of Command, thus buffed with this glyph is better than Seal of the Martyr, I'm proof that it isn't. I switched mid-raid from Command to Martyr and saw my average DPS jump up from low 2k to high 2k-low3k.
- In more concrete terms, Command is a flat boost to damage, whereas Martyr seems multiplicative. What it multiplies with, dunno!
- Here's some info on Seal of the Martyr from WoWWiki. Martyr can crit (and be missed, dodged and parried) and scales on a 27% of weapon damage (or so I gather).
- Don't let the healers gainsay you from using this. (where "this" is seal of the Martyr) Yes, you do have to be careful. Yes, you need to use it responsibly. Yes, we will laugh and point if you kill yourself. But Judgement of Light will help heal a portion of your damage and that's also why we have Art of War. (Well, that and Loatheb. Be kind to your healers on Loatheb. Heal thyself.)
Minor Glyphs
We're a little screwed on the minor glyph side, with the only direct benefit coming from one glyph, all the others being pluses for pre-raid buffing or self-buffing the regular blessings as opposed to greater blessings. Boo.
Glyph of Sense Undead
- This is the only directly beneficial one to us pallies. 1% increased damage to undead when we're sensing them? Okay. I'll take that. I just need to remember to switch to Sense Undead when I walk into Naxx.
- Typically a pre-raid issue, it's useful to keep us from burning out on mana when we're buffing a full raid with Kings, or if we have to buff on the fly in a fight or some such. Why don't see get glyphs that make our spells reagentless? *pout*
- Again, not a direct boost to us, but useful if we're having to save someone with a mana bar... or, in worst case scenarios, use it on yourself if you're almost out of mana, to give yourself a mana injection... though, I still prefer to save it to, I dunno, save someone?
- Useful if you're low on mana in combat and have to wait for yourself to passively generate enough mana to slap on Seal of Wisdom. Hopefully you've enough awareness of the fight you're in, your own mana bar, and you're using Divine Plea on a regular basis, you should have plenty of time to either eat/drink, Divine Plea, or slap on your seal of wisdom.
Glyph of Blessing of Might/Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom
- These are both glyphs that make your regular blessing of might or wisdom last as long as a greater, without using a reagent. Personally, I prefer kings on myself anyway.
- This does not apply to anyone else you cast said blessings on, they get the ghetto-10 minute.
- Did I already say I prefer Kings on myself?
So, pick your glyphs with care and thought. We don't have a huge selection with our minors, but then again, who does? However, our major glyphs can really boost our DPS! And that's what we're all about, the deeps.
Go out there and represent!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Anope!
Apparently, it is not an upgrade! Despite what I just said, the strength on the Amulet is better, I gain more AP from it.
Why is that?
Because I have Divine Strength, which increases my strength by 15%. So the Amulet actually DOES give me more Attack Power.
The issue of the crit is still up for grabs however... but I didn't go for the Pendant after all.
Why is that?
Because I have Divine Strength, which increases my strength by 15%. So the Amulet actually DOES give me more Attack Power.
The issue of the crit is still up for grabs however... but I didn't go for the Pendant after all.
Upgrade?
So something I'm running into a lot with a few things... is the question, "I know it's purple. And it does have a somewhat higher crit rating than the item I have on. But other than that, I lose 45 Strength to gain 49 Agility. I'm not sure it's really an upgrade?"
What I'm talking about is that Kvasira is currently wearing the Gold Amulet of Kings out of Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
The Collar of Dissolution dropped last night in Naxx-10. And the Pendant of the Outcast Hero which is a Dalaran Emblem of Heroism token reward.
But are they better? Their i-level is the same, 200. One is just colored purple, the other blue.
So, let's compare.
47 Strength gives me 94 Attack Power. (It takes 14 AP to increase DPS by 1, or so says WoWWiki.) So in terms of Attack Power, both pieces may actually be better than the Amulet. (pout, I hate it when my research proves what I was about to say wrong.)
It takes 45 crit rating to increase your crit by 1%. It takes (for a paladin), 52 agility to increase crit by 1%.
There's a conversion for when Agi becomes more important than Str.
For me, it seems that equilibrium point is when my 'DPS' is about 902.71.
Right now, it's at 434 something.
So according to this, I should still be focusing more on Str than Agi. This is subject to change with talents, and as I get more or less strength, more or less agility, more or less crit chance.
It's, to put it simply, confusing as hell.
It's [(0.1428-0)x(1+0.26)]/0.0002 for me.
This is [(DPSperStr-DPSperAgi)x(1+Crit)]/CritperAgi
For people who aren't hunters and rogues, it's always 0.1428 for DPSperStr and for anyone who isn't a rogue, hunter or cat druid, it's 0 for DPSperAgi.
So from what I see of this, when I mouse over my 'Damage' and it reads 902 DPS, that's when I say 1 point of Agility > 1 point of Strength. Until that point in time, Strength is still my baby.
For crit chance, I'm sitting at about 26% right now. The Pendant would give me an overall 1.7% crit. The Amulet gives about a 0.95%. The Collar gives about a 0.69%.
Once you get above 25% for a retribution paladin, give or take, Vengeance and Righteous Vengeance are always aglow and active.
So would the extra 0.75% crit chance matter? Crits are pretty. Crits make us laugh in glee. And at this level, it takes a walloping amount of crit rating or agility to make us sit up and go, "Really? Wooooow." So when you say it like, it's just an increase in 0.75% crit... makes it sound like less than it is. It's actually a good boost.
What the Collar has that the other two do NOT is Expertise. Now, if you have talents that are guaranteed to never be dodged or missed, then boogy for you. For us paladins, we need expertise to avoid that 5-6% dodging that bosses will do.
So that 38 Expertise Rating calculates out to being a little over 1% decrease in the boss' ability to dodge (or parry) my attacks.
Right now, raid buffed, using Elixir of Expertise and Rhinolicious Wormsteak, with my expertise gems, I'm at about 5% dodge free.
So... in my opinion, if you're hit capped and close to expertise capped, the Collar is not an upgrade.
In my opinion, the Pendant ekes out over the Amulet.
Which means I know what I'm buying when I get home tonight.
What I'm talking about is that Kvasira is currently wearing the Gold Amulet of Kings out of Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
The Collar of Dissolution dropped last night in Naxx-10. And the Pendant of the Outcast Hero which is a Dalaran Emblem of Heroism token reward.
But are they better? Their i-level is the same, 200. One is just colored purple, the other blue.
So, let's compare.
47 Strength gives me 94 Attack Power. (It takes 14 AP to increase DPS by 1, or so says WoWWiki.) So in terms of Attack Power, both pieces may actually be better than the Amulet. (pout, I hate it when my research proves what I was about to say wrong.)
It takes 45 crit rating to increase your crit by 1%. It takes (for a paladin), 52 agility to increase crit by 1%.
There's a conversion for when Agi becomes more important than Str.
For me, it seems that equilibrium point is when my 'DPS' is about 902.71.
Right now, it's at 434 something.
So according to this, I should still be focusing more on Str than Agi. This is subject to change with talents, and as I get more or less strength, more or less agility, more or less crit chance.
It's, to put it simply, confusing as hell.
It's [(0.1428-0)x(1+0.26)]/0.0002 for me.
This is [(DPSperStr-DPSperAgi)x(1+Crit)]/CritperAgi
For people who aren't hunters and rogues, it's always 0.1428 for DPSperStr and for anyone who isn't a rogue, hunter or cat druid, it's 0 for DPSperAgi.
So from what I see of this, when I mouse over my 'Damage' and it reads 902 DPS, that's when I say 1 point of Agility > 1 point of Strength. Until that point in time, Strength is still my baby.
For crit chance, I'm sitting at about 26% right now. The Pendant would give me an overall 1.7% crit. The Amulet gives about a 0.95%. The Collar gives about a 0.69%.
Once you get above 25% for a retribution paladin, give or take, Vengeance and Righteous Vengeance are always aglow and active.
So would the extra 0.75% crit chance matter? Crits are pretty. Crits make us laugh in glee. And at this level, it takes a walloping amount of crit rating or agility to make us sit up and go, "Really? Wooooow." So when you say it like, it's just an increase in 0.75% crit... makes it sound like less than it is. It's actually a good boost.
What the Collar has that the other two do NOT is Expertise. Now, if you have talents that are guaranteed to never be dodged or missed, then boogy for you. For us paladins, we need expertise to avoid that 5-6% dodging that bosses will do.
So that 38 Expertise Rating calculates out to being a little over 1% decrease in the boss' ability to dodge (or parry) my attacks.
Right now, raid buffed, using Elixir of Expertise and Rhinolicious Wormsteak, with my expertise gems, I'm at about 5% dodge free.
So... in my opinion, if you're hit capped and close to expertise capped, the Collar is not an upgrade.
In my opinion, the Pendant ekes out over the Amulet.
Which means I know what I'm buying when I get home tonight.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Rise of the Ret Paladin
I've heard that in WotLK, they're going to "fix" retribution paladins. This is very nice! For those people who can't currently play a ret pally. And for those of us already doing a good job with it, just wait until we're better!
It takes a certain amount of gear and understanding of what buttons to click and what stats to stack to reach the level of DPS that a blue-geared mage or warlock could put out.
Which is very sad. But do-able. I've been doing it and defying people left and right. Rawr. Go me.
So, the other day I was doing the pre-quest for Karazhan with Boon's little warrior. And Boon said, "OMG. Stop killing them so fast!" ... then realized what he said and said, "Uh, nothing. I said nothing."
So this weekend, Boon slapped back on the ret gear he'd been collecting here and there as off-spec items from the raids and runs he's been in. And he went ret. And we went battlegrounding. And he giggled.
Yes. Giggled.
Chortled.
And chased down people and roared and said, "I am never going to yell at you again for chasing people down when I'm guarding the flag, because .. they just have that little bit of life left and I know I can BEAT THEM DOWN!"
A ret paladin has been born, at least for a little while.
It takes a certain amount of gear and understanding of what buttons to click and what stats to stack to reach the level of DPS that a blue-geared mage or warlock could put out.
Which is very sad. But do-able. I've been doing it and defying people left and right. Rawr. Go me.
So, the other day I was doing the pre-quest for Karazhan with Boon's little warrior. And Boon said, "OMG. Stop killing them so fast!" ... then realized what he said and said, "Uh, nothing. I said nothing."
So this weekend, Boon slapped back on the ret gear he'd been collecting here and there as off-spec items from the raids and runs he's been in. And he went ret. And we went battlegrounding. And he giggled.
Yes. Giggled.
Chortled.
And chased down people and roared and said, "I am never going to yell at you again for chasing people down when I'm guarding the flag, because .. they just have that little bit of life left and I know I can BEAT THEM DOWN!"
A ret paladin has been born, at least for a little while.
Monday, August 25, 2008
70 Retribution Paladin: J.O.A.T.
A JOAT is an acronym for Jack of All Trades.
The end to that is: Master of None.
A retribution paladin is, in my opinion, a joat. We don't do the best damage. We don't do the best healing. We don't do the best tanking.
But by God, do we help out in all three fields when needed!
To quote RetLoL (my inspiration and source of all knowledge... well, not really, but it's a good plug?) about Ret Pallies in 5-mans.
"Here your job will be firstly, to provide blessings, because likely as not you will be the only paladin in the group. So make a note of what Blessings your party wants and keep them up all the time. But be prepared to pro-actively change them mid fight – healer low on mana and using Blessing of Kings? Switch him to Blessing of Wisdom. DPSer asked for Blessing of Might but is constantly aggroing mobs? Switch her to Blessing of Salvation. DPSer got a bit carried away on the boss and pull aggro? Drop them a Blessing of Protection. This fluidity is what will give you a name as a good Retribution paladin, the ability to adapt to the situations, and do it quickly.
Another thing you will provide is wipe recovery, if a team mate dies be ready to Resurrect them – don’t expect the healer to do it “because it’s the healers job”. And of course if the shit hits the proverbial fan you also have to be fast to get that Divine Intervention up on a healer to save your repair cost… I mean… save the group from a corpse run. Yes, that’s what I said. Helping prevent wipes in the first place, with skilled use of Blessing of Protection, Righteous Defense (in none heroics only) and off healing can also get you a reputation for being a good Retribution paladin.
.~~. (removed nonessential paragraph)
Where auras are considered you are likely to have Sanctity Aura up all the time for the extra DPS, however during some boss fights you may need to swap to a Resistance aura for example, or even Concentration Aura for your healer and casters benefit. Again adaptability is the key."
In my oh so humble opinion... every player that enters an instance should have a certain awareness and adaptability of what is going on around them and to the other people in their group.
Now, sometimes having that awareness won't help anyone at all. But those times, in my opinion, are exceptionally few and far between. This is vitally true for classes who can help by changing their role slightly.
The warlock who steps in and fear yo-yo's something that is too much for the hunter to handle or when the sap breaks early or at a poor time.
The hunter who not only traps one mob, but then kites another that was eating the healer.
The tank who keeps an eye on the life of the group and turns to investigate why someone else's health is dropping so prodigiously.
The boomkin or feral kitty who pops out of form to help heal or who keeps an eye on decursing and removing poison.
The rogue who saps, then blinds the sap, then gouges the sap, then kidney shots the sap, then gouges, then kites, until the tank can pick the sap up.
And the retribution paladin that uses blessing of protection, righteous defense, healing spells, judgements, hammers of justice and wrath, repentence, divine protection and makes sure to keep everyone buffed appropriatly...
Let's face it, have YOU run with such a creature? You have if you've run with me. (shameless plug!)
Sure! 98% of my time playing is spent doing a combination of seal->judge, crusader strike, +/- exorcism if it's a demon/undead, +/- hammer of wrath if it's almost dead.
But the 2% of the time where I'm doing everything and it's brother is the time where you're thankful you have a retribution paladin versus a rogue in your group!
It's a change for me, to go from trying to be the tippytop of the DPS meter, to being content where I wind up being. Because I'm useful. I do decent DPS (400-600 instance depending) when I am able to DPS. Sometimes I'm being the catch-all for whatever is going on.
(Ooh, ooh! In Slabs, against those big pulls of skeletons? Consecration + Holy Wrath = 1500 DPS. *squee*)
It's a subtle role and a lot of people probably miss it. However, I make sure that the people I party with don't miss it because I'm a verbal attention whore. "Did you see what I did there! You are SO lucky that I'm in the group with you!"
(Just kidding! Though I have been informed that when I do blessing of protection on someone who is not the healer, I need to let them know so they can remove it to continue to cast. So I do have a little bit of 'I just bubbled you (name).' advertisement.)
Retribution paladins have a hard role to play. Our contributions to the group are subtle, especially in the heat of the moment. Can a group survive without a retribution paladin? Yes, naturally (duh!). What we bring to the table may not be needed if instead you have another CC class or a straight kick-ass DPS class.
And I hear all the talk about how retribution paladins are getting buffed in WotLK. And I'm happy for that. Yet, I think ret pallies ARE already viable. Hard to play? Yes. Easily put into one group role? No. But viable in 5-mans. Probably also a handy thing to have in 10 and 25 mans, too.
I really need to work on a healing set... not to mention just find something to swap out weapon wise when I wind up being primary healer when the real healer bites the dust! Because 0 bonus healing... not so good.
Things to think about when you're being a retribution paladin.
- You are not going to top the healing or DPS charts and you are not going to do more than tank something for two seconds before probably dying. So don't try. Just do your best to be your best. You are not a tank. You are not a healer. Let these people do their jobs and help only when needed. The tank is not going to thank you for pulling aggro from him. The healer is not going to thank you for sucking up their time and mana from damage you really shouldn't be taking.
- You are going to go through a lot of symbols of kings. Because everytime you have to cast blessing of protection on the DPS, or blessing of protection on the healer... you're going to have to rebuff their usual buff.
- Understand that you are NOT the tank. Sure, righteous defense is a GREAT tool, but keep in mind that the tank is probably (hopefully) already aware of the situation. Only use righteous defense when it's really needed. The tank has a ton of stuff on their plate, the healer is getting eaten, pop righteous defense. Ideally, you'll be standing next to the tank anyway. So the tank can hopefully pull it right off of you without having to run all over the place trying to get aggro. Let the tank know when you are doing this.
- Divine protection is also a great tool. If the healer is swamped and people are taking tons of damage everywhere, pop your shield. Heal yourself. Heal someone else. Then either continue to heal if needed or remove your shield and start DPSing again. That little bit of time where you can't take damage will allow you to heal yourself, let the healer focus on someone who is taking damage, and let you get a little bit of breathing room to help out.
- A lot of tanks will switch targets just before the target dies, to start generating threat on the next target. Some high DPS will also do this. Why is the warlock going to waste their time casting a shadowbolt that hits for 3k, when the mob may die before the bolt actually hits, and the mob only has 1k health left? Waste of time! So everyone leaves except the melee. Sometimes, this mob decides to run away. Hammer of Wrath is your friend in this instance.
- Repentence only works if no one is hitting the mob. The best time to use it is at the start of a pull when the mob isn't near the tank, or if it's an add that's wandering in from somewhere else and is running madly for the healer. This move also only works if you let the tank and DPS understand that you're doing this. It gives them only 6 seconds of wiggle room, but ask any husband... 6 seconds is more than enough!
- Hammer of Justice is saved for interrupts of heals, or stopping it from hitting the priest, or running away or anything else you want it to be for, including a temporary CC. I've done it where I repentence and then hammer - 12 seconds of time out.
- Sometimes you'll want Kings. Sometimes you'll want Wisdom. And sometimes the tank will be a crybaby and you'll need to have on Salvation. Sometimes you'll need to swap buffs for other people as well. Sometimes the hunter will be happy with Might. Sometimes they'll need Salvation because FD is on a 2 minute cooldown and they need the extra threat reduction because they're a hunter that isn't human!
- Pally Power is a must. Must. MUST. Do I need to repeat myself? It's simple. It's easy to use. It lets you figure out who what where and how frequent. It tells you when buffs are wearing off. It's a one click solution so you can free up some of your hotbar places because it's got what you need!
- Other useful things are Grid (I like to have it up on any character that can heal, it's easier for me to see the boxes than for me to see a line of health) and Decursive. Sure, Paladins have one button to hit, but instead of hitting cleanse and finding the person, or finding the person then hitting cleanse, I like the simplicity of left clicking on the highlighted little box at the bottom of my screen and cleansing whomever of whatever. Be careful though, if you have multiple alts that have decursing/debuffing/dewhatevering options, you'll wind up Abolishing Poison when you should be DeCursing on your druid, or Abolishing Disease when you shoud be Dispelling Magic on your priest. Paladins are simple. Cleanse.
(Boon will tell me that Grid and Decursive are crutches. I USED to be able to heal and decurse and dispell all without the use of add-ons. He and I are OLD SCHOOL. But just because old school worked just peachy and fine and was wonderful doesn't mean we shouldn't avail ourselves to the benefits of modern technology. And for new healers and people who have a lot of stuff on their screen and a lot of things to do... anything to help organize and highlight issues that you need to take care of is a bonus. It doesn't play FOR you (big no no!) but it issues the information you need to see in a format that's easy TO see.)
(By the way, Boon is magical. Seriously. He's the fastest cleanser in the West! And don't get me started on healing. Oy. Blizzard needs to nerf Boon.)
So... yet more rambling about non-warlock related things from me. I'll probably post something warlock related in the next few days. I'm eyeing the uses of imps in raids versus the increase in self-damage from demonology-specced-non-imps. I may have posted this before. But I'm going to post again. Because this is my blog and I can.
The end to that is: Master of None.
A retribution paladin is, in my opinion, a joat. We don't do the best damage. We don't do the best healing. We don't do the best tanking.
But by God, do we help out in all three fields when needed!
To quote RetLoL (my inspiration and source of all knowledge... well, not really, but it's a good plug?) about Ret Pallies in 5-mans.
"Here your job will be firstly, to provide blessings, because likely as not you will be the only paladin in the group. So make a note of what Blessings your party wants and keep them up all the time. But be prepared to pro-actively change them mid fight – healer low on mana and using Blessing of Kings? Switch him to Blessing of Wisdom. DPSer asked for Blessing of Might but is constantly aggroing mobs? Switch her to Blessing of Salvation. DPSer got a bit carried away on the boss and pull aggro? Drop them a Blessing of Protection. This fluidity is what will give you a name as a good Retribution paladin, the ability to adapt to the situations, and do it quickly.
Another thing you will provide is wipe recovery, if a team mate dies be ready to Resurrect them – don’t expect the healer to do it “because it’s the healers job”. And of course if the shit hits the proverbial fan you also have to be fast to get that Divine Intervention up on a healer to save your repair cost… I mean… save the group from a corpse run. Yes, that’s what I said. Helping prevent wipes in the first place, with skilled use of Blessing of Protection, Righteous Defense (in none heroics only) and off healing can also get you a reputation for being a good Retribution paladin.
.~~. (removed nonessential paragraph)
Where auras are considered you are likely to have Sanctity Aura up all the time for the extra DPS, however during some boss fights you may need to swap to a Resistance aura for example, or even Concentration Aura for your healer and casters benefit. Again adaptability is the key."
In my oh so humble opinion... every player that enters an instance should have a certain awareness and adaptability of what is going on around them and to the other people in their group.
Now, sometimes having that awareness won't help anyone at all. But those times, in my opinion, are exceptionally few and far between. This is vitally true for classes who can help by changing their role slightly.
The warlock who steps in and fear yo-yo's something that is too much for the hunter to handle or when the sap breaks early or at a poor time.
The hunter who not only traps one mob, but then kites another that was eating the healer.
The tank who keeps an eye on the life of the group and turns to investigate why someone else's health is dropping so prodigiously.
The boomkin or feral kitty who pops out of form to help heal or who keeps an eye on decursing and removing poison.
The rogue who saps, then blinds the sap, then gouges the sap, then kidney shots the sap, then gouges, then kites, until the tank can pick the sap up.
And the retribution paladin that uses blessing of protection, righteous defense, healing spells, judgements, hammers of justice and wrath, repentence, divine protection and makes sure to keep everyone buffed appropriatly...
Let's face it, have YOU run with such a creature? You have if you've run with me. (shameless plug!)
Sure! 98% of my time playing is spent doing a combination of seal->judge, crusader strike, +/- exorcism if it's a demon/undead, +/- hammer of wrath if it's almost dead.
But the 2% of the time where I'm doing everything and it's brother is the time where you're thankful you have a retribution paladin versus a rogue in your group!
It's a change for me, to go from trying to be the tippytop of the DPS meter, to being content where I wind up being. Because I'm useful. I do decent DPS (400-600 instance depending) when I am able to DPS. Sometimes I'm being the catch-all for whatever is going on.
(Ooh, ooh! In Slabs, against those big pulls of skeletons? Consecration + Holy Wrath = 1500 DPS. *squee*)
It's a subtle role and a lot of people probably miss it. However, I make sure that the people I party with don't miss it because I'm a verbal attention whore. "Did you see what I did there! You are SO lucky that I'm in the group with you!"
(Just kidding! Though I have been informed that when I do blessing of protection on someone who is not the healer, I need to let them know so they can remove it to continue to cast. So I do have a little bit of 'I just bubbled you (name).' advertisement.)
Retribution paladins have a hard role to play. Our contributions to the group are subtle, especially in the heat of the moment. Can a group survive without a retribution paladin? Yes, naturally (duh!). What we bring to the table may not be needed if instead you have another CC class or a straight kick-ass DPS class.
And I hear all the talk about how retribution paladins are getting buffed in WotLK. And I'm happy for that. Yet, I think ret pallies ARE already viable. Hard to play? Yes. Easily put into one group role? No. But viable in 5-mans. Probably also a handy thing to have in 10 and 25 mans, too.
I really need to work on a healing set... not to mention just find something to swap out weapon wise when I wind up being primary healer when the real healer bites the dust! Because 0 bonus healing... not so good.
Things to think about when you're being a retribution paladin.
- You are not going to top the healing or DPS charts and you are not going to do more than tank something for two seconds before probably dying. So don't try. Just do your best to be your best. You are not a tank. You are not a healer. Let these people do their jobs and help only when needed. The tank is not going to thank you for pulling aggro from him. The healer is not going to thank you for sucking up their time and mana from damage you really shouldn't be taking.
- You are going to go through a lot of symbols of kings. Because everytime you have to cast blessing of protection on the DPS, or blessing of protection on the healer... you're going to have to rebuff their usual buff.
- Understand that you are NOT the tank. Sure, righteous defense is a GREAT tool, but keep in mind that the tank is probably (hopefully) already aware of the situation. Only use righteous defense when it's really needed. The tank has a ton of stuff on their plate, the healer is getting eaten, pop righteous defense. Ideally, you'll be standing next to the tank anyway. So the tank can hopefully pull it right off of you without having to run all over the place trying to get aggro. Let the tank know when you are doing this.
- Divine protection is also a great tool. If the healer is swamped and people are taking tons of damage everywhere, pop your shield. Heal yourself. Heal someone else. Then either continue to heal if needed or remove your shield and start DPSing again. That little bit of time where you can't take damage will allow you to heal yourself, let the healer focus on someone who is taking damage, and let you get a little bit of breathing room to help out.
- A lot of tanks will switch targets just before the target dies, to start generating threat on the next target. Some high DPS will also do this. Why is the warlock going to waste their time casting a shadowbolt that hits for 3k, when the mob may die before the bolt actually hits, and the mob only has 1k health left? Waste of time! So everyone leaves except the melee. Sometimes, this mob decides to run away. Hammer of Wrath is your friend in this instance.
- Repentence only works if no one is hitting the mob. The best time to use it is at the start of a pull when the mob isn't near the tank, or if it's an add that's wandering in from somewhere else and is running madly for the healer. This move also only works if you let the tank and DPS understand that you're doing this. It gives them only 6 seconds of wiggle room, but ask any husband... 6 seconds is more than enough!
- Hammer of Justice is saved for interrupts of heals, or stopping it from hitting the priest, or running away or anything else you want it to be for, including a temporary CC. I've done it where I repentence and then hammer - 12 seconds of time out.
- Sometimes you'll want Kings. Sometimes you'll want Wisdom. And sometimes the tank will be a crybaby and you'll need to have on Salvation. Sometimes you'll need to swap buffs for other people as well. Sometimes the hunter will be happy with Might. Sometimes they'll need Salvation because FD is on a 2 minute cooldown and they need the extra threat reduction because they're a hunter that isn't human!
- Pally Power is a must. Must. MUST. Do I need to repeat myself? It's simple. It's easy to use. It lets you figure out who what where and how frequent. It tells you when buffs are wearing off. It's a one click solution so you can free up some of your hotbar places because it's got what you need!
- Other useful things are Grid (I like to have it up on any character that can heal, it's easier for me to see the boxes than for me to see a line of health) and Decursive. Sure, Paladins have one button to hit, but instead of hitting cleanse and finding the person, or finding the person then hitting cleanse, I like the simplicity of left clicking on the highlighted little box at the bottom of my screen and cleansing whomever of whatever. Be careful though, if you have multiple alts that have decursing/debuffing/dewhatevering options, you'll wind up Abolishing Poison when you should be DeCursing on your druid, or Abolishing Disease when you shoud be Dispelling Magic on your priest. Paladins are simple. Cleanse.
(Boon will tell me that Grid and Decursive are crutches. I USED to be able to heal and decurse and dispell all without the use of add-ons. He and I are OLD SCHOOL. But just because old school worked just peachy and fine and was wonderful doesn't mean we shouldn't avail ourselves to the benefits of modern technology. And for new healers and people who have a lot of stuff on their screen and a lot of things to do... anything to help organize and highlight issues that you need to take care of is a bonus. It doesn't play FOR you (big no no!) but it issues the information you need to see in a format that's easy TO see.)
(By the way, Boon is magical. Seriously. He's the fastest cleanser in the West! And don't get me started on healing. Oy. Blizzard needs to nerf Boon.)
So... yet more rambling about non-warlock related things from me. I'll probably post something warlock related in the next few days. I'm eyeing the uses of imps in raids versus the increase in self-damage from demonology-specced-non-imps. I may have posted this before. But I'm going to post again. Because this is my blog and I can.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Kvasira in the End Game
No, I'm not there yet. But I will be shortly.
I've persevered and though I'm not the top of the DPS charts in the runs I'm in, I'm not that far behind... and I serve group utility. I off-heal. I buff. I protect (blessing of protection on the priest is very handy!). I sometimes taunt. And I do damage. Decent damage.
At level 67 (I'm 68 now), I was pushing 270-300ish DPS in Durnhold, Crypts, Mana Tombs and Sethekk Halls (the lower the level of the mobs, the higher my DPS, as is typical).
In one instance, I outDPSed the rogue we were running with. In another, I was keeping pace (lower than, but pacing) a level 70.
My next step is to figure out where I fit into end game raiding and playing. I have no illusions about my abilities, but I also have no illusions about my chances of getting into the PuG heroics I'd like to run. Will my group run with me? Yes, they will. And I will run heroics as often as that group decides to run them.
But the downside to a retribution paladin is that we are gear dependent, much like a rogue and other melee classes. Every level, I go to the auction house and I upgrade whatever gear I can. In the past, with other characters, I'd let two or three levels pass before I visited the auction house. But my DPS goes down the tubes if I don't stay on top of the gear that I need.
One thing I've discovered, by just looking at PvP weapons (which I've read are probably the best a RetPally could probably have), that a lot of the PvP level 70 gear ... looks like what I look for on the auction house.
Strength and Intellect. (Stamina)
Crit Rating
Variety of things like increased damage from Judgement of Crusader and cooldown on Hammer of Justice.
I was looking at the Merciless Gladiator's Vindication set, the Gladiator's Greatsword, Vindicator's Scaled Belt, Vindicator's Scaled Bracers and Vindicator's Scaled Greaves.
Now.. this is a LOT of PvP.. and for someone who reportedly hates PvP. I calculated it... 133222 Honor, 90 AV, 90 AB, 50 WSG and 40 EOTS.
Now, as I'm rereading what I typed, some of the gear is showing up on WoWHead as Arena gear, some of it is showing up as tier tokens. And maybe they are, but then I can't figure out why I saw them in Stormwind?
Now.. here's the real shocker. I'm finding that I don't mind PvP all THAT much. I still don't have the mindset for it. I can't kill anything to save my life (get it, can't kill to ... nevermind). But I'm good at screwing up other people's goals! Oh, are you trying to heal... FERAL CHARGE or BASH! Rawr. Or when I was resto/balance... Entangling Roots, Cyclone and LifebloomLifebloomLifebloom!
So, just maybe... maybe... it won't be so bad.
Now, obviously, this gear has nothing on it for Hit Rating, for which I figure what I didn't have in other gear (cloak, neck piece, etc), I'd make up for with gems.
Now, this is a pipedream.. I know this, you know this. But at least it gives me a goal to work towards on gearing Kvasira up outside of heroics with my friends.
Still working on Badge Gear and a few more PvP pieces for Kathe.
But ... there it is. Kvasira is viable in PvE. Once I get Kings (it's my level 70 talent point), I'm set.
I've persevered and though I'm not the top of the DPS charts in the runs I'm in, I'm not that far behind... and I serve group utility. I off-heal. I buff. I protect (blessing of protection on the priest is very handy!). I sometimes taunt. And I do damage. Decent damage.
At level 67 (I'm 68 now), I was pushing 270-300ish DPS in Durnhold, Crypts, Mana Tombs and Sethekk Halls (the lower the level of the mobs, the higher my DPS, as is typical).
In one instance, I outDPSed the rogue we were running with. In another, I was keeping pace (lower than, but pacing) a level 70.
My next step is to figure out where I fit into end game raiding and playing. I have no illusions about my abilities, but I also have no illusions about my chances of getting into the PuG heroics I'd like to run. Will my group run with me? Yes, they will. And I will run heroics as often as that group decides to run them.
But the downside to a retribution paladin is that we are gear dependent, much like a rogue and other melee classes. Every level, I go to the auction house and I upgrade whatever gear I can. In the past, with other characters, I'd let two or three levels pass before I visited the auction house. But my DPS goes down the tubes if I don't stay on top of the gear that I need.
One thing I've discovered, by just looking at PvP weapons (which I've read are probably the best a RetPally could probably have), that a lot of the PvP level 70 gear ... looks like what I look for on the auction house.
Strength and Intellect. (Stamina)
Crit Rating
Variety of things like increased damage from Judgement of Crusader and cooldown on Hammer of Justice.
I was looking at the Merciless Gladiator's Vindication set, the Gladiator's Greatsword, Vindicator's Scaled Belt, Vindicator's Scaled Bracers and Vindicator's Scaled Greaves.
Now.. this is a LOT of PvP.. and for someone who reportedly hates PvP. I calculated it... 133222 Honor, 90 AV, 90 AB, 50 WSG and 40 EOTS.
Now, as I'm rereading what I typed, some of the gear is showing up on WoWHead as Arena gear, some of it is showing up as tier tokens. And maybe they are, but then I can't figure out why I saw them in Stormwind?
Now.. here's the real shocker. I'm finding that I don't mind PvP all THAT much. I still don't have the mindset for it. I can't kill anything to save my life (get it, can't kill to ... nevermind). But I'm good at screwing up other people's goals! Oh, are you trying to heal... FERAL CHARGE or BASH! Rawr. Or when I was resto/balance... Entangling Roots, Cyclone and LifebloomLifebloomLifebloom!
So, just maybe... maybe... it won't be so bad.
Now, obviously, this gear has nothing on it for Hit Rating, for which I figure what I didn't have in other gear (cloak, neck piece, etc), I'd make up for with gems.
Now, this is a pipedream.. I know this, you know this. But at least it gives me a goal to work towards on gearing Kvasira up outside of heroics with my friends.
Still working on Badge Gear and a few more PvP pieces for Kathe.
But ... there it is. Kvasira is viable in PvE. Once I get Kings (it's my level 70 talent point), I'm set.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Kvasira Update - aka Retribution Paladin kicks ass!
The other night I was playing Kvasira in an instance. Yes. A retribution paladin DPSing in an instance. Try not to fall over in shock. It happens.
My damage done was equivalent to a BM hunter one level lower than I was and my DPS was roughly 300. And according to the hunter, I was outdamaging him on boss fights.
I'm jiggling a bit with my rotation on fights. For the MOST part, I ignore consecration, it being a little too mana heavy for my taste. Maybe it will up my DPS that little bit more, but if it's a longer or tougher fight, my mana is required elsewhere... like judging, crusader striking, dispelling and the occasional healing.
I've learned to WAIT to judge Crusader, due to improved judgement, the mana return will net me immediate aggro from the tank. I make sure my seal is on and I go in and whack the mob with my sword. I open up with a crusader strike and THEN judge Crusader and apply Seal of Command.
I have a macro that I use that judges and reapplies seal of command at the same time. This works well enough for me soloing because I'm a tad forgetful sometimes of reapplying seal of command, but the global cooldown sometimes means that I CAN judge command but not be able to reapply seal of command. A swing timer is rather important as well, since you want to make sure that Seal of Command is up as much as possible when you're about to swing your bigass two hander at the mob.
The most important thing.. is Crusader Strike whenever possible.
In a 'normal' fight (instance) where I don't have to cleanse or heal, my mana pool, albeit low, is enough for me. I immediately pop a drink so I stay as far up in mana as I can be, in case we got a 'not-normal' fight.
If I start to get low on mana, or a fight where I have to start cleansing or offhealing, I judge crusader (or wisdom, depending on where the boss is in terms of health when I would switch judgements) and will often just leave seal of command on, judging only when the seal is about to expire. Crusader strike when it's up. And usually that'll do for it. If the mob or boss is pretty high on life and I'm pretty low on mana, thats when I'll sometimes judge wisdom. Honestly though, considering that I'm using a big slow twohander, I don't HIT it enough to get that much mana back. Based on that, I usually just leave crusader on it.
My personal blessing is Blessing of Wisdom, not Might. (I don't have Kings yet.) Unless I need salvation, which sometimes... I will. Paladin DPS is spike damage. When every 6 seconds you have the potential to hit the mob for 1k damage... yikes. Keep your bubble handy. :P
However... Kvasira is so much fun to play. Love. Love. Love.
My damage done was equivalent to a BM hunter one level lower than I was and my DPS was roughly 300. And according to the hunter, I was outdamaging him on boss fights.
I'm jiggling a bit with my rotation on fights. For the MOST part, I ignore consecration, it being a little too mana heavy for my taste. Maybe it will up my DPS that little bit more, but if it's a longer or tougher fight, my mana is required elsewhere... like judging, crusader striking, dispelling and the occasional healing.
I've learned to WAIT to judge Crusader, due to improved judgement, the mana return will net me immediate aggro from the tank. I make sure my seal is on and I go in and whack the mob with my sword. I open up with a crusader strike and THEN judge Crusader and apply Seal of Command.
I have a macro that I use that judges and reapplies seal of command at the same time. This works well enough for me soloing because I'm a tad forgetful sometimes of reapplying seal of command, but the global cooldown sometimes means that I CAN judge command but not be able to reapply seal of command. A swing timer is rather important as well, since you want to make sure that Seal of Command is up as much as possible when you're about to swing your bigass two hander at the mob.
The most important thing.. is Crusader Strike whenever possible.
In a 'normal' fight (instance) where I don't have to cleanse or heal, my mana pool, albeit low, is enough for me. I immediately pop a drink so I stay as far up in mana as I can be, in case we got a 'not-normal' fight.
If I start to get low on mana, or a fight where I have to start cleansing or offhealing, I judge crusader (or wisdom, depending on where the boss is in terms of health when I would switch judgements) and will often just leave seal of command on, judging only when the seal is about to expire. Crusader strike when it's up. And usually that'll do for it. If the mob or boss is pretty high on life and I'm pretty low on mana, thats when I'll sometimes judge wisdom. Honestly though, considering that I'm using a big slow twohander, I don't HIT it enough to get that much mana back. Based on that, I usually just leave crusader on it.
My personal blessing is Blessing of Wisdom, not Might. (I don't have Kings yet.) Unless I need salvation, which sometimes... I will. Paladin DPS is spike damage. When every 6 seconds you have the potential to hit the mob for 1k damage... yikes. Keep your bubble handy. :P
However... Kvasira is so much fun to play. Love. Love. Love.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Retribution Paladin: Group Support
As you may all know, I've been leveling a retribution paladin. Mainly because I'm contrary, but also because it's fun to stretch.
Everyone, everywhere, says that until you can really get the gear, your retribution paladin is going to do less damage than Sleepy Willy. Because of this, you may have a hard time getting a group unless you 1: form it yourself or 2: run with friends.
So I'm going to pick option #2! My Paladin, Kvasira (I particularly like the part about Beet Juice) hit 60 the other day and I cajoled Owaru and Boon into doing the epic paladin quest with me. So 60, epic charger, and outlands! Time for fun!
I'm duo-ing/quartet-ing with Fyzzgig(Warrior:Boon)/Teppou(Hunter:Owaru) and Zeshura(Priest:Neshura). And then we decided to hit Hellfire Ramparts. Everyone (except Tep, who was 58/59) was 60 (I was 61). Our first run we picked up a rogue that was 62. And we only had one quasi-wipe where for a reason I still don't understand (though, I think it was a hunter pet!) we pulled two groups instead of one.
And through trial and error and just sheer intuition (and let's face it, it's me. I always know what to do!) I figured out what my job is. I'm catch-all lady!
I don't know why the hunter's trap kept pulling off of him and coming to me (and no, I was not using consecrate!) but it did when I wasn't doing anything to it (nor was I healing!). So I still need how to figure out how to not pull the hunter trap off of the hunter by merely breathing. :P And I only Hammer of Justice'd it when it was hitting me a lot. I'm not a tank, I can't take that type of damage! I blame the hunter. Thankfully, my blame translated into the game deciding to teach him a lesson and he died a few times. (Blizzard loves me.)
But Hammer of Justice and Repentence (Cast out your corrupt thoughts!) lets me keep a non-tanked/non-CC'd mob out of the way for roughly 12 seconds. Long enough for myself and a second DPS to burn down either the non-elite dogs or one of the elite casters. And even if it doesn't, at least that mob is coming to hit me instead of bee-lining for the healer! Plate > Cloth. Plate DPS > Plate Healer.
Now, Fyzzgig claims that I should let him tank more mobs. And to a certain extent, he's right. But on the other hand, if you have what amounts to as a tank and an offtank, why not use your offtank? There are plenty of times where I'm marking and I'll stick the DPS warrior on something that is easily killed and doesn't hit very hard on plate to burn it down, so the real tank can concentrate on the things that need to stay tanked.
My role also includes offhealing when the priest is otherwise busy (she's being killed by something: macro! /target healer /cast Blessing of Protection), keeping the healer alive (see previous comment regarding macro!), tossing out the occasional heal when the priest has to spam-heal the tank, healing the priest so she takes less healing aggro for healing herself, keeping party buffs up on people (and after reading RetLoL a bit more, I'm going to go for Blessing of Kings down the prot tree), stunning/temporary CC and swift death to non-tanked/non-elite mobs and as a raid wipe protector (Divine Intervention! I'm just itching to use this. I haven't had the chance to, yet.). (Though.. I just got a great idea! Heehee.)
So, maybe I'm third DPS on the DPS meter. But someone has to be! It may as well be someone who is also a group support member! This way, I can claim that my DPS isn't the highest because I'm so busy doing other things! :P It's a lie... but at least I can say it. With a swing timer in place, I can usually heal and other things while all my cooldowns are readying and while my weapon is in mid-swing. Or, I should say, I try to do it at those times. Sometimes though, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Now, at higher levels this may change a little bit, because I'll have beautiful gear and I'll be outDPSing Illidan.. but until then, I've resigned myself to trying to just do my best and not shame retribution paladins everywhere!
On a plus side: Seal of Crusader now gives Crusader Strike a 40% damage increase. Nummy.
And, polling people for a response here. Which is more important? Judgement of Justice on a mob that has the potential to run into another group, or keep up Judgement of the Crusader for use on Judgement of Command? I'm talking your average mob, average instance, average location and average time til death?
Fyzz says Justice. I say Crusader. His rational is: My DPS is less important than a potential party wipe. My rational is: If I'm going to get Justice off in time, considering how fast most mobs die, I don't think I'm going to be able to judge Crusader at all and my DPS is already so dependent on gear and spells, that it'll make me less useful in a group than a Dragonhawk around Crowd Control. That and also because by the time they're ready to run, they're so dead that a Hammer of Wrath will almost kill them (if not kill them outright), and if the DPS is doing their jobs (ie: following the kill order until said mob is dead, the only person who should be jumping the kill order is the tank!), it won't get more than two staggering steps, anyway!
Chime in and let me know what you think! People who have paladins or who have run with retribution paladins, love to hear from you especially!
Everyone, everywhere, says that until you can really get the gear, your retribution paladin is going to do less damage than Sleepy Willy. Because of this, you may have a hard time getting a group unless you 1: form it yourself or 2: run with friends.
So I'm going to pick option #2! My Paladin, Kvasira (I particularly like the part about Beet Juice) hit 60 the other day and I cajoled Owaru and Boon into doing the epic paladin quest with me. So 60, epic charger, and outlands! Time for fun!
I'm duo-ing/quartet-ing with Fyzzgig(Warrior:Boon)/Teppou(Hunter:Owaru) and Zeshura(Priest:Neshura). And then we decided to hit Hellfire Ramparts. Everyone (except Tep, who was 58/59) was 60 (I was 61). Our first run we picked up a rogue that was 62. And we only had one quasi-wipe where for a reason I still don't understand (though, I think it was a hunter pet!) we pulled two groups instead of one.
And through trial and error and just sheer intuition (and let's face it, it's me. I always know what to do!) I figured out what my job is. I'm catch-all lady!
I don't know why the hunter's trap kept pulling off of him and coming to me (and no, I was not using consecrate!) but it did when I wasn't doing anything to it (nor was I healing!). So I still need how to figure out how to not pull the hunter trap off of the hunter by merely breathing. :P And I only Hammer of Justice'd it when it was hitting me a lot. I'm not a tank, I can't take that type of damage! I blame the hunter. Thankfully, my blame translated into the game deciding to teach him a lesson and he died a few times. (Blizzard loves me.)
But Hammer of Justice and Repentence (Cast out your corrupt thoughts!) lets me keep a non-tanked/non-CC'd mob out of the way for roughly 12 seconds. Long enough for myself and a second DPS to burn down either the non-elite dogs or one of the elite casters. And even if it doesn't, at least that mob is coming to hit me instead of bee-lining for the healer! Plate > Cloth. Plate DPS > Plate Healer.
Now, Fyzzgig claims that I should let him tank more mobs. And to a certain extent, he's right. But on the other hand, if you have what amounts to as a tank and an offtank, why not use your offtank? There are plenty of times where I'm marking and I'll stick the DPS warrior on something that is easily killed and doesn't hit very hard on plate to burn it down, so the real tank can concentrate on the things that need to stay tanked.
My role also includes offhealing when the priest is otherwise busy (she's being killed by something: macro! /target healer /cast Blessing of Protection), keeping the healer alive (see previous comment regarding macro!), tossing out the occasional heal when the priest has to spam-heal the tank, healing the priest so she takes less healing aggro for healing herself, keeping party buffs up on people (and after reading RetLoL a bit more, I'm going to go for Blessing of Kings down the prot tree), stunning/temporary CC and swift death to non-tanked/non-elite mobs and as a raid wipe protector (Divine Intervention! I'm just itching to use this. I haven't had the chance to, yet.). (Though.. I just got a great idea! Heehee.)
So, maybe I'm third DPS on the DPS meter. But someone has to be! It may as well be someone who is also a group support member! This way, I can claim that my DPS isn't the highest because I'm so busy doing other things! :P It's a lie... but at least I can say it. With a swing timer in place, I can usually heal and other things while all my cooldowns are readying and while my weapon is in mid-swing. Or, I should say, I try to do it at those times. Sometimes though, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Now, at higher levels this may change a little bit, because I'll have beautiful gear and I'll be outDPSing Illidan.. but until then, I've resigned myself to trying to just do my best and not shame retribution paladins everywhere!
On a plus side: Seal of Crusader now gives Crusader Strike a 40% damage increase. Nummy.
And, polling people for a response here. Which is more important? Judgement of Justice on a mob that has the potential to run into another group, or keep up Judgement of the Crusader for use on Judgement of Command? I'm talking your average mob, average instance, average location and average time til death?
Fyzz says Justice. I say Crusader. His rational is: My DPS is less important than a potential party wipe. My rational is: If I'm going to get Justice off in time, considering how fast most mobs die, I don't think I'm going to be able to judge Crusader at all and my DPS is already so dependent on gear and spells, that it'll make me less useful in a group than a Dragonhawk around Crowd Control. That and also because by the time they're ready to run, they're so dead that a Hammer of Wrath will almost kill them (if not kill them outright), and if the DPS is doing their jobs (ie: following the kill order until said mob is dead, the only person who should be jumping the kill order is the tank!), it won't get more than two staggering steps, anyway!
Chime in and let me know what you think! People who have paladins or who have run with retribution paladins, love to hear from you especially!
Monday, April 7, 2008
Leveling Goddess! and Other Things
In a grand total of 4 hours, I went from level 56 to level 58 on my RETRIBUTION (add CRACK-POW sound effect) paladin.
Then, since I'm going to stick with Teppou, Fyzzgig and Zeshura, I stopped leveling experience wise and instead went to get my mining skill up from 239 to 300, ready for Outlands! Otherwise I'd be 70 by the time they got to 58! (I jest! ... slightly, but it is a jest! I'd only be 68... not 70.)
So, I needed to get from 239 to 250 for Thorium. Right. Mithril it is. Badlands I went. Not too shabby if you ride back and forth across the southern zone wall. I hit the 250 mark and I said, finally, now I can go get Thorium. I went to a mining map website and looked at where they recommend. They recommended the Burning Steppes and lo and behold, the Burning Steppes isn't all that far from the Badlands. So that's where I went.
Big Mistake.
I spent 4 hours (long enough I could probably have been almost 60, if not truly 60, if I was actually leveling) getting to 300 mining skill out in the Burning Steppes. There were simply no nodes to be found. I had no competition (except one donkey's butt hunter that stole a node out from under me. No, really, he did. I was fighting something RIGHT ON TOP OF THE NODE, and it was almost dead. He rides up and starts to mine and stays in 'loot box' mode on the Rich Thorium that I was wanting to mine. I said, 'Uh, do you mind?' but apparently he didn't. I only saw him the once, otherwise, I was the only person in the zone it seemed.)
Afterwards, Teppou says the better place for thorium is EPL and Winterspring. Of course, he said that after I was 300.
Now I'm looking at leveling up my jewelcrafting on my paladin to 300.
I will admit, I am HEAVILY biased AGAINST leveling guides for experience and going up levels. Not that they aren't useful for people who may not know where to go and what quests to do. But I don't like them. As I mentioned above, I don't have a problem with leveling fast. (This probably has a little to do with having leveled 6 characters to 70 without a guide. I kinda know where to go now. I POSSIBLY would have used a leveling guide if it was my first or second character.)
(But then again, possibly not. I'm stubborn and hate 'following the crowd', as my asinine brain insists on calling it.)
(This probably explains my non-conformist warlock spec.)
(Are you getting tired of parenthesis yet?)
(I'm not.)
However, I am an absolute idiot when it comes to leveling crafting skills. My jewelcrafting is (was) 206. And I sit there and look at what I need and say, "Ooh, let me go get that." and I run out and I grab what I need and I make 4 items to get to 210. Then I look what I need and say, "Oooh, let me go get that." and I spend HOURS getting the materials to make 3 things. (I didn't do that second part yet. I got to 210 and then I said, 'Crap. I'm in Ironforge. I don't think there's a JC trainer in IF.'
I is dumb.
So I caved... I'm going to use a crafting guide to get my jewelcrafting to 300. I can hear Owaru now "It's not worth it!" he shouts. But you know me (or if you don't...), and I have to have a jewelcrafter. I have one of everything else (granted, my engineering is craptacular, but I do have an engineer!), so it's only natural that I have a jewelcrafter, too. I've been hoarding outland gems for a while so hopefully I can turn a little profit from them when I can start cutting gems... that and no more running to the AH everytime I upgrade a PoC piece and need 2 or 3 gems.
On a warlock aside...
I took Fyzzgig through Sunken Temple and my only wish is that SoC could have an instant proc the way Shadowbolt can with Nightfall. Owaru's words to that were, "The last thing you need is an instant SoC *shudder*.".
But truly, when you're mass clearing a low level instance, even though they aren't doing a lot of damage to you, you still get knockback on your casting bar. Which makes it really frustrating because the best way to clear something is to have a bunch of SoC on things so that when the first goes off, it sets the others off too. And then you have a bunch of dead mobs with 4 casts.
I managed it once, to get 4 off before I started to get hit. It was beautiful... bunches of purple lights and explody sounds, then the agonized groans of multiple dragonkin dying and hitting the ground. And clearing Jammal the Prophet's room was fun too, I'd SoC two things, then run over to a third group. Then I did the 'back up and DoT' thing, to avoid the ghosties. 'Twas much fun.
The best quote of the evening... well, there were many, but the funniest-warlock-related one was...
Owaru: "You think I go Ogrila?" (talking about the most heart-rending death saying.)
Kvasira: "No, you're going to HELL! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Kvasira: "Oh wait, sorry. I was channeling Kikidas."
Then, since I'm going to stick with Teppou, Fyzzgig and Zeshura, I stopped leveling experience wise and instead went to get my mining skill up from 239 to 300, ready for Outlands! Otherwise I'd be 70 by the time they got to 58! (I jest! ... slightly, but it is a jest! I'd only be 68... not 70.)
So, I needed to get from 239 to 250 for Thorium. Right. Mithril it is. Badlands I went. Not too shabby if you ride back and forth across the southern zone wall. I hit the 250 mark and I said, finally, now I can go get Thorium. I went to a mining map website and looked at where they recommend. They recommended the Burning Steppes and lo and behold, the Burning Steppes isn't all that far from the Badlands. So that's where I went.
Big Mistake.
I spent 4 hours (long enough I could probably have been almost 60, if not truly 60, if I was actually leveling) getting to 300 mining skill out in the Burning Steppes. There were simply no nodes to be found. I had no competition (except one donkey's butt hunter that stole a node out from under me. No, really, he did. I was fighting something RIGHT ON TOP OF THE NODE, and it was almost dead. He rides up and starts to mine and stays in 'loot box' mode on the Rich Thorium that I was wanting to mine. I said, 'Uh, do you mind?' but apparently he didn't. I only saw him the once, otherwise, I was the only person in the zone it seemed.)
Afterwards, Teppou says the better place for thorium is EPL and Winterspring. Of course, he said that after I was 300.
Now I'm looking at leveling up my jewelcrafting on my paladin to 300.
I will admit, I am HEAVILY biased AGAINST leveling guides for experience and going up levels. Not that they aren't useful for people who may not know where to go and what quests to do. But I don't like them. As I mentioned above, I don't have a problem with leveling fast. (This probably has a little to do with having leveled 6 characters to 70 without a guide. I kinda know where to go now. I POSSIBLY would have used a leveling guide if it was my first or second character.)
(But then again, possibly not. I'm stubborn and hate 'following the crowd', as my asinine brain insists on calling it.)
(This probably explains my non-conformist warlock spec.)
(Are you getting tired of parenthesis yet?)
(I'm not.)
However, I am an absolute idiot when it comes to leveling crafting skills. My jewelcrafting is (was) 206. And I sit there and look at what I need and say, "Ooh, let me go get that." and I run out and I grab what I need and I make 4 items to get to 210. Then I look what I need and say, "Oooh, let me go get that." and I spend HOURS getting the materials to make 3 things. (I didn't do that second part yet. I got to 210 and then I said, 'Crap. I'm in Ironforge. I don't think there's a JC trainer in IF.'
I is dumb.
So I caved... I'm going to use a crafting guide to get my jewelcrafting to 300. I can hear Owaru now "It's not worth it!" he shouts. But you know me (or if you don't...), and I have to have a jewelcrafter. I have one of everything else (granted, my engineering is craptacular, but I do have an engineer!), so it's only natural that I have a jewelcrafter, too. I've been hoarding outland gems for a while so hopefully I can turn a little profit from them when I can start cutting gems... that and no more running to the AH everytime I upgrade a PoC piece and need 2 or 3 gems.
On a warlock aside...
I took Fyzzgig through Sunken Temple and my only wish is that SoC could have an instant proc the way Shadowbolt can with Nightfall. Owaru's words to that were, "The last thing you need is an instant SoC *shudder*.".
But truly, when you're mass clearing a low level instance, even though they aren't doing a lot of damage to you, you still get knockback on your casting bar. Which makes it really frustrating because the best way to clear something is to have a bunch of SoC on things so that when the first goes off, it sets the others off too. And then you have a bunch of dead mobs with 4 casts.
I managed it once, to get 4 off before I started to get hit. It was beautiful... bunches of purple lights and explody sounds, then the agonized groans of multiple dragonkin dying and hitting the ground. And clearing Jammal the Prophet's room was fun too, I'd SoC two things, then run over to a third group. Then I did the 'back up and DoT' thing, to avoid the ghosties. 'Twas much fun.
The best quote of the evening... well, there were many, but the funniest-warlock-related one was...
Owaru: "You think I go Ogrila?" (talking about the most heart-rending death saying.)
Kvasira: "No, you're going to HELL! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Kvasira: "Oh wait, sorry. I was channeling Kikidas."
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Crusader Strike! BAM!
In keeping with my previous post, I was being all paladiny yesterday. I took my shiny new spec and I went out to Winterspring to do some quests.
Now, in the past, I could handle something maybe orange level but I had to be full up on mana and health to do so. I could handle two yellow level things, but I had to be full up on mana and health to do so.
Yesterday, I was chaining orange and yellow mobs, starting out 1/4 down on mana. I could feel my jaw hanging open the first time I wasn't paying attention and wound up chaining four mobs on me at once. I said to myself, 'Crap, I'm going to die. But I'll take as many of them with me as possible!'...'I haven't died yet, okay... next mob.'...'Holy hell, how did I live?'
My husband, the renowned healadin Boon, said that he tried ret when it became 'viable', bought the reputation gear that's available, and couldn't kill a thing. Now, I'm not saying he's a bad paladin -- with his spec, he can main heal and main tank (5-mans), gear dependent -- but maybe he doesn't have the mindset to be a retribution paladin? Who knows!
All I know is that after I read RetLoL, respecced and did some of the things they recommended doing, I was killing things better and faster than ever before. It makes me want to rescind my statement yesterday that my previous spec worked! The change was dramatic, like the difference between a Cinnaspin girlscout cookie and a Cinnabon cinnamon roll.
(Mmmmm... cinnabon.)
Now, I'm at a crossroads. My paladin is 56. My shaman is 51. The triumverate is a quatrille, as Neshura the hunter is Zeshura the priest. Boon is a gnome warrior named Fyzzgig. Owaru is a hunter named Teppou. So the question becomes, do I stay enhancement shaman with that group or do I bring my retribution paladin to that group? Either way, I'm competing with someone for gear -- either the hunter with mail drops or the warrior with plate drops.
I have a feeling it would be easier to solo a shaman through instances than it would be to solo a ret.pally through instances. :P Silly preconcieved notions!
Now, in the past, I could handle something maybe orange level but I had to be full up on mana and health to do so. I could handle two yellow level things, but I had to be full up on mana and health to do so.
Yesterday, I was chaining orange and yellow mobs, starting out 1/4 down on mana. I could feel my jaw hanging open the first time I wasn't paying attention and wound up chaining four mobs on me at once. I said to myself, 'Crap, I'm going to die. But I'll take as many of them with me as possible!'...'I haven't died yet, okay... next mob.'...'Holy hell, how did I live?'
My husband, the renowned healadin Boon, said that he tried ret when it became 'viable', bought the reputation gear that's available, and couldn't kill a thing. Now, I'm not saying he's a bad paladin -- with his spec, he can main heal and main tank (5-mans), gear dependent -- but maybe he doesn't have the mindset to be a retribution paladin? Who knows!
All I know is that after I read RetLoL, respecced and did some of the things they recommended doing, I was killing things better and faster than ever before. It makes me want to rescind my statement yesterday that my previous spec worked! The change was dramatic, like the difference between a Cinnaspin girlscout cookie and a Cinnabon cinnamon roll.
(Mmmmm... cinnabon.)
Now, I'm at a crossroads. My paladin is 56. My shaman is 51. The triumverate is a quatrille, as Neshura the hunter is Zeshura the priest. Boon is a gnome warrior named Fyzzgig. Owaru is a hunter named Teppou. So the question becomes, do I stay enhancement shaman with that group or do I bring my retribution paladin to that group? Either way, I'm competing with someone for gear -- either the hunter with mail drops or the warrior with plate drops.
I have a feeling it would be easier to solo a shaman through instances than it would be to solo a ret.pally through instances. :P Silly preconcieved notions!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Ret Pally Reading
In the interest of being the best that I can be (I have to uphold Owaru's overwhelming and undeserving opinion of me!), I delved into the world of retribution paladin. Well, I delved into one particular article, I should say.
I had thought that my spec was decent. I thought I had it figured, a little bit. I was only somewhat correct.
My spec was decent for how I played and I certainly had no problems leveling. But according to RetLoL I should have deleted my character... and how embarassing is that for me to admit! The Great and Powerful K... wrong. Mark it on your calenders, because this day will probably never come around again. And see, I didn't post it on April 1st, so it also isn't an April Fool's joke, though it is a hilarious thought. Me, wrong? HAHAHAHA.
So this afternoon I respecced. My paladin is 55, so I was able to get all the way to Crusader Strike, which I had ignored earlier (silly K). Then I went to test it out. I like it thus far. I shall have to see how it goes as I continue to level. I have to get some of my timing down and obviously, since I'm in old world gear, my stats and gear aren't maximized for DPS -- apparently strength, melee hit rating and melee crit rating are my friends!
Now, obviously I won't have problems getting a group, not merely because it's me! but also because of the Triumverate[(c) Owaru] and various friends who I can browbeat into running with me no matter what I do. (I love you guys!) ... that and because have you seen some of the "armor" that plate wearing females get to wear? How the hell is that armor? And what guy won't run with a chick wearing a plate bikini?
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