Category: WoW Paladins
Drysc has confirmed that Precision now affects spell hit as well as melee hit, nice! Also, a new talent for retribution: "Fanaticism will now reduce threat caused by all actions by 6/12/18/24/30%, in addition to its current effect." Nice change, on par with threat reduction for other DPS classes. I guess my only gripe is the fact that Fanaticism is a passive talent rather than an activated spell like Righteous Fury. It's going to be much harder for ret specs to tank.
If you haven't already, check out the new items available in 2.3 from Zul'Aman and the heroic vendor. Several of the new additions are specific to tankadins. I've listed the new plate tanking additions, but there are also several new capes, trinkets, rings, weapons and what not but I don't have time to list them at the moment, have to get back to work.
Zul'Aman drops
Battleworn Tuskguard
Chestguard of the Warlord
Pauldrons of Stone Resolve
Jungle Stompers
Heroic badge rewards
Bonefist Gauntlets
Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx
Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian
Girdle of the Protector
Iron-tusk Girdle
Sabatons of the Righteous Defender
Unwavering Legguards
It's major badge farming time. These are the current prices on the PTRs: Pants, chest and head are 75 badges. Shoulders, waist, feet and hands are 60 badges. Bracers are 35 badges.
Site Note: Those who are only interested in reading the WoW related posts might want to use this URL to filter out all of the non-WoW related entries. October marks the beginning of gaming season with the Christmas purchasing season just around the corner (meaning that I might actually write about "other things").
I won't quote the patch notes because they are like, on every single WoW blog and site. I am really looking forward to the sub 60 experience increase (might start leveling my mage again) and Zul'Aman. I really thought that ZG was a fun and well done raid instance, both loot and design wise. Hoping that ZA is similar.
Threat: The old Improved Seal of the Crusader talent (15% increase to attack bonus and holy damage) is being integrated into the normal seal and the new Imp SotC will be the the current Sanctified Crusader talent. Additionally, the mana costs for Exorcism/Hammer of Wrath/Holy Wrath is being reduced, which is nice for Karazhan tanking since I spam Exorcism on certain bosses fairly often :P.
Mitigation: The Weapon Expertise talent is being replaced by Combat Expertise, which now increases Expertise by 1/2/3/4/5 AND total stamina by 2/4/6/8/10%! 10% MORE STAMINA IS AWESOME! I think that's what, a 1k+ health buff for me? (Don't feel like looking up my stats now).
A new stat rating called, "Expertise" is being added. According to the notes, "Expertise rating converts to expertise at the same rate that weapon skill rating formerly converted at. Each point of expertise reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried by 0.25%." Less chance to be parried means less damage. Less chance for a mob to dodge means more threat. Intriguing.
Pets will now attempt to melee behind their target when engaging in combat! This change is nice because mobs can parry all frontal attacks. More attacks = more parries = more to heal. I try to drag the mob back a bit to reposition all of the melee, but that's not
Itemization: New heroic badge rewards are added, take a look at the tanking choices. Compare the [Wrynn Dynasty Greaves] to Unwavering Legguards (75 badges). Fuck Curator, Badge farming anyone? I am sort of regretting blowing my badge stash on random DPS/healing gear that I didn't need instead of stocking them :/
Miscellaneous: The range for cleanse is being increased to 40 yards, which should make fights like Prince nicer (having to move in and out of AE range sucks). There are additional faction discounts for all levels above neutral: 15% for revered and 20% for exalted; I am all for knocking off repair bill costs. I had posted a prospective new protection spec a few posts back, but never followed through in lieu of the 2.3 changes coming. I am glad I held off!
The in game voice chat is decent despite the fact that it is borking servers around the nation (getting kicked off repeatedly sucks). The quality isn't nearly as good as Ventrilo, but the in game integration is nice. I don't really see this as a Vent server replacement, but it's a good option for those who do not have one and for PuGs (don't like giving vent info out to random ass people).
I respec'd my hunter Beast Mastery and started leveling my him again this weekend. What an awesome tree, I can't tell you how much fun it is leveling as BM. Pet doesn't lose aggro, less downtime, etc. Not going back to MM any time soon (though I might respec at 70 into a PvP build).
I don't know if it's because I'm a huntard noob, but I swear that it's much harder to pull aggro as BM, since my damage is split more between my ranged weapon and my pet. I tried my best to be an ass and repeatedly pull threat off of the tank this weekend in Coilfang, but no dice (it was a guild twink run I have permission >:D).
A few changes that I would like to see for tankadins (I realize that a few points here are borderline whines :P).
- It would be nice for our survivability issue to be addressed in some manner. Warriors have 1,200 more base health than paladins do, they also have a ranged slot. That is a pretty large gap. Suggested solutions: Equalizing our base HP, adding a stamina libram, or adding a talent that scales block value/raw mitigation higher.
- An ability deep into protection that increases our mana return. Thinking either by increasing our passive heal gain or doing something like returning mana on block. SA alone as it is, isn't enough.
- Better itemization for paladin specific tanking gear. Specifically: Better paladin tanking weapons on par with what is available via progression for the other tanking classes. That is: At least 200 spell damage, at least 30 stamina and some def/avoidance.
- Some way of dealing with mob spell immunity.
Oh: I bought a new mouspad yesterday. I have been using the one that came in the WoW: BC Collector's Edition box, but it is too small. My hand scoots off towards the edge frequently. Consequently, I've had to up the sensitivity on my mouse to ungodly levels which has lowered my accuracy quite a bit in other games. It's cloth, it's huge and it's niiiice! Kind of ugly though, wish it was all black.
So I suppose I'm back from my unofficial posting hiatus. The new theme is a template, I'll tinker with the layout replace the Drupal logo with something else later; I don't have access to Photoshop or my WoW screenshots on my work machine. Also thinking that it's probably time to update and/or prune off some of the articles in the guide section, since half of them seem to be out of date.
I think i've finally decided on a new build to go with: 0/49/12 -> 0/44/17. Dropping Reckoning and putting 5 more points into retribution. 3/3 Improved Seal of the Crusader and 2/2 Improved Retribution Aura. Reckoning rarely procs when I tank, to the point where it is more or less a waste of 5 talent points.
Patch 2.3 is going to revamp the ret tree: The current Improved Seal of the Crusader talent will be added to the spell's base ability. The new Improved SotC talent will give the same effects as Sanctified Crusader (increases critical strike chance of all attacks against the target by 1%/2%/3%).
Mana cost for Exorcism, Holy Wrath, and Hammer of Wrath is being lowered. The duration of Vengeance (the ret talent) is being upped to 30 seconds. Crusader strike cooldown will be lowered to 6. The increased cooldown blew not only because it lowered DPS, but because it screwed the Judgement refresh timing a bit if it missed (I leveled as a retnub on the BC beta realms).
Some time in the future, all gear will receive an additional spell damage bonus of about 1/3 +heal. So 1500 +heal will translate to +500. This was announced at BlizzCon, I don't know if it's for 2.3 or the expansion pack. Regardless, zomg? Supposedly, 2.3 is going be on the PTRs first week of October. I am assuming that they are aiming for a late October release, so that the holiday event stuff can be on the live realms in time for Halloween.
Unfortunately I don't have links for the following blue posts. All were pulled from the WoW class forums. The same quotations are floating around on various WoW sites, shouldn't be that hard to find.
- "Q: ETA on when zul'aman will hit ptr for testing? A: hopefully, first week of october."
- "We're pretty much focused on Retribution with 2.3, but some more general changes are being made like lowering the mana cost for Exorcism, Holy Wrath, and Hammer of Wrath. Another Ret change (just to keep the momentum going) will be an increase to the duration of Vengeance to 30 seconds."
- "Q: comon blue guys give us some teasers! Cursader strike cool down lowered to 6? A: You're amazing, that's absolutely correct."
- "No, it's about a third. So 1500 +heal would give about +500 +spell damage."
- "This is correct. It's actually in addition to the healing and is "free". It's not going to reduce the healing bonus on the gear. It's going to be in addition."
- "I believe that it was said at BlizzCon that it would be about 1/3 of healing, but that's not gospel and could change."
It's been a while since I've posted any sort of entry. I cycle between periods of feeling like, and not feeling like posting articles here just in case no one noticed. Oh, Maulgar down to my guild on our second attempt ever. A smooth kill at that. Excellent job!
So basically, I am considering exploring different tankadin builds. Specifically, to drop Reckoning and possibly pick up Weapon Expertise, the black sheep of the protection tree. I have two problems with Reckoning:
- In order for reckoning to proc I have to get hit. Because my gear is significantly better than it was when I had first spec'd prot, I am not getting hit a whole lot (dodge, parry, miss). So it is a pretty piddly threat bonus at best. It's mostly for farming purposes to be honest...
- My primary concern: Mobs Parry too. The more attacks, the more parries. Parry speeds up the boss' swing timer, doing more damage to me.
So the formulas
The defensive formulas for a boss mob are more complicated than the defensive formulas for a player. There are two formulas:
- If the difference between mob Defense skill and player Weapon skill > 10: 7% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill - 10)*.4%
- If the difference between mob Defense skill and player Weapon skill <= 10: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%
Without a racial weapon modifier, a player's maxed out Weapon Skill at level 70 is 350. Recall that these miss rate percentages are calculated against a level 73 mob (73*5 = 365 Defense Skill). At 355, the difference between the player's Weapon Skill and the level 73 boss' Defense Skill is 10, so the other formula kicks into effect. Recall that humans have a 5 point Weapon Skill bonus for maces and swords, so they are at 355.
The first 4 points decrease your miss rate by 0.4% per point.
350 Weapon Skill: 9.0% (level 70 player, no racial weapon bonus)
351 Weapon Skill: 8.6%
352 Weapon Skill: 8.2%
353 Weapon Skill: 7.8%
354 Weapon Skill: 7.4%
The 5th point is a huge jump: 1.6%! After that it tappers off significantly to 0.1% per point.
355 Weapon Skill: 6.0% (with 5 point racial weapon bonus)
356 Weapon Skill: 5.9%
357 Weapon Skill: 5.8%
358 Weapon Skill: 5.7%
359 Weapon Skill: 5.6%
360 Weapon Skill: 5.5%
361 Weapon Skill: 5.4%
362 Weapon Skill: 5.3%
363 Weapon Skill: 5.2%
364 Weapon Skill: 5.1%
365 Weapon Skill: 5.0% (with 5 point racial weapon bonus and 5/5 Weapon Expertise)
- 355 seems to be the magic number for weapon skill in regards to talent value
- From what I understand, Weapon Skill affects miss and dodge, but not parry or block.
- If this is true, it's not worth spending points in a Weapon Skill talent past 355.
- Recall that humans have a +5 bonus to maces and swords. So for non-humans: 3/5 Weapon Expertise is ideal. Anything beyond is a waste.
