New Talent changes planned for Cataclysm

New changes are coming soon (tm)! Before I begin with anything, please read the following:

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/25626290449/cataclysm-class-amp-mastery-systems-update/

Did you read that yet? In all it's entirety? Good.

Here is a quick rundown of what we can expect for things to come

• At level 10, you choose a Specialization (Lets choose, hmm, I don't know, Retribution)
• Once you place your first talent point, you gain passive abilities and "standard" abilities that your spec needs to be viable. Going with our randomly picked example above, we'd gain both increased Melee Damage, increased Melee Crit Chance, and Divine Storm- ALL at level 10, in addition to our bonus from the first talent point.
• Talent points will be gained every even level, and new spells will be gained every odd level (roughly).
• Once you choose a Specialization at level 10, you CANNOT spec in any "off tree"- This means no talent points in either Protection or Holy- until level 70 (or, until you gain your level 31 ability).
• Most trees have 38-42 total talents.
• Mastery will be a level 75 (or 77, etc.) trainable ability- This is where the "third bonus" of today's trees come into play. I'll assume you get a slight passive bonus, as the Mastery stat does not appear on gear until later.
• You will have a total of 41 points available to spent at level 85, with a minimum build of 0/0/31 in this example.
• Duel specs will work just like they work on live.
• All of these changes are included in the Beta Build, and are ready to go! Yay!

In addition, 2 good Blue quotes by none other than GC popped up, when asked abotu Rets with the new Talent system:

Ret Paladins should feel like Arms warriors who trade off some of their mobility for healing and defenses, and do more Holy damage instead of bleed damage

Final ret talent is more likely to be "Adds 2% additional stats to your blessing of kings"

No, it will be Repentance.

Or maybe Lacerate (the Survival hunter one).

(No it won't.)

From these 2 posts, we can infer that:

1. We may or may not get a gap closer or snare.
2. We may keep some of our defenses, possibly Cleanse or Divine Protection.
3. There will be 3 more "interesting" talents for Ret (since 2 of them, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm, are "baseline" to the spec).

All in All, things look pretty good so far. It will be a very interesting an exciting week once these changes are shown. Stay tuned for more news soon, as well as a complete Talent point breakdown!

~Ron

NDA is lifted!

"Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we've gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year", says Blizzard as they release the statement saying that the NDA has been lifted.

Quickly looking over the Paladin Spells/Tree, the following can be found:

Seal of Corruption/Vengeance:

Fills the Paladin with holy power, causing all single-target attacks to apply Blood Corruption[Holy Vengeance], which deals [ 13% of AP + 6.5% of Spell Power ] additional Holy damage over 15 sec.

We can infer that the Seal system is not going anywhere, which is kind of disappointing and is a lackluster mechanic. In any case, the key word here is that all single-target abilities will stack the debuff (which also benefits form haste and crit)- Meaning that currently, instead of taking 15 seconds to build up a 5 stack, it should take about 9 seconds instead (3 Melee hits and 2 Crusader Strikes).

Blessing of Might:

Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing attack power by 10% and restoring 1 mana every 5 seconds for 1 hr.

Blessing of Might and Blessing of Wisdom will be combined, however, it looks like the Ap gain is changed to a flat percentage, which is bad news for us overall. 1 hour Blessings are welcomed.

Vindication:

Gives the Paladin's damaging attacks a chance to reduce physical damage done by the target by 10% for 10 sec.

The current Vindication reduces Boss Physical damage by about 10-15% already, and the AP debuff was inconsistent with other AP using classes- This change should help to even the board (without reducing Magical damage dealt by Deathknights, Paladins, or Shamans in the process).

Judgement of Light:

Unleashes the energy of a Seal spell to judge an enemy for 20 sec, granting attacks made against the judged enemy a chance of healing the attacker for 1% of their maximum health.

A slight healing nerf- To be expected with scaled HP pools.

Swift Retribution

Your auras also increase your party and raid's melee and ranged haste by [7%/14%/20%].

More Buff homogenization for 10 man groups.

Crusader Strike:

An instant strike that causes 100% weapon damage. 5% of base mana, 5 yd range, Instant cast, 4 sec cooldown

Crusader Strike damage is increases across the board (this is the baseline version), however still no secondary effect keeps it as a boring 2nd auto attack.

As a whole, I would say that the Paladin class is mostly "incomplete" with it's changes. Hopefully this means news will be out soon!

Until then

~Ron

3.3.5 Releases Today

Patch 3.3.5 was released earlier on Live servers today.

No new Ret news, but please know this:

Sharpened Twilight Scale, while a Melee DPS trinket and is BiS for us, is MUCH more beneficial in the hands of a Warrior, Deathknight, Rogue, Druid, or Hunter! PuGs, you have been warned!

Peace.

~Ron

More Blues, E3 tomorrow

A couple of interesting Blue posts have been popping up. While not directed toward the paladin class, we can infer some things from them.

Mental Quickness is something Enhancement and Retribution need in order to be a mana-using spec without mana on gear. In general you won't see stat conversion talents, though warriors and DKs might keep their armor conversions. We'll see.

It looks like we won't be seeing an increased mana pool any time soon. Depending on how specific mechanics work (see JotW absorbs, Mana-drain effects like in Dreamwalker) this could cause an issue later down the road.

We may need additional mana restore mechanics than we have now for Enhancement, but that will take some more testing.

Arguably, Shamans have better mana-resoting mechanics than we do; Alongside point one, we might see something else as well.

There are going to be some hard choices in all the trees. It's not our design intent that you scoop up every single talent in your tree.

Protection and Holy might have some more "interesting" talents in them at some point.

The Whirlwind caused by Bladestorm is a different spell effect. We can adjust it independently.

Could mean that Divine Storm is similar, in a way that it is also a different mechanic.

If you find a build that avoids 51 points in one tree but picks up something really awesome instead, you will still be fully functional.

Most classes have baseline abilities to handle not having additional abilities- A Warlock without Shadowfury or a Warrior without Titan's Grip still have the tools they need to DPS. A Priest can heal fine without Guardian Angel. However, I'm sure that a Paladin tank would be in trouble of being viable without Holy Shield or Hammer of the Righteous, or a DPS without Crusader Strike or Divine Storm (currently).

Hopefully this leads to an expansion of our talented abilities into baseline abilities (like they are already doing with Crusader Strike and Holy Shock).


The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) also begins tomorrow- Hopefully this will lead to more Alpha (or even Beta!) information on Cataclysm.


~Ron

Beta Release? Soon (TM)

As the contests for Guild entrys and other Beta-related events going up (and with E3 right around the corner on June 14th), its VERY likely we'll see a new Beta version pushed out! I can say for us all that I'm very excited about this change, and hope to have some fresh info about the class.

Grab your popcorn, and hang on lady, we going for a ride!

~Ron

Not so Divine anymore

An interesting Blue post popped up today, regarding Divine Storm as the 51 Ret talent:

The current plan is for Crusader Strike to be baseline, but for Ret to have talents that add to it, and for Divine Storm to be the 51-point talent.

I am also surprised at the notion that some of you only AE on trash. :)

What their [Blizzard's] intention with this ability is somewhat unknown right now. If Divine Storm is only to used for AE purposes, does that mean we'll never see it used for PvE boss encounters or in a 1v1 in PvP? Of course, this could be part of their elaborate scheme to "Make Retribution harder to play" by having an ability X place a debuff which increases Divine Storm damage on that target by Y amount. Who knows at this point in time.

~Ron

It Goes to 20%!

The ICC buff has increased to 20%. What does this mean? Well, more facerolling of Arthas and his Goon Squad.

Just wait until Marrowgar hears this- Maybe then he'll stop Brostormin' and we can just Crusader Poke him in the face once and be down with the simple encounter.

~Ron

ICC and beyond

Big update since my last post.

Since then, I have:

• Faction changed to Horde (I have a thing against different-sex gendered characters as my main...)
• Joined Squirrel Legion (those bunch of Nut cases!)
• Downed 11 of the 12 bosses in 25 man on Normal mode (Damn Valks for Lich King!)
• Collected my 1,000 souls (I had to pay Kessy somehow so she would keep healing me)
• Completed Unholy Infusion (Piece of Cake. Seriously, it was chocolate)
• Completed Blood Infusion (Robert Pattinson, your a bad vampire, and imma not let you finish, bitch!)
  
• Been promoted to an Officer in Squirrel Legion (Lead Tactician, i.e. "Stand in the Fires, they give you Mana!")
• Completed Frost infusion (I never wanna hear "Frost Breath" again)
• Started Collecting Shadowfrost shards, up to 2/50 (SHINES!)

We're pushing content, and pushing hard. I've made a bunch of new friends, and enjoy raiding again. Chances are high that I'll see my first Legendary item, and that Arthas will lay dead soon!

Oh, and lets not forget about the Cataclysm Beta Opt-ins! I'm looking forward to my ticket, Mr. Wonka....

Expect more updates..... whenever I may feel up to it. :)


~Ron

New Ties, New Beginnings

Its been a while since my last post again, but things are starting to look really good. I've been busy with a lot of personal stuff at the beginning of February, but no one cares about any of that stuff.

After the dismissal of my old guild, I had to fill out many guild apps to find a new raiding guild- After checking all of the high-end Alliance guilds, I made a desperate move and changed over to the Horde side (on the same server!) and joined Squirrel Legion- outside of seeing them in Dalaran or around Azeroth and Outland back in TBC, I didnt know much about them or about any of the guild members. I do feel like I fit into the guild, as a lot of their personalities do match my own- They're fun to joke around with, yet serious when it comes to raid progression- Something my old guild lacked a lot of.

The good news is that my "Trial period" was finished last Thursday, but since we lacked the numbers to raid that night I'll hopefully be promoted to a full member later tonight. However, we are in the slump that my old guild suffered from- Lack of signups. However, there is promise as whispers of merging with another guild are very possible.

On a positive note, I am half-way on collecting my 1,000 souls and as it turns out, Im probably am going to be second in line for the Infusion quests and, ultimately, collecting Shards for the Legendary- I can't wait!

~Ron

No Drama Drama

The past week has brought a few exciting things, and some sad things as well. First, the good stuff (so I can build your confidence and fill you with joy and then chop you from your body with the bad news later). Our 10 man team finally got the Firefighter achievement, meaning that I am one step closer to obtaining the 10 man Ulduar drake. The fight was quite complicated, and after going through it I have a new respect for guilds that have done this hard mode on 25 man.

Unfortunately, thats all the good news I have really. The other day I happened to log in to notice that I was unguilded: Our guild master had a furious breakdown and disbanded the guild, due to our poor attendance and lack of enthusiasm for our 25 man raid progression. While it is unforunate that the guild was destroyed (literally, the guild tabs and everything are gone), I will still keep in touch with my guild mates, just like I have with those with the ex-Shadow Wolves and the ex-Azure Knights members.

I have since been looking for a new guild: Hopefully, the search will end successfully and I will have a new home, to have fun and make new friends.


~Ron