So, where were we? Right. Paladin changes. While everyone and his mother got whacked by the nerf bat this build, Paladins got little more than a love tap from the devs, making me think that the Light, indeed, is watching over us all. As I mentioned in an earlier post, while seal damage got nerfed, the new talents and tree shuffles are shaping up to be good for the class.
Holy was left mostly untouched, leaving many Holy Paladins feeling distraught and apprehensive. As I've learned throughout the whole WrathBeta experience, it's always just best to... chillax. Don't worry about it. Blizzard changed Beacon of Light last build and it's somewhat overpowered, but even though they've already said they'll tweak it a bit more, they left it as is this build. Everything will balance out in time. For this build, however, Retribution gets a chance to shine -- but so does Protection, and boy, does it shine bright. If you thought Retribution got some love, wait til you see what Protection got.
This is one of the biggest patches to hit Paladins in a while, and it's a mixed bag. Let's get the bad news out of the way first -- all of Seals have been nerfed. All of them. Seal of the Martyr / Blood, Corruption / Vengeance, Wisdom, Light, Justice, Righteousness and even Command have all had their damage reduced. The formulas are tweaks of the values of attack power, spell power, and weapon speed -- a bit complicated to explain in detail -- that result in an overall damage reduction. Now, before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, let me say one thing: don't panic.
We can probably consider this patch the nerf patch, which is an essential part of the tuning process. The developers traditionally start from a high power scale and fine tune it downwards -- I mean, look at the poor Death Knight. This is still the WrathBeta, and while there is a chance these numbers might stick through to live, testing these lowered numbers are vital to getting everything right for release. If you're in Beta, log in, play with it for a while, and give feedback. If you're not in Beta, hold back a bit from making a ruckus and exercise a little patience until the testing is done. Let's take a deep breath. Now where'd I put my inhaler...
Early on during the WrathBeta, when the new Paladin talents were unveiled, a collective girlish squeal of delight was heard throughout the world as every Retribution Paladin read the description for Divine Storm. Except for me, that is. I let out a very dignified squeal when I read this:
Divine Storm Requires 50 points in Retribution An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 20% of the damage caused.
First of all, understand that Paladins are a glorified auto-attack class. Unlike other melee classes with a plethora of strikes (sorry, Enhancement Shamans, I know you're in the same boat), Paladins rely on the swing timer and insert the occasional, short-ranged Judgement in between. Retribution Paladins have one additional button to press, the 41-point Crusader Strike, but otherwise it's an auto-attack affair. This new spell, the 51-point granddaddy in the Retribution tree, hits numerous birds with one stone -- it's another activated strike, raising DPS; it can hit multiple targets; and it provides minor raid utility with AoE healing.
We know a second pass is coming. As good -- or bad -- as everything might seem right now, Paladins have yet to get another look from the developers and as Ghostcrawler mentioned on the forums earlier, they're nearing finalizing those changes soon. A few days back, Blizzard asked the players for feedback on all three trees, and it looks like all those constructive comments are finally going to see some results.
The good thing is that, despite all our misgivings about how the class has been handled all these years, it seems that Blizzard is finally listening. Holy wanted ways to be more mobile and have group healing utility... the WrathBeta brings creative ways to solve that with instant Holy Lights and double duty healing. Protection needed stat consolidation badly, for starters, and it's slowly moving that way with Stamina granting spell power through Touched by the Light. Retribution needed raid utility among other things, and Blizzard is shaping up the spec to be a mana battery like Shadow Priests (and Survival Hunters). It's not everything players have wished for, but it's pretty darn close and there's no doubt that we're moving in the right direction.
Ghostcrawler displays her dedication yet again as she popped up on a few of the Wrath of the Lich King Beta forums in the wee hours of the morning today. Or would that be late last night? What does 2 AM qualify as, again? Anyway! Ghostcrawler popped into the Paladin forums to check in with some concerned players, and brought some fun news. She says herself that it may not be 100% what Paladins want, but it should prove to be good stuff regardless. Let's dig right into it, shall we?
From Ghostcrawler:
We'd like to do something else with Kings. I don't know that a core ability is the answer, but burying it deep in Prot, when Prot paladins would just as soon play with BoSanc, doesn't feel great either.
We'd like to mess around with the top 2 tiers of all 3 trees, still encouraging you to cross-spec a little, but making that initial bite into the upper tier more tasty instead of just an icky appetizer to get the what you really want down deeper
We've been covering in depth the changes to tanking for various classes in the Wrath beta, and how these changes might affect players when Patch 3.0goes live prior to Wrath's release. Now on the beta servers we have one very big sign that these changes may be going live fairly soon: the stats on Burning Crusade raiding gear, specifically paladin and warrior tanking set gear and many non-set epic plate tanking pieces, have been changed to reflect the new realities of tanking mechanics that are incoming.
In a surprise move that's incredibly welcome (well, in my eyes) Blizzard has gone back and changed Paladin and Warrior tanking tier 4 to 6 gear as well as non set plate drops, shield and badge gear to take advantage of the new mechanics. As I primarily am a tank (and expect to remain so) I went online to check out how my tanking gear will change when patch 3.0 drops. A gallery of some select pieces and how they're changing when patch 3.0 goes live has been provided for all your browsing needs. I have to say that for the most part the changes are very welcome, they maintain old block value for threat while adding the strength we'll need for increased AP to scale our new threat abilities like Shockwave.
Take a look at the changes to date. (And thanks to MMO-Champion for the head's up.)
One of my favorite people to read online is a fellow by the name of Pjammer on Livejournal. He's smart, funny, and a gifted writer, and if you are not sobbing by the end of "King of Masochists" then you are pretty much a terrible person. But another great entry is "The 16 Essential People In Your Life," which lists such valuable acquaintances as the Computer Security Guru, the Wolf, the Consigliere, and (most importantly) the Best Friend. Pjammer, quoting Harvey Mackay, correctly notes that 2 am is a bad time to make new friends. These are the kind of people you want in your life as early as possible, and to exercise a positive influence on its course.
My realm's seen a number of guild instability issues of late, which is something most of us have come to expect with an upcoming expansion. I've found reason to mull over how the virtual world differs from the real world with respect to friendship, backstabbing, greed, betrayal, honor, and how people choose to handle their problems. In my considered opinion it doesn't differ at all, and your experience ingame is largely determined by the network of players assembled around you, whether that alliance is a recognized one in the form of a guild or simply a more informal group of friends.
So, from my own experience and with a hat tip to Pjammer, these are the people you want in your posse for the best possible experience in the game:
While I effused about the great change to the otherwise lackluster Blessing of Sanctuary -- it should really be named Blessing of Badass -- Paladins have yet to receive the promised second pass. There have been massive changes to the class itself, but there's more to come. Hopefully on the positive side.
The Paladin community's new "Beacon of Light", Ghostcrawler, has popped up on the forums saying that the second pass is forthcoming. Blizzard is looking at making major changes to the Protection tree, stating that the developers feel that there are too many mandatory talents and mitigation talents that don't do anything interesting.
If you've got brilliant ideas about how to improve the Protection tree, now's your chance to speak up. Ghostcrawler is putting the entire Paladin community up to task by giving feedback on which talents are fun and which ones aren't; what areas feel bloated and what feels barren; and talents that seem mandatory, talents that seem fun but optional, and talents that often get the shaft. Head on up to the forums now and let Blizzard hear your thoughts. Given all the great changes to the Paladin class that have shown up in the WrathBeta, I have a very good feeling that Blizzard actually listens. [EDIT: Ghostcrawler also mentions that the Beta forums aren't the only source of feedback they have, so head over to the Paladin forums, too, in the hopes of getting heard]
[UPDATE: Ghostcrawler has made the same call to Retribution Paladins, as well. Jump over to the thread now...]
Welcome back to Ask a Beta Tester, wherein WoW Insider's stable of beta testers answer as many of your Wrath Beta questions as possible! Today we'll start off with burton888's question...
Is there a "magic number" for Enchanting, in that you can disenchant everythng in the game (currently 275 for pre-WotLK content)?
My 375 Enchanter was able to start disenchanting blues as soon as I hit Northrend shores, so I can't say for sure what the minimum level is. However, we can take some guesses based on what we saw in The Burning Crusade. As a few readers said, to disenchant epics it actually requires 300 Enchanting. 300 was the profession cap in WoW Classic. Assuming that trend continues, you will need 375 Enchanting to disenchant everything in Wrath. In the expansion after Wrath, it will probably take 450. Getting to 375 is a pretty safe bet.
Red asked...
How is spell damage affecting a Paladin's Ret Aura? Is it reduced like a standard DoT tick or even further? What are the numbers looking like with tested spell damage?
It's that time again, folks. Let's get this party started with Gary's question...
Any new storylines for the Draenei?
I haven't seen any major representation for them throughout Northrend, no massive plots just focusing on them, but they do have a presence and they are right there alongside the Alliance and the Argent Crusade. In some of the early quests, you do some unraveling of a cultist plot, and it's the Draenei fueling the investigation. Apparently thousands of years of the Legion trying to infiltrate your ranks makes you pretty good at sniffing out spies. A lot of their quests are that sort of thing, lending support to the Alliance rather than leading the charge like they did in Outland.
There are a few other quests that show that the Draenei are starting to grow accustomed to Azeroth, and are settling into a calmer life there. They're not fleeing exiles anymore. Azeroth is home to a lot of them these days, so they'll fight Azeroth's fight, and some of them just plain want to live life. Explore and go on whimsical adventures like the rest of us.
Jake asked...
Are Prot Paladins having less downtime now with the buff to Blessing of Sanctuary?
It's pretty exciting, isn't it? Patch 3.0 is coming, well, "soon™" according to Blizzard. Considering that our favorite class hasn't gotten a second pass, it might be a bit premature to talk about Paladin changes when the pre-Wrath patch finally hits. That said, it looks like more than a few new talents will make it at least into the PTRs more or less intact. Hopefully and changes we'll see during our second pass will be tweaks to numbers and some mechanics refinements but hopefully no major changes.
Assuming that most of the changes push through, we should expect a completely different Paladin in the coming months. Even without taking the new talents into account, there are baseline changes that should make gameplay technically different. The most significant change, of course, is in the way Judgements work. This is the one change that will take some getting used to. First of all, there are now three Judgements and they activate the GCD. This means no more macros for Seals and Judgements, which is actually fine because of two things: first, Judgements no longer consume Seals; second, Seals now last for a micromanagement-light two minutes.
Three major changes were implemented for Paladins that affect all three specs in the latest WrathBeta build. Beacon of Light was reworked, Blessing of Sanctuary was buffed, and Retribution was nerfed through changes to Blessing of Might and Judgements of the Wise. The nerfs aside, the two other changes make a significant difference in gameplay, particularly the change to Beacon of Light. Beacon of Light The target becomes a Beacon of Light to all targets within a 40 yard radius. Any heals you cast on those targets will also heal the Beacon for 100% of the amount healed. The promised rework of Beacon of Light is finally here and it's absolutely amazing. It fits better with the Paladin's kit, which is -- still -- cast heals vs. HoTs and single target healing. Paladins are the best single target healers in the game and the new Beacon of Light capitalizes on that by adding a secondary target to the primary heal. It's not quite the group heal we've been asking for, but it does the job quite nicely. In fact, it's like the now retired Blessing of Light's great granddaddy for heals because when you heal the Beacon of Light's target, the heal is doubled. I don't know if that's intended or a bug because when you cast Beacon of Light on yourself, it won't work.
Looking at the new Divine Shield (reduces damage by 50%) will it still drop aggro or work like a shield wall-like ability? Also will Hand of Protection (reworked blessing of protection) still drop it's target's threat?
Divine Shield still drops aggro. It works the same way it always has. However, Divine Protection is now a Paladin's Shield wall. Divine Protection is the Protection Paladin's 'oh crap' button now, and coupled with the new Lay on Hands, they're pretty set. Protadins are going to be in a really, really good place come Wrath.
As for Hand of Protection, it works exactly like Blessing of Protection did. It doesn't "drop threat" but it does make the mob/boss stop attacking the Protected person for the duration of the buff. They mob will, as always, go back to that person if they're still on top of the threat list 10 seconds later.
dave asked...
Do level 70 toons start off with the max amount of rest XP when we install wrath? Or will rest XP start after the game is installed?
A few new glyphs have popped up in the latest Beta build, and basing it on MMO Champion's list, it looks like some old ones have changed. A quick glance at the glyphs show them to be rather underwhelming, however, and I'm not so sure Blizzard is taking the right direction with them. Let's take a closer look. Glyph of Blessing of Kings Reduce the mana cost of your Blessing of Kings and Greater Blessing of Kings spells by 50%. This seems to be either a changed Glyph or another one for the same spell, I'm not too sure. The other one, which I discussed in a previous post, also increases attack power by 3%. Not very useful for casters, sure, but certainly better than this one. This Glyph downright blows. Why? Because Blessing of Kings and specially Greater Blessing of Kings are preparatory spells! The mana cost reduction is irrelevant because Paladins cast this spell during downtime, the buffing up stage. Paladins will have the opportunity to drink before the encounter so mana saved from this spell is utterly worthless. In PvP, where Blessings are routinely dispelled, this Glyph is slightly more useful. However, it's probably best to save that Glyph slot -- even a minor one -- for something better.
Tank Talk is WoW Insider's tanking column, promising you an exciting and educational look at the world of getting the stuffing thrashed out of you in a 10- or 25-man raid. The column is rotated amongst Matthew Rossi (Warrior/Paladin), Adam Holisky (Warrior), Michael Gray (Paladin), and Allison Robert (Druid). Our aim is to use this column to debate and discuss class differences, raid-tanking strategies, tips, tricks, and news concerning all things meatshieldish.
This week's Tank Talk is a little bit of a public service. Recently huddled around the ticker-tapes of WoW Insider, we came to realize that your intrepid Insider lacked a particular resource: a basic guide to aggro.
Certainly, this most important of subjects is old hat to us meatshields ... but maybe not quite so much to everyone around us. And gosh, who better to talk about this subject than your devoted Tank Talk tanks!
And, really. If your team doesn't know aggro, then you're going to have a hell of a time as a tank. So, let's Tank Talk about aggro. What it is, where it comes from, why you want it, and why they don't want it.
Ghostcrawler
We've been covering in depth the changes to tanking for various classes in the Wrath beta, and how these changes might affect players when 
While I effused about the 
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