My Take on RealID [Updated]

Update 3: The current rumour making the rounds is that Blizzard Staff will no longer be required to post with their real name following the harassment of Battle.net CM Bashiok.

Bashiok, in an unwise attempt to alleviate the worries of posters, posted his real name on the forum thread. Within hours personal details were dug up, including Facebook profile, home address, telephone and more. Apparently other harassing activities also then took place. He then took his name down, but the damage had been done.

I hope Blizzard takes note of this.

[This has since been denied by EU CM Wryxian here]

Update 2: Serious Mode On.

Here is the archive for the EU feedback thread for this RealID Debacle:

MMO-Champion Blue Tracker: Battle.net Update: Upcoming Forum Changes

It's worth a read because damage control is running wild, but they're still firmly toeing the current company line. However here is some of the most glaring oblivios responses you will ever read from a CM:

During this time, we have thought ahead about the scope and impact of this change and predicted that many people would no longer wish to post in the forums after this change goes live. We are fine with that, because we want to change these forums dramatically in a positive and more constructive direction.

..


There's a lot of scare-mongering going on about the change, but there seems a need to make something very clear. The forums have always been an optional extra -- something you can choose to participate in if you wish to. With our Real ID changes for the forums, this is still the case. The only difference will be, if you do choose to participate in the forums, then you will do so by using your real name. But only after you've been warned and accepted this in advance.

There's a couple of things wrong with this stance. The first and probably most abhorrent aspect is the subtle accusation that those stating they'll quit the forums are all the negative elements in the forums. In fact they're anything but: MVPs, long-time members and those doing upkeep on class stickies are amongst those who will not continue to post come July 27th (when the change is implemented). Other long-time bloggers are quitting WoW altogether in protest and perhaps out of worry over the next step in RealID. It's a flagrant attempt to marginalise dissent, all the more galling in that it's coming from Community Managers, not the forum trolls they are supposedly attempting to eliminate.

The second point is one of forums being 'optional'. Theoretically this may be true, but in actuality it's not the case. From a bug-fixing POV you actively want to encourage users with tech-support woes to post. Just take a quick look at the moderators of the Tech Support forums who routinely ask for the crash dump and dxdiag reports, it's only by analysing these in batches that getting a handle on the root-cause of a bug is possible. RealID represents a genuine disincentivisation of posting and for obvious reasons phone support is not a practical replacement. Those who have been hacked, where authenticators have been applied to their account because of the totally inadequate security of Battle.net since day one, routinely have to post on the official forums to get these removed because of the abysmal phone support.

There are so many things wrong with RealID that the work of all the other bloggers out there has made me putting them down on (virtual) paper entirely rundant. However there's one final thing I'd mention to address the core rationale behind RealID on forums - to reduce trolling and increase quality posting.

People don't troll because of anonymity, they troll because they are wankers. All this new policy does is drive away quality posters (rightly) concerned about their privacy, reducing the quality of forums as a result.

I now eagerly await the bait-and-switch, where this 'feature' is dropped but another slightly less offensive one is put in its place.

--



A deep thinker I am not. But wouldn't it be cool to see 30,000 of these at BlizzCon?

ADDED:

Oh and this. 100% this. Does anyone not trolling for page hits actually agree with this dumb RealID idea?

Want a DPS Relic? Don't Have the Tokens to Spare? Use Honour!

Obviously, the best raiding Ret Libram is the sexy, wonderful and fantastic Libram of Valiance. Everyone loves an effective 200 passive Strength from the Relic slot but it comes at a price: 25 Emblems of Triumph.

For those not yet well advanced in TotC-10/25 and regularly smacking up Koralon EoT's are hard to come by and worth their weight in gold. If you're not DPS as your main spec you should rightly baulk at the price, at least until there is no more main-spec gear for you to buy. So, what Libram should you go for?

Not This One.

Well, the best choice was previously the Libram of Radiance, but 25 EoV's = 25 EoC's and so it comes at a very high cost. Don't rely on getting lucky with this as a drop, the drop rate is atrocious. And anyway, there is a better option.

Season 7 just started, and there's been a new development: PvP Relics's are now available for Honour! I've mentioned before that the PvP Libram's are great for PvE but previously they've required an Arena Rating and Arena Points to gain. In a PvP Season transition the old second highest tier (now 3rd highest) is usually made available with Honour, but that hasn't included Weapons (much to my chagrin) or Relics. The same is true this year, with one exception: Deadly Relics can now be bought with Honour Points and no Rating requirement!



WoWHead is still (wrongly) listing these items as requiring an Arena Rating of 700 and some Arena Points. However, all Deadly Relics can be bought from Zom Bocom, the Apprentice Arena Vendor in the Dalaran Underbelly, for the low-low price of 15300 Honour Points. Okay, it's still something of a grind, but well worth it for Relic using DPS Off-specs and maybe a few Healer specs too (the DG Holy Libram for example gives 334 additional Spellpower to your FoL for example).

The Deadly Gladiator's Libram of Fortitude is worth 120 Passive AP. It's not a patch on the Libram of Valiance, but definitely the next best for players with no access to the Arena.

Thanks go to new WoW-Blogger Ayrlyn and her blog 'The Light, and How The Swing It'.

The Insidious Nature of Dual-Specs.

Am I the only one spending more time on my secondary, rather than primary spec?

Jana was, is and continues to be my main. I've gathered gear in the stated desire to Raid as Ret, but I haven't been able to Raid as often as I'd like and probably not stamped my identity as a DPSer on the Guild. But of course I still want to Raid, and acquire gear which will improve my raid performance (even though we're nothing like a front-line hardcore guild). How do you get gear outside of Raids? You guess it, Heroic and their associated Emblems. But DPS are a dime a dozen in our guild like many others, so what do I do?

Yep, I volunteer to tank.

"What could it hurt?", I rather naively said to myself. "I'm still Ret, and this Secondary PvP spec isn't exactly seeing much use." I had bought the Dual Talent ability with a spare 1k gold I had lying around but hadn't gained a huge amount of use from it. Also like many others I abstained from PvP until Druids were banned for being unkillable. Healing was out of the question, not only because I hate healing on my Paladin but also because I ritually destroy all healing gear I come across.

(by 'ritually destroy' I of course mean 'sell to the nearest Goblin'. Sure, I hate the very idea of Paladin healing, but I have to fund my desire for whelplings somehow!)

It started innocently enough - a quick Violet Hold run. No drama, no deaths, all good. Utgarde Keep was next, and predictably it was a walk-over. Heroic after Heroic followed, and pretty soon I was tanking more than I was DPSing. I even volunteered to off-tank an alt and emblem run in Naxx-10. Suggestions from well-meaning guildmates to make tanking my main spec didn't help my state of mind and annoyance. The one saving grace, and the reason why I'm not tanking in Raids that I do attend, is that tank gear requirements are relatively high and that you don't need to take 5 tanks to a 25-man.

Other Paladin guildies who run as Primary - Prot, Secondary - Holy are being pushed into the Healing role because of a relative lack of Healers on at odd times. They're treating it with good-natured joviality but I feel guilty every time I ask one of these guys to heal as I tank a Heroic.



Dual Talent Specs are a frustrating feature for hybrids. On the one hand, it gives the purchaser a huge amount of added flexibility and convenience, but on the other you can very easily be pressured into a role not to your preference. So it is with me. Be very careful when buying the ability and make sure that the secondary spec is one that you can live with, you may be using it more often than you'd like.

Koralon The Loot Piñata

So, Season 7 has just started on Live Realms and with that we get obligatory New PvE Content in the form of the third Vault of Archavon boss, Koralon the Flame Watcher.

Now, I hope I won't be insulting anyone when I say... my word this guy's easy to kill. I mean, seriously easy. Order of Sarth 1D easy.

The encounter is essentially a gear check. There is some of the usual 'Don't Stand in the Fire' environmental effects and tank positioning is pretty key so melee can spot the fire, but apart from that it's a DPS race. Koralon has a stacking buff which increases his damage by 5% that he casts every 20 secs or there abouts, and obviously he'll eventually one-shot the tanks. The better geared your two tanks are the more time your DPS will have to take him down, but you definitely want decent DPS. No-one with the De-Raged Waraxe need apply.

Healers will have to be on their toes, and you may want err on the side of bringing along one too many rather than one too few. Three healers will probably be the norm in the 10-man version, 2-healer setups will be tough to pull off because of all the raid damage flying around. Obviously, Fire Resist Aura or Totem will greatly improve your chances as it mitigates a big hefty wodge of that fire damage.

As usual, Bloodlust is a premium ability, especially in the 10-man version.

Koralon will drop Tier 9 in 10-man versions and 9.5 in 25-man versions. I suppose that Relentless Gladiator gear will only drop in the latter and Furious (thanks for the correction chronic) will drop from the former.

Mad props to those guilds able to achieve Earth, Wind and Fire. Killing all three within one minute is awesome, probably another one of those 'impossible' achievements that we all hear so much about.

Time to Retire Tirion Fordring?

Let's be honest here, there are few more prominant mortal characters in Warcraft right now than Tirion Fordring. He's gone from a retired former Paladin who lost his family and watched as his son was corrupted and killed to the dude who's risen above the strife between the races and is taking the fight to Arthas. He's honourable, impartial and even-handed to a fault. Over the course of the Expansion he's brought diverse races and classes into the ranks of the Argent Crusade and succeeded in quelling much of the antagonism between the major factions. It's likely were it not for Garrosh Hellscream, Fordring would be able to forge a cease-fire between Thrall and Varian Wrynn. He also currently wields the Ashbringer, a more badass weapon you're not likely to see, and urged the acceptance of Deathknights into the fold of the Alliance and Horde.

Fordring has become a rallying standard when the Horde and Alliance have a common enemy, and as such will continue to be an obstacle when the game seeks to foster conflict between the races as seen in Cataclysm. He would also be the first target for any enemy seeking greater dominance over Azeroth. The character is starting to play a more central role in end-game lore than any of the major faction leaders. In short, this guy has to go.

One Last Hurrah for Arthas?

With all that's happened over the past few (in-game) months the power and evil of the Lich King is getting lost in the shuffle. We know that he destroy our souls with one spell but even now he's too timid in reacting to our encroachments into Icecrown. He should be planning something special to negate the advantages Tirion brings to the Crusade. And the figure of the Lich King is powerful enough to warrant taking out some big names as we bring him down. Fordring, as a neutral, well-loved and big name character, is a prime candidate.

There are of course more than a few ways in which Arthas may blunt the effectiveness of Fordring. Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

Poison his steed, Mirador.

Defile the tomb of Uther Lightbringer.

Systematically turn a large number of his Crusade. He may be able to take them being killed, but corruption from within would tear the Crusade apart. Bartholemew, Tyrosus and the Crusaders at the Tourney are contenders.

Reveal his estranged wife Karandra as a member of the Cult of the Damned.

Raise his son Taelen as an Ghoul or even a Deathknight to lead the Undead vangard against the Argent Crusade.

Without a doubt, Arthas will be dispatched in 3.3 either through elimination or redemption. It also appears that he has put plans in motion to counter the Alliance and Horde specifically by the enforced turning of two of their champions. Surely, after going to so much trouble to draw out Fordring for battle he will target the main man again.

Presupposing an encounter between Arthas and Tirion the Ashbringer and Frostmourne saga's should be concluded. In so doing the backstory detailing the origin of both Runeblades should finally be fully revealed, explaining if the Ashbringer was indeed forged from the spark of a Naaru and who crafted Frostmourne. Perhaps the confrontation between these two opposing elements would cause them both to be destroyed. It might even have been a plan of the Naaru; we know that they are adept at seeing the bigger picture and planning ahead.

The Aftermath - Disbanding the Argent Crusade, Inspiring New Paladins

With the death of Fordring and the supposed end of the Lich King's Undead threat the disparate groups which make up the Argent Crusade should slowly drift apart. Recall that the Crusade was conceived as a union of the Argent Dawn and the Order of the Silver Hand, the latter of which is an Alliance group that has set aside the issues around working with the Horde to combat a common foe. The Argent Dawn may well continue as a neutral faction in the future, but greatly diminished in power and influence.

The memory of Fordring would serve as an inspiration for new Paladins that transcended boundaries of race, especially if supported by the major moderate figures of the Horde such as Thrall and Saurfang. If handled correctly this could inspire the Tauren to feel comfortable embracing the Light, just as they embrace nature now.

Blood Knights and the Order of the Silver Hand could feature as two new major PvP factions in the Cataclysm world, both seeking to discover the origins of Light in the Titan Parthenon. Alternatively, the Order could be a neutral class faction similar to the Ebon Blade or Cenarion Circle, but I think divorcing it that far from the Alliance would be a mistake.

Other Lore Potential: Garrosh, Daval Prestor and the Old Gods (Spoilers!)

How has Garrosh changed from a whiny crybaby to the Warchief-in-Waiting? We could perhaps justify it in a retcon (otherwise known as OMG Comic!), but perhaps simply using the available tools would get the job done. Recall that what may appear to be a series of unconnected threats is essentially the fight for dominance of two overarching forces: the Titan Pantheon and Old Gods.


As seen at Blizzcon, Horde fortifications are being reinforced with a curious black iron which should seem familiar: it's Saronite. There's only one source of the dangerous ore in the world and the mining of it leads to inevitable madness with prolonged exposure because of the whisperings of the Old Gods. Surely only a fool would expose themselves and others to their influence, and not even Garrosh would support such an action? However, perhaps Garrosh came into contact with Saronite very early and the Old Gods, sensing a weak and malleable mind, chose to corrupt him. This would certainly account for his fast change of outlook, aggression, and erratic temperament.

The Dragon Aspect Deathwing will return in Cataclysm, and may reappear as Lord Daval Prestor. It was never made clear if his cover had been blown or if only Rhonin and Krasus know his true identity, but he was once an ally of the leader of Gilneas, Genn Greymane. Prestor may once again wield power and influence amongst the Alliance, continuing the plans of the Old Gods on Azeroth by sowing the seeds of conflict between the Alliance and Horde. The unmasking of Lord Prestor could in fact be a major event in WoW before the Deathwing raid instances are released, recapturing the epic feel of a similar quest now removed.


With 3.3 likely due some time before the new year a protracted release date for Cataclysm seems unlikely. As Dylan once said, 'Time's, they are a'changing', and 4.0 will see the biggest upheaval in the games' history. I just hope that the lore surrounding the events is as compelling as it needs to be, and isn't all farmed out to the Comic Series.

Embracing Your Inner Gnomish Army Knife: Ret Utility Talents in 3.2.

Imagine the scenario: 3.2 has dropped... doesn't take much imagination, does it? Your talents have reset, and you just don't know what you should be speccing into. Well, I hope to take you through a few of the available options for a 3.2 PvE talent spec.

The Retribution Base Spec.

Retribution has always been both blessed and cursed with a really, really simple base build. Dump all your points in the DPS increasing talents and you've got 14 talent points to play with. Well, in 3.2 you'll be down to 9:

3.2 PTR Ret Base Spec

All that's changed is taking 5/5 in Seals of the Pure, which increases the DoT, Proc and Judgement damage of your Seal of Vengeance/Corruption. When SoV is firing on all cylinders the talent really is a quite considerable DPS increase, and also has the happy coincidence of also improving SoR to a generally better level than SoC. Until you hear differently, always take this talent in your PvE build.

So, there are 9 Points to spend and two major routes to go down: Holy or Prot... putting all of your 9 spare in Ret isn't really necessary. So, what should you go for?

Variant One: Lay On Hands and Aura Mastery (13/5/52 + 1)

Buried away there in the patch notes is the change to Improved Lay on Hands. Rather than increase Armour by 25/50% for 15secs the talent now reduces physical damage taken by 20%. This is an improvement from 3.2 for all classes with less than 16700 (~Shaman + Shield) or greater than 36600 Armour. 3.2's Imp LoH is a maximum of 1.7% effective damage reduction worse than the 3.1 incarnation (at 33k unbuffed armour). The value of this talent is therefore lower than you would like as LoH is typically for tanks, but has some breathing room for Mail and lesser wearers in PvE vs adds.

Aura Mastery hasn't had much impact in the PvE landscape, but the resistance to spell pushback and uninterruptability has been a lifesaver in many an Ulduar hard-mode. The temp boost to Resistance Auras isn't nearly as useful as I'd hoped it would be, but overall it's well worth grabbing if you traverse down the tree that far.

This build would leave 1 spare point to place into any talent of your choice which strikes me as a very expensive investment, mainly because the 5 of the 8 points are pretty much worthless. The build is somewhat less than ideal considering that most of the remaining utility talents in range are 2pt talents.

Variant Two: Divine Sacrifice (5/11/52 + 3)

In the past I've been grossly unfair to this skill. My initial criticism still stands: an AoE damage redirection skill is too dangerous with the amount of damage thrown out in many encounters, and in other encounters the damage redirected would be too trivial to matter. However, I've moderated my opinion slightly in one particular set of circumstances: when the talent is used in conjunction with Divine Shield.

One of the quirks of damage redirection such as DiSac and HoSac is that they do not bypass the immunity provided by Divine Shield. Hence, if you DiSac just after DS damage is still redirected but not inflicted; there is no risk of insta-gibbing.

In 3.1, Divine Sacrifice whilst under the effects of Divine Shield was pretty much uncapped, leading to the term 'Raid-wall' being coined to describe DS's 30% raid-wide damage reduction for 10 seconds at the cost of 2 GCD's and a 5 min cooldown. Theorycrafters don't have a solid understanding of why this happens; it has been by turns ascribed to server timing issues, bizarre interaction with immunities or the buff continuing to redirect damage from all raid members until one has redirected an amount totaling 150% of the Paladins health, at which time the effect fades from all raid members. That it's buggy is the only firm conclusions which can be made

Unfortunately, this talent continues to be buggy and opportunities to test it have been few and far between. The best intelligence so far is that it's even more buggy, and may last the full 10 seconds or may break early. If the skill hasn't been changed then it is far and away the best raid-wide mitigation talent in the game, but if the damage redirected is properly capped even under the effects of DS its' value is significantly diminished. I'll repost on Divine Sacrifice as/when I know more, but given how good it's been in 3.1 it seems churlish not to give it a go in 3.2.

Update: Barrelroll in comments states that it is fully capped at 150% of the Paladin's Health, meaning that its been nerfed hard and probably isn't raid viable. Better to use DS and HoSanc as a single-target shield wall when absolutely necessary and spend the points elsewhere.

Taking DSac leaves 3 talent points spare, 4 if you only take 1pt in Pursuit of Justice (not recommended!).

Variant 3: Other Utility

Divine Guardian, a great talent investment and mainstay of 3.1, is no longer reachable in PvE builds. The improvement to Flash of Light and higher Ret GCD use makes this a double-blow. On the other hand Vindication is now a viable PvE talent, so at least there's still something to invest in.

Depending on the build you choose somewhere between nine and one talent points are left over, and your options are a little sparse between.

Improved Blessing of Might - +62.5AP per point, max 2 points.
Vindication - -287AP per point, max 2 points. Now works on Boss Mobs.
Divinity - Increase healing done to you by 5% and healing you do by 5%.
Guardian's Favor - Reduces HoF and HoP cooldowns by 8 and 120 seconds respectively.
Divine Purpose - HoF generates a stun break.

Vindication should probably be your first investment choice for your remaining talent points. It doesn't stack with Demoralizing Roar/Shout, but its' effect is as strong as the fully improved version of these two abilities. As it procs from Divine Storm the -AP proc can be distributed amongst multiple enemies in situations where more than one target is in melee range. It also doesn't require a GCD to refresh, and that's quite important for Ret's GCD-heavy rotation. Protections Paladins will probably take this ability, so consider it if you are rolling with Druid, Warrior or Deathknight tanks.

Imp. BoM is Imp. BoM, the spell hasn't changed and still rocks your raid. Holy Paladins seeking the improved mana efficiencies of a Ret build will probably pick it up though, and even a Tankadin may well have at least 1 point in it. This should be second place in priority after Vindication.

Divinity isn't as strong in 3.2 with the nerf to JoLight's healing power. It makes reasonably useful filler for getting down to Divine Sacrifice or for left-over points, but otherwise it's not really powerful enough to warrant the points.

Divine Purpose and Guardian's Favour are both exceptionally dependent on the encounter mechanic. At times they may be extremely useful, in other circumstances the abilities that they affect may not even be hotkeyed. Shouldn't normally be a part of your PvE build.

Paladins interested purely in doing DPS should have rolled a rogue and happy to pass up raid mitigation talents in Prot and Holy could choose the following build (or some variant): I'm a Fighter, Not a Lover build.

--

So, there are your options.

Seal Switching To AoE In 3.2; Seal of Command's Limited Range.

A lot of the debate in the past week or so has centered around Seal of Vengeance's single-target damage, and rightly so. Because of the controversy another component of damage in a raid context has gone largely overlooked: AoE damage. Seal of Vengeance is obviously unsuited to applying AoE damage, and with that in mind this post looks at the other options available.

The Old - Seal of Blood.

The staple Ret Seal of 3.1, SoB's proc of 48% weapon damage on all weapon swings leads to very significant front-loaded damage in multi-target situations. Divine Storm itself is effectively a Whirlwind which proc's SoB, and Consecration is usually ticking even in single-target encounters. Aggro could sometimes be an issue, but when the risks involved in stealing aggro from the tank are minimal SoB allowed considerable burst AoE without necessarily interrupting a DPS cycle on the main target.

3.1 will probably be looked back upon as the golden age of Ret DPS... farewell Seal of Blood, you will be missed.

The New...ish - Seal of Vengeance

Seal of Vengeance largely replaces SoB in 3.2, but is only suited to single-target DPS situations due to the difficulty of stacking Holy Vengeance on secondary targets. Tab-targetting may allow you to spread the Holy Vengeance debuff around a little, perhaps to as many as 3 targets reliably under optimum conditions and with no avoided swings. Unfortunately, an encounter with up to 3 targets all in melee range that last long enough to make it worthwhile is an exceedingly rare beast. Spreading the debuff to 2 targets will be the likely limit of SoV functionality, and enough of a juggling exercise for most players.

The Alternative - Switching Your Seal

Rather than go through the rigmarole of tab-targetting there is another option: switching your Seal. Both SoCommand and SoRighteousness allow a damage proc from Divine Storm, but as a consequence lower damage will be inflicted upon the main target. Using Command or Righteousness is not something you want to be doing all the time, but when you absolutely positively have to do as much AoE damage as possible they are valid options.

SoR has a much smoother distribution of damage as proc damage doesn't vary and cannot crit. This can be of great benefit in situations where drawing aggro is a worry. On the other hand the size of the damage proc is almost always inferior to that of Command, especially when considering that Command procs may crit. If aggro isn't a problem, either because you're comfortable with the damage 4 adds beating on you may cause or very happy with your tank's ability to hold threat (yay Pally and DK Tanks!), SoC represents significantly higher multi-target DPS.

But, there's a catch with Seal of Command: You need to be in melee range, i.e. within 5 yards, for the attack hitting the target to proc it.

Seal of Righteousness - Proc at Range

Seal of Command - No Proc at Range

You may be thinking that this isn't a problem, but Judgment and Divine Storm have a range of 10 and 8 yards respectively and you may miss a surprising number of procing opportunities. Seal of Righteousness and Vengeance proc's don't suffer from this problem thankfully.

The maximum range of Commands proc issue may well rear its' ugly head again in any PvP discussions given the otherwise weak nature of Judgment damage.

The Cost

Mana. - Casting a Seal spell still costs 14% of base mana, and if you want to adapt to encounter phases you'll be doing it multiple times in a battle. Even the most frugal Ret Paladin will soon see this eat into their mana pool, especially in 10-man raids where mana buffs are thin on the ground. Throw a little Holy Wrath into the mix and you'll be reaching for the mana potion injector more often than House pops a Vicodin. And with less panache.

Somewhat mitigating this is the new Glyph of Seal of Command, which restores 8% of base mana on Judgement. The opportunity cost of this Glyph is high as it replaces one of your three Major's, probably GoJudgment.

Incidentally, '75% Mana Cost Reduction For All Damaging Seals' would make a great idea for a Minor Glyph.

Talent Points. - By choosing to take SoC you by necessity spend a talent point that could be spent on utility such as Vindication, which incidentally works great in AoE situations as it procs from Divine Storm. If you have taken neither Divine Sacrifice nor Imp. LoH the trade-off is trivial, but with either of these powerful cooldowns some hard decisions need to be made.

Main Target Damage - Taking either option will greatly reduce DPS on your main target, if one exists. If DPS on a single, static target is essential then Seal swapping is unnecessay - rely on your raid members with greater AoE capability to do the job and stay in the role that you do best: single target AoE.

Conclusion

Seal Switching will only be an option in a few boss fights, but could have a significant impact if certain variables are in place. Your default position on any given encounter should always be one of running Seal of Vengeance but stay mindful of these tools in your arsenal. Given that Seal of Command requires a talent point invested and has limited range Righteousness is the Seal that I would favour. Your mileage may vary.

If you're fighting trash, go crazy ;).

As a more general point, the idea of Seal switching presents a good opportunity for Blizzard to tailor Seals to different encounter types and introduce another test of skill to differentiate relatively good Ret Paladins from bad ones. That said, it requires quite a lot of development time invested into finding and balancing a niche for each of the damaging Seals. At the very least, Command and Righteousness need to be more distinct than they are.


EDITING NOTE: Seal of Corruption is the Horde version of Seal of Vengeance, and it procs the Blood Corruption debuff. In all ways the two Seals are functionally identical.

Paper Over the Cracks: Glyph Choices for Ret In 3.2.

With 3.2 due out in early August and some stability in class mechanics over the last few builds it's time to start nailing down the impact of 3.2 on gear and playstyle. This is the second part of a 3.2 Retribution Paladin Primer.

Major Glyph Mainstays - The New Seal of Vengeance Glyph

Things have changed in 3.2: no more Seal of Blood. Nope, you don't have it any more, no use crying over it. But wait, all is not lost. The replacement is much better and it's called Seal of Vengeance - a direct damage proc and awesome DoT? Yes please!

We're here to discuss Glyphs though, not Seals, and the new SoV gives you one extra option, the imaginatively titled 'Glyph of Seal of Vengeance'. But what's lacking in naming pizazz misses little in power as it still gives you a whole 10 Expertise. Not 10 Rating, 10 Expertise. That's -2.5% chance for the boss to dodge or parry your attacks.



But lets not get carried away. For one Expertise is a capped stat, any more than 26 (214 rating) is totally wasted and so the effectiveness the Glyph is directly limited by your gear, perversely having the potential to get worse as your gear improves. For another, there are also three other totally serviceable glyphs on offer which provide a meaningful DPS boost. A quick reminder:

Glyph of Judgement - The workhorse of any Ret Glyph selection, it generates 10% more Judgement damage.

Glyph of Consecration - CD Conflict Resolution and greater Mana Efficiency, there's nothing not to like about this Glyph. Except the name, it really should be called 'Glyph of Double D', a truer reflection of how awesome it is.

Glyph of Exorcism - 20% more damage on your Exorcism... Good, but is it good enough?

It turns out that Exorcism's Glyph is kinda like your Prom Date: not your first choice, nor your second, but just attractive enough if you squint at them in a crosswind. And unfortunately, like all horse-faced rejects of the goblin race they've been upstaged by the new girl on the block.

The SoV Glyph isn't quite as good as Judgement or Consecration from a DPS POV, but works well enough all the same and is better than Exorcism's. However best in slot gear may cap Expertise, in which case it's time to turn back to old cross-eyed Mary and be thankful that she's not as picky as you.

For reference, the 131.16 Expertise Rating is the cap for Ret when Glyph of SoV being used.

The Wildcard - Holy Wrath

Good-bye GoSoB, hello Glyph of Holy Wrath. This new addition in 3.2 reduces Holy Wrath's cooldown from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. That's a 15 sec cooldown 10 yrd AoE with 3 sec stun, but only usable against Demons and Undead, which at 20% base mana goes through your mana pool faster than I scoff a packet of Jaffa Cakes. It's hard to imagine an encounter where this would be useful (*cough*Crusader's Coliseum*cough*) but even in optimal conditions the trade-off is high. When your Raid Leader suggests it, which they will, sic your Mechanical Yeti on 'em.

Mechanic Yeti - Strong Against Raid Leaders

Minor Glyphs

Nothing has changed in this score. Nothing. You'll still be using exactly the same ones you've used in the past 6 months of the game. That means Glyph of Sense Undead, Glyph of Lay on Hands, and Glyph of It Doesn't Really Matter, Probably BoMight, The Minor Glyph Concept Sucks Anyway.

So there you have it, distilled down into simplest terms:

PvE Major Glyphs:
1) Consecration
2) Judgement
3)i) Seal of Vengeance until near Expertise Cap, then
ii) Exorcism

Minor Gyphs:
1) Sense Undead
2) Lay On Hands
3) Might


PvP will of course always be a more idiosyncratic choice tuned to your play style. Glyphs of Salvation and HoJ enter the equation, but I pretty much suck at PvP so make up your own mind. ;)

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Baring any unforseen changes, equipement will be the topic of the next part of this 3.2 Ret Primer. I'm now off to enjoy a jaffa cake. Or 20.

PTR Update: SoV Functionality Change.

You knew that just as soon as I scheduled the previous post something significant was going to change. Well, the penny has dropped and SoV has been hit hard in the latest build.

Previously, both the Holy Vengeance DoT and 33% direct damage proc would trigger from Crusader Strike, Divine Storm and Judgement. Now, none of these abilities interact with SoV in any way. On the flip side, Hammer of Righteousness does seem to interact in a normal way.

This may be an attempt by Blizzard to equalise the DPS output of SoC and SoV, especially in PvP. It may also be an indication that they want to make stacking SoV's DoT a tougher proposition, and hence slow down the pace of SoV-damage in PvP. In that case CS et al not procing the direct damage may be an unintended side-affect.

Hopefully we'll know more next week, fingers crossed that this is just a bug.

The More Things Stay The Same - Ret Changes For 3.2 Distilled

With 3.2 due out in early August and some stability in class mechanics over the last few builds it's time to start nailing down the impact of 3.2 on gear and playstyle. This is the first part of a 3.2 Retribution Paladin Primer.

Ah, so much to say, so much room to say it in. 3.2 is close at hand and we all need to get a grip on the latest class alterations in the new patch. Having had a few weeks to ruminate and cogitate on the ins and outs of 3.2 here is my take on Talents, Seals and Retributions' DPS Rotation, such as it is.

1. Base PvE Talent Build

It would be easy to drone on and on and on about the talents to take, but come on guys this isn't rocket science. There's still only 59 talents which increase your DPS, and taking all the essentials (including JotW) only requires an investment of 62.

Baring a few points shaved here and there this is the cookie cutter talent build most Ret Paladins will be working from in 3.2:

5/5/52 + 9

The only change from the 3.1 cookie cutter build is 5 points spent in Seals of the Pure. Currently, SotP accounts for a little more than 5% increase in DPS as it increases the damage of the DoT, Judgement and Seal Proc of SoV by the listed 15%. Where you place those final 9 points will largely be up to you and your raid composition. Divine Sacrifice is the strongest of all available talents because of the raid-wide mitigation it allows when activated in conjunction with Divine Shield. Other talent choices will largely depend on your raid line-up, with Imp. BoM and Vindication registering as the strongest contenders. I'll be taking a more detailed look at these utility talents in a later post.

2. Seals

Seal of Vengeance/Corruption will be the Seal of choice in the vast, vast majority of cases. The DPS output of this Seal is significantly higher than any alternative, and four seconds to accumulate the 5-high stack requirement for its' direct damage proc isn't a hardship.

The jury is currently out on which of the other two Seals represent the best DPS in the blessedly rarely situations where SoV isn't optimal. Command has a much stronger melee proc whilst Righteousness deals painfully more damage on Judgement. Against AoE Instance Trash Command just about has an edge because of procs from Divine Storm, but otherwise Righteousness /w 5/5 SotP is so close to the damage output of Command that the additional talent point spent becomes somewhat unnecessary. If you're pressured into raid-utility talents ditching Command may be necessary, even if you have to hold your nose and sometimes run with Righteousness.

PTR testing currently puts SoV DPS output at ~25% of total, which may well be looked at closely as finer balancing takes place towards the end of the testing cycle. JoV also hits very, very hard (pre-nerf JoB hard) with AP trinket/libram procs and 5-stack Holy Vengeance, and that may well be dialed down because of PvP and the fact that JoV also procs the Seal.

3. FCFS Priority Rotation, or 'Hulk Mash Buttons!'

You'd be forgiven for assuming that Crusader Strike cooldown reduction and the 'Art of Exorcism' effect had changed our FCFS priority system for DPS. In reality it simply constitutes an increase of 1 GCD spent per 12 seconds and therefore a bit more key pounding but not much more thought required. DPS is generally higher than the 3.1 baseline, but making use of utility skills such as Sacred Shield come at a commensurate DPS loss.

More GCD's used means that the conflict resolution priority each skill has is more important than in earlier patch cycles. A skills position of priority within the sequence isn't down to a simple analysis of damage per cast or stand-alone DPS, a more rigorous methodology to assess the relative DPS cost of using one ability in preference to another is required.

If I prioritise Divine Storm over Judgement once every 40 seconds Divine Storm has an effective cooldown of 10 secs and Judgement 8.3 seconds. If I prioritise Judgement over Divine Storm once every 40 seconds Divine Storm has an effective cooldown of 10.375 secs and Judgement 8 seconds. If Judgement does J damage per cast and DS D damge per cast, which is greater: (J/8.3) + (D/10) or (J/8) + (D/10.375).

Of course, there are a number of potential permutations to go through with the possibility that each priority can affect another skills position in the priority listing. With that said, the following is a good rule of thumb:

Hammer of Wrath > Crusader Strike > Judgement > Divine Storm > Consecration > Exorcism

which of course is conditional on mob health and mobility. You'll crit often enough for Exorcism to always be instant cast unless you have a really terrible crit rate, so nothing has changed on that regard.

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Glyphs will be the next topic in this 3.2 Ret Primer.

Heh, There Goes That Worgen Idea.... Maybe.

A new PTR patch is up, and new Halloween facemasks are included. This seems to blow the idea of Goblins and Worgen featuring in the expansion as two new races out of the water, which is something of a shame.



Newly included are Murlocs, Naga, Valkyr and Ogres, all both male and female.

Yep, female Ogres.

*shudder*

On the bright side, this hopefully indicates a number of new features on offer during the Halloween holiday... still, I was looking forward to legions of Goblin Shaman.

*sniff*

EDIT:

But Wait, There's Lore states that unlike the Goblin and Worgen masks, the masks datamined today are not brand new art. Curious, and it smacks of covering ones tracks. Roll on Blizzcon ;)

Goblins and Worgen... I Wasn't Expecting That!

The data-miners at MMO-Champion have been at it again and have come up with four brand new Halloween masks: Worgen and Goblins. Normally I'd brush it off, adding new masks for a larger Halloween event in 3.2 is pretty plausible, especially as May's 'Children's Week' is also seeing a few tweaks well in advance. Curiously though a female Worgen is emblazoned on one of the masks, and for all the idea of 'completeness' makes sense it's almost unnecessary given that we haven't seen any female Worgen up to now.

Boubouille moots "Goblins and Worgens are the new races of the Expansion", and that's certainly a catchy title for those interested in traffic. This is, however, not all that outlandish. The Goblin Principality of Undermine, and Gilneas behind the Greymane Wall have been long overlooked locations to those interested in the unfolding story as much as the encounters. Goblins are of course ever popular and Undermine may hold clues to the current activities of the Naga and rumoured Murloc (Old?) God. Gilneas remains an enigma, the State was once a vacation spot for someone we all know very well, and is rumoured to have been infested with the Worgen plague. Both Gilneas and Kul Tiras have been conspicuous in their absence these last few years and now would be a perfect time to re-introduce the last remnants of the human Kingdoms. If anywhere could constitute a 'safe harbour' for the former Lord Prestor it would be Gilneas.

In a recent interview with Incgamers Metzen had this to say about Gilneas:

Medievaldragon: Aaron Rosenberg’s World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness helps modernize a lot of the lore revolving around Warcraft II. One aspect of the lore that fans have been wondering about, is Gilneas. Was Gilneas scheduled to make an appearance in that book, but had to be trimmed out, or will Gilneas be revisited in future books?

(Neilson grins at Metzen)

Metzen: Ah, ah, I would say we have some very, very, Very interesting plans for Gilneas. (Metzen docks slightly looking toward the ceiling) But there are snipers up in the roof that would shoot me if you know ... (everyone laughs). We are doing some awesome stuff for Gilneas.

Neilson: ... stay tuned!

Metzen: Stay tuned.

and if that doesn't whet your appetite, nothing will.

So, if Worgen and Goblins are two new races which faction will they align with? The obvious answer is Horde = Goblin, Alliance = Worgen, but this be a situation where the obvious answer isn't the most likely. A feature long requested by the masses is on of un-aligned races, where Players choosing from these races can claim allegiance to one of the two main factions. The idea isn't too outlandish in lore, Gilneas can claim links to both the Lorderon-based Forsaken and Stormwind-based Humans, though the Blood Elves wouldn't be too happy with the former. Likewise the neutrality of Goblins have never been in question but they share a great rivalry with Gnomes.

Neutral Character Races able to join either Faction would tough to sell to many WoW purists, not to mention posing questions on cross-faction communication restrictions. However Blizzard has been experimenting with exclusive faction reputation since the Aldor/Scryers in 2.0, and even on a minor scale around Grizzlemaw in the Grizzly Hills. It could be argued that this speculation is only the next logical step.

Finally, Boubouille also teases us with the following:

On a non related sidenote, I would also like to point out that the old Emerald Dream maps that have been in the game files for years have been slightly updated throughout the 3.2, and in the Build 10072 of the PTRs the Map.dbc file with some of the settings for each zone was updated to make it a 40 Players max zone.

Okay, obvious points will be awarded to those who think 'ah, Battleground'. There is another option however: an Acherus-Style phased instance for a new Hero class. An Arch-druid Hero Class makes sense here, and may even be forshadowed by small exchanged featured in 3.2.

Of course, as speculation goes all of this is pretty out-there. The threads all add up, but with so many variables I could be well off base. All that said, the evidence towards a major expansion announcement at Blizzcon 2009 is starting to mount. Could this be 'World of Warcraft: Cataclysm'?

Keep an eye out for teaser splash screens starting the week before Blizzcon.

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Random Ravings of Warcraft has a detailed post full of speculation on this topic which is well worth a read. Additionally, Homocidal Panda linked the old 'Expansion Zone Breakdown' from 2007 which so far has been uncanny in its' accuracy. An excerpt:

Northrend Set

Borean Tundra - 67 to 70
Howling Fjord - 67 to 70
Dragonblight - 69 to 72
Grizzly Hills - 70 to 73
Crystalsong Forest - 72 to 75
Zul'drak - 73 to 76
Sholazar Basin - 75 to 79
Storm Peaks - 76 to 80
Icecrown Glacier - 78 to 80

Maelstrom Set

Gilneas - 77 to 80
Grim Batol - 78 to 81
Kul Tiras - 79 to 82
Kezan - 81 to 86
Tel Abim - 83 to 85
Zandalar - 84 to 87
Plunder Isle - 86 to 88
The Broken Isles - 87 to 90
The Maelstrom - 89 to 90

Roll on Blizzcon.

Patch 3.0.9... Heh.

Well, that's interesting. MMO-Champion are reporting that there's a new patch due this week, 3.0.9. Boubouille has already extracted the Spell, Talent and Glyph info and they amount to quite a few for most classes. Old time players will laugh at at least one Paladin change ;). See the following link for the full changelog.

MMO-Champion - Patch 3.0.9 on live servers this week.

Here are the extent of the documentable Paladin changes (i.e. those that have been datamined or are in the patch notes):

* The duration on all Seals has been increased to 30 minutes and can no longer dispelled.
* Divine Plea: The amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50% (up from 20%) but the effect can no longer be dispelled.
* Sanctified Seals: This talent no longer affects dispel resistance, but continues to affect crit chance.


Glyphs

* Glyph of Holy Light -- Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 8 yards of the initial target. (Down from 20 yards, Tooltip text fix, was already hotfixed to 8 yards in game)
* Glyph of Seal of Righteousness -- Increases the damage done by Seal of Righteousness by 10%. (Old - Reduces the cost of your Judgement spells by 10% while Seal of Righteousness is active.) (Source)

30 minute undispellable Seals... you have no idea how long people have been asking for this. Ironically it's something of a PvP nerf for Ret due to the 3/3 Stoicism 2/3 Sanctified Seals setup, but a pretty big buff to Holy and Prot. Sanctified has obviously had its Seal undispellability component removed, and I'd expect Sanctified Seals to gain a further change in 3.1. In 3.0.9 it will be just another '1 talent point for 1 crit', pretty uninspired and a clone of Conviction. Exactly what we will see remains to be, well, seen.

The Divine Plea -50% healing change is in, but the effect is no longer dispellable. This is pretty big balance-wise for PvP and PvE, but in PvP you will now have 100% control over when to pop it and when to get rid of it (via a /cancelaura macro). A Priest or Shaman purging your DP is no longer an issue.

Finally the Glyph of SoR gives a flat damage increase to SoR. The guys at EJ are probably going to go over this one with a fine tooth comb, but right now it's a buff for Holy Soloing and some tanking situations, though Prot would probably prefer to use Seal of Vengeance and hence the SoV Glyph which gives 10 Expertise.

So, quite a few significant changes in this minor patch. We may well get it tomorrow/Wednesday, or it may spend some time on the PTR first. The reaction, especially from Mages and Rogues, should be fun.

The Laughing Gnome.

Edited by Razimus of "Swords of Justice" - Moon Guard (US), with music by David Bowie, here is the Laughing Gnome:



Enjoy ;)

Ret Paladin in US 1st (World 4th) Kil'Jaeden Kill

Over the long weekend the final boss of Sunwell and The Burning Crusade expansion, Kil'Jaeden the Deceiver, was defeated in both Europe and the US. The notable news for me - apart from that the expansion has now been 'beaten', probably fully 6 months before 3.0 drops - is that a Retribution Paladin was involved in Deus Vox's US-First kill. Slawnik is using a full-DPS variant build, the main purpose of which seems to be DPS longevity through foregoing Pursuit of Justice and instead maxing Benediction and investing the spare point in Divine Intellect. Given that the fight is supposedly 12+ minutes long, and he's Alliance and so doesn't benefit from SoB, that's not too much of a surprise. From a casual glance at the raid composition Deus Vox appears to be fans of the so-called off-builds for raiding; they were running a Feral Druid, couple of Shadowpriests, Arms and Fury warriors and most likely some Enhancement Shaman. Kudos!

So, is this sort of raid composition something which we should expect in Wrath? Well it's a tough call and we have to take a long hard look the other three KJ-beating Guilds and their success with fewer Hybrids. The huge unknown right now is the raid-role of Deathknights. From the looks of things, and given that Deathknights seem to be bringing DPS+Main/Off Tanking tools to the raid (but significantly not debuffing/raid buff utility at this stage), it's probable that Paladins will no longer have a lock on 3 Spots. Three of the top 4 kills downed KJ with two or fewer Paladins, and none exhibit the raid stacking of Paladins we've seen in the past (though Shaman... *whistles*). Hence spots for BoSalv (Kings on tank) and BoW/BoM on DPS/Healers (presupposing that they don't exploit the 'cast blessings, stay out of raid instance' bug) is all we should expect in the Wrath endgame given how end-game raiders tend to follow the example of the elite in raid composition. Deathknights will probably take one of the formerly Paladin, Feral Druid and/or Fury Warrior (off-tank) slots, with the healers expected to take up some of the healing shortfall from losing a Holy Paladin. Indeed, 1 Paladin raids may become commonplace depending on each healers' relative viability, and if Blessing of Salvation is reworked all bets are off.

What we can conclude is that the viability of Paladins (as well as other classes, mages being the most obvious) in end-game raids is looking more and more tenuous, but the catch-22 is that it means Prot and Ret Paladins become more attractive versus Holy whilst they can still buff BoSalv. To alleviate the worries of Paladins, and in fact all the classes faced with the chop, some more information from Blizzard needs to be 'released' and the raid exploit needs to be closed off. Otherwise the number of re-rolls in Wrath, or failures to re-sub between now and then, will only increase.


On a lighter moment, the comedy moment of the week has to go to Nihilum, whose RL Kungen gave a caster dagger to one of their rogues (source), thus proving that after a week of wipes even the best can make stupid mistakes. Also it shows that a loot council (or is that dictator) isn't always the best of loot distribution techniques.