Intelligence versus Twitch

One of the things that annoys me is that somehow a lot of people have gotten it in there head that twitch reflexes are the same as intelligent play or skill.  What I am referring to is the new retribution paladin "rotation" versus the old "rotation".

In the wrath era of retribution paladin (pre 4.01) a ret knew what they were going to be casting when.  They knew their priority and as things came off cool down they hit the highest priority spell for that situation.  The were procs to a point and there were some times when your priorities changed mid fight but it was fairly straight forward.

In the cataclysm era of retribution (post 4.01) a ret has no idea what they will be casting from one second to the next.  The framework is built around a proc system more than anything else.  The "rotation" as I previously discussed is basically hit you CS until you have 3 HoPo then TV.  You throw fillers in empty GCD's based on priority.  But, the largest effect you will have on your DPS is by watching your procs.  If HoL procs hit TV.  If AoW procs hit Exorcism.  If DP procs an extra HoPo point that pushes you to 3 then hit TV.  Why not just set up Power Auras to flash a big 4 (provided thats where your TV is bound) if your HoPo >= 3 or if HoL = true?  Then set up another that flashes a big 5 (again provided your Exor is bound there) if AoW = true.

I am not trying to complain about the new "rotation" I am just saying that hitting a button when something flashes on your screen does not equal skill or intelligence.  If it did, would that make a mouse that successfully hits a button to get food when a bell rings intelligent or skillful?

Quick Update

Not much to talk about.  So far I am still getting used to the new rotation.  I do ok in PvE.  In PvP it is still ok when the enemies are not dispelling.  As soon as they realize that they can dispell most of my offensive power I am done for.  One thing I am noticing is that the alliance in my battlegroup don't PvP much.  So, I get to sit in queue for 30 to 45 minutes waiting for random bg's.

A friend of mine asked me about the ret PvE rotation such as it is.  Being that most fights in PvE haven't been lasting for more 30 seconds I have dropped off Zealotry due to lack of usefulness.  Then I evaluated the differences between my PvP and PvE specs and realized they were close enough to not warrant using both my specs for ret.  As for the rotation, CS,  filler (judge, exo if art of war, HoW if under 20%, HW), repeat until 3 HoPo or HoL procs then TV.  This is pre cata since we don't have inq yet.

First few days of 4.01

I have been running battle grounds as much as I can.  The problem has been that queue times are crazy.  I sit in queue for an hour sometimes just to be into a bg that is all but over.

So far my opinion of the changes are that in disorganized PvP retribution does fairly well.  When ever I run across people who know what is what and/or have decent PvP gear it goes very bad.  I haven't had a chance to go in with a healer in my pocket yet though.  I am still of a mind that retribution doesn't bring anything to the team that others can bring better.  Ghostcrawler said we were going to get something for our mobility but, as far as I have seen that hasn't happened yet.

I have made some gold on glyphs since the patch.  As people begin to fill in their books that will taper off I am sure.  Especially since I have already seen it start to fall some.  Add to that blizzard has implemented a change where each different item you post or cancel requires a hardware action.  This significantly slows down the posting process.  I have simply stopped undercutting so, the ones who pay the price is the consumers.  Glyphs that were sitting at 15 gold are now at 50.  I sell mine for 250 across the board so I only get the sale if the others sell out.  But, I only have to repost on a sale or 48 hours.  It all really is silly.

Patch day

Ok now that I am done ranting about how they have broken the retribution spec I will try to chronical my experiance as I try to make something usefull out of it

Yesterday was partch day.  After a couple hours of updating I finally got on the servers.  I logged into Saraphina and checked out my spec choice.  I also looked at my glyphs and wrote down all the ones I thought I nigh use.  Then I went to elitist jerks and arena junkies to look into possible spec choices.  I found that I didn't really like the specs I found as is so I copied a basic pvp spec and made a couple changes.

I will link my current spec in each of these posts for future referance.

I decided against getting zealotry since I don't think I will have enough up time to make effective use of it.  I will probably change my spec frequently so, it wont be the same for long until I zero in on an "effective" spec.

I logged over to my scribe, made the glyphs I wrote down plus a couple and mailed them off.  Also threw some on the AH at stupid high prices to account for that source of income going away soon.

Logged back into saraphina and glyphed and talented.  Also had to go to the trainer for new spells.  Put some deal on my bars and qued for a random bg.  I saw that wintergrasp was in progress so, I figured I would start there.  Had a little fun running around killing allies but not really all that telling since no one knows their class yet.  We won so I went back to dalaran to wait for my bg.  It never popped.  So, I guess I will have to see tonight.

Another look to the future

I haven't been posting of late because with the 4.0 dropping soon and the Castaclysm coming soon after I really haven't anything positive to say.  The pretty much gutted all melee and buffed most casters.  The asshole CM ghostcrawler (or Greg Street) does nothing but lock threads when someone steps over the line or even comes close to it.  Apparently it is not going to be a good idea to try and play a retribution paladin in cataclysm since all the moron ghostcrawler can think of is nerfs to the spec.  When people post constructive feedback he ignores it. When people ask questions the fanboys flame it as a qq and he ignores it.  When god forbid someone complains, lock and some assholic snide remark from shitbird Greg Street.  Screw him and his horse.  The only reason I am posting here now is because if I try to post on the moron ghoscrawlers forum he will lock/ban if I state my actual opinion about where they are going with the retribution class right now.

As of right now I have not been banned.  I would like to keep it that way so I won't post there.

Alts and no arenas

I haven't really been spending a whole lot of time on my main paladin lately.  Instead I have been working on an alliance paladin on another server that my guild has taken to playing on.  I am kind of disappointed that my arena team hasn't been playing much.  We just can't seem to get five people online to do matches.  I blame it on the end of exansion blues.

I decided to add a screen shot of my main as the background for the blog but not sure if I like how it shows up.  Also, when I did it my site mere got broken.  I will have to look at that.  Though in reality there aren't a huge number of people coming around these days anyway.  It probably has to do with the lack of content.  I think I may try to talk about some addons I like or something.

Well, that's all for now.

Arenas

My arena team didn't get to do five mans this week.  I did get with one of my teammates and did some two mans so we did get some points at least.  What i have determined is teams with a healer and a hybrid caster/healer have a pretty distinct advantage.  Since there is now just one type of spell power when a caster stacks spell power and intellect the result ends up making them do pretty decent heals and not go out of mana like when a ret pally tries to heal.  I would really like to know how a ret pally/disc priest can counter a disc priest/boomkin.  Anyway I think I need to spend more time in PvP on my main and less time on alts.  My reflexes are starting to slow which is not a good thing in PvP.  As anyone who does PvP on any class knows if you think "should I xxx?" it is probably too late.

PvP alts and the AH

I haven't been playing all that much lately.  At least not the paladin.  Over the last few months my guild has not been doing very much in the way of content.  My arena team has managed to get up to ~1660 or so but unfortunately my rating is only 1585.  I have been leveling some alts for fun and to try and learn more on the different classes to see how to beat them.  I have also tapered off on the auction house somewhat.

As a guild we got the first part of ICC 10 through Deathbringer Saurafang but, other than that not much.

The group I do arenas with was being insane and doing three teams.  A, B and C teams.  My paladin is on the A team of course.  My alts that are 80 are on the other teams.  Did those mainly to get gear but topped out on them when we hit rating requirements.  The "A" team managed to get some fair matches (within 100 of our rating) one week while I was on vacation and went 9 of 10 which is why my rating is below the team.  But, I did manage to get the 1550 achievement.  Unfortunately I am currently 15 points below 1600 so hopefully we can get that soon so I can get the PvP chest before the season ends.  Also, we are holding on to a high enough ranking to get the challenger title if we don't screw it up or the scale pass us by.

I have my alts moving slowly up:

Paladin, Warlock, DK, Hunter and Rogue all at 80.  Mage at 44 Priest at 42 Warrior at 23 and Druid at 21.

Ah has gotten boring so I stopped making glyphs and enchants and basically just selling my stock off.  Sitting around 86K  My scribe has all recipes in the game.

Thats all for now.  I will try to post more in the future.

A look to the future

I have been holding off on this since I really don't know how to say anything about the changes without sounding like whining.  So, I will post my opinions on each thing as I see them:
New Paladin Spells
Blinding Shield (level 81): Causes damage and blinds all nearby targets. This effect might end up only damaging those facing the paladin’s shield, in a manner similar to Eadric the Pure's ability Radiance in Trial of the Champion. The Holy tree will have a talent to increase the damage and critical strike chance, while the Protection tree will have a talent to make this spell instant cast. 2-second base cast time. Requires a shield. 
Opinion:
meh.  While this may be interesting to some of the protection paladins out there it is another http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53600 (useless to me)

Healing Hands (level 83): Healing Hands is a new healing spell. The paladin radiates heals from him or herself, almost like a Healing Stream Totem. It has a short range, but a long enough duration that the paladin can cast other heals while Healing Hands remains active. 15-second cooldown. 6-second duration. 

Opinion:

meh.  If as a retribution paladin I need to be a healing stream totem I think the battle is already lost.  Add to that the fact that I am GCD limited, my burst nerfed and and health pools that supposedly will be increased significantly more than damage output I think this just gets thrown in the Holy bag of tricks.

Guardian of Ancient Kings (level 85): Summons a temporary guardian that looks like a winged creature of light armed with a sword. The visual is similar to that of the Resurrection spell used by the paladin in Warcraft III. The guardian has a different effect depending on the talent spec of the paladin. For Holy paladins, the guardian heals the most wounded ally in the area. For Protection paladins, the guardian absorbs some incoming damage. For Retribution paladins, it damages an enemy, similar to the death knight Gargoyle or the Nibelung staff. 3-minute cooldown. 30-second duration (this might vary depending on which guardian appears). 

Opinion:

Looks interesting.  We get a pet.  (I don't care that they say its not a pet, it is)  16.7% uptime DoT.  We'll see how the damage works out.  I will call this a buff
Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

• Crusader Strike will be a core ability for all paladins, gained at level 1. We think the paladin leveling experience is hurt by not having an instant attack. Retribution will be getting a new talent in its place that either modifies Crusader Strike or replaces it completely. 

Opinion:

Bad (for ret paladins).  Read above about GCD starvation.  Or at best meh.

• Cleanse is being rebalanced to work with the new dispel system. It will dispel defensive magic (debuffs on friendly targets), diseases, and poisons. 

Opinion:

Bad (for ret and prot paladins).  We already have problems if we are fighting someone who is halfway decent at kiting.  From what blizzard said before the above listed effect is for holy paladins.  rets and prots lose the magic debuff removal.  Unlike the other classes that are losing something in their non-healing specs paladins get no coresponding buffs or additions.

• Blessing of Might will provide the benefit of Wisdom as well. If you have two paladins in your group, one will do Kings on everyone and the other will do Might on everyone. There should be much less need, and ideally no need, to provide specific buffs to specific classes. 

Opinion:

meh.  speeds up starting of BG's, arenas, instances or raids.  Caters to whiny bitches who either don't know their class enough to know which would benefit them more or are so greedy they want both.  You whined enough to get http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20217 baseline so, take it and shut up.

• Holy Shock will be a core healing spell available to all paladins.

Opinion:

meh.  If a ret needs this you're screwed anyway.
New Talents and Talent Changes

• We want to ease off the defensive capabilities of Retribution and Holy paladins slightly. We think the powerful paladin defenses have been one of the things holding Retribution paladins back, especially in Arenas. One change we’re considering is lowering Divine Shield’s duration by a couple of seconds. Having said that, Retribution does pretty well in Battlegrounds, and Battlegrounds will be a much bigger focus in Cataclysm since they can provide the best PvP rewards. Furthermore, the healing environment of Cataclysm is going to be different such that a paladin may not be able to fully heal themselves during the duration of Divine Shield to begin with, so this may not be a problem.

Opinion:

Bad!  Personally I think the rated battleground thing as it has been described so far is stupid.  I really don't want to see another place for the moron elitist raiders to take their large groups of script following cattle to get better rewards as an improvement for the game.  But, I digress.  Lowering the DS duration is bad for all paladins.

• We feel Retribution paladins need one more mechanic which involves some risk of the player pushing the wrong button, making the rotation a bit less forgiving. In addition, we want to add to this spec more PvP utility. Right now the successes of the Retribution paladin in PvP seem to be reduced to either doing decent burst damage, or just being good at staying alive.

Opinion:

Bad.  We already play whack a mole.  Now you want to add a line to the whack a mole table.  And make it one that if you hit the wrong one a boot comes out of the front of the game and kicks you in the nuts.  /sarcasm THANKS!  /sarcasm off. Ok now one question I have is how else does anyone win at PvP?  the whole freaking point is the either out last your opponent or to burst them down before they burst you down.  Is blizzard going to make a chess board to PvP in?

• We want to increase the duration of Sacred Shield to 30 minutes and keep the limit to one target. The intention is that the paladin can use it on their main healing target. That said, we would like to improve the Holy paladin toolbox and niche so that they don’t feel quite like the obvious choice for tank healing while perceived as a weak group healer.

Opinion:

Good.  Now I can cast SS while I am preparing for arenas.

• We want to add to the Holy tree a nice big heal to correspond with Greater Heal. Flash of Light remains the expensive, fast heal and Holy Light is the go-to heal that has average efficiency and throughput. Beacon of Light will be changed to work with Flash of Light. We like the ability, but want paladins to use it intelligently and not be constantly healing for twice as much.

Opinion:

Meh.  Not holy.

• Holy paladins will use spirit as their mana regeneration stat.

Opinion:

Meh at best.  Bad in reality.  Holy paladins should be different from other healers.  They wear plate for craps sake.  Why not just make 3 stats Damage, Healing and Protection?  that way I dont have to think at all when choosing gear.

• Protection paladins need a different rotation between single-target and multi-target tanking. Likewise, we're looking to add the necessity to use an additional cooldown in each rotation.

Opinion:

Meh.  Not tanking anymore.  Though I will say they really don't like paladins to be better at anything do they?

• Holy Shield will no longer have charges. It will be designed to improve block chance while active, and will continue to provide a small amount of damage and threat.

Opinion:

Meh.  Or bad as it sounds like they are lowering the damage/threat on this core paladin tank ability.
Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses 

this is already a wall of text so, suffice it to say a whole big pile of meh.  Bonuses to what ever stat they want us to focus on.  Ok thanks for the creativity.  /sarcasm off.

My over all opinion is somewhere between this sucks and meh.  Probably closer to sucking.  They want to reduce the protective nature of ret in PvP but add to their utility?  Added some healing and prot crap that i don't want to use.  I really wish that someone at blizzard actually played retribution in PvP.  If they do then they should not purposefully gut the tools that we use and stop adding stuff that has little to no use for us.


Well, there you have it.

Update

I have some opinions on the upcoming changes to the paladin class but, I am gathering my thoughts before I post them so for now I will just post about the status of my toons.
Total gold 70K
Paladin 80 wowhead GS in PvP 2758
Lock 80 wowhead GS 2067
DK 80 wowhead GS 1749
Hunter 80 wowhead GS 1468
Rogue 60
Mage 38
Priest 30
Warrior 23
Druid 20

Still working on my PvP gear for the paladin.

Hmm... What to say

Well, for those who read this, I have decided to start writing here again. (In case this post didn't clue you in).

As far as a status update i have been working on PvP on the paladin and gearing the alts in PvP and PvE. I currently have 3 80's (Paladin, Warlock and Death Knight) 78 Hunter, 52 Rogue, 38 Mage, 30 Priest, 23 Warrior and a 20 Druid. I don't have a shaman because I want to make a goblin shaman when Cataclysm comes out.

I have also been working on making gold. I have around 60K spread out on my toons and all 4 of my toons that can fly have epic flying.

As you may see from my armory I have been building my PvP set (you might not see since I don't pay attention to whether i log out in PvP gear or PvP gear). I currently am missing 2 pieces of gear that i can get at my rating (~1100). I only fight on my 5's team currently because I haven't found 1 or 2 people who have my same mentality for arenas and a similar schedule. I am able to get the 5's because my guild decided they wanted to work on arenas for gear. I want to get a good 3's team going so I can see how good I am at PvP compared to how good I think I am.

Well, that's all for now.