I’ll be frank I’m the shammy that was put on the shelf, and I haven’t been played since pre-BC when shammys were the hordes kamikaze vanguard. We wielded huge two-handed axes, thew our defence to the winds (not that we had a lot of that) and engaged the Alliance in the manner of Scots warriors having at the English, and just when the Alliance thought they had killed us – up we would return with reincarnation and practically half a health bar of retribution to lay down on their asses.

“You can take our lives but you can’t take our Freeeeeeedom”

Pretty much sums up my previous life as a shaman, heck I am even blue – thus warpaint compliant.

Incidentally paladins were the proper English – plated, horsed and hated. The Alliance game-play balance for the Horde shaman. I have a couple of old-world-wow friends who used to play shaman and they did indeed despise the paladin. It was a bit like a racial hatred that came with the shaman class.

Then burning crusade came out. Horde get the paladin. And I have to say we all rolled one gleefully just so we could venture out, start a gank, and then bubble hearth to safety – it had to be done.

There were a lot of changes to shaman gameplay come Burning Crusade. Two-handed weapons were no longer the bomb, windfury crits had been ‘fixed’ and shamans were given dual weapon abilities … all of which completely changed the game play. As happens to many a new ‘main’ arose from the mess and the shammy was shelved. (One shaman I used to run with actually has taken a paladin as a main which is most amusing … his new racial disgruntlement? Well if he ever blogs on his shaman blog it really does appear to be the Draenei shaman class :p heh)

The potential the Wrath of the Lich King expansion (which I shall probably take to calling Wot-licky) is promising shamans is really interesting me, enough that I think I would like to take the shaman into Northrend.

So this blog will be basically about dusting off a lvl 60 shaman, levelling them to 70 and learning to deal with all the game play changes.

However,the best part of yesterday was definitely gearing up. I got 3 gear upgrades! In H-Mech, the robes dropped from the Cache of the Legion--surprisingly, an upgrade. In H-SP, Quagmirran's Eye dropped, finally affording an upgrade from Vengeance of the Illidari (the Hellfire Peninsula trinket that I've had since 63). And in H-MgT (which was a great run--we had Spartackus, a T6-geared bear tank, as well as some of his T6 guildies come along) I got my Jaded Crystal Dagger! Combined with the Merciless helm I got from BG's, my gear's really starting to shape up. I'm only 39 badges away from the Corrupted Soulcloth Pantaloons too--should get some of them later today in Kara. I'd have them next week if I wasn't going out of town. =( As it is, I'm still starting to get really well geared, and am a little closer to epic'ing out. =)

El primer cambio es que Divine Strength desaparece del tier 1 de los talentos holy para irse de paseo a Protection y que Divine Intellect se marcha al tier 2, pasando a tener un 3/6/9/12/15% de bonus a la int, en lugar del 2/4/6/8/10% que ahora tenía. Así que la primera rama de talentos holy desaparece tal y como la conocemos hoy y en su lugar tendremos Spiritual Focus, que impide la interrupción de casteo, y el Improved Seal of Righteousness que cambiarán de nombre y harán que afecte no sólo a Rectitud, sino también al SoV y a algo llamado Seal of Corruption.

¿Qué es el Seal of Corruption? ¿Un Sello nuevo? ¿Alguno antiguo renombrado? Yo me inclino más por lo primero que por lo segundo. El talento hasta hoy, incrementaba el daño que realizaba el Sello de Rectitud en un 15% así que cabe elucubrar que se trata de un sello ofensivo que además está en la primera rama del tier de holy para que las demás especializaciones puedan utilizarlo en sus talentos.

¿Qué ha ocurrido hasta aquí? No gran cosa. Nuestros talentos de tier 2 serán ahora los talentos de tier 1, mientras que uno de los de tier 1 se va a Prot y el otro, Divine Intellect, se va a tier 2. ¿Qué más completa el tier 2? Healing Light (4/8/12% a la curación a la cura tocha y a la pequeña), Unyielding Faith (5/10% de resistencia a Fear y desorientación para que los prot puedan subir un poco más en la rama).

En el tier 3, se incluye Illumination y poco más. En el tier 4 introducen el aura de concentración que antes estaba en tier 4 de prot. Así el nuevo tier 3 quedará con el Aura Mastery (1), el Improved Lay On Hands (2) e Illumination (5) y el tier 4 sólo con Improved concentration de 3 puntos y el Wisdom mejorado de 2, que ambos son must have.

También hay cambios en talentos ya existentes: Pure of Heart, en el tier 5 de talentos, tendrá ahora sólo 2 rangos y reducirá la duración de Maldiciones y Diseases en un 25/50%, mientras que Sanctified Light, también en el tier 5, que ahora aumenta la probabilidad de critico en 2/4/6% de la Holy Light, también modificará al Shock.

Además, cosas interesantes que acontecen a los healbots: Lay on Hands no drenará todo el maná cuando se utilice y además se reducirá el CD a 20 minutos, lo cual se agradece además por el bufillo que le deja a los tanks cuando se improvea. Avenging Wrath no causará Forebearance y además, a partir de ahora, veremos angelotes curadores ya que mientras esté activo incremenetará el healing en un 20%. El CD del Holy Shock se reducirá de 15 a 6 segundos de CD, por lo que el "combo" de Flash Light + Shock se hará mucho más habitual mientras el maná lo permita. Además, el Shock aumenta su rango a 40 yardas para los objetivos amistosos aunque sigue siendo únicamente de 20 yardas para los hostiles... así que no habrá shockadines francotiradores.

Los Nuevos Talentos

- Blessed Hands: Tier 5. Reduce el coste de maná de los hechizos de "Mano" (Mano de Protección, Mano de Salvación, Mano de Sacrificio, Mano de Libertad) y hace que los dispels fallen en un 15/30% sobre ellos.

- Infusion of Life: Tier 8. Un Holy Shock crítico reduce el casteo en 1.5/2.5 de la siguiente Holy Light que se lance.

- Sacred Cleanse: Tier 9. El Hechizo de Cleanse tiene un 10/20/30% de aumentar en un 30% la resistencia a Disease, Magic y Veneno.

- Enlightened Judgements: Tier 9. Incrementa el rango de los Juicios en 10/20 yardas.

- Judgements of the Pures: Tier 10. Los Juicios aumentan la celeridad tanto melee como de hechizos en 2/4/6/8/10% durante 30 segundos.

- Beacon of Light: Tier 11. 1.5 de cast. 2330 de maná. El Objetivo se convierte en un Faro de Luz que cura 2000 a toda la party/raid dentro de un rango de 10 yardas durante 15 segundos.

Opinando...

Los cambios realizados en la primera rama de tier me parecen lógicos, Divine Strength no pintaba nada en la rama de talentos de holy y el Sello de Rectitud en primera línea, lo hará más accesible para los tankadines. Los cambios en Lay on Hands, en Avenging Wrath y en Holy Shock no harán otra cosa más que beneficiar la clase, en especial ese Avenging Wrath para los momentos críticos. Además, el Holy Shock con menos CD beneficia bastante soportar a curas cortas + shocks con alta probabilidad de critico a un tanque recibiendo mucho daño en lugar de la utilización de una de las peores curas en cuanto a calidad/coste de maná del juego como es Holy Light.

Infusion of Life es la clave definitiva del protagonismo del Shock. Un Holy Shock crítico te regala un Holy Light sin casteo. Ahí es nada. Es decir, en movimiento puedes realizar un holy shock y, si sale crítico, una Holy Light. Además parece buscarse que los paladines holy juzguen de forma activa y continuamente, cosa que hoy por hoy, rara vez sucede. Además, la combinación de un juicio con Judgements of the Pures y tener la Light Grace arriba, hace que la Holy Light salga prácticamente disparada. Los Paladines, si estos talentos se confirman, serán auténticas ametralladoras sin piedad de curas a un único target. La clave de la viabilidad es la eficiencia de maná y la capacidad de la clase para regenerarlo.

Además, el Beacon of Light es un bonito parche para las dificultades multitarget que siempre ha tenido el pala, haciendo así un poco menos estresante el ir de heroicas y, probablemente en raid, salvando a los melees cercanos a un tank con el Beacon. Además, genera agroo para el objetivo de las curas, así que esta especie de tranquility caerá casi seguro sobre un tank. ¿Alguien duda que el rol del paladín como healer seguirá siendo exactamente el mismo que hasta ahora? Curar tanks como descosidos, sin duda.

En cuanto a las aplicaciones pvp... no me atrevo a aventurarme en un juicio. No he sido nunca muy asiduo a las arenas pero intuyo que Infusion of Life y el Beacon, van a ser un par de joyitas.

Aunque hay cosas que me gustan, sufrimos ciertos cambios que me desagradan notablemente. Al fin y al cabo, juego el paladín como Main en Holy y en la expansión vamos a tener que variar en nuestra forma de juego, perdemos algunas de las cosas que nos hacían muy importantes en Raid frente a otras healer mientras que parece que nuestra incapacidad para curar en multitarget seguirá siendo la misma de forma endémica.

Los Cambios en las Bendiciones

Ya se nos había anunciado que la BoP, la Blessing of Freedom y la de Sacrificio ya no quitarían a las blessings que tuvieran los personajes gracias a un cambio de nombre. Y, de hecho, ahora pasarán a llamarse Hand of Freedom, Hand of Protection y Hand of Sacrifice. Todas ellas costarán un 6% del maná base y sólo hay cambios en la bendición de sacrificio en cuanto a funcionamiento: ahora tendrá un rango único y transferirá el 20% de daño al paladín que lo lance... pero la duración se reduce a 12 segundos y el CD lo aumentan a 2 minutos, cambiando los 30 segundos de duración y 30 de CD que tenía ahora.

Sin embargo, los cambios a las blessings no se quedan ahí. Hay más modificaciones y son, cuanto menos, sorprendentes. En menor medida porque desaparece la Blessing of Light aunque desaparece de forma relativa ya que los efectos que tiene, se incluirán ahora directamente en los hechizos por lo que se curará como si hubieramos incluído el Light.

Pero, sin duda, la cuestión más polémica es la desaparición del Salvation tal y como lo conocemos, es decir, se cargan el bufo más poderoso que existe a día de hoy en el juego: Se acabó lo de menos agroo durante 10 o 30 minutos de forma pasiva, ahora se transforma en otra "Hand" más. La Hand of Salvation recuce el agroo total del objetivo en 2% por segundo durante 10 segundos reduciendo también todo el daño que realiza y el healing en un 10%. Es decir, un parche para aquellos que vayan subiendo a toda velocidad en el Omen. Y sí, aparentemente se le pueden lanzar 3 Hand of Salvation simultaneamente al mismo personaje ya que no parece que incluya ningún tipo de Forbedeance o similares.

Eso sí, más vale que empiecen a tocar los problemas innatos con el agroo de algunas clases como el druida resto, el warlock destruction o el shadow priest. O eso, o rezar que el aumento del 45% del agroo en defensivo de los warriors y el bufo a la Furia Recta sea suficiente. No he leído los cambios en el druida, no sé si ocurre algo similar con la forma de Oso. Pero de no ser así, aquí es donde surgirá la temida inviabilidad de los Druidas como tanks en la expansión. ¿Personalmente? Bien por lo de las "Hands", bien por la inclusión del Light en las propias curas.... y muy mal por la desaparición del Salvation. Eso va a hacer menos indispensable al paladín en raids y viendo los bufos que algunas clases están recibiendo y la enorme limitación en cuanto a targets del paladín, puede hacernos desaparecer de los Roster poco a poco.

Auras, Sellos, Juicios y Otros Estipendios

La primera y prácticamente evidente tras saber que totems, gritos de warrior y demás parafernalia afectará a toda la raid, es que todas las auras afectarán a toda la raid si están dentro del área de efecto. Se cambia además el Sello de Justicia. Ahora tendrá un único rango que acumulará todos los efectos y no evitará que el objetivo salga corriendo con el fear, algo que también ocurrirá cuando se juzgue justicia. Más importante resulta saber que los paladines de la Alianza, además, verán aumentado de 15 a 18 segundos el tiempo del DoT del Juicio del Sello de Venganza, lo cual implicará una ligera ayuda.

Pasan el Holy Wrath a instantáneo en lugar de tener 2 segundos de casteo y el CD se reducirá de 1 minuto a 30 segundos así como el rango, que ahora será únicamente 10 yardas. Además causará un stun de 3 segundos. Tiene pinta de convertirse en un apoyo al palatank cuando tenga que enfrentarse con Demonios o No Muertos. En la misma onda, Turn Evil se conseguirá ahora a nivel 24, será un único rango y costará un 9% del maná base. Además, hay cambios en el coste de Divine Protection and Divine Shield y Hammer of Justice que gastarán un 3%.

Y algo que agradecerán nuestros bolsillos: la Divine Intervention tendrá únicamente 20 minutos de CD. Las tardes eternas de wipes serán menos dañinas para las placas de paladín.

Hay más cambios, más novedades tanto el habilidades como en ramas de talentos pero el artículo me estaba quedando larguísimo. He decidido separarlo en partes. En breve tendréis las noticias y el analisis de las Ramas de Talentos y los cambios en las habilidades que afectan a las ramas holy, prot y retri respectivamente.

I’m about halfway through 64 at this point. I don’t think my goal of reaching 66 by Monday is attainable, as I’ve got plans for the weekend so I won’t be able to play much. Add to that, I am almost out of rested XP, so it’s going to take double the time. So far, I’ve been able to get about 5 bars an hour, taking me 10 hours to level up. With rested XP gone, I’m estimating 20 hours per level. Of course, since I don’t play much, I’ll probably increase my rested XP along the way.

That’s actually a huge chunk of time if you break it down. I figure it’ll take me a week for each level, playing 2 hours a night during the week, plus another 10 hours over the weekend. As long as I hit 70 by the time the expansion drops, I’m golden.

ANYWAYS, things didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped last night. I was struggling as a ret pally, having to deal with being out of mana at very inopportune times. Honestly, it’s like playing my rogue again. Except I’m also paying for water. And once again, life wasn’t made any easier by the level 70 alliance gankers. One hunter in particular was able to gank people inside of Stonebreaker Hold without being attacked by the guards.

I did make some real progress towards the end of my session. The key to leveling is all about finding a process, a repeatable pattern you can execute on any mob. I know this makes the game kind of boring, and one of the reasons I hate playing DPS classes, but the fact is you need to be as efficient as possible in PVE combat.

I’ve worked out process for PVEing as a Ret Pally. At most I can fight 3 mobs before I need downtime to eat and drink. It’s all about managing your seals, and making sure you are being as efficient as possible with them. For me, this means I sacrifice judging crusader on some mobs, but it’s the only way I can reduce my downtime.

Long fights are necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it’s worth it to me to finish a fight with no seals up, just because it gives me a chance to let my recharge my cooldowns and regen some mana. Ideally, I have Sanctity Aura and Blessing of Might up, and then light up Seal of Crusader. I don’t immediately judge crusader, instead I auto-attack the mob a couple of times. After I have judged crusader, I immediately light up Seal of Command. During the fight, I throw in a few sparse Crusader Strikes, usually in between my normal swings, just to keep a constant stream of damage. Once SoComm is at the end of its timer (doesn’t always happen) I usually judge that to end the fight. If not, I save it and immediately attack the next mob with a SoComm judgment to start the fight. I then re-up Seal of Command and continue the process.

The key to conserving mana is managing your seals. I try to avoid activating a seal SOLEY for the purpose of judging it. It seems like a waste to me to switch from SoComm to Crusader then immediately judge Crusader, THEN bring up SoComm again.

Equally important is making sure you try to keep Vengeance up at all times. Pursuit of Justice is great for this, since you can run to the next mob and keep the fighting going.

If I’ve done a good job managing my mana, I will also throw in a Holy Light heal to keep me going. Healing with Holy Light reduces my downtime, since I don’t have to stop and eat between fights. I like to keep it simple and cheap, so instead of drinking and eating, I’ll try to bring myself to full health and just drink. Cheap, I know, but that’s how I play.

For Ret Pallys, you use damage as your defense. If you pick up an add, that’s when you have to go all out to burn them down. As protection spec, the more the merrier, but even with heavy plate, a Ret Pally can’t take a lot of hits.

Also, playing as Ret, I’m very liberal with my divine shield. This is a stark contrast from Protection spec, where I try to save DS for emergencies only. But playing as Ret, it’s a great weapon for keeping fights going and dealing with multiple targets. You can get off a Holy Light heal and full bandage with the shield, which usually brings me back to full health.

I really need to start carrying Mana and Health pots with me at all times. I’ve never really done this, but it’s becoming a necessity to have that available in case you get into trouble.

Overall, I’m impressed with the damage a Ret Pally can deal, but I’m not sure it’s the right fit for me. I will keep it up till I hit 65, but I’m most likely going back to Protection for the last 5 levels.

Problem #1 - Weapon Skill

Like I previously mentioned, my 2H Axe skill was pretty low. I put a dent in the deficit running SM. But even at 290, I was not prepared for Outlands mobs. It was very rough going. The random level 70 alliance gankers didn't make things much easier.

I can't say I'm a fan of Weapon Skill. As a casual player, it only hinders my progress. When you play 2 hours a night, having to spend time leveling up your weapon skill is painful. There are a couple of tricks to speeding this up. For example, as a paladin, running a low level instance with Seal of Crusader up can speed things up. And as a Protection Pally, sitting in a pit of fire to proc Reckoning is a good idea. I guess Weapon skill makes sense, since at any given time, people are only playing with the best weapons available to them, so there isn't much switching. I suppose.

Problem #2 - Gear

I need better gear. I have good Protection Gear. I have decent healing gear. DPS gear? Not so much. The main problem for me is that I'm not 100% sure which stats to focus on. I went mostly for STR, AGI, and STAM, at the expense of my mana pool.

As a prot pally, I'm used to running full health and mana, even after a fight. I'm out of my comfort zone when my mana drops below 20%. I definately need to get used to that.

But my gear in general needs work. I've picked up a few Terrokar quests with some decent DPS rewards which should help.

Conclusion

I'm not completely sold on Retribution. The increased DPS is great, but when compared to the survivability I've given up, I'm not completely sure it's worth it to me.

After playing Prot, I just can't deal with the downtime and cost of having to drink after 3 fights.  I'm going to stick with Ret to 65, but I'm most likely going back to Protection at that point.  Of course this is a all par for the course, as I'm going holy once I hit 70.

BUT, I did manage to get about 2/5 of the way through 64 after only playing 2 hours last night.  I'm not sure I could have done that as a Protection spec Paladin.

So Tuesday night my LS decides we're going in to fight Odin.
Huh ? What?

Odin?

Thats Right!

(For those of you who dont believe me when I say, " I can't see it!" or "I didn't see it!", this is why.)

THE ODIN.

My job as RDM/NIN was to kite the Fomors that Odin spawn (out of his ass, I dk) and wait until they despawn. Surprisingly Odin only popped 1 set of Fomors when he was supposed to spawn 3 for a total of 9 fomors. I think we broke him.

All in all, the fight took a mere 15 minutes...... No lie. 15 minutes.

Our Treasure Pool.

Yes I got M. Body!!!!!! ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG!!!

(special thanks to mari for the screenshots!)

Lol and heres Prod in his new Helm...

Congrats you sexy beast! No I mean literally you look like a beast... ugh.

Heres our full Fight. Once again thanks to Mari for taking that.

COngratulations to everyone on their drops... and our new titles to boot!!

~Mischa

I did manage to finish off a couple of elite quests, thanks to the help of a level 70 priest. I’ve played with a few priests the past couple of days, and I’m really impressed by their damage and survivability. I’m strongly considering leveling up a Priest at some point in the future. I’ve played casters before, but not “seriously,” so I’d be interesting to take a shadow priest to 70.

The big news however, is that I finally took the plunge and respec’d to Retribution. I hesitated at first, but I figure I can do it for one level at the very least. My gear—well my DPS gear isn’t so great. I’ve still got a few items I need to upgrade, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I hit the Auction House and picked up a nice little 2H Axe, a couple of gems, and a new DPS ring. Even if I go back to protection, I’d still like to have a decent 2h weapon in case I run into any trouble, mostly in the form of alliance casters.

I didn’t get a chance to really put my new Ret Pally through the numbers. I tried to increase my LOW 2h Axe skill by doing some SM runs. I usually run SM to level up my weapons skill, because it’s close to Undercity and I can load up on gear to disenchant. (Side note: I’m at a weird stage in my enchanting skill. Everything I pick up DEs into something too low or too high for me to use.) I activate SEAL OF COMMAND, and one shot the first guard the SM entrance. Not bad.

Overall, I didn’t get too much of a chance to mess around as Ret. I was just blowing up low level mobs, so it wasn’t indicative of the actual “Ret Experience,” but I’m impressed with damage. You get a lot of nice buffs that increase your damage.

HOWEVER, I don’t think the mechanics of a Ret Pally are as cool or fun as a Prot Pally. Prot Pally has cool tricks like using seal of light/seal of wisdom to AoE grind and take on countless enemies. Ret Pally definitely seems more in line with a traditional DPS class—you go all out on 2 or 3 targets then stop to eat and drink. And running through SM was a hell of a lot quicker on my Prot pally, but that was because you can just pull the entire instance at once.

I’m anxious to see how a Ret Pally fares in Outlands. Prot spec is king for AoE grinding, but I wasn’t really able to get a good grind going once I reached Zangarmarsh. The mobs in outland are so varied and have weird little abilities that make taking on 5 or 6 at a time too risky. I do think Ret will be very good for taking down targets quickly while still maintaining a small part of Paladin survivability.

And there’s always Lay On hands . . .

Last night, I watched the movie Jumper, starring Hayden Christensen, who also played Anakin Skywalker in the movies Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and Samuel L. Jackson. I think very highly of it and I think that it's worth watching. It had a great plot and incredible acting, and it was truly entertaining. A genetic anomaly allows a young man ( David Rice, portrayed by Hayden Christensen) to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers his gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between "Jumpers" and those who have sworn to kill them. Rated PG-13. Based on the 1992 science fiction novel Jumper by Steven Gould.

Here is a link of the movie at IMDB ( The Internet Movie Data Base): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489099/