Results tagged “Paladin” from From the Abbey to Outlands

The air has grown chilled, the waters stilled. The signs point to the event that has been anticipated with bated breath. Prepare yourselves, for... 3.0.3 is nearly upon us. The downtime is extended right about the same length of a usual patch maintenance, and people are preparing. While it is hard to know what the patch will actually hold, since even WoW Insider is only quoting the PTR notes, which could have changed in the 3 week or so run that the PTRs had.

We know that many Ret changes were hot fixed, which Siha points out were done without PTR testing, and other changes are so small, like the Hallowed Be Thy Name change, that they are unlikely to not make the patch. The Druid talent reset is pretty much a given, along with many of the changes to their talents. Other than that? Well, anything could happen. WoW Insider got something right, though, that Patch 3.0.3 is most likely going to happen, even if we haven't seen the typical 'thanks for testing' message on the PTR forums. 

Note: WoW Insider is using guesses and labeling Test Realm info as confirmed patch info. This should be noted, but isn't. PTR notes at launch can differ wildly from live patch notes.

A few days back, when the first ret nerf hotfixes came in, the ones with the JotW changes, I had a short comment based conversation with Zach Yonzon, who is WoW Insider's resident Paladin expert, where I railed against the changes, while admitting that it is quite possible the dps changes were needed for PvP. Zach admitted that the JotW might need some looking into, which is a decent shift in his opinion. As the nerf bat kept swinging, Zach tried valiantly to see Blizzard's perspective.

I too was trying hard. Very, very hard. I don't PvP, so it could be reasoned that I do not understand the playstyle's minutiae. 36 hours ago I was all ready to give you my thoughts on what I thought would be the last swing of the nerfbat. At that point, I felt like I was back about 1 month ago. I was killing stuff about the same speed, I was running out of mana about as much, it felt like the only thing that had changed was I had a few new spells, and a few things had differed. Then came the word from Ghostcrawler on the Beta forums that they weren't done yet.

Apparently the already significant nerfs to Divine Storm, all of the seals and judgments, Judgment of the Wise, and Hammer of Wrath, as well as nerfing the spec down to equal to where they were before 3.0.2 and making Retribution Aura critical to a Paladin's dps, they still feel that there is more swings of the nerf bat in store. To make this worse, the 'if's and may be, and only if's seemed to count for little, since the hot fix went live either before, or very shortly after the post. So much for warning us, GC.

So now, we the DPS Retribution Paladins, long called lolret, and retardins, are back in the basement. Instead of nerfing us to the ground, they have once again nerfed us into the basement. They balance level 80 talents to a one month level 70 game. They tell us one time that we are fine in PvE, then the next time they tell us we were too good, too powerful, and must be nerfed. I, like Zach and many other Retribution Paladins, am tired of the nerfs. As of last night, after this nerf went live, I was literally worse off than I was 30 days before. It took me a lot longer to kill mobs, I ran out of mana significantly faster, and my dps was barely noticeable. Grats Blizzard, you have undone months of good will.

I want to preface this with the disclaimer that what I am about to mention is beta info, and may not actually go live. It also may not reflect the state of Ret when the 3.0.3 patch goes live. That said, these are my opinions, and I stand by them.

So a new beta build was pushed up to the beta realms tonight, 9138, and the expected nerfs to Paladins have come in, and they are hurting. Let me point out that the changes that Blizzard said were coming for Retribution Paladins was intended to impact on their performance in PvP, as everything was said to be fine in PvE. Right. Divine Storm is now physical. Yup, PvP. Armor now takes some of the oomph of the spell when used in PvP. Seals and Judgements are down, in fact there is almost all 'down from' numbers on the MMO Champion site when going through the ret spells.

Judgement of the Wise now grants the paladin 15% of his base mana. (Down from 33%)

Wait! What?!? This isn't a strictly PvP thing. This is almost more a PvE thing, cause you generally won't last long enough, if you are going to run out of mana, if you don't have time to drink. This is almost entirely a PvE nerf, and one I can't say I like too much. This hits both my Paladins right in the mana bar, something that Ret has always had issues with before. Based on my math, Med has a mana pool right now of 5658, and the JotW gives back 975. In the current iteration, that same proc would give me less than 500. 443-444 mana, to be exact at a 15% broken down from 33%. Blizz, my friends, I understood the PvP, but this? This is a snuck in ninja to what was supposed to be the solution to the mana problem.

I have been growing incredibly frustrated with WoW of late, since I had grown really comfortable with questing and farming on my characters. I blogged about all of this, hoping that someone in the community would know how to fix all of this. To remind you, I have a general macro, and a Paladin macro, both of which uses the bird in Outlands and my cat in the old world, where flying is not allowed. The Paladin version has the added code to swap my aura's between Crusader and Retribution, so that I am always able to fight and fly to my best.

The old macro, posted here, was:

/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Crusader Aura; [mounted] Sanctity Aura;
/stopcasting
/use [flyable]  Cenarion War Hippogryph;
/use [nomounted,noflyable] Reins of the Swift Frostsaber
/dismount

As I explained, the aura's and the mounts are all on the GCD, which prevent them from being used one after the other. For some reason, though, even removing the aura bits still didn't actually do what I needed. The new, and working macro, is as follows:

#showtooltip
/cast [flyable] Swift Blue Gryphon; Swift Mistsaber

As you can see, the new macro, even being the extra line for the tooltip, is much shorter and more concise, but also does exactly what I need. It summons the right mount based on location, dismounts, and works perfectly after much testing. I do not see any reason, when patch 3.0.3 hits, why the following will not work.

/cast [nocombat, nomounted] Crusader Aura; [mounted] Retribution Aura;
/stopcasting
#showtooltip
/cast [flyable] Swift Blue Gryphon; Swift Mistsaber

I will, of course, let you all know when I have had a chance to test 3.0.3 for that macro and see if it truly does work as well as it does in text on the blog. Cheers!

Patch 3.0.2 has been out for mere days and already we have word of tweaks and hot fixes incoming. Based on the list compiled by MMO Champion, every class including the Death Knight are getting tweaks in coming builds/patches, with 3.0.3 coming out this Tuesday or next. Some of my favorite tweaks are Paladin Auras no longer activating the GCD, instead having a built in 1 second cooldown, Moonfury and Earth and Moon down to 3 ranks from 5, but keeping the same overall benefit. That buys you 4 extra talent points to get more utility or fun talent, ans Instead of getting new ranks of Hawk at level 75 and 80, you now get the new Aspect of the Dragonhawk, not to mention Hunter Aspects coming off cooldown as well. This powerful aspect combines all of the effects of Hawk and Monkey. These will help all 3 of my played classes, and I hope make the my playtime more enjoyable.

While many of watch the crawling progress bar of our installs for patch 3.0.2, I thought I would let you know what talents I recommend for a couple of my classes. These will be for the specs I choose to play, and are not necessarily going to reflect what you will, or may choose to select for your characters. Next up, I am going to shift to my roaring Doomkin Druid, and their Ret build. This will be a 61/0/0 build.

Let me start off by saying that, while I thought Ret was hard to choose, this tree is so full of the awesome talents I have always wanted, there is too many for a mere level 70. Hell, there are not even points at 80 to get everything, though I suppose that's the point. I would have loved to take Improved Paw, but I think it will be a struggle at 80 to scrounge 2 points to fill that one out, so at 70 I had to ditch it. In tier 1 I chose Starlight Wrath over Genesis because I don't often find myself using moonfire spam to bring something down. If I have that much mana, especially now that pushback is better, I will just Wrath or Starfire something to an early grave.

There were a total of 4 empty talents and 1 partially full talent left in my Balance tree when I was hitting on 70; Genesis, Improved Faerie Fire, Wrath of Cenarius, and Eclipse. Earth and Moon was the one talent only partially filled up in my level 70 tree. At 80 I will only have the first 2  empty, as I will fill out Earth and Moon, and pop the rest of my points into Wrath of Cenarius and Eclipse. I may scrounge a point here or there in the tree, like I said to improve my paw, but at this point I am not sure I really need to do that, especially with the diversity the trees get and the ability of a Resto Druid to actually stay Resto through the leveling process.

Some of the key talents I hit on were Brambles, Dreamstate, Owlkin Frenzy, Typhoon, Gale Winds, Earth and Moon, and of course, Starfall. All of these abilities either boost my DPS or lower my threat, which will only help me as I level through Northrend, and in the pre Wrath month it will help me a lot in raids. Typhoon has a nice knock back which, while it won't give me time to do a HoT or two before going back into Moonkin, might just keep those mobs off me that one or two seconds I need to use a Fel Blossom and Wrath them down.

I will point out that in beta I have done almost no work on my Druid, choosing instead to focus my early beta days on Medros, since I have two characters who use his leveling spec, but from the stats alone this spec should rock the house. It boosts just enough for other classes to make a Balance druid worthwhile in raid, and much nicer in soloing. We will see what happens in the coming hours, days, and weeks as we learn the new way of things in the Wrath era of Warcraft. Patch progress: Complete. 

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Within a few hours several members of the order are gathered, those who are willing to travel to Northrend at the same time as Connroe in order to plant the packages, even though they may die, and the final instructions are given to the gathered soldiers. A few minutes later, Medros and Connroe are given a few last minutes to talk before his return to Northrend. Medros takes out a small knife with the Isen family crest on it, and raises it.

Connroe looks on in horror as Med cuts off his long hair, hair he was always so proud of when he was growing up, hair grown in their father's image. Medros then follows this by cutting his own hand, and sprinkling a fair amount of blood onto the strands of hair he cut off. He then hands both the length of hair and the bloodied dagger to Connroe.

"These will be your proof to your 'master' that I am dead at your hand. You must be detailed in how I died and not show any concern if he mentions our relation. If this goes as planned we will soon be reunited once the Lich King is killed and the world freed of his terror. Perhaps..." Medros pauses, "perhaps we can even return to Westfall at some point, and look at reclaiming the old farm, Conn"

The brothers quickly embrace before Connroe is led to the upper floor of the structure, Medros following hesitantly in the wake of his escort. Lord Fordring offers Connroe the dais, where a similar stone to the one that Medros threw him in Northrend sits, except this one is much larger, almost as if the smaller was formed in the image of this, but more portable.

"This will return you to the place you came to us from. In the bundle at your feet is the body of one of our fallen soldiers who died valiantly. You should bury him in the ground of Northrend and take the Lich King the evidence of your brothers death. By the time anyone can check, the body will be merely a skeleton in the ground. You have been told where to go for the means to communicate with us. We only ask you tell us where we might intercept the Lich King's forces and beat them back where we can. Are you ready Connroe Isen?" Fordring asks

"I am, but I just need to ask one thing..." Connroe requests, receiving a nod from the leader of the Order. "What is in this place, the feeling here... it is as if it were pure light..."

"Yes, as if it were pure..." Fordring says, not finishing the thought. "Safe travels, and may the Light protect you when only darkness surrounds you, Connroe."

Those were the last friendly words Connroe heard before his first communications from Northrend. The Lich King was most pleased with his accomplishment, but he could feel his glowing orbs on him for weeks after, likely watching for signs of change after being order to kill his last remaining family. As the months go by, Connroe feels the watch of the Lich King wane, and eventually he feels it safe to report in. He gives reports as he is able, some are empty, some full of troop and vessel movements.

It is not until he hears of two significant changes that he knows something is planned. The first is that the vessel Acherus has been ordered to move to the sky above the Eastern Plaguelands, where a group called the Scarlets are forming for attacks on the Scourge. The second is the shocking news that the Death Knight Morgraine was freed from the service of the Lich King in Naxxramas by his last remaining son, Darion, who had now become a new Death Knight himself in the act of freeing his father.

As various servants of the Lich King vied for the valuable place as leader of the necropolis, Connroe gratefully accepts additional training aboard the vessel in order to take a leadership role over other Death Knights in time. On the day that Highlord Darion Morgraine is named the new commander of the Acherus, and the day before it departs for Azeroth, Connroe reports to the Order this news, and also that of the recall of the necropolis Naxxramas, taking with it notable figures of the Scourge.

Connroe is only relayed four words in response to his last communication with the order from Northrend, "See you soon. Med."

While many of watch the crawling progress bar of our installs for patch 3.0.2, I thought I would let you know what talents I recommend for a couple of my classes. These will be for the specs I choose to play, and are not necessarily going to reflect what you will, or may choose to select for your characters. First up, I am going to start with my beloved Paladin class, and their Ret build. This will be a 0/3/58 build.

I feel this build maximizes crit rating while still giving some points into the new lower tier and more accessible Blessing of Kings in Protection tree. Admittedly this does not have the full 5 points in Kings, but it gives us some, and can always be changed if the majority of players you group with have the full one, or just wait five weeks and hit 72 so you can go full in. As with before, I have chosen to ignore Pursuit of Justice and Eye for an Eye, as I do not feel they are worth those essential points for the next month before Wrath goes live.

I also left Divine Purpose out in order to get those 2 extra points in Improved Blessing of Kings, and these points can be added back in later if you feel the need. Crusade, while potentially nice, will not, I think, improve the damage output enough to go 3 in for this talent. Maybe at 80. Essential talents from my time on beta are Repentance, Improved Ret Aura, Art of War, Judgment of the Wise, and Divine Storm. That last one, of course, is why we limit the diversity of our talents. Sheath of Light is a good one, giving your heals a much nice kick to them. Flash of Light can heal for enough to keep you alive in a pinch, and with the new push back changes even a Holy Light can be hit for almost a full to top heal.

The big thing about the new Ret tree is that it seems to focus in two areas. First it boosts crit rating. With a crit rating of 205 before, I had a chance of 23.5%. I will be sure to add in my new crit rating here ____% when the servers go live, and with all the bonuses to crit, I am sure that percentage will get a bump. The second focus is on mana. Ret gear is well known for it's lack of int and mp5 points, and as we of the Light use mana for a lot of put spells, we have long been those of the oom. This tree will fix that. Judgment of Light being used alongside the Judgment of the Wise talent and Divine Storm triggers, a ret Paladin should have little to now trouble staying healthy and mana filled for a long, long time.

While this isn't the idea spec, it is what we can do with the points we have and the month that spans between this patch and Wrath. Remember, we heard at Blizzcon that there will be a 3.0.3 patch coming in a week or two, and that might in itself bring us more changes still to the live game. I would love your thoughts on this spec, and even your thoughts on other Paladin specs. For now, I am off to look into the Druid trees, and get a refill of my drink. 32% done installing...

I figured that since there is so much yummy goodness in the beta, I would start a small series of top 5s, just to give you short roundups from my beta testing experiences. The first one I want to tackle, of course, it the top 5 Paladin spells I have learned so far in the beta.

Divine Storm - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards.  The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 20% of the damage caused.
This spell right now is #2 in my rotation on the beta, right after Crusader Strike. While the DPS of this ability can be sweet, especially when it procs, the soloing bonus of that 20% can be amazing to see. I now almost always pull 2 - 3 mobs in order to maximize the benefits.

Judgement of the Wise - Your Judgement spells have a 100% chance to grant the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of their maximum mana per second, and to immediately grant you 20% of your maximum mana.
This is commonly known among the paladins I talk to as a mana battery. Every 10 seconds, as long as I have a Seal up, I can replenish, at level 75, about 1500 mana using Judgement of Wisdom. With Global Cooldown and the other spells in my rotation, it is rare that I am not at least 85% mana as long as I do not forget to judge. In fact, I more often find myself low on health than low on mana. I am considering testing this with Judgement of Light, just to get a small heal in here and there.

Repentance - Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min.  Any damage caused will awaken the target.  Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
This ability is what I usually use for the 4th mob I pull. If I know my Divine Storm won't hit everyone, being limited to 3 an all, I will usually repentance one of the enemies, and pull the other 3 far enough away. Often by the time the 1 minute is up, I am done with his friends and ready to take him on. Long overdue improvement to this spell.

Art of War - Increases the critical strike damage of your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities by 20% and when these abilities critically hit your next Flash of Light spell becomes instant cast.
This ability was already pretty sweet with the recent improvements to the Flash of Light component. I have not yet tried the Flash of Light side, due to repeated crashes from the beta client, but I will be deliberately watching for the buff and seeing if it is as useful as I suspect.

Divine Plea - You gain 25% of your total mana over 10 sec, but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50%.
This is one of the many in a new class of spell I call a MoT(Mana over Time) spells that have crept into the game in the Wrath of the Lich King. This is one of those 'Oh crap, I have no mana' spells, since judgements cost mana, and while it feels like the regen of mana takes forever, in no time you have at least enough for Holy Shield or a last hoorah spell to try to eek out victory.


While these are merely the best I found, there was at least another 5 I could find in the changed spells list of the Wrath beta. Yes, most of these are Retribution, but that's what I play. If you are Holy or Protection specced and want to give me your top 5, let me know in the comments and I will be happy to post them as a guest entry on this blog, or even link to your own. Keep reading for the next in the list of Top 5s from the beta and live game!

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Suddenly, seemingly out of no where, Connroe begins to feel a tugging sensation, and suddenly finds the snow vanishing and the dirt beneath him turned into hard wooden floors. Connroe feels a warm fire nearby, and looks around him at a building that looks like a church in design, but a command center in that there are many people here in armor and carrying brutal weapons. Weapons which instantly get turned toward the Death Knight appearing in their midst.

"Stop!" Medros yells as he appears a second later, trying to pull his comrades back from the planned slaughter of their enemy. "He is no enemy, he is my brother."

Some of the soldiers lower their weapons, but not all of them as Medros is pulled into a heated discussion in the corner. Connroe is given meagre bits of food to eat and a bowl of warmed water to clean off his mud covered face, his eyes rarely leaving his brother other than to ensure the razor sharp blades have not gotten close enough to kill in one movement. As he begins to feel more human, if that was still possible, Connroe feels a warmth come over him that has nothing to do with the fire, the food, or the water.

"What is this..." the Death Knight mutters as the feeling extends over his body, a feeling he both knows and finds utterly unfamiliar.

"What did you say, death dealer?" a voice from across the room calls.

Connroe looks up and sees a heavily armored Paladin glaring at him, waiting for an answer. "I feel... something... I am not sure what, but it is something I have never felt before."

He looks up at Medros, a look of wonderment on his face as he realizes he has felt this before. "Durnholde..."

"What about that place? It is only rubble now after the Orcs brought it to the ground!" The older Paladin remarks.

"My brother was at that battle, Lord Fordring. I am told it was where he first met Prin.... the Lich King. Go on, Conn," Medros states.

Waiting for the older Paladin to give his authorization, Connroe begins to tell his story as the soldiers and Paladins look on intently. He tells of his orders to go to Stratholme, of finding Muradin in Northrend, of the battle with the undead, of the battle with Mal'Ganis and the fall of Arthas, and lastly of his fall into the service of the Lich King.

"I have become a trusted Death Knight, or had become until Med pulled me here, wherever I am, in service of the Lich King. I was about to be promoted into higher service," Connroe adds.

"Perhaps you can yet be of service, but to us instead. We have ways of travel and communication which your King cannot monitor or control. If you will tell us what you know, we can prepare more effective counter attacks to the invasions and attacks on our people by the scourge, assuming you are willing to betray your master to help your people, your true people that is," Fordring inquires.

Connroe ponders the offer for a short time, the people around him tensing for attack if he declines. He looks up into his brothers eyes, and begins to speak.

"I am horrified by what I did in service to that monster. He made me infect everything from elderly people to children with his plague, just so he would raise more abominations for his army. I need to begin paying for the crimes I have committed on my people, and the other people of this world. I will serve your..." he looks to Medros for help.

"Order, Connroe, the Order of the Silver Hand, reformed," Medros answers.

"Your Order, and I will tell you where I am sent, and of my missions in his service. Know, Lord Fordring, that if you do not counter the attacks I tell you about, more may die, more WILL die in the name of the Lich king. I may even have to land the killing blow in order to ensure I remain in his trust. Do you understand this?" Connroe demands.

"More than you know, son, more than you know. Many of my own men will die fighting that... Monster. We will one day bring down that king and his throne in Northrend. For now, we need to arrange for your return undetected and for the tools of your betrayal to be located within your reach. For now, my men can lower their blades, for your brother gives his word that you are still an honorable man." Lord Fordring states before giving orders quickly to several of the soldiers nearby. 

So the 8926 beta build came out last night, with the 3.0.1 background downloader starting up today, so of course there is news and data mining and opinions aplenty. I figured I may as well give you my highlights from the new beta build. There are a few low lights too, sadly, but this is beta and things are always changing.

The first thing I need to mention is Heirlooms. I believe it was at the Invitational in Paris when we first heard of the possibility of an account bound object, instead of character bound, and now we have them. In the new build Blizzard has introduced Heirlooms, items that will be bound within your account, currently bought with the Naxx tokens, that can be sent within your account. The other good thing is that these items scale with the toon, so you can send your new level 1 Warrior an item, and it will continue to improve in stats as the character gets higher in the ranks.

I assume there will be heirlooms for each type, like a Melee DPS for each of leather, mail, and plate in end game, caster for all levels, and so on, and this way you ensure that the various classes still get proper gear for their needs. So far we have weapons, trinkets, and shoulders, though I would assume more will come in time. Also, while MMO Champion has model viewer made shots of many Heirloom items, there is no word yet on whether those items will look as awesome on a level 1 as they will on a level 80 character.

You may have heard of the changes promised to racials, and those changes did hit this build, though some have already been altered from the promised looks. Fall of Humanity, a feign death like ability, was remove before the build went live, and I can imagine the Night Elf Shadowmeld, which now works in combat, is also in live, or will in the next build. Humanity will be getting a new racial, "Every Man for Himself": Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. This effect shares a cooldown with other similar effects.(I have confirmed that Fall of Humanity is not on the live beta realms)

And not we have Paladins. Ret and Prot Paladins got lots of love this build, though since I know Ret best, I will fill you in. Many of our talents got redone, from Art of War to Diving Storm, Judgment of the Wise to Crusade. Overall I think our changes were an improvement, with the added benefit of a full power Blessing of Kings coming with only 5 points spent in the Protection tree. From my playing I am so far loving the build, and might actually document this one if it lasts past the next build.

Oh, and one more thing...(since Steve didn't do one) we are getting some peaks at the coming build that will be next, and one of the things that Blizzard is clear on is that Riding Crops and all the other mount speed boosters will be gone at the least by 70. They were going to make them enchantements, but then they made all mounts learned spells and the boosters just became a pain to fix. I am not sure I feel they are less of a pain pre 70, but Blizz seems to be working out other speed boosting abilities so we will have to see what will come to pass. Take care!

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Calling himself the Lich King, Arthas was drawing his loyal captain to him. Connroe tried to ignore the words, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw him there, beckoning. Arthas taunted Connroe with words of despair and pain. Lordaeron fallen. Demons running rampant. The Elves in disarray. Connroe tried all he could to ignore or avoid the words, but found not sleeping to be his only recourse. After days of not sleeping, though, Connroe was near exhaustion, and began to see things.

First it was hearing soldier's voices who had died long months before, then it was seeing Arthas in his base. One night, shortly after the changing of the guard, Arthas again appeared before Connroe, telling him again to come to him. Taking up his blade, which was rusted, dented, and worn, he advanced on the figure that he knew was merely a vision with murder in his heart.

Ignoring the calls of his soldiers who were worried that their barely clothed commander was running off into the frozen wastes, Connroe kept chasing the taunting figure of this Lich King. He chased him through peaks and valleys, never quite able to get within the grasp of the figure, but never far enough away to give up either. Rounding the corner of a mountain, Connroe found the figure kneeling there, sword stuck in the ground, set in a clear figure of surrender.

Connroe advanced, wary of a trap, but as he got closer he saw that Arthas was alone, at his mercy. Arthas taunted him, as his blood began to boil inside him and a great fire burning in his stomach. As the figure before him began to talk of how easy he was to play with, how easily manipulated he was, Connroe's rage bubbled over, and he charged at his fallen leader. Just before he reached him, he raised his sword to land a killing blow, but found the ground falling beneath him.

The captain screamed in rage as he fell, his humanity left behind in his descent into this twisted world, leading him to be a perfect servant for the Lich King. In his time in service, he was shown that where he failed to harness the light, he was perfect for wielding the twisted powers of a Death Knight and quickly excelled at his role. Arthas's old Captain quickly became a favorite amongst his Death Knights.

One day, as the legions of the Lich King prepared for the coming heroes of the Alliance and the Horde, his king called Connroe to his throne. He had a mission for him, an order to take out a group of adventurers who had come to Northrend to wage war against his master, to dethrone the King. Connroe took this up with zeal, taking out the adventurers one at a time, until only their Paladin remained.

As Connroe waited in a clearing for the Paladin to come to him, he caught the voice making prayers and blessings on himself drifting to him on the wind. The voice sounded familiar, but Connroe knew the voice could be none of his men, for they had all been wiped out long ago or gone home at the orders of their new leaders. Looking up as the adventurer entered the clearing, a large hammer in his hands that almost dripped blood, Connroe looked up.

Looking into the battle hardened face of his younger brother, his resolve and dedication to the Lich King began to crumble, and Connroe let his blade fall to the ground. Unable to kill his brother, he simply collapsed to the ground; his only thought that of awaiting the killing blow of his Master. Medros, not foolish enough to let his guard down, advanced on the Death Knight, ready to strike if needed, for he did not know the man's identity.

"Stand, or I will use the Light and this mace to send you back to your master as Nerubian dinner" Medros says, his anger and fury coming out in his voice. Medros takes a step back when his threats are met with laughter from the fallen man.

"The Scourge always did doubt the power of those wielding the light!" Medros shouts angrily as he raises his hammer for a killing blow.

"No," the fallen Knight says, making Medros stop mid swing, "I just wonder which of us he will strike down first, my brother..."

With that Connroe turns on his back, and looks up with a muddied face at his brother, watching with a look of happiness that he did not change so much that his own blood cannot recognize him.

"Connroe?" Medros asks in disbelief. "How did you...? Northrend? They told us you fell in the attack on Lordaeron!"

"No, Med, I fell to the will of the prince who became King." Connroe says with bitterness in his voice. "He will come soon, or he will send others. He wants you dead, dear brother, which tells me you have truly become the Paladin you always dreamed of being."

"I have tried, Conn, but that is not something to discuss here and now. We need to get out of here, need to get back to tell the Order of the situation here. They will want to hear what you have to say," Medros states authoritatively.

"No, he will find us wherever we flee, Med, he can see everything," Connroe says in a  defeatist tone.

"There are ways, trust me on that. I have been fighting his minions for a long while now, and my friends and I have found ways to hide what we wish from him," Medros advises knowingly, tossing a rough stone to his brother, which instantly warms up.

I know, I know. Cheesy. But I am happy. This is the first time I have experienced a beta patch first hand in about 4 years. I am a little excited. Below you will find the thoughts I have as I work my way through reported and discovered changes.

-Death Knight's Frost Presence now gives an aura buff to everyone nearby for a walk on water buff. Blood Presence still gives nothing
-Death Knights now appear almost diseased in appearance. Eww.
-Can now check, read, and delete mail.
-Fishing trainer in Valiance now trains Grand Master. Cooking Trainer still blank. Same goes for Valgarde.
-Paladins cannot use Judgments. More properly put, they can cast them, but they have no effect. Still able to so decent damage.
-Warlocks now glow purple.
-Hunter's Kill Command has been changed, for the worse.
-IF guard still does not know what inscription is.
-Select bodies of water have schools of fish.
-Turkey killing achievement is still very hard to do in Valgarde proper
-The flight... master(?) at Amber Ledge now has the proper texture for her form.
-Apparently Titan's Grip, the long griped about dps nerf to the Fury Warriors, has been fixed to make those same Warriors machines of mass slaughter. Expect a slight tweak down of that talent in a later build.
-Even patches can be followed by downtime

And on that note, as the servers went down, I assume to fix the glow issues, the judgment issues, or just to randomly taunt beta testers, I will end this here. I would like to say that while I feel a Blizzcon release of Wrath would be awesome, I don't see it as feasible, but I feel the game will be released withing a short time after that. We now have level 80 and only one world zone left unreleased, as well as raid dungeons which need to see a few runs, likely the purpose of the mentioned premade realm. Look for more new soon!

[Update: 2:30 AM - After the lengthy shut down Paladins still cannot judge, and Death Knights still look diseased. Server is about to shut down again, and I am off to bed. Look for another update in the morning.]

We are currently in the beta phase of the next expansion, as you are all well aware. All of the classes have new talent trees, and some have spectacular abilities that totally kick ass. Some, not so much. I understand that some all players want those OMFG abilities to be seen. Not all will get them. Some may get them eventually. Everyone wants a Divine Storm, a Titan's Grip, a Beast Mastery, a Typhoon to be given to their class. Not everyone can. This is a fact of life that we will just have to struggle to accept and live with.

The way I see it, having a Hunter, 2 Paladins, and a Druid at 70, is that the big skills are being given to those classes and specs within classes that really, really need them. Hunters have long been the mockery of gaming. Ret Paladins too have suffered being the butt of all DPS jokes. Many raiders seem to feel that Moonturkey are carried, not doing real damage or contributing much to a run other than the aura. I play all of this. I see why we are getting the OMFG talents. We need them.

In a most recent Ask the Beta Tester segment on WoW Insider, their rogue columnist said that Rogues aren't getting any must have talents. He admitted that they will still do massive damage in any raid or group. No doubt rests in my mind that without the changes to Paladins in Wrath, Rogues would still be the hands down favorite for any raid or group. As it stands now, I have a small chance I could win out if their was a choice in a raid, especially with buffs to auras which make them raid wide and the talents and improvements to Retribution Aura that I have taken in the Retribution tree.

Changes to spell power will definitely affect Arita, my druid(renamed Aritas due to name change), but I am trying to get Medros to Dalaran in order to see the amazing city of magic. He only just dinged 71 last night, so it will be a bit until he hits the 74 minimum, but I will then spend some time learning the druid abilities to see how they do in solo and group play. I pretty much stuck to the prospective talent tree I posted about, and I will be sure to report here when I begin doing more than mere fedex quests on the Doomkin.

Hunters. Huntards many call us. Too easy to play, too streamlined, too anti group. We are the most insulted group, and the least wanted in groups. In fact, I think that if a raid were to choose between a Hunter and a Doomkin, they would likely choose feather over fur. Not to mention that hunters are almost never allowed to bring out their biggest asset, their pets, in most raid or group encounters. While Beast Mastery will undoubtedly be the most popular hunter spec in Wrath, cause let's be honest, who doesn't want to tame a Devilsaur, but Chimera Shot and Explosive Shot seem to have some promise. I will be looking at my Hunter last in the line of alts I will bring to the beta.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if your class isn't broke, don't expect a fix. Blizzard is giving clothies spell power, which will automatically give you a buff in that all that juicy healing gear that used to drop will now be usable. They are still working on classes from the Death Knight on down, so don't think that just cause we might have a cinematic, that the beta is over, cause it's not. This change. Things will continue to change. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Upon arriving to the city, he was sent directly to the King's personal black smith and fitted for armor befitting a rank far higher than his lowly rank at Durnholde. Once he was measured for new armor, he was sent to the throne room of the king and greeted by one of the King's Generals, who presented him with orders from the prince of his promotion to Captain, and was ordered to proceed to rendezvous with the Prince at Stratholme.

As the regiment he was leading closed in on Stratholme, a scout reported seeing smoke on the horizon. The new Captain ordered all of the mounted troops to ride forward to the city at best speed while he remained with the footmen and pack animals as they too moved at best speed. About halfway to the city Connroe noticed a group of figures moving toward him, and ordered his men to make ready for an attack.

The attack did not happen, for Connroe recognized a familiar face in the head of the group of soldiers, and he rode out to inquire of his Prince. Arthas brusquely told him that Stratholme had fallen to a new threat to the Alliance, and that they had no time to discuss the matter. When he asked about the men he had sent to the city, Arthas informed him they had perished, but died valiantly. When Connroe tried to seek more information, Arthas ordered his silence, telling him the fallen would rise and make chase.

Arthas ordered the men to head north, where they took charge of some of the boats of the Alliance who sailed the flag of Kul'Tiras and sailed north to the land known as Northrend. Shortly after arriving they came upon the Dwarven troops of Muradin Bronzebeard, a friend of Arthas. They joined forces with the dwarves to battle the legions of undead that Arthas was on the heels of, and take back lost ground.

Orders came from the king after a few weeks of the building of their base, ordering them back to Lordaeron, but when they reached their boats they were met with the site of their Prince in heavy battle alongside Bronzebeard, fighting mercenaries who Arthas claimed had destroyed their only route home. Furious, the soldiers attacked the mercenaries with every bit of rage they had in their chilled bones. Once the dismal inventory was taken and it was discovered they didn't have even one sea worthy vessel, they returned to their base to wallow in their sadness.

Suddenly one day Arthas came to his loyal captain and ordered him to take command of the troops and proceeded to disappear while the troops were still under frequent and heavy attack. While the troops were seemingly about to be overrun, Arthas returned, without the Dwarven prince but carrying a deadly looking blade. He commanded that they mount an invasion of the undead base in order to slay their demon master.

Unsure of this plan when they were already down to so few, Connroe never the less made plans for an full scale attack on the base, even though he had many doubts of its potential for success. When the remaining troops were ready and a strategy was set in motion, they proceeded forth in a two pronged attack on the base. The frontal assault was led by Connroe and the latter by Arthas in a sneak attack, hoping to split the undead forces and leave them in disarray.

The number of troops that met Connroe's attack was many, but the human and dwarven fighters did not let the numbers get them down, instead fighting to the last. The remains of the undead piled up in front of them, but yet more advanced on them, and the soldiers who stood with Connroe began to feel the fight drain out of them as they could see no end to this risen army. It was then, when the battle seemed utterly lost that Connroe spotted his prince in battle with a large winged demon who he called Mal'Ganis. As Connroe watched with concern, Arthas drove the runeblade into the demon, slaying him in one easy strike.

While the soldiers cheered, thinking that their prince had helped them to finally kill the undead creatures with ease, Connroe saw a look cross his prince's face that made a chill run down his spine. It was then that Connroe began bellowing for the retreat of the troops, causing the prince to glare at him.  Then the undead forces began to swarm around the prince, not in attack, but in adoration. Arthas struck down many soldiers before they realized their prince was not with them anymore.

Connroe made it back to the base with barely a quarter of the forces he left with just hours before, and found that the undead forces had decimated the base, slaughtering even the wounded and near dead in the most horrific ways. Slaughtering the last few undead while he had the element of surprise, Connroe ordered his troops to begin rebuilding in expectation of an attack sent to finish them off, this time an attack ordered by Prince Arthas.

The attack never came however, though they could not return because their boats had been destroyed, likely at the order of their fallen prince, Connroe realized in hindsight. The base was rebuilt, expanded, and fortified as the days became weeks, and then months, and finally years. Connroe, being the highest ranking soldier, gave himself promotions at regular intervals as dictated by Lordaeron's military code, finally achieving the rank of General. Then one day the entire world seemed to shake, and the base was nearly brought to the ground before suddenly, as suddenly as it had begun, the shaking stopped. A few months after this, Connroe began hearing the call of an eerily familiar voice in his dreams.

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Name: Connroe Isen
Race: Human
Story: Older brother to Medros Isen, Connroe was not as devout or blessed as his younger brother Medros. After Medros was old enough to take care of himself, he tried to join the ranks of the Paladins, but his faith was weak and he quickly left training at the new Stormwind training grounds of the Silver Hand. This came after mere months of not being able to summon forth the healing power of the light to heal even a small injured rabbit. Proving adequate with a blade, Connroe joined the military of Stormwind, helping to protect the city during the rebuilding of the kingdom.

Finding that the glorified guard duty over an energized and rejoicing populace of hardworking people was too boring for him, and having missed the war his father died fighting in, Connroe traveled north to the kingdom of Lordaeron to seek a position with the internment camps, hoping that guarding the greatly feared orcs would give him some excitement.

Connroe was quickly pulled into the ranks of the soldiers going to Durnholde Keep to defend it against the now growing new horde, as its leader felt an attack against the center of the internment structure was imminent. The troops began the trek from the capital city of the Alliance, Lordaeron, and arrived to find Durnholde intact, but with a growing sense of fear amongst its defenders.

Soldiers spoke of recent attacks that had been anticipated against several camps, one of which had relative success. The master's aide had escaped the battle, telling of the loss of one of the orc's leaders, but the camp was still crushed by the orcs and the majority of the protectors killed or badly wounded. Whispers among the men told of an orc known to the master of the Keep named Thrall, who now led this new horde. Attack was assured now, they said.

No more than two days later the preparations were called to a halt by the sounding of loud drums echoing through the hills. The battle would go badly, which Connroe knew when he saw the mass of green skin advancing on Durnholde, but still he did not back down. This was the battle he had wanted for so long. Then the head sailed over the heads of the Alliance soldiers, landing at the feet of the orcish leader. The reaction of the lead orc, the one called Thrall who had been asking for negotiations and talks, told Connroe this had just gone from bad to horrendous.

When the ground began to shake, and the walls began to fall, Connroe knew he had picked the wrong battle, but surprisingly he survived the fight. The orc he faced with gave him chance after chance to give up before he was killed, and in the end he gave up, knowing if he killed this Orc, there would be more to come, and no matter how good he was with his sword, he would not be able to take them all. He was no Lothar.

When Uther and his Paladins, including Prince Arthas, heir to the throne of Lordaeron showed up, the young prince was tasked with healing the wounded, while Uther handled the more critical cases. It was then that Arthas and Connroe met for the first time as Arthas reached him after walking a long line of soldiers, who he offered his comfort and healing powers to in succession. When he reached Connroe, he began small talk by him asking how he got wounded while tending to his wounds.

Seeing the Prince as his way to advance, Connroe tried to be both brave and friendly with the Paladin Prince, succeeding at both. As Uther and his paladins left, Connroe saw Arthas talking heatedly with Uther while he tried to look like his attention was elsewhere. Connroe had to feign surprise and conceal his joy at being called over by the Paladin Lord Uther, who told him that when he was healed and able to travel, he was to make haste to the capital of the Alliance.

You may recall I did a talent overview of the Balance tree when the pre beta talent trees were published after the Worldwide Invitational. Well, now that Beta has arrived, bringing with it both Hunter and Paladin talents, I am here to give you my perspective on the new form of Retribution in the current Beta build. After I give you the highlights from the Ret tree, I will go over a few general changes and improvements to the Paladin class. Here is my prospective talent tree, and my current tree.

Let me first say, I am really excited about staying Ret all the way to 80 and into whatever end game I decide to play in. While both Holy and Protection will be getting some amazing changes, making them more versatile than their base abilities, I honestly believe the Retribution tree is getting the biggest, and best changes. Will it change how people see us? Unlikely, but it will be a start. Now, to the talents:

Heart of the Crusader - Ranks: 3 - In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 1/2/3%. Opinion: As seemingly the only Paladin in the world who uses Seal of the Crusader, I will miss that ability, but I will like the fact this ability might make me that little bit more desirable to raids.

Sanctified Retribution - Ranks: 1 - Damage caused by targets affected by Retribution Aura is increased by 2%. - Opinion: This stacked with the removal of Sanctity Aura will make the Retribution Aura an actually desired aura for (now) the entire Raid. I know I will be changing my macro from Sanctity(yes, another 'rarely used' one that I use all the time) to Retribution.

Sheath of Light - Ranks: 3 - Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 20/40/60% of the healed amount over 12 seconds. - Opinion: With Blizzard's change from the Burning Crusade widespread stat list, to the more general ones coming in Wrath, this is both expected and welcome. As a Paladin who, while Blizzard has talked about switching Ret itemization to more warrior based, knows that Alliance Paladins still use a lot of spells and go through a lot of mana, I look forward to this talent which will still help me out.

Sanctified Seals - Ranks: 3 - Increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3% and reduces the chance your Seals will be dispelled by 33/66/100% - Opinion: Another +crit talent is always nice, and while I do not think that in PvE I was in great risk of having my seals dispelled, I will take that as an added buff in case I am ever PvPing.

Sanctified Wrath - Ranks: 2 - Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 25/50%, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 30/60 secs and while affected by Avenging Wrath 25/50% of all damage caused bypasses damage reduction effects. - Opinion: So at top rank Hammer of Wrath does about 700, which is not much even on crit, especially when you can usually only cast it once per mob, but I'll take it. The bigger thing for me is the Avenging Wrath buffs. 1 minute chopped off that spell, plus it's already dropped forebearance, and adding the damage bypass... that will make Avenging Wrath a must use spell in any fight.

Swift Retribution - Ranks: 3 - Your Retribution Aura also increases casting, ranged and melee attack speeds by 1/2/3% - Opinion: Yet another buff to Retribution Aura. Anyone noticing a theme here?

The Art of War - Ranks: 3 - Your damaging Crusader Strikes have a 5/10/15% chance to cause your next Judgement spell to cause double damage. - Opinion: Watching for the buff will be important, because this would be one of those 'OMG, go for broke' level of buffs.

Righteous Vengeance - Ranks: 5 - Increases critical damage bonus of all attacks by 3/6/9/12/15%. - Opinion: Retribution Paladins = God Mode, crit style

Divine Storm - Ranks: 1 - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totalling 20% of the damage caused. - Opinion: Great for solo, decent for party. I imagine the animation will be bloody fantastic!

General Abilities:

-The change from Blessings to Hands on some of the 'off blessings' of current game is great, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with.
-Aura's being raid wide will be awesome, and will allow for a more overall coverage of aura's in a multi Paladin group
-Lay on Hands will be nice to see the changes, but I want to know how much mana it will now drain and how much health it will heal.
-Repentance will be nice, though I can honestly say I do not recall ever using it before. I will have to check it out, cause I clearly forgot this ability previously.
-Righteous Fury now doing 90% more threat on holy damage will be awesome for those non Prot who need to off tank in a run.
-Enlightened Judgements is a talent I wish was in Ret, as the improved distance was, I am told, in Ret pre TBC.
-DI and and LoH having lowered cooldowns of 20 minutes will be awesome.
-Holy Wrath being instant cast and does a stun? Finally!


Overall I am really enjoying the look of the Retribution tree in the Wrath Beta, and really enjoying the overall Paladin based improvements. I have concerns about mana pools, because Ret Paladins still need to cast a lot of spells and I am not seeing a lot so far to change that. Still, this is leaps and bounds better than currently in the game, though, of course, anything said here can and very well may change between now and Launch Day of Wrath of the Lich King. 

So as I was preparing for work this morning, I noticed WoW Insider had an interesting post about a change in the descriptions of the three different Death Knight talent trees, Blood, Frost, and Unholy. The changes are interesting, moving away from stereotyped roles of a spec(tank, DPS, PvP, etc) to a more tagged type of description, as well as removing the description about what the presence does from that tree.

WoW Insider suggested a pretty decent guess from my perspective of why this might have been done. One of the reasons that we have the current tank shortage in the game is perspective. We have Warriors not wanting to lose the loot priority value of being the main tank in raids, and thus have complained at any improvements that could potentially see them replaced in that role, such as buff to Paladins or Druids as tanks.

Blizzard being attentive to warriors has led to a deep tank shortage, because no one wants to spec their character in a way that will make them less effective or desirable to the overall gaming population. WoW Insider points out that the change to the trees could be a lead up to a change in thinking from Blizzard. If the company stops referring to trees by the stereotypical terms, DPS, Heal, Tank, PvP, Raid, etc, we just might see players change their thinking.

I have to agree with the writer of the piece in that we could just as easily see the terms to describe something, for example Tank, change to be the new terms, control, counters, and combos. We could see 'LFC(control) DK for Naxx' instead of 'LF Tank for Naxx'. Of course, there is something to be said for the stereotypes. Which is nicer to see: 1) 'LF AoE Pal, Threat War, Swipe Druid, Control DK for <instance>' or 2) 'LF Tank for <instance>'? I think 2 will be it.

In the end, this still has the ring of a move away from the age old stereotypes and to a new way of thinking about how characters are designed and planned, as well I would think in how they are evolved as the future expansions hit. As Blizzard brings more Hero classes into the game in those expansions to be named, this will undoubtedly help them broaden the classes beyond the narrow stereotypes that have plagued them since the game was in beta.

Will changing the descriptions of the classes in the game and in the future change how you think about them? Or will it just be a matter of same crap, different pile? Do you think this will even have any effect on the game and it's instance and raid aspects? Let me know what you think in the comments!

It all started with "Anyone want to go to SV or Heroic SP/UB" which I typed into guild chat. That elicited a few interested people, but not enough for an actual group. It did, however, bring about an interesting conversation with a fellow Ret Paladin in my guild the Shadow Walkers. He asked if I was planning to go to Heroic SP to work on the 'unofficial ret set'. I said no, not understanding what he was referring to. He went on to link me a few items from this Unofficial Ret Set. Ornate Boots of the Sanctified & Ornate Leggings of the Venerated were the pieces he linked, and one look told me the place he was going. The conversation also pointed to Bracers of Just Rewards as another 'classic ret piece'.

For any of you who saw my recent Gear Review for Medros, you will notice that there is a very different tact in gear and stat selection in the gear my beloved Paladin has. Strength. Agility. Attack Power. Hit Rating. Crit Rating. All of these are what I have built my DPS for Medros on. Now, I will admit that Ret Paladins use a fair number of spells. Avenging Wrath, Consecration, Crusader Strike, plus our seals and judgments. However, most of the ret spells I use are based around my attack power and melee damage.

So, friends, allies, Paladins and admirers, what do you think? With the coming changes to Retribution gear, should we just wait and see what blizzard is doing? See what the stat change that they say will increase our DPS is going to be? Do you think we need to focus on spell power or attack power?