World Of Warcraft Discussion Thread

[Clarste]

Archimonde was all "Stay out of the ****ing fire, you noobs!" Not exactly epic.

Kael was pretty epic though.

[Wildclaw]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Well, I finally leveled my Paladin high enough to get into Outlands again (can't believe I actually missed the place) which put me in another spot that had me scratch my head.

Namely, what kind of stats do I go after?

Holy: Intelligence, intelligence, intelligence and spellpower. Crit and haste to fill in the gaps. Don't touch mp5 unless there really isn't a choice. But really, you don't want to level a holy paladin. It is an exercise in boredom compared to the other two specs.

Retribution: Strength, strength, strength, Huge two hander and some crit. Attack power is worse than strength but you can get some on gear where strength isn't availible. You should obviously fill the divine strength talent between level 61 and 65 to get even more Strength.

Protection: Strength, defense, stamina and some dodge,parry,block,agility to even things up. In Outlands, also use a few (1 or 2) items with intelligence plus the above stats. It will boost your mana regen abilities that are based on your total mana pool. And you won't get eternal Divine Plea until level 71.

Protection is in my opinion the ultimate AoE grinding spec, beating even frost mages as they can make do with little to no downtime. Retribution is for quicker solo grinding. Holy is boring and slow but you'll survive most things and Seal of Wisdom is somewhat insane when you have a large mana pool.

From my inexperienced point of view, spellpower/intel/manaregen gear is a good choice for a prot-AoE spec, since it drains mana like a sponge and you mostly use

No. Protection doesn't want manaregen nor spellpower and as little intelligence as possible. All paladin spells (except the healing spells) scale with both spellpower and attackpower. And attackpower is a cheaper stat. Even cheaper if you get it via strength and have the Divine Strength talent.

As for mana regeneration. The protection paladin is a reincarnation of the duracell bunny. They just go on and on and on. They use Blessing of Sanctuary which gives you mana back every time you block/parry/dodge. They also get Divine Plea at level 71, which will generate 100% of your mana pool every minute, and remains active as long as you hit stuff due to a deep protection talent. Finally, there is also Seal of Wisdom which works incredibly well in combo with Hammer of the Righteous (that can trigger the seal on multiple mobs at the same time). At most you should add a couple of int items to further boost your mana regeneration via the above abilities. Some may argue against even doing that, but while levelling I think it is a good idea. As long as you don't overdo it.

The one mana regeneration ability you won't use is judgement of wisdom. It sucks compared to judgement of light and simply isn't worth it. Better to just judge light in the majority of the situations.

The biggest disadvantage with the protection paladin is that they somewhat suck vs. mobs with annoying special abilities. On the other hand. Nothing else can AoE grind dual wielders at the same pace as a protection paladin.

[Xacual]

Originally Posted by Wildclaw

Protection: Strength, defense, stamina and some dodge,parry,block,agility to even things up. In Outlands, also use a few (1 or 2) items with intelligence plus the above stats. It will boost your mana regen abilities that are based on your total mana pool. And you won't get eternal Divine Plea until level 71.

As for mana regeneration. The protection paladin is a reincarnation of the duracell bunny. They just go on and on and on. They use Blessing of Sanctuary which gives you mana back every time you block/parry/dodge. They also get Divine Plea at level 71, which will generate 100% of your mana pool every minute, and remains active as long as you hit stuff due to a deep protection talent. Finally, there is also Seal of Wisdom which works incredibly well in combo with Hammer of the Righteous (that can trigger the seal on multiple mobs at the same time). At most you should add a couple of int items to further boost your mana regeneration via the above abilities. Some may argue against even doing that, but while levelling I think it is a good idea. As long as you don't overdo it.

The biggest disadvantage with the protection paladin is that they somewhat suck vs. mobs with annoying special abilities. On the other hand. Nothing else can AoE grind dual wielders at the same pace as a protection paladin.

I never found adding any int to be worthwhile, it just is a waste of enchants or gem slots. Now I won't say not to take an item that is an upgrade in other stats just because it has int on it but I think focusing on the actual tanking stats comes way before touching anything with int if you can manage it. Agility is not a plate wearer stat at all. Also the change to avenger shield with it silencing should help a lot with the caster mob problem prot paladins have unless you are trying to aoe lots of them

[Wildclaw]

Originally Posted by Xacual

I never found adding any int to be worthwhile, it just is a waste of enchants or gem slots. Now I won't say not to take an item that is an upgrade in other stats just because it has int on it but I think focusing on the actual tanking stats comes way before touching anything with int if you can manage it. Agility is not a plate wearer stat at all.

I agree in theory, but not completly in practice. Levelling is different from end game.

Adding even a single intelligence item while levelling can represent a good boost in mana regeneration. And that means you can spam damage abilities more, increasing damage output. Too much intelligence is not good though. 2 items is where I would put the limit, and you can use less if you want. It is a personal choice. If you end all fights with full mana you obviously don't need it. Of course, after level 71 with the new changes to Divine Plea it is probably no longer needed.

Also, the post I responded to was talking about the Outlands. There are quite a few items in the outlands that are intelligence+tanking stats. And picking up an item like that doesn't have to be bad.

As for Agility, I should probably have been a big clearer in my first post. Strength, Stamina and Defense rating are definitly the primary stats. All the rest are secondary. Still, I found agility decently useful while levelling as it boosts both dodge and crit. Generally, protection paladins can make decent use of most stats except spirit. And items with many different stats on them allow for a greater total amount of points. So you usually end up having to decide item by item. But when in doubt, go with the primary stats. Finally, on a small note about the Outlands. There are a couple of items with both Strength and spell power on them. They are extremly nice for boosting damage of consecration and your other abilities.

Also the change to avenger shield with it silencing should help a lot with the caster mob problem prot paladins have unless you are trying to aoe lots of them

Somewhat. But the problem with caster mobs isn't only the spells, but also that they won't hit you with melee attacks, so you don't get mana back from them at the same rate. Of course, the usual idea is to pull a few melee mobs together with a single caster mob to make up for it.

[Ithekro]

Or get a ranged DPS leveling player to help you against casters...warlock are good for that. Actually the paladin-warlock combo works fairly well while leveling, even with a holy paladin-destruction warlock.

[Xacual]

Big surprise I know, but Algalon goes down in 10man to Ensidia. Which of course caused the usual huge amount of troll posts about them getting paid(not true) and other random bullshit. Someone even said that since they play 24/7 its a given that they'd get him, I'm almost positive that was a joke post though...

[Knight Hawk]

But they do get paid, just look at the sponsors they have and lets not forget about arena. ( $$$ ) 24/7 that's no joke either, few of there members have admitted not having jobs and playing endlessly. Anyways, as expected, congratulations.

[Xacual]

No they don't get paid, that got debunked by them and proven because they were tired of the spam on their site regarding it. The 24/7 thing has to be a joke with regards to Algalon , you can only attempt him one hour a week. Also only 1 of their 4 10man raid groups got a kill this week.

[Knight Hawk]

Tired of the spam sadly they still get the uber hate from the casuals *lol* Well yeah, Algalon is the exception. Still doesn't stop them using alts just to study the guy, it's 10man after all. Can't wait until they do 25man, that will be epic. ^^

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Wildclaw

Retribution: Strength, strength, strength, Huge two hander and some crit. Attack power is worse than strength but you can get some on gear where strength isn't availible. You should obviously fill the divine strength talent between level 61 and 65 to get even more Strength.

Protection: Strength, defense, stamina and some dodge,parry,block,agility to even things up. In Outlands, also use a few (1 or 2) items with intelligence plus the above stats. It will boost your mana regen abilities that are based on your total mana pool. And you won't get eternal Divine Plea until level 71.

Protection is in my opinion the ultimate AoE grinding spec, beating even frost mages as they can make do with little to no downtime. Retribution is for quicker solo grinding. Holy is boring and slow but you'll survive most things and Seal of Wisdom is somewhat insane when you have a large mana pool.

Having build up some experience now, I can say that a two-hander for Retribution is not a necessity. A 1-hand/shield combo works just as well, as the majority of your damage comes from spells. The weapon DPS you lose is mostly ofset by SoC proccing more often with the increased number of strikes. I found the difference in killing speed to be neglectable, and the increased survivability to be well worth it. I'm taking down elites without much problems, often not even having to use a bubble/heal.

Attack power is also a golden stat now, what with a lot of spells benefiting from attack power as well as spellpower, with Sheath of Light adding 30% of your attack power to your spellpower, that's a double bonus.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Well grat's to them.

4 10man raids is crazy though. Were all 4 on Algalon? That would technically be 5 hours a week possible on him, compared to most guilds 1 or 2! I guess the haters are all over that little detail? We could only get enough interest in 2 groups a week or so, oh well! They put in the time and resources, so grats to them.

That trinket is kinda interesting with an absolute boatload of crit.

[Xacual]

I don't know if all 4 were on Algalon but only one of the 4 groups got him down this week so I question if it was a lucky kill or not? I know their guild/raid leader Kugen wasn't in the group that got the kill.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Heh yeah, It probably wasn't just down to luck but how can we know. Just to play devils advocate though for a moment. Their achievement is good to be sure. But at least some of them maybe all, had hard mode 25man gear. They should do it in 10man gear to get the 'true' 10 man achievement. So yeah they technically killed him first, but they out geared it.

Anyway enough of that, its still awesome they beat him. But if anyone says Algalon is to easy or anything or that sort, then they are being foolish for ignoring the 10man criteria.

[Last Sinner]

10 man enforces bringing the right class balance more. There's far more flexibility in 25 man encounters 'generally'. For HM Hodir, clearly stacking Mages is kind of essential. My guild got Alliance first HM Hodir hard mode kill on our server almost a week ago and the Mages utterly blew everyone else away in DPS, with 3 of them at the 15k mark. Mimiron may dictate more focused DPS and healing due to the time limit, Freya having more tanking/survival capability due to the adds.

There is something very weird though about being paid to be #1 in a computer game though....what exactly are the people backing them gaining that justifies them doing this on a financial level? Then there's the moral and social implications. Grats to them, but it's essentially a case of the corporate dollar prevailing yet again. I don't like that. Money shouldn't dictate skill, the opportunity to display it or the right to participate.

[Knight Hawk]

I kinda dropped it on my last post, but fuck it, ima talk about it.

There is something very weird though about being paid to be #1 in a computer game though....what exactly are the people backing them gaining that justifies them doing this on a financial level? Then there's the moral and social implications. Grats to them, but it's essentially a case of the corporate dollar prevailing yet again. I don't like that. Money shouldn't dictate skill, the opportunity to display it or the right to participate.

It's like Ads on TV to put it simply. These guys are being watched by millions, even the haters are watching them. I'm sure some of you seen the tournaments, these guys are like nascar, logo's up there a$$es advertising there sponsors. When these guys win its a "Hell Yeah, i got me a lump of extra money" when they lose they "nerd" rage for a reason, they lose out of $$$. Hell, just look at the gaming community in Korea, especially Star Craft.

Xacual they might have said they don't get paid (to stop the spam no less), but its nothing but bunch of BS from them.

EDIT:

The Spark of Imagination: Characters that release in part of the boss room will no longer be ported to Westfall or The Barrens

Just read the patch notes and this is the one that made me chuckle. Warping your ghost that far, resulting in a epic corpse run to get back to one's body. *lol*

[Xacual]

So they get paid to put up ads on their community website? So does Elitist Jerks. So do a lot of sites that are involved with WoW and have high traffic.

[Knight Hawk]

Sponsor. FYI Nihilum old site is paid and maintained by Mousesports. No doubt Ensidia has a sponsor paying the bills as well. Comparing the financial backing of a sponsor to a fansite like Elitist Jerks . . . i don't know what to tell you. =/

[Xacual]

Well I guess I'm wrong but they do have sponsors that apparently pay for their account time plus computer equipment and website but I don't really count that as being paid to pay...

I mean you'd still have to work or how would you pay the bills not related to gaming?

[Ithekro]

They are just not being paid at a salary or wage by Blizzard, just sponsorhips.

[Last Sinner]

So essentially it's a job. So much for love of the game. Look, a reasonable sponsorship for being a top arena team or PvE team, I get, but enough to live off is just ridiculous.