Another look at 3.2 today, this time Retribution. Retribution is my offspec so I’m following this with some interest but obviously not as in-depth as Protection. There are three major changes coming up for Ret.
Seals. Up till now retribution paladins have been using only one seal: Seal of Blood. Even in PvP, even in fights where supposedly the damage could kill you, it’s used and to great effect. Retribution is producing very decent damage. So good, in fact, that it’s quite viable for me to build an offspec set of gear and switch to Ret when I’m not needed as tank and do some damage.
This will change quite drastically in 3.2. Seal of Blood will be removed, Seal of Command and Seal of Vengeance changed. This would indicate Command has become the Retri seal again but not so. Due to interaction with other talents, even Seal of Righteousness is better than Seal of Command. Actually the new best Seal is Vengeance. On top of applying a DoT that stacks to 5 times, when that stack is at full Vengeance will deliver additional damage per swing and all that added up makes it the best choice.
At least, it did until the latest change seen on the PTR. Before, the Vengeance DoT was applied by all Paladin attacks. It was changed to only be applied by normal attack swings. Paladins favor slow two-handers making it take very very long before the stack is at full and thus reducing damage quite a lot. It also creates problems when switching targets. Possibly our DPS won’t decrease too much, but it feels like a nerf to a lot of people.
Crusader strike. Damage and cooldown decreased, to 4 seconds. This has been shown to be an increase in damage. Not much consequences, just a button you push more often.
Exorcism. Exorcism’s been on a rollercoaster ride of changes over the last patch. First, it would apply to everyone (as a way to make it work as well in Ulduar as it did in undead-dominated Naxxramas.) This was quickly changed and then it only worked on NPCs again, not on players. Now it’s being changed again. It will get a 1.5s cast time. In Retribution it will interact with the talent Art of War in the same way as flash of light, meaning Exorcism will be instant cast when Art of War is up (which is more or less all the time.) At the very least this adds something to keep in mind while using Exorcism.
It’s known the idea was to bring Retribution burst damage down while retaining a respectable amount of DPS. I think these changes are going to swing towards a nerf overall, though one that we won’t know the full extent of until we get some high-end Retri Paladins in T9 gear and see how it works out. I’m a bit gloomy about this, considering maybe going Holy for my offspec or keeping Ret but not really using it (maybe even going PvP-Prot for my offspec.) I’ve got a decently geared Rogue alt, so we’ll have to see how this one goes.
Actually, the title of this blog is a bit misleading. Thinking about it, I don’t use any addons that are intended specifically for tanking. However the ones I use I’ve set up so they help me tank. I’ll talk about each a little bit.
Grid.
Grid is basically an addon that lets you view the members of your party or raid in a small window (it is an actual grid, so in a 25 man raid it looks like a square divided into a 5x5 blocks.) I’ve got it setup so I can see each members health, mana, debuffs, range (in or out of range for spell) and dead-or-alive status. Most importantly I can see at a glance who in the raid agro. I also have a mouse-over macro for Righteous Defense so when someone who isn’t supposed to has agro I hold my mouse over that person on grid and press the button for the macro, redirecting the mobs to me. Grid isn’t easy to set up, I had to view a tutorial video on youtube but when you get it to do what you want it’s awesome.
AG_Unitframes.
AG let’s me change the way I view my own, my targets, and my target’s target health, mana and casting bar. Which information is displayed in the bars, where the debuffs are and where on my screen this is all displayed.
NeedToKnow.
NeedToKnow allows me to track a specific buff or debuff and display on screen whether or not it is active. I track Holy Shield, Divine Plea, and various procs and cooldowns. So I can see at a glance whether my divine protection is going to run out soon.
I also use Pally Power (nothing to do with tanking) I believe that every paladin ever needs to have this. It makes casting your own blessings and coordinating with other paladins very easy. It can also manage Aura-coordination and it can cast Righteous fury and your seal of choice.
Lastly I use a few cosmetic addons, Bartender, SexyMap and MoveAnything.
All in all it doesnt add new information but it does make the information easier to deal with.
One thing that has come up many, many times in Warcraft, and one that will continue to stir people is the distribution of loot. You need only look at the comments for any weapon (pretty much) on thottbot.com to see what I mean - who gets what? The recent addition of dual spec has not made this any easier. In pick-up groups on my server the most usual thing is to roll on items that are appropriate for your current role. If you are a warrior tank, you get to roll on defensive plate. If a kitty druid, agressive leather.
For, say, 90% of items this works fine. For 90% of players that works fine. Most of the loot debate comes out of the following three situations:
1. An item has stats that are good for more then one type (for example a ring that’s good for cat/bear-druids and rogues).
2. A player insists on rolling on items for both his specs.
3. A player’s opinion about either of the above differs from the person he’s rolling against.
I came across this blog a few days ago: http://hi-voltage.blogspot.com/2009/07/rune-edge-melee-or-hunter-weapon.html
The Rune Edge is a classic example of an item good for multiple classes including hunters, traditionally seen as the class that seems to want everything.
Let’s look at the item. It’s a (relatively) fast two-handed sword with good DPS and high top end damage. It also has 121 Agility and 120 Stamina and provides further bonuses 86 critical strike rating, 160 attack power and 70 armor penetration rating. This makes it attractive to a lot of people: Paladins, Warriors, Death Knights and Hunters. In my guild this would not be a problem, we use a points system so whoever can use it can have a bid.
The offensive stats make it tasty for the melee classes, good damage range, decent speed, lots of crit and some armor penetration. The agility/attack power and armor penetration make it also very good for a hunter, but they (obviously) would make less use of the physical damage of the weapon. It’s a very tough call to make.
Because of the ambiguity of the item I would open it to everyone, sure the hunter won’t use the damage range, but they would improve their stats very well with this equipped. The paladin and warrior would likely be better served with a sword with strength instead of agility so it’s not optimal for them either.
My advice: look at who wants it. Compare relative upgrades. If it’s equal for a melee and a ranged class, roll. Sure it’s random but what else can you do? It’s, ironically almost, the fairest way to settle this. Try not to get upset when you lose either. I always find that when I lose on something like this, a similar or better item tends to come up pretty quick to make things right. Realise as well that the other guy would have felt the same had you won it.
In the end it's not just an upgrade for you alone, it's an upgrade for the raid/guild. You benefit too, if indirectly.
Remember: the things you own end up owning you.
