Wednesday, January 9, 2008

We got patched!

So I log in yesterday and see that there is a patch downloading.

I haven't been on the forums in over a month (since I started a new job) and was pleasantly surprised, nor have I checked the test realm patch notes recently, as when I'm not working, I'd much rather be home playing.

But here's what we got:

Crusader Strike (Retribution): Now causes 110% of weapon damage and no longer gains any bonus from spell damage.

WOOT!!! Since I've started playing Arcten again in Outlands (roughly 2 weeks now) I've completely overhauled my gear. I've gone with nothing but STR, AGI, AP, Crit % (in that order). The only reason why I have INT on my gear is because I got a few lucky drops of the "Blue Lightforge" armor and there was more STR and sockets in it than my Pre-BC Paladin "raid" gear (I put quotations on "raid" because I'm referring to Molten Core/Onyxia's Lair stuff, none too impressive, and definitely not "raid gear" as compared to BC). This is a great change because Ret Paladins haven't been stacking Spell Damage gear in favor of STR/AP gear in recent months. Furthermore, we were promised by the developers on the official Paladin forums that we (Retribution Paladins) would be relying less on Spell Damage. It's nice to see Blizzard keeping their word to us, at least (though some may argue over "to what extent"). So you get a free melee swing that will do up to %110 of your normal damage (by "up to" I mean that the behind-the-scenes randomized damage calculations are still going on, based on your Paladin's stats, weapon damage, enemy armor, avoidance, etc., and all that other boring stuff that goes on during a fight in WoW, almost all of which is transparent to you, the player). There is a common misconception among the Paladin community that Crusader Strike is actually Holy Damage. I too, thought this. In fact, it is not. Yes, the spell is of the Holy School, but the damage is purely physical. Hence it does not benefit from Spell Damage gear or, sadly, Seal of the Crusader (where Holy damage is boosted, at least). Blizzard really should fix the color of the damage numbers in-game to be white instead of yellow. Yellow text thus far has been for Holy Damage. But anyway, short and sweet... I LIK THS CHANG CUZ I DONT HAS SPELLDAMAG GEARS FOR RET! ONLY MLEE!


Righteous Fury: This spell will no longer cost twice the listed mana to cast.

Though less of a "buff" and more of a "fix", I think. Fixed is still better than broken, amirite? Basically, Blizzard screwed up on the stats for our RF spell, we couldn't tell unless we were watching the numbers on our mana meter very closely whenever we cast this spell, so I, personally never saw that it was costing double the mana shown on the tooltip. So, right on Bliz! I guess thanks are in order for the fix! More mana for CStrikes, SoCo's, and Judgements!

Sanctified Judgements (Retribution): Now returns 80% of the Seal's mana cost, increased from 50%.

Again, Bliz gets a big "HELL YEAH!" from me. I am an avid supporter of the Sanctified Judgements talent, and always have been! Basically, I knew this time around, with Arcten, that I was going to spec Ret and gear him like a Mortal Strike Warrior (much to the dismay of the aforementioned Mortal Strike Warriors). I also knew that if I were going to do this, it would require me to carry three different sets of gear in order to fill the hybrid/filler role that I felt the class was originally intended to do. Why does this matter? Because my Judgement is on an 8-second cooldown, my CStrike is on a 6-second cooldown, and I no longer buff myself with Wisdom (unless healing or tanking) so I'm not regaining any mana, aside from any Mana per Second gear I may have on my Ret suit or whatever my Spirit stat allows me while in combat. Basically, an 80% mana return means that I can fight for longer without buffing Wisdom or stopping to drink, because I'm getting some of mana back with each Judgement (so again, every 8 seconds).

I am very anxious to see if the Paladin class' Retribution spec continues on this trend (which it started with Patch 2.3) in the months to come. I feel the class is finally starting to come into its own as an effective hybrid.

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