Upcoming MoP changes, Release date set

Fortunately for everyone for which the current tier of content has become stale, we now have a release date for Mists of Pandaria. The release date is September 25, 2012. Go preorder NAO!

You may have asked your self recently what the heck we have to expect in mists? As a paladin we have been used to being one button wonders back and wrath, and buffers in vanilla. More recently we have had the distinct pleasure of being as good at AOE healing as many other classes, and most DS bosses have made being a paladin an easy run to the top of the healing charts. More of the same in terms of healing folks, and some new stuff!

*Note, while some math may be available in here, and discussion is encouraged, the point of this blog is to discuss HOLY play. QQin about ret being broken is not applicable here, and while theory-crafting is a wonderful tool, it is not going to be the sole beneficiary of the discussion.



I will out line a few of the spells we will hopefully be getting. (Hope they don't change everything a million times.) As well as my opinions on their usefulness, and my probable choices.
According to wow-head, this is the current talent calculator.
http://mop.wowhead.com/mists-of-pandaria-talent-calculator#l

Talents

Tier 1 = LVL 15 = SPEED INCREASES????

Speed of Light = Increases your movement speed by 70% for 8 seconds.  3.5% base mana, 45sec cd. Instant.

Thoughts = Rogue sprint.

Long Arm of the Law = A successful Judgement increases your movement speed by 45% for 3 sec.

Thoughts = Ret thing. Honestly being able to close successfully is of doubtful use in my opinion. If you constant cast judgement you could maintain some decent uptime, cant see how it would be worth it. Lost GCD for heals suck.

Pursuit of Justice = You gain 10% movement speed at all times, plus an additional 10% movement speed for each current charge of Holy Power up to 3.

Thoughts = This seems like a large chunk of awesome to me. As a healer, we are going to constantly have holy power, and the ability to move faster all of the time is amazing. With *Boundless conviction, we could even bank 2 holy power for a movment speed proc for fight phases, whilst sure of having at least a 10% buff, if only from holy shock. Seems like the best bet for me. My first choice. CHA CHING.

Tier 2 = LVL 30 = WTF PVP?

Fist of Justice = Stuns the Target for 6 sec. Replaces Hammer of Justice. 3.5% base mana. 20yd range. 30sec cd. Instant.

Thoughts = Ugh. A better version of a spell we already have?

Repentance = Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min. Any damage from sources other than censure will awaken the target. Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids, and Undead. 10.5% of base mana. 30 yd range, 1.5 sec cast. 15 sec cd.

Thoughts = A few changes to this spell really jump out at me. First, it is now a cast. unhappy about that. 15 sec cd, exstatic about this. Not sure about this spell really. Curious if I should take it strictly for 5 man utility. My second choice. MEH.

Burden of Guilt = Your Judgement hits fill your target with doubt and remorse, reducing movement speed by 50% for 12 secs.

Thoughts = USELESS FOR HOLY. Seriously. What reason could I possibly have to slow down a mob in a raid environment? Maybe while leveling, but otherwise, seems to me to be another pvp talent.

Tier 3 = LVL 45 = OH LAWD CHOICES???

Selfless Healer = Your successful Judgements reduce the cast time and mana cost of your next flash of light by 35% per stack and improves its effectiveness by 35% per stack when used to heal others. Stacks up to 3 times.

Thoughts = Hmm. Judgement has a 6sec cd.  So assuming that you Judge on every cooldown you could have this up to full for use every 20~ secs. 105% faster cast and reduced mana? = Instant. Free. 105% more effective on all targets but yourself? Curious. Essentially, Judgeing on cooldown gives you a free instant big heal every 30 secs. Seems worthwhile but....

Eternal Flame = Consumes up to 3 Holy Power to place a protective Holy flame on a friendly target, which heals them for 4031 to 4490 (+ 37.7% of Spell power) and an additional 1393 (+ 16% of spell power) every 3 secs for 30 sec. Healing increased per charge of Holy Power. Replaces WOG. 1 Holy Power. 40 yd range. Instant.

Thoughts = Interesting. VERY INTERESTING. Looks like they got tired of no one taking the wog glyph. First lets take a look at WOG.

• Word of Glory = Consumes up to 3 Holy Power to heal a friendly target for 3694 to 4115 (+ 37.7% of sp) per charge of Holy Power.

Hm. It looks like a slight buff to a very good spell already. PLUS A HOT every 3 secs for 30secs. Sounds amazing to me. I see this as a very good choice. It basically gives pallies decent hots. Nice! Choosing this one personally.

Sacred Shield = Protects the target with a shield of Holy Light for 30 sec. The shield absorbs up to (30 + 1.17* holy spell power) damage ever 6 secs. Can be active only on one target at a time. 40 yd range. 6 sec cd. Instant.

Thoughts = SS is back huh. I see this talent as being about as useful as it was back in ulduar. Sure on some progression or gimmick fights, This maybe useful, but lets break out some simple math. It lasts for 30secs. k. Absorbs damage every 6 seconds. Optimally, you could somehow get 5 shields out of this, but probably impossible. Every 6 seconds this will be able to absorb damage. IT WILL STILL COUNTDOWN even if it doesn't.  You cant guarantee that your recipient will take damage exactly on the mark. so optimally, you can expect to get 2 or 3 procs out of this shield if put on a tank, and less if on any other player. However knowledge is power. I can see this being useful in select instances, multimob tanking to be exact. I don't see this as more useful than a buff to a primary heal. Sorry bliz, I didn't like ss then, and I dont now.

Tier 4 = LVL 60 = MORE HANDS.

Hand of Purity = Places a Hand on the friendly target, reducing the damage of harmful periodic effects by 70% for 6 secs. Players may only have one hand on them per Paladin at any one time. 7% base mana. 40 yd range. 30 sec cd. Instant.

Thoughts = The best thing about this spell is its cd. Optimally you are looking at 20% uptime if you choose to maintain maximum. I can see it being usefull in raids where impale buffs stack up that do periodic damage. COULD be amazing. But as of when patch 5.0 drops, sort of lack luster. On the offside, there is a decided advantage against warlocks and spriests in pvp.

Unbreakable Spirit = When your Divine Shield, Divine Protection of Lay on Hands are on cooldown, spending Holy Power will reduce the remaining cooldown by 1% per Holy Power spent, up to a maximum of 50% reduction.

Thoughts = Wow. Amazing. Essentially a 50% reduction on all of your awesome CDs. The 50% reduction to loh almost alone makes it worth it, but bubble and DP????? But wait... you... I remember you...

Clemency = You can use Hand of Freedom, Hand of Protection, Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Salvation twice each before incurring their cooldowns.

Thoughts = At first I was like meh, but then I was like holy double casts batman. Imagine if you will, ultraxion heroic. two people are staying out. oh really? lets just bubble and HOS THEM BOTH. Oh the tank just died? lets bop 2 CLOTHIES. oh YOU JUST SPELL-STOLE FREEDOM??? LETS CAST IT AGAIN. 2 people high on the threat meters? Lets salv them both, oh wait you have the salv glyph? lets fade 2 people who just pulled threat. This talent introduces alot of stragtegy and increases the raid utility of a paladin by 100%. Effectively allowing you to Sac twice in a row, this is most useful. Tough choice on this tier, however I find myself leaning toward clemency.

Tier 5 = LVL 75 = HOLY of HOLIES

Holy Avenger = Abilities that generate Holy Power will generate 3 charges of Holy Power for the next 15 secs. 2min cd. Instant.

Thoughts = Essentially zealotry, this could be amazing. I see this as a cooldown of paramount importance. Looking at the other choices this tier, this pretty much makes of capable of free heal spam. holy radiance, wait 3 hp, lod. Holy shock wog/lod. I have always imagined zealotry for holy, and they come through. I love this.

Sanctified Wrath = Avenging Wrath lasts 50% longer and grants more frequent access to one of your abilities while it lasts.

• Holy = Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 50%
  
• Prot. Reduces the cooldown of Judgment by 50%
  
• Ret. Reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Wrath by 50%
  
  

Thoughts = First off, this makes Avenging Wrath 30 secs long. Nice. Then it changes the cd of Holy Shock to 3 seconds. Effectively screwing everything up. Normally when you cast AW you want to use big heals, or high aoe heals during a burst portion of the fight. Throwing more HS in there means 10 gcd are going to be used to generate holy power. leaving 20 secs of other healing with only 2 secs in between each shock.  Do Not want.

Divine Purpose = Abilities that cost Holy Power have a 20% chance to cause the Divine Purpose effect. 

• Divine Purpose - Your next Holy Power ability will consume no Holy Power and cast as if 3 Holy Power were consumed.

Thoughts = Now Eternal Glory as it is on WoG is nice, dont get me wrong. But that is ONE spell that you can occasionally double cast. Introducing the RNG of what makes ret such a pain to holy is already a terrible idea. Positive, it can give you tons more free heals, but on the flipside, doing so makes your healing subject to the whimsy of the gods. Aparently today the god of light of dawn smiles on me effectively letting me spam it for like 8 gcds. Oh today nothing smiles. Nothing procd the whole fight.

Tier 6 = LVL 90 = HOLY %&(@

Holy Prism = Sends a beam of light toward a target, turning them into a prism for holy energy.

• If an enemy is the prism, they take 11172 to 13654 (+ 109.8% of Spell-power) Holy damage and radiate 7537 to 9211 (+ 74% of Spell-power) healing to 5 nearby allies within 15 yards.
• If an ally is the prism, they are healed for 10055 to 12288 (+ 98.8% of spell-power) and radiate 8374 to 10234 (+82.3% of spell-power) holy damage to 5 nearby enemies within 15 yards. 5.4% base mana.
  
  40 yd range. Instant. 20 sec cd.

Thoughts = So essentially this is either a single target heal, or an aoe heal around an enemy. I do not know if I like that at all. So you shoot this beam thingie at a friend, heals him for a moderate amount. If you shoot it at a boss or mob, the mob takes damage (not really a major concern) and Heals 5 people around him for slightly less each than if done singly. Not sure if I can count on this. Seems to me to be strange. The cooldown is nice, but every 20 secs throwing this at the boss could be doable. like a beefcake holy light on 5 melee around the enemy.

Light's Hammer = Hurl a Light-infused hammer into the ground, where it will blast a 10 yard area with Arcing Light for (16sec.5) sec.

•  Arcing Light - Deals 2513 to 3071 (+24.7% of sp) holy damage to enimies within the area and 2513 to 3071 (+ 24.7% of sp) healing to allies within the area every 2 sec. 30yd range 1 min cd.

Thoughts = Seems a decent aoe hot heal. Its the original holy radiance. Seems easy to understand. Wonder if it activates on target, or if you have to aim it like healing rain.

Execution Sentence = A hammer slowly falls from the sky, causing holy spell power *4566/1000+26.72716306*375 damage over 10 secs. This damage is dealt slowly at first and increases over time culminating in a final burst of damage.

• Stay of Execution = If used on friendly targets, the falling hammer heals the target for holy spell power*4109/1000+26.72716306*375 Healing over 10 secs. This healing is dealt slowly at first and increases overtime, culinating in a final burst of healing.
  
  Instant. 1 min cd.

Thoughts = Ug. Tank healing hot. Could be nice during periods of intense damage on the tank. Holy math batman.

Tier 6 conclusion. None of these spells really seems to jump out at me as a clearly superior choice. Each of them have utility at a different time. I would likely choose Light's hammer, and a pally healing rain would be nice.


That is today's edition of Pally stuff.

My horse is amazing.

How to GG Spine Heroic

As DS winds down to a close, I figured I would start this blog as a way to dump some of the knowledge and experience I have gained throughout the 5+ years that I have been playing World of Warcraft. I try to excel at each encounter and figured that a quick run through of the bosses where I exceed the mob would be nice.

Heroic Spine:

Very simple actually. With an acomplished raid group much of this simply depends on you. With the BoL glyph, you will find that being able to switch beacons makes your mana, though a major concern, no so much of an issue as you would believe.

1. DO NOT BEACON YOURSELF.
   Even if you have the Searing Plasma debuff, beaconing yourself is an HPS loss. And on spine, especially if you attempt without the buff, HPS loss is SRS BUSINESS.
   Reasoning is as follows:
   Doing this is retarded. If you have even a single point into Protector of the Innocent, it is an hps loss. Actually, having searing plasma on your self and 2 others, and spamming holy light on the non beacon is an easy way to regen mana.
   -
   
2. GoAK IS AN INCREDIBLE TOOL.
   During progression attempts on spine H, you may find that the searing plasma buff has gone... AMG OUT OF CONTROL. Pop Guardian and spam divine light whilst switching beacon. You just singlehandedly saved the raid, at the cost of 5 divine lights, easily 1million healing in just 10 secs, and if they are stacked up for nuclear blast from the hideous amalg, doing this almost nets you 2million.
   -
   
3. At the third plate, CHANGE YOUR BEACON TO THE OFFTANK.
   Simply put, because the healing on this tank is going to become INTENSE. Much of the paladin's utility lies in the fact that we do most things ok, but the one thing in which we break from the pack is Tank healing, even now.
   The off-tank will have so many bloods on him that his health bar will literally zig zag up and down with all of the healers pouring all they can spare into him.With your beacon full time on him now, this eases the burden that you all have to carry, freeing up mana to deal with the Searing plasma.
   -
4. DO A BARREL ROLE. (pun intended)
   By the time the raid is about to roll deathwing, you will notice that everyone is stacking up... TIME TO UNLEASH THE KRAKEN. Unload holy radiance with a single cooldown, either AW or DF. One only, so you will have the other up for the Nuclear Blast on the amalg. AS THIS IS HAPPENING, switch your beacon to the most recent Searing plasma victim. Opening up holy raidiance 3 times the LoD will pop the SP as well as doing a lot of healing in the approx 8-13 secs you are stacked up. Doing this correctly SAVES TIME AND LIVES.
   -
5. REFORGE TO A CRIT HEAVY BUILD
   Crits on this fight are so valuable that I can hardly describe it. With decent gear and a few buffs, you will find that hitting 30% crit is easy as pie. 30% crit on divine light on searing plasma, or holy raidiance whilst stacked up, makes this fight significantly easier. As an unintended side effect, reforging away from haste will make your mana pool seem bigger, if only because you cast less spells in a given amount of time.
   -
6. Be AWARE OF YOUR POSISTION IN THE RAID
   This is one of the most difficult things to master. How well you do this directly affect LoD and HR, therefore translating to awesomeness potential. There are so many spell effects and shit on the ground in this fight, that I find it difficult to see my self sometimes, not to mention if you are to far back, and move your camera in just the WRONG way you will initiate player humping, with the camera zooming in and out super fast. There are a few addons as well as nameplate and scrolling battle text that can help with this.
   
   
   • Vuh'do
     This is a grid type addon, with lots of options, but my favorite being that you can setup a cluster finder, that does a check every 30ms(adjustable I set mine to 20) to see how many players are in range (adjustable (set to 6yards for HR)) of eachplayer. In essence it takes all the guess work out of holy radiance.
   • Sexy Map/Hud Map
     Imagine if you will, amid the shit storm a-brewin all around, you notice a clean, stark circle with cardinal points, and the dot (like on your minimap) of every other player (colored according to class) arrayed inside. O WAIT ITS A MINI MAP ADD-ON. Both of these addons have the option to overlay an transparent minimap over the battlefield, allowing to see just where everyone is. Makes finding the dipshit who ran in the middle of nowhere easier as well. Sexy map is verysimple, usually best for finding nodes and things, but I use it in raids. Hud-map is much better with overlays for pings and markers (yeah the star and square things) but it seems to work when it wants to. Being updated sporadically.

My horse is amazing.