If you don’t already know, details of Patch 3.2 Paladin changes has been released by Eyonix two days ago.

You can read it from the source here or at WoW Insider.

If you’re lazy to read I took the initiative of summarizing the changes. Read on:

Holy

1. Flash of Light places a HoT(Heal over Time) effect on any target with Sacred Shield on them. This is somewhat vague, does it mean Flash of Light becomes a HoT on targets with Sacred Shield? Or it adds an additional HoT effect on top of Flash of Light? What if I want a Flash of Light and not a HoT on that target with Sacred Shield?

Rating: 3/5? (Needs more specifics.)

2. Beacon of Light gets a big buff, any heals on a target, regardless of health, heals the tank with Beacon of Light. If you still don’t understand, it means placing a Holy Light on a raid member with 100% HP will still heal the target with Beacon of Light. This is a significant buff!

Rating: 5/5

3. Due to above buffs, Illumination will be nerfed. Reducing Illumination’s mana refund from 60% to 30% would make mana regeneration a issue for Holy paladin. But fear not, adjustments will be made to Replenishment and buffs to MP5 to balance things out (Right… Balance…That turned out well last time.). Gear selection will be affected by this, as CRIT might become a lower priority, let’s leave this to the theorycrafters to crunch it out.

Rating: 2.5/5

Protection

1. Ardent Defender gets some proper adjustments, so that any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced instead of while the paladin is at 35% health or below. Also once every 2 minutes any attacks that would kill the paladin would instead set the paladin’s health to a certain percentage.

Rating: 4/5

2. Blessing of Sanctuary will be getting buffed, no details on this yet. But they want to make it the blessing of choice for tanks. So it should be buffed significantly.

Rating: ?/5

3. Block will be changed over time, but for now the effects of bonus block value will be doubled. Currently Block does not provide sufficient mitigation, my friend can attest to that. Boss hits him for 20,000, he only blocks 1500 of it, Block isn’t as valuable as before.

Rating: ?/5 (Needs more details)

Retribution

1. Seal of Blood/the Martyr will be removed and Seal of Corruption/Vengeance will be buffed. Once there is 5 stacks of the debuff, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes doing double damage. Seal of Command will be reworked to deal 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage. Finally working on the Seals, but lots to be done here.

Rating: 3/5

2. Exorcism has a cast time of 1.5 seconds but can be used on players again. Honestly, not helpful in PvP as paladins need to be chasing down enemies instead of casting. Would be better if the cast time was 1 second. More like a bandage fix.

Rating: 1/5

3. Art of War makes not only Flash of Light instant, but also Exorcism. Nice idea, considering Art of War procs were not really contributing to PvE DPS. This makes the talent more viable in both PvP and PvE.

Rating: 4/5

4. Crusader Strike cooldown reduced to 4 seconds from 6 seconds, but damage reduced to 75%. Seriously, 4 seconds, 6 seconds, it doesn’t matter. IT’S STILL A 41 POINT MELEE STRIKE, IT NEEDS SOMETHING, A DoT, SOMETHING.

Rating: 1/5

5. Vindication reworked to target attack power. Primarily a PvP talent, this rework only targets melee classes but not magic-users. Would be more useful if it reduced spell power as well.

Rating: 1/5

These are some promising changes, hope they go in the right direction.

For full details on Patch 3.2, check the latest patch notes at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Finally back! Sorry for the slow response, my PC died on me 2 days after I finished my last paper. Only got things up and running recently.

As I have said I trying to revamp the site and I’m pretty much doing most of the stuff myself. I’m writing my own Wordpress theme (that means new layout for non-geeks.) and looking through the articles. Its been ages since I did coding so development are somewhat slow and I apologize. I’m also going to review the site and update content, such as keeping the PvE guides up to date, writing new leveling guides and looking out for better articles written by others. I hope this site gets a new look and is able to offer more to readers.

I also want to thank you, the reader for your patience. I honestly haven’t been able to run this site as efficiently as I should, but you guys still pop in now and then to give me advice. Thank you.

If you have any ideas about the upcoming changes to the site, contact me or leave a comment.

A short update here,

Been revising, studying ,freaking out, trembling recently due to exams.

Just finished one paper and I got three more to go…

Will get back to the game once the exams are over. Sad to hear they’re nerfing Ulduar. (Yes I’m serious.)

When I’m back I’ll try and revamp the site, or at least review and update the guides and articles on the site.

See you guys and have fun…

Finally Patch 3.1 has finally been released. Changes have been made to the talent trees. Holy got a little nerfed, Protection got some new talents and Retribution gets somewhat balanced. Unforunately still no improvement on Seals.

With my exams coming within a month and busy preparing for it, I am sorry to say I can’t post a detailed informative document on the new talent specs. I will post core talent builds for each spec, so there will be leftover/spare talent points. These talent points are for you to decide on the kind of build you want.

The good thing (or bad depending the way you see it) about Patch 3.1 is that talent points are freed up, so you can have more variation with your build. Holy Paladins used to spec probably 51/0/20 to amp their critical chance, now with 3.1 you can spec into Protection for Divine Sacrifice and Divine Guardian. Retribution paladins can also opt to have that talent now that less talent points are needed for a proper Retribution build. This makes the paladin a more “hybrid” class.

HOLY (51/5/5)

In the Holy tree it is still the same old 51 points allocation, feel free to switch between Improved Lay on Hands and Blessed Hands.

Divinity is a exciting new talent, improving heals given and received by 5%.

Benediction is specifically for Holy Shock, so if you find the 5 points here not worthwhile simply pump them into Protection for Divine Sacrifce and Divine Guardian. Divine Guardian increases the duration of Sacred Shield by 100% and amount absorbed by 20%, which is a solid talent. Alternatively invest remaining points in Retribution tree for more critical chance.

PROTECTION (0/56/6)

While reading through sites for info on Protection build, the ironic thing is that the new talent Divine Sacrifice is deemed more a offtank/non-tank spell. This seems more usable in a situation when the whole raid is taking heavy damage, such as EoE Phase 2 ,instead of in a boss fight, so use it wisely. You are only bringing more hurt upon yourself if it is used in a boss fight, apart from boss damage you are taking damage from other party members. In my build you can see I left Divine Sacrifice out, but it is optional. Probably in 25 man raids where raid takes heavy damage it will be needed.

Remember to spend only 1 point in Improved Judgements, this is because of the 9 6 9 rotation. If you don’t already know, 9 6 9 rotation is a spell rotation for tankadins. You can read about it HERE and the SacredDuty blog has a post on it.

Divinity might seem to be a Holy talent, but it works for Protection as well. It increases healing received by 5%, that is enough reason to take it.

RETRIBUTION (0/5/52)

Retribution tree went through some tweaks, what used to require heavy points investment, now has talent points reduced considerably. Seal of Blood/Martyr had Judgement damage reduced but Seal damage increased, bringing a balance to it.

You can see I have no points in Improved Blessing of Might, this is due to Warrior’s Battle Shout. There are problems of Blessing of Might clashing with Battle Shout (Sorry but I will have to look into it in detail in later posts.) Seal of Command is optional.

From then on it’s pretty much the core talents for Retribution paladins. The remaining talent points can be invested in the Protection Tree for the new talents, it will help raid survivability. With instant Flash of Lights and Divine Sacrifice, you can provide additional support in situations where the raid is taking damage or you are unable to DPS the target.

Alright, let’s continue from where we left off, last post I introduced addons such as Grid, Power Auras and Ghost: Pulse.

I have used these addons and they have been an immense help to me. This time I’ll introduce 2 more addons I always use and cover other useful addons.

Today’s post will be more beneficial to the Holy paladin as the addons featured are more useful to them.

QUARTZ
Quartz is a castbar mod that is able to track and compensate your latency/lag in your spell casting. If you’re a healer/caster and you don’t have it, you don’t know what you’re missing. Most WoW players are plagued by latency problems in game. (especially now, I haven’t been able to raid 25M, WTH man!?) Quartz is able to reduce the latency problem by correctly tracking your spell casting. It’s hard to explain, but you will understand once you installed it. Basically you can fire off your spell earlier than you think you need.

DOWNLOAD QUARTZ

DECURSIVE
Decursive is a debuff tracking/removal addon. Once installed, you will see another panel of small unitframes on your screen. Afflicted units will be shaded red and all you need to do is just click to dispel the debuff if you have means. So for a paladin raid members afflicted with magic effects, diseases and poisons will be shown red, but cursed raid members will not show for the paladin because he does not have the spell to dispel it. Instead druids will be able to the cursed members as red.

Unforunately I could not find a video for this addon, but scroll down in the addon page you will see screenshots of Decursive.

DOWNLOAD DECURSIVE

HEALBOT CONTINUED
I don’t use Healbot but it has been getting a lot of cheers and boos. It really simplifies the healing process so there’s one side singing its praises and another side saying it degrades healers and makes the game too easy.

It has nice features like tracking who’s healing who, which prevents overhealing, but it also would dull you alertness in the long run. And in raids awareness/alertness is a vital attribute for healers.

My thoughts, I would not recommend using this addon because this kinda automates healing. Where is the fun in that? But if you are really a healer in dire straits, by all means use it. For the Raid.

DOWNLOAD HEALBOT CONTINUED

There’s pretty much I want to cover about addons. Of course there are plenty more addons out there for you to explore. Keep looking and try them out and see which one suits you.

Be careful though, some addon/mod takes up memory and might slow down your game.

Been away from WoW lately, busy preparing for exams. Most people have been waiting for 3.1 to be launched, so can’t find any news to write up on. Was checking through the guides and I realised I never done a proper post on addons, so here we go.

If you don’t already know, addons/mods are external programs in WoW that enhances gameplay and capability.

Raiders are familiar with raid mods such as DeadlyBossMods, Omen Threat Meters and such.

The addons I’ll be covering today will be mainly to improve your gameplay and capability in raids. You can look for other addons at either WoWInterface or Curse WoW Addons page.

How to use these addons are really simple, just make sure to read the information posted on the addon page, or the README note in the files.

POWER AURAS
A very powerful addon. Its purpose is to provide visual aid for your spells and buffs.
For example if you’re a Holy Paladin, a visual marker will appear for the duration of Judgement of the Pure after you cast it. A tanking paladin can configure it for Holy Shield so he knows he keeps the spell up. Say you got a Holy Shock crit, Infusion of Light procs, there will be a graphic on your screen when that effect is in duration.

It is a simple to use addon, after installing just type /powa to bring up the configuration window. Say you want to provide a visual aid for your trinkets, create a New Icon and insert the name of the buff. Play around with the settings and you have it. If you are not sure the video below is a tutorial on it.

DOWNLOAD POWER AURAS

GHOST: PULSE
Ghost: Pulse is another visual aid addon. The difference is that it informs you of cooldowns. When spells finish their cooldown, a icon of that spell pulses on the screen to let you know the spell is up and ready.

Say you casted Holy Shock and after 6 seconds when it finishes its cooldown, a Holy Shock icon will pulse on your screen. Alternatively you can configure it to show what spell you are casting, shown in the video below.

DOWNLOAD GHOST: PULSE

GRID
A raidframe addon that can also work as a healing addon. If you’re a healer and you don’t use any raidframes addon but the default raidframes, this is a MUST HAVE. This will increase your healing capability TENFOLD.

Although small and compact, it is able to convey enough information for you to perform your duties efficiently. If you find it hard to understand GRID, it will come to you eventually, or you could configure it to be larger and more instructive.

In non-combat it doubles up as a raidframe, showing all members currently in your party or raid. I really like the fact it does not take up a lot of space. In combat each unit frame will display any loss of health, debuffs, if its in range of your spells and other information.
For instance, a raid member having aggro will have a small red square on the top left corner of his unit frame. Raid members out of range of your spells will have their unit frames transparent.

DOWNLOAD GRID

That’s it for now, I will cover a little more on addons the next time round. See ya.

Was browsing the WoW paladin class forums and saw this guide, very informative. Still relevant even if patch 3.1 hits although its written for 3.0.7 content.

Written by Absol of Skywall, this guide covers stuff like gylphs, blessings, stats and DPS rotation.

Click here to read the guide

Ouch! So much for praying for more flexible, versatile (READ: AOE) heals. Instead the latest patch notes restricts our ability even more.

• Sacred Shield: This effect cannot be cast on more than one friendly target at a time.

With Sacred Shield limited to only one target, a paladin healer’s capability is reduced. My method is usually to Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield the Main Tank and then cast Sacred Shield on another raid member, normally the target i’m assigned to heal or an offtank. This way damage mitigation is provided on both raid members and increased healing from the crit bonus of Sacred Shield. Heck if you’re adventurous you can cast it on several raid members. Sacred Shield was somewhat our answer to AoE healing, sure it didn’t heal but it provided protection which benefitted the raid.

• Infusion of Light: Now increases the critical chance of your next Holy Light by 10/20% instead of reducing cast time. Moved to Tier 10.

Seasoned/geared paladin healers probably loathe this change. When you have the gear, critical chance isn’t an issue anymore. Geared holy paladins have nearly 40% or more critical chance, which is more than needed. The essential factor in raids is that your heals are reaching the tank in time. This is the reason Infusion of Light was so effective, it addressed one of the disadvantage of paladin healing, Casting.

Even if your Holy crits heal for 20000, it wouldn’t matter if the boss hits your tank 0.1 second before your heal reaches the tank.
Infusion of Light was a emergency button for us paladins. Divine Favor, Holy Shock and then a Holy Light to save a tank from being killed.

It’s hard to balance PvP and PvE, that’s understandable. But it sucks when such changes happened.

Holy
Skills

• Exorcism can now be used on all targets, but is now a guaranteed critical strike vs Undead and Demon type mobs.
• Judgement of Light now procs off spells as well. (Previously only “attacks” would trigger this)

Talents

• Purifying Power (Tier 6) now reduces the cooldown of your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 17/33%. (Previously increased the critical strike chance of those spells by 10/20%)
• Pure of Heart (Tier 5) now reduces Curse, Poison, and Disease effects by 15/30%. (Previously was 25/50% but did not include poisons)
• Blessed Hands has been moved from Tier 5 to Tier 4 and now reduces the mana cost of Hand of Freedom, Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Salvation by 15/30% and cooldowns by 10/20%.
• Improved Concentration Aura’s (Tier 4) reduced silence/interrupt effect now works while any aura is active.

Protection
Skills

• Shield of Righteousness now deals 130% of block value + 520 at the highest rank. It no longer causes a high amount of threat. (Previously increased damage by a set amount)
• Blessing of Kings is now a baseline ability. Trainable at level 20.

Talents

• Shield of the Templar (Tier 10) no longer increases the damage of your Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells. Instead it gives your Avenger’s Shield a 33/66/100% chance to silence targets hit by it for 3 sec.
• Judgements of the Just (Tier 10) now reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 10 sec, increases the duration of your Seal of Justice effect by 0.5 sec, in addition to its previous effect.
• Avenger’s Shield’s (Tier 9) damage has been increased across all ranks.
• Guarded by the Light (Tier 9) now reduces spell damage taken by 3% and gives a 50% chance to refresh the duration of your Divine Plea when you hit an enemy. (Previously reduced the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 15%.)
• Holy Shield’s (Tier 7) damage slightly increased across all ranks.
• Ardent Defender (Tier 7) is now a 3 point talent, reducing damage taken by 10/20/30%. (Previously was a 5 point talent)
• Sacred Duty (Tier 6) increases stamina by 4% now. (Previously was 3%)
• One-Handed Weapon Specialization is now a 3 point talent, increasing damage done with 1 handers by 4/7/10%. (Previously was a 5 point talent)
• Blessing of Sanctuary (Tier 5) now only grants 2% of maximum displayed mana when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack. (Previously granted 10 rage or 20 runic power or 2% max mana)
• Divine Guardian (Tier 4) now has been changed to redirect damage “(up to a maximum of 150/300% of the Paladin’s health).” (Previously had no limit)
• Improved Devotion Aura (Tier 4) now increases the amount healed on any target affected by any of your Auras by 2%. (Previously only worked with Devotion Aura active)
• Improved Hammer of Justice (Tier 4) is now a 2 point talent, reducing the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 sec. (Previously had a 3rd rank that reduced cooldown by 30 secs)

Retribution
Talents

• Righteous Vengeance (Tier 10) is now a 3 point talent. When your Judgement and Divine Storm spells deal a critical strike, your target will take 10/20/30% additional damage over 8 sec. (Previously a 5 point talent)
• Fanaticism (Tier 8 ) is now a 3 point talent and now increases the critical strike chance of all Judgements capable of a critical hit by 6/12/18% and reduces threat caused by all actions by 10/20/30% except when under the effects of Righteous Fury. (Previously a 5 point talent)
• Improved Retribution Aura has been removed from the game.
• Improved Retribution Aura’s effect has been merged into Sanctified Retribution (Tier 5).
• Divine Purpose has been moved from Tier 5 to Tier 6.

Sorry for the slow update, haven’t been able to play due to school and work. Unable to raid 25-man instances isn’t helping either, disconnecting on every fight isn’t fun at all. And Blizzard doesn’t seem to be working on the problem…

I have taken a more relaxed playstyle to WoW. Considering the new changes has completely changed the game again. PvP/ Arena is somewhat unbalanced. It is nice that Retribution Paladins are now a viable class in PvP though.
Note I’m talking mostly on 2v2 and 3v3 arena.

BC Arena relied heavily on Resilence and Control mechanics such as stuns and slows. That’s where you got the Warlock DoTing you until you’re full of polka dots, Hunters/Mages kiting like you never learned how to walk and Rogues having their swords/maces deep in your arse they’re playing you like a puppet. BC Arena was a game of outlasting, outthinking and of course, outgearing.

WotLK Arena however, is a totally different story. In BC Arena you had a chance if you think right and things went your way. CC the DPS, DPS the Heal or DPS the DPS, CC the Heal that sort of thing.

WotLK arena, it’s down to who’s the most burst potential.

Arena Doors open.

Team 1 (A and B) sees Team 2(X and Y)

*SMASH!*
*SMACK!*
*BOOM!*

Either Team 1 picks off the remaining X(or Y) or Team 2 does the picking off. All over in less than half a minute.

I’m not whining bout losing alot or winning alot. In fact I stopped Arena after the first week I started Arena. I’m not a 3000 rated Gladiator ranting about how easy Arena is.

I’m emphasizing how PvP got completely overhauled in one night. Warlocks went from deadly PvP class to obsolete(Not that I’m crying over it), Druids went down the pecking order(F**KING HURRAY!).

I missed how I outthinked and outplay oppositions in Battlegrounds(1v1 scenarios), I missed how I thrashed players who thought Retribution paladins were easy kills, I missed how forming unconventional arena teams and still doing decently. PvP was a game of strategy, thinking fast in combat.

Now, it’s like d*ckslapping one another and the biggest one wins…

At least I’m bloody knocking down Healers in PvP now, not that bad, right?
Right?