Archive for March, 2008

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Trinkets

by Gamer at March 31st, 2008 in Paladin | No Comments »

There are really only two good trinkets for Paladins besides the required Medallion. However, the better of two choices is only available from Illidan Stormrage: Memento of Tyrande (Equip: Increases healing done by up to 118 and damage done by up to 40 for all magical spells and effects.; Equip: Each time you cast a spell, there is chance you will gain up to 76 mana per 5 for 15 sec.). Being that it’s off Illidan, you need to be in a Black Temple farming guild to gain this trinket. Therefore, it’s off limits from most PvPers. If you cannot get the Memento of Tyrande, the single best trinket is Scarab of the Infinite Cycle (Equip: Increases healing done by up to 70 and damage done by up to 24 for all magical spells and effects.; Equip: Your direct healing and heal over time spells have a chance to increase your spell haste rating by 320 for 6 secs.) This trinket is very accessible and drops off of Aeonus (the final boss in Black Morass on Normal and Heroic Difficulty) at a decent drop rate.


Gamer

Best PvP Racial Ability

by Gamer at March 31st, 2008 in Paladin | No Comments »

There are four different races that can be played as Paladins in World of Warcraft. There for three for the Alliance (Dwarf, Human, and Draenei) and one for the Horde (Blood Elf). If you’re playing Horde then you don’t have a racial choice, but if you’re planning to play Alliance, you have three choices. There’s Stoneform (Dwarf), Perception (Human), and Gift of the Naaru (Draenei) for Alliance and Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf) for Horde.

Leaving Horde out of the mix for a minute, you’ve got three different racials to choose from as Alliance: Stoneform, Perception, and Gift of the Naaru. All three situationally great, but none far superior than any others. While mainly Paladins believe that Stoneform is the best for Alliance, it overlaps so much with Cleanse (Cleanse will remove removes 1 poison, 1 disease and 1 magic effect from a friendly target) that it almost negates the ability. Stoneform use to break blind and when it did, it was by far the best, but no longer does. Perception also use to be better before you could see everyone’s buffs without the now removed Detect Magic. Stealth players will now be able to see if Perception is active or not, so it’s less useful. However, it can still be popped at key times by good players to catch a stealth player. That leaves Gift of the Naaru, which stacks with +healing, and heals for about 2500. Gift of the Naaru is good, but not game breaking.

Taken altogether, I believe that Stoneform even without removing blind is still the best racial for Alliance Paladins. Being able to remove Hunter’s poison stacks on you and if you’re being focused to gain 10% armor is better than what else is available. However, the Horde have it best with Arcane Torrent. Arcane Torrent silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds and can be used every 2 minutes as opposed to every 3 minutes like the Alliance racials. This is unbelievably affective when combined with a Hammer of Justice to keep an opponent’s healer from healing. Sorry, Alliance, but all your Paladin racials do not compare to the Blood Elf one, but Stoneform is still probably the best.

Stoneform (Dwarf): Activate to gain immunity to poison, disease, and bleed; +10% Armor; Lasts 8 seconds. 3 minute cooldown.

Perception (Human): Activate to increase stealth detection radius. Lasts 20 seconds, 3 minute cooldown.

Gift of the Naaru (Draenei): Activate to heal your target for 35 + 15 per Level over 15 sec – 40 yd range – 1.5 sec cast – 3 min cooldown. (At level 1 it heals 50 health, and 1085 at level 70)

Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf): Activate to silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds. In addition, you gain 10 energy or (5 + Level) mana for each charge of Mana Tap currently affecting you. 2 min. cooldown.


Gamer

Add-On Spotlight: Proximo

by Gamer at March 31st, 2008 in General | No Comments »

The first arena add-on to highlight the players on the opposite team was ArenaMaster. ArenaMaster was first released in January, 2007 right after The Burning Crusade was released and before arenas were popular. But 6 months later, Proximo was released in June, 2007 and quickly began to surpass ArenaMaster in features, quality, and ease-of-use. Recently Proximo has become even better by displaying the specs of your opponents even before you engage them in combat.

I don’t know how Proximo does it, but being able to see your opponent’s specs (even if their of the opposite faction) being engaging in combat is extremely helpful. For example, you can now easily spot Elemental/Enhancement/Resto Shamans, see if the Warlock is Soul Link or Unstable Affliction, see if the Rogue is Shadowstep, and more. It’s the single most important piece of information you can have and Proximo gives it to you.

While some purists may say that ArenaMaster and Proximo negatively affect the fairness of arena, I say you have to fight fire with fire and if other people are using these mods, you should not put yourself at a disadvantage and you should use them too. The other benefit besides seeing your opponents and their specs is also being able to quickly reference their health points as well as mana. Being able to quickly switch to new targets for a kill or just seeing your opponents mana without having to have them targeted makes for a huge advantage in arena. No hardcore or casual PvPer should be without ArenaMaster or Proximo.


Gamer

Add-On Spotlight: Librameister

by Gamer at March 31st, 2008 in Paladin | No Comments »

Librameister is a must have for all PvP Paladins who have a range of librams at their disposal. What it does is swap in a libram based on the type of heal you’re casting and if the target you’re healing has Blessing of Light on them or not. For example, if you are casting a Flash of Light on a target, it will equip Blessed Book of Nagrand and if you’re casting Holy Light, it will equip [insert name]. And if the target you’re healing has Blessing of Light on them, you can also set it to equip [insert name] if you have that libram from Karazhan. You have full control over Librameister and can have it equip any libram you choose. Librameister equips the libram during casting, so it does not affect your global cooldown whatsoever.


Gamer

1/2 Imp BoW, 1/2 Purifying Power or 1/3 Blessed Light

by Gamer at March 31st, 2008 in Paladin | No Comments »

Besides putting 3/3 talents points into Precision as was blogged about earlier, thinking about where to put that extra filler talent point in the Holy tree is important. While putting 1 point into improved Blessing of Wisdom will give you 10% more mp5 from your BoW, BoW can also be dispelled leaving you with an entirely wasted talent point. Not only that, but if mana is never a problem for you, you should ignore this talent point. 1 talent point in Blessed Life, on the other hand, gives you a 4% chance for you to take 50% damage.

Blessed Life is better than Improved BoW, in my opinion, but not as good 1/2 Purifying Power at least for 2s and 3s. With 1/2 Purifying Power, not only do your Purify and Cleanse spells cost 5% less mana (almost like having Improved BoW), but more importantly it increases your critical strike chance of your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 10%. Getting a crit Exorcism on a Warlock’s pet in 2v2 or 3v3 to finish off a pet can drastically help you. 10% crit for 1 talent point is huge. That’s why I choose 1/2 Purifying Power, because I 2v2 and 3v3 a lot, but if you focus more on 5v5, you’ll probably want to choose Blessed Life to help prevent teams turning to you after you’ve bubbled.


Gamer

Paladin: 3/3 Talent Points in Precision

by Gamer at March 31st, 2008 in Paladin | No Comments »

It’s hardly disputed by anyone that 41/20/0 is the de-facto standard for a Holy Paladin PvP spec, but how those points are spent do vary between top Paladins. Recently Paladins are switching up their talent points and putting 3/3 in the Precision talent in the Protection tree as opposed to 4/5 in Toughness. By switching from the more traditional 4/5 Toughness, you lose 3% armor increase, but more importantly you gain 3% melee and spell hit. With only 3 talent points you gain 3% spell hit and you’re now hit capped for PvP and are less likely to have your Hammer of Justice, Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf racial), Holy Shock, Exorcism, Judgements, etc., resisted.

Most Hammer of Justice resists are due to talent points, Orc racials, meta gems, etc., but Precision doesn’t only affect HoJ as stated above. It’s very important for landing Rank 1 Holy Shocks to keep people in combat, Arcane Torrent (which seems to resist a lot), and other spells. How often is a Paladin ever focused down and would 3% armor really make or break the arena game for you? No, but 3/3 Precision can in fact win or lose you the game by avoiding a resist. Next time you respec, I’d suggest putting points into Precision.


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