Archive for March, 2008
We’re Broken in 2v2
by Gamer at March 13th, 2008 in Paladin | No Comments »
In Season 2, Paladins could still be seen in the top 25 of most Battlegroups. My partner (Shadowborne, Warlock) and I ended the season ranked 7th on Cyclone and I also ended the season as the top Paladin. We could beat nearly any combo (Warrior/Druid, Warlock/Healer, double DPS, and Rogue/Priest) and probably could have ended the season as Merciless Gladiator if we both didn’t get trounced with work during the last four weeks of the season. That aside, while we’re still around 20th in Season 3, we now lose to any Warrior/Druid and I’m the only Paladin in the Top 50.
What has changed? Are the skills of Paladins diminishing? Are Druids and Priests finally learning how to play the game? I don’t think it’s either of those two things; I think the problem is that the weaknesses of Paladins has been finally discovered and is now being exploited by any decent 2v2 team out there. Those weaknesses being that Paladins have to stand still and cast and have limited to no form of crowd control (Hammer of Justice is a poor excuse for CC).
Now in Season 3, Druids — our counter healer class that has both heal-over-time spells and great CC — has found their niche in 2v2. You now see Druids, and Priests to some extent, as the only viable healers in 2v2. A quick look at the contrast of those two classes with us and you easily see why they’re so strong and we’re so weak. Both classes, but primarily Druids, are excellent CCers (cyclone, root, feral charge, pounce, etc.) and also have the ability to heal-over-time if they themselves are being crowd controlled. Paladins have neither good CC nor heal-over-time spells (Holy Shock is a joke) and are therefore broken in 2v2 and to some extent 3v3 as well.
How can Paladins be fixed for 2v2 and 3v3? Easy enough: give Paladins some better form of crowd control that doesn’t require us to be standing next to the target and some form of heal-over-time, some offensive dispell/purge ability, and/or an instant heal that’s better than Holy Shock (come on, 15 second cooldown and tons of mana for a 41 point talent?). I understand that Blizzard wants to havve diversity among classes, but there’s no excuse to leave Paladins — and Shamans too for that matter — broken in 2v2 and 3v3. Please help us.
Resilience Cap
by Gamer at March 12th, 2008 in General | No Comments »
The resilience cap is 492.5 (realistically, it’s 493, because you can’t have 1/2 a resilience point. This has been player tested, but never confirmed by Blizzard, but it’s safe to say that the player testing is sufficient. However, there’s some misunderstanding as far as what “resilience cap” means. It does not mean that there is no benefit whatsoever after 493 resilience. It only means that 493 resilience will only reduce your damage from crits by 25% and anything beyond that won’t benefit you. You can still decrease the chance you will be crit with more resilience. But any experienced player will tell you that anything beyond the “resilience cap,” and even anything over 400 for that matter, is more than enough resilience for arena. You should be focusing on other stats at that point.
hould Racials be removed from Arena?
by Gamer at March 9th, 2008 in General | No Comments »
There have been rumors circling around that racials will eventually be removed from Arenas. No more Shadowmeld, Will of the Forsaken, etc. Personally, I’d really be against this change. From a competitive PvP standpoint, it would be a good change, but part of World of Warcraft is that your character is different than other characters. I believe that most racials are balanced; yes, some seem more powerful at first glance, but all of them have their place.
World of Warcraft inherently needs balancing, but taking out racials would be a bad step. It would be like giving everyone 5/5 Vengeful Gladiator, free enchants, free gems, and their pick of loot. Yes, this is used for competitive LAN PvP arena where every team gets their pick of whatever gear they want. However, this game has never been like a First Person Shooter where everyone starts with the same gear. World of Warcraft is more about tailoring your character to your play style and being able to be unique from everyone else. Jewelcrafting brought the best of this customization to WoW and I believe Inscription in Wrath of the Lich King will help to do the same.
Blizzard, if you’re listening, please do not take racials away from arena. Racials are part of what separates players from other players and taking it out of the game will further reduce the individuality of people’s characters. Instead, you should further bring out the individuality of players as you’ve done with Jewelcrafting and are planning to do with Inscription. More individuality, not less.
Jewelcrafting
by Gamer at March 5th, 2008 in General | No Comments »
Jewelcrafting is one of three professions that are useful for PvP: Engineering and Enchanting being the other two. Why is Jewelcrafting worthwhile for PvP? Because, with Jewelcrafting you can craft epic bind on pickup gems that are even better than gems found in Black Temple. These gems are unique-equipped, so you can only have one on your character at one time and you must be a Jewelcrafter to use, but they are vastly superior to blue gems and even better than BT gems. Some examples of Jewelcrafting gems are: Don Julio’s Heart (+14 spell damage), Kailee’s Rose (+26 healing), Crimson Sun (+24 attack power), Stone of Blades (+12 critical strike rating), and others. However, to be able to make these gems generally require you to be Revered with different factions around the world. So not only is the Jewelcrafting profession good for making money, it’s also great for being able to use these unique-equipped gems. Enchanting and Engineering are also good professions to choose from, but being a JC is clearly a choice you shouldn’t overlook. It’s expensive to level, but if PvP is your main focus and you want to give yourself an edge in every available aspect of the game then picking up Jewelcrafting is an important step.
Buying Black Temple Gems
by Gamer at March 4th, 2008 in General | No Comments »
The simple answer to whether or not you should buy Black Temple gems is if you can afford to or not. If you have the money to buy the Pyrestones, Lionseye, Seaspray, Crimson Spinel, etc., which all vary in price depending on which server you are on, then you should do so. If PvP is what you care about most then why not buy the Black Temple gems? With Battleground dailies and other dailies, you can easily rack up 50 gold a day and afford a new gem every week for your gear. Naysayers might say that when you compare, for example, a Teardrop Living Ruby (+18 healing) and a Black Temple epic Teardrop Crimson Spinel (+22 healing) you only gain +4 healing, but when you add everything up across all available gem slots, you’ll end up gaining a significant amount.
One thing you should keep in mind when buying Black Temple gems is that some are more expensive than others. For example, Lionseye, Pyrestone, and Seaspray are significantly less expensive than Crimson Spinel, Empyrean Sapphire, and Shadowsong Amethyst. On my realm, Stormscale (Horde), the first three sell for between 200 and 250 gold and the later three start anywhere around 400 and can go upwards of 800. The general rule of pricing goes that the more Black Temple clearing guilds there are on your server, the less expensive the gems are. And as for buying Black Temple gems, the Auction House isn’t always the best place to look. Try contacting the Guild Masters of the top Black Temple guilds and you can more than likely receive a better deal.
Furthermore, you should feel safe in putting gems in your Season 3 gear as it is certain to last for at least 6 months as Season 1 and Season 2 did and may be the last season before the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. And, if that’s the case, you’ll be leveling to 80 at the WoLK release and we can assume that new and better gems will be available at 80. Therefore, put your money into Season 3 gear now and don’t just save your money for Season 4 assuming you’ll be putting Black Temple gems in that gear as there may be even
better gems at that point.
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PvE vs. PvP Gear in Arena
by Gamer at March 14th, 2008 in Paladin | No Comments »
It just goes without saying that PvE gear is better than PvP gear in arena for Paladins in most situations. First, let’s look at 2v2.
In 2v2, playing as a Paladin, you’re 99 times out of 100 not going to be focused, so having resilience will not help you. Far more important is mp5, healing, and spell crit (in that order). Given that a well geared PvE Paladin will have ridiculously high armor — my Paladin has 16878 armor in PvE gear, which I wear in 2v2 — any melee damage class will not be able to do high damage on me regardless of resilience: my armor is too high. Therefore, I wear full PvE gear and my Medallion of the Horde (20 resilience) for 2v2.
In 3v3, it’s a bit different for a Paladin. It depends slightly on what type of set-up you play whether or not teams are going to focus you or not. I’m currently playing Warrior/Hunter/Paladin in 3v3 and never get focused, so I play in PvE gear, however, in other combinations I’ve played such as Warlock/Priest/Paladin and Warrior/Warlock/Paladin, I’ve had to wear about ~200 resilience to avoid teams switching to me after my bubble. What’s different now with my current set-up of Warrior/Hunter/Paladin, we’re putting out such pressure on cloth/mail wearers that teams need to shutdown our DPS rather than my healing.
In 5v5, in anything under a rating of 1900, you can get away with not wearing any PvP gear, but as you get to higher ratings and start playing better teams, you’re to need at least 200-250 resilience to slow teams switching to you after bubble. One of the only things that separates good teams from the best teams (besides excellent crowd control) is quickly switching to a new target and killing them before the other team can react. Therefore, entering a 5v5 arena with only your Medallion of the Horde (20 resilience) is not advisable.
Until Blizzard adds mp5 to Paladin’s arena gear and/or reduces the armor value for Paladin PvE gear, it’s more favorable for a Paladin to wear as much good PvP gear as possible. In 2v2, wear as much PvE gear as you can and in 3v3 and 5v5, you’ll want to wear about 200-250 resilience to avoid being bursted down after your bubble is on cooldown.