2012 In Review!

I'd like to take a few minutes to send out a friend (2012) that was kind of ho hum both in game and out for me. Basically, this year went out about the same as it came in, just...blahhhhh.

This year actually brought the 1st time I suspended my account. For a few months prior to MoP 5.x being brought into play, I was done. The game had just lost it for me. It was short lived.

So without further adieu, lets get into my thoughts;

The Good!

• The art work in MoP - No complete zone is amazing but overall the art that was done is pretty great. I really enjoy the views. From the gear to the buildings, Blizz really hit a home run with the detail and the way the captured the Chinese themes. I love the way the "Wall" winds thru the zones. 
• The talent system - At max level this is fantastic! Oh my, its simple and you don't have the odd D-Bag telling you, "psssst...your spec is all wrong". As you level it is long days between getting new points but I think it is more than made up for at 90.
• Tradeable loot - This was brilliant and I loved it. Running with guild members this was cool if you were unsure about a piece or if you did the ultimate OH- OH and picked the wrong piece from the vendor.
• Account wide mounts and achievements  Finally they made your account look like an account, instead of a puzzle that was half-assed together. I highly approve of this one. 
• Transmongering - ugly word, kinda cool. You can make gear that you REALLY want worthwhile. I'm so glad I held on to my T6 gear. 

My winner for the best new thing in game for 2012 - Upgradable loot! I don't know how many times I wanted a piece of gear for MONTHS and finally I'd get it. Then next week a patch comes our or a nerf and something else becomes more "BETTER" for you. This way you can at least put some points in to a hard fought, well needed item. (more here)

The OK! (sure I'm not sticking to the normal patter but its my thoughts...LOL)

• Farming - Overall I like this aspect of the game. It actually gives you something to do that you can work with and help yourself with in-game  Be it either cooking or mats you might need. The really cool thing is you can grow motes which is a life saver. The really bad is the shit you have to do to pick and plant your crops. There is no way it should take over 15 to 20 minutes to plant 16 crops. I'd love it if they would nerf the surprises you get when planting or picking.
• Scenarios- Thank you, Blizzard! I really enjoy these fast, easy way to do something different in game. No tank needed, almost zero gross people in these things and it moves to fast to the lazy to take hold. It would be perfect aside from the fact the gear/loots is useless and you get no JP from the bosses.
• Shrine of Two Moons- Overall I like having a major hub in a new land. There is more bad than good but you do get everything you need there, I still don't understand why Blizz didn't put Ally and Horde in the same city? 
• Motes of Harmony - Overall, I understand it and like it. I wish they were BOA instead of BOE. 

There is no, most OK because - well that would be like the best mediocre thing. It just don't work.

The Bad - 

• Cataclysm's finish - ok, make that the whole expansion. It was garbage. The 1st tier of raiding was ok, but after that it was all down hill. I spent more time in the 5 mans that anyone should.  There was so very little to embrace about that expansion, I"m just glad it is gone.
• VP going down after every 5 man or scenario - In cata we were allowed in a subsequent patch from release to be allowed to run for max VP for a max of 7. Not everyone can play all day and this allowed you to get the VP in case you missed it. Now with the way things are done, there is very little incentive to run more than one. 
• Heroic MoP 5 mans- They are pitiful. No challenge at all with what I mentioned above the amount of people running them is low. With the new news that there will be none release it 5.2 I can see them dying out. I'd rather spend my time doing a round of dailies than doing into a heroic. I'd like to get your feed back on this, please leave a comment.
• Faction grinding for VP gear. Absolutely STUPID! The worst part is you have to open one to revered before others become available. I could continue on this but I think they looked to stop a gushing wound with a band aid by doing this.
• Tanking gear has gone DPS! Really guys? do we need even more fights about who rolls on what. I can't believe haste is the stat for prot pally's. Hit and Exp mean so much even for mitigation. They absolutely missed the mark on this one. 
• Professions are not longer money makers. I've got a JC and Enchanter, I make nothing with these two. JC is dead other than mounts. Enchanting is so heavily flooded with mats and competition it makes it hard. My LW makes decent money but as more have unlocked the recipe's the gold has dried up. 

The worst of the worst in 2012! 

The daily grind! Have the implemented anything worse than this in game ever? I know, if you don't like them don't do them. But really, it is the #1 way to earn extra loot (which has been a fail mechanism) via the coins. It is the only way to open certain professions recipes, if you are a raider, the gear was a must. It really has turned off many from the expansion so far. From the ass hats that stand on the quest givers to make your life just a little more miserable, to the mobs that seem to never not spawn and gang up on you. Blizzard has answered this many, many times, they did this to get us out of the cities and keep us busy. It just reeks of wrong, it just frustrates people and wastes time. Blizz just missed the boat. We went thru this in TBC and well, I guess they didn't learn anything from that.

Well. where do we go from here? I'm not sure. I can tell you this, my object of my blog is a view of a WOW tank. I'm not tanking any longer. I'm only Ret. I'm not even collecting prot gear anymore. It isn't worth it. I've never played ret, MoP has forced me to, for my own sanity and for my need to still play the game.

Here is to a great and safe 2013. Thank you all for reading my blog, I enjoy you all. Lets hope 2013 is even better than the year that was 2012.

Be safe!

Paladin Changes 5.0

As long as you don't live under a rock, I'm sure you heard that 5.0 will be going live to serves the week of 8-28-12. Here is the changes you will need to know for the Paladin class. You can also look at my post for the talent calculator and Theck at Sacred Duty did a great tutorial on how to work the new talents (here) and lets not forget Rhidach giving us the full run down (here). Thanks to both of the, you guys are the best.

As for me, I'm not in game ATM but I think by next week I might re-up my sub to see how the new things are going.

I hope everyone enjoys MoP!

Below is the new abilities animated!


All the Paladin ability's can be found (here) click on picture to enlarge -

Paladin Talent Calculator 5.0

It can be found here .
If you look up toward the top right it will give you a link so you can save it and share it too.

Below is a hot link to all the paladin changes:
Paladin:
SKILLS
Talent Calculator
Holy Changes
Ret Changes
Prot Changes

Thanks (here)

And Azshira has made a BRILLIANT post about all the changes for paladins over at MMO-Champion.

Below is WOW's stat changes that you will need to know: (source) and (source)

MoP map and paladin changes.

Finally, the MoP MAP is in!

Every day new info comes in about MoP out of the Beta people. I haven't seen anything really worth mentioning. What makes me the authority? Well I'm not in Beta so I'm not to concerned about a quest not working right now or what the abilities of every class in game since so much is going to change before the game goes live. I'm trying to hit on the important stuff, so if there is something you would like to see more of, please let me know.

The MoP MAP -

(source)

A few minor updates to the Paladin class have been changed too:
Paladin (Forums)

• Blessing of Kings had a tooltip error corrected: Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing Strength, Agility, and Intellect by 5%.
• Blessing of Might had a tooltip error corrected: Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing mastery by 3,500.

Holy-

• Holy Light now costs 14% of Base Mana, down from 16%.
• Holy Shock now costs 16% of Base Mana, down from 18%.

Protection - 

• Mastery: Divine Bulwark now increases the damage reduction of your Shield of the Righteous by 8% (was 10%), adds 8% (was 10%) to your Bastion of Glory, and increases your chance to block melee attacks by 8% (was 10%).
• Consecration damage reduced by 10%.
• Holy Wrath damage changed to (4,300.5 + 91% of SPH).

Major Glyphs -

• Glyph of Exorcism now requires you to deal damage with Exorcism to get the damage reduction buff.

There was also a video of Paladin abilities posted: (Source)

Quicky about Beta (MoP Protection Paladins)

There isn't much for me to say about this other than to link the Beta thread and say read up on how the rotation looks to be going. Ghostcrawler even commented on the action. So far, believe it or not there is very little trolling and the discussion seems to be helpful.

TL;DR-

• Exorcism is gone (ret only) which feels slightly like an iconic ability is taken from us.
• Mastery is a block chance only now.
• Divine Plea is gone for a HoPo generator.
• Hammer of Wrath is gone (ret only) and there might be a lack of finishing moves for Prot.
• Righteous Defense is gone. This is the one that concerns me most, as we now lost our iconic taunt and we are left with only one taunt.
• Consecration is back on a 9 second CD and I like that.
• Some posters are saying the rotation is slow, clunky and feels like there are far to many gaps others including Ghostcrawler, say there is only very few times that we have open spots.

From Ghostcrawler (source) -

You shouldn't have to "wait to do things" much. The Protection rotation should include Avenger's Shield, Crusader Strike, Judgment, Consecration and Holy Wrath, with Shield of the Righteous and Word of Glory as finishers. You should almost always have a button to push. We don't have a problem with occasional holes in the rotation, so long as those don't occur with frustrating regularity.

MoP - Paladin T14 and talents.

I know most of you read MMO - Champion but there is so much info incoming about Paladin changes its overwhelming. So from time to time until MoP goes live I'll try and consolidate them. Remember this isn't set in stone and will change every day.

Here is the video of T -14:

And picture (found here):

Talent changes! (beta only) -

All of the info can be found here!

I'll boil it down as I know it, these are just the highlights. Please note, this is my opinion and not what Blizz wants it to be and will probably change.

Skills-

• Seal of Truth has replaced Seal of Command in the way it does damage. SoC is flat damage.
• Blessing of Kings - No longer allows for magic resistance, increases ONLY AGI, STR, and INT by 5%. It no longer increases STAM.
• Blessing of Might - Increases Mastery by 5 but no longer regens Mana.
• Binding Light - FINALLY! We get a disorient effect to all targets w/in 10 yards. Big Mana cost.
• Divine Protection -  No Longer reduces physical damage. Reduces magical damage by 40% for 10 seconds. Alas our half bubbles is gone!
• Improved Judgements - now cause a secondary effect.
• Seals - they are all different now. I suspect our seal as tanks will be Seal of Rightous for trash or multi target in boss fights and Seal of Truth for bosses as we have a dot with that.

Prot -

• Concencration IS BACK! Costs 7% mana and 9 second cooldown.
• Judgement of the Wise - Creates one charge of Holy Power.
• Guarded by the Light - Reworked: Increases your total Stamina by 15%. Reduces the chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks by 6%. Word of Glory is no longer on the global cooldown.
• Shield of the Righteous: Reworked: Instantly Slam the target with your shield, causing 4062 Holy damage and blocking the next melee attack against you. In addition, increases the amount your shield blocks by an additional 25% for 6 sec. 3 Holy Power. 1.5 sec cooldown.

Glyphs -

• Awesome post on Pally Glyph changes.
• Glyph of Contemplation: Allows you a moment of peace as you kneel in quiet contemplation to ponder the nature of the Light.
• ^^ makes me shake my head in amazement and wonder WTF is this?

Paladin (Forums)  AS OF -- 3/29/12

Skills

• Holy Light: Healing increased to 6579 to 7331, up from 4653 to 5185.
• Seal of Command: Now has a 1.5 sec cooldown.
• Seal of Insight: Now has a 1.5 sec cooldown.
• Seal of Righteousness: Now has a 1.5 sec cooldown.
• Seal of Truth: Now has a 1.5 sec cooldown. Now does [28% of AP + 14% of SPH] additional damage, up from [17.5% of AP + 9% of SPH].
  Retribution
• Seal of Justice: Now has a 1.5 sec cooldown.
  Holy
• Beacon of Light: Reworked: Your Holy Light will also heal the Beacon for 50*2}% of the amount healed. Your Holy Radiance will heal for X% of the amount healed. All other heals will heal for 50% of the amount healed.
• Daybreak: New. After casting Holy Radiance, your next Holy Shock will also heal other allies near its target for 50% of the healing done.
• Devotion Aura: Now reduces all magic damage taken, not just Fire, Frost, and Shadow.
• Holy Radiance: Now heals allies of the target for 50% of that amount, instead of a static number.
• Light of Dawn: Wording changed to remove "frontal cone".

Paladin (Forums) AS OF 2/27/12
Skills

• Avenging Wrath: Now has no mana cost.
• Blessing of Kings: Now increases intellect instead of stamina. No longer grants magical resistances. Costs 22% base mana, up from 19%.
• Blessing of Might: Now increases mastery by 5 instead of attack power. No longer increases mana regen. Costs 22% base mana, up from 19%
• Blinding Light: New. Emits a dazzling light in all directions, blinding enemies within 10 yards, causing them to wander disoriented for 6 sec. 3 min cooldown. Instant cast and costs 23.4% base mana.
• Boundless Conviction: New. You may store an additional 2 Holy Power beyond the maximum of 3. No ability ever consumes more than 3 Holy Power.
• Cleanse: Now removes all poison and disease effects. Now has an 8 sec cooldown. Costs 16% base mana, up from 14%.
• Crusader Strike: An instant strike that causes 160% weapon damage, up from 135%. Costs 3% base mana, down from 10%.
• Divine Light: Now has a 2.5 sec cast time, down from 3 sec.
• Divine Protection: Reduces magical damage taken by 40% for 10 sec. No longer reduces physical damage taken.
• Divine Shield: No longer costs mana.
• Flash of Light: Now costs 36% base mana, up from 31%.
• Hand of Freedom: Now costs 7% base mana, up from 6%.
• Hand of Protection: Now costs 7% base mana, up from 6%.
• Hand of Sacrifice: Now has a 40 yard range, up from 30. Costs 7% base mana, up from 6%.
• Hand of Salvation: Now has a 40 yard range, up from 30.
• Heart of the Crusader: Increases your mounted speed by 20%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
• Holy Light: Now has a 2.5 sec cast time, down from 3 sec. Costs 14% base mana, up from 12%.
• Improved Judgment: New. Judgment causes a secondary effect.
  • Holy - Judgments of the Pure - Judgment restores mana.
  • Protection - Judgments of the Wise - Judgment grants Holy Power.
  • Retribution - Judgments of the Bold - Judgment grants Holy Power and the Physical Vulnerability effect which increases the amount of physical damage the target takes by 4%.
• Rebuke: Now has a 15 sec cooldown, up from 10. Costs 11% base mana, up from 10%.
• Reckoning: Hand of Reckoning has been renamed to Reckoning.
• Redemption: Now costs 75% base mana, up from 64%.
• Righteous Fury: Now has a 1.5 sec cooldown.
• Sanctity of Battle: Haste effects lower the cooldown and global cooldown of your Judgment, Hammer of Wrath, Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous. Divine Storm is no longer affected.
• Seal of Command: New. Fills you with Holy Light, causing melee attacks to deal 10% additional Holy damage. Instant cast. Costs 16.4% base mana.
• Seal of Insight: Now also increases healing done by 5%. Costs 16% base mana, up from 14%.
• Seal of Righteousness: Fills you with Holy Light, causing melee attacks to deal 5% weapon damage to all targets within 8 yards. Instant cast. Costs 16% base mana, up from 14%.
• Seal of Truth: Censure DOT now deals [17.5% of AP + 9% of SPH], up from [13.5% of AP + 5% of SPH]
• Supplication: Formerly known as Retribution talent Crusade. No longer increases the damage of your Crusader Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, and Templar's Verdict by 30%, and the damage and healing of your Holy Shock by 30%. For 15 sec after you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor, your next Flash of Light heals for an additional 300%. Holy Light is no longer affected by this ability.
• Turn Evil: Now lasts for up to 40 sec, up from 20. Costs 10% base mana, up from 9%.
• Word of Glory: Now consumes up to 3 Holy Power, down from all. Now has a 1.5 sec cooldown, down from 20.

Protection

• Avenger's Shield: Now costs 7% base mana, up from 6%.
• Consecration: Now costs 7% base mana, down from 55%. Cooldown is now 9 sec, down from 30.
• Guarded by the Light: Reworked: Increases your total Stamina by 15%. Reduces the chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks by 6%. Word of Glory is no longer on the global cooldown.
• Holy Wrath: Sends bolts of holy power in all directions, causing Holy damage divided among all enemies within 10 yds and stunning all Demons and Undead for 3 sec. Costs 9.4% base mana. Instant cast, 9 sec cooldown.
• Judgments of the Wise: New. Your Judgment hits grant one charge of Holy Power.
• Sanctuary: New. Decreases damage taken by 10% and increases armor value from items by 10%.
• Shield of the Righteous: Reworked: Instantly Slam the target with your shield, causing 4062 Holy damage and blocking the next melee attack against you. In addition, increases the amount your shield blocks by an additional 25% for 6 sec. 3 Holy Power. 1.5 sec cooldown.
  Retribution
• Crusader's Zeal: New. Your autoattacks have a 20% chance to increase your attack speed by 25% for your next 3 melee swings.
• Divine Storm: Now costs 3 Holy Power and no mana cost or cooldown. An area attack that consumes 3 charges of Holy Power to cause 50% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies within 8 yards.
• Exorcism: Now generates a charge of Holy Power. Now also has a 20 sec cooldown, up from 1.5 but is instant cast. Now costs 4% base mana, down from 30%.
• Hammer of Wrath: Deals 4230 to 4676 Holy damage and generates a charge of Holy Power. Only usable on enemies that have 20% or less health or during Avenging Wrath. Now costs 3% base mana, down from 12%.
• Hammer of the Righteous: Deals 20% weapon damage, down from 30%. Now also applies the Weakened Blows effect, which reduces the targets physical damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec.
• Inquisition: Consumes a maximum of 3 Holy Power to increase Holy damage by 30%. Lasts 10 sec per charge of Holy Power, up from 4.
• Seal of Justice: Melee attacks do 16% additional Holy damage and reduces the targets movement speed by 50% for 5 sec. Instant cast. Costs 16% base mana, up from 14%.
• Sword of Light: Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 25%. No longer increases spell power by an amount equal to 30% of your attack power and no longer increases your chance to hit with spells by 8%.
• Templar's Verdict: Now costs 3 Holy Power, up from 1. Deals 260% weapon damage, up from 235%.
• The Art of War: Your autoattacks have a 20% chance of resetting the cooldown of your Exorcism.
  Holy
• Beacon of Light: Now has a 10 sec cooldown. No longer costs mana.
• Denounce: Deals [1593 + 61% of SPH] Holy damage, down from [2664 + 61% of SPH] and prevents the target from causing a critical effect for the next 4 sec, up from 3. Costs 9% base mana, down from 20%. 1.5 sec cast time with a 30 yard range.
• Devotion Aura: Grants all party and raid members within 40 yards immunity to silence and interrupt effects and reduces all fire, frost and shadow damage taken by 20% for 6 sec. Instant cast. 2 min cooldown.
• Holy Insight: New. Increases the effectiveness of your healing by 25%. Increases your mana pool by 400%. Allows 50% of your mana regeneration from Spirit to continue while in combat. Grants hit rating equal to 50% of any Spirit gained from items or effects.
• Holy Radiance: Now costs 14% of base mana, up from 7%.
• Holy Shock: Now has a 40 yard range for friendly and enemy targets.
• Infusion of Light: No longer affects Flash of Light.
• Judgments of the Pure: No longer increases your casting and melee haste by 9%.
• Light of Dawn: Now consumes up to 3 Holy Power.
• Sacred Cleansing: Enables your cleanse to dispel all magic effects from the target.
• Tower of Radiance: No longer grants Holy Power on Holy Radiance casts.