Plankeye
New Member
WoWInsider is reporting that the background downloader is being primed for a large content patch. Meaning version 3 of World of Warcraft is going to be on our doorstep knocking very soon. This is the exact same thing that happened before The Burning Crusade released where version 2 was released shortly before BC hit the store shelves.
So the question is, are you prepared?
It can sometimes be hard to follow along with all the changes that happen during the beta. WotLK is going to implement some very serious changes to the way several classes play that will impact raid makeups and how people are currently geared.
I'll talk a little bit about the changes to pallies that I have been keeping an eye on and hopefully it will spur others to comment on their specific classes.
First up is the changes to Retribution. At one point during the beta, ret was the king of DPS. I know sounds funny right? Subsequent patches have turned down their DPS but their utility in raids have been qreatly enhanced. Added CC abilities and their mana battery abilities will make them as sought after as Shadow Priests and Survival Hunters in raids. I know, I said sought after and included Survival Hunters. That is how much WotLK is going to change things up.
Second, Holy paladins are getting some much need group and buffs to instant cast spells. It still looks like they will continue to dominate single target healing with holy shock coold down going to 6 seconds and the ability to instant cast Holy Light healadins will be able to kick out some serious burst healing for those oh noes moments. Something that will be really interesting is the change to judgements range in the holy tree that will allow healadins to judge from 20 yards away. Also, +healing and +dmg are being unified into a single spell power stat. You may notice after the change that your total +healing goes down but all healing spells have been buffed to heal more to account for the lower +healing numbers.
Finally, I'll talk a little about tankadins. By far one of the biggest changes is Blizzard unifying the tanking stats for the three plate wearing tanks. All three plate tanks will be stacking stamina and strength now. The T4-T6 gear will even be getting changes in their stats when 3.0 comes out.
Tankadins will be losing some defense in anticipation which means if you were riding the fence at 490 defense and focusing on stamina like I was, you will want to add some of those green gems to get some of those points back.
Blessing of Sanctuary is now a must have tanking ability as it not only mitigates damage but also returns rage, mana and runic power on dodge,parry and block. Gone are the days of taking out high end tanking gear when tanking lower instances as high end gear actually scales now with Sanctuary.
With kings moved to the first tier of protection and now 5 points, I think you will find a lot of tankadins skipping this talent in favor of the Tier 1 seals of the pure or keeping 12 points in retribution for benediction, deflection and imp. judgements. Tankadins are benefitting from a melee attack speed debuff similar to warriors along with increased DPS and threat through strength and spell power gained through stamina. Things are looking for interesting.
So the question is, are you prepared?
It can sometimes be hard to follow along with all the changes that happen during the beta. WotLK is going to implement some very serious changes to the way several classes play that will impact raid makeups and how people are currently geared.
I'll talk a little bit about the changes to pallies that I have been keeping an eye on and hopefully it will spur others to comment on their specific classes.
First up is the changes to Retribution. At one point during the beta, ret was the king of DPS. I know sounds funny right? Subsequent patches have turned down their DPS but their utility in raids have been qreatly enhanced. Added CC abilities and their mana battery abilities will make them as sought after as Shadow Priests and Survival Hunters in raids. I know, I said sought after and included Survival Hunters. That is how much WotLK is going to change things up.
Second, Holy paladins are getting some much need group and buffs to instant cast spells. It still looks like they will continue to dominate single target healing with holy shock coold down going to 6 seconds and the ability to instant cast Holy Light healadins will be able to kick out some serious burst healing for those oh noes moments. Something that will be really interesting is the change to judgements range in the holy tree that will allow healadins to judge from 20 yards away. Also, +healing and +dmg are being unified into a single spell power stat. You may notice after the change that your total +healing goes down but all healing spells have been buffed to heal more to account for the lower +healing numbers.
Finally, I'll talk a little about tankadins. By far one of the biggest changes is Blizzard unifying the tanking stats for the three plate wearing tanks. All three plate tanks will be stacking stamina and strength now. The T4-T6 gear will even be getting changes in their stats when 3.0 comes out.
Tankadins will be losing some defense in anticipation which means if you were riding the fence at 490 defense and focusing on stamina like I was, you will want to add some of those green gems to get some of those points back.
Blessing of Sanctuary is now a must have tanking ability as it not only mitigates damage but also returns rage, mana and runic power on dodge,parry and block. Gone are the days of taking out high end tanking gear when tanking lower instances as high end gear actually scales now with Sanctuary.
With kings moved to the first tier of protection and now 5 points, I think you will find a lot of tankadins skipping this talent in favor of the Tier 1 seals of the pure or keeping 12 points in retribution for benediction, deflection and imp. judgements. Tankadins are benefitting from a melee attack speed debuff similar to warriors along with increased DPS and threat through strength and spell power gained through stamina. Things are looking for interesting.
