Grand Crusader

Sunwell PTR and Content Testing

2008-02-02T16:13:00.000-05:00

I propose the creation of a couple of 'Elite' realms in which character copies are restricted to guilds that have oh say, 50 or more pieces of T6 across all players. This would allow for real content testing instead of the congestion of multiple players copying over so they can see how '1337' the spell haste changes are.

I feel like the PTR really doesn't hold true to it's name for the most part because of the glut of players that copy over to just idle in IF. I'm all for helping Blizzard test content (it's pretty clear now that instances with heavy PTR testing like Naxxramas and Black Temple have been stellar places to raid) and it would be great if real time could be spent on this instead of battling queues and senseless congestion so people can /dance in their premade T6 items.

Feel free to bump my post on the suggestion forums.

The Bear Necessities...

2008-01-29T01:17:00.000-05:00

Bear Mount Legit. Sup Aetherial.

"Vengeance cannot be a part of what we must do."

2008-01-16T03:26:00.000-05:00

~Uther Lightbringer

Thanks Invíctus.

Ready, Steady, Go!

2008-01-14T00:02:00.000-05:00

Got to 70 on my hunter alt a few days ago, and have already started raiding. Hitting heroics hard can get a player out of quest greens and into really high quality epics extremely fast, and it's been a lot of fun.

Here's a DPS chart from my guild's progression Magtheridon kill!

Your sign of the Apocalypse: When the tank tells you to turn Growl off because the pet is pulling aggro, and you look down and realize growl has been off the entire time. GG pug tanks.

Seal of the Crusader Theorycrafting

2008-01-08T15:01:00.001-05:00

"maybe I should make a dumb blog about paladins, like Cates, except about ret" ~Jarrok

I respecced from the traditional 49/12 last week for some testing of Seal of the Crusader. I dropped some points in defense rating and moved them to the Improved Talent. The debuff adds 3% spell and melee critical chance to any raid member attacking that target. Here is some of the math I was working out.

Looking through a WWS of Teron Gorefiend about a month ago, the top DPS classes hovered anywhere from 1000-1300 DPS on average. If you crit at 200% critical damage (or something close to that, +190% Ignite, +180% Mortal Shots whatever) then you could expect a 36 DPS increase assuming an average output of 1200 DPS.

36 DPS increase over 16 dealers means the raid gained 576 DPS from the 3% crit Judgement alone. Obviously not every damage class does 1200 DPS on Teron Gorefiend, but even if you were to round down significantly a gain of 400+ raidwide DPS would be realized. This seems pretty significant to me, and it provides me some extra raid utility when I'm not tanking something.

Going from one week without the judgement to a week with it, the top 5 DPS on Teron Gorefiend looks like this.
Before:
After:

As you can see the first raid's top 5 did 8897 collective DPS, averaging 1779 DPS a piece. Adding Seal of the Crusader, the top 5 produced 9474 DPS, averaging 1894 DPS. Now obviously a lot of factors come into play when looking at top DPS. Were the targets threat capped? Did they consumable this week and not the last? Obviously more parses with and without the judgement would be needed, but the fact that 3 of the top 5 were the same from week to week adds legitimacy to the debuff slot. More on this later.

Benefits of a Bulwark

2008-01-08T14:59:00.000-05:00

It does afford a certain measure of privacy..even in crowded cities.

WTS T6, PST

2007-12-31T14:35:00.000-05:00

Invictus has started selling BoP items from SSC/TK/Hyjal/BT now, and it's stirred up the WoW community quite a bit. Most long-time raiders have seen this practice already, and it's nothing new for most. My old raid guild Oh Snap of Moonrunner did Lootapalooza for BWL items, and this is just a reincarnation of something that's been happening for years.

Good luck to all prospective buyers, and good luck to WoWInsider on hiring new writing staff!

RnD Post
WoWInsider Post

Grats Obe on S3 sword!

2007-12-31T02:57:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Obelinux! Hope the Off-hand isn't too far off!

Rough night after a long holiday raid break, but we did manage a BT clear. The loot we got tonight was exceptional. Tank boots and dagger from Naj'entus, Syphon from Supremus, Melee DPS cape from Teron, Torch of the Damned from Reliquary, and a Zhar'doom and Glaive from Illidan.

HEHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNHH

2007-12-23T15:15:00.000-05:00

The Light and How to Swing It.

2007-12-20T01:33:00.000-05:00

These shoulders look absolutely amazing. I wasn't a big fan of the Draenei themed Crystalforge set. The book encased in light on the right shoulder and the hammer on the left really embodies what I think a Paladin should be. The shining armor of a Grand Crusader that has divine wisdom and divine retribution at either hand. /rp-off

Holy Wrath Owns.

2007-12-18T20:26:00.001-05:00

Best looking spell graphic in the entire game, and if you don't agree you're an idiot.

Seriously.

2007-12-18T17:47:00.000-05:00

When do players really learn to play? At what point does it all click and they realize what function they are supposed to perform in a group dynamic and the etiquette involved? In my off-time, I rolled a hunter on an RPPVP realm just to mess around. In 3 days I'm level 46 and I've spent some significant time in 5 mans. It's been forever since I've run a non-maxlevel 5 man, and it's been really hard to keep my comments about the mind-numbing stuff I see away from party chat. Why do people do what they do? What's so compelling about breaking crowd control and screaming at the healer for heals while aggro'ing packs and packs of extra mobs.

I recently did ZF with a warlock who insisted on having his pet tank things. I'd organized the group with a prot paladin (so I can multi-shot!) and things were going smoothly, until he just all of a sudden decided that he was going to have his Voidwalker tank and if anyone else pulled aggro (including the paladin) he was going to "be forced to fear them into other groups." I brushed it off at first, but the very next pull he sent his VW into a pack, aggro'd them, and then into the adjacent pack on accident. The paladin started to get aggro to save the eventual wipe, and he got angry and left the group because we didn't listen to him. Dumbstruck, the group collapsed and everyone hearthed disappointed. Granted this was an unusual situation but the question remains, at what point to people figure out what the fuck their class does in group and can manage to do it without pissing the entire group off in the process. I suppose some never learn, and that's why Blizzard created Battlegrounds.

Why Reskinning T6 for PVP Bothers So Many.

2007-12-15T17:31:00.001-05:00

Gear serves two purposes in this game. It makes your character more powerful, and it's a status symbol. When you see someone with nice gear, you can assume that they know how to play their class well with others, and that they'll generally be knowledgeable about the game they play. Gear says a lot about your character, and it's what separates you from those who haven't put the time in. Everyone learns when they level that the rarity of an item and the difficulty required to attain it almost always dictates the uniqueness of it's appearance and the impressive stats it provides your character.

So why dilute the rarity of high-end epic items such as Tier 6 by adding a bunch of easy to obtain items that look identical. The difficulty in earning T6 helm is an order of magnitude more difficult than grinding 1850 arena points and buying a look-alike. So then when you see this player with it, you have no idea without inspecting them up close as to their skill level and game experience. Reskinning gear strips players of the status symbol that comes with attaining high level gear, and dilutes the elite feeling of having nice gear that you worked hard for. PVP gear should have unique and interesting model skins like they did preBC. If I saw a Grand Marshal sword before the honor change, that meant something. Now it's bland and just part of the scenery, just like all the Season 3/T6 will be.

All the gear that raiders work so hard for, spending hours coordinating, raiding, and farming consumables and gold to pay for is rendered not only non-unique, but often times obsolete. Nobody likes their in-game achievements lessened by opening it up to anyone with an hour a day and 4 random people in their arena team.

The Holidays, RIP Raiding.

2007-12-15T17:03:00.000-05:00

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the happiest days of the week for me, as those are pretty much the only days we raid. No matter what happens on Monday (Azgalor wipes...rawr) we'll always take Illidan down on Tuesday. I think we 1 shotted him this week, and for a fight with so many variables, that's always encouraging. I managed to score Lightbringer Chestguard from him and Girdle of Stability from Gurtogg, therefore leaving me with 3 upgrades left in the game. The boots from Naj'entus, the T6 Shoulders and of course, to the chagrin of all mages and warlocks, the Tempest of Chaos. Without fail, a few days before Tuesday I'll get a whisper from one or two of them who are due to take the sword, asking me to pretty please pass it to them. *sigh*..one of these days..

Kill the OH GOD MACE STUN!

2007-12-03T11:44:00.000-05:00

Decided to give arenas a whirl after seeing all the people in greens with T6 looking helms. The paladin protection spec is easily the least arena viable of them all, so I dumped my talent points and did the unthinkable..specced Holy. Now without going into too much detail, let's just say that my heal gear is somewhat..lackluster. It's not bad stuff per se, but it's a lot of mail and one piece of leather from Hyjal and BT, so I look pretty much fucking ridiculous in it. How to counter this? Bulwark of Azzinoth. There's no armor in this game that doesn't look good with this shield, and it serves a dual purpose. They see that shield and people leave me alone, which is great because I weigh in at a powerful 0 resilience.

My teammates Obelinux and Neloran have significantly better PVP gear than I do, but they seem willing to drag me along while they blow people apart and I press my heal buttons.

Update! Tried a new setup, with Neloran, Avere (resto druid) and myself. Linking to her description with illustration!

There's Something About Teso...

2007-11-29T18:00:00.000-05:00

Is it his QQ tears of pure liquid malevolence? His masterful up-bidding of hopeful loot whores? His unflinching hatred of Psamtik? Or maybe it's the fact that he is a purple power ranger. Only Zordon knows for sure!

Bulwark of Azzinoth.

2007-11-29T00:41:00.001-05:00

Oh man. The king of all tank shields. Our first attempt tonight ended with me getting clipped by an eyebeam I was sure I was clear of. Everyone had a good laugh and we hauled ass back up to the top of Black Temple for another crack at The Betrayer. Second attempt was just about flawless from 100% to 0. Things got a little hairy at around 15% when Draan dipped dangerously low. I like to think the 16k Lay on Hands I hit on him with 0 overheal redeemed my earlier misstep. Apparently Illidan thought so too, as he saw fit to smile on me again.

Quel'Serrar

2007-11-28T17:17:00.000-05:00

Picked this up as a nostalgia item a few months back, mostly because I got a kick out of throwing the unfired blade down in front of BT bosses and screaming for the tank to make Naj'entus (or whoever) breath on it. But it needs an enchant! What should I do? Added a poll to the right.

Cloak Enchants

2007-11-27T21:06:00.000-05:00

Finally picked up a new cloak, but I'm unsure what to enchant it with. I usually went with Dodge as the agility gives less avoidance and the melee crit is insignificant for Paladins. Ever since this whole "effective health" thing got started, armor has been the direction a lot of tanks are moving.

Generally I prefer the consistency that the armor provides, but at the same time if you dodge just one more swing from a boss because of your enchant, you probably avoided more damage than the 120 armor would have mitigated for the entire fight. I will probably go this route though, but any comments would be appreciated.

Bye ZA hat!

2007-11-27T01:31:00.001-05:00

Illidan down tonight after we toyed with him with two P5 wipes. He dropped our second Skull of Guldan and our first Faceplate of the Impenetrable. A best in slot, miles ahead of T6 or anything else available. Thanks Illidan, now people won't make fun of my troll hat!

Edit: They might make fun of how bad T5 shoulders look with it though. ><

I hate AV.

2007-11-26T12:48:00.001-05:00

How long before warriors in greens stop taunting Drek'thar off of me? I can't get over it no matter how hard I try. It pisses me off to no end, because it comes across as "here, let a real tank do it"

WTB WSG Weekend. Protection Paladins are a nightmare to kill as flag carriers.

New Helm!

2007-11-26T12:37:00.001-05:00

Picked this up in Zul'Aman last night. Battleworn Tuskguard Seems like a nice upgrade over T5 in everything except spell damage. We'll see how it works out.

Also bought Battlemaster's Audacity for 75 Badges of Justice. It stacks with Shadowmoon Insignia which is some impressive burst health. I'll probably only use it for Hyjal trash, but it's definitely something fun to play with if you've got the badges.

A Synopsis of Paladin Tanking

2007-11-26T11:58:00.000-05:00

I wrote this awhile back to familiarize my old guild with paladin tanks, since it's something of a foreign concept in 'traditional' raids.

A Synopsis of Paladin Tanking

I figured since protection paladins are just now starting to become raid viable I'd give you guys a better understanding to how I'm different than a warrior so you can adjust when I'm tanking. I figure tanking breaks down into two categories: Mitigation and Threat. I'll detail both here.

First, the most immediately noticable difference is that I use mana instead of rage. This means that I can go full out from 100% to dead on mobs because I don't need to wait for rage. You'll also notice that I have about 5000 mana with buffs. The only way I sustain a mana pool is from the paladin ability Spiritual Attunement. In a nutshell, spiritual attunement takes 10% of the amount I get healed and returns it to me in mana. The key is, I have to be getting healed by someone else. This means two things: 1) Earth Shield and Prayer of Mending don't give me mana when they heal me (not a huge deal) and 2) If things aren't doing damage to me and I'm not getting hit, I'll run out of mana and be useless.

Mitigation: I mitigate damage the same way a warrior does. I can dodge and parry attacks to completely avoid damage as well as blocking a portion of melee damage. I have a few talents that are different from the typical warrior mitigation talents. I'll list them here.

a) Righteous Fury: When active I take 6% less damage from all sources. Also, this talent makes my holy damage cause 90% more threat than normal.

b) Spell Warding: I take 4% less spell damage from all sources, flat out. It's just a talent and it's sort of a filler talent but hey at least it's here.

c) Improved Holy Shield: Increases my block percentage by 35% for the next 8 attacks. Each time I block with this buff up (10 second cooldown) I lose one charge. This is why paladins are ideal at tanking multiple targets, because I don't take crushing blows because shield block is almost always up. Holy Shield also has a reflective damage component which I'll explain further down.

d) Ardent Defender: This talent is what makes me hard to kill. While I don't have shield wall like a warrior does, I have automatic damage reduction whenever I'm low health. When I am at or below 35% health, I automatically take 30% less damage until I'm brought up to above that number. This means when I get hit hard by a boss it's rare that the next hit can kill me. With my current armor mitigation pre-raid buffs a boss that normally hits 0 armor targets for 10000 hits me for 4000. If I'm at or below 35% health, his 10000 damage attack only hits me for 2800 damage.

e) Weapon Expertise: I'll go into greater detail about this below, but this talent also (or perhaps primarily) affords us 10% extra total stamina. After all, tanking isn't about how much damage you don't take, it's how much you can take.

Threat: Where a warrior generates threat by using abilities with threat modifiers within them, my threat comes purely from the Holy Damage I deal. My white damage is nothing to write home about because I'm stuck using 41 dps spell damage weapons to tank with.

a) Reflective Damage: A large portion of our threat comes from reflective damage upon being hit. Holy Shield, Retribution Aura and Blessing of Sanctuary all trigger holy damage when you're hit while buffed with them. This is what enables us to 'AoE tank' so effectively. Consecrate is definitely the most visible in terms of our tanking abilities, but it's usefulness pales in comparison to Holy Shield. Damage done from Holy Shield has an additional threat modifier beyond Righteous Fury of 35%. Without blocks, our threat generation could be described as meager at best.

b) Direct Damage: Consecrate, damage from Seals & Judgement and other niche abilities make up the other half of our threat generation, and it too is also almost entirely holy damage.

Last, a word about demons and undead. There's nothing really special about paladins against undead and demons except that it opens us up to use 2 new threat generating abilities: Holy Wrath and Exorcism. Holy Wrath is a 2 second cast which hits all demons around me for ~1000 holy damage. Obviously I can't cast this while tanking because I'm getting hit, but sometimes I can pull with it. Holy Wrath is on a one minute cooldown. The other ability is exorcism. This is an instant cast ability that does 800-900 holy damage to my target, and it's on a 15 second cooldown. This is why on demon/undead mobs (Karazhan, Magtheridon, Hyjal/BT et al.) a paladin's threat output is exceptional. Having an extra heavy damage ability in our rotation makes for spectacular burst threat generation.