The Reckoning: This little Light of mine....

Last Updated on Monday, 02 August 2010 12:53 Written by Drekai Friday, 30 July 2010 01:57

WoW Blogs - The Reckoning Paladin Blog

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Hello and Welcome, I'm Drekai, and I'll be your tour guide  of that crazy little thing we call the Paladin class. Where do I begin?

Ahh! Well you have your three specs.

BOOM! Holy
BOOM! Protection
BOOM! Retribution

All will their specializations and a little bit of everything. They've seen their fair share of changes, though. I remember when you had your zweihander, but you were more effective in Protection than you were in Retribution, at least in PvP. There's a reason I have the rank of Knight-Captain and this article is called "The Reckoning." Not because of that relative abomination in the protection tree now, but for that nostagic talent that more people cried nerf for than for warlocks when they had the 20 second fear. 5 points got you a 100% chance on getting crit to give you an extra attack. That stacked infinately. Well, until they nerfed it after a Paladin one-shot Doomlord Kazzak. FUN times. Nothing says joy than making the that little rogue on you EXPLODE into a million crying bits.

Where was I? Oh yes, I suppose I should stop with nostalgia and get on with the more MODERN approach to the Paladin experience.

• Holy - For all your burst and single target healing needs. I don't think you'll get much better than this. With only single target (Albeit Bacon of Light [Crunchy] I suppose, in spirit) You've got your Holy Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Shock right now. Your main priorities with this spec are mana conservation and getting out as many heals as you can, in the shortest amount of time possible. (Read: Stack Haste, Spam Holy Light)

• Protection - Masters of the shield, going out of their way to defend the weak and protect the innocent. (Read: Tank EVERYTHING) Using Hammer of the Righteous, Consecrate, Holy shield and Shield of Righteousness (Some tanks, like myself, go into Retribution to get seal of command) combined with defensive talents such as ardent defender, redoubt, and sacred duty, we're just unstoppable forces of natu-The Light. /cough (Read: Tank EVERYTHING)

• Retribution - I will admit, this has been my main spec since I started, barring the time Reckonbombing was good. What's not to like? Smashing things up with the fury of the Light, kicking the everliving crud out of all that stand in your way. Charging headlong into battle without fear or limitation. (Read: OP) I personally enjoy the playstyle of Retribution in that it's always on reflex, rather than on a set rotation of what you have to do. (Read: I spam crusader strike) But it hasn't been without hardship, for most of the game's lifespan we were stuck in the "Return to sender" pit. But it is a lot better now since BC, and epic since Wrath. But somewhat less epic (Read: Not as OP) as it was back in Wrath beta. Let's just say at 70 I solo'd Utgarde Keep at full sprint, healing myself and two shotting everything but bosses with infinite mana. (Read: So OP my eyes bled)

So there you have it, the three specs. I'm sure I'll elaborate more on them in coming articles but now I just wanted to provide a quick summation of the specs in my first article and a simple promise that I'll report on all of them. Which is a little harder to do since it's like playing three different classes, and I can't really have all three specs with DUAL specialization. But I hope you can trust me to be bipartisan to all three.

I need to cover a few more things before I go, because I'm not going to leave you guys with a short article.

Cataclysm for Paladins: A summation.

I'll give you a short Q&A of the Paladin class in Cataclysm before I go back to the bowels from wence I came.

Holy in Cataclysm, how is it changing?
By lots, I think. We're going from basically single-target healers to more well rounded. Healing Hands, Holy Power, and Light of Dawn are going to send you to the front lines more often than you have the underwear to change into afterward.

Light of Dawn, basically cone of cold, but healing instead of icy pwn.

Holy Power - Use Crusader Strike, and Holy Shock to build up charges, which then could be used on Word of Glory.

Word of Glory - An instant, mana-free, nuke heal with no cooldown. To Nerf or not to Nerf, that is the question!

and finally...

Healing Hands - An AOE heal, that has a limited range, but isn't channeled. Might be a good excuse after popping it to run in and cause a little hurt on the boss while healing the tank, eh?

Protection?
Well, not a whole lot is changing, sadly, only with a few additions to your rotation. Crusader strike is replacing shield of Righteousness and you'll be hitting consecrate and holy shield a lot less often. 45-60 seconds.

Other than that. It's much of the same.

Ardent Defender is changing, which is a big one. It's now more like last stand, you pop it, but appearently you can't die during the 10 seconds of its duration.(Last I checked it was at 10 seconds) Which needless to say if the boss is giving you a Pwn enema, and you need to live just a little bit longer to down him, there you go.

Retribution?

This spec is getting an overhaul, much like holy. We've become holy rogues, for better or worse. (People compare holy power to death knights, but... I just don't see how that should be added in.) It'll be very similar to how we were in original beta, which is just -awesome.- Crusader strike, Crusader Strike, Crusader Strike, Holy Strike (Templar's Verdict, in Cataclysm.) Add in Exorcism, which I think needs to have a little more "Husbah" to it. Seeing as we have so much to our rotation as-is, it's just another direct damage spell. Whoopdeedoo. We lost righteous Vengeance, which only means more damage from burst, and less damage from bleeds. Which I approve of, as long as we don't get the nerf bat immediately afterward.

This concludes my article, I hope I don't get any hatemail, seeing as I just got here, but I hope we can all get along, and maybe, just maybe, we can have a wild ride and we can all learn a thing or two.

If you DO have hate mail, or you just want to say hello, by all means, send it to my e-mail address at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Free love!