Results tagged “Art of War” from From the Abbey to Outlands

While many of watch the crawling progress bar of our installs for patch 3.0.2, I thought I would let you know what talents I recommend for a couple of my classes. These will be for the specs I choose to play, and are not necessarily going to reflect what you will, or may choose to select for your characters. First up, I am going to start with my beloved Paladin class, and their Ret build. This will be a 0/3/58 build.

I feel this build maximizes crit rating while still giving some points into the new lower tier and more accessible Blessing of Kings in Protection tree. Admittedly this does not have the full 5 points in Kings, but it gives us some, and can always be changed if the majority of players you group with have the full one, or just wait five weeks and hit 72 so you can go full in. As with before, I have chosen to ignore Pursuit of Justice and Eye for an Eye, as I do not feel they are worth those essential points for the next month before Wrath goes live.

I also left Divine Purpose out in order to get those 2 extra points in Improved Blessing of Kings, and these points can be added back in later if you feel the need. Crusade, while potentially nice, will not, I think, improve the damage output enough to go 3 in for this talent. Maybe at 80. Essential talents from my time on beta are Repentance, Improved Ret Aura, Art of War, Judgment of the Wise, and Divine Storm. That last one, of course, is why we limit the diversity of our talents. Sheath of Light is a good one, giving your heals a much nice kick to them. Flash of Light can heal for enough to keep you alive in a pinch, and with the new push back changes even a Holy Light can be hit for almost a full to top heal.

The big thing about the new Ret tree is that it seems to focus in two areas. First it boosts crit rating. With a crit rating of 205 before, I had a chance of 23.5%. I will be sure to add in my new crit rating here ____% when the servers go live, and with all the bonuses to crit, I am sure that percentage will get a bump. The second focus is on mana. Ret gear is well known for it's lack of int and mp5 points, and as we of the Light use mana for a lot of put spells, we have long been those of the oom. This tree will fix that. Judgment of Light being used alongside the Judgment of the Wise talent and Divine Storm triggers, a ret Paladin should have little to now trouble staying healthy and mana filled for a long, long time.

While this isn't the idea spec, it is what we can do with the points we have and the month that spans between this patch and Wrath. Remember, we heard at Blizzcon that there will be a 3.0.3 patch coming in a week or two, and that might in itself bring us more changes still to the live game. I would love your thoughts on this spec, and even your thoughts on other Paladin specs. For now, I am off to look into the Druid trees, and get a refill of my drink. 32% done installing...

I figured that since there is so much yummy goodness in the beta, I would start a small series of top 5s, just to give you short roundups from my beta testing experiences. The first one I want to tackle, of course, it the top 5 Paladin spells I have learned so far in the beta.

Divine Storm - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards.  The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 20% of the damage caused.
This spell right now is #2 in my rotation on the beta, right after Crusader Strike. While the DPS of this ability can be sweet, especially when it procs, the soloing bonus of that 20% can be amazing to see. I now almost always pull 2 - 3 mobs in order to maximize the benefits.

Judgement of the Wise - Your Judgement spells have a 100% chance to grant the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of their maximum mana per second, and to immediately grant you 20% of your maximum mana.
This is commonly known among the paladins I talk to as a mana battery. Every 10 seconds, as long as I have a Seal up, I can replenish, at level 75, about 1500 mana using Judgement of Wisdom. With Global Cooldown and the other spells in my rotation, it is rare that I am not at least 85% mana as long as I do not forget to judge. In fact, I more often find myself low on health than low on mana. I am considering testing this with Judgement of Light, just to get a small heal in here and there.

Repentance - Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min.  Any damage caused will awaken the target.  Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
This ability is what I usually use for the 4th mob I pull. If I know my Divine Storm won't hit everyone, being limited to 3 an all, I will usually repentance one of the enemies, and pull the other 3 far enough away. Often by the time the 1 minute is up, I am done with his friends and ready to take him on. Long overdue improvement to this spell.

Art of War - Increases the critical strike damage of your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities by 20% and when these abilities critically hit your next Flash of Light spell becomes instant cast.
This ability was already pretty sweet with the recent improvements to the Flash of Light component. I have not yet tried the Flash of Light side, due to repeated crashes from the beta client, but I will be deliberately watching for the buff and seeing if it is as useful as I suspect.

Divine Plea - You gain 25% of your total mana over 10 sec, but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50%.
This is one of the many in a new class of spell I call a MoT(Mana over Time) spells that have crept into the game in the Wrath of the Lich King. This is one of those 'Oh crap, I have no mana' spells, since judgements cost mana, and while it feels like the regen of mana takes forever, in no time you have at least enough for Holy Shield or a last hoorah spell to try to eek out victory.


While these are merely the best I found, there was at least another 5 I could find in the changed spells list of the Wrath beta. Yes, most of these are Retribution, but that's what I play. If you are Holy or Protection specced and want to give me your top 5, let me know in the comments and I will be happy to post them as a guest entry on this blog, or even link to your own. Keep reading for the next in the list of Top 5s from the beta and live game!