For The Paladin

I finally managed to get rid of that nasty virus, and now that I’ve reinstalled windows and installed and patched WoW I’m back in the game. So far I’ve gotten to 40 frost emblems and while I know it’s not enough to get any T10 pieces (which cost anywhere from 60 to 95 badges, which is a lot for someone who isn’t raiding ICC), I can say that my gear is improving thanks to the massive amount of triumph badges you can collect from doing 5-6 instances in a row.

Speaking of frost emblems, what piece should I get first? Click on my armory and let me know what you think!

Blizzard stated today that in the new expansion; Cataclysm, raid lockouts for 10 and 25 man raids will be the same. What exactly does this mean?

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)
We’re continuing to refine the raid progression paths in Cataclysm, and we’d like to share some of those changes with you today. Please enjoy!

We’re designing and balancing raids so that the difficulty between 10- and 25-player versions of each difficulty will be as close as possible to each other as we can achieve. That closeness in difficulty also means that we’ll have bosses dropping the same items in 10- and 25-player raids of each difficulty. They’ll have the same name and same stats; they are in fact the exact same items. Choosing Heroic mode will drop a scaled-up version of those items. Our hope is that players will be able to associate bosses with their loot tables and even associate specific artwork with specific item names to a far greater extent than today.

So it doesn’t matter whether you’re doing the 10 man or the 25 man of a raid, the item difference is between the normal and heroic versions of the raid. Personally, I think this is a great way to separate the casual raiders from the hardcore raiders and allows the hardcore to keep getting the best of the best gear while still keeping content open for those who don’t have the time to raid more than once or twice a week.

How do you feel about this upcoming change? Do you think that this will help or hurt the game?

Recently, I had gotten an invite from a RL friend to raid in a 10-man Trial of the Crusader as a tank. The problem was that because I was the Main Tank (and because I was given Raid Leader status to find another 6 people to raid alongside us), I was given the privilege of being the Raid Leader.

Now let’s get one thing straight. I can take orders no problem. I can also play my class pretty well and know all of the fights for all raid bosses up to Ice Crown Citadel. But ask me to lead a raid to downing a boss? You’re better off finding someone else to fill that position. Which leads me to this post: What does it take to be a good Raid Leader?

Communication

Obviously, communication is key. The ability to communicate with your raid and to make sure that not only they can understand you, but that you can understand them. All of the successful raids I’ve been in have had a Raid Leader who was constantly talking on Ventrilo, making sure that everyone was ready to go before each boss battle, tossing out bits of information here and there throughout the fight, and always keeping our spirits high when things weren’t looking so good. So make sure that if you plan on leading a raid, having good people skills is a major skill to have.

Strategy

How are you supposed to kill a boss without knowing what the boss does? Read up of course! While it’s important for the Raid Leader to know the strategies, it’s also important for the raid to read up on them too. In the case of “OH NOEZ I FORGOT TO READ THE STRATZ!” at least your Raid Leader can let you in on the information that your class is required to know in order to defeat the boss. I will admit that at times I would be thrown into a raid where I had no idea what was about to happen, but the Raid Leader was always there to show me who I was healing/where I was standing/what I was doing when a certain event happens.

Preparation

What do I mean by preparation exactly? You should be well prepared in game as well as out of game. In game, being stocked on all the necessary pots/buffs/enchantments is key not only in maximizing your DPS/Healing, but it also gives you that added bonus for your characters when their gear is lacking (but if you’ve ever raided before, you should already know that). Out of game, it helps that when a Raid Leader has set up a few hours to raid on a certain day, they are around for those hours uninterrupted. Raiding can be serious business when it has to be (just look at the top 10 raiding guilds in the world, do you think they got there by casually downing bosses?), and it takes a certain kind of focus to accomplish something as epic as a world-first kill. Rest assured, this post isn’t exactly about that, but even for raiding on a casual scale you need to focus and you need to be prepared to sit through wipes, especially if your raid is a PUG.

Anyone else have any good key components to being a good Raid Leader? Leave a comment or shoot me an email!

~Baros

A lot of times when I talk about WoW, one of my major topics of conversation is what it was like to play the game when it originally came out. It is with that thought that I’d like to present what (hopefully) will become a weekly ritual to forthepaladin: Raiding to the Past. In it, I will discuss raid bosses from raids past and discuss abilities, strategies, and other stories. Enjoy!

Magmadar

Attacks and Abilities (Thanks to WoWWiki.com)

* Magma Spit

Deals 93-107 Fire damage and an additional 75 Fire damage every 3 seconds for 30 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
School: Fire
Range: ?? yards

* Lava Breath

Inflicts 1157 to 1343 Fire damage to enemies in front of the caster.
School: Fire
Radius: 35 yards

* Panic

Panics nearby enemies, causing them to flee in fear for 8 sec.
Type: Magic
School: Shadow
Radius: 30 yards

* Lava Bomb

Throws a Lava Bomb at an enemy, creating a fire that inflicts 3200 Fire damage over 8 sec.
School: Fire
Range: 100 yards
Fire Radius: 5 yards

This boss was the first boss to introduce a reason for the spell Tranquilizing Shot, a hunter spell which was learned from a tome which dropped from Lucifron (Molten Core’s first boss). The idea was that he would enrage, which would cause his attack speed and damage to increase so heavily that main tanks everywhere would fall to his brute strength. It was also key to have a group of hunters with Tranq. shot so that they could keep a rotation of who was using the spell and whether it was a hit or a miss.

This was also the first boss that introduced the ever-so-simple raid tactic of “STAY OUT OF THE FIRE!” While unbelievably easy to counter, you will always encounter that one (or more) raid member who doesn’t realize that the orange-red stuff under his feet is actually killing his character. This maneuver has been a staple of many different raid bosses, and this was the first raid boss that implemented the strategy (at least, this is the first I can remember).

He also had a fear which made dwarf priests and shamen unbelievably useful. Why dwarf priests, you ask? Oh, that’s right, you might not remember. At one point, dwarf priests were the only priests (rather, the only race/class combo) that was given the spell Fear Ward, which made any single fear attack on the target null and void, thus breaking the ward. It was crucial that some kind of fear-dispelling spell was placed on the tank, because even though the tank would not lose aggro, Magmadar would follow the tank, which would put the healers out of max range, and thus vulnerable to the fear. If a fear ward or a tremor totem couldn’t be placed in time, a Warrior (yes, 10 times out of 10 the tank in Vanilla WoW was a warrior) would have to do something which is known as a “stance dance”, where he switches from defensive stance to bezerker stance, which would remove the fear, and then back to defensive stance.

If you could manage to stay out of the fear, the fire, and his face, you could end up with some phat loot, including your Tier 1 legs. My personal favorite was the Magma Tempered Boots. Here’s the rest:

Earthshaker
Eskhandar’s Right Claw
Striker’s Mark
Medallion of Steadfast Might
Obsidian Edged Blade
Quick Strike Ring
Aged Core Leather Gloves
Deep Earth Spaulders
Fire Runed Grimoire
Flameguard Gauntlets
Flamewaker Legplates
Mana Igniting Cord
Sabatons of the Flamewalker

And to think, at one point, this was some of the best loot you could find in the game…ahh the memories.

Anyway, tune in weekly for more Raiding to the Past!

~Baros

My computer got hit with a virus the other day, and with no other way to play WoW, i’m stuck not playing Baros until I can get it fixed… Crap.

I’ll update as soon as I can get back to a working computer.

~Baros

For retribution paladins, a solid DPS rotation is based on the fact that cooldowns are not coming up at the same time. In the case of rotation, many people go by what’s known as a “First Come First Serve” (FCFS) rotation. This is because there is no pattern in retribution paladin DPS that would allow us to simply set up our spells in a 1,2,3,4 fasion and just go down the list.

Just remember, on the off-chance that two spells come off the rotation at the same time, PRIORITIZE!

Judgement > Exorcism > Crusader Strike > Divine Storm > Consecration > Holy Wrath

Before any encounter, make sure you are set up for optimum DPS by having Retribution Aura on as well as Seal of Vengence or Corruption. Start off your “rotation” with a Judgement followed by a Consecration. I would go with Judgement of Wisdom because it isn’t your job to worry about heals. You should be more concerned about keeping your mana bar full, because without mana, you’re not going to be doing any serious DPS. Next I would open up a Crusader Strike, simply because it is instant cast, which means faster damage. Divine Strike is next on the list, and works wonders if you are in a group of mobs that require you to deal AoE damage. At this point, your Crusader Strike should be up again, so hit your mob with another one, and then you can follow up with an Exorcism (if the mob is a demon or undead, it will crit, which means extra damage spikes in your DPS). Mana may become an issue, but if you are constantly using Divine Plea, there should be no problems.

Now, some of you may be wondering “What happened to Seal of Command”? Well this spell was great back in the day, but after a few revisions of the spell, it turns out that Seal of Corruption does more overall DPS than Command. *Command may work better in PvP, but I have yet to test this out.

SO TO RECAP:

– There is no solid rotation for Retribution Paladin DPS. You should constantly be on the lookout for which spells are coming up next and use them as they come off the cooldowns.

– Prioritize your spells, make sure that you are doing the most DPS when two or more spells come off cooldown.

– Make sure you are making good use of your Divine Plea spell

Happy Playing!

~Baros