Tuesday, October 19, 2010

week 2 of 4.0

Well, we survived the first week of patch 4.0.1, congratulations!

Last week I didn't get much raiding done because Tuesday was canceled, Wednesday we called early (too many people DCing every time they zoned), so we maybe got 3 good hours of raiding. Holy Paladin is... interesting. I jumped into it knowing I had a lot to learn, trying my darnedest to ramp up holy power and get as many Word of Glorys as humanly (spacegoatly?) possible.

It's hard, though, because even busting my ass I feel like I'm just not as useful as those priests and druids. Granted, druids didn't get drastic changes, but I giggle every time I proc replenishment. Hots are neat! Yesterday, I went into a 25 man run with my priest and I HAD SUCH A BLAST WITH CHAKRA. You mean they have a spell that changes depending on what chakra state you go into?! HOLY WORD CHASTISE IS AMAZING OMFG.

Muradin muses about holy paladins in 4.0 in her post "4.0 Healing is a Joke and Paladins are the Punchline." She pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about paladins right now.

Ghostcrawler talks about the present and future of holy paladins here. The long and short of it is, paladins are balanced at 85, not 80, and the spell we get in a couple of levels will make it all better (oh and the MS on Divine Plea is staying. Dfrnt classes r dfrnt!). I don't agree. I have a hard time swallowing that one spell will make the difference. Not when priests and druids have an entire arsenal of cool things. I'm not wishing for nerfs on either of them (I still play them after all), but you could take away one single spell from either of them and it wouldn't change the playstyle too much. Sure, it would suck to not have Prayer of Mending, but I don't think it would "break" priests. Right now, I feel like pallies are broken. The addition of one spell can not--and should not--fix that.

I don't mean for this to be QQ. I can envision the future, where mana is constrained. My paladin does have a lot more mana efficiency than my priest- I ran dangerously close to OOM yesterday on my priest several times, but on my pally I was able to heal heroic Saurfang using all Flash of Light and still couldn't put a dent on my mana pool. I'm not saying mana won't be a consideration for holy paladins, but having two cheap heals and a second resource could end up being more powerful than it is now. Currently, WoG is nice but not necessary. If it becomes necessary (and I think it will), that does change things.

But I just can't compare the fun I had playing my priest to the awkwardness I felt on my paladin. AND SERIOUSLY WHY IN THE HELL DOES DIVINE PLEA STILL HALVE MY HEALING?!?!?!?!

Sorry, I'm done now.

In the next few weeks, I may not be posting very often. Every year I do an excessive amount of cookie baking, and there's about 8 weeks left until Christmas, which means I'm already behind compared to last year. Yeeps. With Cata coming out in about 6 weeks, I'll need to have most of my baking done to start leveling. So, I'll be playing less, and at this point in the expansion I can't think of too many (pressing) blog topics anyways. Things may be quiet around here, but I'll be back to talk about my experiences in Cataclysm. And of course, I'll be passing along links from my favorite paladin bloggers!

5 comments:

  1. I think everyone is just loving their alts and hating their mains right now, heh. Because for me trying the new healing style on my holy pally alt was fascinating and fun, while my holy priest just frustrates me with the whole Chakra thing. For me every healing class but holy priest looks more attractive right now.

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  2. I am trying to remain optimistic that you're right, Shintar. Paladins did get the biggest overhaul, and I'm known for my resistance to change (even changes I believe to be good!)

    I think lots of folks are feeling the "grass is greener" syndrome right now. I'm definitely not declaring a new main yet or anything, not until I a few more weeks to get to know the specs.

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  3. Hi! Wow, what an honor to see my blog post linked on your site. Thank you for the love. :) I admit, I'm feeling very frustrated right now. But, I'm trying to work through my QQ and figure out how to be a viable healer again.

    I reforged and gemmed for spirit to help with my mana issues. I'll be sure to update and let you know if it helps!

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  4. Thanks for stopping by, Janyaa! I look forward to hearing how your spirit experimentation works out.

    I am a bit low on the spirit side (250ish base + raid buffs), but I haven't been able to run myself oom yet. Close, but not entirely. :D

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  5. New post up. I think the spirit helped me quite a bit. Although, I may have stacked too much and have readjusted to add more mastery and haste.

    Also, I added you to my blogroll! :)

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