We’re So Talented! Paladin Edition, Tier 2: Control

Edit: Thanks to an observant commentator I have made some changes to this post. The edited portions are in italics, the errors are crossed out, or were removed.

Last week I covered the first tier of Paladin talents available at level 15. This week I’ll be discussing our Tier 2 talents, the theme of which is crowd control. I’m going to be upfront about my discomfort with this talent tier, which is mostly based around the idea that I don’t like having our baseline stun (Hammer of Justice, HoJ) removed. I understand that most classes don’t have a stun available across all three specs, but it was something I had become accustomed to. It makes the decision difficult for me, and maybe other paladins too. Whoops, huge gaff there. Turns out that FoJ will replace/modify the original ability. That doesn’t change my opinions of the other two talents, but it certainly does change the thought process that goes into choosing which one to take.

Level 30 Paladin talents

Fist of Justice –  Stuns the target for 6 seconds. Replaces Hammer of Justice. (3.5% base mana, 30 second CD)

Repentance – Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min.  Any damage from sources other than Censure will awaken the target.  Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead. (10.5% base mana, 1.5 sec cast)

Burden of Guilt – Your Judgment hits fill your target with doubt and remorse, reducing movement speed by 50% for 12 sec.

We’re So Talented! DK Edition, Tier 2: Utility

Welcome to the second installment of Death Knight talent analysis here at Dreadblade. This week I will be fighting with people who argue that Anti-Magic Zone is useless looking at Tier 2 talents available to level 57 Death Knights. I consider this tier to be our utility tier. Each talent offers some benefits to your character and raid. Let’s dive in.

Utility Talents available at level 57

Lichborne – Draw upon unholy energy to become undead for 10 sec.  While undead, you are immune to Charm, Fear, and Sleep effects, and Death Coil will heal you. (No cost, 2 min cooldown)

Anti-Magic Zone – Places a large, stationary Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party or raid members inside it by 75%.  The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 10 sec or until it absorbs at least 136800 + ((STR * 4)) spell damage. (No cost, 2 min cooldown, base absorb scales with level)

Purgatory – An unholy pacts grants you the ability to fight on through damage that would kill mere mortals. When you would sustain fatal damage, you instead are wrapped in a Shroud of Purgatory, absorbing incoming healing equal to the amount of damage prevented, lasting 3 sec. If any healing absorption remains when Shroud of Purgatory expires, you die. Otherwise, you survive.  This effect may only occur every 3 min. (No cost, passive activation)

We’re So Talented! Paladin Edition, Tier 1: Movement

Paladin talent tier discussion will be updated every Thursday, and this week I will talk briefly about the talent choices available to level 15 characters.

I’m really pleased with the theme and placement of these talent choices. Paladins have long (and frequently) complained about run speed and gap closers, and Tier 1 addresses those issues. It also gives new paladins a huge boost in questing and PvP, which will help make their experience more enjoyable. Before looking at each talent individually, its clear that is a well placed, well designed talent tier.

Talent Choice for Paladins at level 15

Speed of Light – Increases your run speed by 70% for 8 seconds. (1 min cooldown, 3.5% base mana)

Long Arm of the Law – A successful Judgment increases your movement speed by 45% for 3 seconds.

Pursuit of Justice – You gain 10% movement speed at all times, plus an additional 10% movement speed for each current charge of Holy Power up to 3.

We’re So Talented! DK Edition, Tier 1: Diseases

As a hero class new Death Knight characters start at level 55. In the old talent system that meant a multitude of talent points to assign rapidly while leveling. Now, it means one talent tier each level starting with 56. On Dreadblade, I will be doing a weekly analysis of Paladin and Death Knight talents. New DK talent tiers will be updated on Tuesdays, and Paladin choices on Thursday.

Disclaimer: Let’s remember that not all of Warcraft’s millions of subscribers are serious raiders or PvPers

Tier 1 talent choices are available to level 15 characters. Here are the Death Knight choices:

Disease Based Talents Available at Level 56

Addressing the DK: 666 Acherus Drive, The Ebon Hold, E. Plaguelands

I took a brief break from Warcraft this past week, but I’m back and have caught myself up with some Death Knight news. I strongly suggest reading Kalc’s post at Unliving a Death Knight because it will give some background to today’s post. I have decided to weigh in on a few specific topics because without focus this article could go off on 4 or 5 tangents.

Blood Tanking

I wish the original post had been a bit more organized, and while I don’t agree with all of it, it raises a few good points. First off, giving DK tanks their proactive (Blood Shield) and reactive (Death Strike Healing) abilities in the same attack (Death Strike) is part of the problem here. It would be a more interesting system to give the proactive portion of tanking to Heart Strike. If you are unfamiliar, Death Strike costs 1 Unholy and 1 Frost Rune, and generates 2 Death Runes in its place, heals the Death Knight AND places an absorption shield called Blood Shield. Heart Strike hits multiple targets and costs 1 Blood Rune.

Consider a small change where Heart Strike provided Blood Shield. Now when the tank has death runes available, they can choose between proactive or reactive abilities based on the situation. This would be an improvement on what is already a pretty good system. If  we made this change then it would make more sense for Death Strike to generate Death Runes than it does now, since we use the Death Runes on Death Strike anyway, which is silly and redundant.

Death Knight Talent Synergy in MoP

Between listening to podcasts and reading articles I’m interested in the idea of synergy between new talents in the Mists of Pandaria expansion. I think this is an interesting concept and I’m excited about getting into it.

Let’s look at a few death knight talents that work together regardless of spec. After looking through the talents I find most of the synergy in combinations to be heavily oriented towards PvP play.