Post 40

Post 40. Not over the hill yet. Actually, I don’t even have the goodies like Crusader Strike, Avenging Wrath, Crusader Aura, or even Seal of Corruption yet. So this is like midlife crisis. Or actually, mid-20s crisis. this happened right after I graduated college, actually, when working at my first job. I seemed to always wonder if I took the right courses in college, attained the right degree, or even accepted the right job (after about a month of searching, I only received one offer, so maybe the question was, should I have waited another month for a better job?). but well whatever the case, being level 44 now, it feels as though im in that stage where I don’t know what to do.

I seem to have my skills learned, but now, for the next 36 levels, im going to have to hone my skills to become a better ret pala. (I don’t have the goodies yet, but I do have the major seals) I think the area of homogeneousness ended roughly around level 20, where I picked up Seal of Command, Exo, and Consecrate. Although, I do think that, if I were to have gone prot, I would have wanted Seal of Command first, then switch over to fill out my prot tree. Then, at 60, respec to full prot in order to get Hammer of the Righteous, and then slowly begin to fill out the ret tree to get back SoComm and Pursuit of Justice again. I think that would be most optimal, since at levels 20 to 59, I wont have any AoE besides consecrate, and consecrate sucks mana like a "whale" sucks "plankton". So SoComm does wonders with trash, and a switch to SoRright works wonderfully for bosses until I get SoCorruption. Heck, I cant wait to get SoCor+ DS. Divine Storm will destroy trash, as ret. =]

But right now, at 44, since I have pretty much everything really need, im given the opportunity to learn my seals. yep, I figured out why palas get one (yes, just ONE) offensive attack, and that's because blizz wants us to learn how to manage our seals. they don’t want us to simply pick a seal and go with it forever, but rather, they want us to learn how we can utilize our seals in different situations to get the most benefit out of a fight. and not just "know" it like mentally, but "know" it to the point where it becomes second nature. Low on mana? Seal of Wisdom. Low on health? Seal of Light. All full on health/mana and fighting a group? Seal of Command. Full on health/mana and fighting one mob? Righteousness.

It's pretty strange that for 44 levels, I really havent been judging then auto-attacking the whole time, although on the surface, that's what it looks like. but I was really getting trained to use my pally to its fullest potential. every pull, every situation, every layout of mobs/trash/etc becomes a training ground in using my skills to best keep me alive. Also, my "oh crap" spells are being used more often. I find myself having no issues using any of my bubbles. I even jump off high cliffs and the zepplin just to use a bubble. cant wait til hit howling fjord to do some basejumping.

Since I've hit level 40, I was able to talent into Judgement of the Wise and Art of War, which has given me awesome mana replenishment and the option to do two extra things during combat. Judgement of the Wise allow me to regain mana back two ways. one, there is a direct chance I will get 25% of base mana back per judgement. im currently talented 2/3 into it. so I get the proc maybe 2 out of every three judgements, which is plenty for now. Also, I've put 2/2 in Art of War, which gives me the option to use an instant Flash of Light or Exo. This is almost too awesome. I find myself wasting a GCD just healing myself in-battle instead of waiting til the battle's over. Also, if AoW procs late in the battle, I find that im better off using the heal if im low on health, or waiting to use it on Exo for the next pull. I rarely use an AoW-Exo since it still has a long cooldown, and I'd like it to be ready immediately after a battle so I can pull again. but for longer fights, using an AoW-procced Exo is great added dps.

The next tier will be a bit difficult to decide upon. Well, more like, which do I get first? I want both of these talents NAO! Sheath of Light and Crusader Strike. One will increase my spell power handsomely, and the other will give me my second base attack. It will be hard to choose between the two but im leaing towards sheath of light first, since it will increase my total output for all my spells and abilities. Not only that, having Crusader strike now will mean more mana usage, although its very small comparatively. its just as expensive as a judgement. and it will mean a changeup in my rotations. perhaps I should get it early on and get used to it, but then again, at 60 I get DS, so that will change my gameplay a bit also. What does this all mean? I get about 10-13 levels to learn to weave in CS before I get a new spell… that's it? yep. that’s the only difference. I may as well wait.

So upon achieving level 40 and slowly progressing towards my mid 40s, im having a blast playing my paladin. its not all about offensive spell selections, rotations or whatnot, but more about defensive spells, utility spells, and staying alive while doing alright dps. A hand to blizzard for making the paladin class actually fun to learn and play.

As far as gear goes, I still have one piece of plate gear. It's annoying how they planned the drops in SM to be mail gear, only to introduce platemail a level or two after you get the really awesome Scarlet Crusader's set, or the shoulders from Herod. Then from levels 40 to maybe 50, we're in search of plate to replace our mail gear. So here I stand, at 44, about to be 45, with one piece of plate, and that was a random dungeon reward. my god. who thought of this?

Maybe we should be given the option to add "plate" to our mail gear if we, one, have the skill to wear plate, and two, are wearing mail gear from our level 30's and 40s. There's an abundance of plate gear in outlands, so I don’t think adding plate to mail gear after level 58 is necessary. Make it a BS ability. or make it a BS enhancement item they can sell. that would rock.

On second thought, I don’t know if this is even necessary. Since we go through armor so fast, and the only benefit of plate at our levels would be the added armor, as im sure everything else stat-wise will remain the same, we may as well just stick with enchanting or leather armor kits to beef up our gear. I really do not see an added benefit to go through adding plate to mail armor when we can add leather to all armor. all as in all types: cloth, leather, mail, plate. and not all as in all armor slots. I just wanna say that because I know someone might pick at that statement.

and I realized I was spelling Judgement wrong for the past month. apologies.