My Frost DK for Cata

I know this is a little late in coming and many sites have their own frost dk advice already, but i felt that maybe someone can find my information useful should they stumble upon this blog.

As many of you know, i prefer melee dps when i dps.  back when i first started playing wow, i thought i'd be a good mage.  but as time wore on and i learned how to use my strafe buttons more (really, my n52 controller makes it a breeze) i began to love melee dps.  this began the obsession with my feral druid and later moved on to my DK, paladin, warrior, rogue and, finally, my mage.  =D  I'll explain more about my mage later.

But of all the dps characters i played, i loved the wotlk paladin and dk the most.  now that they've changed the whole design of playing a paladin, i feel like a very gimped rogue. Although the holy power system is not reliant on the mob you're facing, but rather, its energy built and sustained with you no matter how many times you switch mobs (and surely, a rogue should be able to put multiple stacks of combo points on multiple mobs at the same time).  inquisition feels like savage roar or slice and dice.  and procs (or lack thereof) only add to the incredible inconsistancy of every fight.  i dont like it one bit.  now i do like procs.  but for the paladin, i dont see it working well with our holy power system.  now in comes the dk.  it hasnt changed much throughout the years.  each deathknight spec used to have its own flavor of tanking and dps.  now we have one dedicated tanking tree and two dps trees.  the whole dual weild vs. 2hander debate continues (although 2handers have had the edge for ages) til this day and the whole class has gotten its share of loltards.

PvE Frost DK Basic Talent Tree
I've chosen dual wield since i like the idea of walking around with two one-handers.  this is the only reason why i've gone dual wield vs. a single 2hander.  i dont think it matters much in the end (apart from stat priorities), so pick whichever your heart desires.  some will argue that a single 2hander will do more damage.  that's great if you care that you're doing 15,684 dps vs 15,612 dps.  overall, it doesnt matter.  and those numbers were taken directly out of my ass, so take it for what its worth.  what matters more is that you, me, and everyone else enjoy the game play while doing their best.  some folks like to enjoy the game without doing jack, at the expense of others carrying them.  that's not what im talking about.  at least, if you choose to be in a sub-optimal spec (ie. sub rogues) at least play it to your best ability.  thats all i ask.

There are three talents in which you will have to decide upon based on your choice of weapon:
1. Nerves of Cold Steel for dual wielding.
2. Threat of Thassarian for dual-wielding.
3. Might of the Frozen Wastes for single, 2-handers.

These talents arent mutually exclusive, but picking all (3 points each) will waste 3 to 6 talent points no matter how you look at it, since, if you're using a 2-hander, you get no benefit from Nerves or Threat and if you're dual-wielding, you'll get no benefit from Might.  Do not pick them all simply because you want the ease of switching between dual-weild or 2handers without respec or switching talent specs.  This is suboptimal and will rob you of precious extra damage you can be doing, or wasted on utility talents you can place elsewhere.

Overall, the talents are cut and dry with some variations on the subspec options.
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jZMI0bfuRzf

What i've left out of this spec is the last two talents necessary to reach howling blast.  What you'll need to decide, for yourself, is whether you prefer Endless Winter, On a Pale Horse, Merciless Combat, or Runic Power Mastery.  There's a total of four points in which you can choose to use in any of these talents.  The only one with direct dps increase would be Merciless Combat. Some people prefer the utility of having free mind freezes whenever they're necessary or added speed increase to their movement or more runic power so they do not lose runic power from being "capped".   Once you decide which talents you prefer, finish the tree with Howling Blast.  Now you're set to move to the blood or unholy trees.

Some pointers regarding Merciless Combat:  you'll get more mileage out of this talent if you raid more.  Seeing that most raid bosses spend a lot of time under 35% makes this talent worth while.  however, you can also argue that even for trash mobs, they will have a point in time where they will be below 35% health too.  my argument to this is that you can only dps so many at once, and if you're lucky, you might get two Obliterates in before the mob you're targeting dies.  If things line up perfectly, this will be a great talent for trash.  but more often than not, i find mobs under 35% dont live long enough for me to take advantage of this talent.  again, mileage may vary. 

From the above talent tree i ended up taking Runic power mastery because i find myself capped at 100% often, and an extra strike will have wasted my runic power buildup.  it isnt necessary to do this if you're good at weaving in frost strikes between your normal strikes, but its tough to get it down right all the time, especially when there's interupting, running out of bad, activating cooldowns, etc to deal with.  i find the extra 20 (or 30) runic power to my power bar becomes a godsend at times. 
Here is what the distribution looks like now:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jZrI0bfuRzfz

As far as subtrees and dps goes, putting 3 points in bladed armor in the blood tree is the first step there.  In the unholy tree, you'll want Epidemic to extend the life of your diseases since this talent will save you precious dps time reapplying diseases.  Honestly, i'd pick Obliterate over having to Icy Touch+Plague Strike, Or Howling Blast+Plague Strike a second or time in a fight when i dont have to with Epidemic.  Also, do not forget Virulence, as it increases disease damage by a lot.  After auto-attack, Obliterate and Frost Strike,  your diseases should be fourth in damage done.

Now, with my options to pick Endless Winter and Runic Power Master as my optional talents, i end up with this: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#j0hZrI0bfuRzfzMh

Now, there's two more talent points to be used.  And really, there isnt very many choices left.  If you find yourself in 5-man dungeons often, you might want to go for Morbidity in the Unholy tree.  This will give you more damage to your Death and Decay.  I often pull this spell out once in a while when i find that i have an extra unholy rune to use.  Death and Decay is not my primary aoe spell as frost since i already have howling blast (when glyphed, will add Frost Fever, so double the awesome!).  Honestly, you'll barely miss the aoe damage that DnD does when you're busy doing HB to everything in sight.  It will only become an afterthought once you try to figure out what to do with the extra unholy runes you have (PS, FeS or DnD).

Besides Morbidity, you can also choose Butchery in the Blood tree.  This will give you extra runic power (however small that might be) but it might be a dealbreaker when you're stuck at 30 RP and wished you had 32 RP for that last frost strike.  Yes, it does make a little difference, but no, it also doesnt make that much of a difference.  And giving you 10 RP when you kill a mob probably means that you have to do the killing blow.  This might be great for solo play but the odds of you actually landing the killing blow on a mob is about 25%.  more or less depending on group composition.

Finally, you can use the last two talent points in the frost tree.  yes, you can do that.  there's nothing against that. As for me, if i wanted to, i can put the remaining points into Merciless Combat, since my build didnt have that. Or, on a pale horse offers some utility.  

Another toss up, if you want some utility, would be Desecration in the Unholy tree vs. Chillblains in the Frost tree.  both will cause a slowing effect, but with 20 second Desecration, they will be slowed when in a circle area whereas with Chillblains, the mobs will be slowed for 10 seconds so long as they've been hit with Frost Fever.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses.  And if you end up thinking Runic power mastery is for the less alert, and who needs On a Pale Horse when you have speed enchants on your boots, then go for Chillblains or Desecration.... or both or Endless Winter, or Morbidity if you really like DnD.  Keep in mind, the slowing effects wont stack.  If you run with an unholy dk, chances are they already have Desecration ;)

So with that, i leave you with a talent tree with options. Some options are better than other options based on how you play, what you prefer, and what enchants and/or glyphs you might have. 

As seen above, I have two points left in which to spend anywhere (again, with the optional points in Runic Power Mastery and Endless Winter, which can also go anywhere).  It is up to you, the player, to determine where these talents go.  Please dont put all your talents into the frost tree, as these will not be as useful in DPS as some of the talents in the Unholy or Blood Trees.  Once you're able to add points to the other trees, i would suggest adding points to Epidemic. It will lessen the amount of times you refresh your diseases on boss fights and will almost eliminate refreshing your diseases on dungeons mobs (boss or trash) in TBC and Wrath dungeons.

I wanted to highlight the talent points you'll definitely need in the picture above, but MS Paint isnt giving me the options i need.  If you read through the blog post and click on the links, you'll be able to see which talents are "needed" and which are filler.  Sorry, i cant make a TL:DR picture for the masses.  =[

Also note two talent points in the middle:  Hungering Cold and Pillar of Frost. 

Before 4.0 we had this cooldown called Unbreakable Armor, which increased our strength for a while. This is basically what Pillar of Frost is.  Take it.  Use it often!

As for Hungering Cold, this seems more like a pvp ability to me, and rightly so, as it freezes enemies in place.  But dont forget that even if the spell is primarily aimed at PvPers, it still has it's PvE uses.  Ignoring the high cost of the spell (and dont glyph it unless you'll pvp), it can be useful in certain situations.  learn to use it since you will already have it, as it's necessary to take in order to get Howling Blast anyway.  But think about all the little spots in dungeons and raids that you can use this ability, especially if you dont have a mage and for a split second, thought to yourself, "A frost nova would be great right about now."  It will be worth while. 

In the future, i'd like to continue this pseudo guide with a post on stats, gemming, enchanting and reforging with a post on how to actually play the DK (you know, when you actually have to dance and press buttons).  But for now, the talent points will hopefully help a lot of people out there. 

DK Blood Tanking Lv 60

Death Knight Tanking So Far

So my girl and i decided to make death knights!  i already have several death knights.  Unholy Tank, Frost DPS, and some others i got bored with.  What i find most interesting is the whole experience of tanking at level 60, and then turning around and healing other DK tanks at the same level.  Here is my experience so far.

Death Knight's POV
Here i am standing at the entrance of Ramparts, level 60, with brand new spells like Death and Decay.  I dont have all the talents i need yet to be effective (and when i say effective, i mean super good that everyone praises me and stays in hopes that i queue up again).  But i do have enough points to do what i need to do.

Preface:  There are talents in every tree for tanking, and in the first tier.  these talents should be used by all tanks at level 60, even if it keeps us from the juicy Howling Blast talent.  These talents are easy to get, as they're in the first tier of each tree.  Blood tree, get Blade Barrier. Frost tree, get Toughness.  Unholy tree, get Anticipation.  These talents are there for every Dk to easily get so they can tank effectively in any spec they choose.

I am spec'd in blood so i have some of the juicy self-healing spells that totally rock.  i also have the DK's version of the warrior's last stand.  I am sooooo hoping for icebound fortitude soon (warrior version is shield wall), which will reduce the damage taken by about 40%.  since i dont have defense rating, i'll need to glyp it, but i already have my two glyph slots filled (dilemas!!!) with Death Strike and Vampiric Blood.  I should probably get rid of the DS glyph. its more damage anyway.  I was thinking of replacing it with Rune Strike, but +10% crit "can" help, but not really if my main concern is just to hold aggro and stay up.

My blood tree is filled with talents that improve my survival, increases my runic regeneration, and gives me nifty tools to regain lost health.  it does not include any extra crit, but i do have the 2-hand weapon talent.  more damage is, actually, more threat.  but im more concerned about survival. 

I've also gone ahead and put 5 points in the frost tree in Toughness and 5 points in Unholy tree in Anticipation.  These are the bread and butter of tanking, but it does require 10 points spent elsewhere, and early on.  optimally, we'd want to spend those 10 points after we fill up 51 points in our main tree.  but for tanking, im at 40/5/5 instead of 50/0/0.  Since i only have 40 points in Blood, one juicy tanking talent (the one that reduces damage if im lower than 35% health, i forgot the name) is missing.  Imagine being a Frost tank, and not having howling blast (a staple) until level 70 because we have to spend 5 points in blood and 5 points in unholy first.  that sucks for frost tanks (unless they skip Blade Barrier and Anticipation to fill them up between 60-70). 

I am now building up my unholy tree and hopes to get a shorter cooldown/CD on Death and Decay and longer disease durations.  As of right now with zero points in Morbidity, i find that if DPS are decent, we will kill a group about 10 secnods before my DnD is refreshed.  What i'd like, is for the DnD to be available immediately after killing one group, so that i can use it on the next, or that i can use it again should there be adds. 

What i also find is that tanking is not as smooth as dps.  every pull requires Death and Decay.  why?  because of Disarms.  that's correct. for those who have never tanked Ramps, it is an annoyance for many tanks due to the mob's disarm effect.  they will "disarm" me for several seconds.  in which time, i am unable to attack much (but i do punch!) so having DnD down to maintain aggro is a great tool.  I cant imagine tanking without some AoE tool that will allow me to hold aggro until i get my sword back. and once i do get my sword back, i get disarmed again after a hit.  its quite annoying, but im still doing my job.  oh how i miss DPS.  i never get disarmed and my rotations are always as smooth as silk.

Positioning: In terms of positioning, Ramps is quite a challenge.  Every group is spread apart OK, with very little wiggle room to move around.  Not only that, there are patrols roaming around.  If those patrols arent dispatched properly, they can aggro during a fight (and not only the patrols, but also the group standing close enough to the patrols, so then you'll be dealing with two GROUPS of adds, instead of just one).  what i try to do is face the mobs to the side so my back is usually against the wall.  this offers lots of camera angling and zooming just to be able to see around me, but it keeps me and the DPS from "butt" pulling the next group. To butt pull, simply walk backwards into a group.  They will notice your butt and spank it.

This "buttpull" happens a lot with new tanks, actually.  They seem to not realize that when they charge into a group of mobs, the melee dps needs to stand BEHIND the mobs they're tanking.  in so doing, there is a possibility that the DPS will aggro a new group.  This is stupid play and all tanks should learn to move the group of mobs to a safer spot in order for the dps to actually stand behind the mobs.  now if you have only ranged dps, where the tank faces sometimes does not matter.  The tank still needs to be able to face the group to see if there are mobs running to chew on the healer or ranged dps.  but i find this practice uncommon in the many instances i've been in lately. 

Although it seems like i can handle two groups of mobs at a time, i usually try to keep it to one group only.  the reason for this is that i do not have all my cooldowns yet, my rune usage is wonky, i dont have rune strike until level 66 and i do feel a bit squishy.  When am i not squishy?  when i never dip below 35% health (this is when Mik's Scrolling Combat Test chimes me that im low in health).  But when the healer constantly has to work to keep me up, i know that im taking a lot of damage.  Whats strange is that i've healed many dk tanks similar to me and it felt just fine.  my mana usage was decent, my heals were flowing nicely, and i rarely had to use Nature's Swiftness emergency spell.  But when it comes down to me tanking, i have this irrational idea that if i dip too low in health, i shouldnt tank (maybe this is due to countless heroics where i've tanked, and kept many tanks up where we're never below 50% health unless somoeone screwed up bad). 

Anyway, that about wraps up my thoughts on level 60 tanking.  it sucks.  i dont know how people do it. 

Death Knight DPS Spec vs. Tanking Spec

Here's why i am writing this post:

GF: Hey which DK spec is for tanking?
Me: All of them.
GF: ???   What about DPS?
Me: All of them.
GF: What?
Me: It depends on the talents within each spec. 


So here's a picture i stole somewhere on the internet. it shows the basic Unholy DK DPS build that many people have agreed as good.  Well, i took it a bit futher and put yellow boxes around the talents an Unholy DK would pick if he were to tank as Unholy.  Then i crossed out some of the talents that's blatantly for dps (as in, no respectable tank would ever pick these talents. although there's some talents in the blood tree that needs to be "wasted" to get to improved runetap). 

Click Pic to Enlarge

Note that this is the level 80, single target (ie. bosses) talent spec.  leveling spec would be a little different but very much the same.  also the only different between this spec and an AoE spec is the switching of two talents.  otherwise, everything's the same.  note that for tanking, you'll need talents from every tree.  note also that some of your fun dps talents are crossed out.  this is because no tank needs a ghoul, and no tank needs a gargoyle.  those are strictly for dps.  since this is an unholy spec, you're also giving up some nice dps talents from the blood tree as well.  you still want 2hand swords, but you're going to give up some in bladed armor to jump to blood tap and improved blood tap. 

I can do this for the Blood tree and the frost tree as well, but since my GF is Unholy, i fugred this is the best way to explain so she'll have some idea what im talking about.  unholy dps is really good with the AoE dps.  I also find that Frost dps is great as well.  Blood dps is solid, but rather boring.  tanking, however, is a totally different game and requires a familiarity with your buttons and surroundings that requires a good proficiency in one of the three specs.  what i mean to say is, get good with one spec before you plan on tanking in that spec. 

So to debunk some common misconceptions (pre-cata, ofc)...

1. All specs can tank.

2. The difference between dps and tank are the talent choices within their relative tree.

3. Frost is not THE tanking spec.

4. Unholy DPS is the highest dps spec, for you.  this means that if you spec into all three specs, assuming skill level is the same, you'll do more dps as unholy.  This does not mean that i wont come by in my frost dps spec (and since my skill > your skill) and decimate your dps.  again, assuming the same skill level, unholy will do more dps.

Updates Updates Updates

Let me just say a few things about this Enhancement Shaman… it sucks at level 10.   let me tell you I spend all my time in melee range casting lightning bolt.  how enhancement is that?  and the totem quests are a bit out there.  I know I have to do a bit of legwork, but hell, it sucks having to run around back and forth to get something only to find out that I have to go find someone else to do something else and so forth and so on.  im not just talking about the shaman totem quests, but also the warlock pets quests where somehow, in order to summon up a feldog, I had to run around the world several times.  not fun when all I really want to do is play around with enhancement.  what? I don’t actually get to play enhancement until level 30? are you serious? 

That’s like the paladin not able to really "tank" until level 60.  or the ret paladin not getting a second attack spell until level 40. oh and the druids don’t get cat form until level 20.  annoying.  these are pretty annoying since, you know, the NON hybrid classes are what they are at level 1.  mages are mages.  warlocks are warlocks even without the pet, hunters are hunters.  rogues are rogues.  but shamans are elemental shamans and cannot specialize into restoration until at least level 10, and not into enhancement until level 30 when they supposedly get some good enhancement attack.  prot paladins don’t really get much to go by.  consecration at 20, avenger's shield sometime later.  then finally, at 60, you can get hammer of the righteous.  and then seal of command?  please, I'd rather have seal of command for tanking any day.  druids are balance druids.  they cannot be feral until 20.  feral bear at 10?  what? that’s the dumbest thing anyone's ever thought of really.  no one levels or even quests as a bear.  they only tank as a bear. useless for 5 levels at least until they're able to use the dungeon finder.  no really, cat form at level 5 would be awesome for the levelers, especially one who never really cared for the "balance" tree anyway.

Anyway, that is my rant.  I spent one whole day on totem quests and felhound quests.  also spent half the time traveling because there are no shaman trainers in SMC.  cant we have trainers in every city?  they can just be at an embassy.  I don’t care.  but come on, the world of azeroth is a lot smaller now and all the factions should have trainers at every other city, like when a paladin decides to level up in mulgore he should be able to train in thunderbluff.  heck, druids have a trainer in SMC, why not shamans?

So wifey decides to make a paladin.  she loves it now.  it seams that "Holy LIght" is an awesome tool.  indeed it is, and should be used often.  so now there's a level 15ish paladin and a level 31 warlock now.  Anyway, paladining seems fun to her and so sure, she's gonna level that and I thought it would be super cool if I leveled a shaman, since, after all, people have been saying how many of the buffs they have go well together.  I don’t know the details, but I guess so.  in any case, I'll probably level as elemental since I cant really do enhance at the moment.  or resto.  I did put some points into faster healing waves.  might as well heal right?

and that is basically what's been going on with me over the weekend.  upcoming this week will be a post (hopefully) about Vuhdo. I've been meaning to write about it for the logest time and even have a partial post under construction about it. 

Until then, peace.

SoR vs. SoCom

Of the two seals I am currently using for damage, Seal of Righteousness and Seal of Command, I assumed that they were both used for different uses. Since SoR adds some holy damage to my attacks, and SoComm does damage to two additional mobs, I guessed that SoR will be my go-to single-target seal for boss fights and for solo play if I was able to pull mobs one at a time. SoComm would come into play mainly on multiple-mob encounters, primarily in instances, but also in open world content where I cannot pull one mob at a time. With this constant switching back and forth, I've developed a sort of mental trigger to constantly look at my seals and choose the right one. I have Smartbuff looking out for SoComm, and when I put on SoR, it will constantly nag me that I need to buff with SoCom.

Well, I decided last night to test out both seals. At level 46, I ran over to Tanaris and found the level 46-47 Ogres standing around in the middle of the desert. Why a bunch of ogres would want to stand around ruins in the middle of the desert is beyond me. but they were there, surrounding a small oasis. Ok, so it was the Oasis that they were guarding. But couldn’t they have found a better place somewhere else to inhabit? In any case, I started my test off with SoR. Ran around and attacked, one-by-one, all the ogres I could find. I was successful in never pulling more than one mob at a time. What was the result?

SoR produced 150dps. it isnt the 200-300 dps I do in instances, but that's because I am not attacking five to ten mobs at once. 150dps didn’t sound so bad, but I was hoping for up to 180 or even 200 dps like I was doing in STV. but I realized quickly that in STV, I was usually attacking two mobs at once, or aggroing a second mob while halfway finished with my first mob. They're pretty close together or their patrol paths always seem to be close to where I decide to pull the mob I want to attack. So with these almost stationary ogres, with some pathers/patrollers, I was able to kill one at a time with ease.

When I was halfway through with the camp, I switched to SoCom. The result? I started off doing much less dps, about 110dps at first. but after about five mobs, I was going at around 150dps. I did this for the remaining half of the camp, which included that one mini-boss inside his cave. But fighting him felt like just fighting a regular mob, but with some unlucky RNG streaks (you know, when you see all the misses and parries and wonder whats wrong with the RNG? yea that). Here's the screenie.

My fighting style was completely identical in both cases. I would usually open up with Exo, then judge, usually with Wisdom, but sometimes with Light. When AoW procs, if it's early on in the fight and I have exo to use, I would use exo, otherwise, I would use FoL. If im full on health, I'll wait on the proc to see if I will need it when it nears the end of its duration. at around 3-5 seconds remaining, if the mob is near dead and I have full health, I'd skip it. If the mob is near dead and I have 80% health or less, I'll use an FoL. If the mob is not close to dead I'll use Exo again, despite my health. I usually try to end the fight with Exo off cooldown so I can pull again. Sometimes I'll heal myself after the fight with a Holy Light. Never once did I have to stop to drink because Judgment of the Wise procs often (still talented at 2/3, so 67% chance of procs per judgement), replenishment procs often, and using Judgement of Wisdom about 75% of the time.

I go through mobs fast enough to only lose, at most (and this doesn’t happen often), about 50% of my health. but usually, I lose about 30% of my health, which is quickly replaced by AoW-FoL in-combat. Also, at times where I do reach 50%, I do a holy light out of combat and im back at full. With my mana bar never dipping below 50% (usually at about 70-90%), the mana cost in casting a Holy Light once every four of five pulls is trivial.

This reaffirms several of my beliefs already:

1. Deflection > Benediction for leveling - you don’t need the mana savings.
2. 2/3 Judgement of the Wise is all you need (2 points in this is better than 5 points in benediction; 2 points work wonderfully whereas 3 points can be overkill).
3. Art of War procs do not use up too much mana when coupled with Judgement of the Wise (since it procs insta Exo or FoL, using those spells cost mana, and since we're using them more, we're using up more mana. great way to balance more mana usage with more mana recovery).
4. Seal of Light is useless (although fun to use as a learning tool before AoW).
5. Seal of Wisdom is useless (although fun to use as a learning tool before Judgements of the Wise).
6. Mana conservation and utilization is the key to playing a Paladin well.

And #6 basically sums up everthing.

In closing, I know that SoCom will out-perform SoR when I fight against more than one mob. So the above is a quasi-controlled experiment to see if SoR is actually better than SoCom when fighting against one mob at a time. It looks like they're pretty identical with SoCom edging ahead should a second or thrid mob path into the fight, or gets summoned like some mobs often do. So in conclusion, at least for the next few levels, I'll have Smartbuff check for SoCom, Blessing of Kings, and Ret Aura, as there is no real benefit to having SoR on at all. My next experiment will be using Blessing of Kings vs. Blessing of (unimproved) Might. I guess you can say… stay tuned. =]

A little less threatening

Just hit 46 last night and put a second point into my threat reduction talent, Fanaticism (How does that make one less threatening again? anyone?).

This talent is awesome. not just because it adds crit and gives me just a small boost in dps (I hear when I fill out Sheath of Light, it will increase much more, so that’s something yummy to look forward to) it also helps with those encounters where I am doing 200 dps (lately, I've been doing 200-240 dps) and where the tank is doing about 80. This becomes really annoying when after the first 5 seconds of a fight, I run in to only judge and consecrate and I pull aggro. IMMEDIATELY. and its on the mob the tank is currently attacking. I usually have the tank on /focus and his target frame is placed where I can easily see and click on, so I know for sure who to target.

now im a little glad for the threat reduction, since im melee, and melee's don’t have the built-in threat reduction from standing at 30 yards away. there are some tanks with awesome threat generation at my level, and I usually don’t question what stance they're in. well its only warriors for now. but for paladins, I just check if they have Righteous Fury on. and for Druids, I just see that they're in Bear form. now I was having problems the other night with bears doing 80 dps. yes, at my level, doing crap damage. and doing crap damage means they're generating crap threat. modifiers can only do so much but when I have to stand there and wait for several swipes before I can run in and use my hammer, then it’s a problem. I know mangle comes a bit later, but what about maul? what about feral charge? what about feral faerie fire? those things add up in threat. perhaps it’s just that one particular druid who "suck" but still does ok to survive the instance. actually our first healer dropped due to the tank losing aggro all the time. he wasn’t just losing aggro to me, but also to the rogue and the mage. mage was doing his AoE most of the time. the second healer was a bit more patient and we got through the rest of the instance with no problems. we were in zul farrak and the first healer dropped group before we even got to the first troll boss (the one by the cave).

but perhaps this druid was really a cat druid, who's leveling through the game and just do decided that he can kinda tank an instance since he does have bearform. honestly tho, my gear for my feral tank at 80 is gemmed with all AGI gems. I prioritize avoidance over stam. so you will see maybe two stamina gems on me, but the rest are either all agi, or and agi hybrid in order to get the socket bonus or meta activation. I've healed some stam stackers before, and it was a horrible experience.

in this instance tho, I did not care to check the druid's gear or talent spec because, for some reason at 1am in the morning, I was tired beyond belief, and didn’t want to even think through any of the fights. but I did check if the tank was in bear form, which he was, and I did check if I had righteous fury on me, which I didn’t. so after "tanking" half of the pulls and, on the last boss encounter, "tanked" one of the two bosses, I dropped group after I got a nice pair of something. I forgot what exactly. heck, I think they were boots. no maybe that was the random satchel of useful crap bag reward. I don’t know. I rolled need on something there. beats me. I was 90% asleep by then.

anyway. just wanted to blab about how im glad I have threat reduction now so that I can counter some of the "stupid" I experience in dungeons. maybe this isnt the correct solution (to counter stupid by tolerating stupid). but what can you do? besides, its just level 40something. they'll learn by the time they hit level 80 that maybe they should use more than one button to tank. one good thing about the tank tho, he did pick up targets he would lose aggro on. so at least he's got situation-awareness down.

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.

RET Talent: Tier 1: Benediction vs. Deflection

A lot of people look at guides on how to spec ret and choose benediction. god only knows why. actually I know why, and it is because benediction reduces the cost of all instant spells and attacks by 10%. yep… 10 very awesome percents. but that's great for the raider, or the heroic grinder. but as im leveling through Azeroth, and currently at level 34, I find that deflection is a much better talent to take up than benediction.

Here's what they do:

Benediction: 5 points. reduce your mana cost for instant spells by 10%.

Deflection: 5 points. increases your parry chance by 5%.

one increases your mana efficiency. the other, your survival.

I picked deflection (yes, I know it’s a "tanking" talent, but its not just that, it’s a melee talent) for two reasons.

1) parry keeps me alive longer. yes, when im out questing (and we do that at our levels), im face-to-face with another mob or two. I need that. 5% extra deflection is 5% more chances I will not be taking damage. this is completely different than taking 5% less damage per hit. it is definitely not the same as taking 5% less damage overall.

2) my usual instant spells are… judgment. and judgment. and judgment. yep. just that. and I can only do one every 8 seconds. not only is it limited once every 8 seconds, at my level it costs me 37 mana to cast. 37 mana. my mana bar is 1,100 mana at level 30, just under my health of about 1,200. at 34, my numbers should be a little higher but I do not have that noted. I should just armory myself but I am at work and cannot reach the armory's site.

** I do believe the mana cost is based on the % of your base mana, so any +int in the gear that I have (which isnt much) will not count towards the cost of the spells, including consecrate, judgment, shields, etc. **

anyway, my point is this, I can save myself 4 mana each time I judge, or, I can have 5% increased chance to not get hit.

Here are some other instant spells that I use seldomly. Blessing of Protection. Blessing of Kings. Blessing of Might. Switching Seals. lay on hands? maybe. divine shield. ok, those are all situational. and out of combat spells should not count. those are my reasoning why Benediction sucks for levelers.

last argument: consecration. that's instant and takes up a buttload of mana (22% I think). So I will save myself a good 2% mana. which is great, but will that 2% savings equial one more consecrate? it can, with judgment of wisdom going and maybe some replenishment from another class or totem, it may be useful. but during instances, if I am having to cast consecrate again for the fifth time during a pull due to more mobs entering the fight, I think we have more of a problem than just mana. besides, I top damage meters already. not only that… consecrate isnt my top damaging spell.

my top damaging attack is… auto attack. so consecration is next right? nope. second highest attack is seal of command. in groups of course. (what about solo? I don’t even use consecrate in solo. why the heck would i?) then its consecrate. so even if its third, it is still one of the top three attacks. true. but seal of command costs zero. and seal of auto attack costs zero. jk. auto attack costs zero. so 5 talent points will help consecrate be more mana efficient. 5 talent points to help 30% of my dps do… well, just a little better. does it increase throughput? no. (throughput: basically increasing dps) so it doesn’t help 30% of my dps do more dps, it helps 30% of my dps save mana. with instances the way they are, I miss out on the beginnings of a new pull because I am drinking. do I care? not really. does it matter? not at all. im sitting there with the healer and mage drinking while the tank and rogue are running to the next group. that’s fine with me. and again, in solo, I almost never use consecrate unless I have more than two mobs. seal of command takes care of 3 mobs anyway.

again, consecration can be situational. where seal of command procs wherever I go, consecrate is stationary. depending on the instance, and the skill of the tank, consecrate can actually be my highest dps, or it can be my third. or second. its in the top three. if a tank is able to hold aggro well, then I have no problems having consecrate be my top damage dealer. but if the party is plagued by an aggro happy hunter, or a tank that runs around and pulls a new group when the first group isnt completely dead, or if adds appear and we run back and forth a lot, then consecrate will drop from top, to third. what I do find is that, of the three attacks, Consecrate, Auto attack, and Seal of Command, they all fall within 25-35% (and very often they're all at 30%) of my damage. So essentially 90% of my damage comes from these three attacks. in instances, I don’t even use exo unless im OOC (out of combat) and have time to cast (cant wait to get that talent that gives me insta-exo). so with consecrate being 30% of my damage, it could be beneficial to put 5 points into benediction. but, if everything is perfect, I will always have time to drink (I usually drink more than the healers drink, but we often sit and drink while the warrior tank runs off to the next group). so in instances, mana isnt that important. 3-minute boss fights are rare, actually, are non-existent at my level. so again, Benediction isnt really used here, in groups, or solo.

last last argument: some will say that since getting seal of light, I'll be getting health back quicker than ever, so why not just skip deflection and go for better uptime with benediction? the health gained from seal of light will outshine the 5% chance to parry anyway. good point. as for how much? I do not know. I'll let the theorycrafters do that over at EJ forums. but what I do see is that this is a very good counter to my arguments and I do like this idea very much. with seal of light, I can constantly pull mobs one after the other for longer durations before I have to drink. I don’t have to use mana for healing, and I'll be using judgment of light or judgment of wisdom depending on what I need more. but keep in mind that this argument still has holes. one, I am using only one instant spell that's super cheap. my main mana sink here is exo. and that's not instant. I consecrate in the case I have three mobs on me, and that’s it, and if I have three mobs on me, I know for damn sure I'll be using more than just my auto attacks. so after every fight like that, I'll want to drink and heal anyway. in addition, using seal of light means less dps. so I often switch back and forth. meaning I switch to seal of light if I have enough mana and just want to get some health back. then switch back to command. the dps loss inst noticible on quest mobs, so its not so bad. still, a dps loss is more time required to kill mobs (it is not necessarily more time you're taking damage, since health is refunded almost as fast as its lost). over the course of say, an hour, that loss of exp/hr adds up and when Seal of Light is up, that’s about a 20-25% loss in dps. . argument rebutted.

so with that said, the first five points in the ret tree are almost completely useless (hahaha, all that to say it sucks? well not really useless) but that’s ok. the first tier of every tree sucks anyway. what im trying to say is that the difference is minimal. especially with a paladin and our ability to switch seals, judge different judgments, and toss up some bubbles or heals, the difference in picking the first tier talents is merely a matter of personal taste. it's not until you get to the third or fourth tier that there's something to actually drool over. in my case, pursuit of justice and seal of command. and the rest just adds more damage or crit percentage. all are awesome. but when half of my leveling is questing, and my only instant spell is used only in certain situations, most of which isnt essential to survival, then I would say, you can go either way with this. deflection? sure. benediction? sure. for me, I chose deflection due to the above reasons (and until level 50, I wont be seeing any more instant spells anyway). it isnt gamechanging or gamebreaking either way. just know what the tradeoffs are.