Speaking of Nerfs...

Over the weekend this happened to Paladins on the Beta Server:

Holy

* Seal of Wisdom now deal [ 16% of AP + 25% of Spell Power + 1 ] holy damage when unleashed. (Down from [ 20% of AP + 32% of Spell Power + 1 ] Holy damage)
* Seal of Light now has a chance to heal for [ 15% of AP + 15% of Spell Power ]. (Down from [ 28% of AP + 28% of Spell Power ])
* Seal of Light now deals [ 16% of AP + 25% of Spell Power + 1 ] (down from [ 20% of AP + 32% of Spell Power + 1 ]) holy damage when unleashed.
* Seal of Righteousness now grants each melee attack [ 2.2% of Melee Weapon Speed * AP + 4.4% of Melee Weapon Speed * Spell Power ] additional Holy damage. (Down from [ 2.8% of Melee Weapon Speed * AP + 5.5% of Melee Weapon Speed * Spell Power ])


Protection

* Seal of Justice now deals [ 16% of AP + 25% of Spell Power + 1 ] holy damage when unleashed. (Down from [ 20% of AP + 32% of Spell Power + 1 ])


Retribution

* Judgement of Command Holy damage reduced from 56% to 45%.
* Blessing of Might (Rank 8 ) and Greater Blessing of Might (Rank 3) now increase AP by 306. (Up from 305)
* Seal of Corruption now deals [ 15% of AP + 8.8% of Spell Power ] additional holy damage over 15 seconds. (Down from [ 19.2% of AP + 9.6% of Spell Power ])
* Seal of Corruption now deals [ 14% of AP + 22% of Spell Power + 1 ] Holy damage. (Down from [ 17.5% of AP + 28% of Spell Power + 1 ])
* Seal of the Martyr now make all your melee attacks deal [ 22% of mw ] to [ 22% of MW ]. (Down from [ 28% of mw ] to [ 28% of MW ])
* Seal of the Martyr now deals [ 16% of AP + 25% of Spell Power + 36% of mw ] to [ 16% of AP + 25% of Spell Power + 36% of MW ] Holy Damage when unleashed. (Old - [ 20% of AP + 32% of Spell Power + 25% of mw ] to [ 20% of AP + 32% of Spell Power + 25% of MW ] Holy damage)
* Seal of Blood now make all your melee attacks deal [ 22% of mw ] to [ 22% of MW ]. (Down from [ 28% of mw ] to [ 28% of MW ])
* Seal of Blood now deals [ 16% of AP + 25% of Spell Power + 36% of mw ] to [ 16% of AP + 25% of Spell Power + 36% of MW ] Holy Damage when unleashed. (Old - [ 20% of AP + 32% of Spell Power + 25% of mw ] to [ 20% of AP + 32% of Spell Power + 25% of MW ] Holy damage)
* Seal of Vengeance now deals [ 15% of AP + 8.8% of Spell Power ] additional Holy damage over 15 sec. (Down from [ 19.2% of AP + 9.6% of Spell Power ])
* Seal of Vengeance now deals [ 14% of AP + 22% of Spell Power + 1 ] Holy damage. (Down from [ 17.5% of AP + 28% of Spell Power + 1 ])
* Judgement of Wisdom now restores 1% of the attacker's maximum mana. (Down from 2%)
* Judgement of Light now has a chance to heal the attacker for [ 10% of AP + 10% of Spell Power ]. (Down from [ 18% of AP + 18% of Spell Power ])

Basically we got a blanket reduction in our damage output. Why? Because the new Retribution Spec was doing too much damage.

On the one hand I agree, yes Retribution was doing way too much. However the reductions here don't just affect Ret, they affect the relatively meager damage output of Holy and Protection as well.

Holy's already one of the lowest-DPS healer classes out there, and Protection was just about holding it's own. With the changes, it's going to be even less attractive to level either of these spec. Looks like it's going to be an uphill struggle levelling Ulu as Protection in WotLK.

They're promising band-aids for Prot and Holy in the future, but with about two weeks until release, I'm not holding my breath.

More fun in Nerfsville!

So last night, after a week of crashing instance servers, I finally got to see the inside of the post-nerf Zul'Aman...

...And an hour later I was done. Even with a wipe on the Eagle (totally my fault, I pulled whilst some folks were still on the stairs, and they were trapped outside) we beat every timer and one-shotted every other boss.

Seriously, if you're in a group who could complete Kara pre-patch, go have your funsies in Zul'Aman now. Even Zul'jin was a piece of cake.

Apart from that, Ulu's been slowly working on achievements and killing time until the release of Wrath. Three weeks to go now! There also appears to be a Zombie Invasion that needs quelling.

Old School Weekend

People shouldn't mistake my last post for annoyance, it was more like amusement at a trivial instance being further trivialised. I thought it was funny.

However, TyphoonAndrew had this to say on the matter:

Given that there were Kara/Gruul's guilds in BT who were able to drop bosses, I am expecting this new found power we have to be smashed by the Wrath content. It might be easy now, but it will get equalised. And we'll never do Kara again after this, because how many people bother with MC now?

That comment will be ironic in light of what I did this weekend.

On Friday night I did four Heroics in quick succession: Blood Furnace, Slave Pens, Underbog and Shadow Labyrinth. Achievements was the name of the game, and we played it well. I didn't bother to time most of the runs, but I did notice in Slave Pens that the greater blessings I applied at the start had seven minutes left when Quagmirrian died. We cleared the instance in 23 minutes.

On Saturday, I worked on my achievements with Ulushnar. The Hallows Eve event arrived, which meant another event boss to farm a certain number of times per day, this time in the Scarlet Monastery graveyard. Headless Horseman isn't an especially hard boss to a group with decent gear, and there's some pleasure to be had in pummelling his Tim Burton-Fanboy ryhme-spouting face.

After farming that, I took a break and came back in the evening to join a conglomeration of Earthen Ring raiders for some oldschool fun. We preceeded to clear both Blackwing Lair and Molten Core in a bit over 2 hours. It was kind of nice to see the old bosses again, although 40 raid-geared level 70s kinda made mincemeat out of both zones (Ragnaros in particular died in 18 seconds).

Sunday involved more random achievement filling and Horseman-killing, as well as another spot of sitting offline for an hour and a half when Blizzard shut down the server in the middle of the afternoon. In the evening, Ulu hooked up with the oldschool raiders again for a zerg through the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. Unlike Blackwing Lair and Molten Core, it was content I hadn't seen with Wulfsblood pre-TBC, so I got the chance to experience it, albeit at breakneck speed. (somewhat akin to taking a tour in a Formula One car)

Well it was a fun way to spend a weekend, but I'm still finding myself counting the weeks until the release of WotLK...

Kara after 3.0

It's a joke, a sad joke.

Five people in ZA/Badge gear could probably farm it. As it was, with 4 DPS, 2 Tanks and 3 Healers:

*Moroes died after his first Vanish.
*Maiden managed one Repentance.
*Big Bad Wolf got one Red Riding Hood.
*Nightbane never got a fear off.
*Illhoof died during his first Weakened.
*Netherspite died during his first banish.
*The Prince got off two infernals.

It feels more like Upper Blackrock Spire than ever before.

3.0: The Crashening

Well the pile of gigantic ass that forms the fetid core of Earthen Ring raised it's ugly head last night and refused me access for most of the night. When I did get on, it was to a bunch of failing mods and epic lag.

However, on the forums over the last few days there have been some misconceptions about the Tankadin in 3.0 I feel the need to correct.

1. Stop spamming Consecrate on one-to-three-mob pulls! It used to be a good, solid reliable form of Holy Damage. These days we have Hammer of the Righteous and the newly-instant Avenger's Shield in the place of it. In bigger pulls however, use it freely since your mana income from Blessing of Sanctuary should take care of it. Our mana income is better, but it's by no means inexhaustable.

2. On the subject of Hammer of the Righteous, if you don't like the sound of this ability then you have no joy in your heart! What could be better than beating your enemies in the face with a Frying Pan made of your faith?

3. The need for 490 Defense didn't go away just because Anticipation changed and we lost some +Defense from items. Since it's the only hard gear requirement we have for tanking raids these days, just accept it and do what you need to get it.

4. I kinda like being able to gear like a tank rather than a caster in Plate. Ulu's Attack power went up from a wimpy 444 to a somewhat respectable 1128. His Expertise also shot up to 26 in his threat gear (hello Shard of Contempt!)

Tonight, if the server behaves, I'm going to "test" out Ulu's new tanking toys in Karazhan.