Paladin Tree

I made my own Paladin Tree with Unleashed Gaming's talent tree maker. Tell me what you think of it :D

http://talents.unleashedgaming.net/?p=vt&i=22710

Resilience on a Paladin?

It's quite unfortunate to hear anyone question the impact resilience has on PvP, particularly in the arenas. Resilience is so immensely helpful to every class, especially cloth, AND especially to your team. It is true that the usefulness of resi diminishes as AC goes up, but nevertheless a Paladin, and I repeat every other class, should be wearing a decent amount of resilience, especially now when MD is only 0.5s cast time. Paladins have been, and will be targeted more and more often.

I'm sitting on 300+ resi right now, and of course the amount of health I have is rather ridiculous. My AC puts me at around 57% DR. This means I'm taking 43% damage. If I spec 4/5 Toughness instead of 1/5 and 3/3 Precision, the added mitigation reduces phyiscal damage taken by a further 2.5%, which puts melee dmg taken to 41.5%. If I include the resilience I have, my effective mitigation vs melee classes makes me only receive 30% or less phy damage.

Some of the elites on bg9 irc have been lamenting why resi doesn't somehow reduce the effectiveness of DoT damage, and they have my support. With the onset of anti-dispel talents (contagion/silent resolve/stoicism) and the number of stackable debuffs, DoTs are simply not dispellable. With that in mind, there is no sure way to mitigate DoT DPS through gear. This issue is far from making resilience 'crap', it just makes it even more important. What is most important to note is that DoTs become more useful as players get more geared lol?

Everytime I view Paladin profiles in top arena groups, I can't stop to question whether my +1200 heal is really gimped vs. those who have 1500. But when I do the math, the additional 300 heal doesn't have a consequential impact in nearly every high-end situation. +Heal is indeed very valuable when you're weaving heals in between scattered DPS, e.g DoTs, AoEs, but when MS sets in, you simply cannot say that the additional 300 healing is going to save that target. I look at their resi and most are sitting on the 200 range, or high 100s, and have significantly less stamina (up to 1.2k health) than I do. In fact, my recent armory stalking (kekeke) shows that the high-ranked Paladins are starting to wear more stam/resi.

Oh I also got my Gladiator's Salvation today and put Spellsurge on it. Oh yeah baby ^_~

Dialogue with WoW devs

I was at the Stratics WoW dialogue today, albeit being 15mins~ late. There were some good questions, but most were unnecessary (lol lore) or out-right dumb. If this is the first time you're reading a WoW dialogue (Stratics have had a few), the questions are taken and chosen before the session and posited real-time to the WoW developers. The channel (#StraticsHoC) was fully moderated, so only the ops and voices can speak. This session had around 2800 users in the channel. I was also concurrently in the #worldofwarcraft channel, listening and participating in the on-going discussion about the QnA. It was relativey funny, and very spammy anyhow. The entire dialogue lasted 90mins~

I'm going to paste some of the good questions or funny moments so have fun reading.

[06:18:00] *JamesVZ* Given the almost silly amount of what most people would consider 'useless' socket bonuses, are there plans to rework the socket system or otherwise make it more appealing? Did the socket system live up to the designer's expectations?
[06:19:14] I think we've learned quite a bit about itemizing the socket bonuses in a way that they aren't ignored. However, it is intended that the bonus be simply an incentive to match the sockets, not a mandate.
[06:19:48] However, I do think the socketing system has provided players with some great customization choices that that wouldn't otherwise exist.

[06:21:12] *Kelyas* Any plans for more world wide events such as Naxxramas, or the horrid AQ40 opening?
[06:21:27] Well if I answer yes is that a good or bad thing?
[06:21:30] =P
[06:21:38] YES, we plan to do more World Events
[06:21:49] NO! They won't be *horrid*

[06:27:55] *lizarb* One major complaint healers/tanks have is that they can not grind very well. Have you ever considered letting people have 2 specs they could swap freely between? Like the weapon swap in diablo 2. Having respec cost simply cost alot of people off from trying strange builds/tatics.
[06:28:44] Well, it's a bit different conceptually than a diablo 2 weapon swap. There aren't any plans to give players multiple specs, since that really kind of defeats the purpose of having to "choose" a spec.
[06:29:36] However, where necessary we'll add grind power to trees/specs that traditionally have a hard time in those areas. In some ways I do believe that some of the specs have gotten overspecialized over time.

[06:29:47] *Tesurly* Are the harsh keying requirements for entry level->end game raid zones going to stay for future expansions, or will some sort of backflagging option be available?
[06:30:32] First off, players will be happy to know that there are some *limited* backflagging solutions going into the game tomorrow. It's not for all zones but for a select few.
[06:30:45] omg patch tomorrow
[06:31:00] omg!
[06:31:10] Regarding the keying process, I think a certain amount of keying is cool... it allows for guilds to separate each other from one another.
[06:31:15] jeff is so fired...
[06:31:38] Most of the keying issues have become issues more because of tuning.
[06:31:49] The Karazhan key isn't terribly hard to obtain.
[06:32:00] btw
[06:32:01] Patch tomorrow =P

[06:32:35] *Krom* What sort of "average weekly time investment" do you design the end-game around? How do you determine how much time should be spent on gear acquisition, consumable farming, assisting guildmates, etc.? On that note, how "organized" do you intend for the average raiding guild to be?
[06:32:59] Personally I intend the average guild be |---------------------------------| organized (but no more or less than that)
[06:33:36] It's not so much that we design around an "average weekly time investment". We more look at having a big suite of things to do at any point in the game, whether you raid or pvp or do 5 mans or solo...
[06:34:16] I think a lot of raiders LIKE to feel useful outside of raiding -- doing 5 mans, pvp etc. When it goes too far (herb farming for example -- it's no longer fun.
[06:34:50] We hope to reduce the tedious elements and focus more on end game PvE fun for the average WoW raider.
[06:34:58] Not sure if that answers the question

[06:35:12] *little3* Retribution specced paladins are not seen as a viable raid choice as their DPS is 'low' and the support they bring could easily be done by another DPS class. Will retribution be made into a viable end-game raiding spec through either DPS increases or support increases?
[06:35:47] but then who will save the hunters, kalgan?
[06:35:48] Yes, I'd like to see ret become a bit more raid viable in terms of dps and overall utility.
[06:37:00] Right. At any rate, something we've noticed in our testing is that ret pallies are in kind of a jam where their dps isn't enough to get the put in a dps group in a raid.
[06:37:10] ... which makes their dps suffer even more.
[06:37:39] Hopefully we can get that solved in a way that doesn't cause ret pallies to rule the pvp universe.

[06:40:11] *skim-* Arena matches are becoming longer and longer as teams are gaining more cheap stamina and resilience, while mana is still relatively expensive. In future I can see non-mana classes takeing the definite upper hand as they can continue doing their task forever, unlike casters. How do you see this situation evolving and are there any plans to counter it?
[06:40:55] Well, at least the fights aren't getting shorter with gear progression like they were at level 60 right? =]
[06:41:21] One thing we've done in patch 2.1 is make water available through the honor system that players can drink in the arenas.
[06:41:33] Spam that drink button!

[06:46:38] *[DW]Ataxus* Are the developers actively evaluating the 10% Mage coefficient nerf? Also, please explain why it was implemented and why it is still in place. Many Mages aren't fully aware of this issue and it doesn't appear within the Improved Fireball/Frostbolt talents themselves.
[06:47:46] I can't say we're really actively evaluating it at this point. Melee classes are only starting to approach where they should be in terms of damage output relative to mages, so we don't expect to make fireball/frostbolt do more damage right now.
[06:48:54] The reason we don't put it in the tooltip is that bonus coefficients are already a very hidden and expert game mechanic. We don't want every new mage totally mystified by excessively nerdy information in the tooltip.

[06:59:54] *Toes* I've noticed that items from the new instances have new features such as Ignore Armor and Haste rating, what other effects are being introduced in addition to these?
[07:00:47] Yes, we have introduced a few new item effects. That's all we plan to introduce for tier 6 though.

[07:01:29] *max* Can we expect to see more raid bosses similar to the chess event in Karazhan where the entire raid can avoid dying/having to repair on a failure? As a followup, I think this was a great idea but it seemed like an implementation that was rushed; was the chess event as we see it today the same as it was in planning?
[07:01:42] The chess event was very unique
[07:01:56] We'd like to do more stuff like that but it takes a tremendous amount of time
[07:02:25] Before planning any raid encounter we discuss how hard/easy it should be based on it's relative placement and complexity within a raid
[07:02:40] We saw the chess event as more of a Reward for just getting there
[07:03:11] The trick with the Chess encounter is that it would be extremely easy to make the event overpowered and unbeatable
[07:03:24] We wanted to err on the side of having it feel like a bonus
[07:03:30] There are some changes to the event coming
[07:03:35] Medivh will use the fire cheat more
[07:04:00] but when all is said and done, it's just a fun, rewarding *intermission* event for the raid
[07:04:10] enjoy your free king's defender

[07:08:41] *Cyrex* Have you guys looked into possibly bringing life to WoW? what i mean by this is, Have you considered monthly story driven events which are controlled by GM's? ex. Invasions, war efforts, city defense?
[07:10:07] We try to have our events unfold either by players or at the hands of the designers. The game is extremely large and in many countries. Quality of play experience is absolutely king for us. I'm not sure the events would be of the quality that players have come to expect if they were being run on an individual basis
[07:10:46] Our GM's are extremely talented but we count on them for their customer service skills

[07:17:16] *Warder* With the current status of raid progression and the corresponding attunements, it is becoming more and more clear to many people that their chances of beating (or even seeing) Black Temple or Hyjal before the next expansion is out are quite low. Only the most hardcore of the hardcore, even among raiders, seem to be making significant progress. Are there any plans to making BC raiding somewhat less unforgivable
[07:17:29] Yes
[07:17:29] Tomorrow
[07:17:32] first thing in the morning
[07:18:12] 2.1.0 will go live and I think there are *many* significant changes to help with raid progression issues. If raid progression is still a problem after 2.1.0, we'll make further changes
[07:18:17] we WANT people doing the content
[07:18:23] we want the encounters to get beat
[07:18:40] i'd rather have fun, beaten encounters then a raid game full of mysteries that no one is going to see
[07:18:50] plus all your epics are getting a big buff tomorrow
[07:18:56] if all that fails
[07:19:05] there's always STARCRAFT 2 zomg?

An Artificial Moon

It's not a new theory but more and more scientists are starting to venture into the question of how and why the Moon exists. A number of explicit coincidences have fascinated astrologists. For example, the Moon is exactly four hundred times smaller than the Sun but four hundred times closer to the Earth so that both the Sun and the Moon appear to be precisely the same size in the sky. This coincidence makes possible the phenomenon of a total eclipse. Whilst we take this for granted, scientists hail it as the biggest coincidence in the universe.

The Moon also mirrors the movement of the Sun in the sky by rising and setting at the same point on the horizon as the Sun does at opposite solstices. This means the Moon rises at midwinter at the same place the Sun does at midsummer. There is no logical reason why the Moon mimics the Sun in this way and it is only meaningful to a human standing on the Earth.

The Moon also rotates exactly the same rate it is moving around the earth: 29.5 earth days. So you will only ever get to see one side of the moon. The other side of the moon is often dubbed 'The Dark Side of the Moon'.

Life as it is on Earth would be drastically different if not impossible without the existence of the Moon. There would be no seasons and no tides.

So is the Moon in fact placed in Orbit around the Earth by Intelligent Design? Well I wouldn't know for sure, but that seems plausible to me.

Masonic Nepotism

The news has been emphasizing on the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz. There is a great deal of implication in this matter, because the President of the United States, that is, George Bush, will have to nominate a candidate to replace Wolfowitz. Historically speaking the Presidents of the World Bank have been American, but there is a possibility that that might just change this time round. Believe it or not, some very reliable sources have suggested that Tony Blair might be taking the position. Fantastic. As far as we know, Wolfowitz contributed significantly to the blueprints of the Iraq War in 2003.

It wouldn't be surprising if members of the public begin to scream conspiracy. But if you look at it, Blair did receive high honors from the public while stepping down as Prime Minister, and surely the public can't back on that if Blair became President of the World Bank? It also seems surgically planned, especially after you re-look at some of the things George Bush has said about Blair's terms in office.

Rupture

I decided to try out Rupture today. It's very useful considering how horribly laggy Armory is. It has grown quite a bit since I last checked. If you want to try it, visit Rupture and create an account. Next, you're to supposedly download Rupture Messenger. For whatever reason mine isn't working. You need to download it for the add-on anyway, since it's required even if you're forced to update your character profile manually.

After downloading the application, paste the Rupture add-on folder into your World Of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns folder. Mine was automatically copied in it. If yours wasn't, then you should be able to find the Rupture folder in your installation directory. Then, run WoW and ensure that Rupture is enabled on the char screen. Type /rupture in-game to check if it's working. Now exit WoW. Check that the file Rupture.lua file exists in your WTF/Account/user/server/char/SavedVariables folder. Upload that .lua file on the Rupture website. Wala.

Add me to friends if you're done, but be warned I might reject you ha. You can view my profile here. Oh just to add an Adriana pic :p

Despair

Life's been unforgiving
Yet in all the turmoil
My heart has been saying
What I did
Were the right things

I care and know I can
Always be there for you
And I'd be there reaching
The moment
You are nearing

The feeling of despair
Frighteningly frigid
But you know I'd be there...
For you...

Underestimating
The choices we had dreamed
Now we are succeeding
Together
Ascending high

Sadly not all is fair
We were indeed short-lived
With chance still in the air
Just maybe
Not all is done

The feeling of despair
Frighteningly frigid
But you know I'd be there...
For you...

I know I'm a good songwriter.