Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Why I Like Kerry Collins

Okay, so the guy threw 4 interceptions in the 2001 Super Bowl to kill the Giants. His on-field decision-making has been suspect. His off-field choices have been historically terrible.

But, as Rick Reilly notes, he always owns up to it. The man deserves our respect and admiration.

He's leading the Tennessee Titans to glory this year, and I can't think of another QB in the league who is more deserving of an undefeated record thus far.

How does this relate to paladins? Glad you asked. I want all of your honest opinions. Just like Kerry stood at the podium after the '01 Super Bowl and told the world that he plain sucked that game, I want all of you to own up to the current paladin state. Are ret paladins overpowered? Are ret paladins underpowered?

This is not where I state a case on the official forums, imploring Ghostcrawler to re-tool the paladin class because of X Y and Z factors pointing to paladins sucking and needing help. Nor is it where I use those reasons to debunk a "NERF PALADINZ" call from Joe Six-Alt or Jane the Shaman. Nor still is it when I bemoan the OP-ness of the class and tell the devs that they clearly don't know how to design balanced classes.

This is where I want the true, honest, and open opinion of paladins of all gear levels to fess up and tell me - where are we at? I've got my own opinion, the public has an opinion. The devs' opinion is a leaf on the wind.

There's a poll to be found along the right side of this blog. Let me know how you feel. Leave some lovin' in the comments if you'd like to elaborate.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just started playing my 70 pally last night and I've never had more fun with him. After respeccing as Ret, the mobs went down fast. As much as I enjoy the extreme burst in the firt 5 seconds of combat, I think it may be a little OP. I have not done any instances with him yet, but I was thinking there could be a lack of sustained dps...not sure. Overall I would say that Ret is more powerful than ever and makes for a good time in the WoW.

Honors Code said...

As a Carolina Panthers fan, I have watched Kerry Collins (Carolina's first ever First round draft pick) with interest. To have him beat us in the Super Bowl would be an interesting thing.

As to Ret Paladins, my own in BT/MH/S3/S4 gear feels pretty powerful. I'm doing good DPS and holding my own in PVP. I'd say they are just about right.

Blizzard needs to come up with a better solution for the AW/DS problem because it causes unintended issues for Prot.

Shwitz44 said...

@Honors
Ghostcrawler has insinuated that the 30 second shared lock-out is a possible solution, and we should stay tuned for updates.

Suicidal Zebra said...

I'll write a longer response to this on my blog later if you don't mind Josh, but here is a shorter response.

In terms of 'right now', as in the levelling process through to 80 and instances/raids at the level cap, Ret Paladins are okay. Not great (lol Hunter DPS), but certainly not badly off (/mourn Warlocks). Unfortunately, we simply don't have the required information to make any statement beyond that.

Season 5 doesn't start until mid-December so getting a handle on competitive PvP is impossible. My gut tells me that as PvP gear reaches S5 Arena levels Ret will trail off as Ret is too easy to negate with neutered burst. But we need organised S5 PvP to test this; we saw sod-all on the PTR. Ret almost certainly doens't need more damage per se, but desparately needs better tools (and a sane Forbearance system which doesn't make the 'most defensive class in the game' squishier than a Warrior or Rogue).

In terms of Raid PvE, for now our DPS is fine but may well be balanced around Undead instances. Again in Ulduar things may change as gear scales up and mobs are no longer near-exclusively undead, but fixing Ret DPS is easy (though perhaps humiliating for Blizzard). Raid-stacking for optimum DPS may prove to be Ret's Achilles Heel.

But if I were Blizzard right now I'd do one thing: Bug-fix. Bugfix like mad. Fix all the issues classes are having and lets all play lvl80 with our skills working properly. The we can generate an informed opinion on the state of Ret (and indeed all the classes). As things stand even the current Judgement bug skews Ret feedback and can potentially make the class non-viable.

Knowing that we can do the job in 3.0.3 @ 80, as we weren't in 2.0.2 @ 70, I'm okay to hold off with further changes. But I do want the great communication which Blizzard brought in during the Beta to continue, especially if Paladin Community negative conjecture is proved correct.

Anonymous said...

In terms of game play PVe we are probably op'd with the ability to use our aoe's to kill groups of mobs very fast and with plate/healing it really is pretty easy to do with little skill used.


PVP is another story take on DK and see how your tools stack up against the DK tools.Instant cast ranged attacks,dots,pets,resists,
slows and chain pulls. Pallies may not be the only class that struggles against I well designed class of the DK.
Judgement spells with only a 10yrd range? Burst attacks that are easily negated, stuns that are resisted and cool downs that severly effect play against a class with machine gun spell casting.
So for balance of play or just play that requires some skill the ret paladin is still lacking.

David said...

I find it hilarious that people still can't own up to paladins being extremely strong. I think, in our heart of hearts, we ENJOY being nerfed from our absurd overpowered state because then we can justify our power now. If our current state was what was originally implemented (and not the OP build that we had before), I honestly believe that most people, and even paladins, would think our damage is just too high.

Yes, as of level 70, we ARE over powered. People need to stop feeling like we suck and boo hoo our way to getting buffed again.

At 80, we will see how things pan out. But please, people need to stop the crap about paladins being not being strong. They are. They will be at 80 too. HOW strong, is yet to be seen, but the mechanic is now there, and I like it.