Monday, December 1, 2008

It Feels Like I Cheated Somehow

I'm halfway through level 76, and I have only quested in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, and Dragonblight.

Okay, so I did instance-quests in Zul'Drak. And I did do about 5-10 instance runs combined in Utgarde Keep, The Nexus, and the spider instances in Dragonblight.

But still - almost have my flying mount back, and I've got the majority of Northrend left to explore! I haven't done much of anything in Grizzly Hills, Sholazar Basin, Zul'Drak, Crystalsong Forest, Icecrown, or The Storm Peaks. That's a lot of content left to explore! Plus heroics, and Naxx-10... man, I've got a long road ahead. Hopefully having my gyrocopter won't spoil the exploration fun factor.

I should be level 77 by the end of the week, at which point I'll have all the DPS-increasing talents all finished up on my talent tree (1 more point into the haste-increase to ret aura to go!). I know tons of people have dinged 80, I'm slow. I'll get there.

My one gripe to this point: the lack of exciting new skills for retribution. I'm not talking about talents - all three specs got a shiny new 51-pointer that they can add to their hotbars somewhere. I'm talking about skills. You know, like Avenging Wrath and such. Holy will get Sacred Shield at 80, which I know can be used by everyone, but it's more of a damage prevention thing, not an offensive or utility thing. Protection gets Shield of Righteousness, which is purely a tanking thing. Retribution gets zilch, nada, nothing. New ranks of Blessing of Might and Retribution Aura, that's really it.

And don't come at with me with the "oh but ret paladins have a new lease on life! Totally reworked talent tree and new Judgement system and..." bla bla bla SHUT IT. Everything that Blizzard did to redesign the talent trees and combat system for paladins was more along the lines of bug fixing. They had a flawed process and they reengineered it. Fixing something is not the same as enhancing something. The other paladin paradigms - healer and tank - got new tools beyond their new talents. I guess I feel ret was left out on that front.

Okay, done ranting. Hope everyone is having fun swinging mace and smashing face!

4 comments:

BigFire said...

Sacred Shield is great for all spec. For holy, it gives them a chance to put in a bridge healing shield. Inversely, for protection paladin, it can save grief on the healer if they put the shield on themself. For Retribution paladin in heavy damage situtation (pvp, aoe damage), likewise, they'll put it on themself. It's low cost, and I put it on myself whenever possible.

Darraxus said...

I did the same thing. I was 77 after doing Fjord, Borean, and Dragonblight. Got to 79 in Grizzly Hills and dinged 80 in Sholazar. Still need to go back to Zul Drak and do those quests.

Suicidal Zebra said...

I'm also pretty unconvinced by the 71-80 Spells. Divine Plea is a very good spell so far as it goes, but I can't help feeling that it's a bandaid for a what remains a pretty crappy power mechanic. ShoR is very nice... for Prot. If Ret was able and required to perform more of an off-tank role than it currently does it would have more value to non-Prot specs.

It's possible we'll see more come 3.1, when any potential PvP changes will probably (hopefully) occur. Till then we'll have to make do with what we have I suppose. My biggest bug-bear right now is that last time I checked Sacred Shield doesn't scale with Sheathe of Light. Oh, and the Judgement bug.

Honors Code said...

I'm 74 and a half. Honestly, I'm looking forward to 75 for Shield of Righteousness. I plan on going back to Protection (don't hate) for the rest of the ride up to 80.

I've got to be one of the slowest levelers going. Most of my guild is already in the 78-80 range.