... I'd spec this way for PvE.
Now, for the explanation part of the program.
My ret tree has a glaring omission - Seal of Command. I don't plan on using it at all, so why use the talent point when I've got somewhere else to put the point? In any situation that I risk killing myself with recoil damage, I'm going to either use Seal of Righteousness instead or ease off a bit while using Seal of the Martyr and concentrate hard on Sacred Shield'ing and Flash of Light'ing myself. Hopefully these sorts of fights are few and far between.
Seal of Command without the glyph is lackluster, and I don't plan on keeping a glyph and a talent point on me for these occasions.
Anything else I left out of the ret tree was because the talent has little to no PvE application (Vindication, Eye for an Eye, Divine Purpose) or it's a tank talent (Deflection).
As for the prot tree, I grabbed Divine Strength (of course, never leave Ironforge without it!) and a bunch of other goodies. First up, the new talent - Divinity.
Divinity increases healing to the paladin and by the paladin by 1/2/3/4/5%. It is my understanding that this applies to the paladin in question's Judgement of Light, which means it boosts the effective heal on JoLight by 5% on everyone. JoLight also got expanded to ranged attacks too, so yippie! Divinity also double-dips - if I end up Flash of Light'ing myself, it boosts the heal itself by 5% (healing done by the paladin) and then boosts it additional 5% when it heals me up (healing done to the paladin). 10% increase to my Art of War self-Flashes, woohoo!
Now that I've got 10 points in the tree, I can grab Divine Sacrifice, bring me up to 11 points in prot. The new Divine Guardian looks juicy too, though. It boosts the effectivness of Divine Sacrifice and increases the amount absorbed by Sacred Shield, which I plan on using more often now that it plays nice with Sheath of Light. So, I need to burn another 4 points in the prot tree.
Guardian's Favor grants increased mobility (longer duration Hand of Freedom) and decreased Hand of Protection cooldown. It's a solid talent. It usually won't increase personal DPS, but it can prove it's worth by helping you save a zealous clothie with a timely HoP.
The last 2 points I tossed into Toughness for lack of a better choice. More armor and decreased snare duration sounded good to me. Others would say Improved Righteous Fury would be a good choice, but I can't see myself using Righteous Fury on any fight. The only time I'd end up using it is if it were talented and I were fighting Loatheb, and even then I'd need to wait to get a spore to buff it up. Basically, I'm too wary of aggro to try it. And Stoicism/Anticipation don't appeal to me for PvE.
That brings me up to 15, and then I can toss 2 into Divine Guardian. 0/17/54, the new 0/10/61 in my personal opinion.
Monday, March 30, 2009
If The PTR Went Live Today...
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8 comments:
How much will your DPS drop by using SOR instead of SOC?
@Tom
Dunno, I probably won't find out. I'll probably just keep using SotM and be extra careful with shielding, healing, and Judgement timing.
Re: Seal of Casino...
You are dropping points into Toughness "just because". Why not grab Seal of Command with one of those two points? Yes, it's a lackluster seal in PvE. But do you run dailies? Or do you enjoy a BG excursion or two?
I'll be keeping Casino myself, just for no other reason than nuking myself for a coupla thousand damage while solo - on a PvP server - is a really, really, bad idea.
@Dorgol
Where do I take the point from? If I take it from Toughness, that shifts me from 0/17/54 to 0/16/55. The problem is that I need that 2nd point in Toughness to get to the next tier and grab Divine Guardian. Going 55 in ret prevents me from going 17 in prot.
I don't BG's - I haven't done one in months. I don't run dailies - I got exalted with Sons of Hodir and then stopped. I purely do instances and raids. This spec is purely for instances and raids. If it were for BG's, I wouldn't spec anything like this.
Taking SoComm at the expense of widely applicable DPS talent seems silly to me, and I want Divine Guardian. I don't see a way to get 17 in prot without sacrificing either personal DPS or a very situational seal in SoComm.
I'm open to suggestions.
Much as I love Divine Guardian as a talent (and equally hate the awfulness that is Divine Sacrifice) I'm more tempted by Aura Mastery. SotP would also boost the SoR damage for times when SoB/tM can't be used and Healing Light will boost your self FoL's by 12%. Regrettably 30% reduced Fear and Disorient duration is only of marginal use.
If resistance fights are a common occurrence in Ulduar I could see Aura Mastery being extremely useful in some situations. OTOH Divine Guardian would almost always be useful in every fight, though perhaps less so.
So, horses for courses really.
This reminds me, I really should finish my 3.1 Ret primer post.
ASIDE: Don't forget that Imp. Aura bonuses are effective for every aura. Hence if your raid has Imp. BoM's effect from another source but no Tree of Life Aura your build can drop 2 pts in Imp. Devo Aura to boost raid-wide healing by 4%.
@Zebra
Yea, Healing Light is 12% to FoL. But Divinity is 10% to self-FoL, and 5% to JoL (10% on self), and 5% to tank-FoL. It's more widely applicable.
Plus, no matter how much you hate Divine Sacrifice, it's undeniably useful for timed bursts on the tank. Divine Sac, Hand of Sac on tank, Divine Shield - you've got yourself a homemade Shield Wall.
Aura Mastery might end up being useful for burst on resistance fights or some extra feedback damage, but Divine Sacrifice works against *any* incoming damage.
Plus Divine Guardian makes Sacred Shield that much better, and I plan on making that a bigger part of my skill usage now that Sheath of Light works on it.
As for Imp. Devo Aura, I'm aware, but I know a lot of trees. I'll likely get more use out of Divine Guardian than 4% improved healing from imp. Devo. I've got 3 resto druid friends with which I frequently group.
As to SotP - I know I said I'd use SoR for recoil-unfriendly situations, but I have a feeling that I'll just keeping using SotM and be careful about it.
Here's a question... Do you realy need 3/3 in JOTW?
Hear me out a second; the current talent returns 15%, the new talent with two points in it would return an average of 16.5% (25*.66) over time.
I remember back in the day on the 3.0 PTR I ran with 2/3 JOTW and I was fine. I understand the change to spiritual attunement and all, but perhaps it would be worth testing
@Tom
You're not just messing with personal mana return when playing with JotW points. You're also messing with Replenishment up-time.
The retribution cycle takes half a mana bar. If you're unlucky and manage to not proc twice in a row, GRATS you're out of mana.
JotW is not a talent I'd want to mess with.
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