Wednesday, April 8, 2009

3.1's Coming, Did You Bring Your Coat?

... 'cuz it's raining talent specs!

Are you prepared for dual-specs? Are you prepared for free respecs? I am. The patch is likely coming out this month, and I've got my specs ready to go. As always, these are my own creations based on my preferences.

Ret PvE - 0/17/54
The spec I've settled on for raiding grabs Divine Guardian/Divine Sacrifice and all the DPS talents in the ret tree. The notable omission is Seal of Command, but I've resolved to just Sacred Shield/Art of War-FoL myself and watch my health instead of wasting a talent point on a seal I hardly ever use.

Ret PvP - 0/20/51
The spec I've settled on for PvP is much like the one I want to use in PvE. It has Divine Guardian/Divine Sacrifice to protect my teammates and make my Sacred Shields stronger, and it still doesn't have Seal of Command. What it does have is Vindication, Divine Purpose, and Improved Hammer of Justice at the expense of 3% haste, 1 minute off my wings cooldown (and the armor bypass during wings), and Improved Blessing of Might. This spec might well fall flat on its face, but I'm willing to give it a shot, and as always, I'm open to counter arguments. It won't matter much for me, since I hardly ever PvP anyway. My 2nd spec for dual spec will likely be...

Prot PvE - 7/58/6 (or 0/53/18)
Since the fine devs at Blizzard decided to make Spiritual Attunement a talent that prot probably will want to invest in, most prot paladins can't do their dream spec of 0/53/18 and grab Crusade and fill out all the major talents in prot. So, I did the next best thing in my eyes. I grabbed Seals of the Pure and Reckoning. The other option is only go 1/2 into Spiritual Attunement and run with a 0/53/18 spec. This would assume that the perma-Divine Plea, 5% mana return from heals, raid/party-buffed mana/5 restoration, and possibly Blessing of Sanctuary are enough to keep prot paladin mana going.

What are you speccing at the dawning of the age of Dual Specquarius?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the expense of sounding like a noob, here I go:-

I will stick with my current spec, which is 0/10/61 (>.<). And also, take up the Prot PvE spec just in case I feel like trashing a few instances.

I've heard arguements against SoC and how they're not really that good for DPS compared to Blood/Martyr, but I've been using that seal since my first day and I don't have any issue with my damage output. Besides, I don't raid or do instances that much anyway, so it's still included in my spec.

- Aenur of Hydraxis

Anonymous said...

Much better prot spec here
http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=sZV0tAbuMusIufdxf0hbc

Vaadren said...

@Aenur: The 0/10/61 spec won't be available anymore, since the talent trees are getting a revamp again. Kings becomes baseline, certain talents will cost less points to max out, you get the idea.

I'm still not sure what to do with the "spare" points. I'm tempted to go into Holy for some improved backup healing, but Prot seems more useful.

One question though: what made you choose Divine Sacrifice, apart from the mandatory point to get Divine Guardian for imp. Sacred Shield? I'm struggling to see the use of it, it seems too risky.

Shwitz44 said...

@Anonymous
If you notice, that exact 0/53/18 spec is noted as one of my prot choices.

@Vaadren
You can still trigger Divine Sacrifice and use Divine Shield at the same time. Unlinking them doesn't mean you can't use them simultaneously! I plan to use it as a tank cooldown in crunch time on heavy tank-killer fights.

Honors Code said...

You must mean as a move to save your tank and redirect the damage to you.

Note that Divine Shield has a 12 second duration which is perfect to use with Divine Sacrifice 10 second duration with room for a 1.5 second global cooldown.

Anonymous said...

These all seem to be fairly effective, my only dispute would be that you reaaaallly want to pick up Seal of Command for PvP unless you're absolutely certain you're gonna have a pro pocket healer with you at all times, be it arena, BG, whatever.

Aside from that, pretty much exactly what I had in mind (so obviously, I completely support these specs, hehe).

Doogiehowser said...

Your 0/53/18 prot spec is what I'm going to be sporting come 3.1.

Although, I'm one of those masochists that enjoys pally healing so my dual spec is going to be holy.

I find it convenient to be holy/prot since there are no overlap on glyphs with holy and prot. At least with prot glyphs, I will have the judgement glyph and possibly the exorcism glyph which would be nice if I ever respec my prot to ret.

uke said...

Was your post title a take on a line from "Rejected"? If so, well played, good sir.

"I live in a giant bucket!"

Shwitz44 said...

@Honorshammer
Yea, I mean as a tank-saver cooldown. Whatever, you caught my drift.

@Peregrine
Bah, healers. I have a buffed up Sacred Shield, Divine Shield, Divine Protection, Hammer of Justice, Repentance, Art of War and Flash of Light. I can protect myself. A little cutting won't kill me.

@Doogie
Liar. No one enjoys paladin healing. Anyone that claims they do is either deranged or lying.

Yes Siha, I just called you deranged.

@uke
But are you feeling fat and sassy?

uke said...

No, but I AM a banana.

Anonymous said...

Oh i fail at copying and pasting....

http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=sV0bZE0xA0uThsIufdxo i the one it was meant to be. 7/58/6, 1 point into Judgment for 9696969 rotation.

I feel from the prot point of view your not going to need spiritual attunement with 100% uptime on divineplea, divine guardian/divineplea seem to fill a role more for a holy/ret rather than prot. And divine guardian is nowhere as useful as it currently is on live.

Drak

rowboat said...

I know you've already had a post addressing your decision not to get SoC, but what are you going to do when you get to a fight like Gluth, where a mistimed SoB judge can instakill you after Decimate?

I don't understand how someone can be considered selfish for not spending 5/5 toward BoK pre-3.1, but it's now an option to not even pick up Command, regardless of how sub-optimal it may be.

(Love your blog, by the way!)

Anonymous said...

if you dont mind, josh, I'll field this one... if you disagree put us both in our place.

DBM allows you to see when a Decimate is coming up, and easily decide to simply not judge when its appropriate.

Shwitz44 said...

@rowboat
As Peregrine said, watch your timers.

I see it thusly: either don't Judge and wait to be healed, or use up an Art of War proc to heal yourself. Knowledge of when things happen can help you avoid disastrous suicidal Judging.

The only fight I can think of where you simply don't know when your health might drop suddenly and without warning is Prince Malchezaar. If there's another fight like him in WotLK, I'll reconsider my "no SoComm" stance. Until that time, I don't see the point.

Doogiehowser said...

@ Josh

Liar? Nah, I'm just a duplicitous backstabbing jerk that sometimes likes to let certain dps die because they're a little too mouthy for my taste.

Plus, it's fun being in control of their lives.

You don't get much props/glory for healing in a smooth run. However, there are times when I can save a wipe and that feels good.