Our crappy T8 bonuses get reworded, remain crappy

Basically the 4pc bonus now definitely applies the BV to the ShoR that triggers it in the first place. Woo.

• (2pc) Increases the damage done by your Seals of Vengeance, Corruption, and Righteousness by 10%.
• (4pc) Shield of Righteousness now increases your shield block value by 225 for that attack and for 3 sec afterward.

3.1 tankadin spec

Update: I tweaked this spec a little. I’m going with this one now.

I think it’s fair to assume that the major changes to the Paladin talent trees have just about been fully rolled out and what we see on the PTRs is just about what’s going to make it to live. Now seems therefore a good time to start planning out how I’m going to spec when the patch drops and we’re all suddenly 0/0/0.

Here’s the build at Wowhead, 0/53/18.

Before I explain the spec you should know about my tanking situation. My guild runs 25 man raids and in them I am typically the main OT. I need basic survivability, and at the same time I need enough damage output that I can hang around 2nd place on the threat meter. So my choices tend to gravitate towards raid utility.

Now, in the Prot tree I took our bread and butter talents: Divine Strength, Anticipation, Improved Righteous Fury, etc. It’s pretty straightforward.

Special things to take note of are, for one, I skipped Divinity. This is mostly because the talent itself is garbage for Prot. 5% is not that much, and frankly I’m concerned more about whether a heal lands in time than if it’s 5% bigger. And 5% isn’t that much for so many talent points. I’m not even sure this talent is that worthwhile for Healadins, considering the overheal potential.

Moreover, I picked up Divine Sacrifice. I already have 1/2 Divine Guardian in my current build, and I like the idea of adding another 15% of raid damage soaking to my repetoire.

It might seem a silly talent at first, but there are some times when it is a major help to the healers for me to be able to shave 15-30% of the damage off the raid. Examples are when we were first learning the ropes on Loatheb, and more recently with Malygos’ Deep Breaths.

Moving on, you’ll notice I grabbed 2/2 Improved Hammer of Justice, which now synergizes quite well with the expanded Judgements of the Just talent. Basically, I’m going to have an interrupt on a 20 sec cooldown now.

Please note I completely avoided Reckoning. You should too!

Last big note in the Prot tree: I only went 1/2 on Spiritual Attunement. Honestly, between 100% uptime Divine Plea and Blessing of Wisdom, that second point in SA can be better put elsewhere.

Now, this is where the spec gets exciting. Thanks to Blizz somewhat “de-bloating” our tree we have some extra points to play with. I’m planning to use this bounty to dabble further into the Ret tree and increase my OT dps.

Keep in mind I went 1/5 Benediction purely as a stepping stone to further talents. I really had no other choice, and certainly wasn’t putting that point into Improved Judgements (making that 2/2). No sir.

So the big dps talents I’m focusing on in this tree are 3/3 Heart of the Crusader (a +3% crit buff to the raid assuming this focus my target), 3/5 Conviction (an additional +3% crit just for me, and 3/3 Crusade (+3% dmg all around with an extra +3% against certain mob types).

With my Ret talents I’m adding 6% to my crit chance and up to 6% to my overall damage. That is a major tps/dps boost!

I think this is a fairly standard build you’ll be seeing most tankadins rocking come the next patch.

Let me know if you have any suggestions/comments/complaints. I’m always open to making changes.

“The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance”

– Robert R. Coveyou

I’m going to digress from Paladining issues for the moment to indulge in something that has been bothering me for some time. As you might know from reading my various raid recaps, my guild distributes loot using a tiered rolling system, the heart of which is the ever trusty /roll.

As such the yellow-tinted “x has rolled y” announcements are typically flying around non-stop during the raid, and invariably someone says “oh boy you just rolled a 100, there goes your only high roll of the night.”

NO! That’s not how the system works!

WoW uses what’s called a “pseudo-random number generator” to produce the results of a /roll, /random, or the various need/greed rolls that the game generates.

I’m no where near qualified nor intelligent enough to fully explain what a PRNG means, but what it boils down to is this: when you type /roll into the client, the server returns a value based on a complex algorithm that it stores in a generator library server-side. And the starting point of that algorithm is a “seed state,” a number that the whole formula tumbles down from to produce the inevitable result.

Rolls in WoW are absolutely not random, cf:

So while the numbers can not be truly random, we have done what we can to make them as random as possible.

Rolls in WoW are actually nothing more than the answer to a math problem that you initiated. So in fact, when you typed /roll into the client and hit enter, at that exact millisecond, you could not have gotten any other result.

Like another thing that people say that bothers me: “I am lucky to have been born in x.” That’s not how it works! You are the result of two different genetic sources combining in a unique way, and as such, you could not be the offspring of any other pairing of creatures on this planet other than your two parents. Rolling works in exactly the same way.

Luck has nothing to do with it. That 1 you just rolled on the Betrayer of Humanity means that you just picked a really crappy moment to type /roll.

And if you roll a number above 90 during the course of a night, that doesn’t preclude you from repeating that feat again later in the raid.

Sorry for the digression. I’m a very skeptical person, and silliness like assuming that you only get one high roll a night tends to get my goat. We now return you to your regularly scheduled RiDef.

Better Late Than Never Friday 3/20/09

It occurred to me writing this that each week it would get successively harder to write this bit, considering that each week I’m inevitably covering some topic that people come here looking for. Eventually I’m going to run out of stuff to not write about! … if that makes any sense. Anyhoo:

41 stamina gem or 27 defence rating

I would go with the +stam gems, just because that’s such an obscene amount of stamina that it’s hard to pass up. Plus, most of your defense needs are met from your gear and you should only have to gem minimally for it to hit the uncrit cap.

completely re-gemming a paladin for threat

Don’t! All your threat should come from three places: (1) your weapon’s dps, (2) your block value, (3) your stamina via Touched by the Light. No need to gem to boost any of them.

how many hits does it take to level from 399 to 400?

I haven’t been able to find an authoritative source on how weapon skill leveling works. In my experience, it seems like fighting a mob that’s many levels higher than your current weapon skill equivalency makes it level faster.

For example, while grinding those lvl 79 Captive Vrykuls, I went from 101 to around 350 with 1 hit per weapon skill, but once I passed 350 it started taking more than one hit per skill point.

Probably because I was approaching the equivalent skill level to that mob’s own level. Basically, because 400 is the last skill point, and you’re usually fighting lvl 80-83 mobs, it’s going to take some time.

tankadin mobs behind you crit defense 540

Once you hit the crit cap it doesn’t matter where a mob hits you–you won’t be crit. If you’re sitting down, however, it’s an automatic crit. The only time when facing a mob matters is with blocking and parrying. You can’t block or parry anything hitting you from behind, but you can dodge the blows.

what are the biggest stamina gems u can get

The +41 stamina gems (Solid Dragon’s Eyes) from Jewelcrafting. Non-professionally, it’s the +24 stamina gems. However, coming soon in patch 3.1 is the Solid Stormjewel (+30 stamina), which can be a reward from the new fishing dailies.

what should my hit rating be as a protection paladin

Probably somewhere between 4-5%. Don’t gem for it, let it come to you.

wie spot der tankadin

Ich verstehe nicht, was dieses bedeutet.

Ghostcrawler clarifies our crappy 4pc bonus

Looks like they’re aiming to have the BV bonus apply to the shield slam that triggers it.

The way we want 4piece t8 for Prot paladins to work is that the Shield of Righteousness also benefits from that extra SBV. We can try to make the tooltip a little cleaner.

The OP in this thread it right though, we’re still getting screwed compared to how awesome the Warrior 4pc bonus is.

Great news about the new prot libram

… You don’t have to get it!

Thanks Blizzard for making such a crappy libram that we get to save the 25 Emblems of Valor. Take that Holy/Ret chumps.

From mmo-champion.com:

Paladin T8 Protection Relic — Increases your block rating by 136 [8.5% -ed.] while Holy Shield is active.

This is an upgrade to Libram of Repentance, I guess, but not much else. Personally I’m already block capped, so all that extra block rating would be pushed right off the table. It’d be a perfect waste of a relic slot.

And you can’t even argue it’d be a good starter item for tankadins, since it costs Emblems of Valor to get in the first place.

Very disappointing.

T8 protection set bonuses

The tier 8 set bonuses have hit the PTR and now we know what the bonuses to the protection set will be.

• (2 Piece) Increases the damage done by your Seals by 10%.
• (4 Piece) Shield of Righteousness now increases your shield block value by 225 for 3 sec.

Edit: I’ve been think about this a lot actually, and I’m not as impressed with the 4 piece bonus as I was in my sleep-addled state last night. For one, does the BV bonus kick in after you cast ShoR, or during? Will our shield slam see a benefit from that bonus? If not… 225 more damage blocked… woo?

The four piece bonus from T7 was much, much better, considering it had multiple applications (keeping bubblewall up longer, or pulling damage from the raid via Divine Guardian for another 3 secs.

The four piece bonus is kind of disappointing this time around. I mean, I have a trinket that does twice its value already!

Hopefully they tweak it before live.

Update: Galyan illustrates (er, literally) this better than I do with his fancy mathamawhatsits.

The everyman tankadin’s best-in-slot list

In theory, every tankadin should have at his or her disposal four different tanking sets. One for threat generation, one for effective health maximizing, one for pure avoidance, and one for trash blocking. Personally, I feel this is awfully unwieldy for most people (and certainly is for me). While the benefits you’d get from maintaining so many different sets would certain be noticed in down-to-the-wire circumstances where every little bit helps, in everyday situations, you can get by with one set.

As such I present to you the everyman’s best-in-slot list. These items will give you the best you can get of every world without maximizing any of those four needs. It’s the best across-the-board set you can accumulate.

Before I start, if you’re looking for a list broken down by those four needs, I recommend this list on Maintankadin.

Head: Valorous Redemption Faceguard

Gem with Eternal Earthsiege Diamond and Solid Sky Sapphire and enchant with Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector.

Shoulders: Valorous Redemption Shoulderguards

Gem with Enduring Forest Emerald and enchant with Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle.

Chest: Dragonstorm Breastplate

Gem with Regal Twilight Opal and Enduring Forest Emerald and enchant with Greater Defense.

Cloak: Cloak of the Shadowed Sun

Enchant with Titanweave.

Wrist: Bracers of the Unholy Knight

Gem with Regal Twilight Opal and enchant with Major Stamina.

Hands: Valorous Redemption Handguards

Gem with Solid Sky Sapphire and enchant with Armsman.

Waist: Ablative Chitin Girdle

Get an Eternal Belt Buckle and gem this with two Solid Sky Sapphires.

Legs: Legplates of Sovereignty

Enchant with Frosthide Leg Armor.

Feet: Kyzoc’s Ground Stompers

Enchant with Greater Fortitude.

Neck: Nexus War Champion’s Bead

Gem with Regal Twilight Opal.

Rings: Sand-Worn Band and Titanium Earthguard Ring

Gem the TER with Solid Sky Sapphire.

Trinkets: Essence of Gossamer and Repelling Charge

Personally I prefer my Monarch Crab over the Repelling Charge, but that might be a no-go for some folks.

Relic: Libram of Obstruction

Weapon: Last Laugh

Enchant with Accuracy.

Shield: Hero’s Surrender

Enchant with Defense.

Altogether this gear will put you in a great position for any situation you encounter in Ulduar.

Update: I built this set out in Warcrafter and it came up at about 567 defense skill, which is yes way over-stacked for defense. However, it also came out to be 102.1% avoidance, which means with Kings you can cross over into blockcapped territory.

Plus, you’d have only 16% (+30% from Holy Shield) of that as block, so not a bad pure avoidance number.

Your profession buffs should allow you a little more breathing room to add stamina or other avoidance stats.

Gender bending with your Iron Boot Flask

I’ve been unable to find time to write anything substantive for the site due to being swamped at work… where I may or may not do most of my blogging.

In any case, to ameliorate my absense, here’s a fun trick some of my friends have been doing and all it requires is an Iron Boot Flask. You also need a female toon. And be Horde… do Dranei or Night Elves get turned into humans in CoT: Durnholde or Stratholme? Sorry, guess it requires a lot.

While in CoT: Stratholme/Durnholde if you’re getting sick of looking at your silly human female, with their moppish do’s and their Malibu Stacy-esque emotes, use the Iron Boot Flask. You’ll notice that no matter what you’ll be turned into a male Iron Dwarf.

Cool enough, but when the effect wears off you’ll still be male!

Instant sex change, without the $25 surcharge.

Moreover, if you want to get crazy, pair it with the Orb of the Sin’Dorei outside of an instance. This works for any race as long as you’re female. Now you’ll be a male Blood Elf rather than a female one. Works with other appearance-changing items as you’d imagine.

Happy bending!

Zoom zoom

Shamelessly stolen from WoW Insider, but this is so cool…

In 3.1, healadins get a talent called Aura Mastery, which improves the effects for all auras 100% for 10 secs. It works for Crusader Aura too, which means that 20% speed bonus becomes a 40% speed bonus.

Look at that pally go!