but it hasn't felt like it. :D Through only posting here when I've gotten the urge, Ret Pally SMASH! has never been stressful to me. I started in March of this year and I think I would continue writing a couple times a month until March 2010 and beyond, but that can't be...
because I got hired at Paladin Schmaladin! woOt. =] You guys have made writing here very enjoyable. The thing is, I will be reaching a much larger audience there. I should get at least a couple dozen responses when I post (and that means I'm reaching a lot more people who just aren't commenting), while here I don't think I've ever quite reached that number. The way I see it, nothing is changing. All you have to do if you want to continue reading my Ret PvP ramblings is head on over to Ferarro's site.
Nothing's changed. I still get to be lazy and post when I feel like it. It seems very laid back there. If you don't already read Paladin Schmaladin, it's a great site. You certainly won't have to wait a month between posts, (although probably only mine will be about Ret PvP)!
I'd like to thank everyone who's commented. You made this worth it for me. I would have closed this blog down months ago if it weren't for you guys. :D Alright, let's get this show on the road. Here's the link to Paladin Schmaladin:
ferarro.blogspot.com
I'm starting my first article now, right after I post this. I dunno exactly when it'll be up, but hopefully soon! See you there, friends!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
It's been pretty hectic for me lately
It's been a whole month since I've posted. Sorry about that! I'm going to school again which takes a lot of free time. I made my fifth movie (http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=128279) even though my fourth one was released under a month ago. Don't ask me why because I really don't know.
Finally, I applied to Paladin Schmaladin (http://ferarro.blogspot.com/) for a writing position there. I've always been impressed with that blog, and if I get the job I will reach a larger audience. You guys know that's something I've always wanted to do. I got chosen as a finalist which meant I had to write a fresh article for the site. What I wrote about would have been fairly specific and niche even for this blog, so I don't know how Paladin Schmaladin, which reaches out to so many different kinds of paladins, will receive it. I tried a different topic but my heart wasn't in it. I feel I made the right decision with what I went with, so whether or not I get the job, I'll be happy. All of the finalist entries will be up at some point soon I imagine. The readers will choose who gets picked, so if you have the time go and check them out. If you like mine, vote for it. :)
Replies to comments from my previous post:
lol at the word confirmation, Mike. Anytime! I'm glad you found it interesting.
----
Oops, Brian. I guess I was too busy detailing why I'd rather stay Ret. =P I hope the 700-resil is working out well for you. Stop tempting me to try deep-Prot, tyvm!
----
To be honest, Cody, it sounds like you're playing the comp right. You can make a switch back to your initial target with a Vanish/Cheap Shot/Kidney (the Vanish buff in 3.3 will make this more reliable), but I'm sure you've thought of that already. It sounds like either a gear problem or someone on your team isn't using his utility cleanly enough. Perhaps whoever is calling the switches isn't making very good calls. RRP isn't as good as it was in mid-S6, but I believe it's still fairly good.
----
Thanks, David! Screw IE. :P I've had a lot to do without testing out that weird spec I suggested any further than I already had. The people who have tested it said they enjoyed it a lot and felt it was stronger than in niche situations, but they eventually missed full-Ret. That's kind of what I expected. It's just something to mess around with and enjoy breaking the mold with, you know?
----
Well, Joey, that's part of the comp. The thing is, your teammates are very tanky so they should be able to survive while you're getting controlled like that. If you don't like getting CC'd/kited for large portions of the matches, war/Ret/R. druid isn't for you. I totally feel where you're coming from. If you want a cleaner setup, try Marks/Ret/R. shaman.
As for losing less against these kinds of teams, I don't know what to suggest. Perhaps your warrior and druid need to work on surviving without you for periods of time. Maybe you're not communicating well enough that they need to pop cooldowns because you won't be there to help them for an extended period of time.
----
Heya, Greg. I like SoC a lot as you can see if you watch my latest movie. It's a very niche seal, though; most comps you are better off with SoR. I don't think Ele/Ret/R. druid is a very good comp, but it sounds fun to try. I'd try giving up Divine Sac for Aura Mastery. If you surprise teams with this and make quick switches, maybe you can blow something up. The problem with the comp is it doesn't have enough peels and can't prevent opponents from LoS'ing well enough ... not to mention you have no healing debuff. :P
----
Hi there, Dallanna. The n52 looks pretty awesome, but you might need a few more buttons. Perhaps if you used this mouse you would:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10313500-1.html
I can't answer in great detail because whenever I try new binding/interface setups, I sit infront of the computer for days on end trying to make everything fit perfectly. It's not good for my health, lol.
Finally, I applied to Paladin Schmaladin (http://ferarro.blogspot.com/) for a writing position there. I've always been impressed with that blog, and if I get the job I will reach a larger audience. You guys know that's something I've always wanted to do. I got chosen as a finalist which meant I had to write a fresh article for the site. What I wrote about would have been fairly specific and niche even for this blog, so I don't know how Paladin Schmaladin, which reaches out to so many different kinds of paladins, will receive it. I tried a different topic but my heart wasn't in it. I feel I made the right decision with what I went with, so whether or not I get the job, I'll be happy. All of the finalist entries will be up at some point soon I imagine. The readers will choose who gets picked, so if you have the time go and check them out. If you like mine, vote for it. :)
Replies to comments from my previous post:
lol at the word confirmation, Mike. Anytime! I'm glad you found it interesting.
----
Oops, Brian. I guess I was too busy detailing why I'd rather stay Ret. =P I hope the 700-resil is working out well for you. Stop tempting me to try deep-Prot, tyvm!
----
To be honest, Cody, it sounds like you're playing the comp right. You can make a switch back to your initial target with a Vanish/Cheap Shot/Kidney (the Vanish buff in 3.3 will make this more reliable), but I'm sure you've thought of that already. It sounds like either a gear problem or someone on your team isn't using his utility cleanly enough. Perhaps whoever is calling the switches isn't making very good calls. RRP isn't as good as it was in mid-S6, but I believe it's still fairly good.
----
Thanks, David! Screw IE. :P I've had a lot to do without testing out that weird spec I suggested any further than I already had. The people who have tested it said they enjoyed it a lot and felt it was stronger than in niche situations, but they eventually missed full-Ret. That's kind of what I expected. It's just something to mess around with and enjoy breaking the mold with, you know?
----
Well, Joey, that's part of the comp. The thing is, your teammates are very tanky so they should be able to survive while you're getting controlled like that. If you don't like getting CC'd/kited for large portions of the matches, war/Ret/R. druid isn't for you. I totally feel where you're coming from. If you want a cleaner setup, try Marks/Ret/R. shaman.
As for losing less against these kinds of teams, I don't know what to suggest. Perhaps your warrior and druid need to work on surviving without you for periods of time. Maybe you're not communicating well enough that they need to pop cooldowns because you won't be there to help them for an extended period of time.
----
Heya, Greg. I like SoC a lot as you can see if you watch my latest movie. It's a very niche seal, though; most comps you are better off with SoR. I don't think Ele/Ret/R. druid is a very good comp, but it sounds fun to try. I'd try giving up Divine Sac for Aura Mastery. If you surprise teams with this and make quick switches, maybe you can blow something up. The problem with the comp is it doesn't have enough peels and can't prevent opponents from LoS'ing well enough ... not to mention you have no healing debuff. :P
----
Hi there, Dallanna. The n52 looks pretty awesome, but you might need a few more buttons. Perhaps if you used this mouse you would:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10313500-1.html
I can't answer in great detail because whenever I try new binding/interface setups, I sit infront of the computer for days on end trying to make everything fit perfectly. It's not good for my health, lol.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Q&A extravaganza
Thank you very much for your support. :) Before I get into the questions, I'd like to direct you to this thread:
http://www.retpaladin.com/warcraft/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3577
It's a bit of a crazy idea, but it seems to be working out quite well for those who have tried it. It's a very different play-style for those who want to try something new. If you see problems in the spec, they are probably discussed in that thread (it's 5-pages long atm).
Okay, onto the questions. I'll be paraphrasing them to keep things simple.
Question set #1 from David:
How do I beat war/R. druid & DK/R. druid as Frost mage/Ret?
I asked my friend who played Frost mage/Ret to 2.5k this question. Against both comps, they generally stick on the druid while Polying the warrior or DK. When Poly is on DR, they switch to the war/DK. He said that warriors are lame because they can kill him in a Bladestorm really easily. He'll often do anything to get through it, including switching to sword/board and even Seal of Light sometimes. If he has to Bubble the first one but manages to live through the next, he'll be able to Divine Protection the third.
I think the Armor Pen nerf should help. If warriors switch their ArP gems to str, they won't do as much damage to you. As for your mage, they shouldn't be able to catch him very often.
Frost mage/Ret/R. shaman or Feral/Ret/R. shaman -- which comp should I play? Rogues and priests give my shaman fits.
I've never been a big fan of playing a double-melee comp without a healing debuff, but Ferals are getting significantly buffed next patch. Not only will they be able to cast instant Cyclones, but their snare will reduce movement speed by 50% instead of 25%. It would certainly be a fun comp to try, but your other comp is quite good. I'd say stick with Frost mage/Ret for now, and if you get bored, try Feral/Ret in 3.2.2.
You said your shaman hates rogues and priests. Against RMP, I would try popping Divine Sac immediately (when you see the mage casting Poly, see your teammate get Cheap Shot'd, etc). That should allow your shaman to live long enough for you to Freedom him out of Kidney. If your team runs in and engages them early (Pyro Rocket so you don't get Sap'd! =P), your shaman can stay close to LoS. If the rogue Kidneys right after the Cheap Shot ends, great, Freedom. If he waits, your shaman shift into Ghost Wolf and LoS the mage.
I don't get Sap'd too often. It depends on the map and Pyro Rocket helps a lot. It's also nice to have a hunter or warrior who are pretty good at pulling rogues out. It might be more difficult for you if you are not an Engineer/because you don't play with one of those classes. If you get Sap'd and your team has bad positioning, you might want to go ahead and trinket it/pop DSac straight away. When CC is not on DR, follow with HoSac. You might have to use DS to break a full-duration CC, too. It's better to be very aggressive with your cooldowns and have a chance at winning than to lose early in the match, you know?
Question set #2 from Brian:
Do you feel comfortable using to 5-600 resilience?
Nope, not really. If you're gearing up, that's fine, but I wouldn't choose to dip that low. I have nearly 900 and I'm thankful for every bit of it. For example, I almost never give RMP my Bubble early in a match. If I do, they get the momentum and you really, really don't want to give RMP the momentum. I attribute my ability to survive against them long enough for us to recover without Bubble to resilience.
Dipping to 500-resil was okay when the game was more zergy, but with the resil-buff, BM getting nerfed, etc I'd say to lean heavily towards PvP gear. If my PvE gear was significantly better than my PvP gear, I'd allow my resilience to drop semi-low.
Have you considered trying deep-Prot in next patch?
Yea, it looks like a lot of fun. It would be especially good on a team like war/Ret/R. druid where the weak link in the survivability chain can often be the Ret. The increased survivability and being able to use SoV because of quick auto-attacks/HotR (it stacks Veng) would be awesome. On the other hand, I don't think Avenger's Shield is as good as people say. While I'd love to be Captain America, having your #1 burst ability tied to your snare and your silence ... on a 30-sec cooldown ... is not very good. If you're not bursting the healer (my teams usually switch between the damage-dealers), the silence is less likely to be useful. The snare is magic and easily dispelled by a lot of teams. It's a strong ability, but I don't think it's as good as people make it out to be.
You also lose just about all of your ability to offheal: JotW is way better than Divine Plea and no Art of War FoL's/SS HoT's/Sheath of Light HoT's. You lose Freedom stun-break and Repentance. I think Prot looks like a lot of fun, but it will be quite different than Ret. It would be a lot more tanky (gogo Holy Shield vs. rogues!) and probably have better burst, but there would be less utility.
Question set #3 from Mael:
How long have you played Ret?
I've played Ret since pre-BC. Funny story: I didn't know the Prot and Ret trees existed until around level-40. I leveled to 50 as Holy. I did Ret 50-60 and hit 60 around when patch 1.9 was coming out. I loved both Ret and Holy in PvP, but I eventually started playing Ret more and more because cocksure warriors would assume I bought the game to heal them. I loved being the guy who kept my entire team chugging along, but I didn't like healing these idiots.
I eventually was exclusively Ret and started running a Ret/Prot build instead of the traditional Ret/Holy build. I loved my 35-sec HoJ's. ^_^ Holy will continue to have a special place in my heart and I don't think it's as easy as other healers say it is.
Are you talented or experienced? Did you naturally learn to play Ret over time or did you put some thought into it?
That first part is a somewhat uncomfortable question. I don't like to discuss my skill-level. I don't even measure myself against other people but against myself. When you are always trying to make yourself better, you really can't say if you're good or bad because there's always room for improvement. I hope that doesn't sound like a load of bullshit because it's really how I see things.
I know of some paladins who have PvP'd for sooo long and still don't really understand the class. Still, I think experience is the main component for improving. You just have to add in the right mindset. All the time I'm thinking about what I could have done better; not only when I die. If you want to improve, I'd say it just has to be natural to realize if you used a GCD incorrectly and tell yourself not to make that mistake again. I wouldn't call this practicing. It's how I always play competitive games. Does that make sense? I enjoy playing this way.
Question set #4 from Joey:
Have you considered using Mark of Supremacy (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47734)? It's awesome.
That is very sexy, but I don't use it because I use Pyro Rocket. They share a 10-sec cooldown which makes using Pyro Rocket and clicky-damage-trinkets awkward. I use the new Battlemaster's (AP version) and Greatness. I wish I could get that upgraded-upgraded version of Greatness which is almost twice as good.
Would you take an SS of your UI/keybinds?
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)
Okay, this is starting from the left, working downwards, and moving to the right. You can see each group of abilities has a little room between them.
Instant-attacks
shift + 1 through 5 for seals
1 through 5 for instants
g through alt + g for situational instants
Utility
Q through ctrl + Q for CC (my Turn Evil is a mouseover)
ctrl + 1 through ctrl + 6 for teammate-support-utility
B through alt + B for Hand spells
Heals
E through alt + E for heals
C through alt + C for consumable heals/Divine Plea
Personal utility
H through alt + H for DS/DP/AW/Pyro Rocket
R through ctrl + R for PvP trinket (human racial)/Battlemaster's/sword & board
N through ctrl + N for engineering escape tools
Buffs
alt + 1 through alt + 3 for blessings
F1 - F3 for greater blessings
` through alt + ` for auras
Travel
Y through alt + Y for mounts, Hearth, portal mailbox
K and shift + K for drink/food
Moving on to the top-right of the screen:
Focus macros
shift + F (Cheap Shot icon) sets focus my mouseover as my focus
J through ctrl + J are my focus HoJ/Repentance and my macro that auto-TE's Ebon Gargoyle
Teammate specific macros
mouse-scroll-up and mouse-scroll-down Cleanses my damage-dealer teammate and my healer teammate, in that order
shift + MSU and shift + MSD casts HoF on them
ctrl + MSU and ctrl + MSD casts Sacred Shield on them
alt + MSU and alt + MSD casts FoL on them
M, shift + M, ctrl + M, and alt + M casts HoSac and HoP on them
The abilities on the top-right of my screen, the focus-macros and teammate-specific-macros that I just explained are usually hidden.
My side mouse-buttons are ctrl + alt which makes those modifiers easy to use. When I used ctrl + alt on my keyboard, it'd nearly break my wrist. Try pressing alt + c, lol. I could not survive without a gaming mouse.
Question set #5 from cvillanu:
General Frost mage/Ret tips?
I asked the same friend a couple more questions since I have only dabbled in this comp. He said that 'lock matches often go on until one team gets a lucky kill. The only way they usually win is if they can interrupt the Fel Dom until it falls off. It's so hard to do, though, because they usually have to use all of their CC to kill the pet!
Hunter matches are usually alright, so long as it's not with a priest. Hunter/priest is a counter. "Priests in general are a bitch. One double-fear and it's gg." He said they can beat rogue/priest now, though.
I wish I could go into more detail than that, but I don't have a lot of personal experience with this comp.
Should I ever pop Wings as a 2v2 double-damage comp?
Yes. For one thing, sometimes your Bubble will be down. At that point, why not? If your team is very much on the offensive and everything is going great, you might as well pop them even if your Bubble is up. It's situational and you have to get a good feel for it, but the answer is yes.
----
Sorry it took some time to respond. I wanted to wait for a good amount of questions, then school got in the way, and finally my post got eaten. >.< I hope I answered everyone's questions to their satisfaction.
http://www.retpaladin.com/warcraft/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3577
It's a bit of a crazy idea, but it seems to be working out quite well for those who have tried it. It's a very different play-style for those who want to try something new. If you see problems in the spec, they are probably discussed in that thread (it's 5-pages long atm).
Okay, onto the questions. I'll be paraphrasing them to keep things simple.
Question set #1 from David:
How do I beat war/R. druid & DK/R. druid as Frost mage/Ret?
I asked my friend who played Frost mage/Ret to 2.5k this question. Against both comps, they generally stick on the druid while Polying the warrior or DK. When Poly is on DR, they switch to the war/DK. He said that warriors are lame because they can kill him in a Bladestorm really easily. He'll often do anything to get through it, including switching to sword/board and even Seal of Light sometimes. If he has to Bubble the first one but manages to live through the next, he'll be able to Divine Protection the third.
I think the Armor Pen nerf should help. If warriors switch their ArP gems to str, they won't do as much damage to you. As for your mage, they shouldn't be able to catch him very often.
Frost mage/Ret/R. shaman or Feral/Ret/R. shaman -- which comp should I play? Rogues and priests give my shaman fits.
I've never been a big fan of playing a double-melee comp without a healing debuff, but Ferals are getting significantly buffed next patch. Not only will they be able to cast instant Cyclones, but their snare will reduce movement speed by 50% instead of 25%. It would certainly be a fun comp to try, but your other comp is quite good. I'd say stick with Frost mage/Ret for now, and if you get bored, try Feral/Ret in 3.2.2.
You said your shaman hates rogues and priests. Against RMP, I would try popping Divine Sac immediately (when you see the mage casting Poly, see your teammate get Cheap Shot'd, etc). That should allow your shaman to live long enough for you to Freedom him out of Kidney. If your team runs in and engages them early (Pyro Rocket so you don't get Sap'd! =P), your shaman can stay close to LoS. If the rogue Kidneys right after the Cheap Shot ends, great, Freedom. If he waits, your shaman shift into Ghost Wolf and LoS the mage.
I don't get Sap'd too often. It depends on the map and Pyro Rocket helps a lot. It's also nice to have a hunter or warrior who are pretty good at pulling rogues out. It might be more difficult for you if you are not an Engineer/because you don't play with one of those classes. If you get Sap'd and your team has bad positioning, you might want to go ahead and trinket it/pop DSac straight away. When CC is not on DR, follow with HoSac. You might have to use DS to break a full-duration CC, too. It's better to be very aggressive with your cooldowns and have a chance at winning than to lose early in the match, you know?
Question set #2 from Brian:
Do you feel comfortable using to 5-600 resilience?
Nope, not really. If you're gearing up, that's fine, but I wouldn't choose to dip that low. I have nearly 900 and I'm thankful for every bit of it. For example, I almost never give RMP my Bubble early in a match. If I do, they get the momentum and you really, really don't want to give RMP the momentum. I attribute my ability to survive against them long enough for us to recover without Bubble to resilience.
Dipping to 500-resil was okay when the game was more zergy, but with the resil-buff, BM getting nerfed, etc I'd say to lean heavily towards PvP gear. If my PvE gear was significantly better than my PvP gear, I'd allow my resilience to drop semi-low.
Have you considered trying deep-Prot in next patch?
Yea, it looks like a lot of fun. It would be especially good on a team like war/Ret/R. druid where the weak link in the survivability chain can often be the Ret. The increased survivability and being able to use SoV because of quick auto-attacks/HotR (it stacks Veng) would be awesome. On the other hand, I don't think Avenger's Shield is as good as people say. While I'd love to be Captain America, having your #1 burst ability tied to your snare and your silence ... on a 30-sec cooldown ... is not very good. If you're not bursting the healer (my teams usually switch between the damage-dealers), the silence is less likely to be useful. The snare is magic and easily dispelled by a lot of teams. It's a strong ability, but I don't think it's as good as people make it out to be.
You also lose just about all of your ability to offheal: JotW is way better than Divine Plea and no Art of War FoL's/SS HoT's/Sheath of Light HoT's. You lose Freedom stun-break and Repentance. I think Prot looks like a lot of fun, but it will be quite different than Ret. It would be a lot more tanky (gogo Holy Shield vs. rogues!) and probably have better burst, but there would be less utility.
Question set #3 from Mael:
How long have you played Ret?
I've played Ret since pre-BC. Funny story: I didn't know the Prot and Ret trees existed until around level-40. I leveled to 50 as Holy. I did Ret 50-60 and hit 60 around when patch 1.9 was coming out. I loved both Ret and Holy in PvP, but I eventually started playing Ret more and more because cocksure warriors would assume I bought the game to heal them. I loved being the guy who kept my entire team chugging along, but I didn't like healing these idiots.
I eventually was exclusively Ret and started running a Ret/Prot build instead of the traditional Ret/Holy build. I loved my 35-sec HoJ's. ^_^ Holy will continue to have a special place in my heart and I don't think it's as easy as other healers say it is.
Are you talented or experienced? Did you naturally learn to play Ret over time or did you put some thought into it?
That first part is a somewhat uncomfortable question. I don't like to discuss my skill-level. I don't even measure myself against other people but against myself. When you are always trying to make yourself better, you really can't say if you're good or bad because there's always room for improvement. I hope that doesn't sound like a load of bullshit because it's really how I see things.
I know of some paladins who have PvP'd for sooo long and still don't really understand the class. Still, I think experience is the main component for improving. You just have to add in the right mindset. All the time I'm thinking about what I could have done better; not only when I die. If you want to improve, I'd say it just has to be natural to realize if you used a GCD incorrectly and tell yourself not to make that mistake again. I wouldn't call this practicing. It's how I always play competitive games. Does that make sense? I enjoy playing this way.
Question set #4 from Joey:
Have you considered using Mark of Supremacy (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47734)? It's awesome.
That is very sexy, but I don't use it because I use Pyro Rocket. They share a 10-sec cooldown which makes using Pyro Rocket and clicky-damage-trinkets awkward. I use the new Battlemaster's (AP version) and Greatness. I wish I could get that upgraded-upgraded version of Greatness which is almost twice as good.
Would you take an SS of your UI/keybinds?
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)Okay, this is starting from the left, working downwards, and moving to the right. You can see each group of abilities has a little room between them.
Instant-attacks
shift + 1 through 5 for seals
1 through 5 for instants
g through alt + g for situational instants
Utility
Q through ctrl + Q for CC (my Turn Evil is a mouseover)
ctrl + 1 through ctrl + 6 for teammate-support-utility
B through alt + B for Hand spells
Heals
E through alt + E for heals
C through alt + C for consumable heals/Divine Plea
Personal utility
H through alt + H for DS/DP/AW/Pyro Rocket
R through ctrl + R for PvP trinket (human racial)/Battlemaster's/sword & board
N through ctrl + N for engineering escape tools
Buffs
alt + 1 through alt + 3 for blessings
F1 - F3 for greater blessings
` through alt + ` for auras
Travel
Y through alt + Y for mounts, Hearth, portal mailbox
K and shift + K for drink/food
Moving on to the top-right of the screen:
Focus macros
shift + F (Cheap Shot icon) sets focus my mouseover as my focus
J through ctrl + J are my focus HoJ/Repentance and my macro that auto-TE's Ebon Gargoyle
Teammate specific macros
mouse-scroll-up and mouse-scroll-down Cleanses my damage-dealer teammate and my healer teammate, in that order
shift + MSU and shift + MSD casts HoF on them
ctrl + MSU and ctrl + MSD casts Sacred Shield on them
alt + MSU and alt + MSD casts FoL on them
M, shift + M, ctrl + M, and alt + M casts HoSac and HoP on them
The abilities on the top-right of my screen, the focus-macros and teammate-specific-macros that I just explained are usually hidden.
My side mouse-buttons are ctrl + alt which makes those modifiers easy to use. When I used ctrl + alt on my keyboard, it'd nearly break my wrist. Try pressing alt + c, lol. I could not survive without a gaming mouse.
Question set #5 from cvillanu:
General Frost mage/Ret tips?
I asked the same friend a couple more questions since I have only dabbled in this comp. He said that 'lock matches often go on until one team gets a lucky kill. The only way they usually win is if they can interrupt the Fel Dom until it falls off. It's so hard to do, though, because they usually have to use all of their CC to kill the pet!
Hunter matches are usually alright, so long as it's not with a priest. Hunter/priest is a counter. "Priests in general are a bitch. One double-fear and it's gg." He said they can beat rogue/priest now, though.
I wish I could go into more detail than that, but I don't have a lot of personal experience with this comp.
Should I ever pop Wings as a 2v2 double-damage comp?
Yes. For one thing, sometimes your Bubble will be down. At that point, why not? If your team is very much on the offensive and everything is going great, you might as well pop them even if your Bubble is up. It's situational and you have to get a good feel for it, but the answer is yes.
----
Sorry it took some time to respond. I wanted to wait for a good amount of questions, then school got in the way, and finally my post got eaten. >.< I hope I answered everyone's questions to their satisfaction.
Monday, September 14, 2009
I will answer your questions!
My last post was a bit of a failure, probably more due to where I went with it than the subject matter. That's okay, though ... I finally know what to do with this blog! I've been afraid of getting too specific. Since I don't have tons of readers, what good would it do to go on about how to fight RMP as war/Ret/R. druid when it's possible no one here plays it? So, it's not that I don't have ideas what to write on, but that I can't know what will be helpful to you without your help.
Whatever questions you ask me, please don't be too broad. If you are having problems with a certain comp, for example, tell me what the problems are so I can help you with them. If you ask a very broad answer, I will either ask you to elaborate or give a very broad response.
I've played the following comps in WotLK:
-Surv and Marks hunt/Ret/Resto druid (probably a slightly better setup with a Resto shaman -- you can ask me about this, too)
-Frost mage/Ret/Resto druid (might be a bit more effective with a Disc priest. Again, feel free to ask about that variation)
-rogue/Ret/Disc priest (pre-3.2, but again, ask away)
-war/Ret/Resto druid
I've thought a good deal on Aff 'lock/Ret/Resto druid, but I doubt anyone plays that. :P I know a lot about spec'ing and glyphing ... hell, I can even help you with dueling. If you ask about comps I don't have personal experience with, I will do my best to answer it.
I think if this approach to the blog is unsuccessful, I'll probably close it down. I realize Ret PvP is a fairly niche topic, but I would like to be helping a decent amount of people considering the time I put into it. One of the benefits to me would be if I answer enough questions, I can direct people here instead of answering the same question ingame/on forums multiple times. This is my best shot at making this blog work because it's the very reason I created it: people ask me questions and I respond with these lengthy explanations that I feel do a good job (perhaps too good -- I know I can be wordy =P) of answering them.
So, please, ask away! Here's an example of a question I was asked on a forum recently and my response. This is what you can expect.
Example question
Question:
Response:
hmm. My warrior says he can put out the same damage or sometimes even more damage when he's turtling. I know it may sound crazy, but I was talking to him about our team getting on enemy warriors early to force them to turtle, to relieve pressure, when he said it. I doubt it's 100% correct, but as he is an exceptionally good warrior I'm sure there's some truth in it.
Do you use your Sac spells early enough? Is he confident in your ability, and your healer's ability, to protect him? Perhaps he turtles too early. Sometimes my warrior can play a little risky and pop offensive cooldowns early because I use Sac early enough that he only drops to 30% or so before, say, his Bladestorm ends. If it turns out he absolutely needs to turtle to survive, he usually has the time to do so.
We've been having some trouble with RMP lately ourselves, but I think that's my fault. I've always felt confident against RMP no matter what setup I've played on, so you can imagine how frustrating it's been to lose to them. I think I got used to playing with a hunter who would make me immune to crit on the opener by using RoS. That way I could wait until Kidney to Freedom. Not only does war/Ret/R. druid not have RoS to mitigate the early Shatters so you don't have to use Freedom for that, the warrior is also a lot easier to control than the hunter. What's been happening is I've been dying in the Cheap Shot (or shortly thereafter) because I've been refusing to Bubble.
What I plan to do next time I play against RMP (this happens to be what I usually did before I played with a hunter) is Freedom the Cheap Shot and, if necessary, trinket the Kidney. If possible, I will immediately Repentance the priest after the Freedom so he can't dispel it or help add to the initial burst (RMP morphs into a tri-damage setup when it's appropriate assuming they have a half-decent priest >.<). Try to stay near LoS early, but you also have to do your best to not get Sapped. It can get a bit tricky, heh. If you have good positioning on the opener, you won't need to trinket Kidney. You had better do it if you have to, but trinketing opens your partners to a switch while you get heavily CC'd later in the match. If this happens, you'll either have to Bubble out of the CC (which basically means they did force your Bubble with their opener) or hope your teammates can turtle very hard while you eat it, until you get out and can pop Sac. This will only happen if the RMP doesn't link their CC perfectly because even the best of partners can't survive without you through 10-sec Poly > 5-sec Poly > 10-sec Blind > 4-sec Psychic Scream. This is why sometimes in these situations I'll Divine Shield/cancel DS/HoSac really fast. Sometimes the rogue forgets you used your trinket early and Blinds you. The priest may fear you, but at least you got Sac off and hopefully it mitigates some damage before getting dispelled.
If they open on your teammates instead of you, the game is far easier (assuming your teammates remain cool under pressure). Just pop Divine Sac right as they open to ruin the attempt and to simultaneously keep you out of initial CC. This will usually allow you to wait until a Kidney to use Freedom on your partner. If they try to switch to our druid midgame, I'll often use HoP very early (best case scenario, I break a stun with it). Why? The rogue's defensive cooldowns are probably half-gone by this point, and I want to save Freedom/Sac for myself or the warrior. HoP is really only useful for one member of the team: the druid. The only time I'll use HoSac (I don't include Divine Sac in this statement -- I will pop that if they open on him off the bat) on our druid is if I'm expecting to get CC'd while there is no DR, or if I have no other defensive cooldowns left to support him with.
----
I'm fairly convinced that winning against Wizard Cleave comes down to how good your warrior is. He has to ping-pong around the map shutting down the casters and also has to be careful not to let himself get blown up ... all of this while putting out offensive pressure so you can kill something. Your HoP is obviously useless here, but from my limited experience war/Ret/R. druid isn't countered by Wizard Cleave. I say limited experience because Wizard Cleave only just started gaining in popularity early in S6 when I played this comp, and I haven't fought any too much in S7. I did get trashed by it early S6, but that's only because they had a Holy paladin. With HoP and Aura Mastery, this may be one of the only direct counters to war/Ret/R. druid. We also have struggled against Shadow Play, but I'm not ready to admit we can't beat them. On the other hand, I'm ready to call it a soft-counter.
I hope this was helpful. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
Whatever questions you ask me, please don't be too broad. If you are having problems with a certain comp, for example, tell me what the problems are so I can help you with them. If you ask a very broad answer, I will either ask you to elaborate or give a very broad response.
I've played the following comps in WotLK:
-Surv and Marks hunt/Ret/Resto druid (probably a slightly better setup with a Resto shaman -- you can ask me about this, too)
-Frost mage/Ret/Resto druid (might be a bit more effective with a Disc priest. Again, feel free to ask about that variation)
-rogue/Ret/Disc priest (pre-3.2, but again, ask away)
-war/Ret/Resto druid
I've thought a good deal on Aff 'lock/Ret/Resto druid, but I doubt anyone plays that. :P I know a lot about spec'ing and glyphing ... hell, I can even help you with dueling. If you ask about comps I don't have personal experience with, I will do my best to answer it.
I think if this approach to the blog is unsuccessful, I'll probably close it down. I realize Ret PvP is a fairly niche topic, but I would like to be helping a decent amount of people considering the time I put into it. One of the benefits to me would be if I answer enough questions, I can direct people here instead of answering the same question ingame/on forums multiple times. This is my best shot at making this blog work because it's the very reason I created it: people ask me questions and I respond with these lengthy explanations that I feel do a good job (perhaps too good -- I know I can be wordy =P) of answering them.
So, please, ask away! Here's an example of a question I was asked on a forum recently and my response. This is what you can expect.
Example question
Question:
I asked him to elaborate on the question, "how can my war/Ret/R. druid improve?" He responded:
"well my teammates is good, we beat most setups but some is just retarded... when they force my warrior to shield i cant presure anyone... Feels like i do no dmg but the numbers in the end shows something els ^^ u know what i mean? :p
i cant kill anyone my self for some reason o.0 feels retarded rly .. but mosly its rmp / spell cleave and another cleave that just sit on me intill bubble then im dead ... would be cool with some advice for some setups ect with this 3s setup
like if they go for druid do something like this ect :p
Have a good day"
"well my teammates is good, we beat most setups but some is just retarded... when they force my warrior to shield i cant presure anyone... Feels like i do no dmg but the numbers in the end shows something els ^^ u know what i mean? :p
i cant kill anyone my self for some reason o.0 feels retarded rly .. but mosly its rmp / spell cleave and another cleave that just sit on me intill bubble then im dead ... would be cool with some advice for some setups ect with this 3s setup
like if they go for druid do something like this ect :pHave a good day"
Response:
hmm. My warrior says he can put out the same damage or sometimes even more damage when he's turtling. I know it may sound crazy, but I was talking to him about our team getting on enemy warriors early to force them to turtle, to relieve pressure, when he said it. I doubt it's 100% correct, but as he is an exceptionally good warrior I'm sure there's some truth in it.
Do you use your Sac spells early enough? Is he confident in your ability, and your healer's ability, to protect him? Perhaps he turtles too early. Sometimes my warrior can play a little risky and pop offensive cooldowns early because I use Sac early enough that he only drops to 30% or so before, say, his Bladestorm ends. If it turns out he absolutely needs to turtle to survive, he usually has the time to do so.
We've been having some trouble with RMP lately ourselves, but I think that's my fault. I've always felt confident against RMP no matter what setup I've played on, so you can imagine how frustrating it's been to lose to them. I think I got used to playing with a hunter who would make me immune to crit on the opener by using RoS. That way I could wait until Kidney to Freedom. Not only does war/Ret/R. druid not have RoS to mitigate the early Shatters so you don't have to use Freedom for that, the warrior is also a lot easier to control than the hunter. What's been happening is I've been dying in the Cheap Shot (or shortly thereafter) because I've been refusing to Bubble.
What I plan to do next time I play against RMP (this happens to be what I usually did before I played with a hunter) is Freedom the Cheap Shot and, if necessary, trinket the Kidney. If possible, I will immediately Repentance the priest after the Freedom so he can't dispel it or help add to the initial burst (RMP morphs into a tri-damage setup when it's appropriate assuming they have a half-decent priest >.<). Try to stay near LoS early, but you also have to do your best to not get Sapped. It can get a bit tricky, heh. If you have good positioning on the opener, you won't need to trinket Kidney. You had better do it if you have to, but trinketing opens your partners to a switch while you get heavily CC'd later in the match. If this happens, you'll either have to Bubble out of the CC (which basically means they did force your Bubble with their opener) or hope your teammates can turtle very hard while you eat it, until you get out and can pop Sac. This will only happen if the RMP doesn't link their CC perfectly because even the best of partners can't survive without you through 10-sec Poly > 5-sec Poly > 10-sec Blind > 4-sec Psychic Scream. This is why sometimes in these situations I'll Divine Shield/cancel DS/HoSac really fast. Sometimes the rogue forgets you used your trinket early and Blinds you. The priest may fear you, but at least you got Sac off and hopefully it mitigates some damage before getting dispelled.
If they open on your teammates instead of you, the game is far easier (assuming your teammates remain cool under pressure). Just pop Divine Sac right as they open to ruin the attempt and to simultaneously keep you out of initial CC. This will usually allow you to wait until a Kidney to use Freedom on your partner. If they try to switch to our druid midgame, I'll often use HoP very early (best case scenario, I break a stun with it). Why? The rogue's defensive cooldowns are probably half-gone by this point, and I want to save Freedom/Sac for myself or the warrior. HoP is really only useful for one member of the team: the druid. The only time I'll use HoSac (I don't include Divine Sac in this statement -- I will pop that if they open on him off the bat) on our druid is if I'm expecting to get CC'd while there is no DR, or if I have no other defensive cooldowns left to support him with.
----
I'm fairly convinced that winning against Wizard Cleave comes down to how good your warrior is. He has to ping-pong around the map shutting down the casters and also has to be careful not to let himself get blown up ... all of this while putting out offensive pressure so you can kill something. Your HoP is obviously useless here, but from my limited experience war/Ret/R. druid isn't countered by Wizard Cleave. I say limited experience because Wizard Cleave only just started gaining in popularity early in S6 when I played this comp, and I haven't fought any too much in S7. I did get trashed by it early S6, but that's only because they had a Holy paladin. With HoP and Aura Mastery, this may be one of the only direct counters to war/Ret/R. druid. We also have struggled against Shadow Play, but I'm not ready to admit we can't beat them. On the other hand, I'm ready to call it a soft-counter.
I hope this was helpful. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
Monday, August 31, 2009
What to run in 3.2.2 and how to run it
Okay, I can't post much later than this. There's no way Blizzard will nerf us and make everything I write incorrect this time around. *crosses fingers*
This is for 3v3, but I don't list the healer because usually there's a choice. However, I do go into detail on which healer I'm leaning towards We have many choices to choose between to run this season. The new and improved Seal of Cleav -- err, Command ... Seal of Command -- will make our Cleave teams truly fit the classification. Seal of Righteousness will still be good for a couple comps using either the same 19/52 build as Command (you don't have to spec Command if you don't use it at all, of course) or 8/11/52.
Specs:
19/52 -- works with both seals:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin=000000000000000000000000004532010022000000000000000005232251223331322130201301&glyph=211028050402&version=10192
You'll notice I took E4E in this build. I believe a lot of people would go with 2/3 Fanaticism, but I think E4E is better depending on what you run. Judgement of Command hits for 1k damage, so while I would appreciate the Art of War proc, having it crit 12% more often isn't that special. E4E, on the other hand, would synergize beautifully with tons of Cleave damage + Ret Aura + Thorns. On a team like war/Ret/Resto druid, the opposing team would be seriously punished if they chose to attack you, especially if they don't have an offensive dispel to remove Thorns. >:D
8/11/52 -- Righteousness max-damage build:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin=051020000000000000000000000532010000000000000000000005232250203331322133201301&glyph=171028050402&version=10192
You can drop a glyph for Glyph of Salvation in either build if you think it's worth it. If I decided to do so, I'd probably drop Turn Evil for it, or perhaps Exorcism in the 19/52 build. You can also drop Turn Evil for Glyph of Seal of Righteousness in the 8/11/52 build for even greater damage.
----
warrior/Ret
Back to the basics, heh. There's a reason this matrix just won't die. It was our bread and butter in TBC and I ran it early S6 with great success. I can only imagine the havoc you'll wreak if you catch 2-3 players in a Bladestorm/Divine Storm -> Crusader Cleave -> auto-Cleave combo.
I'd argue that you can play this with a priest due to the synergy between Rets and Disc priests. Two defensive dispels is great, and HoP ensures the priest at least one true peel. But, perhaps it's not the best idea. Warriors are decent in this regard, but they don't have the peeling power of a rogue who can Vanish/Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot/apply a 70% snare. No, warrior peeling (Intercept for a 3-sec stun/a 50% snare) works much better with a druid who can use that small window of time to use Travel Form to get some distance.
A shaman would work as well because they can be somewhat tanky and the buffs they received in 3.2 really made them a force to be reckoned with. Unsnareable Ghost Wolf should make warrior peeling work decently. Priests just need a lot of babysitting, and I doubt on a war/Ret team you will always have Freedom for the priest. It should go without saying that playing with a Holy paladin would be stupid for any Ret team since you'd be bringing the same utility twice. The reason 2v2 is a bad bracket and dueling is stupid is because you can't get a very strong mix of the different abilities classes bring without at least three classes.
I can see any of the three healers working, but I suppose in this case I'd say druid > shaman > priest. Why the druid over the shaman? Well, warrior/druid synergy is like rogue/priest synergy: they're just made for each other. There's a reason warrior/druid and WLD dominated 2's and 3's in TBC. The game isn't completely the same, but these synergies are at the most basic of levels and they live on from expansion to expansion.
The main tool warrior/Ret is missing is spammable CC. The shaman brings an interrupt which would be very helpful, but the warrior already has that and can shut down the target he's on fairly well. Heroism would be sick. It would even help spread AoE damage (which is perhaps the greatest strength of this comp) a little through SoC from auto-attack.
I can go a lot deeper in comparing druids and shamans. They should both work very well, maybe equally well (wtb druid offensive dispel. Pst). I'd like to point out that while war/Ret/Resto shaman was our main 3's team in TBC, I recall war/Ret/Resto druid teams doing slightly better. Maybe the latter wasn't as common because it was a little harder to play?
Affliction 'lock/Ret
I'm not quite as confident about this matrix because of the lack of peels for the 'lock, but I'm still drawn to it. 'locks are very susceptible to stuns, so breaking a Kidney with Freedom and having your 'lock 'port away as Freedom ends can be very potent. If they get on your healer, hopefully you can open your 'lock to peel with Fear (for example, if it's an RMP, your 'lock would probably need to Counterspell the mage so he doesn't get CS'd himself while you Repentanced the priest so he could Fear the rogue). Of course they're probably undead and can WotF out of it after all that trouble.
Your teammates are pretty tanky and Sacred Shield/Sacs will only make them more so. If the opposing team gets on you, the Ret paladin, it will open them to CC from the 'lock and your healer which could mean either Cyclones, Hex, or Psychic Scream. Again, I'd probably rather not play with a priest here. This time it's because of diminishing returns between Fear and Psychic Scream.
This isn't the lol-burst comp it would be if you were running with a Destro 'lock. You'll have tons of pressure on the entire opposing team with spread-DoT's and lots of SoCleaving. Your warlock's CC isn't so fragile that it will break when it's breathed on, and every healer's CC can take some damage before breaking. The main problem I see with this comp is HoP not being enough in the peeling department, that the opposing team can just train your healer and you won't be able to do much about it. If the 'lock gets zerged, I'm not sure Freedom/'port would buy him the time/space required to keep up the kind of heavy pressure (think Shadow Comp -- Aff 'lock/Shadow priest/Resto shaman) you need to beat really good teams. The lack of a healing debuff would be painful, of course. Still, I'm drawn to this comp. I like uncommon setups and I think a skilled Ret could make something out of this.
DK/Ret
*throws up in his mouth a little* Kidding. I've never been very interested in this matrix, but it should be pretty scary next season. I thought the resilience buff would hurt this comp, but -- correct me if I'm wrong -- I haven't seen much to that effect. DK's did get nerfed a bit recently, but this comp may still have some kick left in it. But, but, but: I am a master of the English language, a true wordsmith.
The amazing peeling ability of death knights + HoP makes any healer viable, but perhaps the best choice would be a druid yet again for the spammable CC. The reason I keep suggesting a druid is because the thing Cleaves lack, at least those without a rogue, is heavy crowd control. The DK can keep the target you're attempting to down locked down -- dare I say it -- better than a rogue.
If the opposing team zergs your DK, the pure tankiness of the class + Sacred Shield + Sac spells should keep him up for a long time. If worst comes to worst, you can give him Freedom and have him pillar-kite until you recover. If you're the target rather than the DK, he may have to reset the match to protect you since you can't put up much of an offense when he Death Grips your opponent far, far away. I haven't played this matrix personally, but I think you have to split damage occasionally due to this.
Frost mage/Ret
Finally, a comp where I'd probably choose a Disc priest as the best healer. This matrix has been quite good for some time, but people haven't run it much because ... it's more challenging? I don't know exactly why. It has spammable CC and great snares/roots from the mage which are two things Ret paladins and most healers for that matter don't bring to the table. The biggest weakness of this team was the absence of a healing debuff, but now it has a passable one.
While the double-defensive dispel and Psychic Scream are amazing for this team, a Resto shaman may be able to give a Disc priest a run for his money. Mages are plain scary with Heroism, but more importantly you'd get a spammable interrupt. Counterspell is great, but what do you do when it's blown? You, the Ret paladin, certainly aren't going to be shutting anyone down very often. The team can get cover this flaw if you make very good use of the CC you have (Psychic Scream generally > Hex), but I see a great shaman giving a priest a run for his money. As for a druid, I've done well using one in this setup, but when I think on it, it seems like comparing RMP to rogue/mage/druid. Both work well, but which would you rather play?
You want to use Righteousness for this. You can't risk Command leaping from target to target and breaking a Poly. Righteousness being forced down your throat isn't a big deal because it fits pretty well. While if you are running a Cleave you spend the majority of your time zerging squishy targets, mage/Ret can blow up any target with relative ease. The burst of JoR can pop warriors and other heavy-armor classes very well (JoC does like 1k damage, lol) and it's nice to know SoR won't get dodged or parried the way SoC will.
If you want a kick-ass comp that requires a good deal of coordination, give this a try. Repentance shares DR with Poly so make sure to use it on someone your mage isn't trying to control. One good way to use it is for switching: catch a target out in the open with his pants down with Repentance, giving your mage all the time in the world (aka six seconds) to make a clean switch.
hunter/Ret
This matrix is amazing. If it wasn't for the overpowered spread-damage of warrior/Ret next patch and mage/Ret getting a healing-debuff, I would call this our best setup. The synergy of Frost Trap + Freedom is unparalleled. This setup can work well with a Beast Mastery hunter, but I'd hate to play that personally. It's why if I played with a 'lock I'd rather him go Affliction: while Destro/Ret would actually take some coordination since it'd be hard for the 'lock to set up his burst without a rogue helping him, I'd still rather not want to play on a team that can gib in a GCD, you know?
Hunter/Ret is all about playing keep-away until the opposing team's cooldowns are down. This works really well against rogues since they are so dependent on their cooldowns for both offensive and defensive pressure. If you want to see this in action, the majority of my third movie is this team. The link is on the right-hand side of the blog.
I could see any healer working well, but I think I'd go with a Resto shaman. The shaman class has the best mix of abilities to complement hunter/Ret. By going Marks the hunter gets the very important Silencing Shot, but it's not enough -- a 20-sec cooldown interrupt doesn't really compare to having a warrior or a rogue sitting on you, you know? Wind Shear is godly for this team. When I played with a Resto druid, Wizard Cleaves and RLS's were very difficult for us because we couldn't shut down casters well enough.
Furthermore, the new & improved Ghost Wolf will allow your shaman to make good use of Frost Trap without you being forced to use Freedom on him every time. It's the same with a druid with Travel Form (although this can be risky -- another plus for the shaman), but if a rogue jumps your priest you will be forced to give him Freedom or he will be unable to make any use of Frost Trap. Once you blow Freedom, the opposing team can make a quick switch to you or your hunter. You'll be sitting ducks.
I could see a really good druid who is godly at Cycloning (there is a very high skill-cap for this ability) rivaling a shaman, but if I had the choice I'd go with a shaman. A priest would have some nice benefits, but I can't say he would quite match the other two.
rogue/Ret
This was our best matrix in S6; the first team to hit 3k was running it. By the end of the season, everyone knew it and RRP became overly common. If you want to get a feel for it, there are a few clips of it in my second video (again, linked to the right). Basically, you go for a Sap (against non-rogue teams, anyway -- I hated having the game decided by rogue v. rogue so I'd try to get into combat with Pyro Rocket), Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot someone, and make a quick switch at some point -- usually sooner rather than later -- with HoJ. Best case scenario, you get the trinket of the person you're switching to used on with Repentance or Psychic Scream beforehand. If the HoJ-switch fails, you can switch back to your original target with Vanish/Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot. It's just a lot of stuns and, even though you have no spammable CC, you have a damn lot of control. How good your team is at making crisp switches is what makes or breaks this team.
While you might be able to make this work with a druid or a shaman, it's just about always run with a priest. RMP is the setup which survived an expansion with great success. Well, just as Frost mage/Ret/Disc priest is generally run with a priest, you probably want a priest for this. Both matrices are variations of RMP with the Ret replacing one of the damage-dealers. You play on the synergy of rogue/priest or mage/priest (both are or have been great 2's teams at one point or another) and throw the great utility of a Ret paladin into the mix. Rogue/Ret, Frost mage/Ret (I've never been a fan but it's apparently pretty decent post-3.2), and Ret/Disc priest have also all had their time in the sun. Hell, I ran rogue/Ret/Shadow priest in S3 and it was godly. Synergy, ladies and gentlemen: these classes have it.
I haven't played RRP after patch 3.2. I thought it would get nerfed a little, but I'm not sure it did. We'll see once the season gets underway. Don't get me wrong: it will still be good. I'm just not convinced it will still be at the level of first-team-to-reach-3k.
I think you have to use Righteousness for this comp. :[ Command would generally synergize better since you want to zerg the squishy and SoR being unavoidable isn't very helpful when you consider most light-armored folk can't parry and they can't dodge while casting, but Blind and Repentance are crucial to the success of this comp and you can't have SoCleave breaking them.
----
phew. I didn't intend to write about every single pure damage-dealer; it just worked out that way! It happened because Ret can glue most damage-dealer/healer combos together very well. It's why I love Ret. I didn't include any write-ups on the hybrid damage-dealing specs because I feel pure-hybrid-healer will usually work better than hybrid-hybrid-healer. You could make those work okay if you really wanted to, though.
I didn't go into great specifics on each comp because if I did, this would have been a book. If I do go into more detail in the future, each matrix would have a post devoted to it. Well, I hope my ramblings were somewhat useful. Good luck in S7!
This is for 3v3, but I don't list the healer because usually there's a choice. However, I do go into detail on which healer I'm leaning towards We have many choices to choose between to run this season. The new and improved Seal of Cleav -- err, Command ... Seal of Command -- will make our Cleave teams truly fit the classification. Seal of Righteousness will still be good for a couple comps using either the same 19/52 build as Command (you don't have to spec Command if you don't use it at all, of course) or 8/11/52.
Specs:
19/52 -- works with both seals:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin=000000000000000000000000004532010022000000000000000005232251223331322130201301&glyph=211028050402&version=10192
You'll notice I took E4E in this build. I believe a lot of people would go with 2/3 Fanaticism, but I think E4E is better depending on what you run. Judgement of Command hits for 1k damage, so while I would appreciate the Art of War proc, having it crit 12% more often isn't that special. E4E, on the other hand, would synergize beautifully with tons of Cleave damage + Ret Aura + Thorns. On a team like war/Ret/Resto druid, the opposing team would be seriously punished if they chose to attack you, especially if they don't have an offensive dispel to remove Thorns. >:D
8/11/52 -- Righteousness max-damage build:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin=051020000000000000000000000532010000000000000000000005232250203331322133201301&glyph=171028050402&version=10192
You can drop a glyph for Glyph of Salvation in either build if you think it's worth it. If I decided to do so, I'd probably drop Turn Evil for it, or perhaps Exorcism in the 19/52 build. You can also drop Turn Evil for Glyph of Seal of Righteousness in the 8/11/52 build for even greater damage.
----
warrior/Ret
Back to the basics, heh. There's a reason this matrix just won't die. It was our bread and butter in TBC and I ran it early S6 with great success. I can only imagine the havoc you'll wreak if you catch 2-3 players in a Bladestorm/Divine Storm -> Crusader Cleave -> auto-Cleave combo.
I'd argue that you can play this with a priest due to the synergy between Rets and Disc priests. Two defensive dispels is great, and HoP ensures the priest at least one true peel. But, perhaps it's not the best idea. Warriors are decent in this regard, but they don't have the peeling power of a rogue who can Vanish/Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot/apply a 70% snare. No, warrior peeling (Intercept for a 3-sec stun/a 50% snare) works much better with a druid who can use that small window of time to use Travel Form to get some distance.
A shaman would work as well because they can be somewhat tanky and the buffs they received in 3.2 really made them a force to be reckoned with. Unsnareable Ghost Wolf should make warrior peeling work decently. Priests just need a lot of babysitting, and I doubt on a war/Ret team you will always have Freedom for the priest. It should go without saying that playing with a Holy paladin would be stupid for any Ret team since you'd be bringing the same utility twice. The reason 2v2 is a bad bracket and dueling is stupid is because you can't get a very strong mix of the different abilities classes bring without at least three classes.
I can see any of the three healers working, but I suppose in this case I'd say druid > shaman > priest. Why the druid over the shaman? Well, warrior/druid synergy is like rogue/priest synergy: they're just made for each other. There's a reason warrior/druid and WLD dominated 2's and 3's in TBC. The game isn't completely the same, but these synergies are at the most basic of levels and they live on from expansion to expansion.
The main tool warrior/Ret is missing is spammable CC. The shaman brings an interrupt which would be very helpful, but the warrior already has that and can shut down the target he's on fairly well. Heroism would be sick. It would even help spread AoE damage (which is perhaps the greatest strength of this comp) a little through SoC from auto-attack.
I can go a lot deeper in comparing druids and shamans. They should both work very well, maybe equally well (wtb druid offensive dispel. Pst). I'd like to point out that while war/Ret/Resto shaman was our main 3's team in TBC, I recall war/Ret/Resto druid teams doing slightly better. Maybe the latter wasn't as common because it was a little harder to play?
Affliction 'lock/Ret
I'm not quite as confident about this matrix because of the lack of peels for the 'lock, but I'm still drawn to it. 'locks are very susceptible to stuns, so breaking a Kidney with Freedom and having your 'lock 'port away as Freedom ends can be very potent. If they get on your healer, hopefully you can open your 'lock to peel with Fear (for example, if it's an RMP, your 'lock would probably need to Counterspell the mage so he doesn't get CS'd himself while you Repentanced the priest so he could Fear the rogue). Of course they're probably undead and can WotF out of it after all that trouble.
Your teammates are pretty tanky and Sacred Shield/Sacs will only make them more so. If the opposing team gets on you, the Ret paladin, it will open them to CC from the 'lock and your healer which could mean either Cyclones, Hex, or Psychic Scream. Again, I'd probably rather not play with a priest here. This time it's because of diminishing returns between Fear and Psychic Scream.
This isn't the lol-burst comp it would be if you were running with a Destro 'lock. You'll have tons of pressure on the entire opposing team with spread-DoT's and lots of SoCleaving. Your warlock's CC isn't so fragile that it will break when it's breathed on, and every healer's CC can take some damage before breaking. The main problem I see with this comp is HoP not being enough in the peeling department, that the opposing team can just train your healer and you won't be able to do much about it. If the 'lock gets zerged, I'm not sure Freedom/'port would buy him the time/space required to keep up the kind of heavy pressure (think Shadow Comp -- Aff 'lock/Shadow priest/Resto shaman) you need to beat really good teams. The lack of a healing debuff would be painful, of course. Still, I'm drawn to this comp. I like uncommon setups and I think a skilled Ret could make something out of this.
DK/Ret
*throws up in his mouth a little* Kidding. I've never been very interested in this matrix, but it should be pretty scary next season. I thought the resilience buff would hurt this comp, but -- correct me if I'm wrong -- I haven't seen much to that effect. DK's did get nerfed a bit recently, but this comp may still have some kick left in it. But, but, but: I am a master of the English language, a true wordsmith.
The amazing peeling ability of death knights + HoP makes any healer viable, but perhaps the best choice would be a druid yet again for the spammable CC. The reason I keep suggesting a druid is because the thing Cleaves lack, at least those without a rogue, is heavy crowd control. The DK can keep the target you're attempting to down locked down -- dare I say it -- better than a rogue.
If the opposing team zergs your DK, the pure tankiness of the class + Sacred Shield + Sac spells should keep him up for a long time. If worst comes to worst, you can give him Freedom and have him pillar-kite until you recover. If you're the target rather than the DK, he may have to reset the match to protect you since you can't put up much of an offense when he Death Grips your opponent far, far away. I haven't played this matrix personally, but I think you have to split damage occasionally due to this.
Frost mage/Ret
Finally, a comp where I'd probably choose a Disc priest as the best healer. This matrix has been quite good for some time, but people haven't run it much because ... it's more challenging? I don't know exactly why. It has spammable CC and great snares/roots from the mage which are two things Ret paladins and most healers for that matter don't bring to the table. The biggest weakness of this team was the absence of a healing debuff, but now it has a passable one.
While the double-defensive dispel and Psychic Scream are amazing for this team, a Resto shaman may be able to give a Disc priest a run for his money. Mages are plain scary with Heroism, but more importantly you'd get a spammable interrupt. Counterspell is great, but what do you do when it's blown? You, the Ret paladin, certainly aren't going to be shutting anyone down very often. The team can get cover this flaw if you make very good use of the CC you have (Psychic Scream generally > Hex), but I see a great shaman giving a priest a run for his money. As for a druid, I've done well using one in this setup, but when I think on it, it seems like comparing RMP to rogue/mage/druid. Both work well, but which would you rather play?
You want to use Righteousness for this. You can't risk Command leaping from target to target and breaking a Poly. Righteousness being forced down your throat isn't a big deal because it fits pretty well. While if you are running a Cleave you spend the majority of your time zerging squishy targets, mage/Ret can blow up any target with relative ease. The burst of JoR can pop warriors and other heavy-armor classes very well (JoC does like 1k damage, lol) and it's nice to know SoR won't get dodged or parried the way SoC will.
If you want a kick-ass comp that requires a good deal of coordination, give this a try. Repentance shares DR with Poly so make sure to use it on someone your mage isn't trying to control. One good way to use it is for switching: catch a target out in the open with his pants down with Repentance, giving your mage all the time in the world (aka six seconds) to make a clean switch.
hunter/Ret
This matrix is amazing. If it wasn't for the overpowered spread-damage of warrior/Ret next patch and mage/Ret getting a healing-debuff, I would call this our best setup. The synergy of Frost Trap + Freedom is unparalleled. This setup can work well with a Beast Mastery hunter, but I'd hate to play that personally. It's why if I played with a 'lock I'd rather him go Affliction: while Destro/Ret would actually take some coordination since it'd be hard for the 'lock to set up his burst without a rogue helping him, I'd still rather not want to play on a team that can gib in a GCD, you know?
Hunter/Ret is all about playing keep-away until the opposing team's cooldowns are down. This works really well against rogues since they are so dependent on their cooldowns for both offensive and defensive pressure. If you want to see this in action, the majority of my third movie is this team. The link is on the right-hand side of the blog.
I could see any healer working well, but I think I'd go with a Resto shaman. The shaman class has the best mix of abilities to complement hunter/Ret. By going Marks the hunter gets the very important Silencing Shot, but it's not enough -- a 20-sec cooldown interrupt doesn't really compare to having a warrior or a rogue sitting on you, you know? Wind Shear is godly for this team. When I played with a Resto druid, Wizard Cleaves and RLS's were very difficult for us because we couldn't shut down casters well enough.
Furthermore, the new & improved Ghost Wolf will allow your shaman to make good use of Frost Trap without you being forced to use Freedom on him every time. It's the same with a druid with Travel Form (although this can be risky -- another plus for the shaman), but if a rogue jumps your priest you will be forced to give him Freedom or he will be unable to make any use of Frost Trap. Once you blow Freedom, the opposing team can make a quick switch to you or your hunter. You'll be sitting ducks.
I could see a really good druid who is godly at Cycloning (there is a very high skill-cap for this ability) rivaling a shaman, but if I had the choice I'd go with a shaman. A priest would have some nice benefits, but I can't say he would quite match the other two.
rogue/Ret
This was our best matrix in S6; the first team to hit 3k was running it. By the end of the season, everyone knew it and RRP became overly common. If you want to get a feel for it, there are a few clips of it in my second video (again, linked to the right). Basically, you go for a Sap (against non-rogue teams, anyway -- I hated having the game decided by rogue v. rogue so I'd try to get into combat with Pyro Rocket), Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot someone, and make a quick switch at some point -- usually sooner rather than later -- with HoJ. Best case scenario, you get the trinket of the person you're switching to used on with Repentance or Psychic Scream beforehand. If the HoJ-switch fails, you can switch back to your original target with Vanish/Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot. It's just a lot of stuns and, even though you have no spammable CC, you have a damn lot of control. How good your team is at making crisp switches is what makes or breaks this team.
While you might be able to make this work with a druid or a shaman, it's just about always run with a priest. RMP is the setup which survived an expansion with great success. Well, just as Frost mage/Ret/Disc priest is generally run with a priest, you probably want a priest for this. Both matrices are variations of RMP with the Ret replacing one of the damage-dealers. You play on the synergy of rogue/priest or mage/priest (both are or have been great 2's teams at one point or another) and throw the great utility of a Ret paladin into the mix. Rogue/Ret, Frost mage/Ret (I've never been a fan but it's apparently pretty decent post-3.2), and Ret/Disc priest have also all had their time in the sun. Hell, I ran rogue/Ret/Shadow priest in S3 and it was godly. Synergy, ladies and gentlemen: these classes have it.
I haven't played RRP after patch 3.2. I thought it would get nerfed a little, but I'm not sure it did. We'll see once the season gets underway. Don't get me wrong: it will still be good. I'm just not convinced it will still be at the level of first-team-to-reach-3k.
I think you have to use Righteousness for this comp. :[ Command would generally synergize better since you want to zerg the squishy and SoR being unavoidable isn't very helpful when you consider most light-armored folk can't parry and they can't dodge while casting, but Blind and Repentance are crucial to the success of this comp and you can't have SoCleave breaking them.
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phew. I didn't intend to write about every single pure damage-dealer; it just worked out that way! It happened because Ret can glue most damage-dealer/healer combos together very well. It's why I love Ret. I didn't include any write-ups on the hybrid damage-dealing specs because I feel pure-hybrid-healer will usually work better than hybrid-hybrid-healer. You could make those work okay if you really wanted to, though.
I didn't go into great specifics on each comp because if I did, this would have been a book. If I do go into more detail in the future, each matrix would have a post devoted to it. Well, I hope my ramblings were somewhat useful. Good luck in S7!
Monday, August 24, 2009
In response to Ferarro's post: The 'MS Kid'
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2009/08/ms-kid.html
I can't agree with you here, Ferarro. I'm sure he had some concern over so many classes getting a healing debuff, but he didn't ask the question like that. The way he presented himself and asked the question screamed, "GIMME MORTAL STRIKE, TOO!" It wasn't something along the lines of, "hi, I was just wondering if you had any plans to introduce a base healing debuff when you enter arena or instanced PvP in general? It seems that just about everyone is getting some version of Mortal Strike, so why not just give it to everyone?"
I'm fairly certain that it really was a Ret paladin who is tired of healers being able to tank him for eternity in battlegrounds. He shouldn't have said he was a Ret paladin. If he said he was Enhance or Feral or whatever other spec that doesn't have MS it would have sounded just as stupid. By saying he was Ret, he implied that he wanted to stick his hand in the healing-debuff jar and get a little of that sweetness for himself.
People flaming him that hard are acting stupid, but it was a bad question and it's unfortunate that with our single opportunity, we got no new information on Ret.
As for the developers, they are being really idiotic with all of the Ret bashing. We're hated by the community largely because we were terrible in the original game which is their fault. The occasional joke was okay. I took Isimode and Faesrol in stride, but they're going too hard with it now. Does Blizz know that the community truly feels what they're joking about? They need to tone it down and support our spec not only with design decisions, but with words. It feels like they want to be part of the kool kids klub, too: "hey, let me get in on that Ret-bashing! Looks like good fun."
Thanks for making me viable, Blizz, but you're not doing anything to enhance my enjoyability of the game by joining hands with those who truly hate Ret and will put time and effort into trying to ruin my experience simply because of the class/spec I play. It's unfortunate because there's so much potential for Blizz to get in on the fun; they just joined the wrong side. They could make Ret jokes in a satirical way, making fun of the Ret haters without them noticing. They've put so much time into making us a viable spec. Why do they stumble at this last crucial juncture?
I can't agree with you here, Ferarro. I'm sure he had some concern over so many classes getting a healing debuff, but he didn't ask the question like that. The way he presented himself and asked the question screamed, "GIMME MORTAL STRIKE, TOO!" It wasn't something along the lines of, "hi, I was just wondering if you had any plans to introduce a base healing debuff when you enter arena or instanced PvP in general? It seems that just about everyone is getting some version of Mortal Strike, so why not just give it to everyone?"
I'm fairly certain that it really was a Ret paladin who is tired of healers being able to tank him for eternity in battlegrounds. He shouldn't have said he was a Ret paladin. If he said he was Enhance or Feral or whatever other spec that doesn't have MS it would have sounded just as stupid. By saying he was Ret, he implied that he wanted to stick his hand in the healing-debuff jar and get a little of that sweetness for himself.
People flaming him that hard are acting stupid, but it was a bad question and it's unfortunate that with our single opportunity, we got no new information on Ret.
As for the developers, they are being really idiotic with all of the Ret bashing. We're hated by the community largely because we were terrible in the original game which is their fault. The occasional joke was okay. I took Isimode and Faesrol in stride, but they're going too hard with it now. Does Blizz know that the community truly feels what they're joking about? They need to tone it down and support our spec not only with design decisions, but with words. It feels like they want to be part of the kool kids klub, too: "hey, let me get in on that Ret-bashing! Looks like good fun."
Thanks for making me viable, Blizz, but you're not doing anything to enhance my enjoyability of the game by joining hands with those who truly hate Ret and will put time and effort into trying to ruin my experience simply because of the class/spec I play. It's unfortunate because there's so much potential for Blizz to get in on the fun; they just joined the wrong side. They could make Ret jokes in a satirical way, making fun of the Ret haters without them noticing. They've put so much time into making us a viable spec. Why do they stumble at this last crucial juncture?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
woot! My third movie will be released soon
Update: It's out! Here's the link
http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=122569
And here's the Sacred Shield mod I found at Ferraro's site (forgot to link it in my video):
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/clcbpt.aspx
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Sorry I didn't respond to all the comments from my last post. I got involved in playing patch 3.2 like crazy. I like the patch a lot. There is still a lot of work to be done on the game, but that will be true if WoW is alive and kicking two years from now; always a work in progress and all that. It's a great game and I'm thankful that while the game will never be the same to me as when it was fresh and new, I'm not a jaded bastard as most end-game players seem to become.
Anywho! My third movie, Hofflerand 3: Ret 2.6k arena is finished! It's uploading to WCM now and will then need to go through the approval process (probably a couple days, give or take, but I can't really say until I get an estimate). I'm quite happy with it. As always, the clips are from a couple days of playing (please trust me that I'm not saying that to stroke my e-peen. I just wait until I have a good-clip-day that gets me excited to make a movie) and I made the movie mostly in one night. I get a bit obsessive, lol. I worked through the entire night until late morning and ended stumbling out of my chair to my bed with a massive headache. It might not look like it takes much work since there isn't exactly graphical mastery to speak of, but watching the clips repeatedly to write the text / making sure they stay up long enough for people to read them; editing the songs properly so they fit the clips; and then watching the whole thing multiple times to fix minor errors actually takes a good deal of time.
Hofflerand 3 starts off a bit oddly. There's no fancy intro (I'm not a huge fan of them, but perhaps I'll make one in a future movie), it doesn't jump right into arena which may turn off those who only like to watch arena PvP, and it doesn't get to it with a bang like Hofflerand 2 with the Last Man Standing opener. I personally enjoyed it from start to finish, though, so I can only hope you also find excessive use of engineering and death knight smashing (unfortunately there are no DK arena clips since they appear to have disappeared since 3.2) amusing.
There are a few minor errors I'd go back and fix if I could such as not pointing out a couple of Fear-Cleanses and a game-changing off-the-screen Repentance or two, but it's too much hassle to do. Rendering took eight hours and a few minor mistakes isn't enough to grant me patience to contain my excitement to release this movie. =D
http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=122569
And here's the Sacred Shield mod I found at Ferraro's site (forgot to link it in my video):
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/clcbpt.aspx
----
Sorry I didn't respond to all the comments from my last post. I got involved in playing patch 3.2 like crazy. I like the patch a lot. There is still a lot of work to be done on the game, but that will be true if WoW is alive and kicking two years from now; always a work in progress and all that. It's a great game and I'm thankful that while the game will never be the same to me as when it was fresh and new, I'm not a jaded bastard as most end-game players seem to become.
Anywho! My third movie, Hofflerand 3: Ret 2.6k arena is finished! It's uploading to WCM now and will then need to go through the approval process (probably a couple days, give or take, but I can't really say until I get an estimate). I'm quite happy with it. As always, the clips are from a couple days of playing (please trust me that I'm not saying that to stroke my e-peen. I just wait until I have a good-clip-day that gets me excited to make a movie) and I made the movie mostly in one night. I get a bit obsessive, lol. I worked through the entire night until late morning and ended stumbling out of my chair to my bed with a massive headache. It might not look like it takes much work since there isn't exactly graphical mastery to speak of, but watching the clips repeatedly to write the text / making sure they stay up long enough for people to read them; editing the songs properly so they fit the clips; and then watching the whole thing multiple times to fix minor errors actually takes a good deal of time.
Hofflerand 3 starts off a bit oddly. There's no fancy intro (I'm not a huge fan of them, but perhaps I'll make one in a future movie), it doesn't jump right into arena which may turn off those who only like to watch arena PvP, and it doesn't get to it with a bang like Hofflerand 2 with the Last Man Standing opener. I personally enjoyed it from start to finish, though, so I can only hope you also find excessive use of engineering and death knight smashing (unfortunately there are no DK arena clips since they appear to have disappeared since 3.2) amusing.
There are a few minor errors I'd go back and fix if I could such as not pointing out a couple of Fear-Cleanses and a game-changing off-the-screen Repentance or two, but it's too much hassle to do. Rendering took eight hours and a few minor mistakes isn't enough to grant me patience to contain my excitement to release this movie. =D
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