As my series on leveling is finished I'm back to talk about healing, gear and specs for patch 3.2. I'm writing an article about general gameplay in raids (that will be way too big ...) but I wanted to point you towards that article from Banana Shoulders: Bubble Spec: the New Hotness.
It's about the "new" Holy & Prot spec based on using Divine Sacrifice. Siha calls it a Bubble Spec and I like the name, it links it to Disc priests shields (and it is damage prevention), and it uses the paladin bubble to save ourselves when we use it.
Clearly, anyone can see uses for this huge raid damage prevention on bosses like XT-002, YS, Anub ... but as crit strength has gone down since patch 3.2 my previous preferred spec (51/2/15+3) has lost some of its punch, pushing the Bubble spec to our attention.
This is not news and several guilds have been using that spec already, but if you've not yet give it a try and see if it'll be the 3.2 spec for you.
Showing posts with label spec. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spec. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Is Divinity good for you ?
I'll talk here about the new protection talent: Divinity.
In a comment to my last Holy spec post, Celton was saying that for him, if you have to chose between Divinity and the ret talent Sanctity of Battle, you should chose the crit bonus.
The argument will be: take 5 points into Divinity or 2 points into Divinity and 3 into Sanctity of Battle. Giving you a spec like 51/2/15 +3.
Divinity for a Holy Paladin is just healing bonus, you'll perhaps be saved by the increased heals on you once in your life, but it's not going to make a large difference. Before 3.1.1, we were gaining back mana when healed, and that would have been valuable then. Sadly you need to be deep protection for that now, so nothing good considering mana regen.
Sanctity of Battle gives you 3% crit, which means more big heals (1.5% increase in hps), more mana return with Illumination (1.8% more mana) and more procs of all our crit related talents/gear.
Now from a pure item points, considering around 2000 spell power, a 3% increase in your heals will be around 60 spell power. On the other hand 3% crit is around 90 crit rating. So going for Sanctity is around 50% more valuable in theory.
Now, I went with 5 Divinity, and I'm going to stick to it for some time. The reason is that I chose gear for int & crit over spell power on the tier 7 raiding arc. Looking at Ulduar paladin gear, it is clear that our crit rating will suffer while our spell power should go up. So I plan on keeping 5 Divinity until I start replacing some tier 7 gear by ulduar gear, and once my crit goes under 45% raid buffed, I'll change to 2 Divinity + 3 Sanctity.
The same choice can be made between Divinity and Pursuit of Justice:
Divinity 2pts + Tuskar Vitality (boots enchant)
total of +2% to healing, 150hps, +8% move speed
Pursuit of Justice 2pts + Icewalker (boots enchant)
total of 0.37% hit, 0.26% crit, +15% speed
I think 2pts Divinity / Tuskar Vitality is better on total, but moving fast is never bad and if you have issues with survavibility in Ulduar Pursuit of Justice can help (Kologarn lazer beams anyone?).
I am a great fan of move speed bonuses as a paladin, we have nearly no heal ability while moving so for me positioning and moving is a really important issue to improve your hps in raids. So no Divinity + Icewalker for me, though it's obviously the best if you don't need the speed.
In the end look at your toon stats, chose what you think is best for you. At least we have choice here, which is never a bad thing :)
In a comment to my last Holy spec post, Celton was saying that for him, if you have to chose between Divinity and the ret talent Sanctity of Battle, you should chose the crit bonus.
The argument will be: take 5 points into Divinity or 2 points into Divinity and 3 into Sanctity of Battle. Giving you a spec like 51/2/15 +3.
Divinity for a Holy Paladin is just healing bonus, you'll perhaps be saved by the increased heals on you once in your life, but it's not going to make a large difference. Before 3.1.1, we were gaining back mana when healed, and that would have been valuable then. Sadly you need to be deep protection for that now, so nothing good considering mana regen.
Sanctity of Battle gives you 3% crit, which means more big heals (1.5% increase in hps), more mana return with Illumination (1.8% more mana) and more procs of all our crit related talents/gear.
Now from a pure item points, considering around 2000 spell power, a 3% increase in your heals will be around 60 spell power. On the other hand 3% crit is around 90 crit rating. So going for Sanctity is around 50% more valuable in theory.
Now, I went with 5 Divinity, and I'm going to stick to it for some time. The reason is that I chose gear for int & crit over spell power on the tier 7 raiding arc. Looking at Ulduar paladin gear, it is clear that our crit rating will suffer while our spell power should go up. So I plan on keeping 5 Divinity until I start replacing some tier 7 gear by ulduar gear, and once my crit goes under 45% raid buffed, I'll change to 2 Divinity + 3 Sanctity.
The same choice can be made between Divinity and Pursuit of Justice:
Divinity 2pts + Tuskar Vitality (boots enchant)
total of +2% to healing, 150hps, +8% move speed
Pursuit of Justice 2pts + Icewalker (boots enchant)
total of 0.37% hit, 0.26% crit, +15% speed
I think 2pts Divinity / Tuskar Vitality is better on total, but moving fast is never bad and if you have issues with survavibility in Ulduar Pursuit of Justice can help (Kologarn lazer beams anyone?).
I am a great fan of move speed bonuses as a paladin, we have nearly no heal ability while moving so for me positioning and moving is a really important issue to improve your hps in raids. So no Divinity + Icewalker for me, though it's obviously the best if you don't need the speed.
In the end look at your toon stats, chose what you think is best for you. At least we have choice here, which is never a bad thing :)
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Holy Paladin Raiding Spec 3.1+
This post is for raiding paladins, my experience in arenas in season 6 is too light for me to post about a spec here, the changes for holy paladins were massive and I still have to adjust for them.
As for raiding, I'm more confident in my point, and wanted to share my views when I read Matticus post on his blog: Speccing your holy paladin.
As a first reading, for those that are not very familiar with paladin, especially holy paladin talents (if you're dual specing into holy that's for you ;p), I advise you to read Ferraro guide about Holy Talents on her blog, and Celton guide on HolyPaladin.net.
Matticus is a raider, so I give credit to his views, he obviously has tested them in raiding and as backup to his claims. Now I don't really agree with all of his views.
Matticus sepc is here : 53/0/18
My spec is here : 51/5/15
Before analyzing the differences, I'll comment what I changed from 3.1 to 3.1.1. I ditched 2 points in Pursuit of Justice (15% movement speed) and Sanctity of Battle (3% crit) for 5 points in the new prot talent Divinity (5% healing). And changed my glyph of Seal of Wisdom (5% mana reduction) to Seal of Light (5% more healing). And that's all, even though I'm still wondering about trying to find a space for the new Glyph of Holy Shock.
So global changes for me are slower movement (changed my boots enchant to Tuskar Vitality for that), slightly lower crit (ok from 50% raid buffed to 47%), slightly lower mana efficiency (do you get oom ?) but 10% more global healing.
Now about our different choices. Matticus chose to ignore Divinity, keep Sanctity of Battle and invest into Improved concentration aura. If Divinity against Sanctity can be seen as a relatively fair tradeoff, seeing the amount of damage in Ulduar and the level of crit we already achieve, I prefer the 5+5(Seal of Light glygh)% increase of my heals.
He also exchanges 1 pt in Enlightened Judgements for Aura Mastery. As he's saying I also see Aura Mastery as mostly PvP oriented now, and I think it's too situational in PvE to be worth the point. Beside, Enlightened Judgements not only give us reach, it also gives us % to hit, so that our Judgements don't miss and we can keep up Judegements of the Pure more easily.
Now 2 points in Improved Concentration Aura ... I think I'd prefer the Pursuit of Justice speed buff. That allows you to keep the hit/crit enchant on your boots, as movement is an absolute necessity in Ulduar, the faster you get out of the aoe the more chances you have to: 1. be alive, 2. resume healing.
As you can see, even if we have a few different views, we agree on most of the invested points, and glyphs. I'm also a big fan of mana return via Lay on Hands, add that to my jeweller trinket and I get nearly 2 free mana pots by boss fights.
I'd be happy to have your views on raiding spec, fell free to comment.
Happy raiding to you all.
As for raiding, I'm more confident in my point, and wanted to share my views when I read Matticus post on his blog: Speccing your holy paladin.
As a first reading, for those that are not very familiar with paladin, especially holy paladin talents (if you're dual specing into holy that's for you ;p), I advise you to read Ferraro guide about Holy Talents on her blog, and Celton guide on HolyPaladin.net.
Matticus is a raider, so I give credit to his views, he obviously has tested them in raiding and as backup to his claims. Now I don't really agree with all of his views.
Matticus sepc is here : 53/0/18
My spec is here : 51/5/15
Before analyzing the differences, I'll comment what I changed from 3.1 to 3.1.1. I ditched 2 points in Pursuit of Justice (15% movement speed) and Sanctity of Battle (3% crit) for 5 points in the new prot talent Divinity (5% healing). And changed my glyph of Seal of Wisdom (5% mana reduction) to Seal of Light (5% more healing). And that's all, even though I'm still wondering about trying to find a space for the new Glyph of Holy Shock.
So global changes for me are slower movement (changed my boots enchant to Tuskar Vitality for that), slightly lower crit (ok from 50% raid buffed to 47%), slightly lower mana efficiency (do you get oom ?) but 10% more global healing.
Now about our different choices. Matticus chose to ignore Divinity, keep Sanctity of Battle and invest into Improved concentration aura. If Divinity against Sanctity can be seen as a relatively fair tradeoff, seeing the amount of damage in Ulduar and the level of crit we already achieve, I prefer the 5+5(Seal of Light glygh)% increase of my heals.
He also exchanges 1 pt in Enlightened Judgements for Aura Mastery. As he's saying I also see Aura Mastery as mostly PvP oriented now, and I think it's too situational in PvE to be worth the point. Beside, Enlightened Judgements not only give us reach, it also gives us % to hit, so that our Judgements don't miss and we can keep up Judegements of the Pure more easily.
Now 2 points in Improved Concentration Aura ... I think I'd prefer the Pursuit of Justice speed buff. That allows you to keep the hit/crit enchant on your boots, as movement is an absolute necessity in Ulduar, the faster you get out of the aoe the more chances you have to: 1. be alive, 2. resume healing.
As you can see, even if we have a few different views, we agree on most of the invested points, and glyphs. I'm also a big fan of mana return via Lay on Hands, add that to my jeweller trinket and I get nearly 2 free mana pots by boss fights.
I'd be happy to have your views on raiding spec, fell free to comment.
Happy raiding to you all.
editor note:
This post has since been expanded due to interesting comments, you can see the additional post there: Is Divinity good for you ?
This post has since been expanded due to interesting comments, you can see the additional post there: Is Divinity good for you ?
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