That's right, I'm back! I've been on quite the adventure, and still am for the most part. I really really appreciate all the e-mails I got before I left, and all the people who offered their help, input and assistance. For those who don't know, I went off to boot camp; For 8 weeks I went through what people would refer to as hell. Looking back, it's not that bad, but it sure was crappy. It's exactly as people show it on TV, you feel like dirt, you look like ass. People constantly yelling, 3 min to eat a meal, constantly learning, constantly worrying about not making it, being kicked out for something that isn't one of your strengths. Even smiling. But from this, they build everyone back up and you feel like so much more after your done. You appreciate the world a lot more as well. Now here I am, getting trained at Goodfellow as an Intelligence unit.
That's my story, for now I'm still here, I have my computer, and internet back, and while my course is hard, I've made some time for WoW. I'm picking my stuff up again and plan on hitting the arenas asap. Funny thing, some of the people here are really into WoW, and have a lot of information that hasn't gotten to MMO-Champion and such sites yet, so be sure to check us out for insider information coming up.
I feel like I should talk about something, since I've missed spilling beans about shit. I'm sure all of you have seen and played with the dungeon system now, and I personally think it's awesome. The loot rolling is kinda iffy sometimes, like if you are a leveling warrior and a rogue doesnt want a piece of leather that has some monster stats on it, it's a bit of a pain to get that item to you. But still.
Changes to come that we've been hearing about;
-Health pools are aiming to hit 100,000hp+
-Damage is going to scale but not as much as health will. This is going to help smooth pvp out.
-The "path of the titans" will really start to have your character be specifically different. Even with a cookie cutter spec, this will make user choice even more interesting. You can expect theory crafters to hit this stuff just as hard as they hit talents.
-"Path of the titans" will at the moment, add some new spells, not just add things to your spells.
-Outlands isn't changing much, if at all, at this point in time. (Meh)
-A lot of you are talking about concecration being too important in the ret rotation, this is being looked at again. Hints about AE tanking and how they are toning it down might help...
-Many people are worried about the PvP seasons (1st and 2nd of cata) they are going to try to let resilience be more accesable at earlier brackets to prevent this. Early on, class balance in Wrath and resilience made things a lot more unstable then originally intended.
That's pretty much what I was told today by some people of a bit more importance then me around here.
But, I mean, let's get on point; Paladins, paladins, paladins.
I see a lot of people really making something of themselves as Ret in wrath, but how do they feel? I don't think it has the same magic feel as it used to, and it still feels a bit spammy. The change to Art of War helped a lot, but the Crusader Strike/Divine Storm/Judgment rotation of spam still feels just, well a bit of button smashing. The classes that tend to be more fun seem to have a bit more involved, at least even to setup their main rotation. This is something I hope just happens to get fixed in Cataclysm, because it doesn't seem hard to do.
In Burning Crusade, seal twisting and swing timing was very important to any to tier paladin, and if not seal twisting then atleast watching the swing timer was. Now, There isn't so much of that. Instead, it seems how fast you react to the situation at hand is all you need. While I believe some paladins surpass the skillful paladins of BC, some don't know what Burning Crusade was like, and fall short of understanding what the class was, and what it has transformed into.
Many people agree, the seal system is still lack luster. Some think that it feels so passive (no interaction with the damage the seals deal) and some feel that it just doesnt reflect the original idea of what a seal is.
All in all, my paladin is as Requital put it "Ret is still a niche talent spec/class type". I agree, hopefully, though, that doesnt last too long. Retribution has had a lot of attention in this expansion, a few touch ups should do it good.
Now that I'm caught up with what I've missed, I'll be more active on these boards, promise. As for Megaphone and all my other friends, I appreciate you holding down the forts in various areas.
-Slayton
