Post Patch Pallys

Since patch 3.2 hit Svenn has been conspicuously absent, and for that he apologizes. Rather than forge ahead with the normal Monday Montage, Svenn will be running down his initial impressions of the patch.

First, how all the pally changes played out. There has been plenty of commenting pre-patch on the changes to pallys, but now having experienced them “live” Svenn has a better grasp of what all they mean.

Instant exorcism is sorely missed. Once an integral part of the rotation, Svenn now finds himself waiting on cool downs between Hammer of the Righteous and the next Judgment/Shield of Righteousness. Talenting into the reduced cool down on judgments may be the solution to this dilemma, but Svenn hasn’t tested it out yet.

The damage increase to hand of reckoning is nice, and may find its way into single target fights as an extra bit of DPS to help fill the spot left by exorcism (this would be very situational, as the taunt is too valuable to burn for extra DPS in AoE pulls/ fights with adds).

Block Value has been buffed, while this has given a slight boost to damage from Shield of Righteousness, it is still not the mitigation method of choice.

The new 5man is tailor made for Paladins. The AoE agro generation on round 1 combined with self heals (to compensate for a healer slow off the jousting transition or flying back in from an unlucky death) makes the start of the run so much easier. Phase 2 is nothing to write home about, but in phase 3 the tankadin once again shines. Consecration + Holy Wrath + Shadow Protect Aura = I win button. Top it all off with plenty of plate drops which, on average, seem to be slightly better than Naxx10 gear, and Svenn now has a reason to tank Heroics again (sorry Haager, back to the bench for you).

In other news, Svenn may not be seeing as much raiding as previously. This is due in part to the patch changes, part due to tanking burnout, part due to a slew of somewhat willing successors, and mainly due to the face melting awesomeness that is Cromm (he’s so humble isn’t he). In his defense Cromm was the main show pre Wrath. He was the first toon to hit seventy, and the only toon that ever saw the inside of a instance let alone a raid in the Burning Crusade.

Last night in Naxx, Cromm hit 3.9k DPS in the single target “gear check” boss that is Patchwerk. That in a hodgepodge of craftable/ heroic epics and more than a few item lvl 187-200 “blues”. He is not trying to brag, just, it’s hard to walk away from that kind of pew-pew from an under geared toon.

Anyways, the newness of the patch has already started to wear off and, it is back to business as usual here at the Misadventures…. At least until Svenn’s folks come visit.