Today was a fairly busy day. One of my battletag friends was looking for people for a world boss group so Seish got in on it. Smoothest Oondasta group I've ever been in on. I don't think there was a single death! Nalak worked out fairly smoothly, then we did all four of the Celestials to help some people with their Legendary quest. Seish got a nice new pair of gloves from Yu'lon: Gauntlets of Winged Triumph. Nice being a jewelcrafter, cause I switched to them and gemmed them right on the spot between Celestials. After a couple more item upgrades he's up to 520 and that might improve some more when I figure out what to use the burden of eternity he's carrying around for.
Laen got to run two dungeons today, and got up to level 26. No new gear, but still no fatalities, even with yet another warrior tank that would not stop moving. It wasn't that they were at all hard to heal, but when they were moving so fast that the mage and lock couldn't really cast and the rogue couldn't stealth and people kept getting left behind so I had to choose between healing the tank or them... it got frustrating. And I laughed because I asked them to slow down, they said 'sure' and didn't do a thing different at all. Oh well, I'm still enjoying paladin healing and plan on continuing to level Laen even now that paladin week is over.
And to finish up my recap, here are (in not particular order) 10 things I love about paladins in WoW:
1. The concept. Holy knights fighting evil and protecting the innocent. I love that. I particularly like in WoW that it seems like they serve the Light and combat evil, but don't really spend a lot of time trying to convert people to their chosen way.
2. Versatility. Tanking, Healing, DPS, paladins can do all of that. Yeah, apparently I'm pretty much a fan of hybrid classes.
3. Armor. Paladins have some of the best looking plate armor in the game. At least I think so.
4. Survivability. Compared to other classes paladins seem to have some of the best. Even Seish, my ret pally, often manages to survive stuff that surprises the heck out of me.
5. Righteous Fury. I love this. I call it paladin cologne, and one day filled guild chat with nonsensical slogans for Righteous Fury cologne ads. (Righteous Fury: Your priest will thank you.) It's amazing for all kinds of situations, if a tank drops in an instance the ret pally can pop it on and try to get control of the fight (depending on the healer this might be short lived, and so might the ret pally) Running low levels through stuff in any spec. The only time it's not amazing is if you're the tank and forgot to put it on. Rim's done that a time or two.
6. Lay on Hands. Who doesn't like a 'Get out of Death Free' card?
7. Paladin mounts. Need I say more? Oh yeah, free riding at level 20.
8. Heart of the Crusader. Passive mounted speed boost is nice, though I do miss when it was an aura and I could share it with my friends.
9. Avenger's Shield/Exorcism/Holy Shock. Especially Avenger's Shield for prot pallies. Has to be one of the most fun abilities in the game. But Exorcism is fun too, especially now that it's an instant. Holy shock is my favorite holy ability so far. We'll see if that changes.
10. Bubbles. So many uses.
I could probably go on. There are a lot of things I love about paladins, a few things that were changed to that I miss (and some that I really don't.) I miss relics, just because I liked the idea of them carrying a holy relic around that increased their power. I miss Auras too, it was fun coordinating them in a multi-paladin group to get as many as possible up. But on the flip side I love the changes to retribution paladins that have let me main my main this expansion. I still miss him having consecration but it was well worth losing it for having multiple abilities generate holy power instead of just Crusader Strike. (I never could luck out enough in LFR to get the two piece tier bonus that let judgement do it too.)
I love that inquisition now lasts twice as long too. Those were the two things I complained about on retribution paladins in Cataclysm, and they've fixed both of them to make the rotation so much more fun. Playing Seish in Cataclysm I felt bad and gimpy. Playing him now, I feel powerful, but more than that I'm having fun when I'm hitting things, spending a bit less time thinking about inquisition and a bit more time watching health bars drop very quickly.
Overall it's been a pretty good paladin week for me. I might have liked to accomplish a bit more on Seish or get Laen a few more levels, but I plan on leveling Laen all the way up anyway. Paladin week was just a very good excuse to get started on it.
Thanks again to Laeleiweyn at World of Lae for her Alt Appreciation idea! I've been having so much fun with it.
For me, remembering to use Lay on Hands and all the "Hand of"-spells in the right situation has been the tricky part about my paladin. It would of course have improved if I had played her more. :) But using those kinds of spells at the right time is what make some people really excel with their classes!
ReplyDeleteLay on Hands I am pretty good with. I've saved the tank with Seish's on a couple occasions by hitting it at just the right time, and Seish himself or his leveling buddy more times than I can count.
DeleteThe other Hands I tend mostly to only to remember to use on Rim. Got them set up on his Vuhdo and find them really handy when the overzealous mage pulls too much while questing. :)