Crusader Strike No Longer Refreshes Judgements
The Wrath of the Lich King beta landed on the digital laps of many thousands of subscribers. As the Paladin talents were finally revealed, we sat there grinning like Christmas morning brats inheriting keys to a convertible. I can personally recall my own excitement at reading through the talents as I spastically leaped between them perhaps netting a few words from each in passing. Immediately, what went through my mind was that were all things to remain constant, these new additions rounded the Retribution Paladin out well and introduced a seemingly endless world of synergistic possibilities.
I may have thought too soon.
In the recent build, Blizzard has decided that Crusader Strike is too powerful as it currently exists and thus decided it was in our best interests to remove our single largest contribution of raid utility - the ability to refresh all judgements on our target. Somehow the phrase “we giveth and we taketh away” seems highly appropriate. Somehow, just somehow, I feel the introduction of new “toys” for Retribution Paladins to collectively play with was too much for Blizzard to handle - such that retrieving some of our old ones was, according to their best judgement (pardon the pun), was in good order.
All in all, I’m going to attempt a positive outlook on the situaiton and bring to light some things perhaps overlooked - at least I know I may have done so originally.
Certainly the Paladin is receiving greater utility come WotLK. A cursory glance might lead one to believe that this would even further pigeonhole our spec as a true utility class instead of an actual DPS participant with moderate utility. A second eyeing may arrive at the still grim conclusion that WotLK further limits our participation in raids to a lone slot per 25. For those of us with even the slenderest of optimistic bone in our bodies, I ask that we take a third look. Doing so reiterates the raid-wide span of totems and the adjustment of Windfury to provide haste as opposed to the potential for extra attacks. The astute observer would then recognize that we are no longer dependant upon being grouped with a Shaman (although I’m aware that Unleashed Rage is quite attractive). That third glance would also point out that the survivability of a raid with more than one Retadin would be slightly improved given the dual healing provided from Divine Storm and 100% Judgement of Light uptime. Partner this point with a similar effect from Judgements of the Wise and you have not only a raid with improved survivability put improve longevity to boot. it seems that the potential for more than one Retadin in a raid come WotLK is certainly there but now at the cost of the ability to refresh Judgements.
And now, as I was about to finish this post with some mildly entertaining anecdote to bring seemingly (although not guaranteed) closure, I decided to take a quick run through the Paladin forums. Doing so revealed something that I wasn’t aware of but nonetheless something that truly excites me:
- With the removal of a secondary effect, Crusader Strike now is treated as a normal melee attack and thus can proc your seals.
What does this mean? For starters, it means more potential burst in PvP. In PvE it means increased damage output. This mechanic is something the Paladin community has been clamouring for since the inception of the talent and it seems at long last we are receiving it.
Speaking of the aforementioned closing anecdote, I believe I’ll omit it for at least this post as the above paragraph should be more than sufficient to whet your appetite.
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Mynt said,
August 15, 2008 at 2:01 am
With increased judgment range for Holy Paladins, Judgment of the Pure and the fact that it doesn’t eat the seal anymore, I think every Holy pally should be able to keep his Judgment up when he can spare a GCD.
Also, with 3 different Judgment effects (only 2 that you’d probably use in raid, Wisdom/Light) Judging got a whole lot more attractive. It seems like Blizz wants holy paladins to be more involved in combat rather that FoL spam. Removal of the secondary ability of CS seems to be a part of that.
Ambershock said,
August 15, 2008 at 4:27 am
Synovia… I have a lot of respect for what you are saying, but the more and more I read the beta forums, I’ve come to realize that Wrath of the Lich King is SO not finished. Blizzard posted a few days ago that they would like Ret paladins to be successful tanks in regular 5 man instances… long story short… before it’s all over there will be MORE sweeping changes made either to classes or to NPC diffuclty in game.
I personally feel Blizzard made a HUGE mistake in moving to Beta before it was ready. To me, Alpha is where the developers play with the new talents and abilities in-house… and balance them until they feel it’s ready, THEN release Beta to get overall feedback and to fine tune the classes. FINE TUNE, not the massive sweeping changes we are seeing almost every day. You are actually in the beta, most of us are not… I almost feel that Blizzard’s other mistake was to release beta info to the public. Even though I do not play the beta I keep following the forums and changes, and honestly, the roller coaster is starting to make me ill.
So what’s the point of this diatribe? Keep giving feedback to the developers but I’d suggest keeping judgements about the state of the class a little more private until it’s almost all over (beta).
The only thing that really irritates me is the lack of communication from Blizzard to the paladin community. It’s pretty one way, and I wonder without that feedback, how do they sift through good genuine comments and the QQ that goes on. How do we as paladins know what Blizzard is intending for the direction the class is going? Like I said before though, it’s very clear Beta is really a public Alpha… and that is simply mind boggeling.
Peace,
Ambershock
Ilmeni said,
August 15, 2008 at 4:52 am
Truthfully, it seems to me most of the sweeping changes were made at the end of alpha/start of beta. Oh, granted, altering Crusader Strike has far-reaching implications, but it’s hardly as sweeping as removing the split personality that has been plaguing the ret tree. You folks now, finally, know what to stack - AP and crit rating, like every other weapon-based DPSer out there. No more pissing around with ImpSoR/Spellpower builds (been there, done that, had reasonable success), ret is now based on weaponry, like warriors, rogues and hunters. Same for the tanking changes, you can go either weapons/DPS tank (AP as threat stat) or spellpower/healing (spellpower as threat stat). By the same token, yes, some tanking gear /WILL/ make good kit for ret tanks, and some tanking gear will make good kit for holy tanks. /THOSE/ were the sweeping changes, if you ask me, not a little nerf to Crusader Strike.
Ambershock said,
August 15, 2008 at 6:33 am
If that were the only change made since beta’s opening, I’d see your point… but it’s not.
Downranking spells = gone.
Glyphs addition = still don’t know WTH these can really do/not do as no one has them yet…
etc. etc.
And I’d bet money on it, more big changes are on the way. They just simply aren’t even CLOSE to being finished yet is my main point.
Ilmeni said,
August 15, 2008 at 7:39 am
Not disputing they aren’t finished - but downranking is gone for everyone, and that people aren’t leveling Inscription is hardly Blizzard’s fault. From what I’m hearing, they haven’t been making alpha level changes; I’m not entirely certain what makes people think beta testing should not push any more changes, only fix bugs for release preparation. Besides, I remain unconvinced that Blizzard /has/ any competent paladins among their developers. If they did, I’m sure they would have implemented the changes in internal alpha, rather than having to rely on the community (i.e., us) to deal with it.
Proudfoot said,
August 15, 2008 at 11:42 pm
On the topic of Ret viablity I’d like to see Heart of the Crusader moved down in the talent tree to keep it ret specific. Maybe swap places with 2h weapon spec?
Metaphor said,
August 19, 2008 at 4:14 am
Just remember, whenever JoW or JoL are judged by the Paladin, that JUDGEMENT is put on the target. There is no reason for Crusader Strike to refresh judgements on a target, when the Ret Paladin himself will be refreshing it, everytime he judges.
If anything, you’ll see Holy Paladins chain-judging JoL to keep the haste buff up. JoW will be kept up forever by the Ret Paladin.