Comments on: Bubbles and Crits, part 2: What the Hell Took you so Long?

By: jeffo

jeffo — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:33:40 +0000

Thank you, Halthor, I appreciate the follow up.

I do agree, this should have come out quite some time ago. There are times when I can move quite fast on things and times when I’m positively glacial. We know what this one was. Thanks for the suggestions and we’ll see what I can wrap my brain around going forward.
jeffo´s last blog ..Ups and Downs: 2-1/2 Years of WoW

By: Halthor

Halthor — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:27:53 +0000

@Jeffo

Ok, agree my first post was on the harsh side. I guess I am disappointed that we got a nicely written article that basically says that 51/5/15 based specs and 51/20/0 based specs are both viable. Long article, but content light, not content rich.

This article would have been better coming out 1 month after 3.2. With it coming out so long after 3.2, it has become far less valuable.

Now to answer you questions around what types of article that I think would benefit Holy Paladin’s out there.

I think that there are a few types:

1) Talent specs – Pro’s and Con’s, when you can benefit from using one ability over another. Best example is Div Sac. Use of real life examples is always good.

2) Healing in 10man raids – e.g. TOC10 2man healing. TOGC10 2man healing. Healing style becomes a blend of tank and raid healing. Much more interesting for a healer. Then your choice of healing partner becomes critical.

3) Healing in 25man raids – e.g. 25man version of the above… Heroic Gormok healing on 25man compared to 10man is very different in my experience. 25man is totally focused tank healing. 10man allows raid healing, especially if 2man healing it (requires a little luck with Snobolds).

4) Healing challenges around specific bosses. e.g. Heroic Twins, Heroic Anub Arak. The Holy Paladin 51/20/0 spec is pretty amazing for Phase 3 of Heroic Anub. Bubble Sac + Aura Mastery make a huge difference.

5) Discussion or perspectives on the incoming changes for 3.3.

Hope this helps

Hal

By: brangwen

brangwen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:50:29 +0000

I am a hold out critadin – love the crit!
TBH, I have not really noticed the nerf too much at all. I still have enough mana to get the job done, and with 60% crit buffed in 25raid, and the crazy spike damage in ToGC, I find that the crit spec is still extremely viable. We barely ever use DS, TBH. The crit rating means using DP isnt too risky as long as you DP early and often.

I also did some math recently and found that with div.ill. running at my current crit rating and SP, I can FoL and have a net gain in mana. Yes, I have 1s casts on FoL however, but I can average 30k healing over 5s and increase my net mana. Which, if you ask me, is a bit crazy, and is ONLY because I have good haste and crit.

Now, I can maintain this because I gem exclusively for int, and I preference crit/haste gear over MP5 gear…. meh, I am totally getting too far into theory crafting this for a comment. But I might head over to plus heal and bump your thread if you want?
brangwen´s last blog ..Tweaking strat is made of win

By: Ophelie

Ophelie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:39:33 +0000

@ Mally, I probably didn’t choose the right word, by “my healing style”, what I meant was more along the lines of my personal preference. If I was to start breaking it down, I would need to have my own post! Overall, I love utility. Divine Sacrifice is probably my favorite spell, I like the shortened CD on Hand of Protection, I like the damage reduction from Improved Righteous Fury. I like that I can be more helpful in BGs. I also almost always raid with at least one ret paladin so improved might isn’t an issue. I’ve tried both specs and bubble was what worked best for me.

That said, I don’t think it’s the only way to play. Both specs are viable and nothing beats experimenting to find out what works best for someone.
Ophelie´s last blog ..Your Holy Paladin Gear: Holy Light Builds vs Flash of Light Builds

By: Mimetir

Mimetir — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:04:46 +0000

Hmm. Paladin healing is something I don’t know much about at all, so reading this is really quite interesting. Hope there’ll be more to read from you soon!

By: Mally

Mally — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:36:00 +0000

@Ophelle, can you explain your “healing style” to see if other people share your actions and therefore may gain similar benefits from the bubble spec?

By: Ophelie

Ophelie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:27:13 +0000

@Josh and jeffo: The FoL paladin from Premonition that I inspired myself from when I did my own research on the FoL vs HL builds used a bubble spec. That said, I do not know what the majority of FoL paladins use as their spec. Let me tell you, it’s hard to find FoL paladins.

My conclusion was that both specs can be useful with both healing styles. The extra crit does give some more oomph to an FoL pally but depending on the fight and your raid makeup, Divine Sacrifice is often too good pass up. Equally, the extra mana regen from a Holy/Ret spec has its place in an HL build.

I often see paladins with both specs, swapping between them depending on need. Personally, I’ve tried both and I prefer bubble spec by far, but mainly because it suits my healing style better.
Ophelie´s last blog ..Your Holy Paladin Gear: Holy Light Builds vs Flash of Light Builds

By: jeffo

jeffo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:04:46 +0000

@Halthor: Ouch! Terribly sorry to disappoint you. I started these posts as a response to the Healadin community heading into 3.2: So many Paladins were worried that we wouldn’t be able to ‘compete’ at all, let alone in the Crit spec (I recently saw someone post elsewhere ‘Holy/Ret is now dead to us’). Quite the opposite, both specs are viable. Perhaps you would have preferred more of a ‘how to manage your mana effectively’ article, though it sounds like you’re quite fine on that front. What sort of Paladin posts would you prefer to see?

@Mally: “Insta-gibbing” did occur once or twice, but it was because I was adjusting to something new on the keyboard (and I foolishly put it where Divine Favor used to live) AND I wasn’t paying attention to my rapidly-plummeting health bar. I’ve since macro’d it with Divine Shield, and that doesn’t happen anymore . I have also macro’d it to Divine Protection. This does require some care in high damage situations, but it can be useful if DShield is still on cooldown.

On certain fights we do coordinate Sacrifice amongst our Paladins. Mimiron Plasma Blasts, Frozen Blows, etc., we’ll often work out a rotation before the fight starts just so we don’t have everyone use it at once.

@Josh: As Mally pointed out, Ferraro just did a post on this the other day. She recommends the Holy/Ret spec for FoL spam, and the Bubble spec for HL spam. I did not look into that aspect of things in putting this piece together.
jeffo´s last blog ..Ups and Downs: 2-1/2 Years of WoW

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:26:47 +0000

Haha Yeah I already read it She makes an argument that FoL builds desire the holy/ret spec for the crit and I was curious if most FoL specc’d paladins did, in fact, do that.

By: Mally

Mally — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:10:03 +0000

@Josh, Ferarro looked into FoL vs HL in a recent article, which you may find interesting:

http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2009/11/flash-of-light-vs-holy-light.html