WoW musings...

[nockergeek]

I cannot comment on the content in Northrend in the new expansion, mostly because I'm not high enough level to experience it yet (besides a very, very brief foray up to the Borean Tundra to see it). When I left the game, I'd just hit level 67. I'm halfway through 68 now, finishing up Nagrand, starting up on Blade's Edge Mountains, and Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley are almost completely untouched (apart from my mad dash at 61 to get as many flight points as possible). I'm going to miss out on most of the Outland instances, mostly because people are focused on Northrend now, but it's good to know that I won't need them to hit 70. The gear would be nice, but I'll live off of other quest rewards.

All that said, I am liking the paladin changes for the most part. The Protection tree is relatively useless to me apart from Kings (and I don't think it's worth 5 talent points of dabbling to get it), but Holy/Retribution is a thing of crit-tastic beauty. While I miss having a longer range on Holy Shock, the much-improved cooldown more than makes up for it, and my Judgements make up for the loss of range. The new Seal/Judgement system took a bit of getting used to, but it's so much better now. Being able to keep up Wisdom while I judge Light (or Justice for runners) is a godsend, and it's nice to actually have something besides auto-attack. Sure, Judgements don't auto-refresh, but it's a fair trade for the flexibility. With the build I have now, I've got a 25% crit chance on Holy spells, which has really kicked up both my damage and healing outputs, while the new seal system (being able to keep up SoWis constantly) keeps me nearly full on mana during most leveling. The only time I run low is if either A) I have to drop a lot of big heals, or B) I'm using more spells than normal (against, say, elite demons or packs of undead).

I haven't had any chance to toy with Inscription, so I really have no idea what to do with anything related to it. That's fine, though - I have enough to focus on with Engineering. Right now, though, I'm not even focusing on skill-ups. I'm focused on saving money and getting a flying mount when I hit 70 (even though I'll have to give it up for a while in Northrend). Also, I need to move my Warlock over to Blackhand, so I can have both my main and my primary alt on the same server (although I will miss her name, since there's apparently a low-level Beshaba name-squatting on this server). Of course, I have no idea on whether or not 'locks have changed the way Paladins have...

Comments

[laudre.livejournal.com]

Paladins have seen by far the biggest changes with 3.0; prot warriors and enhancement shamans are probably the next most changed. Warlocks have changed slightly, but not much, mostly streamlining and such. Also, if you're 68, go ahead and go straight on to Northrend. The xp and rewards are much better, and the quests are much funner.