Mark and I did our first podcast for a series called "The Ledcast". Alex will be joining us this week, so we'll probably cram in a couple more while he's here.
I'm trying to download the Fracture demo. Alex might tell you all about the game if he feels like it at the end of the week.
In the first episode of Ledcast, I spoke of the freshly premiered television series Fringe. The first episode was interesting, but it was full of a LOT of cliche dialogue. It had some plot twists that threw me for a loop a little bit, but I caught back up with them pretty quickly. The second episode is waaaaay better. It's much more horrific and had a freaky concept they somehow made believable. Good job, Abrams. I'm going to stick with this one for awhile.
Speaking of J.J. Abrams, there is a video with William Shatner talking about how he wasn't asked to be in the new Star Trek movie. I hope this is just a big ploy to keep secret that Shatner actually shows up at the end of the film as Captain Kirk brought back to life because of the time travel whammy that is suppose to take place in the film.
On to Wrath of the Lich King. I want to reintroduce you to a familiar class...
Meet the (Retribution) Paladin.
Retribution Paladins are very unique. Not only do they carry the role of "Mana Battery" that Shadow Priests and Survival Hunters have, they are also able to heal and deal damage simultaneously, again like a Shadow Priest. What I much prefer with the Retribution Paladin is getting to be in the fray of melee combat and their phenomenal buffs. They are essential to increasing the over-all effectiveness of the entire party, much like a Shaman. You just feel like you matter more than a Rogue.
This is one build that will work in PVE and PVP end-game. I wish they would put the Healing Light talent as a first tier Holy talent. In fact, I would be ecstatic if they switched Spiritual Focus and Seals of the Pure with Divine Intellect and and Healing Light and made Healing Light boost the effectiveness of Divine Storm.
Currently, they are quiet mana efficient. I've got a feeling it won't stay this way, because currently they are more efficient than an Enhancement Shaman with Shamanistic Rage.
Here are the essential abilities of a Retribution Paladin.
This is the meat and potatoes ability of a Retribution Paladin. It keeps their damage constantly flowing because of its short 6-second cooldown.
The Improved, Sanctified, Swift Retribution Aura is ONLY choice for a Retribution Paladin's aura. At level 80 with the Improved Retribution Aura talent, it deals 160 holy damage every time a party member gets hit. With the Sanctified Retribution Talent, it increases the entire party's damage output by 2%, an addition that adds up a lot over many party members. Finally there is the Swift Retribution Talent, which increases melee, ranged, and casting speed by 3%. Best Aura ever.
Hits multiple targets and heals multiple targets every 10-seconds. This constant flow of healing to the party helps ease up the main healers without you even needing to think about it.
This ability has been changed to effect healing as well. The talent Sanctified Wrath makes 50% of your damage pierce through all of your target's defenses. This makes it to where you won't even notice that your opponent is wearing plate. This is also handy because of a couple of other talents.
Enhancement Shaman's got a taste of what Sheath of Light is with their Mental Quickness talent back in Burning Crusade. What makes this different is that instead of cheaper instant cast spells, Ret Paladin's healing critical hits cause a heal over time effect equal to 60% of the critical spell's total healed. This is perfect because of how much critical strike rating plate armortends to have and because of another talent...
The critical damage bonus is tasty, but the subtly awesome effect of being able to instantly cast Flash of Light is fantastic. During a dungeon or raid, a Ret Paladin will be able to squeeze in Flash of Light instantly without wasting time in their rotation of damage dealing abilities. This in combination with Sheath of Light and Divine Storm give them a lot of healing potential.
This is the ridiculous new talent that grants them the "Mana Battery" potential shared by Shadow Priests and Survival Hunters. This not only adds greatly to mana efficiency while soloing, it is great for raids.
So there you have it. The super-awesome Retribution Paladin. Hopefully this gives you some perspective on why I'm probably going to make one.
In other WotLK news, there's a couple of new titles added called "of the Alliance" and "of the Horde". The way you get this is by going into each of your opposing faction's capital cities and helping slay their leader. This will be my new goal. Getting new armor that I'll replace in the next dungeon doesn't last. I'll get to keep a title like that forever.
I'm also going to try PVP for end-game this time around instead of quite as much PVE. There's a post by Penny Arcade that made a very good point. It's like a science having to get together such a perfect amount of people in order to go raiding. They're making it significantly easier now that all raid dungeons have 10 and 25-man versions, but if you only have a party of 7 for PVP, you'll always get strangers to help fill it out. You can also stop pretty much whenever you want, instead of wasting an extra hour trying to down some raid boss that your guild just can't seem to kill. Lake Wintergrasp has also piqued my interest in PVP for that fact that it feels more real being PVP that takes place outside of an instance. Your entire faction feels the consequences of your victory / defeat if you fail in this place. Failure would probably not hurt my ego, but victory grants a buff to your faction throughout all of Northrend. I would feel like a hero.
