So just an update, since I haven’t posted lately. Last week was my “spring break”, and since I’m usually posting in class (shhhh! Don’t tell!) or during my lunch, I wasn’t posting at home.
But during the break, I made a very (and ugh!!) decision: every one (4) of my toons will be a tank or a healer… So my warrior is a tank, my priest is a healer, my druid is a healer (with kickass! DPS btw), but my pally was ret. Notice the was. B/c she (I know, I know, I’m one of those weird guys that plays a chick toon) was a Holy/Ret spec, but I couldn’t get my head around how to heal… It confused me. So Wednesday, I made the decision that the only people that should use shields are tanks, and my paladin looked good with a shield.
More after the break.
I’m not going to deny it: I’m spoiled, and I know it. Having 3 of 4 toons have less than 2 minute ques in the LFG system has left me not wanting to play a toon that I enjoyed leveling for the simple fact that I dont want to sit around for 45 minutes waiting on a group to be formed, especially when said toon has the ability to strap on a shield and either heal or tank. Well, I tried healing first, and I couldn’t get my head around the healing style.
When do I spam the little heal?
When do I spam the big heal?
When do I hit Divine Plea?
When do I use a CD to get mana back or conserve mana?
Should I party wall here, beacon the tank, and spam heals on me?
I JUST DONT KNOW!!!! :’(
And I honestly gave it a good try. I gathered up as much gear as I could (yes it was all kinds of armor, but it was at least spiritless and lots of int/crit like I should have), I read the right guides, I understood the stats and the theory, but the actual practice couldn’t be applied. So I said screw it, ran the daily maybe once a week, and spent 45 minutes farming ore (which I also stopped doing b/c I just never needed it!), and the toon sat neglected. A friend of mine who I am constantly helping with his paladin (for reasons unknown to everyone but him) has decided to level another paladin… on the same server has his current one. But this one will not be leveled as ret, but as prot… for the simple reason (so he claims) so he can go prot on his main. The theory is sound (best way to learn something is to do it while leveling while its simple) but thats alot of work, and your going to then want to gear it out, and then play it often, and…
I digress. He wants to learn prot paladin play-style, and as usual he asked me. I gave him the little bit of info I knew off the top of my head (540 def, 8% hit, 6.5% expertise, use certain glyphs, gotta use a shield and 1-hander, other tanks talk about a 969 or 696 rotation named after the CD’s) and told him after that he was going to have to ask someone else or learn alongside with me. I sat down at my computer, which was at the character selection screen, and clicked from my warrior to my paladin.
And a thought began to form.
Ya, pallies and warriors are different, but they are really the same gear wise. Both use shields (which I really like), the play style is similar in regards to gather them up and let the block do the work. How hard could it be to get started? I know where it all is… I picked up some weapons and trinkets from world events…
Ya, my pally is going prot!!!
So from Wednesday to Sunday, I farmed the living daylights out of randoms and towards the end of the week, the regular ICC 5mans and TOC 5mans. I picked up easily half of the set, got around 40+ badges, and a sudden realization that most of these regular instance tanks are crap. The fact I have a shield and Righteous Fury on means I’m doing better than some of these other tanks. Some of the tanks had less HP and TPS (threat per second) than my ret did, and I had Hand of Salvation on CD the entire time and Vigilance, and I was still pulling crazy threat, and more than once I had to swap to seal of light and OT an add, or bubble to drop threat entirely. It was rough, but I think once I can get my hands on a tanking chest, I’m going to go for it. Toss in some def/stam gems and see what happens. Worst that can happen is I get called a terrible tank, the group drops or I get kicked and I go back to farming the badges and regular drops until I get more gear.
I honestly think I can do it easy, but its more of a confidence thing. I have to get my head wrapped around this whole short cd/long cd rotation. On my prot warrior (and its similar on the druid) its get a stack up (devastate/lacerate) and maintain it, spam aoe (t-clap - shockwave/swipe) and next hit ability (cleave/maul). Rinse and repeat until its all dead. From what I can tell with the pally its not exactly the same in that I stack up a debuff and then spam aoe’s, but at the same time it is. I think the best thing I am going to be able to do is make analogies in my head between the pallie abilities and the warrior abilities.
Holy Shield = Shield Block
Shield of Righteous = Shield Slam
Hammer of the Righteous = Devastate/shockwave (minus the stun)
Consecrate = Thunderclap
Judgement = Revenge/Devastate
I’m thinking I got those right, but I know its not exact. So as of Wednesday, it will be exactly 7 days, and I’m trying to be heroic ready by then.
Wish me luck.
