As the beta winds down, Ask a Beta Tester becomes a little more infrequent, but as long as we have questions, we will answer. Let’s start with Rob’s question…

Are they planning to put in recipes for green items between 350-375 to make it easier to grind up professions? Or should i just suck it up and make (obsolete) blue/purple items to level up.

Many professions start with new recipes at 350 skill in Northrend, and some of them at 360. Nobody starts at 375. 360-375 is usually taken up by ‘end-game’ items so you won’t have to grind those out to skill up before Northrend. I recommend checking Wowhead to see where your particular profession starts out.

Locke asked…

I know there’s the Wrath Gate cinematic and so on, have you come across or know any other cinematic events like this, or was this the only one? I’m sure there has to be in game scripted events. Thanks.

That was the only one that is actually a cinematic, but there are a ton of scripted events. Wrath’s storytelling is incredible, and I think you’ll be surprised by just how much happens before your eyes rather than off in the background somewhere.

Chris asked…

In the Classic world, we got new spells and abilities every even level. In the Outlands, we got them at every level after 60. Is it the same for Northrend? Will we get new spells and abilities ever level after 70?

There are new spells or new ranks of spells every level. Not every level has something exciting and not every level has something for your spec, but every level has something. I found myself looking ahead when I was leveling in beta. “Well, I just trained level 73. Should I come back at level 74? Oh, looks like I only get a new rank of Renew. I don’t need that soloing as a Shadow Priest, I’ll get that at level 75 when I come back to get Mind Sear!”

Those aren’t the levels your train some of those things, I just pulled it out of the air as an example, so no spamming the comments with Wowhead links telling me I’m wrong, eh?

barbarion asked…

I really enjoyed The Ring Of Blood in Nagrand. Have they got anymore quests like that in northrend and is there any information about it yet?

Yes. It’s in Zul’Drak. You’ll love it. I don’t want to spoil it because it has a lot of giggle worthy stuff, but I’ll say this much: If you’re an old school WoW player, you’ll run into an old friend there.

Fuster asked…

Will there be any inscription recipe drops or will we only be able train and discover glyphs and books?

I don’t know what there will be later in the game, but currently I don’t think there are any glyphs or glyph recipes that are drops. It’s purely trained stuff and discovered glyphs. I have no doubt we’ll see more recipes as the game progresses, but how we’ll get them is up to Blizzard. Drops? Reputation? I only pray Scribes don’t have to go through what completionist Enchanters had to go through in The Burning Crusade. I still don’t have some of them. I shiver with nerd rage.

ermansup asked…

Are there any reputation grinds that make completing quests linked to said reputations unoptimal before a stage such as honored is reached by other means. Like it is in TBC with the Cenarion Expedition and the Unidentified Plant Parts.

I haven’t encountered any factions that have those turn-in style rep gains. It’s much more heavily based in quests and dungeons, and dungeons don’t seem to grant reputation until you’re running the level 80ish versions. I may be mistaken and simply missed stuff like that, but I think Blizzard recognized the silliness of early Burning Crusade reputations and axed the turn-in stuff in favor of more quests tied to each faction. The Valiance Expedition has an asburd number of quests tied to it.

Jeger asked…

For most players, the rewards you got from the first couple of TBC quests were good upgrades to the epic gear we already had. Just wondering how long will tier 4,5,6 last us in Wrath? Will I still use my current gear at level 75?

Remember that Burning Crusade had some stat rejiggering that inflated how good early BC pieces were. Stamina values were doubled between Classic and Burning Crusade. So while Wrath has some really great stuff for people that aren’t twinked to the gills, it’ll be nothing like BC. My Tier 6 and partial Sunwell gear lasted me until the high-70s. I was still wearing most of it at level 80. Level 80 dungeons start replacing it, and you can safely wear it into Naxxramas.

I think it’s safe to say Tier 5 will last you from the mid to upper 70s, and tier 4 will be replaceable by 75, and some pieces will have been replaced already. That’s just what I figure from my experiences, though. Those numbers may be slightly off.

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. This week Matticus is finishing off the 60 – 70 aspect of Priest leveling!

Welcome to the final stretch. I believe Blizzard has sped up the leveling process in Outland (via a 30% experience reduction, yes?).

Go on then! There’s a big giant portal just waiting for you! It’s sort of dark looking. I guess that’s why they call it the Dark Portal. Step through it!

New spells

Prayer of Mending: This healing spell has fast become a staple in the arsenal of Holy Priests. While it now does generate some threat for the Priest who casts it, the threat should not be a significant factor at all (whereas before, the threat generated from the spell would be applied to the target of the spell).

Shadow Word: Death: Holy Priests don’t have a lot of use for offensive spells. This is straight and simple instant case spell that deals direct damage to the target of your choice. It does have a drawback. If Shadow Word: Death doesn’t kill the target, you take damage. Shadow Word: Death does work in tandem with Prayer of Mending. If it happens to bounce towards you and you have a free moment, target the mob everyone else is working and SW:D. This will trigger the Prayer of Mending off of you. With clutch timing, SW:D can be used to remove Polymorph if it is cast on you.

Binding Heal: You won’t be using Binding Heal much on your own. It’s greatest strength lies in group and raiding situations. Are you taking damage? Is another player taking damage? Then target that player and cast Binding Heal. It covers both yourself and your groupie. It’s way more time efficient than 2 Flash Heals.

Shadowfiend: Say hello to your little friend! Get accustomed to summoning your pet Shadowfiend regularly! Expect to use it no matter what spec you are. It grants you back mana based on the damage dealt.

Zones of Interest

Don’t forget to keep Holy Firing and Smiting. For the Shadow users, do your Shadow… thing.

Hellfire Peninsula is darned massive. Once you step out of the portal, make a left (or a right if you’re a green skin sympathizer). One of the guys there will shunt you over to your respective “foothold” towns. On a side note, a good number of professions can be upped from 300 to 375 here. Now go out and start whackin’ some boars! You’ll make first contact with the various demons under Illidan’s command and get a feel for what you’re really up against.

Head on over eastward to Zangarmarsh. It’s a twilight landscape littered with towering mushrooms. Here you’ll be acquainting yourselves with nagas and a few Ogres. The Cenarion Expedition have set up shop here trying fix the area. By now, you should be around the upper end of 61 or 62 (if you did all of this rested, maybe even 63ish).

I had a friend who opted for Nagrand instead of Terrokar Forest. I suggest going into Terrokar first and heading into Shattrath City. It’s the capital city out here. For those of you on PvP servers, if you run into faction problems, you can always whistle for backup. Unfortunately, the inverse rings true. The other side could easily deploy their own. But that’s world PvP for you. When you get here, you’ll be asked to choose between Aldor or Scryer. At this point in the game, it doesn’t mean much. If it helps, I chose Aldor since I was a tailor.

Nagrand is a zone that I consider the most majestic out of all the ones out there in Outland. When you step into it for the first time, you get that sense of enormity and “whoaness”. Here you get to see the Senior Nesingwary along with quests to kill various beasts in the area. You’ll have no problem doing the Ring of Blood quest chains out here. I’ve noticed whenever I passed through the zone there were always players looking for a healer to do it. Oh and before I forget, resist the urge to kill Corki.

Welcome to Blade’s Edge Mountains! You’ll find many Ogres in the area. If you glance up, you might happen to see a randomly impaled dragon somewhere. At this point, you should almost be on the verge of hitting 70.

If you don’t manage to ding into 70, you have two options left. You can either boot yourself to Netherstorm or trek down to Shadowmoon Valley. Both zones will help you hit 70 relatively quickly.

Now what?

First thing you want to do is pick up the Flying skill. Head down to your faction town in Shadowmoon Valley and pick it up. There isn’t much to do now at 70. Start off with the normal 70 dungeons (any order).

• Shadow Labyrinth
• Steamvault
• Shattered Halls

After that, feel free to graduate to Heroic instances. If you’re a new Priest with geared guildmates, you might be able to jump in on Karazhan runs for badges and whatever loot that drops. Zul’Aman is also within reach. Kara pickup groups are a dime a dozen.

With Wrath but a mere couple of weeks away, I don’t believe it’s really worth it. I think new Priests are better off waiting and holding back. Level up some professions. If you’re low on gold, start doing some dailies and stockpile some currency.

In hindsight, I should have picked another name besides finale. It won’t be the finale in a few weeks, eh? I’ll be working hard on that one as much as I can. It won’t be a full on leveling and questing guide. But I’ll try to at least highlight quest hubs of interest along with the new spells.

On a side note, I just realized Spiritual Guidance hit 40 columns last week. This one is the 41st. Aside from Lichborne (the new Death Knight column), Priests have the lowest number of columns. Go figure.

Each week, Arcane Brilliance delivers a serious burst of Mage content, a burst that can even out-damage a Druid’s HoTs. How, you ask? Hax. Lots and lots of hax. What, you thought Arcane Brilliance was powerful enough to out DPS a Druid’s heals legitimately? Sadly no. Arcane Brilliance cheats. Arcane Brilliance cheats hard.

Edit: Ok, Arcane Brilliance is lying. There are no mods that will allow Mages to out DPS the instant-cast HoTs of the most mobile class in the game. No matter how long we chase that cheetah around that pillar. Please excuse Arcane Brilliance while it casts Invisibility and goes into the corner to cry.

Though I enjoy burning down raid bosses as much as the next Mage (especially now that the raid bosses in question are so much easier to burn down), I make no secret about the fact that my first love has always been burning down other players. When patch 3.0.2 landed so forcefully upon our heads, bearing with it a plethora of new and revamped spells and talents, I have to admit that my first burning question was not so much “how will this help me down Kil’jaeden,” as it was “how will this help me brutally slaughter the next Warlock I stumble across?”

Before the patch, Mage PvP could be distilled down to a couple of absolute truths. The first of these was: Spec Frost. The second was: You will lose to Warlocks, Druids, Priests, Hunters, and Rogues, and only reliably beat Warriors one on one. PvP was a known quantity. We knew based upon the matchup what our chances were, we knew our strengths and limitations, and we knew which spec worked the best (cough…17/0/44).

The patch turned all of that on its head. What spells work now? What talents should we be taking? Are we better or worse off now than we were two weeks ago? Join me after the break and we’ll see where we stand.I won’t be linking specific talent builds here, as I’m still ironing out my own builds. I simply wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending anything specific to you when I’m not even comfortable recommending anything to myself. Instead, I intend to take a broader view of the three schools as a whole, noting their pros and cons, a general strategy for each, and which aspects of PvP they excel at.

Arcane

This is the build I’ve had the most hands-on time with, and I have to say I’m impressed. At first, I was worried about the low survivability I was seeing. Aside from incredibly high spell resistances via Magic Absorption and the minor mitigation of talents like Arcane Fortitude, Improved Blink, and Prismatic Cloak, there just isn’t much here to keep you from dying like the clothie you are. I soon discovered that the problem lay not with the tree itself, but with my play-style.

I was going into battle with the old, stand-in-one-place-and-unload mentality that the Arcane tree used to require. That idea is gone now. The Arcane tree is now designed for mobility. Spells like Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles that require you to stand still and cast are relics of the past. The primary PvP spell for Arcane Mages is now Arcane Barrage. An Arcane Mage should now be constantly moving in PvP, running and Blinking from cover to cover, launching out Arcane Barrages every three seconds, applying Slow when needed, squeezing in the occasional Fire Blast or Arcane Explosion as the situation dictates, and pausing only to rattle off a truncated Arcane Missiles whenever Missile Barrage procs, or to throw out a Polymorph when control is needed.

Arcane Barrage provides strong, consistent damage while on the move, and burst damage comes with decent frequency whenever Missile Barrage procs. Presence of Mind can be coupled with Frostbolt for snare purposes, or Arcane Blast when raw damage is more useful. Arcane Missiles is still useful in the same situations it was pre-patch, as a way to ensure damage when the target is about to duck out of line-of-sight.

Survivability is low if caught in the open, but this spec provides a surprising sense of slipperiness. Use the mobility provided by Arcane Barrage to pillar-dance, ducking back and forth behind cover between casts. Blink and Frost Nova provide escape mechanisms, as well as instant-fade Invisibility (as long as you don’t have any nasty DoTs on you that would break it). The key here is to remain constantly mobile, and constantly casting. Ice Block is even more helpful in this situation, as it can be coupled with Invisibility to provide an almost Rogue-like getaway mechanic. Ice Block removes the DoTs, and instant-Invis lets you flee unseen to wherever you please (unless you’re fighting a Warlock, of course).
Slow is powerful control option, allows you to stay mobile, and increases your damage when coupled with Torment the Weak. Focus Magic keeps your crits high if used on a teammate who casts and crits frequently. Improved Counterspell is still the powerful tool it always was, and hasn’t lost any of its luster among all of the changes. Arcane Flows lowers the cooldown on your two single biggest DPS boosts (Presence of Mind and Arcane Power) to a very agreeable two minutes, and does the same for your new most useful escape spell, Invisibility.

Overall, this tree is possibly the most mobile of the three, provides high DPS, decent burst capability, very nice control mechanics, and a pleasant amount of escape options to offset an otherwise low survivability. I have very few complaints with the Arcane tree as it relates to PvP.

Fire

Fire is still the least attractive of the three trees for PvP purposes. Fire Mages have always been the poster children for “kill fast, die faster,” and the patch hasn’t done much of anything to change that concept. If anything, the changes have reinforced the high-damage, low survivability role of Fire Mages, rather than attempt to diminish it. Still, nobody can bring the pain quickly like a Fire Mage, and with an expanded AoE repertoire and a few new tricks up their sleeves, Fire Mages have a unique place in the PvP hierarchy.

As always, damage is king with Fire Mages. Crits come often and hit hard with talents like Combustion, Hot Streak, and Burnout, and the potential for blowing the crap out of multiple targets has never been better. Potentially, nobody kills more payers faster than a Fire Mage. With Firestarter, you can now throw out a guaranteed instant Flamestrike every time you cast Blast Wave or Dragon’s Breath. Doing it right takes a little luck and a decent amount of skill, but when it works, that’s a lot of damage to a lot of targets, very quickly. You still won’t last long in the middle of that crowd, but they’ll definitely know you were there after they’ve reduced you to a spot on the ground. Throwing a Living Bomb in the middle of that pile of enemies and the damage will add up very quickly.

Blast Wave’s knockback effect is one of the most useful new mechanics you’ll find in PvP for Mages. The knockback is substantial, and can wreak havoc in certain situations. It can only be used every thirty seconds, so save it for certain situations, like knocking an entire group of enemies off the cliff at the lumber mill flag in Arathi Basin, or blowing attackers out of towers in Alterac Valley or out of the flag room in Warsong Gulch. Words cannot describe the death you can deal with a well-placed Blast Wave in Eye of the Storm.

As you may already have guessed, Fire Mages are still not ideal Arena combatants. They simply cannot live long enough to unleash their considerable damage capabilities in that compressed environment. Survivability options, as always, are low. Fire Mages are limited to the all-too-unpredictable Blazing Speed, and the always useful Blink and Ice Block as escape/survival abilities. For control purposes, Frost Nova, the ubiquitous Polymorph, and Impact–which is too infrequent to truly depend upon–are the only options. The problem, as always with Fire Mages in an Arena setting, is that they are not only fragile but also sitting ducks, as they queue up their high-damage cast-time-heavy spells. Living Bomb provides a bit of mobility, but not nearly as much as is needed. In Battlegrounds, this isn’t as large an issue, but it’s crippling in Arenas.

Fiery Payback is a very interesting PvP spell. It provides a decent amount of damage mitigation when below 35% health, as well as a really sexy burst damage option. Nothing says “boom, you’re dead” like a 1.5 second Pyroblast to the face every five seconds. When this talent is active, you’ll take 20% less damage across the board, and be able to churn out a Fireball/Scorch/Pyroblast rotation with Fire Blast sandwiched in as cooldown permits, and inflict damage like no spell rotation has ever inflicted in the history of spell rotations inflicting damage. The problem, of course is that this rotation–like every Fire rotation–requires you to stand still, and it also requires you to BE AT LESS THAN 35% HEALTH. Good luck with that. My advice is to hide behind a tree, and hope nobody notices you.

In short, a Fire Mage can be very effective in Battleground PvP. When they can line up a target at range and rain fiery death down upon them for a few seconds, Fire Mages can kill very effectively. Their AoE skills are unmatched, and have greater application in the large-scale conflict found in places like Alterac Valley and Eye of the Storm. Sadly, low survivability and mobility still plague them in Arena, and you’re simply better off taking a different spec into those close-quarters, short-duration encounters.

Frost

Before the patch Frost was the undisputed king of Mage PvP. After the patch, it totally still is. With very few exceptions, everything that worked before works just as effectively (if not more so) now. Ice Barrier is still awesome. Shatter combos still work beautifully. There are some fun new additions that come into the mix post-patch, though, and they’re almost universally impressive.

The hallmark of Frost has always been control and survivability, and those two strengths have only been enhanced. Control is still provided largely by Frost Nova, Polymorph, and the chill effect provided by Frostbolt. Frost Mages can still play a virtually endless game of keep-away with melee classes, and dish out high and frequent burst damage with Shatter combos. The end of downranking has negated the old practice of throwing out quick-cast, low-mana snares with rank one Frostbolt, which sucks, but life goes on. By and large, the tactics that won a fight for Frost Mages two weeks ago still win the fight for them today.

Several major additions only enhance those tactics. Fingers of Frost allows your chill effects to apply a debuff that will consider the target frozen for the next two spells, and procs with solid frequency. This means your enemies will be frozen more often, which means more shatter combos, and that means more killing. Shattered Barrier gives you a reason to let your Ice Barrier expire, setting off a free Frost Nova, which again, means more control, more freezing, more Shatter combos, and yes, more killing. Improved Water Elemental, in addition to restoring mana to you and your allies, also increases the duration of your big blue buddy by 15 seconds, while Cold as Ice lowers his cooldown by 20%, which means more chill effects, more damage, more freezing, and–say it with me–more killing.

Brain Freeze introduces a fresh wrinkle in PvP for Frost Mages. Proccing as often as Fingers of Frost, it gives Frost Mages a frequent, mana-free, instant-cast Fireball. You will want to be watchful not to waste a charge of Fingers of Frost on it, as it won’t benefit from any of the bonuses the Frost tree grants you against frozen targets, but otherwise, it’s a free instant nuke, and a flat DPS boost.

My deep and abiding disgust with Deep Freeze is no secret, but PvP is where it fulfills its purpose. Though it only stuns frozen targets, as the previous paragraphs suggest, your targets will be frozen a lot. This spell locks them down completely for five seconds, and it treats them as frozen for the duration, meaning (all together now) more killing. Its sole purpose is control in PvP, and Deep Freeze performs this task with admirable efficiency. I will never stop wishing it had a use outside of Battlegrounds and Arena, but at the very least the spell does what Blizzard has designed it to do, and it does it well.

Frost is still highly mobile, as damaging as it always was, and very hard to kill. Frost Mages can still control a PvP encounter as well as or better than any other class or spec in the game, and the patch has only made that advantage more pronounced.

The final verdict? Though we ceratinly aren’t the only class that got buffed in the patch, we are better off now than we were. The dynamic will change again as soon as we all begin the long strange trip to level 80, but for now, Mages are in a fairly good place. Our job is to kill things, and we have more tools with which to accomplish that duty than ever before. So go forth, fellow Mages. Go forth into the Battlegrounds. Go forth into the lag-fest that we once knew as Arenas. Go forth and blow things up. And may all those things you blow up be Warlocks.

So, having fun yet? I know I am. The changes to the class are great and I don’t think I’ve had a more enjoyable time playing the game. Of course, it has a lot to do with the new, cool stuff brought about by Patch 3.0.2, most notably the Achievements system. I know I complained about them, but I’m really enjoying them, particularly the PvP ones. It’s a good time to be a Paladin. Actually, it’s a little too good.

The truth is, something’s wrong with Retribution. There, I said it. I’m embarrassed to say it because I’m supposed to be celebrating it. I’ve waited for Retribution to be viable for so long that when the time finally arrives, I’m disgusted at myself for not being happy about it. Well, I’m really happy. But not happy about the fact that very nearly every Paladin is now specced Retribution. I’m certainly not happy about the fact that even undergeared Retribution Paladins are blowing things up in the Battlegrounds left and right. When a Retribution Paladin in blues can burst down a player with over 400 Resilience with some RNG — and I’ve seen this happen — there’s something terribly wrong.

The problem
I hate to break it to you Retribution Paladins who suddenly find themselves dominating the Battlegrounds and getting Damage Control within the first five minutes — you didn’t just become good at PvP overnight. Really. When you crush that Season 4 Warrior with your Season 2 mace, it’s not (necessarily) because you’re awesome. If you suddenly find that other players — well, other players who aren’t Retadins, that is — turn and run at the sight of you, trust me when I say it’s not because of your Crusader’s Scaled Shoulders, and certainly isn’t your Oathkeeper.

Divine Storm being nerfed to deal Physical damage is a band-aid solution to a bigger issue. I’d prefer that it be Holy damage, but right now Retribution burst is being tuned down for PvP. At least Battleground PvP. In Arenas, a Retribution Paladin is still going to get kited because it’s a coordinated PvP environment. And Paladins are still an incredibly kite-susceptible class. In the Battlegrounds, where chaos is the order of the day, a Retadin can wreak havoc because of unmitigated, imbalanced burst. I’m upset because it feels like it doesn’t take any skill to play anymore.

Nowadays, when a Retadin tops the Battleground chart for Killing Blows or Damage Done, it’s no longer something remarkable. In fact, it’s kind of expected and boring. When I file screenshots of good games now, I have to put it in a folder with the asterisk *post Patch 3.0.2 just to remind me that it might not be because I played well but because the spec is simply too good at Level 70. That’s the thing — everything is tuned for Level 80 right now. All the 51-point abilities, in particular, are envisioned for a Level 80 environment.

The same goes for my damage in raids. Before Echoes of Doom, whenever I’d get into the Top 5 it was because I knew I was paying attention to my rotations. The only way I would do well was with a lot of hard work. I would throw Seal of Blood up exactly between my melee swing timer. I took my Haste Potions exactly when Avenging Wrath and Bloodlust Brooch were both up. It felt good because I knew I was working hard and making a point. Now, I’m not so sure. I work just as hard, but I don’t know if I’m doing well or it’s the spec.

It’s like when Michael Schumacher used to win in Formula 1, critics used to accuse him of driving the best car. Or MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi when he used to race and win on Honda, prompting him to switch to the unproven Yamaha just to shut his detractors up. I know motor sports probably aren’t the best analogy for this, but you know what I mean. I just don’t want people to think we’re dominating Battlegrounds and topping Recount just because our spec is godly. As Blizzard says — bring the player not the class, or in this case, spec.

The problematic solution
Of course, Blizzard will bring out the nerf bat. I know it feels like a kneejerk reaction, specially when players run to the forums crying with their tails between their legs. And many of them don’t bother to mention that they got wtfpwned while wearing scrub gear. I trust in Blizzard to check their numbers, but the response frightens me. In Beta build 9138, Paladins got nerfed to the ground. And when I say ‘to the ground’, I mean insanely, ridiculously, soul-crushingly nerfed. The sad thing is, I’m not sure it actually solves the problem.

For one thing, the nerfs are applied across the board, reducing the damage done by all Seals, not just Seal of Command or Blood / of the Martyr. This means that all Paladins of every spec will be affected by the change. Holy Paladins are already hurting on the damage end, and this nerf reduces their damage output even more. Blizzard has been tuning Seal damage downwards for several Beta builds now, and Holy Paladins keep hurting because of it. The Holy spec has been crying out for a bone to be thrown its way with respect to this.

Another problem about reducing Retribution burst is that it doesn’t address our old issues in PvP. The only way Retribution kills healers these days is because of sudden burst. In Arenas, this doesn’t work as well because there’s coordinated mitigation and healing. Reducing Retribution DPS brings damage output to manageable levels but will bring kitability and spell interruption back into question. Hand of Freedom hasn’t been un-nerfed ever since the kneejerk reaction from Season 1. I don’t care what Blizzard says about this one. The nerf to Blessing of Freedom was as kneejerk as they come, with Paladin representation in Arenas declining sharply in the following three Seasons.

Paladins still don’t have a reliable interrupt on an acceptable cooldown. With damage scaled back down, Paladins will again be unable to kill healers just like in The Burning Crusade. While I don’t believe that the ability to instagib healers was the solution, nerfing Retribution damage only reveals that Blizzard still hasn’t addressed core issues of the class or spec. We’re extremely kitable and without any offensive dispels, we have problems with spell interrupts. The best solution is to take 18 points in Protection for Improved Hammer of Justice and the 4-piece bonus from PvP sets. And that’s just a band-aid.

Judgements of the Wise was nerfed to a 15% return of base mana from 33%. The good news is, Judgements cost only 5% of base mana. This means that Retribution Paladins will run out of mana at some point, but judicious (pardon the pun) use of Judgements will allow us to stretch our resources. In PvE, this will work out just fine, combined with Replenishment and the occasional potion. In PvP, it becomes a problem against drain mechanics — another key weakness of the spec that will rear its ugly head once more. We’ll see. I have to see it at work in Arenas (where it used to be a problem) before I can actually say whether or not this breaks the talent for PvP.

The only change I really like is the change to Righteous Vengeance, which will apply periodic damage with every Judgement or Divine Storm crit instead of bigger damage up front. The effective DPS is the same, just no longer as bursty. I like it because we get a DoT without being forced to use Seal of Vengance / Corruption. This will be more useful to us in PvP than the burst.

Bust up burst, but address the rest
I actually support Blizzard in their effort to scale down the class. I don’t believe it’s some conspiracy theory to make Retadins the laughing stocks of the game once again. At this point, I just want the issues that have always plagued the spec — particularly in PvP, which Blizzard seems to want to fix — eventually addressed, as well. With no healing debuff or spell interrupt, a Druid’s HoT ticking for crazy amounts will render Retribution DPS negligible.

We’ll still be kited to hell, with no means to close the gap like an Intercept or Sprint. We’re the one melee class without a real snare, and we’re the ones with no ranged abilities. Toughness and Pursuit of Justice are not the solutions, either. In Wrath of the Lich King, Death Knights will be pulling things left and right while we will be panting across the Arena floor trying to catch up with our targets. It happened in Arenas during The Burning Crusade, and it’ll happen again in Wrath.

Lastly, I wish Blizzard would take a look at Holy DPS. If they’re wondering why everybody and his uncle is now a Retribution Paladin, it isn’t because players hate healing. It’s because Holy is extremely unsatisfying to play offensively. With the nerf to Seals across the board, this frustration will grow even further. Protection Paladins are delirious with their damage now, it shouldn’t be a surprise to them that Holy Paladins sometimes want to kill things, too.

Overall, I’m happy with the class. I think Blizzard’s done a great job listening to the community so far. Obviously, there’s just some more work that needs to be done. As terrible as these nerfs may sound, I don’t think these were done without deliberation. If the nerfs actually make it live, we’ll all just have to grin and bear it, and always keep our fingers crossed.

Each week Matthew Porter contributes The Creamy GUI Center, a column aimed at helping you enhance your WoW experience by offering an in depth guide to addons, macros and other tools we use to play WoW, along with commentary on issues that affect how we all play.

Whelp, BlizzCon 08 is slowly fading to memory, but before it’s completely out of our mind I wanted to take one last look and comment on some of the insight we got on how Blizzard design’s their interfaces. Also the big 3.0 patch hit and I hope you’re enjoying it. If you’re anything like me it’s been a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows as I discover all the new features. For today, we’ll take a look at the state of the interface and addon world with an analysis and commentary recap on the UI news that came out of BlizzCon. I wanted to look at that earlier, but the new patch took us by storm and made me rethink some issues. So kick back, relax, and get comfy as we examine where we’re at and where we’re going in the world of addons.

This being my first BlizzCon I didn’t really know what to expect. Will there be a jaw dropping surprise announcement? Will Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) be there to ask questions to? Will that cute girl dressed as Whitemane like to join me for some “hot coffee“? Unfortunately the answer to most of these questions was a no, and initially I was a little let down. After thinking about it though, because our attention wasn’t diverted to “the next big thing”, we instead got a good look at what it takes to make our favorite game. I personally felt the panels were a great insight into some of the design decisions made. I great example of this was at the (gasp) UI and addon panel.

Like the rest of the con, there were no big bombshells in the UI panel, but we did get some good insight into Blizzard’s design mantra. We’ve all heard the Blizzard motto “minutes to learn, a lifetime to master” but it’s interesting to hear that this also applies to their interface development. It’s yet another layer to the product that needs that special Blizzard polish. The goal is to have an UI that melds in when not needed and look seamless, yet is eye catching when an event happens that needs your attention. “A good HUD has to not be flashy.” I assume this is why we don’t have “flavor” UI’s for different class/race combinations ala StarCraft. They want the interface to be familiar no matter the class you play, leaving graphical flare to the mod community. “If we have the option of making one button look three different ways or letting you guys make them however you want to look, we’ll do the last one.” Having a unified interface is also why Blizzard doesn’t intend to add class specific UI enhancements. This doesn’t mean we won’t see some class specific additions, such as the totem timers for Shaman. If a core mechanic for a class can be benefitted by an interface addition, it’s up to the UI dev team to find a solution that fits well within the existing interface. This kind of consistency was emphasized in all aspect of game design, especially interface development.

Once a new feature is added to the game, the UI developers get to work finding ways to incorporate it into the interface using these design philosophies. For the Death Knight unit frame, they began creating the layout using paper cutouts and from there photoshop mock ups. They originally wanted it to be unique, something that set it apart as the game’s first hero class. After many renditions though they realized the more basic the UI, the better it worked. The trick was that the information needed to be clear, such as with the rune bar. They needed to alert the player when they’re off their cool down and ready to be used. Several iterations were flashy, but when it came down to it, the best UI is one you don’t notice until you need to. Same deal with the removal of the sword background, cool in theory, but in practice it was potentially confusing and not needed. The same design process was applied to the new achievement window and menu buttons.

An example of a challenge the devs needed to figure out was how to incorporate the new achievement, currency, and mount/pet windows in without major redesigns to the existing UI. Remarking on how to keep everything in perspective, the devs noted, “You need to keep your focus, don’t get rid of your goals, even if the process is exploding around you.” Trying to force a feature in haphazardly feels unnatural and the players are attuned to that. Just plopping down another button on the menu made it way too big, so they consolidated a few by adding the lag meter on to the monitor in the computer icon. This combined with shrinking the bag icons slightly yielded enough space for the achievement button. They contemplated using a fly out menu, but felt it didn’t fit in with the current interface since such menus weren’t used before in the default UI. Having buttons visible rather than hidden also facilitates the use of “breadcrumbs.” Little nudges to tip the player off that they should take a look at something, like when the tabs of your spell book pulse alerting you of new abilities.

Finally, the last design philosophy discussed is, to me, the most important one. The devs “want us playing the game, not the interface”. This mantra explains a lot of decisions that have been made, and even sheds light on how new features will be implemented down the road. They don’t want us just staring at a bunch of bars and graphs waiting for an icon to pop up (hello decursive). The devs are afraid of addons and macros over simplifying the game. This can be scene when they revamped the macro system and allowed sequence macros. It was a great addition to the interface, but they purposely kept the macros “dumb”. not being aware of cool downs and rather or not the spells it cast were successful. It’s important to note that they definitely want an extremely editable interface (hence the whole addon architecture) but within limits. When we look at new features yet to be implemented and ones just recently added, we can see this mantra at work. Take for example the new threat meters, it’s subtle and gives just enough information to be informative, without reducing the game play to a spreadsheet. Its implementation is very organic, and blends in well with the rest of the default interface. For those who want exact numbers, bars and graphs, the option is always there via addons. And with the new threat tools made available by Blizzard, these addons are more precise and better than ever. (Particularly once the authors learn how to take advantage of these new tools.)

I believe in knowing Blizzard’s design philosophy brings a greater understanding as to what motivates them when adding new features to the game. Thank you for letting me editorialize a little with this post, I know it’s not what you usually expect from this feature. But I find it (and hope you do too) fun and interesting to thinking about what it takes to develop such a detailed game as WoW. Tune in next time as we take a good look at patch 3.0 as we try to apply some of the ideas discussed today to the patch. Until then, happy modding!

The ColosseumThe Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.

A few weeks ago, we spoke with Drwhy, who had a great deal of positive things to share about his partner, Nostalgia the Rogue. And while the seasons of the Arena are over until Wrath, Nostalgia was kind enough to take the time to talk to us about his experience in the arena. Check out what he had to say behind the cut.WoW Insider: Who are your teammates right now? What’s the general plan behind your composition? What challenges does your team have? How do you prefer to run your comp?

Nostalgia: Right now for 2v2, I’m running a lot of compositions, going back and forth between teams, helping friends, etc. With the season coming to an end, it’s really becoming hectic.

The best part is people are actually queuing, whether they are fighting for #1 or just to get Gladiator. The main comp I’ve always run is Priest/Rogue. (Obviously, With Drwhy). I know he gave an interview about how Priests generally run in that comp, so I guess this will be more of a Rogue point of view.

3v3 is my favorite bracket, although it’s much harder finding 2 good players than 1 good player. And playing Drwhy restricts me to pretty much Rogue/Mage/Priest, and Rogue/Priest/Druid. So I’ve been focusing more on 2s.

The combo of Priest/Rogue actually requires some really good plays from the rogue and priest. Generally, you lose before the gates open, so you just fight uphill. Every Warlock team is easy, up until top notch Warlock/Druids, when it really becomes a challenge.

Warrior teams are pretty