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Quote from: Blizzard [Source]

Icecrown Citadel will feature a massive five-player dungeon sprawling across three wings of the citadel's foundation. While the Lich King's attention is focused on the Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade ripping through the front gates, players will be tested as they assist Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) and Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde) in infiltrating the citadel through an alternate entrance.

An epic quest line will present adventurers with the task of weakening Icecrown Citadel's forces, requiring that players defeat the challenges in each dungeon wing before venturing into the next one. Normal and Heroic versions of the dungeon will be accessible to players, although each wing will be considered a separate instance; therefore, on Heroic difficulty, each wing will have its own separate lockout timer. All-new rewards -- including item level 219 (normal) and level 232 (Heroic) loot -- will be offered to those who destroy some of the Lich King's most formidable allies.

icecrown citadel 3.3

The Forge of Souls

Serving as the first wing in this expansive dungeon, the Forge of Souls will quickly put players to the test of carving through the Scourge stronghold into deeper, more treacherous locations. Jaina will command Alliance forces, and Sylvanas will direct Horde forces. The goal is to ruin the twisted engines known as soul grinders found in this portion of the citadel, and then players can advance -- that is, if the Horde and Alliance forces can overcome the foes who confront them.

Bosses
  • Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls: An instrument of reckoning, Bronjahm watches over the engines in the Forge of Souls. He must be killed if the soul grinders are to be destroyed.
  • The Devourer of Souls: As the chief operator of the engines found in this wing, the Devourer stands guard over the souls stolen by the Lich King.
icecrown citadel 3.3 2

Pit of Saron

Accessible only to those who have laid waste to the Forge of Souls' unholy operations, the Pit of Saron will bring Horde and Alliance forces deeper into the Lich King's domain. Players who venture here will immediately be confronted by the lord of this lair, Scourgelord Tyrannus. But defeating him will not be as easy as it seems. Before they can present a threat to Tyrannus, the adventurers, instructed by their leaders, will need to free enslaved allies who have been trapped by the Scourge. Until that happens, Tyrannus will leave all adversaries to his minions, workers of the citadel's mines. Perhaps the challenges here will lend clues as to the whereabouts of the Lich King's private chambers outside of the Frozen Throne, deep within the Halls of Reflection.

Bosses
  • Forgemaster Garfrost: A master of Scourge weaponry, the forgemaster hauls stocks of saronite ore and other precious materials to the cold forges where the mechanisms of death are born. With a host of rime weapons and exotic alloys at his disposal, it could get cold in here.
  • Krick and Ick: Zombies serve as mindless muscle in the Pit of Saron's mines, stockpiling metals for Forgemaster Garfrost, and Krick -- a devious leper gnome -- supervises the operations from atop Ick, Krick's ghastly means of transportation.
  • Scourgelord Tyrannus: Tyrannus is a terrible force who will no doubt demonstrate his powers to those brave enough to enter the Pit of Saron. The scourgelord must die if players hope to make their way into the third and final wing of this dungeon.
icecrown citadel 3.3 3

Halls of Reflection

With Jaina and Sylvanas leading the way, adventurers who make it as far as these frigid halls will quickly recognize the weapon that lies ahead: Frostmourne, the corruptive, legendary device of the Lich King himself. The Lich King's private chambers are within reach, although they may be the death of anyone who ventures there.

Bosses
  • Falric and Marwyn: Captains for Arthas Menethil in life, Scourge commanders for the Lich King in death, Falric and Marwyn will be summoned to the Halls of Reflection for one purpose: destroying all intruders.
  • The Lich King: Sylvanas, thirsty for vengeance against the corrupted prince who sentenced her to an existence as an undead monstrosity, and Jaina, eager to find a flicker of Arthas's soul locked somewhere within the Lich King, have brought their hand-picked allies to this final confrontation. Arthas's true power may only now be discovered. Is there any hope in this mission, or does only death await?

wow paladin icon Paladin Epic Charger Mount

Posted by Khor | 9/28/2009

As of patch 3.2, the Paladin Epic Charger Mount, which runs at 100% increased speed, is now available at level 40. Through my site tracker, I have seen a constant trend in visits related to Paladin epic mounts. So, even though I already have a Paladin mounts post, I thought I'd get a dedicated post up here for this one specific mount.

The Charger is the coveted Paladin mount that was formally obtained at level 60. In vanilla WoW, you could only obtain it through an intricate quest line. Then Blizzard made a change, and you could get it by just purchasing it via a Paladin trainer as a normal mount at level 60. Now, the Charger can be trained at level 40.


Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)

100% land mount speed
Requires: Level 40
Training Cost: 50 gold
Mount cost: 10 gold

Faction discounts do apply. These are the normal costs. Don't forget you won't be able to use the Charger mount until you train Journeyman Riding Skill, which can be found at the normal riding trainers for each faction.

Personally, this is still the best looking ground mount to me. The Charger is still my ground mount of choice by far.

On a leveling note, getting this at level 40 decreased my travel time by close to 50%. When you think about how much time you spend running around while leveling, this was a huge time saver.

Don't forget that the normal 60% Paladin mount is now available at level 20, also trainable from a Paladin trainer. It is no longer level 30 as it was prior to 3.2. Don't miss out on the mounts obtainable at a much earlier level!

wow paladin icon Paladin Heirloom Project Part VIII (71-80)

Posted by Khor | 9/28/2009

Continuing with my Paladin Heirloom Project, I am going to post levels 70 through 80 here. This is the final stretch, and I will finally get to see how fast it takes to get to 80 with heirloom gear. Let's just say I was shocked at the results.

If Blizzard decides to add any more experience gains to heirloom gear in the future, leveling will become even less of a pain than this was. Keep in mind, on my journey to 80, I rarely stopped to enjoy anything other than questing and leveling. My goal was to get to 80 as quickly as possible, without any distractions.

Hence, I only leveled enchanting and first aid. That was it. No PvP at all except for two AV matches to complete quests I used to level with. Next time around, you can bet I will slow things up just a bit to do all the things I passed up on.

If you need to look back on the other heirloom posts, here is a list of everything thus far:


Paladin Heirloom Project Part VIII

Levels: 71-80

Zones Involved: Howling Fjord (70-72), Borean Tundra (72-75), Grizzly Hills (75-76), Zul'Drak (76-78), Sholazar Basin (78-80)

Training at Levels: 73, 78, 80

Overall Time Elapsed: 3 days, 8 hours, 28 min

Gear Purchased: Done by a bank toon every couple levels, random BoE greens of the Tiger, of the Beast, of the Soldier, and of the Bear. Quest reward gear actually supplied most of my gear. Only had to fill in the gaps with the BoE gear for this level range.

Tips


General
  • Quest stack as much as you can. It's harder in Northrend because everything is so frustratingly linear, and there is a lot of running back and forth because of the limited quest stacking here.
  • Bought the cold weather flying BoA tome on my main Paladin to send to this toon so she could fly at 70. Pure awesome. Travel time reduced by more than 50%
Howling Fjord
  • I did every single quest here, including all the group quests. Every one.
Borean Tundra
  • I did every quest here as well, nothing overly exciting.
  • Had to grab an Overcharged Capacitor from the guild bank for the quest at the gnome airstrip. Other than that, everything was pretty much straight forward.
  • I did all of 4 quests in Dragonblight to get to 75, then skipped the zone completely and moved on to Grizzly Hills.
Grizzly Hills
  • Nothing exciting here. Was only able to do about half of the group quests, as I wasn't quite strong enough. My first time I ran into this problem.
Zul'Drak
  • Great area to level in, and great quest stacking the further into the zone you get. One of the rare areas in Northrend that promotes solid quest stacking.
Sholazar Basin
  • Another solid quest stacking area, plus you're not flying over the whole zone sporadically to complete quests.
Summary

That's it! Leveled from 1-80 in my heirloom gear with my +20% experience gain bonus. A minuscule 3 days, 8 hours, and 28 minutes! That beats my main Paladin's record to 70 by almost 4 DAYS!

I will do another summary post after this, but for now, I leave you with this...buy your heirloom gear for any toon you want to level. It will drastically reduce your leveling time. Just take it one step further, go ret paladin, and see how dominant you can be in the leveling aspect of this game!

wow paladin icon Paladin Heirloom Project Part VII (61-70)

Posted by Khor | 9/28/2009

Continuing with my Paladin Heirloom Project, I am going to post levels 61 through 70 here. I was surprised at how fast I went through the Outlands. At level 68, I decided to head over to Northrend, and at that point I hadn't even finished all the quests in Terrokar Forest. Nuts! Heirloom gear makes a huge, huge difference.

If you need to look back on the other heirloom posts, here is a list of everything thus far:

Paladin Heirloom Project Part VII

Levels: 61-70

Zones Involved: Hellfire Peninsula (60-63), Zangarmarsh (63-65), Terrokar Forest (65-67), Blade's Edge Mountains (67-68), Howling Fjord (68-70)

Training at Levels: 63, 66, 68, 70

Overall Time Elapsed: 2 days, 6 hours, 48 min

Gear Purchased: Done by a bank toon every couple levels, random BoE greens of the Tiger, of the Beast, of the Soldier, and of the Bear. At this point, quest rewards are decent enough to use, so often I would use them as much as possible. At level 67, Wrath of the Lich King gear BoEs become available, so I used as many of those as possible, since their stats are a bigger boost than their Outlands counterparts.

Tips


General
  • Quest stack as much as you can. Each zone in this level range provides for optimal quest stacking, so make sure you are taking advantage of it.
Hellfire Peninsula
  • I did every single quest here, including all the group quests. Yes, all of them, even Arazzius the Cruel. That took every cooldown and potion I had, but I did it,with about 10% hp left. By far the hardest thing I had tried to do since I started this toon.
Zangarmarsh
  • I did every quest here as well, so I was 65 by the time I left.
  • I did manage to turn in about 200 plant parts I had bought off the AH for cheap. Didn't really need the Cenarion Expedition reputation, but it did help me get to honored pretty quickly.
Terrokar Forest
  • Every quest here done until I hit 67, even the group quests. Very easy.
Blade's Edge Mountains
  • Just did enough quests here to push me into 68.
Howling Fjord
  • Here's the shocker: I leveled from 68-70 by just sitting outside Valgarde killing the auto spawning Vyrkul and wolves attacking the alliance base. That's it. It took me a little less than an hour each level. I only had to stop to drink 2 or 3 times the whole time for each level because my mana and HP regeneration abilities are so effective. This was an experiment, but it worked well. I was in combat 98% of the time for each level.
Summary

With Divine Storm now in my arsenal, I had my complete DPS rotation complete. Taking on multiple mobs became that much easier. Honestly, I was amazed at how fast I went through Outlands. It only took me about 11 hours played time. Seriously. Sometimes I wonder how people spend DAYS leveling their toons out there.

Like I mentioned above, the 2 levels I gained by just grinding the mobs outside Valgarde was an experiment that worked very well. I may do another post on this alone.

Next up: levels 71-80.

wow paladin icon Paladin Heirloom Project Part VI (51-60)

Posted by Khor | 9/28/2009

Continuing with my Paladin Heirloom Project, I am going to post levels 51 through 60 here. I stayed in Azeroth for the entire duration, not leaving at 58 to go to the Outlands, because quest stacking is the best in vanilla WoW content. I like to stay in Azeroth and Kalimdor to finish my questing to 60.

If you need to look back on the other heirloom posts, here is a list of everything thus far:


Paladin Heirloom Project Part VI

Levels: 51-60

Zones Involved: Hinterlands (50-51), Alterac Valley (51), Searing Gorge (51-53), Western Plaguelands (53-55), Un'Goro Crater (55-57), Eastern Plaguelands (57-59), Silithus (59-60)

Training at Levels: 54, 58, 60

Overall Time Elapsed: 1 day, 16 hours, 44 min

Gear Purchased: Done by a bank toon every couple levels, random BoE greens of the Bear and of the Tiger for level 50-56. Lightforge Gauntlets, Belt, and Bracers at the appropriate levels, just for nostalgic purposes. At level 57, the Outland BoE gear becomes wearable, and gives a huge boost to stats. Ever since I hit level 35 or so I had started purchasing this gear, of the Tiger, of the Beast, of the Soldier, and of the Bear.

Tips


General
  • Quest stack as much as you can. Each zone in this level range provides for optimal quest stacking, so make sure you are taking advantage of it.
Alterac Valley
  • At level 51, head to the Alterac Valley entrance in the Alterac Mountains, just north of Southshore. There are 5 quests available, so grab them all and queue up for AV. Complete them all for easy, easy experience.
  • When in AV, make sure to loot dead player corpses for Armor Scraps to turn in at the respective bases. Just one turn in is a 10,000xp quest. Only xp on the first turn in though.
  • With experience in battlegrounds now, on top of completing the 6 total quests, youll get additional xp for completing BG objectives. Enjoy the onslaught of XP.
  • While many players are leveling up in AV alone, my leveling path is quicker than BGs, so I only entered this twice, the second time only to complete my last quest I didn't get the first time (the banner).
Un'Goro Crater
  • Make sure to bring/purchase a Mithril Casing for the A-ME escort quest.
Eastern Plaguelands
  • How does a free 60,000xp in 20 seconds sound? Well it's possible with the turn ins available here. If you did all the Argent Dawn quests in Western Plaguelands, you should be friendly with the Argent Dawn, making these quest turn-ins available.
  • Make sure to purchase (or if you have looted them, great) 30 of each of the following for the one-time turn-in that grants XP: Savage Fronds, Bone Fragments, Dark Iron Armor Scraps, Core of Elements, Crypt Fiend Armor.
Silithus
  • Only thing I did here was do enough quests to get me to 60. Then I hearthed to Stormwind to prepare for my next phase of leveling: Outlands!
Summary

Having all of my attack abilities, save Divine Storm, I was blowing, and by blowing, I mean annihilating, anything that came across my path. I was killing quicker than a hunter and a rogue (yes, I have leveled both).

Alterac Valley was a refreshing change of pace, and I almost got a full level from just 2 runs alone with the added quests.

I was a couple levels ahead of each zone by this point, so everything was very easy to knock out. Even when I had to kill Araj the Summoner in Western Plagues, I did so at 59 with extroadinary ease...not to mention taking out all the mobs around him as well. The two quests that involved killing him, I saved for my last ones to ding 60.

The coming test was Outlands, as I knew my dominance would be a bit lessened with the content there.

Next up: levels 61-70.

wow paladin icon 406g per hour Grinding Icecrown

Posted by Khor | 9/24/2009

It seems with all the many ways to make gold in WoW these days, grinding has become a lost art. I know it is still viable, but my goal was to find a method and pack of mobs that would compete, if not beat, the other methods of gold making.

They key to this is having as much up time as possible, meaning no drinking or eating, which I did absolutely none of. Not once did I stop to eat or drink, or even cast Holy Light for that matter. I ran a few instant Flash of Lights of Art of War procs, but other than that, my spells kept both my mana and health almost full the entire duration of my experiment. Retribution Paladins ftw yet again!

Doing the Argent Dawn daily quests over and over led me to find that the cultists on the platform just east of Chillmaw's area were extremely weak (casters), and had ridiculously high respawn rates. So, I decided to do a 30 minute test run to see how well I could do making gold by farming these guys.

Note the minimap location

Most of them went down in two or three hits, which for a pally (with instant spells), takes about a second. So I was chewing these guys up. Even with other players doing their AD dailies there, I had no problems keeping up my kill count.

Okay, so here is what I started out with: 11217g 34s 97c

After 30 minutes, I had:
  • 56g from coin drops on the mobs (10s to 35s per kill)
  • 35g vendor trash
  • 4 stacks Frostweave Cloth @ 7g per stack = 28g
  • 9 green gear items, which DE'd into 34 Infinite Dust = 68g
  • 2 Runic Healing Potion @ 4g each = 8g
  • 2 Runic Mana Potion @ 4g each = 8g
My total after 30 minutes of grinding & selling vendor trash: 11308g 64s 33c
The above total is without selling my Frostweave Cloth, potions, and DE'd Infinite Dusts

The total for selling everything I looted adds up to: 56g + 35g + 28g + 68g + 8g + 8g = 203g

That is 203g in 30 minutes. Multiply x2 to get a full hour, and you have a whopping 406g per hour!

wow paladin icon WoW 3.2.2 Patch Notes - Paladin Changes

Posted by Khor | 9/22/2009

I think my mind is reeling from such a knockout of a patch fix for us! Note the dripping sarcasm. Blizz, you had it so close with Seal of Command! Just let it hit with Divine Storm so we can be completely and utterly dominant!

Oh well, a lackluster patch for us. Seal of Command, while slightly improved, does not replace Seal of Righteousness as our main raiding seal. Time to start looking forward to 3.3!

Paladins

  • Righteous Fury: The bonus threat from Holy spells caused by this talent has been reduced from 90% to 80%.
  • Talents

    • Protection

      • Judgements of the Just: The reduction in cooldown to Hammer of Justice provided by this talent has been reduced to 5/10 seconds instead of 10/20 seconds.
      • Touched by the Light: This talent now provides 20/40/60% of the paladin's strength as spell power instead of 10/20/30% of the paladin's stamina.

    • Retribution

      • Seal of Command: This ability now chains to strike up to 2 additional targets when it is triggered by an attack.

wow paladin icon WoW Patch 3.2.2 stuck at 10% Download

Posted by Khor | 9/22/2009

If you are stuck at 10% downloading, don't fret, this happens occasionally, and it usually isn't player-side. For whatever reason, Blizzard's download severs are occasionally funked up when a patch releases, and are offline, sending all of us into mad rampages ;)

This WILL resolve itself, so everyone don't get your panties in a wad. Right now, it doesn't look like there is any time estimate on when we will be able to get the full download, but for now, you can visit: http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_mirrors for a download on a mirror site.

wow paladin icon Retribution Paladin Current State of DPS

Posted by Khor | 9/20/2009

Retribution Paladin DPS as of patch 3.2 is not where we had hoped it to be. Our burst damage got smacked around, and the 'boost' we were given via Seal of Vengeance has proven it can be viable, just not in every situation. Sitting back and analyzing what it is that we can realistically expect from Blizzard, I realized that our expectations of what DPS for paladins should be, might be too much.

Blizzard claims their goal for retribution Paladin DPS was to lessen the button mashing FCFS rotations in exchange for more situation based ability casting. However, we have evolved their current rendition of paladin DPS into yet another, albeit slightly more complicated, FCFS rotation. Not much of a change there.

We were loudly voicing that we needed more single target dps, and we got it with Seal of Vengeance. However, SoV is horrible on trash mobs, as the DPS boost comes on a full 5 stacks. Therefore, Seal of Righteousness must be used for trash. The other problem with SoV is when we are unable to consistently target the boss and keep our SoV up. If the SoV does not refresh, then we are at a serious DPS disadvantage.

Personally, I absolutely hate not contributing a good amount of dps to my raids. I don't want average, I want good. Doesn't have to be great, but again...good. And that is where we are still at...good DPS. There are the exceptional few paladins out there that can place top 3 or 4 every time, but normally we have to accept a position of top 5-10. That is where, I feel, we are meant to be.

Look at it this way. Of the 10 classes we can play in World of Warcraft, only 4 are pure DPS. Mage, Warlock, Rogue, Hunter. Each of the three abiltiy trees for these 4 classes are focused on DPS. The other 6 (Paladin, Death Knight, Warrior, Druid, Priest, Shaman) can fill other roles, such as healers or tanks. Thus, in theory, the 4 pure DPS classes, at least in BLizzard's mind, should be given an edge on DPS.

And I think we are seeing that more so with 3.2, and will continue to see it in 3.3. Rogues are still top, with Hunters and Mages right up close. Warlocks saw the biggest DPS boost in 3.2, at least that I have seen. Top 5 DPS should be these classes, but there are the exceptional other players from the other 6 classes that break their normal molds.

My point is that I believe Blizzard is happy with the current state of retribution paladin DPS. I know it is frustrating, but I don't think Blizzard wants us topping those 4 pure DPS classes on a consistent basis. Therefore, we probably won't see the kind of DPS changes we want.

On a final note, gear in 3.2 plays a huge role in separating us from average DPS to good DPS. The new tier gear really gives us a nice boost, as do the new craftables and libram, etc. My luck with new gear is atrocious, so I'm making the best of what I have, but I have seen some Paladins breaking top 5 DPS on a very consistent basis with their new 3.2 gear.

While I know my opinion differs from some, I am trying to look at this from an objective point of view. Am I unhappy with our current state of DPS? Yes. I feel it could be more well rounded. The new SoV in theory is nice, but it doesn't function as well as I would like. The new Seal of Command in 3.2.2 is going to be slightly above it's already mediocre state. Nothing ground breaking and nothing for us to cheer about. I wish they could find a happier medium. I'm glad we received better single target DPS, but I wish it wasn't as situational as it is. ANd I wish we had a little more of our burst DPS back. Again, that's just me, so we will have to wait and see what 3.3 and beyond has in store for us.

wow paladin icon WoW Gold Making Tips

Posted by Khor | 9/15/2009

In my most recent poll, Gold Making tips came in 2nd place on what some of my readers wanted me to write about next, so I'm going to discuss some of my Auction House strategies. I will write about Raiding and DPS tomorrow, when the poll actually ends.Playing the auction house can be extremely profitable if you know what to look for. The problem is, finding your niche.

My recommendation is not to try and cover too many areas. Find 3 or 4, maybe even 5. If you cover more than that, then your funding is spread thin, and it actually becomes quite time consuming.

What I will focus on here is buying and reselling. I cover 3 main areas, and I am one of the top sellers of these items on my server. I also venturing into several other areas for the purpose of writing posts for this blog. These are the most successful AH methods for me the last couple months.

Level 25-29 Twink Gear

This is probably my biggest mover in terms of how quickly I turn over items. I buy gear every day I log on and resell it. There is always level 25-29 gear that is under priced. Why? My theory is that there are several beginning players still in the game that don't realize what their drops are worth. You also have many, many kids in the game at low levels who may or may not understand the functions of the AH. Finally, there are even normal players like you and I who just do not realize the market for these items.

Specifically, I look for the following items:

Helms (Green Quality)

Starting at level 25, players get their first taste of head armor with stats. These are the crown jewel of the twink 25-29 gear, and my top money maker.

Top 10 Helms and what I sell them for:

  1. Leather of the Monkey - 75-100g
  2. Mail of the Bear - 40-50g
  3. Leather Emblazoned Hat - 40-50g
  4. Mail Glimmering Mail Coif - 30-35g
  5. Cloth of the Eagle - 30-35g
  6. Leather of the Bear - 30-35g
  7. Slayer's Skullcap - 30-35g
  8. Mail of the Gorilla - 30-35g
  9. Mail of the Monkey - 25-30g
  10. Leather of Stamina - 25-30g
Most of these I buy anywhere from 50s to 10g. The leather helms I will purchase at as much as 20g and as much as 45g for the monkey helms. Leather sells very well, because hunters and rogues are still extremely popular classes, especially at the lower levels. They are also great classes for this twink PvP bracket.

Helms to avoid are anything with spirit as a stat. These do not sell well at all, so avoid them if at all possible. Cloth helms of the Owl do okay, but nothing huge.

Mail Gear

Look for items of the Bear and of the Tiger. The big sellers are the chest (15g), shoulders (10g), and legs (15g). Watch out for the Green Iron Leggings. Blacksmiths leveling up will dump these in mass quantities on the AH, so avoid mail legs when you see these up.

Leather Gear

Huge sellers and the scarcest of the three types of gear. Of the monkey and tiger is what you're aiming for. I sell chest gear (25g), legs (20g), shoulder (15g), gloves-belt-boots (10-15g).

Cloth Gear

Looking for of the Eagle, and top pieces are chest (10g), legs (10-15g), and shoulders (10-15g).

Weapons
  • The Butcher - Will sell for 150-200g, purchased at no greater than 125g.
  • Zealot Blade - Will sell for 150-200g, purchased at no greater than 125g.
Rings/Necklaces
  • Crystal Starfire Medallion (25-30g)
  • Monkey (20-25g)
  • Tiger (15g)
  • Bear (15g)
  • Eagle (10g)
  • Gorilla (10g)
  • Falcon (10g)
  • Agility (10g)
  • Stamina (7.5g)
  • Strength (5g)
Blade of Misfortune

This is another of my big money makers. Recently, I've seen some pretty stupid AH listings of this, so I know this isn't an uncommon method, but here's how to do it right. Blade of Misfortune is one of the best PvP and leveling weapons at level 60. Usable by Paladins, Death Knights, and Warriors, it's in high demand almost constantly.

People often mis-price this in the AH, so here's how I nail it every single time. These rarely make it through a 48-hour period without getting sold.
  • Buy at 250g or less (If there are multiple under this price, buy them all)
  • Sell at anywhere from 350g to 500g
  • Anything above 500g is way too much. You're wasting deposit money.
Level 40-42 Plate Gear

When Paladins and Warriors hit 40, they gain the ability to wear plate armor. The usually has a good choice of gear, except that the prices are outrageous. 125g for gloves of the Bear. Come on! You can play this game, and make some money, but not make people laugh at your prices.
  • Buy at 6g or less, any plate gear lvl 40-41
  • Helms (25-30g)
  • Chest, Legs (20g)
  • Shoulders (15-20g)
  • Gloves, Belt, Bracers, Boots (10-15g)
Are these prices marked up? Yes. But they won't break the bank.

Titanium Ore & Titansteel Bars

With the new ability to prospect titanium ore for epic gems, their value has skyrocketed. The shortage of titanium ore for other professions due to the JC demand has spiked up titansteel bars as well.

Since prices vary greatly from serer to server, and these items are always moving very rapidly, it is hard ot put a set price on them. But for me, I tend to buy Titanium Ore if it's about 20% below the other AH prices. Titansteel Bars I purchase at 100-110g and resell for 125g-140g per bar.

wow paladin icon Paladin Heirloom Project Part V

Posted by Khor | 9/08/2009

Coming through the first 40 levels has left me surprised at myself at how quickly I am leveling. Normally, I am a fairly fast leveler, but with the heirloom pieces and their respective experience gain bonuses, it is borderline ridiculous with how fast I am leveling this retribution paladin.

If you are teetering on the edge of making a ret paladin, and have some extra tokens or emblems to spend, you won't be disappointed at how quickly everything moves. Especially if you already have a main or alt plate wearer. Even if a ret pally isn't for you, the heirloom gear can still be used for your upcoming toons. Think of it as a future investment for Cataclysm.

Continuing with my Paladin Heirloom Project, I am going to post levels 31 through 40 here.


Paladin Heirloom Project Part V


Levels: 41-50

Zones Involved: Dustwallow Marsh (40-43), Stranglethorn Vale (43-46), Feralas (46-48), Tanaris (48-50)

Training at Levels: 44, 48, 50

Overall Time Elapsed: 1 day, 7 hours, 1 min

Gear Purchased: Done by a bank toon every couple levels, random BoE greens of the Bear and of the Tiger.

Tips


General
  • Quest stack as much as you can. Each zone in this level range provides for optimal quest stacking, so make sure you are taking advantage of it.
  • Art of War and Judgements of the Wise become available in this range. I opted to put points into JotW first, to eliminate my mana issues. Then I put the rest into AoW to make my Exorcisms and Flash of Lights instant on crits.
Dustwallow Marsh
  • With the revamp of the zone, this has become a prime leveling area. I could have hit this zone earlier, but my leveling path brought me here at 40. That's okay, because it made me absolutely fly through the zone.
  • Make sure to start the quests n the dock area first. The quest chains start there.
  • Grab the flight path in Mudsprocket when you get the chance. Running all the way back to Theramore is a pain.
Stranglethorn Vale
  • I did every quest in the zone I could with a few exceptions.
  • I did not do Hemet Nesingwary Jr.'s quests, as they were minimal xp gains, and not worth the time invested.
  • I completed the Stone of Tides chain up until I had to venture to Southshore, at which point I abandoned the chain. Travel time would not have been efficient.
  • I did not do the crocolisk quest, as it was minimal xp, and also the drop rate is horrible for that quest.
  • Don't forget the Message in a Bottle quest that can be found in the tiny green bottles buried in the sand on the south eastern shore, usually just north of the Bloodsail pirates.
Feralas
  • On the way west to Feathermoon Stronghold, don't forget to find Kindal Moonweaver and complete her quests.
  • Well above the level requirements for the zone, so it was cake. I did every quest available.
Tanaris
  • Pretty cut and dry. Lots of quest stacking, very good xp gains. Level 50 was very easy to reach at this point.
Summary

With the talent improvements gained from 41-50, I really was able to pick up the pace. It was at this point I realized my goal of 60 in under 2 days played time was a very real possibility. In fact, I knew I would probably clear it well ahead of time.

Having my epic mount at 40 was also a world of difference, and I was able to drastically reduce my traveling time.

Finishing Tanaris at 50 left me realizing I was able to skip many zones I normally would have hit. Among the casualties were Desolace, Badlands, and Felwood.

They key, a usual, was to keep moving. I wasted very little time, and was able to blast my way to level 50, which let me pick up Crusader Strike. One more missing piece to add to my dps rotation.

Next up: levels 51-60.

wow paladin icon Raiding Frustration & Ret Pally Withdrawal

Posted by Khor | 9/06/2009

Recently, my wife's work has kept me from raiding on our guild's set raid days. She gets home in time for me to log on about an hour after raid start, at which point is too late. The times that I have been able to raid, I have been needed as a healer, so I haven't had a taste of that oh so glorious dps I am used to contributing.

A couple days ago, I got to run three dungeons with some guildies, 2 being ToC. We had no issues with any of them, and I even got to DPS on Halls of Lightning. The problem though was seeing a fellow ret pally, who is very good at our class, out dps me by 200-300 dps. Normally, he and I hold about the same amount of dps, but the time I have been missing has left me without gear upgrades, and I already feel myself falling behind.

Luckily, if I continue to miss out on raids, I can still count on 3.3 helping keep up with gear. I'm not counting on free gear, but for those, like me, who suffer from raiding time restraints, it's nice to know there will be viable options to keep me relatively caught up in gear so that I can still contribute to our raids if needed.

Anyways, looks like we might be searching for an additional raid night, so I'm hoping it falls on one of the nights I'm available.

wow paladin icon Retribution Paladin PvE Guide

Posted by Khor | 9/05/2009

Playing as a Retribution Paladin in the PvE world far exceeds my expectations of most other classes. Our burst damage is still top notch, and we can just about nuke any non-dungeon mob in a couple hits. The down time for our class is next to nothing thanks to a couple very efficient and optimal mana and hp regeneration talents and abilities. And we can easily switch roles to healing or tanking if the need arises, making us valuable assets to any function of the game.

This is a compilation of all the PvE components I have written about, so each is available here, as well as individually on my site.


FCFS Rotation

Here is the current 3.2 FCFS rotation. Yes, we're still using it.

HoW > CS > Judgement > DS > Consecration > Exorcism > Holy Wrath


I know many people dog on this as "easy mode", and quite honestly, I don't argue that. It's true. Start in the optimal sequence of HoW > CS > Judgement > DS > Consecration > Exorcism > Holy Wrath and then start mashing the first ability that comes off cooldown. It's really not that difficult.

I will vary the rotation up a smidge when fighting packs of mobs, going exorcism as I close in, then judge, then DS, cons, and coming full circle with CS. If I am already within melee range, it goes DS -> cons -> CS -> judge -> ex, rinse and repeat, but mainly focusing on keeping those AoE abilites up. Still, it is easy mode.

What changed with our FCFS in Patch 3.2?

Well, for starters, Hammer of Wrath is now our #1 ability when it is up. Can only be used when the mob is less than 20% health, but it has very high damage and critical strike ratio, so it jumps ahead of Crusader Strike.

Despite the baby bunny rabbit of a hit that Crusader Strike is, it's still what we'll be hitting first, followed by the rest of our old FCFS rotation. Exorcism moves ahead of Holy Wrath, but who really cares? Exorcism's nerf still has me upset. That cast time is just obnoxious.


Paladin Stats List

Updated for patch 3.2 Nothing has really changed. Most gear will get you hit capped very quickly, so you want strength, strength, and more strength.

So as a quick refresher, here are the stats you should be gemming for as a retribution paladin:

1. Hit
2. Strength
3. Expertise
4. Critical Strike
5. Agility
6. Haste
7. Armor Penetration
8. Attack Power

1. Hit - Hit affects your hit %, or ability to hit mobs and bosses. At level 80, Paladins need a total of 8% hit to be capped at 100%, meaning they never miss. Normal melee swings, Crusader's Strike, Judgements, and Divine Storm are all affected by this. Reaching the hit cap should be your number one priority.

2. Strength - Strength is what gives us attack power and increases our damage. After hit is capped, this is what we start stacking. Remember, 1 strength = 2 AP...with the blessing of might buff in the talent tree, it ups to 1 str = 2.3 AP.

3. Expertise - Capping expertise removes a mob's/boss's ability to dodge our attacks. To cap this, you need 26 expertise, or 6.5%. It is recommended to maximize DPS, you have both hit and expertise capped.

4. Critical Strike - From this point on, stats at crit and below are not worth aiming for. They simply do not pack the punch that strength does. Strength should be the stat that ret paladins are stacking hands down when hit and exp are capped. However, crit wins over agility because crit also affects spell crit, whereas agility does not.

5. Agility - Inferior to critical strike, as it takes a whopping 52 agility to get 1% melee critical strike. However, crit does not stack with buffs, like Blessing of Kings, whereas agility does.

6. Haste - While haste seems like a great stat, it currently does not give us a gigantic boost like we'd hope it would. Haste lowers weapon speed, but does not decrease cooldowns on our spells and abilities.

7. Armor Penetration - This ability benefits warriors far more than it does paladins. It affects only our melee white hits, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm. It does not affect seal or spell damage.

8. Attack Power - Since we hardly see AP on plate items, this isn't really a stat we have to worry about. Plus, 1 strength = 2.3 AP with talents is far superior than gearing up just straight AP. Go for strength instead. The only time a retribution paladin would have to worry about this is if he or she decides to dip into some leather or mail gear.

Remember, this is the ideal rank of stat importance. it varies greatly based on your current gear and talents.

For instance, at this very moment, my rank would be: 1) strength 2) critical strike 3) haste 4) armor pen 5) hit 6) exp because I am hit and exp capped. So, hypothetically, let's say I have 2 chest pieces with equal strength...the first has crit and expertise, while the second has slightly lower crit and armor pen. Since I am expertise capped, I'd choose the second piece, since the first's exp stat is wasted on me. Even though the crit is lower on the second piece, I still would gain more benefit from the additional armor pen.


Retribution Paladin Talents

Here is the most current talent tree for ret pallies as of 3.2:

5/11/55

Divine Sacrifice proved to be immensely valuable in Ulduar, so we are still aiming for this in 3.2. We're now dipping into the holy tree with 5 points for the Seal of Vengeance buff.

Talents

From Arikah posted at Elitist Jerks: [Source]

---------------

The following scale off of both AP and Spellpower -

  • Seal of Command:
    36% weapon damage
  • Judgement of Command:
    19% weapon damage + 9% AP + 13% spell power
  • Seal of Vengeance: (see below for full details)
    33% weapon damage + 2.5% AP + 1.3% spell power per tick
  • Judgement of Vengeance:
    (1 + (.14 * AP) + (.22 * Spellpower)) * (1 + (0.1 * Stack Size))
  • Seal of Light:
    15% AP + 15% spell power (healing proc)
  • Judgement of Light:
    16% AP + 25% spell power (damage)
    2% of maximum hp (healing proc)
  • Seal of Wisdom:
    4% of maximum mana (mana proc)
  • Judgement of Wisdom:
    16% AP + 25% spell power (damage)
    2% of base mana (mana proc)
  • Judgement of Justice:
    16% AP + 25% spell power (damage)
  • Consecration:
    4% AP + 4% spell power per tick
    (Final rank has 113 base damage per tick)
  • Exorcism:
    15% AP + 15% spell power
    (Final rank has 1028 base damage)
  • Hammer of Wrath:
    15% AP + 15% spell power
    (Final rank has 1139 base damage)
  • Holy Wrath:
    7% AP + 7% spell power
    (Final rank has 1050 base damage)
  • Sacred Shield:
    75% spellpower
Our healing spells scale strictly off of Spellpower.

In addition to seals scaling from both AP and SP, ALL seals can now be triggered from our instant melee attacks, DS and CS. I'll cover the specific seals a bit further down.


Judgements

Blizzard finally came out and "settled" what we already knew for 3.2. All Judgements are considered melee attacks that cannot be dodged, parried or blocked. They cannot be used while silenced and can still miss if you are not hitcapped. If this is confusing for you, just think of them as ranged physical attacks that are capable of triggering melee events (beserking, AoW ect). Judgements do not stack, and the last/most recent person to judge will be credited with the effects (yes, non-divinity JoL's will overwrite divinity'd JoL's).

Judgement of Wisdom
This is a strong choice for your judgement to use due to equalized JoL and the removal of blood recoil. You want to keep JoW up or you and your mana using dps (hunters in particular) can run into mana troubles. JoW's mana return effect is limited to 15 PPM for spells and physical; because paladins use both, we can see a few more procs than other classes.

Judgement of Light
This was our primary judgement for 3.1, however it has been equalized among all paladin specs to return 2% max hp (it used to scale based on AP/SP). If there are 2 paladins in your raid, you want the prot or holy paladin to use this judgement, so you can keep JoW up. If there is heavy raid damage and you are the only paladin, JoL is a good choice. If you are specced into Divinity, JoL still does benefit from it.

Judgement of Justice
This is your judgement in pvp situations, as all the debuff does is limit movement speed to 100%. This is not considered a movement impairing effect, so freedom or druid shifting will not break it, it can only be pvp trinketed or dispelled. This effect only lasts 10 seconds in pvp, not 20 as the tooltip implies.


Seals

Seals scale off AP and Spellpower. Judging a seal no longer consumes the seal, seals have a 30 minute duration. Seals are NOT considered weapon imbues, and can no longer be dispelled. Seals trigger off instant attacks (CS, DS).

Seal of Vengeance/Seal of Corruption
SoV replaces blood (which has been removed from the game) as our primary dps seal. SoV is the biggest reason that STR is our best dps stat, because it is one of the few skills in the game that triple dip on a stat (once for AP, once for SP, once for AP affecting weapon damage). In case the wording on the skill is unclear, SoV has 2 parts to it - the DoT, and the proc. The proc is basically a weaker, modified Seal of Blood proc but without the recoil. The talent SotP increases the damage from the DoT and the proc (which results in a total dps increase of about 6.5%). It takes ~12 seconds in a raid buffed setting to get a 5 stack active. SoV has some odd functionality detailed below:

The seal procs will begin triggering from auto-attacks once you have 5 DoT stacks, however strikes will always trigger a seal proc (but not a DoT application). The table below shows the damage of the proc per DoT application:



Stack Number% of Weapon Damage% with SotP
16.6%7.6%
213.2%15.2%
319.8%22.8%
426.4%30.4%
533%38%



When an auto-attack lands (does not dodge/parry/miss) that can proc a seal the of the following things happen independently of each other (see 2 roll system).

1) A "hidden strike" which uses melee combat mechanics occurs. If it lands it refreshes/stacks SoV DoT. Only white swings can trigger a refresh or stack.
2) A weapon damage based proc will occur if you used a special (CS/DS/judge) or if you have a 5 stack (from auto attacks). This attack can not be avoided.

Remember #2 happens regardless of #1 landing, it just requires the initial attack (autos, cs, etc) to land.

DoT functions and mechanics:
DoT application is melee hit/exp based. (Cannot be resisted like a spell, but can be dodged or parried)
DoT will still be applied even if your white swing is fully absorbed (in a PvP situation).
DoT is only applied via auto-attacks (whites).
DoT ticks always hit.
DoT ticks are reduced by partial resist on skull mobs, but not by players (it is holy damage).
DoT gains from CoE (and equivalents).

Seal Proc functions and mechanics:
Proc (after 5 stack/triggered from specials) can NOT be dodged or parried, it occurs as long as your initial white/strike lands.
Proc suffers from partial resists (it's holy damage).
Proc gains from CoE (and equivalents).
Proc can crit. (like SoB did)

One last note, which is it's odd interaction with other paladins' SoV stacks. If you do not have a DoT of your own on a target, but another ret or protection paladin does, your SoV proc's damage is based on their DoT stack (this will usually only occur with DS since it can hit non-targeted enemies). However, if you have even one DoT application on a target, your proc damage will then be based on your DoT stack. This simply means that protection paladins play very nicely with retribution paladins, as Hammer of the Righteous applies DoT stacks quickly to multiple targets, and then DS will hit up to 4 targets with fully charged SoV procs.

Seal of Righteousness
We haven't used this seal since we were leveling up, and it sickens me to say that it is now an option to use. This seal cannot crit, but also cannot miss or be dodged/parried (unless your white swing or special misses). While this seal doesn't benefit from 2H spec or weapon damage increases, it does benefit from SotP, which is in all our primary pve talent builds. With 5/5 SotP, SoR averages about 100 dps higher than SoC until you are in Ilvl 250+ gear. Judging SoR triggers an SoR proc.

Seal of Command
This is a weak option for a pvp seal. SoC has been retooled again; it is no longer ppm based, rather it triggers on every attack (like blood used to) and has no ICD. Judging is no longer a guaranteed crit vs stunned targets. SoC procs are still capable of criticals and follow all the standard melee attack rules. SoC pulls ahead of SoR only when fighting 3+ mobs that only live for 12s each. Judging SoC also triggers an SoC proc.


Strikes and DPS skills

These spells are used in the retribution skill rotation.

Consecration
Widely viewed as a necessary part of the retribution rotation, as our DPS is not very competitive without it. Should be used against both single and multiple targets. Consecration has some odd behavior on skull level mobs; the first tick can be fully resisted (miss) and subsequent ticks can also be partially resisted (due to mob level difference). You cannot work around the partial resists at all, but they are often small enough to not matter:


Originally Posted by http://elitistjerks.com/1052225-post672.html
I tested this situation while wearing a massive amount of + hit (22% spell hit or so) and things didn't change noticeably. There simply were only 4 combat log entries most of the time, something like:

Boss is afflicted by your Consecration
Boss takes 20 Damage from your Consecration (60 resisted)
Boss takes 30 Damage from your Consecration (50 resisted)
Consecration fades from Boss

Sometimes I got 4 ticks, sometimes 1, but against a +13 level mob I never got anywhere near 8. There simply weren't entries in the log for those other ticks. I won't claim to know the precise mechanics of this, but it does seem evident that mobs can totally resist Consecration ticks if they are high enough level in addition to the debuff application that we are all so familiar with. I don't actually have a paladin that can test this anymore since I did it just after 3.0 launched against the level 83 dummy and my level 80 paladin has no way to fight a level 93 mob.
Hammer of Wrath
With the release of 3.0, this skill was buffed a substantial amount, to the point where it is used on cooldown vs targets under 20% health (due to deep ret talents that give this skill a 50% base crit chance, in addition to gear). It is now an instant ranged execute, but retains its' fixed mana cost. Using this skill does not reset your swing timer.

Exorcism
Chnaged again in 3.2. This is now usable on all mob types, can crit (based on your spell crit), and has 100% crit chance vs undead and demon mobs. It uses the spell hit table so you can still miss with this even if melee hitcapped. It has a base cast time of 1.5s which means you will never ever use this without an AoW proc available - when used with AoW it becomes instant and does not reset the swing timer. Note that because it is not a base instant cast it does not benefit from Benediction.

Holy Wrath
Also uses the spell hit tables, can crit. Has no target limit so it is very useful on certain fights with many undead/demon adds. Changed from a 60s cooldown/20yd range (BC) to a 30s cooldown/10yd range, and it now stuns all targets that it hits for 2s.

Divine Plea
You will need to use this to keep your mana up in both PvE and PvP. It scales off your total mana pool, and is dispellable. DP is usually responsible for 10% of our total mana income on bosses.

And of course, our talented instant attacks:

Divine Storm
Our 51 pt talent, it is basically the same as a warrior's whirlwind ability except that DS heals for negligible amounts. Despite it seeming like an underwhelming talent it is critical to our DPS as it can and will trigger seals and RV. This skill is normalized to 3.3 weapon speed.

Crusader Strike
Our still bland 41 pt talent, yet still crucial to our DPS as it also triggers seals and RV. CS no longer refreshes your or any other paladins' judgements. This skill is also normalized (to 3.3).


Special Talents

and their ..."specialness"
This is just to cover some talents that have odd quirks or interesting functionality.

Art of War
AoW seems like it becomes more important in pve, but realistically nothing has changed. Exorcism still has a 15 second cooldown, and the chances that you will not see a crit on the pull (7.5 seconds in) while raid buffed are 1.6%, while the chances you won't see a crit in 15 seconds is 0.2% - therefore there is no reason to stack crit or worry about not being able to use it every 15s. AoW has been changed to proc on all melee crits, which means whites, strikes and judgements, but not seal procs.

Righteous Vengeance
Once again stealing from the warriors! The RV dot does indeed "roll" like the warrior version, meaning critical judgements and DS's in succession will refresh the dot duration, not overwrite it. The RV dot is a magic effect and thus dispellable, can be partially resisted by bosses, but is not mitigated by armor.
How RV rolls courtesy Redcape:


It adds the new critical damage onto any remaining damage in the dot and then resets the duration with the new damage total. There is absolutely no need to maintain the stack in any fashion, the stack falling off does not cause you to lose dps.
Sheath of Light
One of our most exciting talents for wrath. This talent helps to increase our damage because of the way we double-dip in AP and SP, gives retribution paladins heals actually worth casting/using, and makes STR that much more important. Sacred Shield finally also scales from spellpower granted by this talent. The healing portion of this talent acts the same way as RV; getting a crit heal while still having a sheath hot active "rolls" (see above). This effect stacks with the SS hot, meaning using a FoL on yourself (with SS active) and getting a crit results in a 130% strength HoT.

Sacred Shield
Since this spell now works properly as retribution you can expect to be using it a lot, it is fairly potent when combined with Divine Guardian. Using this does not reset the swing timer. Sacred Shield also has a 6s ICD even when talented, so it is capable of refreshing itself every 6 seconds, even if the 'old' shield has not been fully used up. With 3.2, having SS active on a target and using FoL results in a hot; it does not require that the shield be triggered, only the SS buff. Note that any paladin can get the hot from any other paladin's SS (example: a holy paladin uses FoL on the tank, and the tank has used SS on himself, resulting in a hot).

Divinity
This has an odd double dipping interaction with your own heals (JoL, DS heals) which causes it to multiply twice, like so: (original heal number) * 1.05 *1.05. It is taken in pve builds only when you are trying to get to DSac. If you pick up this talent, you may want to use JoL and have other paladins use JoW.

Divine Sacrifice
A powerful raid cooldown, when used in combination with the bubble you effectively give your entire raid 30% damage reduction for 10s (as damage "immune'd" by the bubble does not count towards the break limit**). Divine guardian increases the damage redirected to you from 30% to 40%.

**After many months of testing, logging and data combing, it appears that the damage "immune'd" by the bubble actually does count towards the 150% limit. However, DSac very often absorbs much much more while under the bubble. This is because of latency; often times we use DSac while the raid is taking enormous amounts of damage (for example, a Freya3 ground tremor) and the game simply cannot sync the damage taken with the limit in the 1 second window that it occurs in. In other words, to get the maximum possible benefit out of DSac, you need to use it at the last possible second before the raid takes damage, to ensure that the limit threshold is not eaten by you absorbing your tank's steady damage, but rather the entire raid's in that split second moment of pain.


Retribution Paladin Glyphs

Here are the main glyphs you should have as a retribution paladin (updated for patch 3.2):

  1. [Glyph of Judgement] This glyph is a must have, hands down. Judgments are vital to our dps, so don't leave this one out.
  2. [Glyph of Consecration] Now your second best glyph, helping conserve mana and normalizing the FCFS rotation.
  3. [Glyph of Seal of Vengeance] Since Seal of Blood/Martyr is gone, this is what takes its place. This gives a nice expertise boost at 10 expertise (82 rating, 2.5%). If lready expertise capped, move right along to Glyph of Exorcism.
  4. [Glyph of Exorcism] A solid boost to DPS, even though Exorcism is at the end of our FCFS rotation.

Here are the minor glyphs, although they do not serve near the tremendous impact that the main glyphs do.

  1. [Glyph of Sense Undead] Ulduar has no undead, but the extra 1% has PvE written all over it.

  2. [Glyph of Lay on Hands] The only othe semi-useful PvE minor glyph.

Retribution Paladin Gems

As a retribution paladin, your gem choice is going to be quite limited. Really, you should only be gemming for 2 stats.

  • Hit Rating
  • Strength

You could technically gem for expertise if you wanted as well, but hit and strength are the most important.

That said, most gear now has plenty of hit rating on it, so hitting the cap is quite easy. That basically leaves you to gem strength, strength, and more strength. This is by far our most important stat to stack, further increasing our dps than any other stat. Here are your gem options:

Meta

[Relentless Earthsiege Diamond] +21 Agility / +3% Increased Critical Strike damage
[Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] +21 Critical Strike / +3% Increased Critical Strike damage

* The note for the meta gems is that the relentless gem offers more dps due to the fact that it only requires one blue gem. While the chaotic by stats alone is a smidge better, requiring 2 blue gems to activate actually makes it lower dps.

Red

[Bold Cardinal Ruby] +20 strength
[Bold Stormjewel] +20 strength
[Bold Scarlet Ruby] +16 strength

Orange

[Inscribed Flawless Ametrine] +10 Strength / +10 Critical Strike
[Inscribed Monarch Topaz] +8 Strength / +8 Critical Strike

Yellow

[Rigid King’s Amber] +20 Hit Rating
[Rigid Stormjewel] +20 Hit Rating
[Rigid Autumn’s Glow] +16 Hit Rating

Purple

[Sovereign Dreadstone] +10 Strength / +10 Stamina
[Sovereign Twilight Opal] +8 Strength / +8 Stamina


Retribution Paladin Enchants

The best in slot (BiS) enchants for retribution paladins are in blue text, with their lesser counterparts in red. Still the same in 3.2.

Personally, I feel that the hit cap is so easily reached through gear once you start raiding, that most people opt for the Greater Assault on boots rather than Icewalker.


Retribution Paladin Raid Preparation

This is still current as of 3.2.

Everytime I enter a raid, I want to come in as prepared as possible. I bring flasks, potions, stat food, mana food, scrolls, and off-set gear. I only bring what is considered BiS, and I make sure I have enough to last the whole raid. My philosophy is if you aren't contributing to the success of the raid, you shouldn't be in it. Now, that aside, that doesn't mean you can't have all kinds of fun. Raiding should be enjoyable and entertaining, allowing you to push your skill, but never becoming too involved where it becomes a task or chore, or feels like a job.

I like to get my raid mats for the whole week, usually farming for an hour or so early Monday morning. I take my rogue out and farm until I get 3 or 4 frost lotus and then proceed to get a guildie to make some flasks. Then I switch over to Khor and fish up about 20 to 30 Dragonfin Angelfish. My AH toon purchases a few potions I need, and voila! I'm set for the week's raids.

Here is what I make sure to have for each raid:

  • 5x Flask of Endless Rage
  • 5x Flask of the Frost Wyrm (In case I am needed to go off-spec)
  • 20x Dragonfin Filet
  • 20x Firecracker Salmon
  • 40x Mana food
  • 10x Runic Mana Potion
  • 10x Runic Healing Potion
  • 10x Haste Potion
  • 5x Scroll of Agility/Intellect
  • 10-20x Fish Feast
  • 300x Symbol of Kings (doesn't hurt to have too many)
  • Off-set healing gear
I always like to keep a full stock of healing stat food and flasks just in case I need to switch specs for a particular fight, or even a whole raid. These I don't have to replace very often because I usually don't have to perform healing duties unless I am in a heroic 5-man.



I also do not have to replace my mana and healing potions very often, as I don't use them during raids much. More often than not I am using haste potions, thus using up my potion for the fight. But it is nice to have them there just in case.

The haste potions and endless rage flasks are usually half gone for one night's raiding. I only burn the haste pots on bosses during a Shaman Heroism or my own Avenging Wrath. I usually have more than 5 flasks to start with, as the guildies who make them for me usually proc extras, so I don't have to make any more for the rest of the week. If for any reason I find myself without either of these two items right before a raid, I'll run to the AH and drop some gold to get myself caught up.



I have just recently started carrying extra Fish Feasts for my guild, but many others are carrying them as well. Mine are made by guild bank donations, so if I am able, I will try to lay down my feasts first.

The scrolls are semi-helpful, and don't give a huge boost, but if they are cheap enough in the AH I'll keep several on hand. Depending on my buffs, these may or may not be usable. If I have arcane brilliance, the scroll of intellect won't stack. Ideally, I would have strength scrolls, but the Dragonfin Filet (+40 str/+40 stam) overrides that.



Finally, the Dragonfin Filets are the BiS food item for Ret Paladins who have their strength buff. This puts out a small amount of increased dps over the fish feast, so I make sure and keep a full stock.

Just remember when joining a raid it is common courtesy to bring your own mats. This is my list of what I bring, and I will adjust this as needed in the future.


Retribution Paladin Add-ons

As a Ret Paladin, there are certain World of Warcraft addons you should absolutely have. Here is my core 4 list:

  • Pally Power - An absolute must. An easy to use interface that allows a Paladin to manage his/her blessings, as well as that of others in a party or raid, if they are the raid leader or raid assist.
  • Deadly Boss Mods - This is an all-inclusive warning/alert add-on for all raid bosses. If you don't have this addon, your survivability will plummet. Another must-have.

  • Omen - Omen is a threat meter. This add-on warns you when you are about to pull threat off the current tank. The way paladin DPS is in its current state, I have to have this, not only for bosses, but for trash mobs as well. Paladin burst AoE DPS is so heavy that I often have that flashing red screen warning me I'm about to pull threat.

  • Grid - Even though Retribution Paladins are not main role healers, it's still a good idea to have this interface add-on for quick resurrections, salvations, or last second heals.

  • RatingBuster - A great addon that allows you to compare stats on your current gear with any other item you are viewing. Very helpful in determining upgrades.

I understand many people use different UI's, but I stick with the vanilla WoW UI. So I won't throw out any recommendations, as they would be solely based on hearsay. I would much rather recommend something I am actually using.

That said, here are a couple other addons I use to help out with other aspects of gameplay:

  • Bagnon - A great addon to combine all your bags into one. Highly customizable with the ability to view not only your current toon's bags, but your alts' as well. Also displays your total gold server-wide, as well as how much each toon has regardless of which character is logged on.

  • Postal - Enhanced mailbox support. Many features including a recall list of who was recently mailed, as well as your alt toon list. My favorite is the easy emptying 'open all' option, that displays gold earned via AH sells, as well as any items obtained. Check it out.

wow paladin icon Paladin Heirloom Project Part IV

Posted by Khor | 9/01/2009

This Paladin Heirloom Project has been a lot of fun so far. I am discovering new ways of leveling that is just helping me blow through levels. I started this as a fun project, and that is exactly what is has been so far. I am looking forward to seeing what results this will deliver.

The keys to me pulling through with my objectives for this project is to have as little downtime as possible, and to significantly reduce my travel time, which it looks like I will have no problem doing.

Continuing with my Paladin Heirloom Project, I am going to post levels 31 through 40 here.


Paladin Heirloom Project Part IV


Levels: 31-40

Zones Involved: Duskwood (30-33), Stranglethorn Vale (33-34), Shimmering Flats (34-35), Southshore/Alterac Mountains (35-37), Arathi Highlands (37-39), Swamp of Sorrows (39-40)

Training at Levels: 30, 34, 38, 40

Overall Time Elapsed: 20 hours, 49 minutes, 59 seconds

Gear Purchased: Done by a bank toon every couple levels, random BoE greens of the Bear and of the Tiger. Plate Armor purchased for level 40.

Items to purchase for quests:

Tips


General
  • Hand of Reckoning should now be engraved in your rotations for pulling mobs. Remember that this will only deal damage if the mob is not targeting you, so make sure to pull early on as your are closing in. It will also deal damage if the mob is running away in fear. The mana cost is ridiculously low, so it's a must in rotations at this point.
  • Rotation should now be: HoR (to pull) > Judgement until dead. Consecrate is usable, but a mana drain, so I avoided using it unless in packs of mobs. Determine what works best for you kill efficiency and time management. Though Consecrate was helping me kill mobs quicker, single targeting with HoR was keeping me constantly on the move, keeping my mana up for nearly 3x longer.
Duskwood
  • The key to Duskwood is completing every quest you can. There are 4 main 'bosses' in Duskwood that have quest chains leading up to them. I call these bosses and their quest lines the Duskwood 4. Each of these quest chains yields huge chunks of XP, and are definitely worth doing.
  • Mor'Ladim - Pick up this quest chain from the grave just north of the house holding Morbent Fel. NW corner of Duskwood.
  • Eliza, Bride of the Enbalmer - Can start the chain at Elaine Carevin in Duskwood.
  • Morbent Fel - Can start the chain at Sven Yorgen in the camp at the very NW tip of Duskwood.
  • Stalvan Mistmantle - Can start the chain at Clerk Daltry in Duskwood.
  • Make sure your hearthstone is set to Darkshire.
Stranglethorn Vale
  • I only stuck to the top half of Stranglethorn Vale here. I knocked out the beginning quests of the Kurzen chain, as well as Hemet Nesignwary Jr.'s first set as well (raptors, tigers, panthers).
  • Having purchased the Green Hills of Stranglethorn, I turned those in for instant XP.
  • I started the Krazek's Cookery chain in the rebel camp and then rode south to Booty Bay to turn in my Lesser Bloodstone Ore. Another instant quest turn-in.
Shimmering Flats
  • Once in Booty Bay, I grabbed the Flight Path, then proceeded to head to the docks where I waited for the boat to Ratchet. From Ratchet, I rode south through the Barrens, into the Thousand Needles, and then to Shimmering Flats.
  • When you drop off the elevator down into Thousand needles, immediately about 20 yards to the NW is a dead dwarf holding a book. Loot the book, Henrig Lonebrow's Journal, and turn in the quest on the western edge of Thousand Needles. Grab the flight path there (which is actually on the eastern edge of Feralas), then proceed east to Shimmering Flats.
  • I complete every quest in Shimmering Flats that pertains to staying in the immediate zone. I did not pick up any quests there requiring travel. That's a time-sink, and not what we're going for.
  • Run south to Tanaris and pick up the Flight Path in Gadgetzan. After all this time, my hearth was still set to Duskwood, so I hearthed back there.
South Shore & Alterac Mountains
  • Every quest here is doable at this level. Quest stacking here will provide optimal efficiency.
  • Make sure to pick up the Syndicate Documents found lying on the tables of one of the Syndicate Camps. This starts 2 additional quests.
  • Even though the ogres in the Ruins of Alterac were at times 3 levels above me, with my heirloom gear and slew of up-to-date green gear, I blew through them with little issues.
Arathi Highlands
  • Complete every quest available here. I did not bother with the Arathi Basin PvP quest.
  • Stromgarde is the primary focus of the quests, and provides good XP. All quests within are easily solo-able.
  • In northeastern Arathi Highlands, there is a circle of stones with a floating crystal in the middle that starts a quest chain, Shards of Myzrael. I did this quest chain up until I had to kill Fozruk and turn that in. After that, I did not pursue it further, as it required travel that was not in my leveling plan.
  • Fozruk paths all over the zone, and can be very hard to find. If it helps, though, his spawn point is located at the Shards of Myzrael.
  • When doing the Hints of a New Plague? quest line, the Forsaken Courier will path on the road between the Go'Shek farm and Tarren Mill all the way in Southshore. His spawn point, however, is at the Go'Shek Farm, where the road starts.
Swamp of Sorrows
  • Two quest hubs here, and not that many quests, but enough to carry me to 40.
  • Watcher Biggs is found in the SW of the zone, along the road and a bit west of Stonegard.
  • An encampment of Exodar in the NW corner of the zone is your other quest hub.
  • An escort quest to free Galen Goodward can be obtained when completing the Exodar quests of the zone.

Summary


After dinging 40, I sped to Stormwind to get my Epic Mount. Absolutely wonderful to have this 20 levels earlier!

There were many zones used to gain these 10 levels, but I still made excellent time, coming to level 40 in under 1 day played time! 20 hours, 49 minutes, 50 seconds to level 40! That means I could set my goals to hit 60 in under 2 days played time.

Not much else to say. My rotations and methods of killing and questing didn't vary at these 10 levels, though they did change quite a bit from 41-50, as the talent tree opened up several new options.

(Currently I am at level 64, just a little behind on my posts!)

Next up: levels 41-50.