Koraqslight on Artpad!

I found a thread on the Paladin boards that sent me to Artpad, so I decided to try my hand at drawing Koraq. I think it turned out pretty damn well!

http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?kgeujp1ee5ho

Looking at 3.1...

So, I thought I might go ahead and try to touch on the 3.1 changes that are coming our way. Admittedly, nothing really stands out as being severe -- buffs or nerfs. So far, the changes are kind of... well, boring.


Paladins


• Auras will now persist through death and affect a 40 yard radius..

Buff: Nice lil' extra range on it, and one less button to push after being plowed through by a group of Horde in the BG's, or after a BRez because "Koraqslight fails at Lava Waves." heheh.


• Blessing of Kings is now trainable at level 20. Removed from talent trees.

Buff: Five extra talent points for all three of my specs. W00!


• Hand of Sacrifice: The damage transferred by this ability is now capped by the Paladin’s health.

Nerf: Damage cap on HoSac could be a lil' brutal. Still a useful tool, but we'll have to see how this turns out.


• Forbearance reduced to 2 min duration.

Buff: No complains here about shorter forbearance.


• Sacred Shield: This effect cannot be cast on more than one friendly target at a time.

Nerf: Again, nothing major as far as nerfs go. It'll hurt in PvP to only have one bubble at a time when running as Holy, but there's still plenty of tools in our arsenal to heal through the damage.


• Talents

- Holy

• Aura Mastery: Now makes anyone affected by Concentration Aura to be immune to Interrupt and Silence mechanics and increases the effectiveness of all other auras by 100%. Lasts 10 sec. 2 min cooldown.


Buff: Okay, this I'll admit is pretty cool. Still not something I'll dance for joy and sing praises about, but it's definitely going to be one hell of an "Ohshi--" button. This is going to make life a living hell for burst teams.


• Blessed Hands: No longer reduces cooldowns of Hand spells. Instead, it improves the effectiveness of Hand of Salvation by 50/100% and Hand of Sacrifice by an additional 5/10%.

Buff: The increased effectiveness on the spells will definitely be rather useful. Also, I wonder if this affects the Hand of Salvation glyph...?


• Enlightened Judgements: No longer increases the range of Judgement of Justice. Moved to Tier 10.

Nerf: Though, the poor Druids kind of needed this one. Maybe it'll help them out a lil' without having to destroy JoJ to do so.


• Improved Concentration Aura: The resistance to silence and interrupt granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Concentration Aura.

Buff: I love the new changes to the improved auras. Cut down the damage of the Frost Mage, while also cutting back the usefulness of counterspell? Yes please.


• Infusion of Light: Now increases the critical chance of your next Holy Light by 10/20% instead of reducing cast time. Moved to Tier 10.

Nerf: This is definitely going to impact our ability to handle large bursts of damage, but we have plenty of other ways to handle it without requiring the assistance of an RNG Holy Light.


• Judgements of the Pure moved to Tier 9.
• Sacred Cleansing moved to Tier 8.

No real change big changes to be had here. Moved each of 'em up a tier, let's Holy grab them while still digging deep into Retribution's tree I s'pose.

- Protection

• Improved Devotion Aura: The additional healing granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Devotion Aura.

Buff: Extra healing with all auras, W00!


• Divine Guardian re-designed: Now increases the effectiveness of Divine Sacrifice by an additional 5/10% and increases the duration of Sacred Shield by 50/100% and the amount absorbed by 10/20%.

Buff: This let's Protection use the old Divine Guardian with Shield Wall (or no bubble at all if your healers love you enough!). This is actually a bit of a buff for Retribution, too. Allows mana conservation through fewer SS casts, and when cast it absorbs more. Gogogo!


• Divine Protection: Cooldown reduced to 3 min.

Buff: The less time my Shield Wall is on cooldown, the happier I am.


• New Talent: Divine Sacrifice: Divine Sacrifice: Causes all party/raid members affected by one of the paladin’s auras to transfer 30% of all damage taken to the paladin (maximum of 150% of the paladin’s max health). Lasts 10 sec. 2 min
cooldown.

Buff: Gives us options, which are good. We can choose to use it in unison with Divine Shield, or not to, depending on the situation. I like options. Especially when we get options, AND buffs.


• New Talent: Divinity: Tier 1 protection talent, increases healing done by and to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.



Buff: Does it really need to be said how incredibly sexy this talent is for all three roles? PvE and PvP -- this talent is an absolute must have.


• Guarded by the Light: Now makes Divine Plea 50/100% less likely to be dispelled.

Nerf: Um... wat?


• Sacred Duty rank 1 now increases Stamina by 4%.

Fix: 3/6% was buffed to 4/8%, but it was left as 3/8%. Woops.

- Retribution

• Benediction now affects Hand of Reckoning.

Buff: Kinda? Ah well. Less mana spent on one spell means more left over for another.


• Fanaticism reduced to 3 ranks for 6/12/18% bonus and 10/20/30% threat reduction.

Nerf: From a 30% increase in crit to an 18% increase cap. No change for PvP Ret, but a fairly heavy nerf for PvE Ret.


• Repentance no longer resets the Paladin's melee swing timer.

Buff: Yay for locking down a healer without losing DPS!


• Righteous Vengeance reduced to 3 ranks for 10/20/30%. The damage done by this talent no longer receives modifications from effects that increase or decrease damage
done by a percentage.

Nerf: From 40% to 30% cap, and also no longer double dips in the glorious awesomeness that is Avenging Wrath. Somewhat of a buff (maybe) to PvP Ret, but a swift kick in the face to PvE Ret.


• Sanctified Retribution: The bonus to damage done granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Retribution Aura.

Buff: Again with the increasing of my damage with the reduction of theirs and all that sexytime type stuff.


• Sanctified Seals: Renamed Sanctity of Battle. Now also increases damage done by Exorcism and Crusader Strike by 5/10/15%.

Buff: MOAR DAMAGE. Hopfully there's still more to come, as I don't see this overcoming the nerfs to our damage elsewhere and bringing us up to the same level as the other DPS classes.

• Paladin
• Glyph of Beacon of Light: Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 sec.

This is kind of 'meh'. Just makes it conflict with my renewing of Judgements of the Pure.


• Glyph of Divine Plea: While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.

If they change Guarded by the Light back to refreshing Divine Plea, this will be amazing for tanks.


• Glyph of Divine Storm: Your Divine Storm now heals for an additional 15% of the damage it
causes.

This will be glorious for the defensive PvP Ret.


• Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous: Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.

I don't see this getting used too much. Our AoE threat is absurd as it is, and unless something changes -- this would be a wasted glyph spot in my humble opinion.


• Glyph of Salvation: When you cast Hand of Salvation on yourself, it also reduces damage taken by 20%.

Mini Shield Wall gogogo! Maybe not for tanking, but definitely sexytime good for PvP.


• Glyph of Holy Light: Can no longer crit and has had its range updated.

Damn it.


• Glyph of Holy Shock: Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 sec.

Bounce bounce bounce Heal! Bounce bounce bounce Heal!

Ba da ba ba ba, I'm lovin' it.


• Glyph of Shield of Righteousness: Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness by 80%.

This is actually a rather useful little glyph. Good for PvP Prot, and offtanking without running OOM. Although, if the DP refresh comes back, that will be a non-issue.

Strength > Hit

So, decided to cruise the forums a little bit, and came across this little gem of a post that dumbs down the STR vs. HIT argument to DPS differences between the two.



100 Strikes x 93% Hit = 93 Strikes x 1200 Damage = 111,600 Total Damage
262 Strength Replacing Equal Hit

100 Strikes x 100% Hit = 100 Strikes x 900 Damage = 90,000 Total Damage
262 Hit Replacing Equal Strength

Thought I'd throw this into my blog, here, to keep it safe and warm for future use. Thank you kindly Lepetomaine Whisperwind-US. =D