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by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 4th 2010 at 2:00PM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
The above video is brought to you by our very own Mat McCurley. You might know him better as "that guy that writes about addons I guess" if you don't pay much attention to author names. There's a backstory to the video, but I think leaving it out makes it far more hilarious.
Enjoy!
clundgren asked...
"Why is there a continued perception of ret paladins as overpowered? Raid data shows them to be a lower tier DPS class on ICC bosses, and they are not particularly feared in arena. What gives? Did patch 3.0.2 leave that much of a lasting impression?"
They're still incredibly powerful in 5-mans and they're monsters in battlegrounds. Those two things are the PvE and PvP content that the most players experience. Ret paladins are kings of the low brackets of content. Even though ret paladins aren't dominant in Icecrown, they can walk into heroic Utgarde Keep and be top DPS effortlessly. (Edit: Original wording of the previous sentence was far too strong for what I actually meant, my apologies.)They will struggle along in high arena brackets, but stick them in Warsong Gulch and people will die.
It's all very odd, but unfortunately true. Ret paladins will rule the school in the normal every day content, but as soon as it's time for us to be competitive where it counts... that's a whole different story. Ret paladins are overpowered in that lower content, but we don't really compare when it comes time to be competitive. If we can burst out a bunch of damage with all of our buttons ready to go and the appropriate seal, we're awesome. Put us in a sustained DPS situation and we're... not so awesome. We have to make up for it with unrivaled utility. We're still worth taking places.
Travieso asked...
"I really didn't care for the stat change articles. Was it really necessary to have about 15 articles that all said the same thing?"
Yes. You might be surprised just how many people request that we write these things, and oftentimes just rolling them together into "casters" or "melee" isn't sufficient for people. If we just do a melee article, we will still get endless questions from rogues or warriors or retribution paladins about class-specific topics, or even just asking us to go over them in more detail. And then if we do those in detail, we get a cascade of hate mail that we didn't do X and Y specs in detail, so clearly we must hate those classes/specs. Clearly. Plus, if we do them more specifically, they're easier for those classes/specs to find further down the road if they/we need to reference them. It's better that we just get them all done and out there and then nobody, reader or writer, needs to worry about it after.
It's very rare that we go all out on a topic like that, but we did see that series as necessary to get people the information that they want. We do understand that it got a bit spammy to the people that simply do not care, but... even via RSS, you don't need to read every post. You can just mark them read and be done.
It's a bit "damned if you do, damned if you don't" and when it comes to supplying content a large majority of our readership wants, we're going to fall on the 'do' camp rather than the 'don't.'
Johnny asked...
"Do female dwarf rogues exist?"
Sure they do! I have one in my guild. Along with a female dwarf hunter, a female dwarf death knight, a female dwarf paladin...
Castellan asked...
"I re-rolled recently on a US server so that I could play with my son. I had my main on an EU server and had taken a break to finish university (I was a mature student) and secure a job; so I've missed everything from Uldaur onwards. My boy and me just dinged 70, I think 70-80 shouldn't take us too long, but all the articles I'm reading on wow.com are talking like Wrath is soooo over, and everyone's just waiting for Cata. Will we get to enjoy some of the Wrath endgame do you think? Or should we just level some alts?"
You have plenty of time to enjoy Wrath's endgame. Cataclysm is still many months out, and Blizzard has made it very easy to jump into upper tiers of content with a little effort. If you pick up a full outfit of Triumph badge gear and fill in the off-pieces with epics from the new Icecrown 5-mans, you're basically ready to step into 10-man Icecrown already. You can take it slower and check out Ulduar and ToC if you want, but if you want to jump right into the top tiers, you're able to do it assuming you have the skill to match the gear.
Rob & J asked...
"I have a ton of Dalaran cooking awards. I've purchased all I can from the vendor. Any hopes of new content anytime (soon) to spend them on?"
We've heard nothing about new cooking awards, there definitely aren't any in patch 3.3.3. I think it's unlikely we'll see any in Wrath of the Lich King. I just turned all of my cooking awards into Northern Spices, you might want to as well.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 8)
omedon666 Mar 4th 2010 4:43PM
Actually, I've asked the queue about this before, and in the interest of both of our opinions, I'll repeat it. Here's hoping they deign to answer it this time. Perhaps, like Blizz, they see the writing the wall (even the ever wise Drama Mamas have counseled "need everything" with their usual caveat "communicate, communicate, communicate") and "get it", ahead of the masses. Either way, a re-post, for both of us, to ask the Q's opinion.
Dear Queue
With the heated debates that have predictably ensued, do you think Blizzard's "class, not role based" cross server NBG is intended to re-program a community used to unwritten loot guidelines that have failed to update themselves to acceptably accommodate a game with dual spec? Many have pleaded for the "role in this group" to be coded into the loot rights determination, do you think they dodge this option on purpose? Yes I know that's two questions, feel free to answer either or both, if any. :)
Hoggersbud Mar 4th 2010 7:59PM
They won't change the rules for Frozen Orbs, why for anything else? At least you're not getting screwed by being unable to need when there is disenchanter in a group like my Paladin/Shaman/Druid are.
Nice mail/leather/cloth drops for my Holy Paladin? Ah too bad, can't need, even if everybody else will disenchant it. Same from my Elemental Shaman or Resto Druid.
So yeah, if I'm on say, a Holy Paladin and some good Ret DPS gear drops, I'm going to roll need and take it if I win. If the Fury Warrior bitches about it, tough to be them. If they asked nicely I'd consider trading it to them, but will they? Probably not.
jrizutko Mar 4th 2010 2:25PM
Leftover Marks will not be worth 2000 honor. That was just poorly thought out speculation on Wow.com's part based on a PTR vendor. There is no rational reason to believe that leftover marks will be exponentially more valuable after a patch than they are now.
Krsnik Mar 4th 2010 2:26PM
Dear Queue,
as an ele/resto shaman, I have picked up a few cloth items recently (EoF gear specifically) and I was wondering if I should be worried with what the devs have been saying about classes sticking to their respective gear.
tatsumasa Mar 4th 2010 3:21PM
why the hell would you SPEND eof on gear not designed for your class?
Mir Mar 4th 2010 3:28PM
@tatsu...if you'd ever had played a shaman, you'd know that much of the gear designed for the spec, isn't really designed for the spec. Cloth itemization > mail.
dragon_eel Mar 4th 2010 3:36PM
My boomkin has only bought cloth shoulders with emblems for a long time now. The leather ones are wothless to me.
The slight bit higher armor on leather is NOT worth the stat loss.
....... speaking of wasting emblems.... all the frost emblem trinkits are wothless for my boomkin. I would rather keep my lvl200 and lvl232 trinkits
thanks blizz for thinking of us moonkins.
Darky Mar 5th 2010 12:36AM
psht there arnt any decent embelm trinkets for dk dps except mirror of truth quit your b!tching :P
Zerbe Mar 4th 2010 2:29PM
I agreed with the 2nd question. I thought it was a bit silly for breaking down every class and what the stats mean to you. If you cant read the overall notes and figure it out, maybe you shouldnt be playing that class.
muddymudmud Mar 4th 2010 2:35PM
Honestly the Ret pally comments above are false. I play one in ICC and am constantly #1 on the DPS charts. I can pull over 10K on surfang with out the new buffs addded to the zone. This is while wearing only 251 tier and some of the BiS gear from the 1st and 2nd wing. The first time I walked in there with ToC gear I was pulling the highend of 8K. That said a Ret pally is neither over powered nor under powered. If you can play the class correctly and use all the lovely tools that Blizz gave us we can do very good dps and hold our own in high end content.
The over powered comments are very silly in regards to PvP. In BG's hunters rule the school and in high end arena we are less than perfect. One on one we used to shine until Blizzard decided to remove killing us 3 times I.E. Regular health pool>Lay on Hands> Bibble.
kevinblack16 Mar 4th 2010 3:20PM
Hey Man,
Curious to know how you accomplished this. Not that I struggle on the charts and not that I'm doing ICC, but I feel like I could be doing much higher dps then I am. Around 3k in most heroics..
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mannoroth&cn=Unionn
I know my hit rating is inflated, but other than that.. help me out.
muddymudmud Mar 4th 2010 3:54PM
Proper enchants and gemming go along way with ret. For an Idea how to do it now check out Mynameismud on the firetree server US. I can't link atm since my bandwith at work is super limited.
As for quick changes a greatness deck 90 strenght will do you some good. That is a great trinket until Deaths choice and Tiny abom in a jar. Gemming for strength is a must unless the bonus is strength and needs a yellow gem to activate. then you will use a strength and crit gem. Also use a relentless earthseige for a meta with a nightmare tier to activate it. that way you won;t need a blue gem at all.
As for a rotation in T10 i'm using Judge>DS>CS>HoJ>Consicrate>Exorcism In t9 swap DS and CS and you'll be golden.
Also check out my glyphs they are what you want to use.
Hit me up ingame if you need more help or explination.
Gen Mar 4th 2010 5:05PM
Mud is doing some things right, some things wrong.
For one, the fact that you felt the need to pay to pick up the Strength ring, ESPECIALLY considering how ridiculously far over hit cap you are is kind of rofls.
For another, your ideas about which socket bonuses are worthwhile are questionable at best.
It's generally accepted that Str/Crit gems are worth it if the bonus is -enough- Str. My minimum cut-off is usually 5, and that's stretching it. You're reaching for a lot of 4s.
Also, go read up on tossing those 4 floater points in Divine Intellect. You might be at the point where it's worthwhile.
Good enough to advise, yes, but there's always room for improvement.
Chilblain Mar 4th 2010 8:19PM
@Mud
Judgement>Divine Storm?
Thanks, asshole.
- Every tank you've ever PUG'd with.
mcmicker Mar 5th 2010 11:18AM
Hey Man,
Curious to know how you accomplished this. Not that I struggle on the charts and not that I'm doing ICC, but I feel like I could be doing much higher dps then I am. Around 3k in most heroics..
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mannoroth&cn=Unionn
I know my hit rating is inflated, but other than that.. help me out.
@kevinblack
Try looking at something like http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t68951-retribution_updated_3_3_a/
Just off the top of my head, looking at your armory I'd say you could:
-Go for tier pieces (2T9 is easy to get and boosts dps substantially)
-Use the rotation that works best with your tier
-Gem straight strength in most situations
-Enchant your gear
Also try switching up your seals/rotation for trash packs if the tank can handle the AoE damage.
Because you are mainly doing heroic runs, keep in mind that the ramp-up time on ret dps means we underperfom on short single-target fights like heroic bosses. However, ret paladins have great tools for trash. Seal of Command/DS/Cons do nice AoE DPS as long as the tank is holding aggro, and Repentance, Holy Wrath and Arcane Torrent (for us Hordies) are great to keep heroic runs going smoothly.
Offtrack Mar 4th 2010 2:37PM
I can't stand kodos. I hate them with a passion. I have over 70 mounts now and recently implemented a mount randomizer addon to make having that many more fun, but everytime I start casting any form of kodo mount I race to hit my esc button. This comes from being on a very laggy laptop with 3 fps when I first started playing. I became convinced that, since I am an overly large tauren, they run slower.
Any mounts you simply can't stand riding?
Tori Mar 4th 2010 2:40PM
Have you heard of the addon Gup Pet? It not only gives you a randomizer for minipets, but for mounts too. The best part is you can specifically select which mounts you want to include, so you could uncheck all the kodos if you wished. :)
Daco Mar 4th 2010 4:45PM
Livestock does the same thing.
Zen Mar 4th 2010 2:39PM
Yeah, that seems like its a bit high. That would mean it would only take 25 Marks to get each PVP mount instead of the current 90. I was going to try and farm the last few mounts that I need before the patch, but if those numbers are true, why bother. I'd end up better off waiting for the patch and having honor to spare for gems.
Lornicide Mar 4th 2010 2:39PM
Ok, I think I may have (maybe) finally come up w/ a Cata question that I can't find answered anywhere (if it has, sorry)....
We know that the Vanilla areas will change completely when Cata comes out. This change will affect even players that only have the Vanilla version installed.
Let's say that Cata rolls out and I don't get the CD right away (blasphmemy!), how will this affect my gameplay?