by Chase Christian

Paladins were the antonym, created to help defend their raid and party from damage and to provide useful buffs. While much of the original intentions have been diluted via homogenization, paladins are still the ultimate defensive class. Unfortunately, in order to perform our role in the face of constantly changing opponents and venues, our toolbox of abilities has become fairly large. We’ve got a utility spell for nearly every situation, and there are a vast number of situations out there. The key to being an effective paladin is to do your homework and to come prepared.

Get your buffs right

While Cataclysm is halving our Blessing count from four to two, making it incredibly simple to make sure everything is covered, we currently have quite a few different options when it comes to buffing the raid. Blessing of Might only helps physical classes while Blessing of Wisdom is only effective for classes with a mana bar. Blessing of Kings is good for everyone, and Blessing of Sanctuary is really only needed for paladin tanks and groups without a discipline priest around. With so many specific cases for each class, it can be hard to figure out what to buff. If you have enough paladins in the raid to buff all four blessings, then simply coordinate via chat or PallyPower to get all four buffs on the entire raid.

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by Chase Christian

Let’s face it, rogues don’t really have any spontaneous abilities to look forward to. Each spec has its own toolbox of cooldowns to use as soon as they’re available, and we can typically predict our actions a few steps out. We’ve been using the combo point system for so long that there’s really nothing that can surprise us. We know how energy works, and a quick look at our buff and debuff timers let us know exactly what the next step is in our priority system.

Rogues and their rotation

The basic model for rogue DPS is the rotation system, which has two core parts. We start by using techniques that generate combo points and then release those combo points in the form of finishers. We have a variety of CP generators that vary by spec, and we have a similar selection of finishers for every situation. The pacing of CP generation provides the necessary amount of DPS ramp-up requirements to ensure that we’re not too powerful in short fights, while also allowing for us to reach our peak DPS when we’re allowed to attack uninterrupted.
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by Chase Christian

I think that holy paladins have been pretty blessed this expansion, pun definitely intended. Our holy tree has been very solid throughout Wrath, and we’ve even got a few flex talents that we can use to pick up Improved Lay on Hands or even Blessed Hands. Our massive healing throughput has also made us one of the healers of choice for Anub’arak and the Lich King on heroic mode and even for bugging out Yogg-Saron’s heroic mode, as well. Our progression throughout Northrend has settled holy paladins into a pretty comfy healing niche. Even with all of the development our class has seen in the past few months, a few questions still remain.

For example, why are we still using the item level 200 Libram of Renewal instead of one of the shiny new librams from the Emblem of Frost vendor? The reason is that our old libram is too strong, and our new librams are poorly designed. Specifically, the Libram of Blinding Light just doesn’t mesh well with our playstyle. It forces us to use Holy Shock on a regular basis to keep it active and only provides extra spellpower. Of all the stats possible, spellpower is probably the one that holy paladins need the least of. What can Blizzard do to get things right the next time around?

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by Joe Perez

This week, we are going to talk about Healing Rain, a new spell obtained when a restoration shaman reaches level 83. When we first received word of the new spells and abilities during the Cataclysm class preview, there were quite a number of people who didn’t know how they felt about this new spell. Would it be good? Would it be useless? Was it really necessary? When the beta was released and the level cap moved to 83, we started to get a small idea of what the spell could do. I’ve been spending the better part of the last couple weeks testing it out in various situations, seeing how it complements the other tools in our healing arsenal.

What is Healing Rain?

Healing Rain is a new restoration shaman healing spell learned at level 83. Here are the stats:

• 46% base mana
• 30-yard range
• 2-second cast time
• 10-second cooldown
• 10-second duration
• Calls forth healing rains to blanket the area targeted by the Shaman, restoring 345 to 409 health to allies in the area every 2 sec. for 10 sec.

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by Brian Wood

While BM has come a long way in the beta, it still has not-yet-implemented talents and not-yet-functional talents. But the main problem with BM is that the pet design pass hasn’t been done yet. BM relies on its pets far more than any other spec, and until we know how the pet design will play out, we are left with big questions in our rotation.

Join me after the cut as we take a look at exactly where BM is right now, why our pets are more important than ever, why big red pet is better than ever, and why we can’t say for certain just what the final BM rotation will look like.

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by Daniel Whitcomb

With the latest build having just hit the Cataclysm beta test servers, this seems like a pretty good time to take a quick inventory of the changes, maybe say a few things about the direction that the class is heading thus far in beta. I can tell you right now that some of the latest changes are either confusing or just plain silly, and while some things are looking cool enough, we really are long overdue for another major change patch. However, before we get too hardcore into that discussion, let’s look at the latest changes.

Blood Shield Each time you heal yourself via Death Strike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Absorb increased further by mastery rating.

The blood tree mastery is pretty straightforward and also pretty nicely useful for tanking. Currently, dressed in a random array of Deepholm and Hyjal quest drops, my level 83 death knight is up to an 85 percent shield. Of course, it’s hard to say right now how much mastery endgame death tanks will need or want, but with health totals rising, the absorption shields you create with this mastery probably won’t be too shabby. Plus, it’s an active mastery, which I personally prefer, since it gives you a choice of when and how to use it, at least to a limited extent.

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by Chase Christian

I’m freshly back from slaying elementals and cultists alike in the Cataclysm beta, and I’m here to bring you some good news. I already talked about how Vanish was finally fixed and has managed to stay fixed on the beta servers. The mechanic they’re using is a two-stage process, similar to how a space shuttle launches. The first stage is a buff called (unsurprisingly) “Vanish,” which isn’t actually Stealth, but a pseudo-Stealth that keeps us out of sight. The Vanish buff only lasts for 3 seconds, at which point regular Stealth takes over. We can’t leave Stealth for those 3 seconds because we’re not actually in Stealth anyway, which is a pretty elegant way of fixing the problem.

I’m rambling again, as Vanish is fixed and you’ve already heard about it. Blizzard’s newest gift to the rogue community comes straight out of our de facto wish list, again. General mobility worries have been heard from rogues since warriors received Intecept, which is to say we’ve been complaining about it since Day One. An oft-suggested change has been halving Sprint‘s cooldown and duration, and it seems that the dev team actually took the idea to heart. As the screenshot above shows, Sprint is now on a 1-minute cooldown.

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by Gregg Reece

With the latest build, we’re finally starting to see things get a little smoother and the mechanics to make a little bit more sense. Keeping Holy Shield up is easier than in previous builds, and a lot of depth to the types of strategies we can have while tanking has greatly improved. Also, our mastery bonus has been official revealed.

These may not be the talents we’ll end up seeing when the expansion hits, but they’re getting there. Some talents will look pretty close to how they exist currently, while others have absolutely nothing to do with their current versions. Let’s go take a look.

Spec freebies

Avenger’s Shield What was once our pulling ability is now actually one of our primary rotation abilities. It still acts like it used to, but it has a 24-second cooldown

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by Dawn Moore

They say knowledge is power, right? Well, understanding how your mana regeneration works can help you out a lot when the situation calls for it. Take a look.

Activated mana regen (cooldowns) The fastest and most noticeable way to get mana back is by using an activated mana regeneration ability. They’re pretty obvious, but I’ll go ahead and scribe ‘em out for you:

• Shadowfiend A cute, cuddly creature appears and attacks an enemy target you select, returning 5 percent of your maximum mana per hit he deals.
• Hymn of Hope While twirling an exercise ball above your head, you receive 12 percent (3% x 4 ticks) of your maximum mana over 8 seconds. (That is, provided you’re starved for mana; if you aren’t one of the three players in a 40-yard range with the lowest mana pool, you won’t be targeted to receive the buff.) In this statuesque pose, you’ll contemplate titles by Ayn Rand, which incidentally raises your maximum mana by 20 percent temporarily. Take note that the 12 percent return draws from your 20 percent buffed mana pool, as opposed to your normal pool.

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