[Patch 3.2] Vindicated!
One change in Patch 3.2 I haven’t touched on yet is the change to Vindication.
As much as we like to complain when the Developers change Ret or Holy and that ends up unintentionally making it harder to tank (hello Spiritual Attunement?), sometimes we end up on the better end of the deal.
Vindication was a tricky talent for the Developers to balance, and was pretty much PVP only as most mobs and ALL bosses were immune to it.
On the PTR, Vindication has been changed to a major Attack Power reduction debuff. It is the same debuff that Warriors can put up with Improved Demoralizing Shot, Druids can put up with Improved Demoralizing Roar, and Warlocks can put up with Curse of Weakness. Vindication will not stack with those affects.
If your raid group lacks Bears, Warriors, or Warlocks, you will now have the debuff covered.
It is also worth pointing out that Paladins will probably be the best class to put this debuff up. Vindication is applied ‘on swing’. The Paladin doesn’t need to do anything special to get the debuff up. So like many of our skills, it’s a passive.
This will allow your Warlocks to use Curse of Elements, which is a better DPS curse. Your Warriors/Bears don’t have to worry about expending rage and a global cooldown to maintain Demo.
Bosses in WoW don’t use the same systems that players do. They basically have Hit points, Mana, Attack Power, and whatever their special abilities are. They also don’t use weapon damage, but instead their attacks are a positive percentage of their Attack Power. For instance, one special attack might do their Attack Power times 4.
According to Lead Developer Ghostcrawler in the Warrior Q&A posted on the Official Forums, Demoralizing Shout can account for a 20% reduction in damage taken to a tank, and up to 50% reduction in Thorim’s Unbalancing Strike. That’s very significant.
My Raid group usually runs with Tankadin/Death Knight as our two tanks. We run zero Warriors, Bears, or Warlocks. We don’t currently have access to this debuff. I’m thrilled to be able to supply it.
Most Paladin tanks are already 18 points into Retribution. All that will be required is for them to move 2 points out of the Conviction into Vindication. Crusade has been shown to be point for point better than Conviction.
As much as we like to complain when the Developers change Ret or Holy and that ends up unintentionally making it harder to tank (hello Spiritual Attunement?), sometimes we end up on the better end of the deal.
Vindication was a tricky talent for the Developers to balance, and was pretty much PVP only as most mobs and ALL bosses were immune to it.
On the PTR, Vindication has been changed to a major Attack Power reduction debuff. It is the same debuff that Warriors can put up with Improved Demoralizing Shot, Druids can put up with Improved Demoralizing Roar, and Warlocks can put up with Curse of Weakness. Vindication will not stack with those affects.
If your raid group lacks Bears, Warriors, or Warlocks, you will now have the debuff covered.
It is also worth pointing out that Paladins will probably be the best class to put this debuff up. Vindication is applied ‘on swing’. The Paladin doesn’t need to do anything special to get the debuff up. So like many of our skills, it’s a passive.
This will allow your Warlocks to use Curse of Elements, which is a better DPS curse. Your Warriors/Bears don’t have to worry about expending rage and a global cooldown to maintain Demo.
Bosses in WoW don’t use the same systems that players do. They basically have Hit points, Mana, Attack Power, and whatever their special abilities are. They also don’t use weapon damage, but instead their attacks are a positive percentage of their Attack Power. For instance, one special attack might do their Attack Power times 4.
According to Lead Developer Ghostcrawler in the Warrior Q&A posted on the Official Forums, Demoralizing Shout can account for a 20% reduction in damage taken to a tank, and up to 50% reduction in Thorim’s Unbalancing Strike. That’s very significant.
My Raid group usually runs with Tankadin/Death Knight as our two tanks. We run zero Warriors, Bears, or Warlocks. We don’t currently have access to this debuff. I’m thrilled to be able to supply it.
Most Paladin tanks are already 18 points into Retribution. All that will be required is for them to move 2 points out of the Conviction into Vindication. Crusade has been shown to be point for point better than Conviction.
I'm really happy to see Paladin's getting the ability to put up this important debuff, but it does make you wonder why Death Knights are now the only tank without the ability to put it up. Death Knight/Death Knight doesn't seem like it would be a very common tanking set up, but I see no reason to penalize it.
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