Spec Quest
Patch 2.3 brings in 3 new talents for Paladins that look very attractive.
I consider this a "must have" talent, not so much for the Expertise (which is nice), but for the 10% Stamina.
This is a really nice talent. More crit would be more DPS and bosses dying faster.
And finally, we have:
This is basically like have a 3% chance to Dodge a spell.
My current build is a standard 0/49/12. These talents represent 11 new points. I don't feel like I had much fluff or nonessential talents in my 2.2 build.
The first choice is rather simple. Goodbye Reckoning, Hello Combat Expertise!
After that it gets much more complicated. For the moment, I'm going to decide to forgo Pursuit of Justice. 3% is a very low percentage and it's essentially a proc and therefore unreliable. I'd probably have the boss miss me when I'm at full health and not miss when I'm at 5% and need about a half second more before the big heal lands.
Improved Crusader is the rub.
I could try to cherry pick the points, and go 4/5 in some talents to still get the benefit of those talents, just not the full benefit. For instance, go 1/2 Spell Warding, 2/3 Precision, and 4/5 Anticipation.
I could try dropping Precision, or drop Spell Warding and going 2/3 Improved Crusader for a 2% Crit boost instead of 3.
The last option would be not getting Improved Crusader. Will 2 or 3% be noticeable to the raid? If a DPSer has a 20% crit rating, he's not going to know if he crit because of my buff or his own gear.
I need to go ahead and respec for Combat Expertise. So what I'm thinking trying first is taking 1 point from Spell Warding, 1 point of Precision, and 1 point of Anticipation, to get the full Improved Crusader. I will try it out Thursday in Tempest Keep on our Void Reaver attempts.
I'm probably going to pull a "Rob" here and take several attempts to get it right.
I consider this a "must have" talent, not so much for the Expertise (which is nice), but for the 10% Stamina. This is a really nice talent. More crit would be more DPS and bosses dying faster.
And finally, we have:
This is basically like have a 3% chance to Dodge a spell.My current build is a standard 0/49/12. These talents represent 11 new points. I don't feel like I had much fluff or nonessential talents in my 2.2 build.
The first choice is rather simple. Goodbye Reckoning, Hello Combat Expertise!
After that it gets much more complicated. For the moment, I'm going to decide to forgo Pursuit of Justice. 3% is a very low percentage and it's essentially a proc and therefore unreliable. I'd probably have the boss miss me when I'm at full health and not miss when I'm at 5% and need about a half second more before the big heal lands.
Improved Crusader is the rub.
I could try to cherry pick the points, and go 4/5 in some talents to still get the benefit of those talents, just not the full benefit. For instance, go 1/2 Spell Warding, 2/3 Precision, and 4/5 Anticipation.
I could try dropping Precision, or drop Spell Warding and going 2/3 Improved Crusader for a 2% Crit boost instead of 3.
The last option would be not getting Improved Crusader. Will 2 or 3% be noticeable to the raid? If a DPSer has a 20% crit rating, he's not going to know if he crit because of my buff or his own gear.
I need to go ahead and respec for Combat Expertise. So what I'm thinking trying first is taking 1 point from Spell Warding, 1 point of Precision, and 1 point of Anticipation, to get the full Improved Crusader. I will try it out Thursday in Tempest Keep on our Void Reaver attempts.
I'm probably going to pull a "Rob" here and take several attempts to get it right.
Comments
For a 25-man, I think that Improved JotC is pretty much a "required debuff" - 3% crit to everything is an awful lot, and will definitely be noticeable.
It's not a tanking talent though (the crit will help Bears quite a bit, and Warriors some, but doesn't help your threat-gen at all).
I would prefer to see either a full-Ret or "shockadin" spec Pali provide the debuff, as it fits much better into both of those specs. If neither one is available, then I think you have to take it (but not like it).
For smaller groups/10-man raids, you're likely to be judging Wisdom most/all of the time, so the points are wasted there.
My first instinct for a new Tankadin spec would be 0/51/10, keeping Reck. The points for CE would be stolen from Kings, Spell Warding, and Imp. Judgment.
(I'd like to see threat-gen #s for Reck vs ImpJudge, remembering to take into account mana returns from JoW)
If you need to provide IJotC, then drop Reck for that (and probably ImpJudge) - you're missing SW and BoK then, but I think that's better than swiping single points from the base talents.
The CE points definately come from Reck.
I'd love a Ret Paladin to provide the iJotC buff. As soon as I find one, I'll let you know.
I'd still need Kings for smaller groups where you won't have another Paladin. It's sort of expected that you have it as a Paladin.