Why so.... ugly?

Patch 3.1 is spilling it's test realm goodness all over the interwebs. Some pretty interesting information is coming out. Such as the introduction of the Argent Tournament (JOUST!), and new achievements showing up. Plus more pets, and unknown to some, I love collecting pets, though I'm still nine pets short on the "Shop Smart, Shop Pet... Smart!" achievement to get my Pepe, Le Pew.

Another change is some talent tree changes for us Pallies.

- Auras will now persist through death. (Not super important, though I have forgotten to put my Frost Resist back up during a Sapphiron fight)

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

Yay, extra talent points, but is it the full 10%?

One change that I found interesting was the new "Divinity" talent at Tier 1 of the tree:

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

Yay, there went those extra talent points. I find this new talent interesting, in that 5% increased healing could make a big deal, but I'm not sure how they will calculate it. Is it based on your spellpower, or your average heal, or what? I guess it would be a decent increase for those Prot pally off tanks that have to pop out and heal something or someone, but an increase of 5% could be a decent chunk for us Holy Pallies. My current Spellpower unbuffed is at 1747, so 5% of that would be an extra 87 spell power... and that's unbuffed. It'll be interesting to see how this is calculated.

Next biggie is the introduction of Dual Specs. I'm going to love this, since I sometimes have the urge to swap to Ret to do some dailies. I had so much fun in the pre-nerf days of the Ret pally. I
tore through my Shattered Sun dailies in record time, and it was a nice change of pace. However, even after the nerf, I still had a lot of fun bashing things skulls in for once. Only downside.... saving another 1000g. That's not going to be fun, but hey, you gotta pay for convenience.

Lastly, the Paladin T8. I'm a stickler for esthetics. I like to have my paladin looking decent, since he'll be in the middle of my screen all the time. (Though right now, he's got skin tight capris with some dang goofy looking boots that just don't go high enough... guess it's the metro part of my that hides in the deep recesses of my mind that cares, but dang it, my Pally's gotta look good, haha.)

I've seen the Paladin concept art, and was excited. The chance of light and energy eminating from my gear, and a flash back to the good 'ol kilt of plate awesomeness that was the Tier 2 Judgement set. However, the latest screenshots have shown that there was no kilt, and
instead regular leggings... I did laugh at Megan from Out of Mana's post about the new look. Apparently the new leggings have been deemed the "Bulging Jock Strap of Truth", and the shoulders are now vessels for healing fluids like Robitussin. Well, like she mentioned. We'll
just have to see how it turns out. I'm looking forward to watching MMO-Champion's coverage, they've always got pretty screenshots.

Blizzard's Conspiracy against Paladins... sorta

Divine Plea. It was beautiful... and overpowered... I loved it so. However, per the tooltip, it used to cut your healing by 20%. Not too bad, workable, trinket and wings pop, and no problem. Well, with the introduction of Divine Plea, and it's mana returning goodness, came the urge for most paladins to gear more towards int, instead of the Crit and MP5 world of the Burning Crusade.

I bit that lure, and was hooked, line and sinker early on. At least until I got my first piece of Tier 7 gear. Once I looked at the stats, I was confused. T7, best at the moment for the tier level
gear, and it's got MP5?

That's when it began. I began to stockpile gear that had MP5, instead of the Int heavy gear that had been dropping, expecting some kind of conspiracy. It appeared that the developers at Blizzard knew that we would love us some int gear, and then, out of nowhere, slam us with the nerfbat, and deem us unworthy of the mana returning goodness of Divine Plea... without a price.

Suddenly there was 3.0.9, and the introduction of the 50% reduction to healing while Divine Plea was up. Basically a raid wide <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=30330 Strike</a>, that we could not get rid of, unless we had MP5 coming from other sources.
Could it be? Could Blizzard have known that they would hit us with this, and just give us our day in the sun, only to block it out with a new patch?

Ok, maybe it's not that bad, but I did find it interesting. I fell for it at first. My first run through Naxx, I had Divine Plea cooking all the time. Maybe I was paranoid, and just didn't want to run out of mana and look bad, but it didn't hit my healing abilities that bad.... and I had an ocean of mana to swim in. But I was weary, and after comparing my gear to one of our best pally healers, I thought to myself.... my MP5 is really low, and his is at a decent level. Maybe he's being paranoid like me, but I'm always one to want to go for the best, and he was the best... well that I knew.

So, I started packing in the MP5. And lucky for me, was not affected by the Divine Plea nerf. Sure I still use it, but not very often. In fact I challenged myself to go for a full run in Naxx without using it once. Though it got a bit rough after a botch up during the Grobbulus
fight, and I had to hit it once, to gain what little bit of Mana back that I could, I was able to successfully complete 3 quarters (first night) without Divine Plea. (I will admit that I've been known to use it instead of water, in between pulls, but that just doesn't count, haha.)

What are your experiences with the new Divine Plea.

A bit more RP - Anna's Friday Five

I've been reading the blog "Too Many Annas" for a while now, and along the way been picking up on her "Friday Five". I found this kind of fun, since I had already thrown together a back story (nearly 17 chapters worth) for my paladin Khraden. So, here's the latest.

Friday Five (February 20, 2009)
Can your character read and write?
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Yes. While Khraden was young, he would often accompany his father on trips to Southshore to meet with merchants and was once part of the town's city council. In addition, his father was once an officer of the Lordaeron Army, long before Lordaeron had it's "life" pulled from
it by Arthas. As once being an officer, Khraden's father, Rand Lionbringer, often met with heads of state, and was required to be able to facilitate meetings, and provide information to others, both verbally, and documented.

This was instilled in Khraden at a young age. In addition, during his training as a Paladin, it was required that he be able to read and recite the blessings of the Holy Light from ancient tomes, in order to protect those he was with.

Is he/she good with numbers and business-like things?
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To some extent. As mentioned earlier, Khraden would accompany his father on trips to Southshore to converse with merchants and leaders of the town. Since Azeroth was in a tenuous peace at the time of Khraden's childhood, and early teen years, his father had began a small crop, not much larger than some gardens, to provide for their family. What was left was sold to the merchants in Southshore in return for supplies, or a few silver. This was picked up by Khraden
during their little excursions.

Does your character have a formal (schooled) education or an informal (apprenticed/learned by experience) education? Or both?
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Initially, there was little schooling available to Khraden, as he helped his mother and father manage their home and crops. Though when the Scourge Invasion came to pass, Khraden was trained via the school of hard knocks. He learned the ways and values of a paladin early in
his military career, though it was learned on the battlefield alongside Commander Eligor Dawnbringer.

As the Sourge Invasion was fought back, Khraden was able to further hone his skills among the priesthood at the Cathedral of Light. It was here that he also met his future wife, of whom was training as well, but in the ways of a priest beneath Archbishop Benedictus.

Has he/she learned another language than the one they grew up speaking (in full or in part)?
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Khraden is fluent in Common, however has picked up some Darnassian during his travels to Teldrassil. He also has become accustomed to some of the Draenei language, as many Paladins have come from their esteemed ranks.

What does your character's handwriting look like?
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His handwriting is a bit rough, but easily readable. After so many years of battlefield experience, the skills of finer things such as writing are pushed aside a bit, but as he is constantly learning, that skill is still required.