Deputy Moonman said:
Yeah this is true, and I can see why people would consider it boring. Though, for some reason it doesn't really bother me.
I was looking over everything a paladin gets for a dps rotation while leveling and you're right, it's practically nothing. You get your first judgment at level 4, then consecration at level 20. Other than new judgements, those 2 abilities are your only offensive abilities, excluding hammer of wrath and hand of reckoning (not really dps abilities) until level 50 and 60 when you pick up crusader strike/divine storm, or avengers shield/hammer of righteousness, depending on whether you go ret or prot. Well I guess holy wrath at 50 also. Still it's not very much. Auto-attack ftw!!
So I've been doing random instances like crazy and right now I'm stuck in the maraudon instance atm with an occasional trip to ZF. This wouldn't be so bad, but for some reason people always want to go farther than the first 1 or 2 bosses, depending on whether you start on purple or orange side. They don't understand that the mob levels go up to 47-48 as you get further into the instance and we're sitting there in a group with mostly 41-42 levels. I just want to rinse and repeat for the satchel of helpful goods.
Ok, perfect topic - I made a Paladin, played him to lvl 5.
Crusader Strike is sex. really, it is. It changes everything from lvl 1 on. The holy power is great, because you gain 1,2,3 for each strike, and then it lasts 30 seconds, sort of like the old seals, remember?
So you got the bread and butter, and then the first healing spell you get(glory) is awesom. basically it heals based on your holy power, which means to do the best healing you have to be fighting, which means that paladin will finally be the frontline fighters AND healers. Very nice.
Crusader Strikes reminds me of a Heroric strike that doesnt suck. It does have a 4 sec CD, but you could almost spam it instantly. it feels like it hits hard, and then you get automatic holy power just by using it, and then you feel motivated. its like a psychological self buff that just awards you for pressing 2.
It's such a basic thing, but it made it so much more fun. Then you get Judgement at four, which unleashes the holy power - So its like, you use crusader strike 3 times, then the judgement. It's like 40% more fun has been added. And thats at lvl 5. I liked it.
I then made a premade lvl 80 Paladin(BE) - My take on it was that the Retribution tree was great. It was really good, but I had a few issues.
Basically I was like a kid in a candy store - I got the instant attack just for taking the tree, < templars verdict, and that in combo with crusader strike, HoJ, concencrate, devine storm.. wow. It felt like you had much more fun and faster tools like a Warrior. Instant stuff.
I disagree with the comments on the forum about it being complicated. The holy power thing is easy to get, and it feels like a combo of vanilla paladin design and the rogues combo stacking, in a more simple form - but still remains elegant. I really like this new Paladin, so far.
Man, everything is bugged. NPCs dont work, but I got a tell that someone could train their skills when dropping one of their tradeskills
I had lots of graphics bugs - water dont really work, textures randomly dissapear, npcs dont respond to lots of stuff. you non-select anything.
I did a quick tour around -
It is really cool to see it from the air(the whole old world...) but it also reveals to things:
1)from what I have seen so far, the changes to the world itself are not that different. The quests might be(wouldnt know) but in quite a few aspects it overall looks like itself, but on the other hand, seeing it all from the air - it sorta makes you realise what a crazy amount of stuff there is.
I ended up in some place between two zones, and there was this big room between mountain groups.. and it was just this bare land. It really made me feel like the world is bigger than ever before. Orgrimmar and Stormwind are really cool. No hatin on these.
Darnassus and Ironforge.. couldnt see anything new. Im not fan of either and wouldnt mind seeing both go.
I couldnt make a Worgen. when you make one, and press ok it just pops up with a msgs saying "FAILURE":lol
I actually think the character panel is overkill. from pressing C, you get insane amount of info, including scrolling. i would change the order at least. you have to scroll down to see your armor. as a melee man i dont like this, but its just a petty UI thing. Prob will change.
human starting zone was fun. Seeing Varian from lvl 1. clicking on him, he goes "stormwind is rebuild" and stuff like that. it gets the point across that he really is the next power man of the human faction. nice.
The Orcs you fight at lvl 3 are pretty nice, almost to bad ass for lvl 3. I left a feedback saying they should put in peons or something and save does black orc raiders for something later as they were to awesome! You gotta scale the heroric feeling
A graphics thing that sorta made me sad that they havent implanted(but still time) is new skyboxes. I didnt see any of the awesome Outland/Northrend skyboxes... its still the old palettes with the square clouds
Water is also in disarray.. in a sense it looks better, but actually almost more dead. it looks more like muckery(spelling?) than water... it needs some friction, motion or movement. like dripple or traction effects at the shore. its completely still which makes it look like rubber ice.
the system requirements took quite a hit, and this was with shadows off. i normally run the game 1920x1200(i think it is) with 4 multisampling and shadows on full, and i get 30-40 fps in SW/Dalaran. No problems.
But here I had to lower it to 1366x800(or something like that.. the wide rez with the 1366) and lower all my settings. might be my imac driver that screws up.
The Sunshift effects was cool, but I could only really feel the effect when flying into the sun and seeing my mounts wings moving across the light beams.
the draw distance took a notch up. a good notch. that was awesome. when flying over orgrimmar, i could actually see a lot of mount hyjal, which was cool. seeing the tree itself. yeah I really like the added draw distance. if they could push it even more it would be incredible. it defintely already has a performance hit, but in a cool way.
Goblins look great. great animations. its so much better than the old ones. they need upgrades when you flat out compare them!
I think thats it for now. Nice with the old loading screen
no music to speak off... I just listened to california gurls hundreds time on repeat, so it wouldn't have made much of a difference!
