10 things I wish I knew earlier...

Hey guys

I was just thinking about how much I learnt playing a paladin and most of it through sites like Cromfel's. I'm not a great theorycrafter but I try and get the gist of what the point is. Also yes I'm alliance so this is written from an alliance viewpoint (sorry Belfs). Anyway... here are my top 10 things I wish I knew earlier!

1. Get Hit Capped

It seems counter intuitive at first. 'But if I stack hit, I miss out on other stats like Strength and Crit!'. As a general rule, getting ~95 hit (with the Precision talent) is extremely important as it will stop misses in PvE raids (but not dodges or parries). Missing autoattacks means you also miss the chance to proc Seal of Command. Its one of the biggest contributors to your dps. The Cenarion Expedition head enchant 'Glyph of Ferocity' is a great place to start.

2. Install Omen

Its a threatmeter so you can monitor your threat against the tanks. It boggles the mind that controlling your threat is such a huge part of PvE and yet Blizz didn't think it was necessary to include it as a standard feature in the UI and instead left it to 3rd parties.

3. Install Pally Power

It doesnt matter if you are Ret, Holy or Prot, the Pally Power mod saves a big headache caused by organising buffs. The main advantage of Pally Power is that a raid leader (preferably a pally) can setup and assigning buffs remotely. You can also see who has spent talents improving their buffs (i.e. taking improved might), and allocate the responsibility for that buff accordingly.

4. Stength > Attack Power

With 5/5 in Divine Strength, 1 point of strength = 2.2 Attack Power. So if you're thinking about whether to socket a +8 Strength Gem or +16 Attack Power, the +8 Strength Gem wins hands down.

5. Use Rank 1 Seal of Command (if Alliance)

I'm always watching my measly mana pool, and prefer to use Rank 1 Seal of Command. The only difference between Rank 1 SoC and the Rank 6 SoC is that the judgements do less damage with Rank 1. The SoC melee attack procs are the same.

6. Get a swing timer

A swing timer basically shows you the time between swings. It helps you to time your attacks so that you maximise your autoattacks and SoC procs by not judging at the wrong time. Quartz is a popular mod for this.

7. Pot

Bring your mana pots and use them! We need mana for our attacks like Crusader Strikes, and don't feel guilty about potting to keep putting out the damage. Casters do it, and so should we.

8. Stacking intellect is a waste in PvE

You should be gearing like an Arms warrior. Treat intellect like a bonus stat, a nice to have so long as it doesn't take away from your other stats. That said, I do like a bigger mana pool in PvP as we have to put up with Hunter Viper Stings, mana burns, and the fact that our mana regeneration is downright pathetic.

9. Windfury is godly

When you get the chance to group with a Shaman and they are nice enough to drop windfury, you will see the difference. Because we swing a big two hander, the extra attack a windfury proc makes has a much greater impact on our dps than say a fury warrior or a rogue where it would only proc a one-handed weapon. It took me ages to actually see the difference because I didn't realise....

10. If you get Windfury DO NOT USE WEAPON BUFFS

That includes sharpening stones, wizard oils, weightstones, mana oils etc. This removes the windfury effect. If you do get grouped with a shaman and already have a weapon buff, simply right click on the weapon buff in your top right hand corner to get rid of it.

That's it... if I screwed up something or didn't reference someone... well don't sue me.

Kthxbai

Rex