Monday 22 June 2009

Exorcism

Well, there are a lot more litle changes coming up then I have mentioned. But you all know them by now. There's one thing I am concerned about though:

Exorcism, casting time increased by 1.5 seconds (up from instant).

For max level paladins, this is a small nerf, not that big, but have you recently levelled a Paladin??? I did, so a fast recap.

Level 1: Melee, Seal of Righteousness
Level 4: Judgement of Light
Level 20: Seal of Command, Exorcism
Level 44??: Hammer of Justice
Level 50: Crusader Strike
and some where along the line you get consecration, which you will hardly be using until you get Judgement of the wise at lvl40.

Up until lvl20, Like any other class, paldin-live is simple, not to many spells, just the basics. But at lvl20 you can get Seal of Command (if specced into retribution) and exorcism. Exorcism is a very big part of your damage, normal fights go like:
first 3 seconds, 2 swings, judgement and exorcism. Half of the life of mob gone.
wait 5 seconds (around 2 melee-swings in there), cast judgement. Mob probably dead, or almost...

Normally I would open with a judgement, so exorcism has 3% more chance to crit, now I have to cast a spell for 1.5sec. So against one mob, ok, not that much of a problem..but do the math if you are against multiple mobs, or chain-pulling. Casting times sucks for melee.

Luckily the new Seal of Command will counter this a little, but what Blizzard really should do is o make Crusader Strike available earlier, around level 35 or so. It doesn't do that much damage, and we really need to have some more buttons to push around that level. 30 levels just judging will not be enjoyable.

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