My Paladin Crew (Currently lvl 30ish)
Hey everyone,
[Background]
So recently I decided to bench my 5-box crew of 70s Alliance Tankadin and 4 Ele Shaman. I sorta got burnt out on them a lil @70, and felt as tho the pvp was really hurtin on my faction's side. I also felt as tho my alliance realmmates didn't really warm too well to me, and the social/guild side of things was severely lacking. Who woulda thought that socialization was a factor as a 5-boxer?? LOL. Basically, I couldn't seem to find willing people/pugs/random chat to save my life. Was weird. So i scouted out the Horde side of life on my server. Whoa... right away, huge difference. HUGE difference. My 1st run to Org with my baby Shamans pretty much made up my mind to defect. Even had the resident uber-guild members commenting, enquiring, etc and generally getting mostly positive responses. So I made up my mind. Now, the coolest part was that this was roughly the very moment RAF program dropped... bingo! What luck.
My setup changed as well, as I made the important decision to no longer 5-box, but instead to 4-box. WHA?!! Why in the hell would you drop a toon PB?!! Well, as I said, I found @70 I actually missed the interaction etc. So to me, it's about balance. I want to box so I can become independant/powerful... but I still wanted to leave that 5th slot open for new friends/regulars/pug groupies. I can honestly say it was a GREAT move for me. I started out with 4x Orc Shaman, and quickly moved them along to 63 now, have them sitting in Zangarmarsh gathering rest xp. Along the way with them I've met 7 or 8 buds with whom I regularly chat with, and at one point grouped with to bang out quests etc. Almost all of them have 70s themselves, waiting for my crew to try all sorts of stuff together ;p
[/Background]
So, to the point of my post - As my Shaman rest thru the 60-70 grind I'm naturally taking advantage of RAF to do 2-3 more teams. Ive got Warlocks about done, and now I'm trying a 4 Paladin set. WOW! It's hilariously fun/challenging! So the first challenge was the fact that they're a Melee based group. I figured out how to set up some very simple, easy scrolling melee spam without too many troubles so that is no longer an issue. My 3 clone Paladins now easily follow behind my Tankadin swinging away w/o a single break in follow. Getting the hang of positioning them vs the leader took no more than an afternoon of monkeying around. I'd say it's 2nd nature at this point. In fact, cricle strafing, jump heavy melee with all 4 is fairly simple as well with my setup. Should be riots for pvp if I get there.
A few interesting things:
4 Auras:
Yeeeeah, loads up buffs/auras goes without saying, but even cooler is that I have the luxury of being able to stray each Paladin off the well worn track of standard cookie cutter specs, in an effort to maximize their abilities in my permanent premade, amirite? So... I have Improved Devo, Imp Ret, Imp Conc, and Sanc at this point, sweeet =) Will be able to situationally pull up Shadow/Fire etc on the fly fairly easily as well.
4 Blessings:
Same as Auras - I'm working towards having each Paladin specialize in useful Blessings. So far, great stuff! None of this sidetracked talent specialization will deeply affect the overall build as far as I can see.
4 Judgements:
Heeeere's what I'm talkin bout. This is where it really shines as far as I can see. Being able to drop 4 distinct judgement debuffs on a mob is aweomse! I can drop crusader, justice, light & @38 soon enough a wisdom as well. Since the constant melee x4 will refresh the judgements it's a simple pre-seal, engage, judge, combat seal and profit. For quest mobs, it's not needed at all, since a direct damage judgement (righteousness or command) opener plus a couple whacks pretty much one-shots most everything i've encountered so far. With elites/instances though I expect this to be awesome. Talent in Vindication debuff on one of the Retadins for pve stuff and it's golden.
4x other crap!:
Yeah, loads of Consecration AoE, gonna be sweet to plow through WPL, etc @50 when I get 4x Holy Wrath! How about 4x Hammer of Justice on round robin? Yup! 3x retadin heals on tank is more than enough so far at this point to keep me alive through everything. Obviously I need to make some healer friends to do higher end stuff etc heh. 4x Exorcism is decent dps even now, with non existant spellpower. 4 rezzers, bubbles, DI, etc etc. Lots of utility.
So the probs:
Major glaring hole in my setup... RANGED damage/attack. Lulz, yeah pretty much sitting ducks vs ranged attack. Be it PvE or PvP my guys need to be able to close distances ASAP to get in tight and wreck shit. We'll see how it fares in the end. How about fighting mobs that pretty much stay at range, like Vazudren etc. He can be melee'd but ugh... teh suck that will be involved.
Also, though when geared/talented properly no doubt Retadins pack a fierce punch the overal DPS of my team is never gonna be able to be measured against the Shaman I doubt. I suppose the tradeoff is being able to run a team of 4 Plate wearers finally, who if played right should be damn near unkillable!
So, there ya have it! This is the new project. When I hit 60 I will regularly update this to show what sort of instances Ive tackled as a Paladin melee team, etc.
What I'd absolutely love is some talent spec advice/opinions, specifically from those who play Retadins properly. I'm pretty much covered on the Tankadin as far as playstyle, concepts, gear etc. As for the Retadins, I understand some core basics in seals, weapon speeds, etc etc. I could really use some help in gaining better knowledge though. If you're son inclined and feel like helping how about posting your Dream Quad Paladin set of builds?
:D
Adios for now =)
PB.
