Cataclysm: The Ret Paladin- AKA Multi-Box Burst PVP Machines.

[Shodokan]

I think people are vastly overestimating the power of howling blast. Yes it is good, on a single character the spell is NOT BROKEN OR OVER POWERED at level 85! Only when we combine multiples of the class will it become that. Blizzard is not going to nerf an ability because a few multi-boxers are raping people with an otherwise balanced ability. If that were the case chain lightning, lava burst and a bunch of other moves would have been nerfed to the ground as well.

[Mercbeast]

I think people are vastly overestimating the power of howling blast. Yes it is good, on a single character the spell is NOT BROKEN OR OVER POWERED at level 85! Only when we combine multiples of the class will it become that. Blizzard is not going to nerf an ability because a few multi-boxers are raping people with an otherwise balanced ability. If that were the case chain lightning, lava burst and a bunch of other moves would have been nerfed to the ground as well.

Ya, I agree with this. HB right now at 80 is insane for a single DK. At 85 it isn't at all. I really can't see HB nerfed JUST because of a small cadre of multi-boxed DK's. It is the cumulative power of HB that makes the team and for me it isn't even the AoE aspect. It is just the ranged component of it.

[heyaz]

Ya, I agree with this. HB right now at 80 is insane for a single DK. At 85 it isn't at all. I really can't see HB nerfed JUST because of a small cadre of multi-boxed DK's. It is the cumulative power of HB that makes the team and for me it isn't even the AoE aspect. It is just the ranged component of it.

That brings up the question, is anyone running this comp in beta or is all the speculation about this being a good comp based on multiplying an insane ability at 80 x4? If it's more in balance for a single DK at 85 then it seems that it'd be less devastating for the whole comp as well.

[Svpernova09]

That brings up the question, is anyone running this comp in beta or is all the speculation about this being a good comp based on multiplying an insane ability at 80 x4? If it's more in balance for a single DK at 85 then it seems that it'd be less devastating for the whole comp as well.

Having done some PvP @ 85 w/ the first blue PvP set premades:

Burst isn't going to win matches @ 85. Unless they really change some mechanics across the board. Most PvP matches are a lot longer and require multiple CDs to line up to kill someone. It's going to be a focused assault with fast swaps to force healers to get behind and panic and use their fast, mana expensive heals to save someone. While stacked HBs may throw a lot of pressure on a single person, keep in mind inflated health values @ 85. In the blue PvP set I was running ~122k HP as a priest (self buffed)

[Fat Tire]

Having done some PvP @ 85 w/ the first blue PvP set premades:

Burst isn't going to win matches @ 85. Unless they really change some mechanics across the board. Most PvP matches are a lot longer and require multiple CDs to line up to kill someone. It's going to be a focused assault with fast swaps to force healers to get behind and panic and use their fast, mana expensive heals to save someone. While stacked HBs may throw a lot of pressure on a single person, keep in mind inflated health values @ 85. In the blue PvP set I was running ~122k HP as a priest (self buffed)

Yup.

Anyone relying on burst to get kills in cata is theroycrafting too much. CC and mana are what is going to get kills. Given that most CC is 40 yards, anyone has done arena on beta can tell you that is pillar to pillar in nagarand. That is how large the CC field is now, not to mention 4k resilience in S9.

Also, people who are relying on burst kills in these new rated BGS are in for a world of hurt. They are not pugs even though they are pugs you can expect healers galore on every team and pve tank spec classes(200k+) in both wsg/AB and even eots games, maybe not at the start of cata but I am willing to bet a month or two and we will see /2. Need pve tank for wsg, pst. Cant wait to see a 4dk/healer team try to take down a tank with 2-3 healers, it just isnt going to happen. Unless you have CC on his healers, but they can all dispel now, doh. Hell 1 frost mage can control a nicely packed group of melee by themselves, if not just keep them in combat while they waddle along trying to catch up. Not to mention the 22k ice lances mage are going live with.
Imo if I see a 4-5 boxer on the other team, its a free win.

[Shodokan]

Yup.

Anyone relying on burst to get kills in cata is theroycrafting too much. CC and mana are what is going to get kills. Given that most CC is 40 yards, anyone has done arena on beta can tell you that is pillar to pillar in nagarand. That is how large the CC field is now, not to mention 4k resilience in S9.

Also, people who are relying on burst kills in these new rated BGS are in for a world of hurt. They are not pugs even though they are pugs you can expect healers galore on every team and pve tank spec classes(200k+) in both wsg/AB and even eots games, maybe not at the start of cata but I am willing to bet a month or two and we will see /2. Need pve tank for wsg, pst. Cant wait to see a 4dk/healer team try to take down a tank with 2-3 healers, it just isnt going to happen. Unless you have CC on his healers, but they can all dispel now, doh. Hell 1 frost mage can control a nicely packed group of melee by themselves, if not just keep them in combat while they waddle along trying to catch up. Not to mention the 22k ice lances mage are going live with.
Imo if I see a 4-5 boxer on the other team, its a free win.

I currently do about 35k damage PER ABILITY USED on my 4x dk + holy paladin (@ 80)... and shaman lightning bolt hits for like 10k per non crit.... what problem are we going to have taking down 2 healers and a tank? Honestly the only healer with more than 85k life to start are paladins, so we will be able to kill them in 2 globals because of NS (as a dk team) or a single lavaburst (as a shaman team)... will the tank kill one of our characters in 2 globals? fuck no, and we have a healer for it anyway. Not to mention BE silence for anti-heals for 3 seconds that's enough time to throw out 3 howling blasts which apply pressure to the entire group, and likely kill someone... hell right now my howling blasts non crit are around 8k... which means i'm throwing out 32k damage in a single button press. Also if it is 3v5 and it's 2 healers + X vs me... i'm going to help kill with exorcism, the 1 character can't global anyone, or even kill someone in 5 attacks... you can kill one of them and then heal your damn toon they attack.

I'm not saying boxers are going to rape everything, and i'm not saying we don't have problems. But we certainly are not sitting ducks like you describe. I PvP'd during beta too, and the health pool to damage ratio isn't changing for boxers, it's getting better for us even in comparison to what it was at the middle of WOTLK when we were strongest.

It really depends on your teammates and your skill level/reaction time. Right now i'm talking to lafu(wrathful glad, and one of the top dks in the world) and a few of the pvpers in excessive gaming as well as in Skill-Capped about making groups, for the most part they think it will work very well... but then again what do top rated pvpers know about pvp?

If a mage can get away from 4 deathgrips + slowed movement speed, then he deserves to kill you.

[Svpernova09]

...Honestly the only healer with more than 85k life to start are paladins...

People won't be under geared for long. And this is a pretty low assumption about a fresh 85.