Considering new Specs (RESEARCH, SEE PAGE 2)

[Mortehl]

Guys and gals, I think the issue here is that we've made a number of assumptions over the last few months without enough experimentation.

For my part, time is running out where I'll have the freedom to play with my spec. I expect as a guild we'll only be bothering with Gruul for 4 more kills tops. The majority of the guild is so well geared at this point, T4 is just not worth the DKP.

This means that if I want to make 2 tries at a spec for comparative purposes, I can try out 2 new specs. I'm going to post them below with dates and will follow up with combat log parses for analysis by the community. I strongly encourage others to do the same in this thread.

We need to answer 2 very important questions:

1) What is the real raid value of fringe talents such as Reckoning, Ardent Defender, One Handed Specialization, Precision, and Weapon Expertise?

2) Is taking increased damage early in a fight worth increasing overall threat output from SoR and getting a 2 minute 30% armor buff?

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7/5/07: Max threat build. +Imp LoH, +Imp SoR, +20 Int, -AD, -Precision/WE, -4 Deflection

WWS Results: http://www.lossendil.com/wws/?report=gdtx51smsmm5u&a=18

7/12/07: Increased Hit build. +Imp LoH, +Imp SoR, +20 Int, +AD, +Precision, +2 WE, -Reckoning, -One Handed Weapon Spec, -4 Deflection

WWS Results:

[Mortehl]

Update:

The first build did not go well at all. Actually a good word for it is total clusterfuck. I was wtfpwnt by Gruul with the new build. Just took way too much damage. I sorely missed Ardent Defender and the 4% parry loss showed up glaringly in the later growth stages.

[Sabindeus]

This does not surprise me at all.

[Fridmarr]

And the bloated Prot tree and the fact that Deflection is a 2nd Tier Ret talent vs. T1 for Warriors is the reason why alot of paladins consider speccing out of it for improved versatility in other areas.

I'm not saying it's a terrible idea. I'm just saying that I'm not sure it's worth the sacrifice. Taking > 5% more damage all the time versus having 30% extra armour some of the time.

I can see the benefits. Just not sure it's worth it.

Well that's not worded properly, you'll get hit 5% more often, which would be better stated as 5% more damage overall. Technically that's not necessarily correct either, but it's a moot point. 5% more dmg all the time, sounds like each hit would do 5% more dmg, which of course is not the case.

Mathematically it's not sound in terms of sheer damage taken, I'm not a big believer in the proactive use of ILoH from the tank (holy pallys in the raid can use it though).