Hey everyone! It’s been awhile, and hell it feels like forever for me. That’s right, I’m back! I’ve been on quite the adventure, and still am for the most part. I really really appreciate all the e-mails I got before I left, and all the people who offered their help, input and assistance. For those who don’t know, I went off to boot camp; For 8 weeks I went through what people would refer to as hell. Looking back, it’s not that bad, but it sure was crappy. It’s exactly as people show it on TV, you feel like dirt, you look like ass. People constantly yelling, 3 min to eat a meal, constantly learning, constantly worrying about not making it, being kicked out for something that isn’t one of your strengths. Even smiling. But from this, they build everyone back up and you feel like so much more after your done. You appreciate the world a lot more as well. Now here I am, getting trained at Goodfellow as an Intelligence unit.
That’s my story, for now I’m still here, I have my computer, and internet back, and while my course is hard, I’ve made some time for WoW. I’m picking my stuff up again and plan on hitting the arenas asap. Funny thing, some of the people here are really into WoW, and have a lot of information that hasn’t gotten to MMO-Champion and such sites yet, so be sure to check us out for insider information coming up. I feel like I should talk about something, since I’ve missed spilling beans about shit. I’m sure all of you have seen and played with the dungeon system now, and I personally think it’s awesome. The loot rolling is kinda iffy sometimes, like if you are a leveling warrior and a rogue doesnt want a piece of leather that has some monster stats on it, it’s a bit of a pain to get that item to you. But still. Changes to come that we’ve been hearing about;
-Health pools are aiming to hit 100,000hp+
-Damage is going to scale but not as much as health will. This is going to help smooth pvp out.
-The “path of the titans” will really start to have your character be specifically different. Even with a cookie cutter spec, this will make user choice even more interesting. You can expect theory crafters to hit this stuff just as hard as they hit talents.
-”Path of the titans” will at the moment, add some new spells, not just add things to your spells.
-Outlands isn’t changing much, if at all, at this point in time. (Meh)
-A lot of you are talking about consecration being too important in the ret rotation, this is being looked at again. Hints about AE tanking and how they are toning it down might help…
-Many people are worried about the PvP seasons (1st and 2nd of cata) they are going to try to let resilience be more accessible at earlier brackets to prevent this. Early on, class balance in Wrath and resilience made things a lot more unstable then originally intended.
That’s pretty much what I was told today by some people of a bit more importance then me around here. But, I mean, let’s get on point; Paladins, paladins, paladins. I see a lot of people really making something of themselves as Ret in wrath, but how do they feel? I don’t think it has the same magic feel as it used to, and it still feels a bit spammy.
The change to Art of War helped a lot, but the Crusader Strike/Divine Storm/Judgment rotation of spam still feels just, well a bit of button smashing. The classes that tend to be more fun seem to have a bit more involved, at least even to setup their main rotation. This is something I hope just happens to get fixed in Cataclysm, because it doesn’t seem hard to do. In Burning Crusade, seal twisting and swing timing was very important to any to tier paladin, and if not seal twisting then atleast watching the swing timer was. Now, There isn’t so much of that. Instead, it seems how fast you react to the situation at hand is all you need. While I believe some paladins surpass the skillful paladins of BC, some don’t know what Burning Crusade was like, and fall short of understanding what the class was, and what it has transformed into.
Many people agree, the seal system is still lack luster. Some think that it feels so passive (no interaction with the damage the seals deal) and some feel that it just doesn’t reflect the original idea of what a seal is. All in all, my paladin is as Requital put it “Ret is still a niche talent spec/class type”. I agree, hopefully, though, that doesn’t last too long. Retribution has had a lot of attention in this expansion, a few touch ups should do it good. Now that I’m caught up with what I’ve missed, I’ll be more active on these boards, promise. As for Megaphone and all my other friends, I appreciate you holding down the forts in various areas.
-Slayton
March 14th, 2010 - 11:30 am
Great to see that you’re back man! Welcome home
March 14th, 2010 - 12:37 pm
omg its slayton. Good to see you back man. Hope you are doing good.
March 14th, 2010 - 12:37 pm
Welcome Back!
March 14th, 2010 - 1:06 pm
Holy mamajama, its slayton! Welcome home!
March 14th, 2010 - 1:14 pm
Welcome back, Slay. =)
You lost all your hair!!
March 14th, 2010 - 2:08 pm
WB brother!
March 14th, 2010 - 2:43 pm
Hello, good first to say that I am glad that estes of return!!!
My Englishman is not so good since I belong to a servant EU I hope that you understand it, queria to know if you continue in the servant who was vis maior and if you continue with Slayton’s name
Good a greeting.
March 14th, 2010 - 2:59 pm
Welcome back Slayton
March 14th, 2010 - 5:43 pm
Welcome back, Slayton.
The boys you left in charge have done a fantastic job of advancing the plight of the paladin, which isn’t as bleak as it used to be.
I don’t think the rotation is spammy, it’s more a case of disorganised. I PvP as Ret and for PvE I tank. However, I have discovered that Ret Rotations, if they exist, are still based on First Come First Served. I’m probably missing the point somewhere, but I’m not fussed.
And yes, Boot Camp is hell to go through but afterwards, you realise that you’re much tougher for it, and it wasn’t all that bad. The ability to look back at Boot Camp and realise it wasn’t so bad is a sign of how much tougher you become.
March 14th, 2010 - 6:26 pm
Commander Shepard.
Just kidding. WB.
March 14th, 2010 - 8:23 pm
Hail to the king baby!
I look forward to seeing your opinions on what’s happening in the world (of warcraft). Lots has changed and I’m sure lots more will follow.
March 14th, 2010 - 9:35 pm
Welcome back man, good to have you around again =)
March 15th, 2010 - 1:55 am
oh…my…god. I’m an instructor at goodfellow, saw that picture and was thinking oh those dorms look familiar…..
lol welcome to techschool! I hope I don’t teach you
March 15th, 2010 - 7:03 am
Welcome back man! glad to see you again!
March 15th, 2010 - 10:33 am
Man it good to have u back and did u change ur name because i cant find u in armory.
welcome back =)
March 15th, 2010 - 10:42 am
Interesting rumours/speculation you have there Slayton
Let’s hope Retribution becomes a bit more..well..fun in Cataclysm
Welcome home
March 15th, 2010 - 11:20 am
Welcome back, Slayton! Great to have you home and thank you for your service!
March 15th, 2010 - 5:39 pm
You’re surprised people in an AF intelligence squadron play wow? If I were you, I wouldn’t touch this game while trying to learn everything the AF has to offer.
SSgt USAF
Voice Network Systems Craftsman.
March 16th, 2010 - 3:53 am
Nice hardguy look in the mirror there, sizzle chest. Have fun killing foreigners when you’re not Retting it up in WoW.
March 16th, 2010 - 6:09 am
When i got back from my 1st deployment i was actually playing wow more overseas then when i came home. I agree slayton needs to lear what he can, but im a firm believer on R&R, sooo on ur day off open a window and let the bg pwning begin!
You would be suprised at the people in the military that play wow. I was stationed at Ft. Poke for a short time and found a gaming lounge to hang out in and over 90% of em played. I was shocked at the amount i have seen every station i go 2.
March 16th, 2010 - 7:09 am
Everyone knows, whether they admit it or not, that wow requires hours of your time to remain “good”. Whether it be raiding a couple hours here and there trying to get rep ring/BiS trinket drops/etc or doing BG dailies or even doing long play sessions of arena, it requires time, setting schedules with players to play, etc. If you don’t have anything big going on thats fine, but this kid is in tech school. Playing games is fine but we all know how additive wow and mmos in general can be, even when wow comes off as being “casual friendly”.
Slayton if you read this, its not that i’m trying to bash you but it’s just my way of saying be careful. Reading some previous articles you wrote before seemed like you were addicted a bit to this game back in S4, etc. You’re in tech school, you’re gonna have a blast there. Try not to get too addicted to the game again. I admit that I struggled for a good year at an older base and postponed a lot of college just because i was lazy and i’m glad I got out of the rut but some people aren’t that lucky. I bet a lot of people who read this are actually highly addicted to the game and wish to get help (I can link some sites that can get you started on wow addiction if someone feels they need it btw.)
March 16th, 2010 - 9:18 am
The thing that sucks is that I feel ret can be one of, if not the most unforgiving DPS specs for people with bad computers. Since it’s about hitting the right ability as fast as you can when it’s off CD… if you have bad lag or your dinosaur computer renders horribly in 25 man content (cough <—–), then you have this cap on your DPS that will only allow your to do so well until you get a decent machine.
March 16th, 2010 - 11:26 am
For all those giving me a heads up, I appreciate it, but let me assure you, I’m putting 100% effort in my schooling before anything else. All of you are right, WoW is a dangerous game to play while having such an opportunity on my hands but, I knew that coming back into this, and I will be watching my step. I’ve already taken precautions in case my grades become affected.
I also appreciate all the warm welcomes back
March 16th, 2010 - 12:04 pm
I don tthink slayton will fall off the horse. I have 1x, but i quickly went cold turkey. Its easy to do, but im excited to see himbac kadn look forward to more videos and a old school ret around =)
Mabye he will kick the prot spec threads =)
March 16th, 2010 - 2:18 pm
Slayton!
are you coming back to bonechewer?
March 16th, 2010 - 6:10 pm
Welcome back Slayton !
March 16th, 2010 - 6:55 pm
Welcome back Slayton.
Hofflerand’s been trying to pick up the slack you and all the major paladins left behind in the ret aspect, and he’s done great. But it’s nice to have you back! Looking forward to anything you plan to produce
All hail Slayton!
(good luck in tech school!)
March 16th, 2010 - 9:55 pm
Well i hafta say ret is in the position where you can fit 1-2 in a raid no matter what, which feels pretty good. And you dont feel like your shit, except on heroic putricide.
March 17th, 2010 - 11:07 am
The Legend! Welcome back man.
March 17th, 2010 - 4:55 pm
Hey Slayton, great to have you back! Great post, looking forward to seeing your content to come! In regards to our beloved Ret Paladins, facerolling DPS isn’t quite as elementary as it used to be with some T9 and T10 tier bonuses and gear/gem combinations, but it’s still not near challenging enough. The fact that we haven’t really been touched in the last couple patches would lead me to believe Blizz is temporarily happy with where we are at. Can’t wait for Cataclysm info to start trickling in. That’s where the real changes begin for me!
March 17th, 2010 - 8:16 pm
Slayton! Glad to see you went intel (imagery). I hope what we had talked about last year helped. If there is anything you need help with send me an e-mail.
-SSgt Bailey
March 19th, 2010 - 1:36 am
Hey, glad to have you back!
You look really good!
-Sam
March 19th, 2010 - 11:45 am
Slayton, must say i picked up on the site since youve been gone, but ive become quite a fan, the people you left around have done amazingly, and i have to say ive learned alot. Good luck playing and keeping the grades up ( wow is just so much more exciting!0
March 19th, 2010 - 4:43 pm
Welcome back!
March 19th, 2010 - 9:05 pm
Gratz on joining the USAF! I’m also enlisted. Hit me up at eric.lexa@gmail.com
March 19th, 2010 - 9:11 pm
Forgot to add, Burning Legion needs more good Rets.
March 20th, 2010 - 5:16 pm
LMAO I’ve been reading this blog for a bit and I find it hilarious that I left Goodfellow AFB on march 11th 2010 and thats basically when you got there. Good luck man It is quite the bitch of a base. I just hit operational over here in Creech and let me tell you, it is so laid back after tech schoool. I’m 1n0x1. Just avoid the ropes at all costs. haha as a former one I can tell you that the amount of time it consumes is nowhere near the pain in the asses you have to deal with.
March 22nd, 2010 - 11:49 am
Man, am I ever late.
Hey Slayton. It’s REALLY good to have you back. You’ve probably never seen me around.
March 23rd, 2010 - 12:29 am
Hey man, SrA in the Air Force here, good to know you are doing well. Hopefully getting a line for staff this test cycle, wish me luck lol
March 25th, 2010 - 12:25 am
-bows down-