Tag Archives: Paladin

Mirabelle’s story: Part 2

How Mirabelle became a Paladin

How Mirabelle became a Paladin

How Mirabelle became a Paladin

Read the first part of Mirabelle story first !

When Mirabelle grew up (not that dwarf grow really up, we should better say “when she became adult”), she began doing alcohol contests. Dwarves love alcohol contest. Regularly, they meet in a tavern and drink alcohol until they can’t drink anymore and just roll on the floor. And the last staying up is the winner.

Needless to say she won almost every time. She just lost one time. She had travelled a long time to attend the contest (in Winterspring!) . She was so tired she just fall asleep after her first drink.

One day, as she had just won another contest, a Paladin master approached her. He wanted to take advantage of her drunkenness to recruit her. She can have a very very good resistance to alcohol, but she’s not completely immune to it. So after a few pints of mirabelle’s brandy she was a bit tipsy. Such, she accepted becoming a paladin.

When she went back at home, her father was not happy learning her daughter wanted to become a paladin. He had always thought her daughter would take care of his still after he were to old to do it himself.

But after giving it a second thought, he realised that having a paladin daughter could have some advantages.

In Azeroth, Paladin have always been a sort of symbol of authority : they are strong warriors who represent the light ! Such they are often part of militia and local garrisons. As dwarves are often a bit selfish (only a bit ??), dwarf paladins used to take advantage of their authority. And most often, they used it to acquire what they value the most.

Dwarves love money and alcohol. Stills can provide them both : they have all the alcohol they want for their own consummation, and they can sell the excess to gain money.

Thus it is not uncommon to see groups of dwarf paladins stole stills from other dwarves.

That’s why all still’s possessor spend a lot of time fearing for their still. Mirabelle’s father had a big gun and 3 huge dog to keep his still, but it wasn’t enough to rest easy. In fact, Paladin have a very powerful spell called “bubultaypay” (1), that make them invulnerable and teleport them far away with their freshly stolen still. So dogs and guns are far from enough to protect you against paladins stealing your still.

Thus, after a few minutes thinking at it, Mirabelle father was very happy she became a paladin. Never paladins would dare trying to steal the still of another paladin’s father.

The day after, he gave Mirabelle his father’s old armor and sword, and she left the family house to start her new paladin’s training.

(1) French used for the famous Divine Protection + Hearthstone combinaison

Where WoW help me being a mum : Mirabelle’s story

One of the big things you do as a mum is telling stories. During my first weeks as a mum I spent a lot of time walking with Choupinette in my arms while speaking continually to put her to sleep. Unfortunately, as a newbie mum I don’t know a lot of stories yet. Thus one day I just start to tell Choupinette the story of ma newest alt, a dwarf paladin named Mirabelle (well in fact MirabĂ«l, because of course Mirabelle was already taken!). As you’ll need to know to understand the story, mirabelle is a small yellow-orange plum often used to make a brandy called… mirabelle !

Finally, after adding some improvements to the story each time I told it to Choupinette, I came with a background story I really like.

Here is the first part of the story :

How Mirabelle became Mirabelle

Mirabelle

A long time ago, in Azeroth, there was a little dwarf called Gretchen. Her father, like most dwarf, was making alcohol.

Most dwarfs are making beer, as hops grow easily in the cold mountains of Dun Morogh. But Gretchen’s father didn’t like beer that much (A dwarf can’t completely hate beer, it’s genetic!), he was making Mirabelle’s brandy. Unfortunately, Mirabelle don’t grow in the cold Mountains of Dun Morogh. That’s why Gretchen’s father had to move to Westfall. There you can cultivate about anything thanks to the mild weather.

But Gretchen’s family was the only dwarfs living in Westfall : all the other inhabitants were humans. And dwarfs are very suspicious, they don’t trust humans. (In fact, if I were a dwarf, it’s the other dwarfs I wouldn’t trust, not the other races!). Thus Gretchen’s family was like self-sufficient exiles in Westfall. It wasn’t a problem for the family, except for one thing : nobody could take care of Gretchen when both parents were busy.

One day, as Gretchen’s father was busy distilling mirabelle while Gretchen was playing beside him.

As he was looking the other side, Gretchen fell into the brandy barrel. Fortunately, her father could pull her off the barrel just in time, but since that day Gretchen’s hair turned a bright orange color, and Gretchen became immune to most alcohol effects (especially when it is mirabelle brandy!)

For then on she’s called Mirabelle by every body, and today nobody remember she was once called Gretchen.

Continue to part 2 : How Mirabelle became a Paladin

Healing as a Retribution Paladin

I healed in a raiding environment as a shaman, priest and druid. The only healing class I never had at max level was a paladin. I tried to level a paladin. A lot of times. I must have 4 or 5 lvl 20 paladins. But before WotLK, levelling a paladin was soooo boring.

But now, retribution paladins have been heavily buffed, and with some bind on account gear leveling a paladin has became incredibly easy and fast.

Thanks to these changes I finally managed to get past the level 20 with a paladin and I’m proud to present you Naohmy :

WTF ? I have a lvl 50 paladin ??

I’m glad the retribution spec is very fast for questing, but in instances, I like healing. And you know what ? Healing as retribution is a lot of fun ! Here is how I do it :

My spec :

Naohmy has a full retribution spec. At the moment, it’s a 0/0/41 spec. I think it’s a pretty common levelling spec. I just didn’t pick Improved Blessing of Might because increased running speed is great while leveling.

I picked first the talents that can help me healing : all talents which increase critical chance, Art of War, Judgement of the Wise, and I will pick Sheath of Light as soon as I can.

As you can see, the retribution tree as a lot of tools to help you while healing :

  • You’ll always have a lot of mana if you judge thanks to Judgement of the Wise
  • You have instant Flash of Light if you crit in melee.
  • You have a lot of crit. (Last time I healed, I was with a boomkin and a feral druid. I was at 20% spell crit and 23% melee crit on my judged target. That’s A LOT at low level. A lot of instant and critical Flash of Light.

For the glyphs, I have glyph of Judgement and glyph of Holy Light. It was the best available when the slots unlocked. If you are ready to change glyphs when you switch from questing to instancing, you can take Glyph of Judgement and Glyph of Exorcism (replaced by Glyph of Vengeance when you learn the spell) for questing, and you can choose between Glyph of Holy Light, Glyph of Flash of Light and Glyph of Seal of Light.

My Gear :

Of course, I’m not healing in retribution gear. As I love my alts, I get all the available bind on account gear. In my healing set I have the cloth shoulders and dress (it has spirit on it but my demo use it too), the healing mass, and the spell power and haste trinkets. As long as I can judge and melee things, I can’t go oom. Thus I just pick whatever gear has the most spell power for the other slots.

How to ?

First of all, you want to choose the right seal and the right judgement. Generally, the best is to use seal of wisdom and to judge Light. If there is another (reliable) paladin who judges Light, you can judge wisdom. You can also pick Seal of Light if you have the glyph and you don’t have any mana problem. But beware, if the tank takes heavy damage and you have to cast Holy Light, you can go oom pretty fast.

Then, you want to judge the tank target and stab it with your heally weapon. Thus :

  • you’ll get plenty of mana
  • the tank and the dps will heal themselves without you have to do anything. That’s especially great to heal the splash damage on the dps.
  • you’ll get instant Flash of Light to heal the tank without having to stop autoattacking.

There are some case you don’t want to be in melee range though. For example, if the mobs has some high damage aoe spell, or if you’re on the drakes in Sunken Temple that put to sleep some random melee target. In these case, judge the tank target and go back at max range asap.

There are some cases where you’ll have to heal more than with just your judgement of Light and Art of War procs. Prefer the use of Flash of Light if the damage is light. It is fast and cost very little mana. But if the tank health start dropping faster, cast Holy Light as soon as you can. It is a long cast, thus don’t wait until the tank is at 5% health to start casting !

Of course, don’t forget all your paladin tools :

  • Use Hammer of Justice to interrupt healing or if the tank take heavy damage, and repentance to stun a mob for a longer time. (Great if you grab aggro while healing).
  • Have Hand of Protection, Hand of Salvation and Divine Protection ready when you or one of the dps takes unwanted damage. Keep your Lay of Hands and Hand of Sacrifice for the tank if he is dying.

Well, I’m only level 50, and I don’t know if healing as retribution is still viable in Outland, but for now, healing with instant Flash of Light while stabbing stuff and jumping is a lot of fun !
That, and the recent post from the Bossy Pally about tanking with a retribution spec, and we could say that retribution is the best spec to do anything you want with your leveling paladin !