#0 - Oct. 16, 2007, 4:52 p.m.
Hey everyone,
I’m posting this thread because I feel we need a place where we can all communicate about the Season 3 Retribution gear and gather our ideas cohesively. I thought it would be best to have something we could stand behind, something we can all support. Someone mentioned that the developers will notice a multi-page thread moreso than a bunch of threads with only 2-3 replies, so let’s try and give them that. Let’s get started…
Blizzard, you screwed up. Not only have you broken promises related to talent trees and spec. viability, you have also dropped the ball when it comes to itemization. You promised us at Blizzcon, and I quote, “…stat distribution will be changed for the Paladin -- totally agree. Reliance on Spell Damage specifically will be lessened.” Not only have you not done as you promised, you have actually made our gear worse. In Season 3, we will have lower strength than our Season 2 counterparts. We will also have nearly the same stamina, intellect, and critical strike rating. While these stats have been beaten horrendously with the nerf-bat, we have also had a few increases that we don’t need: spell damage and armor penetration. In this process, we gained one valuable stat – resilience. All in all, the lowest DPS class in the game will have even lower damage when they upgrade to Season 3 gear due to a loss in strength, and it will fall even farther behind in arena matches since every other class in the game is gaining both damage stats and defensive stats (stamina, specifically) while we are not.
Here is a comparison of stats for you to analyze:
------------Season 2----------Season 3----------Net----------
Strength:.....162.....................133...................-29
Stamina:.....246.....................253...................+7
Intellect:......113.....................119...................+6
Resilience:...0.......................160.................+160
Sp. Dmg:....153.....................154...................+1
Hit Rating:....0.........................36...................+36
AR Pen:........0........................252.................+252
As you can see, we did gain a lot of stats. Some we needed (Resilience/Hit Rating), some we didn’t (AR Pen/Spell Damage). Obviously, with our gain in so many stats, we had to sacrifice something else. However, Blizzard completely missed the point and sacrificed the wrongs stats while giving us stats that we do not need. The fact is, we need Strength, Stamina, Intellect, Resilience, and Crit. Spell Damage is neutral and should be gotten rid of. Armor Penetration is completely and utterly useless to us. The simple fact is, when upgrading to Season 3 gear, we should not do less damage than we do in our Season 2 gear. We also should not barely upgrade our HP and Intellect totals when other classes are going to be outclassing us not only in damage, but HP totals as well. How do you expect us to compete?
Please, if you need to sacrifice stats to give us Resilience, begin by getting rid of Armor Penetration. We deal enough holy damage in PvP that this stat is 50% useless to us (I just made up the 50%, I don’t know the specific math). If you only do one thing to this set, get rid of Armor Penetration. At most, it will equate to a 2.3% increase in DPS (against cloth). At least, it will equate to a .5% increase in DPS (against Plate).
Also, please find a way to make us less relient on Spell Damage like you promised. Why did we lose our main offensive stat (Strength) and gain our secondary offensive stat (Spell Damage) while upgrading in gear? You do realize that we will do less damage in our Season 3 Retribution gear than in our Season 2 Retribution gear, right? There is no reason that an “upgrade” should actually be a downgrade.
Lastly, we need our main stats upped. We need more intellect on this gear. We need more Strength. We need more Stamina. We need more Crit. You cannot expect us to compete if our stats lag 100 points behind everyone else because we are spread so thin on itemization points.
In conclusion, get rid of Armor Penetration and lower our reliance on Spell Damage. Take the points you spent on these two stats and give us a noticeable increase on Strength/Stamina/Intellect/Crit from Season 2. Armor upgrades should not actually be armor downgrades. Our points are spread thin; rectify this. You promised us improvements, we got very few, and in fact have received nerfs (like the Season 3 gear). I hate to go to the same old rhetoric, but this is the last line for many of us. If you don’t fix this, a large portion of your fan-base is done.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a202/XLordShortyX/cancelled.jpg
The ball is now in your court, Blizzard. Let’s hope you can come through in the clutch.
[EDIT] Drysc replied. All is well. Account reactivated. :) [/EDIT]
