Ishnu-alah! It's Ankalima, your friendly neighborhood Druid here to continue on from what I was talking about last week concerning Instances. A whole other week of experience has yet again taught me a great many things, but I'll try to stay focused on what I said I'd cover from last week.
For starters I want to go over Warlock Soul Stone (Shortened to SS from here on). The SS has a 30 minute cooldown, whether it is used or not during that time. The only way around the 30 minutes cool down is if you have more than one Warlock in your group - in other words it's not like a health stone where the warlock can create and trade them. Once used however, the Warlock can create another SS to be used at a later time, like once the cooldown of the first stone is up.
Best person to use the SS on? The Healer. Hands down. As a general rule The Healer is the furthest back in any given group, and it's possible that in the case of a total wipe, the Healer could wait for aggro to drop and then use the SS, thereby being able to resurrect the entire group. Better yet let's say it's not a wipe, and you have a holy priest as a healer (I pulled this off once myself, it worked out rather nicely). As long as that priest has Spirit of Redemption the SS gives a double whammy effect. Upon death Spirit of Redemption procs, the Priest can heal free of charge for 15 seconds and is un-target-able during that time. After 15 seconds, they die and can use the SS, bringing them back to the fight with a large chunk of health and mana, and hey, if they die again then Spirit of Redemption will proc again. As a side note, it is possible to SS anyone, but it is usually wisest to put it on a class that can resurrect.
Moving on to Paladin buffs. I love Paladins, I have to admit. Especially when they roam in packs. Between the Blessings, and Auras and versatility a Druid can get spoiled! There are a ton of combinations you can go with, but remember - only one Aura and one Blessing per Paladin, and since most groups are lucky to have one that's what I'll focus on. Healers, trust me on this, you want Blessing of Salvation. Yes, Blessing of Wisdom gives a nice mana regen, but Blessing of Salvation lets you live long enough to actually run out of mana, and as a caster you ought to have a mega mana pool anyway. My fabulous Melee Dpsers - your gear decides your blessing. All greens in Outlands? You want Blessing of Might or you simply won't do any real damage. Geared up nicely, especially Raid nicely, I'd suggest Blessing of Salvation. You're already pumping tons of damage, and it's easier on the Healer if the only one taking any real damage is the Tank. For the distance Dspers you're probably best off with Blessing of Kings if you're under-geared, and Salvation otherwise. Blessing of Kings, especially when you have more than one Paladin in the group, is a nice second for everyone to have - 10% to all stats regardless of level.
As for Paladin Auras, well, that's more a situational thing. The shadow, fire and frost resistances auras are obviously only really useful against those particular elements. Devotion Aura is nice because everyone enjoys and generally benefits from higher AC. Healers and Casting-based dps enjoy the Concentration aura for a 35% reduction in interruptions. Though, there's really only two kinds of a Paladin that should be using the Retribution Aura - the ones that are tanking or the ones that are soloing.
Wow! There was way more to touch on there than I expected, and that's just touching the tip of the iceberg. So it seems that I'll be touching more on this next week with group make-up, Shaman totem, and things to avoid tips! Speaking of which, here's one for you before I go - If you die when taking on a boss don't release your spirit! The group may not wipe, and if you release before the boss dies you lose your loot rights. The spiffy new gear that you could lose out on aside, if you're questing you won't be able to loot that either.
That's all from me for now - Ande'thoras-ethil, and happy hunting all!
~ Ankalima |