Ever wondered what the ultimate prize for your PvP prowess in Azeroth could be? Strap in for a whirlwind tour of the closing chapter of Season 3 in Dragonflight and Season 8 in Wrath of the Lich King Classic PvP, where I spotlight the coveted Dreaming Hero title and the Verdant Gladiator spoils that are about to vanish with the season's end. We'll navigate through the downtime between seasons—a crucial period for fine-tuning skills, experimenting with class changes, or possibly switching mains. I'll lay out the exact ratings you'll need to bag those prestigious titles and the exclusive mounts and gear that make every battle worth the fight. Plus, we can't overlook the Retribution Paladins; despite debates over their place in the meta, there's something about their resilience that keeps them in the game.
Let's get tactical as we dissect melee abilities in the arena, with a keen eye on Restoration Druids and Retribution Paladins. Through my lens as a seasoned Boomkin, I'll share insights into the contentious 'sack' ability and its strategic importance in cleave encounters. We'll examine the defensive arsenal at a Druid's disposal and weigh in on the Paladin's burst potential, which can indeed turn the tides in an instant. But it's not just about offense; the art of mastering defensive rotations is where the true skill lies. I'll break down the tier rankings for melee classes and defend the potential powerhouse that is the Retribution Paladin—a class that, in the hands of a skilled player, remains a force to be reckoned with. Join me and discover the finesse required to excel in the relentless world of WoW PvP.
Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!
The do. Hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go through a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft. So grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this midweek episode. We'll be going over a few bits and bobs, forums, wowhead, you know updates on what's coming to WoW and you know a few other things. Stuff all over the place, really it's all over the place. But I do want to start out by saying Season 3 of Dragonflight and Season 8, I believe, of Wrath of the Lich King. Classic PvP season Is coming to an end in two weeks time. It is coming to an end on the no 23rd of April For EU, 22nd for NA, and the next season will be a week after this. So essentially, during that week there will be a lot of downtime and a lot of downtime period so people can figure out some buffs, nerfs, if they get any in that time, can figure out what they want to play, if they want to change mains during this time. You know just all of that sort of stuff. But what we will be losing out in this, uh, after the season is gone, is uh, all of these bits and bobs. So with the season's end ratings that qualify for the top 0.01 percent of will get or 0.01. Dreaming hero dragonflight season three achievement will be recorded. The dreaming hero title and achievement will be rewarded during the weeks following after the season ends. So this is your top 0.01 of your players. This is the uh rank one players. So make sure that you wait to change fractions until you have, or until after you have, received the title. All other mythic plus achievements and rewards can be earned until gladi and still be earned until dragon flight season four begins. Seasonal rewards going away with the start of season four ahead of the curve. For act the blazing, you get a proto drake for this cutting edge. For act the blazing, hall of fame. For act the blazing, you get a famed slayer of for act title, that's cool. Dragonflight keystone explorer, season three. Dragonflight keystone conqueror, season three you get the dreaming title. Shit, I should have done that on my Druid. That's such a good title for my Druid. Dragonflight Keystone Master, season 3. You get a verdant Armadon. That's the kind of dinosaur looking mount. It looked really cool, I'm not going to lie. Keystone Master, season 3 reward Vermin. Nope, I just read that. One Keystone Hero Season 3 reward Vermin. Nope, I just read that one Keystone Hero, season 3. Dreaming Hero, season 3 of Dragonflight reward the Dreaming Hero. Title Dragonflight Season 3 Master reward Emerald Mark of Mastery what the hell is that? Dragonflight Season 3 Hero reward Emerald Dream Blossom Emerald Blossom Dreamstone Not sure what that is. Um dragonflight season three hero. Um reward emerald dream blossom emerald blossom dream stone I'm sure that is. And keystone hero dungeon portals. That's for mythic blossom raiding.
Speaker 1:
For pvp, you will obviously not be able to get these items and the things. So for combatant, you cannot get the pvp cloak. See, this is all season three like rewards. So I'm not gonna obviously go reward season three, pvp. You know you. You know what I'm meaning.
Speaker 1:
Combatant two you don't get your legs and braces anymore. Challenger one you won't get your gloves and boots. Challenger, I'm guessing that's meant to be. Two you don't get your chest and belt. Rival one you don't get head, shoulders and helm, even though head and helm are the same that, okay, I'm guessing that's a typo. Uh, duelist, you do not get your weapon illusion.
Speaker 1:
Verdant crush gladiator. You do not get the gladiator slither. Drake customizer. Uh, customized like drake thing. You know what it is. Verdant gladiator uh, you don't get the verdant gladiator title. Elite verdant gladiators prestigious cloak and verdant gladiators, tabard legend. You don't get the verdant legends, pennant and verdant legend you don't get the verdant legends, pennant and verdant legend. You don't get the verdant legend, virgin legend title. All of these will be going after season four, so you have a couple weeks to get them now.
Speaker 1:
Obviously people might be like well, what the hell is that? Um combatant is 1400, I think, or 1200. Uh combatant 2 1400. Challenger one is 1600. These aren't exact figures but it's the ballpark. Uh challenger two is 1800 or something and a rival one is 1950 and above. Uh jewel list is 2100 and above. Glad uh is uh 2400 plus um. Verdant gladiator 2400. Elite is 2400 plus um verdant gladiator 2400. Elite is 2400, um. So elite is 2400, but gladiator is you get a certain amount of wins above the elite um ranking. So that's where that is. Legend is the top one percent or whatever it is, and verdant legend is the top 1% or whatever it is. And Verdant Legend is the top 1% for Solo Shuffle. So that's what the PvP sort of titles are linked to.
Speaker 1:
But I want to go over some of the forums, now this one I saw that was crazy to me. So a lot of the higher-end teams that you come up against to very much play the meta comps, the meta compositions. You see every now and again some shadow play. You see a lot of rep, warrior, fist weaver. You see demon hunters, you know warlocks, you see all of it up there.
Speaker 1:
Okay, um, but this is a post that is, ret is still far from being top dps, with the only class with no ms. Okay, I play with a couple people in a team and we don't have a single ms in our team, which is really rough. We play mage, we play boomkin and holy paladin. There is no ms there at all. Um, so, yeah, plus, you have other things that don't have an ms, mostly casters, I think.
Speaker 1:
Um, warlocks. Well, destruction warlocks do if you take the pvp talent, but it's quite rare that pvp talent to actually take nowadays, unless you know that you're not going to be the target, in which case you can get a lot of chaos bolts out. But you know it's kind of rough to take it because you lose a lot of utility. Um, firstly, there are loads of classes without an ms. It is not just ret.
Speaker 1:
So would be nice for ret paladins to do more pressure damage overall than burst, because getting outperformed by survival hunters and warlocks and 10 times 0 is still 0, so I don't know what he's complaining about. You know, I'll address this as a whole afterwards. No one wants it from a spec that does average damage. No one wants it from a spec that does average damage. Average damage brings not other forms of pressure than simply has five minutes, five mins plus CDs to support them in meaningful ways. Then they have a one minute wings timer like cooldown, and then two minutes if they take a certain talent with the Avenging Crusader or whatever it's called. That's crazy. Um, yes, it has.
Speaker 1:
Sack freedom sank as low dps, as low cd support abilities. But pressure and cc being so important now is real. Is it really? It really isn't game changing to freedom? Someone, when the enemy team has no root tank, really doesn't stop anything because when you can use it, either hold damage for you when you use it, they either hold damage for you to use it, to use it, or they ccu uh to not let you use it.
Speaker 1:
Sack is the only great ability in which case you give, like Resto Druids, a defensive but you take 30% damage from it which, also, against Cleave, will destroy you in a meaningful way. Any opinions? This is weird. This was not wrote perfectly, hence the hesitation on some of these things. This is weird. This was not wrote perfectly, hence the hesitation on some of these things.
Speaker 1:
So, firstly, resto Druids already have a defensive. They have a couple. They have Trank Bubble, they have Bark Skin, they have Iron Bark, they have Nature's Swiftness. Now, this isn't obviously personal, like usage, but their Bark Skin is a personal one. So is their tranq. Um, so they technically have two defensives plus bear form. Bear form from, you know, heart of the wild, if you're running the talent, the pvp talent, um, that way you get frenzy healing. You know that sort of stuff. But firstly, would be nice for rets to do more pressure damage overall than burst by getting outperformed by survival hunters. And stuff with no MS makes it 10 times harder again, like I said, 10 times zero, still zero. Uh, no one wants a spec that does average damage.
Speaker 1:
Okay, firstly, I play boomkin. I do decent damage because I'm very well attuned to how boomkin works. I'm very well accustomed to how my damage rotation is. I don't need to think about it, I just know that I've got this spell because of muscle memory. Now, um, and I know that I should be using this now or this later or this this in like five buttons time. You know you get the g. I do decent damage on my boomkin.
Speaker 1:
I can have a ret stand not within melee of me as a melee class and out damage me. That's not average damage, that's being a ranged caster and that's doing decent damage. So put this into context Every melee in the game is a melee. Some of them aren't actually uh, dks, probably aren't. Some unholy dks actually have a range spell which is your festering strike or whatever it is. Now, god knows, um warriors, wind walkers, once you have a melee is god frosty k. The other Melees god Frosty Ks actually are melees, although they have utility to grip you in, but they are actually melee. I'm trying to think what other melee classes there are, but essentially these are melees that have to melee the target to hit them.
Speaker 1:
Ret Paladins Don't need to be. I can kite a Ret Paladin, who are absolutely perfect conditions, but he will still be able to do his entire rotation on me nearly apart from Templar's Verdict, most likely because I'll just be out of range of it, but he can do his entire rotation on me because his range is that of mine as a Boomkin pretty much the same range as my cyclone. It's absolutely crazy. You do not need an ms if you are a melee, that is an actual ranged class and if you can output constant pressure like a shit ton of constant pressure, by the way, not just bad constant pressure, a lot of constant pressure plus burst damage on a one-minute cooldown, unless you take a certain talent in which it makes it two minutes but it makes that cooldown even more powerful.
Speaker 1:
You know there's just loads of different things that RETs have going for it. It has so much utility for it. You have to get Bubble Bop shield of vengeance, sack sank freedoms. As a boomkin I can't root beam the like healer without having to cc the wreck. Like how crazy is that I have to cc two targets, one of them being one that I want to probably kill, to even cc their healer because otherwise he'll just get out of the cc that I have your freedom on a 25 second cooldown, whatever it is, and nullify my one minute cooldown beam, all right, if you want to complain. You start telling, like, start telling them to nerf freedom. Then if you don't want it, I'll take it as a. Want it, I'll take it as a boomkin. I'll gladly take it as a boomkin. You know I have permanent freedom anyway, but I'll take freedom as a boomkin. I cast it on myself. I don't need to shapeshift out of my form in order to run as a druid and, you know, get rid of my freedoms and stuff.
Speaker 1:
It's absolutely crazy that this guy thinks that paladins are like. Crazy that this guy thinks that paladins are like so bad. Right now, I I just don't get it. I show up, don't?
Speaker 1:
In terms of like melees, frosty case of the worst by far then, oh yeah, demon hunters. Demon hunters are actual melees but they have a couple range spells, but they're just mobile as anything else in the game, so it doesn't really matter for them. But if you look at most melees, you would put, if you're going by a tier system, what would be at the top tier system-wise? Honestly, warriors are probably the s tier, aren't they? They're always s tier. Um, if you've got warriors s tier, you have paladins in high a tier, really high a tier, alongside, maybe, demon hunters and, uh, you know, dks, maybe low a tier, high b tier for dk, unholy, dk, cross, dks, f, tier, um, and then you've got, you know, your windwalker monk and stuff. That's probably b, uh, yeah, something like that. But you know, paladins are up there. They are one of the best melees in the game. You might feel like they're squishy and die so easily. That's just you not doing your like rotation, your defensive rotation, correctly. That is an honest skill difference and I'm sorry to say it, but rats are good, rats are decent. Everything is in a decent spot.
Speaker 1:
After they nerf demon hunters, there has been a massive drop off in Demon Hunters. I still think Demon Hunters are, personally good. I still think that they're in a very decent place. They were a little bit oppressive, don't get me wrong, but I think that they are in a decent place and I think that everything is in a decent place as it is now, where it's all being played. Everything is being played. I'm seeing a lot of different compositions, but I am seeing a lot of melee. I'm seeing a lot of RETs. I really am and that's at what? 2.1, 2.2k that I'm playing at currently. Now that's going to go up in the next couple of weeks because I'm going to be pushing for maybe 2.3, 2.4 if I'm really lucky. But yeah, we'll see. But I think Rets are not in a bad spot and I think that this guy needs to chill out a little bit from that. But let's go into something a bit easier. But this guy has me kind of annoyed.
Speaker 1:
Trivializing past content is retail. Can we please stop making content trivial after a couple of months? This is why retail is so bad. This includes reps, items that get changed to only work on targets below X level or within certain contexts, bonus experience, et cetera. Paveet not sure what this means. I'm not opposed to increased XP from the start, but I am opposed to adding more at a later time. Not everyone should be able to min max and alt without putting in some effort, as people do on any character, whether you're first or 10th.
Speaker 1:
I literally just finished Warsong Gulch two weeks ago. I don't know what that means, but this is a Season of Discovery post and the problem that I have with this one is that it's a Season of Discovery post. The Season of Discovery is a sandbox mode for WoW. That's literally what it is. Now you have to go into Season of Discovery thinking there's going to be a lot of changes to Classic, like here, and I'm open to trying them and the thing is, the public has received very or the change that they've made in season of discovery has been very positive, like by the community, has been positively like received by the community the it's been positively received by the community. The levelling, the questing, the runes, the rewards, the PvP stuff like the Blood Moon and all of that. I think that it's a quality game mode.
Speaker 1:
If you do not want any of this stuff, classic Era is there for you to play. Go and play that. I don't even play Season of Discovery a lot, but I think that it's quality and I think it's something that the game needed. If you were to simply put runes into classic World of Warcraft with the same leveling pace, the same quests, no other PvP things, you know stuff like that. You just have classic, but with wrath spells. How is that fun? Because we have wrath classic and we, but with wrath spells. How is that fun? Because we have wrath classic and we're testing out wrath spells and you have classic classic. So I just don't get it.
Speaker 1:
Some people are so on the. They just don't want people to have fun because what this screams is I've put so much time into my character. People shouldn't be people to have fun, because what this screams is I've put so much time into my character. People shouldn't be allowed to do the same. And it's like, okay, you can do that on classic era, because people have to put in the time to get their characters up to that level. They really have to work and grind for it.
Speaker 1:
But on season of discovery, you have to accept that people will get up to that level quicker because they want people to have some alts and experience. You know all of the classes in Season of Discovery, whether it be a paladin, a mage, druid, warrior, rogue, all of them. That's what it is. It's a sandbox mode but people don't understand it and get pissed off and they like quote themselves or they sort of say, oh, why isn't this like classic? And it's like go and play classic. Then I get that you don't like that. But like go play that, jesus christ, stop complaining.
Speaker 1:
There is nothing to this post that is beneficial for anyone. So it's just Can we stop making content trivial? Well, what's trivial Like, yes, the questing is a bit easier, but the questing is still there. You still get XP and the thing is, the XP gain is there to bridge the gap, because World of Warcraft Classic Didn't have enough quests in the game To ding you to the level that you needed. You needed to grind mobs. So this is just to fill in that gap, so that you don't have to grind mobs. It's crazy to think, um, but yeah, it is what it is. This one just got to me a little bit and I had to rant on it. But that is where I will end it for this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below. Constant stuff happening over there. Thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below. Constant stuff happening over there. But thank you all very much once again and go eval a friend. Goodbye all, thank you.