Ask a Beta Tester: Of Paladins and Primals

We'll start off with a question from Alja that we've probably answered before, but let's try to clear it up....

With +healing and +spell damage becoming just +spell power will this change items that are +fire damage or +nature damage? I currently have the spellfire set but wouldn't mind going frost for leveling purposes in the beta but my gear currently isn't set up for that, will specialized gear still exist or is everything become just spell power?

I haven't yet run into any gear that gives +spell power to a specific school of damage, but all existing gear that gives +spell damage to a specific school of damage retains its specific school of damage in Wrath, it's just called "spell power" instead of "spell damage." If anyone out there has seen new Northrend gear that contains school-specific spell damage, please speak up in the comments to let us know!

For more of your beta questions -- and our beta answers -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.

max attack asked....

With the new change to Sheath of Light put lower in the Paladin's Retribution tree, no longer allow for a viable Holy/Ret spec taking advantage of Sheath of Light's over time heals?

Though I love the idea of having a healing build with Sheath of Light, it's still too high in the Retribution tree to make a viable healing build that includes it. You need 43 points in Retribution to fill out Sheath of Light, leaving 28 points for Holy, at level 80. This means you can't pick up all of Holy Power or any of Light's Grace, Holy Guidance, Holy Shock, Infusion of Light, Divine Illumination, or Beacon of Light. Though I'd say some of those could be lost for good cause (and Sheath of Light certainly is a good cause), Holy Power, Light's Grace, and Holy Guidance are essential to any healing build. In the end, you'd be losing more healing ability than you'd gain, despite the convenience of the heal over time. Unless it moves much lower in the tree (into the 20 point range), it's just too much a sacrifice. The talent remains designed to allow Retribution some, I assume, healing viability for emergency situations, even when decked out in their Ret gear.

Scunosi (and several others) asked....

Relating to the 3000 quests question, do dailies count as one quest or do they count for each time you turn them in?

Afraid not. If the first daily is an actual quest (yellow question mark), it seems to count, but repeated turn-ins (blue question mark) do not.

Sanzer asked....

In regards to the Paladin Holy tree -- the talent Purifying Power made me wonder if the number of undead in Northrend makes getting this talent worth the points. Am I going to be destroying so many undead that missing this talent would be a mistake?

I can tell you I'm not planning on making it part of my talent build. Though there are a good number of undead in Northrend, they don't make up the majority of the mobs you'll be fighting. That extra 20% critical strike chance for Exorcism and Holy Wrath? Not worth the talent points considering how often you're likely to be fighting non-undead. Whether you find the mana cost reduction for Cleanse, Purify, and Consecration to be worth taking the talent for is another matter entirely -- but I certainly wouldn't call it necessary, especially not for the improvement in your undead slaying prowess.

Brandon Tilley asked....

As a lower-level fury warrior, I dual wield two one-handed weapons. When you get Titan's Grip and dual wield two handed weapons, does it use your weapon skill for one-handed or two-handed weapons? Although I try to keep up on my weapon skill, seems like it'd suck if all the sudden you had to go back and level your two-handed weapon skills for TG.

Our local expert, Matt Rossi, tells us, "When you use Titan's Grip, you have two two handed weapons equipped and it uses the appropriate weapon skill: so if you had Cat's Edge and Soul Cleaver equipped, it would use your 2h sword and 2h axe skill. So yes, level those up now."

Harmun asked....

I wonder what this will do to the primals market? Will it become mostly obsolete like the elemental market did after TBC? Now the only time people need old world drops like this is if they are leveling tradeskills... I ask because I'm sitting on a stupidly large stack of primal life I bought at what was a good price before the markets crashed as people stopped raiding (and getting new gear) and started farming primals while waiting for Wrath.

It's my guess that the primal market is going to mirror the elemental market when Wrath comes out: and crash, big-time. Blizzard seems to have learned from earlier mistakes (or earlier annoyances), and is providing patterns using common Northrend materials starting at 350 skill -- which would mean people would never have to hunt up rare, old-world ingredients to skill up the craft of their choice. There's also the possibility that some unique, high-end crafted item will not be replicated by a new Northrend version and still be in demand in Northrend (I, for example, am a lover of Brilliant Mana Oil), but nothing right now stats out as a must-have item. Regardless of what changes are coming between now and Wrath's official launch, we'll likely never see the same amount of demand for primals (and other high-end crafting materials) that we see today.

The Wrath of the Lich King beta is in full swing, and the WoW Insider crew is here to sate your curiosity with Ask a Beta Tester! Leave your beta questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em! And if you can't get enough Wrath, don't forget to check WoW Insider's Wrath Roundup page for anything we haven't answered here!