shockadins
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The return of the Shockadin!
I think the leveling is too easy now, so I end up leveling my characters in otherwise suboptimal ways. I quested as arcane rather than as frost. I'd not learn flying until I absolutely had to. I'd do only orange quests. I also leveled my paladin as a shockadin all the way to 85. Mists of Pandaria comes along, and I figured, why let the 5 levels to 90 stop me? Guilded paladins had told me I should go retribution, that the pre-MoP shockadin excitement wasn't going to pan out. But then I happened upon the "Not Mad, Just Disappointed" shockadin spec by Catulla of Flavor Text Lore. I've styled my paladin in this flavor of shockadin, and I've been having a blast. I don't have the holydin expertise to comment on whether shockadin really could be viable for Challenge Modes or PvP. However, I highly suggest trying this out if all you want is a little healer-spec mob-killing action. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Prot-Gear for Holy Paladins: will it help?
Reader Ron dropped us a line about a basic gear quandary. A Holy paladin who cruised most of his instances with Bear tanks, Ron has amassed a small collection of paladin tanking gear. And he's kept it around, since experience has taught him to never throw away class-appropriate gear. His current Holy kit doesn't pack the spell crit to unleash the full-fledged DPS frenzy of his Shockadin. His question? Ron would like to know if swapping out some of his Holy gear for a bit of Defense and Avoidance might make his dailies a little easier. The easy answer here is...
The Light and How to Swing It: Shockadins!
Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Paladin issues, interviews experienced Paladins and reports her findings in The Light and How to Swing It, formerly The Paladin Report.I am very interested in trying out the Shockadin spec when I get my pally to 70 and I've been trying to find info on this particular spec. Ten Ton Hammer has an excellent Paladin Guide, but doesn't list the Shockadin as a sub guide. The stickied Paladin Guide on the official forums has a lot of information of varied accuracy, but also doesn't have a Shockadin section. I'm pretty much having to scrounge for bits of information here and there, so I thought I'd publish my findings in this week's column.The Shockadin is mostly a PVP spec, though some claim to be able to heal in raids just fine as long as they change their gear. This is what is so intriguing to me: that the DPS is supposed to be similar or better than a Retribution Pally, but that you still have plenty of Holy for healing. The gear for DPS needs to be high +Spell Damage -- mostly you are looking for caster gear. Some will settle for mail gear intended for Shamans for the casting bonuses. Just as Moonkin will wear a combination of leather and cloth to boost their spell damage, the Shockadin must balance spell damage gear from all armor categories with enough AP to survive.
