Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Our new Vindication

I'm very excited about the redesigned Vindication. The new Vindication will reduce the target's Attack Power by 574, which is the same as a warrior's talented Demoralizing Shout (or a druid's talented Demoralizing Roar). Considering that a warrior needs to spend five talent points to get the debuff up to par and 10 rage for every application of the debuff, Vindication wins hands down, since it costs a mere two talent points and is applied automatically and for free.

There are, of course, some caveats:
  • Warriors still rule supreme when it comes to AoE damage reduction, since both Thunderclap and Demoralizing Shout are applied to multiple mobs within range, whereas Judgement of the Just and Vindication are only applied to a single target (or up to three targets if one manages to apply them with Hammer of the Righteous).
  • Demoralizing Shout has a 30 second duration compared to Vindication's 10 seconds.
  • Vindication has a "chance to proc", which means that if one is unlucky or need to kite the mob, the debuff could fall off.
Still, Vindication is full of win. If you are running without a warrior (or druid for that matter) with five talent points spent on improving Demoralizing Shout (or Demoralizing Roar), you get the debuff for free. If you are running with warriors and druids who usually spend rage on keeping this debuff up, they can no save that rage for dps.

I feel the only competition left is the warlock's Curse of Weakness. If you have an Affliction warlock in the raid with two points in Improved Curse of Weakness, this curse is still a better option. The improved Curse of Weakness reduces Attack Power with the same amount as Vindication (574), but also reduces the targets armor by 5%. This curse not only frees up the warrior or druid from keeping up Demoralizing Shout/Roar, but also frees up the warrior from doing Sunder Armor, or the rogue from doing Expose Armor.

So if you have a friendly Affliction lock in the raid: Give him or her a hug!
Otherwise, tell the warriors and druids to stop shouting (or roaring) to reduce Attack Power since you will be able to do it without effort. Let them spend their precious red bars on killing stuff instead.

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Arnax