Paladin Patch 4.0.1 Review #3 - Notes

Breaking down the changes.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> #BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter -- 7.16
7/16/2010 - Dual Resource System Looks like combo points

Q: What is the goal when re-designing the paladin class? How do you plan to change rotations, talents, etc?
A. All of the paladin specializations will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Holy Power accumulates from using Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, and some other talents. Holy Power can be consumed to augment a variety of abilities, including:

• An instant mana-free heal: Word of Glory
• A buff to increase holy damage done: Inquisition
• A massive physical melee attack for Retribution paladins: Templar’s Verdict
• Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power
• Divine Storm’s damage is now increased by Holy Power

Level 81
New Paladin Spells

Blinding Shield (level 81): Causes damage and blinds all nearby targets. This effect might end up only damaging those facing the paladin’s shield, in a manner similar to Eadric the Pure's ability Radiance in Trial of the Champion. The Holy tree will have a talent to increase the damage and critical strike chance, while the Protection tree will have a talent to make this spell instant cast. 2-second base cast time. Requires a shield.

PaladinTank Patch 4.0.1 – 2nd review

I’m annoyed, ..or am i frustrated? My initial notes on the changes for the paladin tank are the same in assessment. However, after playing for a few days with it, im left with one question.. “wtf have you done blizz?”

With every patch, or expansion, i have watch each improvement work itself out. Although this is still early days, ..i find myself confused with my paladin. Why?

The shared cooldown between CS and HoR. I like being busy, however i dont like waiting for cooldowns. Being locked into a limited array of abilities that i have to choose on the moment or suffer a global cooldown, or ability cooldown, for me, ..is agonising. And the lottery ability of a free avengers shield does little to comfort my *available options* on the moment/fly for something i need to control that suprises the team.

Combat points – Holy Power. I can see how that works for Holy spec, and Ret spec, but, for me, the self heal and Shield of the Righteous buff should be on something else..Im not a rogue...and if i have to use my holy power to activate 15% Shield block, the chances of using 3 charges on a self heal are going to be ...again, a lottery.

It all just feels....CLUNKY and mis-placed. I tried a level 80 Warrior, Consecrate Vs Thunder Clap + Rend, seemed equal...however obviously different in their applications. Cleave seemed improved, vs before the patch, and shockwave in addition. Paladin....Mehhh! lottery..

Druid tanking, seemed a little nerfed with the swipe cooldown increase, although im not able to test a level 80 druid, there didnt seem to be the a whole lot of change at all. However, having lived with the paladin for 4 years (Tank spec) the difference is night a day...unfortunately...for the worst.

Paladin Tanking, Patch 4.0.1

References:

Maintankadin

ElitestJerks

WoWArmoury

Requirements for tanking Summarised.

Hit Rating 8%

Expertise 55

Glyphs:

Primary Options:

[Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous] (Recommended) - Increase both physical and holy damage components by 10%.
[Glyph of Seal of Truth] (Recommended) - Seal of Truth also grants 10 Expertise while active.

Seal of Truth - What was once known as Seal of Vengeance is now known as this. The ability is essentially the same as before and also remains the principle tanking Seal. Remember to pick up the associated glyph for 10 Expertise.

[Glyph of Judgement] - Judgement deals 10% more damage.*
[Glyph of Shield of the Righteous] (Recommended) - Increases the damage of Shield of the Righteous by 10%.*
[Glyph of Word of Glory] - Increases the healing done by Word of Glory.*

* Build and preference on whether to focus more on single/AoE tanking or WoG will effect these glyph selections.

Major

Prime glyphs have replaced the role of Major glyphs while Major glyphs have now become a middle of the road type of glyph. Being middle of the road these glyphs do not adjust abilities as drastically as prime glyphs. Below are acceptable glyphs for tanking Paladins.

[Glyph of Dazing Shield] - Avenger's Shield now also dazes targets.
[Glyph of Divine Protection] - Increases magical damage reduction of this ability by 20% and removed the physica

l protection benefit.*
[Glyph of the Ascetic Crusader] - Reduces mana cost of CS by 30%.
[Glyph of Focused Shield] (Recommended) - Avenger's Shield hits 2 fewer targets, but for 30% more damage.
[Glyph of Holy Wrath] (Recommended) - This provides an AoE stun and will likely have high utility come the expansion when more dragonkin and elementals will be present in content.

* As of this publishing word is that this glyph does not remove the physical protection benefit however I've been unable to find official confirmation.

Minor

Minor glyph selection remains underwhelming. The most interesting one for Paladin tanks would be Lay on Hands for reduced LoH cooldown. The suggestions below are just that; ultimately the choice of Minor glyphs has very little impact on tanking performance.

[Glyph

of Lay on Hands] (Recommended) - Reduces LoH cooldown by 2 minutes.
[Glyph of Blessing of Might] - Reduces the mana cost of BoM by 50%.
[Glyph of Blessing of Kings] - Reduces the mana cost of BoK by 50%.

The Rotation

The ability priority for single target tanking is as follows:

Shield of the Righteous > Crusader Strike > Judgement > Avenger's Shield* > Consecration > Holy Wrath
For area tanking the following priorities are used (this is a proposed rotation for now):

Hammer of the Righteous > Avenger's Shield* > Judgement > Consecration > Holy Wrath

* This is assumed AS has been glyphed for single target. For the AoE rotation the assumption is AS is unglyphed.

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Review of 2 nights of 5 man heroics.

anking has changed for me in rotations, that's for sure, i must have spent a few moments pausing with my guild mates shuffling abilities around. They also where doing their own shuffling, macro re-writing, it was only the priest in our group that seemed unaffected by any of the patch changes.

Consecrates new cool down is 37 seconds...that just seemed forever for me, even though there's a bug displaying ground level AE, i thought the ability was nerfed, until i realised my Holy Shield wasn't doing the same thing it did before....reactive holy damage from blocking.....or was that me not paying attention, maybe it is, or isn't...something i will have to check up on. Hammer of Righteous and Crusader Strike share the same cool down, so if you miss click, you have 3 seconds until your AE ability or solo ability comes back up...this is unfortunate when you group pull, and click crusader strike by accident! lol

Avenging Shield (Or thy holy frizzbie) hasnt changed, although there is a free AS randomly ...now and again, that triggers. /shrugs even if your frizzbie is on cool-down it is refreshed.

Holy Wrath..well now, works on all mobs, but will also stun/daze undead or demons. TBH, i found myself spamming this more than Consecrate.....since i couldn't see Consecrate anyway...!!

The rotation seemed a little CLUNKY if you asked me, i ended up tying my HR and Avengers Shield to a Macro

#show

/castsequence reset=2 Hammer of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield

This worked better for me, i could click on Hammer of Righteous and hover of the key until it turned back to HoR again, until i got 5 Holy Power. Or i could just spam the 1 key, however i would need to work out figures of threat difference if i do that.

Verdict.

Different, nobody likes change striaghtaway, ..however, its challenging and i think im liking it. Yes, looks like we have been brought down a peg for AE tanking, but im sure glyphs and tweaking rotations and abilities will prove a different style of play, rather than a different character. However, these are big changes to play style.....i'll have to get back to you on this....