Cataclysm Changes: Paladin

[Fursphere]

GG Bliz - Paladins are now 100% pigeon holed as the AOE Tank of choice...blinding shield instant for tanks... lol

Actually, it looks like a well thought out plan for the class.

[blbjtb]

Im excited for

Guardian of Ancient Kings (level 85): Summons a temporary guardian that looks like a winged creature of light armed with a sword. The visual is similar to that of the Resurrection spell used by the paladin in Warcraft III. The guardian has a different effect depending on the talent spec of the paladin. For Holy paladins, the guardian heals the most wounded ally in the area. For Protection paladins, the guardian absorbs some incoming damage. For Retribution paladins, it damages an enemy, similar to the death knight Gargoyle or the Nibelung staff. 3-minute cooldown. 30-second duration (this might vary depending on which guardian appears)

Crusader Strike will be a core ability for all paladins, gained at level 1. We think the paladin leveling experience is hurt by not having an instant attack. Retribution will be getting a new talent in its place that either modifies Crusader Strike or replaces it completely.

Healing Hands (level 83): Healing Hands is a new healing spell. The paladin radiates heals from him or herself, almost like a Healing Stream Totem. It has a short range, but a long enough duration that the paladin can cast other heals while Healing Hands remains active. 15-second cooldown. 6-second duration.

Holy Shock will be a core healing spell available to all paladins. This combined with the Ret spec of Extra holy damage plus exorcism... AMAZING

Im Excited for all of that stuff

I dont understand

We want to ease off the defensive capabilities of Retribution and Holy paladins slightly. We think the powerful paladin defenses have been one of the things holding Retribution paladins back, especially in Arenas. One change we’re considering is lowering Divine Shield’s duration by a couple of seconds. Having said that, Retribution does pretty well in Battlegrounds, and Battlegrounds will be a much bigger focus in Cataclysm since they can provide the best PvP rewards. Furthermore, the healing environment of Cataclysm is going to be different such that a paladin may not be able to fully heal themselves during the duration of Divine Shield to begin with, so this may not be a problem.
We feel Retribution paladins need one more mechanic which involves some risk of the player pushing the wrong button, making the rotation a bit less forgiving. In addition, we want to add to this spec more PvP utility. Right now the successes of the Retribution paladin in PvP seem to be reduced to either doing decent burst damage, or just being good at staying alive.

Explain?

[Myc]

Yay.

[Shodokan]

I'm officially excited for cataclysm and feel my time and effort leveling the ret paladins was well worth it (pvp wise)

We get a guardian on a 3 minuet cooldown... SWEET. Extra burst for us considering we will be summoning 4 of them.
We get holy shock... if it still does damage like btj said then it will be a great addition to filling those odd moments where you have nothing else to push.
We get a blind ability (macro to switch to shield and cast and then switch back)
We get EXTRA healing from healing hands for our group... 4x extra heals that can be used every 15 seconds? Yes please.

What i want to know is if Art Of War is staying the same. Also the change for sacred shield basically lasting an indefinite amount of time(30 minuets) but can only go on 1 target is an amazing change imo if it just stays with the reduced damage taken every few seconds type thing. We can obviously abuse this mechanic and have to waste less mana to keep the team taking less damage.

Better crusader strike? Sign me up.

This was the kick in the ass i needed to show me that blizzard wasn't fucking around. Being able to dispel poisons and defensive magic is great, there are few things that will need to be dispeled other than that PVP wise anyway.

So to recap... We have... Lowered bubble duration (really doesn't matter for boxers, we use it to mitigate damage for the entire team most of the time or to break fear). Holy shock for a new heal/damage spell for retribution/prot. AOE healing close to one another every 15 seconds for 6 seconds. The ability to blind (yes i know it requires a macro) but we don't know how far the insta blind talent will be down the prot tree so there is still hope. Still keep judgement of light's healing abilities... divine storm is here to stay so more passive healing...a pet for extra burst/annoyance. This seems pretty amazing to me.

[Redbeard]

I saw GC state somewhere that the pally changes werent as far along as the other classes so they wouldnt have a lot of specific talent changes to point out yet... so who knows what theyll do.

[Starbuck_Jones]

We want to ease off the defensive capabilities of Retribution and Holy paladins slightly. We think the powerful paladin defenses have been one of the things holding Retribution paladins back, especially in Arenas.

I do not understand that statement either. We have a couple of ret pallys in our guild and the only thing that holds them back from a floor tank award is a steady stream of taunts. They murder everything pve and pvp.

Oh well, Im happy with whats posted so far, I expected the Jesus class to be cut down to mortal status and it doesnt look like it is. As a prot pally, I get crusader strike to play with, an AOE heal. A combined might/wisdom buff so the elemental and enhancement shaman can quit bitching over what blessing they get. I already have a second button for single target no aoe fights like Saurafang25. Now I can add Crusader strike and Holy Shock to it for the loss of consecration. Another defensive cool down at 85. And holy fuckballs a 30min sacred shield? That already makes me 80% invincible against everything outside of a raid and the new icc heroics. Now all we need is a walk on water spell and we really will be Jesus.

[Mosg2]

I don't know how anyone running anything+4 Rets hasn't creamed their pants over this.

Insta cast AE heals from each of my Paladins? Not having to spam SS every minute anymore? More burst via Guardians? An AE blind--TIMES FOUR?? Four MORE insta cast heals via Holy Shock baseline?

AND I GET TO KEEP MY DEFENSIVE DISPELLING?

/faint

[Ualaa]

I would guess... they don't want a class to be very strong defensively and very strong offensively at the same time. So the defensive power currently inherent in the class is preventing them from adding additional offensive powers. Maybe they feel the class needs more offense in arena, and are planning on removing some defense to make the class still balanced.

Looking at the general lack of changes to prot tanking... the old adage, no news is good news does come to mind.
Two button tanking is not that big of a deal; look at the Unholy click posted by Stealthy in the wiki. Spam button A for single target and button B for aoe targets. Then have the dps spam/click on both buttons.

[Prega]

i ve honetsly hoped something different.

with current infos, on defensive front, some interestings news.
holy shock, healing hands.
offensive: it is not clear what really will change, atm.

Is realistic immagine 2 instant cast offensive spells: exorcism/holy shock?

protection:new ability looks like paladin version of warrior shockwave. sounds me as compensation vs HW, almost useless in Cata content .

final consideration: i read " add holy shock, add healing hands"...something is wrong...where is the trick...what is the trade-off?

[Mercurio]

They didn't screw the overpowered tank that 90% of boxers use and love? Great!

They actually gave us MORE nice abilities to outdistance them further from other tanks? Super great!

They make having a 2nd spec as holy a decent healing option for AOE healing a boxing team? Super great with an added bonus!