Paladin class gear in flux

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Paladin gear to have Strength rather than Int and Spell Damage in the current Wrath Beta. Interesting.

The class is basically in flux, and the feedback thus far in the community has been either “This Sucks”, “Trust Us”, or “Come Back Later”. I realise this is a Beta and that means its ok to be unpolished, but in my never humble opinion the degree of change demonstrated is so huge this should have been altered way before now. This is an Alpha level change.

Also using the Beta community for this is just silly. The people who will help evolve the class will help regardless. The whingers will whine as normal, and the rest of the community will think its all bogus until at least the changes make sense. Often further.

I do however have three questions about the current Tanking method for Paladins:
– where will my mana come from? Saying that it will all be ok becuase costs are now related to base mana is pretty shorty sighted. That might work for some fights, but really long ones will have the same problems. Unless the cost of each ability is so low as to be broken in itself.
– how will spell damage be calculated? How does +Str apply to multi-mob?
– when can I test this for myself (eg.. I want a beta key)?

Looks like the community is actually paying attention, they’re not happy, and I agree totally with this sentiment. I’m not happy about the way change is communicated as it appear there is no long term vision of plan in use. Tweaking a class without a holistic vision is a poor way to develop.

The path should be the opposite, consider the wider theme, plan the modes of play, then consider the way it functions. Giving us new shiny powers is pointless (warlock post on this theme would be the same), and only keeps the idiots distracted.

Maybe the tactic here is to make Paladins so broken that other classes look balanced and finished by comparison, and thereby gain 90% acceptance?

It already takes me most of my mana pool to kill one mob and I drink for ages after it. The only saving grace is that if the mobs are all melee I can kill 3-4 at once. Then I’ll still sit on my arse drinking for longer than other toons do to kill the same amount of creatures. So prot can’t dps for shit, drinks longer, and still has no solo pve

Then you rebuff. Then you drink again.
Then you logout and login your Warlock and actually play a game.

I’m keen to see what they from here. It will be a very interesting first few weeks if nothing is modded from now.

2 thoughts on “Paladin class gear in flux”

  1. I’ll try and help since I’ve been doing the Beta thing of late. I’m only lvl 73, so I don’t have all the shinies.

    1. Your mana comes from two things:

    Blessing of Sanctuary, which returns 2% of your maximum mana on a successful Block, Parry or Dodge.

    Judgement of Wisdom, which gives 2% of your base mana on a proc.

    2% doesn’t sound like much, but with a 4.6k mana pool at level 73, I’m seeing ~92 mana back per proc. Take on 3-4 mobs at a time and you’re never oom. Actually on 4+ mobs I can switch from JoW to Judgement of Light and end the fight with near full health and mana.

    Also at level 71, we get Divine Plea, which currently restores 50% of your mana over 6 seconds as a chanelled effect witha 5min cooldown. Rumor is it’s going to be changed into something more like the Warrior ability Bloodrage in the next beta build (ie not channelled). If I use that every 4-5 fights, then I’m good to go without drinking.

    2. All Paladin damaging seals have both an Attack Power and Spellpower Coefficent now. I have about 400 spellpower from Touched by the Light and 1.1k Attack Power at present. My Consecrate ticks for about 142 atm, which is roughly what I’d expect for the same gear on live.

    3. Sorry, can’t help you there dude. Still, when 3.0 hits the public test realm, you’ll at least be able to see how the mechanics affect you.

    I will say this though. Prot paladins are far from broken. In fact, in my eighteen months with the class, we’ve never had it so good. I did an hour-long instance run on Monday. I had to stop and drink twice.

    And threat’s great now. With Hammer of the Righteous and the new reliable Seal of Vengeance, I can handle up to three mobs with minimal Consecration.

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