The Light and How to Swing It: Bugs or Features?
by Robin Torres 
Jun 26th 2007 at 4:00PM
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 used to work in Software Development and later tested Video Games. A prevailing joke in all software companies is "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Today, we are looking at some issues that Paladins have encountered and determining if they are Bugs or Features.
Purging Divine Shield: Bug or Feature?
Biggillard complained in the forums that his pally's Divine Shield was purged by a Shaman in PvP. He assumed it was a Nerf. Others who complained about the same problem thought it was a Bug. But Byzantine got it right. According to Hortus:
Because of the Client-Server nature of the game it is possible for two mutually exclusive actions to occur at the same time resulting in some unexpected behavior. Although efforts are made to minimize these situations they will still happen on occasion.
So, if your Divine Shield gets dispelled as soon as it is cast, rest assured that this is not a Nerf or a Bug, but in fact a Feature of WoW's Client-Server architecture.
Auras removed by Cyclone: Bug or Feature?
It sure looks like a bug. Why would a crowd control spell remove buffs? But again, according to Hortus, this is a Feature:
This is working as intended, aura spell effects should be removed when under the effects of cyclone. These spells will need to be re-cast to take effect again.
An explanation as to why Cyclone works this way is explained in a separate post by Hortus:
mechanically cyclone is a banish effect, abilities can not be used on them
I find this rather annoying because while I expect to have to recast Blessings over and over, I don't think to check if my aura is functioning. Also, things can get so crazy in PvP, I may not notice that a team member has been Cycloned, so I won't know that I need to recast my aura.
Casting Blessing of Protection on another player while stunned: Bug or Feature?
You get stunned, but someone in your group is about to go down. So you cast Blessing of Protection on them. Quite useful, but this is a known Bug in 2.1.2, so don't get too used to using it.
Vengeance hitting without a critical: Bug or Feature?
Have you noticed Vengeance procing when you have not landed a critical hit? Or are you getting critical triggered procs against you when your opponent has not achieved a crit? This is actually a Feature built in to the resilience gear. Eyonix explains:
We've seen many players report a bug when abilities that activate upon landing a critical strike activate inconsistently when used against a target with resilience. For instance, if a warrior has both Enrage and Blood Craze talents, only one may activate when a critical strike is prevented by resilience.
This isn't a bug.
This is due to the underlying implementation for this feature. The game doesn't actually know that hit would have been a critical hit if not for resilience. Instead we've added a small chance to activate off non-crits based on resilience gear. Each ability rolls this chance separately, so they will only occur together if a player is very lucky.
Beard showing through Merciless Gladiator's Ornamental Headcover: Bug or Feature?
Alright, I admit this is a very minor issue that only affects those pallies that can grow beards. But when you work hard to get a shiny new hat, you want it to look good. And, yes, this is a Bug. Hortus says:
this is a known issue with the Merciless Gladiator's Ornamented Headcover and will be fixed in a future patch
Have you encountered a paladin-related bug that is not covered in this column? Other than commenting on it here, you should also report it in the Bug Forum. This guide on writing a good bug report, created by a guildie of Sneet and Onnix, is Hortus approved, so read it first. Of course, we would all rather play a bug-free game and not bother with writing up bug reports, but if something is really ruining your enjoyment of the game, you might as well spend a little non-gaming time venting your frustrations constructively by notifying Blizzard of your problem.
Robin Torres is raising a couple of Blood Elf Paladins of her very own on two different servers, because one just isn't enough. In her search for knowledge about her new favorite class, Robin interviews more experienced paladins. If you want to be one of those paladins, please email Robin.Torres@weblogsinc.com for a possible future column.
I used to work in Software Development and later tested Video Games. A prevailing joke in all software companies is "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Today, we are looking at some issues that Paladins have encountered and determining if they are Bugs or Features.Purging Divine Shield: Bug or Feature?
Biggillard complained in the forums that his pally's Divine Shield was purged by a Shaman in PvP. He assumed it was a Nerf. Others who complained about the same problem thought it was a Bug. But Byzantine got it right. According to Hortus:
Because of the Client-Server nature of the game it is possible for two mutually exclusive actions to occur at the same time resulting in some unexpected behavior. Although efforts are made to minimize these situations they will still happen on occasion.
So, if your Divine Shield gets dispelled as soon as it is cast, rest assured that this is not a Nerf or a Bug, but in fact a Feature of WoW's Client-Server architecture.
Auras removed by Cyclone: Bug or Feature?
It sure looks like a bug. Why would a crowd control spell remove buffs? But again, according to Hortus, this is a Feature:
This is working as intended, aura spell effects should be removed when under the effects of cyclone. These spells will need to be re-cast to take effect again.
An explanation as to why Cyclone works this way is explained in a separate post by Hortus:
mechanically cyclone is a banish effect, abilities can not be used on them
I find this rather annoying because while I expect to have to recast Blessings over and over, I don't think to check if my aura is functioning. Also, things can get so crazy in PvP, I may not notice that a team member has been Cycloned, so I won't know that I need to recast my aura.
Casting Blessing of Protection on another player while stunned: Bug or Feature?
You get stunned, but someone in your group is about to go down. So you cast Blessing of Protection on them. Quite useful, but this is a known Bug in 2.1.2, so don't get too used to using it.
Vengeance hitting without a critical: Bug or Feature?
Have you noticed Vengeance procing when you have not landed a critical hit? Or are you getting critical triggered procs against you when your opponent has not achieved a crit? This is actually a Feature built in to the resilience gear. Eyonix explains:
We've seen many players report a bug when abilities that activate upon landing a critical strike activate inconsistently when used against a target with resilience. For instance, if a warrior has both Enrage and Blood Craze talents, only one may activate when a critical strike is prevented by resilience.
This isn't a bug.
This is due to the underlying implementation for this feature. The game doesn't actually know that hit would have been a critical hit if not for resilience. Instead we've added a small chance to activate off non-crits based on resilience gear. Each ability rolls this chance separately, so they will only occur together if a player is very lucky.
Beard showing through Merciless Gladiator's Ornamental Headcover: Bug or Feature?
Alright, I admit this is a very minor issue that only affects those pallies that can grow beards. But when you work hard to get a shiny new hat, you want it to look good. And, yes, this is a Bug. Hortus says:
this is a known issue with the Merciless Gladiator's Ornamented Headcover and will be fixed in a future patch
Have you encountered a paladin-related bug that is not covered in this column? Other than commenting on it here, you should also report it in the Bug Forum. This guide on writing a good bug report, created by a guildie of Sneet and Onnix, is Hortus approved, so read it first. Of course, we would all rather play a bug-free game and not bother with writing up bug reports, but if something is really ruining your enjoyment of the game, you might as well spend a little non-gaming time venting your frustrations constructively by notifying Blizzard of your problem.
Robin Torres is raising a couple of Blood Elf Paladins of her very own on two different servers, because one just isn't enough. In her search for knowledge about her new favorite class, Robin interviews more experienced paladins. If you want to be one of those paladins, please email Robin.Torres@weblogsinc.com for a possible future column.
Filed under: Paladin, Bugs, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sylythn Jun 26th 2007 4:39PM
I must call "Lazy" on any pallies that complain about the Cyclone issue. Just because an ability persists, does not mean it has to persist ad-infinitum. One of my biggest pet peeves as a Pally is other pallies that don't switch auras. They find their favorite, and run with it always...thus when it gets dispelled, they don't notice it because they've never switched back and forth.
It's a mana-free, instant-cast, only global-cooldown ability. You should constantly be switching your auras throughout the course of a battle. Ret for the added damage against numerous mobs, devotion when your tank's in trouble, concentration when you need to throw a heal, etc.
PyroAmos Jun 26th 2007 4:39PM
ya, every time i'm killing a paladin, when he gets below 25% he goes immune to all abilitys and heals himself to full and i have to kill him again.
Hesed Jun 26th 2007 4:42PM
Yeah..
That drives me nuts. i try to avoid shaman now. i died to often against them because of this.
Sylvina Jun 26th 2007 5:00PM
@2 The Global Cooldown is a huge deciding factor in PvP, that one second cooldown doesn't seem like much but in PvP it's life or death. For the most part you're either running with Devo or Concentration, unless you see yourself up against a mage/lock then you switch appropriately for the resistance aura, and swap to conc when you're going to heal.
theRaptor Jun 26th 2007 5:19PM
@ 4
If you are using conc against a mage/lock they better be stupid, or you better have already faked out the spell lock
kato Jun 27th 2007 9:57AM
BE Pallies ftw... all the alliance pallys are cryin because this wonderful class has finally been shared with the Glorious horde.... all u alliance pallys that are complainin about horde not being able to understand the mechanics of a successful paladin remember this:
Horde players are smarter than alliance. Most of us are either educated adults with advanced degrees or child geniuses... therefore it does not take us long to understand the complexities of a hybrid class.
Alliance players are either stupid kids or fat losers that work the night shift at 7-11. This is why it has taken you so long to learn how to play a pally with limited success...
Fenom Jun 26th 2007 6:09PM
uh, that resilience thing and crit, eyonix was talking about abilities reacting to being crit, not you critting
pallie Jun 26th 2007 6:40PM
Bug: the summon war horse spell effect does not overlay the ground mesh properly. It's always flat.
Junzim Jun 26th 2007 7:56PM
heh, yeah I've had this happen to me before.
I cast dispel on myself at the exact same time as a warlock feared me. The fear resolved first then the dispel so I ended up dispelling fear :D
p3ngu11 Jun 27th 2007 7:39AM
It's been like this pretty much forever. All the paladins say it's a bug. All the shaman say it's working as intended.
Now that both sides have both classes, a paladin running into a shaman happens more. Hence all the crying.