Holy and Protection buffs incoming for Paladins
by Alex Ziebart 
Oct 7th 2008 at 8:00PM
First, Righteous Defense now has an 8 second cooldown. It's 15 seconds on live realms, and was 10 seconds previously in the beta. I'm very, very glad this change was made, though it's an example of the 'slippery slope' of homogenizing classes/tanks. Paladins were the only class with a ranged taunt, but now all of the tanks have one. Righteous Defense still taunts multiple mobs, but all of the other tanks had/have AOE taunts as well. Righteous Defense mostly lost what made it beautiful compared to the other taunts, so it really needed this buff to not look terrible. I'm glad they did it.
Next up are some Holy changes. Infusion of Light now affects Flash of Light in addition to Holy Light. I think this is a good compromise that will give Holy back a little mobility. Instant Holy Lights on the run was a little absurd, even if Paladins did need help healing on the move. Instant Flash of Light will help mobility without being an absolutely insane amount of instant healing. Flash of Light isn't a powerhouse heal, but an instant Flash after a Holy Shock crit is still a fair amount of HP returned. Again, good compromise. This was needed, and I sort of wonder why they didn't make this change earlier. Oh well! They made it before retail, that's what counts.
Judgements of the Pure increases spell haste by 15%, up from 10%. Straight buff, those are always good.
Enlightened Judgements is up to 30 yards from its original 20 yards, which is very nice. The way things were looking, Holy Paladins were going to end up ignoring this entirely in favor of healing at max range, where it's safer. Running in and out of Judgement range is a pain and loses crucial casting time in boss fights, so Paladins just sat at max range. A healer never wants to put themselves in the line of fire, or even closer to the line of fire. Increasing the range on this just makes it feel rewarding to pick up and use rather than slightly punishing or too bothersome to babysit. The above Judgements of the Pure buff will encourage you to use this more often as well.
Bacon of Light is still delicious.
Overall, good changes. As someone who plays their Paladin primarily as Protection, I'd love to see a few more Prot buffs, but maybe that's a little selfish of me eh?
Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Karazak Oct 7th 2008 8:14PM
Yay! Leveling a Pally to 70 wasn't a mistake!
Aravan Oct 7th 2008 8:16PM
Prot could still use a single target taunt for fights like Four Horsemen (there was another Naxx fight mentioned, it escapes me at the moment, something about a gate and LoS).
Manatank Oct 7th 2008 8:26PM
I seriously don't know why they just don't give this to us. I mean what's the big deal? They can make it share the cooldown with righteous defense if they want.
Fletch Oct 8th 2008 3:14AM
Another problem I find with Righteous Defence is that it seems to get resisted a LOT, certainly far more than the warrior or feral taunts. Maybe packing more spell hit would improve it, but it's hard to gear for spell hit, especially when you have more important stats to worry about.
Clasifyd Oct 8th 2008 8:08AM
Spell hit and melee hit are supposed to be merged into a single stat, so it should be easier for you to get the spell hit you want now, assuming you already gear for a little bit of melee hit to avoid parries, etc.
Fletch Oct 8th 2008 9:02AM
Yes, I will have to see what the situation is like when the expansion hits, but maybe the unification of hit rating will alleviate the problem of Righteous Defence getting resisted.
D.O.T. Oct 8th 2008 10:16AM
I for one would like to have a taunt that doesn't have me taking my focus off the target at all to have to find the player and then press spell, hope it works - and then have to retarget the mob.
The mechanics for this taunt - even if they now let us use it more often - could be tweaked a bit.
Imo, having the tank deselect the mob for the player when other tanks don't have to do that is a tedious, waste of time that could be used elsewhere.
whatwhat Oct 8th 2008 11:27AM
D.O.T. you're retarded. Righteous Defense was fixed a long time ago so you dont have to deselect the tanked mob.
Jasmeralia Oct 8th 2008 1:27PM
D.O.T.:
#showtooltip Righteous Defense
/cast [target=mouseover,help] Righteous Defense
Just mouse over the person you want to taunt the mobs off of, hit your hotkey, and keep on trucking.
D.O.T. Oct 8th 2008 3:25PM
@whatwhat
If, like most people, you think you have a good reading comprehension you will note on the following page that I made a comment about having to check this when I go home. Apparently since you did not, you sir are the one who is retarded for automatically insulting someone over a mistake.
Telanis Oct 7th 2008 8:19PM
The Holy changes are hot stuff. I've been a holy pally since 1.9. I'm glad to see some respect from Blizz....
crozz131 Oct 7th 2008 8:26PM
"Bacon of Light is still delicious"
How much are they paying you to say you like this lack luster 51 point talent?
Manatank Oct 7th 2008 8:27PM
There is nothing lack luster about the best 51 point healing talent.
lightning4 Oct 7th 2008 8:46PM
Best? I wouldn't call it the best. It's not terrible for some situations, and could have decent applications in 5 mans, pvp, and raid bosses in which multiple targets take damage.
Working off of effective healing kills it for any other purpose and makes it pretty tricky to use in raids, if heals from other people beat you to the punch. Especially if you're main tank healing... which is, well, the only role healadins are really suited for.
Ryuhakubi Oct 7th 2008 11:29PM
@lightening4 - True, it doesn't make much sense for the pallie to bring the bacon (Yeah, I think it's funny too) to the tank and then try to heal around him, hoping it will heal the tank as well...
But what if the Holy Pallie WASN'T main tank healing? What if he was supplemental healing, and used the Beacon on the tank so that his healing of the melee that are in the boss's grill helps out with main tank healage.
*shrug* Never raid healed, so I'm sure there's something wrong with the idea, but it seems potentially useful to me...
Heilig Oct 8th 2008 2:14AM
What's wrong is that pallies are designed specifically to be main tank healers, so if you have one, 90% likely he's the one on the tank, not the raid. Until Bacon is based off of the heal that lands and not the effective heal, it will be junk. 51 point talents should not become useless if someone else heals your target first.
Now, if they DO change it, then I will agree to it being one of the best 51 point talents available.
qqmorepally Oct 7th 2008 8:30PM
as if pallies need buffs, nerf ret first
D.O.T. Oct 8th 2008 10:20AM
As if *name class* needs buffs, nerf those instead. I could think of 9 other classes who should be getting nerfs before pallies... you able to guess at least one?
Seriously, go level a pally to 70 first before complaining.
Dan Oct 8th 2008 5:56PM
L2P. Ret paladins are easy to shut down if you know how. Problem is, ret was such a joke for so long, no one every worried about it. Not the free HK is gone, and if you let a ret pally get close to yet, he's going to hit you hard. So now there is all this QQ now about how ret is so OP. Please. Ret is less OP on beta then druids currently are on live.
Sorano Oct 7th 2008 8:30PM
Those are some indeed some very good changes to Holy. The instant Flash of Light compromise is very good.
Now I'm back to deciding wether to level my Holy Paladin or Prot Warrior. Thanks Blizz! ;)