The Light and How to Swing It: Shine on! A 2008 review
by Zach Yonzon 
Dec 31st 2008 at 10:00PM
But never mind how I feel about that. The truth is that this is all good for the class, if not necessarily the game. I mean, did we ever dare dream that people would actually look for Retribution Paladins in trade or general chat? When you say you're a Retribution Paladin nowadays, nobody flinches. Nobody laughs. Nobody says, "haha, lolret." Or if they do, you Divine Storm their ignorant butts to kingdom come. Seriously, the most badass character in all of Wrath of the Lich King -- the one guy who spanked Arthas' sorry Death Knight butt -- is a Paladin. That feels pretty good. So, 2008. One heck of a year, wasn't it?
1. Retribution's retribution
The actual change to Retribution wasn't in 2008 but in 2007, during Patch 2.3, where Retribution DPS went from laughable to surprisingly good. This meant that the Paladin class started off 2008 on a really good note, with all three specs viable in raids and two specs mostly alright in PvP. We'll get to that in a bit. When Wrath broke, that viability jumped significantly and the fear factor doubled. We started out the year with players ridiculing the spec, and ended it with players respecting it. Despite the massive nerfs and the now-immortal quote, "to the ground, baby!" -- Retribution is still looking pretty good.
2. Holy moley!
Holy's biggest problem was always mobility and multi-target healing, two issues that Blizzard attempted to address with giving Paladins Haste and cast time-reducing talents like Infusion of Light and Judgements of the Pure. The real reason why Paladins are topping the SK-100 charts for Arena representation? Paladins are more viable as Retribution and Holy now. If players are enamored by Divine Storm and Paladin burst damage, they really have to see 18k Holy Lights thrown up in about 1.275 seconds. Anyone complaining about Beacon of Light hasn't played Holy in a raid. Period. Sure, we get a bit squeezed when everyone in the raid is taking damage, but hey, that's what Priests are for.
3. A plateful of plate
Death Knights. I hate them. No, seriously, I hate them. Tirion Fordring was on to something, you know. Alright, fine, I hate all Death Knights except my overpowered Arena partner who makes me look good. But everyone else can go jump in the lake. You know, wearing all that plate so they sink to the mucky bottom. See, this is how Warriors felt when Retribution Paladins were taking all their DPS plate. If we've been sharding every leather drop, it's been a cutthroat struggle for all the plate and 2-handed weapons. I mean, even Fury Warriors are going after 2-handers now.
4. Protect Protection
Quietly, Protection Paladins have been chugging along. They're still there, you just don't notice them because Death Knights are show-offs. But really, Protection Paladins are phenomenal tanks, even if we do lack a single-target taunt. And with the new "tanks have to be fun" philosophy that Blizzard's employing, Protection Paladin DPS is off the chain, specially on large pulls. And really... what pull isn't large nowadays? Everyone has dumped crowd control in favor of AoE tanking. And while Blizzard has said that they'd like to improve Protection for PvP, Protection Paladins are the only Paladins that make Rogues cry.
5. No pink gear
Alright, the absolute best thing to come out of 2008 for me, really, is that Blizzard finally veered away from making Paladin armor that's completely... fruity -- not that there's anything wrong with that, to quote Seinfeld. But it turns out that the once ridiculous-looking Gundam Tier 3 armor from the original Naxxramas isn't so bad, specially when it's in badass black. I mean, really, I've been passing on Tier 7.5 simply because the black and gold from 10-man Naxxramas looks so deliciously good it makes my shorts fall off. Let's hope that the days of purple Crystalforge are finally over.
Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Hangk Dec 31st 2008 10:48PM
Paladins are OP, everyone fears them on the battlefield and cries for them to be nerfed on the forums.
Warlocks are a joke and nobody plays them except die-hards.
Strange days, my friends, strange days.
Malkeior Jan 1st 2009 12:41AM
Except Paladins aren't really OP, they're like warlocks post season 3, really good at killing bad players.
Jayvyn Jan 1st 2009 9:11PM
Ive been a paladin for 4 years, and i am actually sickened at what they have become now, they arent overpowered in the sense of player skill, what blizzard did was change them into a 1 trick pony, go in burn buttons,, bubble if targets not dead divine plea burn buttons, target not dead, GG paladin. wtf is this shit man people who understand what paladins should be are definatly upset by this peice of trash given to us, no intellect on gear, still no armor penitration for pvp. The only ones happy are the 9 million band wagon dipheads rerolling ret because they want power. I'm disgusted at what blizzard has turned paladins and anyone who finds this trash acceptable
melissa Dec 31st 2008 11:34PM
I miss the pink/purple gear!!! Bring it back :(
Muse Dec 31st 2008 11:39PM
"None will lay eyes on a Gundam and live." It fits.
Kinda wish the gear would be less... warrior-y. I'm a paragon of virtue and justice. My PR department frowns on black.
Marolas Jan 13th 2009 6:39PM
"Arthas laughs at your attempts to be a "paragon of virtue and justice." Killing his minions and looting their gear only corrupts your paladin further down the path the Lich King has laid for you.
Just as Arthas took up Frostmourne for the sake of justice and vengeance, paladins must don the armor of the damned in order to grow stronger in the hopes of defeating the Scourge.
You've been following in his footsteps the whole time."
--------
Breaking from my rant of damnation, the Tier 7.5 seems to drop rank from the remainder of the Paladin Epics that make you look more like a Death Knight than a servant of the Light...
I doubt that Blizzard will continue down that path though, after looking at the armor model previews for Tier 8. :|
Saeverud Dec 31st 2008 11:55PM
The biggest thing I hated about the expansion was the huge increase in the amount of paladins. For those of us who paladins in end games in TBC and succeeded had something to be really proud of. Now it's like everyone and their guilds grandmother is a ret paladin or a DK.
I play as a Ret in my 25 man raids normally, unless it's my turn in the rotation to tank and can throw out DPS comparative with the rest of the raid usually hovering around 2200 and maxing out 3000 if I don't have to conserve mana. Where as rogues, DK's and Hunters with half the gear level I have can easily push 3k and above.
For my 10 mans I'm the MT, and while block capped, def capped and around 34k HP raid buffed. Despites that, a DK with comparative skill is still the best choice. I may block almost 2000 from every hit I take, a deathknight will completely avoid the damage 60% more often than I will, making them much more likable tanks for the healer. Even if they do take damage the spike isn't bad enough that you have to worry.
The Avatar of Blue Dec 31st 2008 11:55PM
"But everyone else can go jump in the lake. You know, wearing all that plate so they sink to the mucky bottom."
Except we'd cast Path of Frost and just walk on water. Just like Jesus. Who also was raised from the dead. We're that awesome, yo.
Zhiva Jan 2nd 2009 8:40AM
cast Path of Frost and jump into the lake...
*splat*
gamerzwarz Jan 1st 2009 12:06AM
Ofc ofc a paladin would NOT want his class to be nerfed. Dude ffs go check thetop 100 team how many frying 8k shamans do u see. And you still ask for buffs? Wtf is wrong with u.
PALADINS ARE EFFING OP FFS EFFIN OP? u get that? put it in ur brain and mix it 2-3 times.
When you have a retribution paladin that comes to you and lolwtf pwned before you get the time to blink,blind,death coil,chain of ice,sheep whatever u want he already droped u by 75% of ur health then bam holy light/hammer of wrath and bam ur dead. Or wait better. Lets say he droped u to 50% only right? so he is going to repetance u and wait for his cds to pop and lolwtfburst u again if ur still not dead he is going to stun u again and bam ur dead. Right now a paladin if ur not a frost mage that seems him at LEAST 50years away ur pwned.
Malkeior Jan 1st 2009 12:44AM
Remember how many Holy pallies you saw in S1? Now, remember how many Holy pallies you saw in S4?
3 weeks of Arena is not a basis for calling overpowered-ness.
Aldheim Jan 1st 2009 3:36AM
...I have no idea what you just said.
codespace Jan 1st 2009 10:49AM
Hey look! [2. Trade] made it's way over to WoWInsider.
Feanor Jan 2nd 2009 1:13PM
Lol sorry you are a terrible player..but on the bright side you are uber at QQing.....some ppl just don't get use to getting pawned and cry for nerfs
Verit Jan 1st 2009 12:55AM
I still see ret pallies doing really good dps, and in pvp they are pretty much unstopable. I saw one stun and kill my elemental shaman before the stun was up :(.
Julio Biason Jan 2nd 2009 5:16PM
We are stoppable (but I'm holy.) If you hate stun, get the Medallion of the Horde (or the alliance equivalent) to cut the stun.
And carry a pocket mage. ;)
Andrew R. Jan 1st 2009 1:14AM
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Random Cow Jan 1st 2009 1:12AM
Anyone else seeing this website like I see? All the images and CSS seems to be gone. Checked in Chrome and Firefox. Not too anxious to try it in IE in case this is a result of a hack.
jaxson_bateman Jan 1st 2009 1:33AM
"Anyone complaining about Beacon of Light hasn't played Holy in a raid. Period."
I'll have to disagree here, to an extent. I'm not someone who 'complains' about Beacon of Light, because quite frankly in concept it's fantastic, and in certain situations it can live up to it's full potential (5 mans).
The problem is, the more healers you get in a raid, the worse it gets - and for a 51 point talent this shouldn't be the case. Basically, the idea behind the Beacon was being able to heal two targets (the priority target, usually a tank, +1 person in 40 yds). However, as you get more healers there is a much higher potential for heal sniping - especially when you take into account Chain Heal, Wild Growth/rolling HoTs and CoH. For some fights where there are large amounts of AoE damage coming in (for example, Saph) there's less sniping, but if you're the only dedicated MT healer then even then you often can't take too big a risk.
In 5 mans it's perfect as it's a very rare occasion where you get heal sniped (for example, a dpser healing themselves). In 10 mans it's a little worse, but fairly managable. In a 25 man with 5-8 healers it can be very painful.
Of course, I'm only assuming that I know what Blizzard's intention with the spell was, but I feel I'm somewhat accurate in my analysis. If they did put it in there to heal the tank target +1, then the solution to it getting worse as group size increases is simple. They need to make overheal affect the Beacon, *but* to keep the spell balanced, reduce the transferred healing amount to around 60-80%. Doing this would mean a paladin could heal raid member X knowing that the tank is still going to get healed, unlike now where they could try to heal raid member X and pray that they don't get sniped.
boronak Jan 1st 2009 4:50AM
Seems that all the locks went crying and rolled loladins, yes you are all still loladins because your insanely over powered compared to every other class. If you can't with in your current state you must have had your nose amputated.
Let me give you an example .
Hunter sees paladin coming. Hunter drops frost trap sends pet in and fires off a couple of shots. the paladin stuns the hunter from 3 yards, he then walks around the trap with all the time in the world and stuns the hunter again before taking the hunter below 50% health in a split second with attack that also heals. This hunter is good, he pops deterence for all the good it will do, wingclips and disengages neatly over the frost trap and fires a concuss shot, a viper sting and decides to leg it. While popping a hs he was lucky enough to have. The paladin simply pops HoF and runs straight over the trap at 115% speed And hits the hunter in the back from 20 odd yards away. (when is melee not melee? lol). The hunter is back down to about 20% health with a paladin closing down fast. The hunter is a good kiter and is gradually wearing down the paladin, almost in kill shot range, one more hit, yes. Hits killshot, hmm, eh? oh the paladin has bubbled , 12 more seconds to run without been hit and even then i know his repentance cd will be back up and he still has plenty of time to pop in a heal and even use LoH.
thats why paladins are overpowered. Why can't paladins get this though their skulls, no wonder ever noob under the sun has rolled one.