Paladin Cataclysm clarifications
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 14th 2010 at 1:30PM
Of primary note is the following revamped Flash of Light information:
Neth's full statement after the break.Flash of Light remains a fast heal, but will be more expensive to justify the cast speed. Holy Light will be the go-to heal that has average efficiency and throughput. Beacon of Light needs to be changed so that its benefit is letting the paladin heal two targets at once, not letting the paladin get two heals for the mana cost of one. It's intended to save GCDs and targeting time, not mana.
NethaeraHere's a bit more clarification on some of these changes. Also, please keep in mind that this is merely a preview and we'll still have more to go in testing up to and including any other changes that aren't listed here in the preview.
We've updated the Flash of Light reference to make it a bit more clear in the original post as follows.
Currently on live, Beacon of Light is a tool that allows paladins to target more than just the main tank. In Cataclysm if it just doubles their healing, it is going to be overpowered. We have two ways we might handle this and we'll experiment to see which feels better. The first is that Beacon only works on some heals, such as Flash of Light or Holy Light (but not the big one). An alternative idea is that Beacon increases the mana cost of a heal cast on a beaconed target, since you're essentially getting a double heal. Under this model, Beacon itself would cost no mana.
Also on the live realms currently, paladins have huge mana pools and massive throughput. The trade-off is that they are excellent single target healers and much weaker in other roles. We want paladins to be slightly more interchangeable with other healers. In Cataclysm, you should be able to have a Holy priest on the tank and a Holy paladin on the raid. We're not sure we'll back off of the current healing roles completely, but we definitely want to add more breadth to those whose roles are currently too narrow.
As for the Guardian of Ancient Kings. First, it's important to understand that this is not a pet nor does it have a pet bar associated with it. Second, it's also not meant to last for very long. So, it's not a pet in the traditional sense. It's a friend in need when you need it, but not a permanent companion.
We've updated the Flash of Light reference to make it a bit more clear in the original post as follows.
- Flash of Light remains a fast heal, but will be more expensive to justify the cast speed. Holy Light will be the go-to heal that has average efficiency and throughput. Beacon of Light needs to be changed so that its benefit is letting the paladin heal two targets at once, not letting the paladin get two heals for the mana cost of one. It's intended to save GCDs and targeting time, not mana.
Currently on live, Beacon of Light is a tool that allows paladins to target more than just the main tank. In Cataclysm if it just doubles their healing, it is going to be overpowered. We have two ways we might handle this and we'll experiment to see which feels better. The first is that Beacon only works on some heals, such as Flash of Light or Holy Light (but not the big one). An alternative idea is that Beacon increases the mana cost of a heal cast on a beaconed target, since you're essentially getting a double heal. Under this model, Beacon itself would cost no mana.
Also on the live realms currently, paladins have huge mana pools and massive throughput. The trade-off is that they are excellent single target healers and much weaker in other roles. We want paladins to be slightly more interchangeable with other healers. In Cataclysm, you should be able to have a Holy priest on the tank and a Holy paladin on the raid. We're not sure we'll back off of the current healing roles completely, but we definitely want to add more breadth to those whose roles are currently too narrow.
As for the Guardian of Ancient Kings. First, it's important to understand that this is not a pet nor does it have a pet bar associated with it. Second, it's also not meant to last for very long. So, it's not a pet in the traditional sense. It's a friend in need when you need it, but not a permanent companion.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
erknost Apr 14th 2010 1:34PM
I have to say that this Cataclysm change left me with a mix of emotions, for example I'm very exacting about the Shammy's changes and I really don't like that much the Mage's changes. In general, the Paladin's changes and mainly the Holy Paladin's changes I do not like. The neft in the Beacon of Light, the push to the Holy Paladins stack Crit, I would prefer Healing Hands would be like real Holy Paladin Aura and not a spell, and I don't see my self in the middle of a enrage casting a Guardian of Ancient Kings. I'm really, really not happy... I'm not mad or sad, but disappointed I was hopping much more creativity.
Can you imagine, two Prot Pallies, two Ret Pallies, and two Holy Pallies casting Guardian of Ancient Kings at the same time in a 25man raid, plus three DK casting Gargoyle and one priest dying and becoming an "Angel", plus hunter, warlock, dk and mage pets... ? Thats a crowded screen.
PBoy227 Apr 14th 2010 1:37PM
Yay for copying your post from the worldofwarcraft forums.
Anyway. As a Prot Pally, I approve of these changes.
erknost Apr 14th 2010 1:39PM
Lol, indeed. I think that not a lot of peeps read that huge pile of comments, so I wanna let my voice hear. And this is a awe space to let it be.
Thyago Apr 14th 2010 2:47PM
You do not enjoy mage changes?!
Wow.
Paul Apr 14th 2010 2:54PM
When it comes to the design stage (which this is) conservative abilities are more susceptible to buffs than the fancy abilities, which, as proven by Mass Resurrection, Heroic Leap V1, that aoe corruption talent and Spirit Link from Wrath's beta, are highly susceptible to nerfs or outright removal.
Or pointing at all three DK trees from beta compared to now to REALLY point out where most of these "awe inspired" abilities end up going...
Will the same happen again? I'll be the first to say that it would be blind pessimism to say that abilities like Dark Simulacrum, Leap of Faith and Spiritwalker's Grace have the same chance of getting the chop as class abilities, likewise claiming that not having anything cool now means you wont have anything cool in 8 months time is equally a poor judgement call.
Zalvi24 Apr 14th 2010 3:46PM
BTW this is what the Guardian of Ancient Kings spell will look like in cata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSZhHLkIfkc
Zombiemold Apr 14th 2010 4:08PM
Why was this comment down rated? Because it was an issue he talked about on the forums? If so.. lame.
http://felfire.com/
Ilmyrn Apr 14th 2010 1:35PM
So it sounds like Holy Light is getting nerfed, which if it was going to made into our bread and butter middle of the road heal makes sense. I mean come on. How big would the heal with more throughput than (the current) Holy Light have to be? Would it go back in time to heal your grandfather's arthritis?
kevinblack16 Apr 14th 2010 1:40PM
It's only a nerf in that there will be another, larger heal to offset it. It's not like they're saying "kay, we're going to make holy light less of an option so everyone uses flash"
erknost Apr 14th 2010 1:41PM
Well I don't understand that... All the classes are gonna have bigger health pools, and Holy Light it will just "feel" smaller. This new Ultra Huge Heal spell it just gonna be even bigger then Holy Light.
sclark1138 Apr 14th 2010 3:57PM
Holy Light wont feel smaller, because we are going to get new ranks of it from 81-85. That's why a nerf is needed, along with other stat changes they are making. I like the 3 heal philosophy they are going with. I just hope there is enough difference between healers still, to make it not feel like the same thing on alternate characters.
Love the AOE heal that was added also.
thebitterfig Apr 14th 2010 6:21PM
nerf or not, everything is changing.
look at a priest's flash heal or a shaman's lesser healing wave. fast, weak, inefficient. on the contrary, a paladin's flash of light is fast, even weaker, but super efficient. likewise, holy light is far more inefficient than a shaman's or priest's big heal in live, but it is bigger and faster. what won't remain is the odd inversion, where the relative efficiency of paladin heals was very different than other classes.
not to mention that the paladin's AoE heal, while needed, appears to be somewhat problematic. now, i don't want paladin healers to be kings of every sort of healing and still support them being 4th best raid/AE healer. however, they are too distant a 4th for my tastes.
brian Apr 14th 2010 8:23PM
"How big would the heal with more throughput than (the current) Holy Light have to be?"
Lay on Hands?
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised to see that turn into our big heal, and have Holy Paladins get a different healer cooldown. It's not usable in arenas, and with rated battlegrounds they won't want it usable there (is it even usable in BGs currently?). Plus, having your healer cooldown just be a bigger heal doesn't work so well, especially when it's usually overheal.
However, they did say that even our big heal might need to be used three times to get a tank to full. ("Holy paladins can talent into an additional heal that is like a giant Holy Light. It might take three of these big heals (or two crits) to get a tank from death’s door back to 100% health.") So, having a cooldown heal might not be so bad, in which case, "Greater Holy Light" could be added in between Holy Light and Lay on Hands.
Sterdoker Apr 14th 2010 1:39PM
"Holy paladins can talent into an additional heal that is like a giant Holy Light."
I fully understand that this means that we will still have one big heal that will heal for the same power, only with a different name, but I couldn't help feeling this as a bonus and smiling.
"Giant holy light" -Giggle
Mordockk Apr 14th 2010 2:13PM
It'll be like a holy light with 10 stacks of emerald vigor
Daniel Apr 14th 2010 1:43PM
My concern is that WoW is becoming generic. I know people who already use (I don't dare say "play") the game as if it's nothing more than an IM program with nifty visuals. To me, it seems like Cata is becoming Facebook or MySpace with nifty visuals. I hope I am wrong on that score; I really do. But I don't like the idea that all healers operate the same. It may make encounter design easier but it takes all of the identity out of the game. I don't want to play the same way all the other healers are playing.
Swampsquatch Apr 14th 2010 3:05PM
WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN
Arturis Apr 14th 2010 3:29PM
I have to disagree on the whole "making WoW more generic" supposition. It seems to me that they are simply standardizing the healing classes' primary healing abilities. As it currently stands in game, there is quite a vast difference between healing as each of the healing classes, to the point where I know people who have tried to make the jump from Priest to Druid or Paladin to Shaman and have been completely discouraged with healing in the new class.
As you may have noticed by the indicator in the random dungeon system, most of the time your DPS slots will fill right up, and then you are stuck waiting around for a tank and a healer to fill in. Any change that makes it easier for players to embrace the healing paradigm is very welcome, and will help fill those slots faster.
Plus, as I mentioned, its only their primary healing abilities that are being effected for the most part. That is 3-5 spells out of a class's entire arsenal, and aside from the visual effect/sound effect/icon, those spells were pretty much already doing the same thing - filling the ol' green bars. Getting them all on a common usability ground isn't as vast a change as it sounds.
Olicon Apr 14th 2010 5:50PM
Wouldn't that depend on how you define generic? All heals are ultimately generic, because it heals the target. Even if Healing Wave, Holy Light, and Heal have the same heal amount and mana cost, it still won't be the same. Why? Because of the context.
1) Paladins, Priests, Shamans, and Druids will not have the same mana pool, nor use the same gear. A 2 sec base casting time will feel very different when you have 50% crit compared to when you have 50% Haste.
2) Other big heals on CDs are vastly different. These are your go-to heals when shit hits the fan, and they will work very differently.
3) The other abilities that supplement the 3 main heals are very different. Druids will still have more HoTs), and Paladin can still Holy Shock, Priests shield, etc.
The gimmicks will always be there. They will all result in making your friends and you live a bit longer, but they all have different flavors and specialties.
If all spells truly are the same, then you should be able to switch between each class with the same gear and perform equally well. We know this is not true, and will never be true. That means that even if we can't pinpoint the exact place where the classes diverge, it must exist.
Alex Apr 15th 2010 2:23AM
Holy shit dude. That's EXACTLY what i've been thinking since i started reading the changes. "To me, it seems like Cata is becoming Facebook or MySpace with nifty visuals. " Seriously, aren't you someone i know who decided to post here? :))
I quit playing wow 5 months ago, but I was a huge fan since vanilla and was doing quite well in PvE(Coliseum cleared hard mode 25) and in PvP(2400~ rating 2v2 and 3v3) so it really hurts when I see this game transformed into something more of a shiny interface for chatting than the competitive and awesome game it used to be. Sure, it works for blizz, they make a lot of cash out of it, but damnit this whole array of changes in gamplay and lore are really disappointing to someone who's been playing their games since warcraft 2, diablo 1 and starcraft.
Also, rofl @ posts getting downrated if they criticise wow. Seriously, 95% of the people i know who played wow before tbc or even wotlk wouldn't praise the game right now. But, enjoy your World of Warcraftbook.