I mean, do I really need to say more than that?
Here are all the pertinent changes for us on the PTR:
- The mana costs of Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings have been increased by approximately 217%, making them roughly equal to the cost of Mark of the Wild.
- Crusader Strike weapon damage percent has been increased to 135%, up from 115%.
- Inquisition is no longer dispellable.
- Rebuke can now be trained by all paladins at level 54. Existing characters will need to visit their trainer, even if they had talented Rebuke before.
Some are pretty inconsequential, except for our precious need for in-combat rebuffing. That change is clearly a slap in the face. And non-dispellable Inquisition is really more of a Ret pvp buff.
But let’s talking about the meat. To start: Crusader Strike is getting a buff, thanks to Ret, which means our single target dps (and threat, obviously) is going up. Very exciting. Hopefully Wrath of the Lightbringer won’t be tuned down to compensate.
The biggest change is, of course, Rebuke. An honest-to-goodness, off the GCD interrupt. Finally. This is the single biggest change to Paladin tanking since, well, 4.0.
Definitely a smart move since it removes a major inequity between Paladins and other tanks on the many, many interrupt requiring fights in Cataclysm.
I am one happy tankadin this morning.
The Rebuke change is really good! The more interrupts available, the better I say!
I said it in an earlier comment, but Ode to Joy man, Ode-to-Joy!
Its just going to be nice as a raid leader to not have to assign the boss which requires interrupts to the big butted bear, or glowey eyed DK or silly Warrior tank – I’m back baby, and I’m not tanking the adds this time!
And with this change, I’m going out on a limb and say that I’m almost perfectly happy with Paladin tanking – my only remaining gripe: please fix Grand Crusader so that its not a TPS loss to use my proc when it, you know, procs! (especially now, since I no longer need to save it for interrupts!)
@Anafielle
I’m with you bro- I’m quite happy with pally tanking too! We have a lot of nice tools in our toolbox now. I particularly like choosing between SotR, word of glory or (sometimes for the leet dps on many adds) inquisition – it’s a cool mechanic, and I like. I’ve always enjoyed my pally, but it’s particularly nice right now.
@Anafielle
REBUKE!!!!!
REBUKE!!!!
finally we can be part of interrupt chains, too! Oh… shit… people will need me to be part of an interrupt chain…. crap… blizz, can you take this present back please?? (just kidding)
.-= Anafielle’s last blog ..anafielle- WHAT FINALLY! RT @rhidach- OH EM EFF GEE Rebuke baseline =-.
It was needed and necessary, it’s become a required tanking tool. HOWEVER, it is, generally speaking, a Bad Idea to assign tanks to interrupting. Tanks are rarely hitcapped, and interrupts generally have to be reliable in raids.
Tank interrupts, at this stage, are an emergency “oh-shit” tool at best, and AS/HoJ are generally “good enough” for that kind of duty right now.
In practice, on cleanly executed kills, this will make nearly no difference – it’s a quality of life change, and it’s a good one, but Blizzard has always been right about this – it’s a minor issue at best.
@Rhidach
I would argue that while AS/HoJ are “good enough”, anything that uses a GCD is a threat loss, and therefore unacceptable!
Likewise, I would argue that quality of life changes are the most important ones. No one wants to play a class that’s a chore to operate.
You’re not going to believe this, coming from me. I almost feel guilty saying it.
Given a sufficient threat ceiling, raid utility that materially improves your chances of success at any given boss encounter is significantly more important than producing more threat.
Quality of life changes are important, it’s true. But you can’t have too high a quality of life, or you never have to do any work :P
It’s helpful, it’s useful, and I have to find a new and convenient keybind, somehow. But it’s not going to make a paladin the tank of choice for any given encounter where we weren’t already.
Speaking of which – Raidwall is an ability waiting for the nerfbat.
@Rhidach
Heh, I’d agree. I hope my bold betrays that I was purposefully going over the top and attempting to play to your damage-maximizing obsession.
And yes, both that and WoG are dead abilities walking. Damocles’ nerfbat dangling precipitously, and all that.
No kidding. I know GC’s last statement on the subject was that they’re happy with where all the tanks are and I haven’t heard anything otherwise, but right now my healers say having a competent paladin tanking over some other class makes a massive difference to how easy the heroic is for them to heal. That *can’t* last.
.-= LabRat’s last blog ..How 2 Pallytank- New Coke edition =-.
@PinkRaidFrames
Don’t get me wrong.. I’m not complaining about the change but I echo this:
“Quality of life changes are important, it’s true. But you can’t have too high a quality of life, or you never have to do any work :P”
My first thought this morning when I read the patch knows was.. “AS… Rebuke… HoJ… AS proc?.. Rebuke.. etc”.
That’s a lot of possible interrupts. But yeah, with them all being on the GCD they were nearly worthless for boss tanking.
Question from a non-dps who’s only healed & tanked with his paladin: how does Rebuke work if I’m in the middle of casting something or my GCD is ticking from an instant? I’ve had trouble cleansing Plague on LK and I want to know how this would affect my healing if the RL decides to throw me into the interrupt bucket.
.-= Joe Ego’s last blog ..Update Your Armory Links! =-.
Speaking as a tankadin with a ret offspec…
It’s off the GCD, baby. Doesn’t matter what you’re casting or just cast, you can hit it instantly as reaction requires.
Happydance.
.-= LabRat’s last blog ..How 2 Pallytank- New Coke edition =-.
Off-GCD interrupts can be activated at any time (regardless of the state of the GCD), and do not trigger the GCD. For comparison, it should work exactly like Avenging Wrath does. So long as you aren’t channelling a cast, you can use it. You could even macro in a /stopcast for that.
Note that it’s melee range though.
Thanks. I’m having flashbacks to Iron Council where we sent a Warrior & Resto Shaman over to Brundir and they rotated interrupt duty.
Throw in 2/2 Enlightened Judgements and I’m already at melee hit cap with a 330 ilvl. I always did enjoy all this utility…
.-= Joe Ego’s last blog ..Update Your Armory Links! =-.
@PinkRaidFrames
Happy happy joy joy..
My wife is SO getting lucky tonight.
@Rhidach
Hahaha, everybody wins.
@Anafielle
Good sir, you win best comment ever posted on Righteous Defense. My hat’s off to you.
Gotta love Rebuke! I’m so excited, I’m still kinda giggling inside.
While tons of changed happened in 4.0 I’m going to say this is the biggest change since they took spell power off the gear and made us and warriors use the same gear.
I’m kinda worried about the buff to CS and how this could in the long run turn into a nerf in another way down the road. Maybe its like you said and WotLB will be the only fix.
.-= Chasey’s last blog ..Patch 406 upcoming changes! =-.
Yay! Rebuke!
Since I started playing a paladin I thought it was kind of weird that they didn’t have a trainable interrupt like my DK. Good to see that Blizz had the same line of thought!
This shall my burgeoning tankadin/healadin/somethingadin very happy.
.-= Vrykerion’s last blog ..Tie Your Wagons Down Or You Ain’t No Friend of Mine =-.
This is a great change, particularly for ten man guilds which might not be carrying enough interrupts otherwise. It opens up a lot of doors in terms of tanking assignments due to the wide variety of fights in the current tier that require interrupts. I wouldn’t be suprised to see the interrupt taken off HoJ and AS to compensate for the change.
Now all we need is a way to apply AoE debuffs like every other tank has, and we’ll be in business.
@Anafielle
Honestly, I wouldn’t miss the interrupt being taken off AS. I hate leaving it out of my rotation when interrupt chains are going on. I’ve also accidentally interrupted things I’m not supposed to interrupt. Asking for a nerf? Not really… I’d rather have my interrupt on one button and my shield bounce on another, since shield bounce is part of my rotation now!
I agree. Lets bring abilities back to their basics, and not have the same abilities do double (or triple) duty.
HoJ = stun. It doesn’t need to interrupt.
AS = rotation attack & ranged silence. It also no longer needs to interrupt.
Rebuke = interrupt
3 abilities doing 3 different things. Everything in its right place.
@Orthien
This is an amazing change for us in terms of utility, I still remember the days of Jaraxxus and having to be add tank because the Warrior could interrupt for Hard Modes etc.
This also is a massive change for PvP.
While a lot of people do not play Prot in PvP and those that do are moving away from it since Ret got buffed this makes us once again a casters nightmare once we are in range.
.-= Orthien’s last blog ..Left wanting Magmore =-.
Did they change their minds?
Oops, I was thinking that 4.0.6 came out today, but I guess it hasn’t yet.
Too spaced out thinking about the iPhone on Verizon.