What #BlizzChat has told us about Cataclysm
1. Ret Paladins (at least) will be getting an interrupt.
Q. What information/ideas can you share on PvP utility in the Retribution tree? Mandatory gap closer/interrupt question. Not having a cleanse will hurt. :\
A. Retribution paladins will be getting an interrupt.
It’s disappointing they side-stepped the gap closer portion of the question. That’s a pretty serious concern for Ret that they’re losing a lot from their defensive bag of tricks, without much offense-oriented to make up for it. An interrupt is nice, a gap closer is near-mandatory I would say.
2. What goes in our Libram slot will be homogenized, in that we’ll be sharing more generic relics with Death Knights and maybe Druids.
Q: Will relics and wands be getting any new attention in Cataclysm?
A: With relics, the plan is to make them class agnostic. In other words, there might be a +strength relic that a death knight or paladin might want to equip. We think that will let us add more of them to the game without them being so specialized. They will feel more like wands.
This is interesting and unexpected. While lore-wise it doesn’t make much sense for a Paladin and DK to share a relic, in a design sense it seems prudent.
3. Vengeance is being designed with off tanks in mind.
Q: Can you go into more detail on Vengeance? As it stands it sounds like off tanks will be at a significant disadvantage.
A: We want Vengeance to have a long enough duration that off tanks won’t lose their damage bonus. In most situations, the off tank is doing some tanking along the way. The worst case scenario would be say a fight where the off tank needs to tank in phase 3 but not phase 1. Remember, even in that case though you have tools to generate high threat. Vengeance is there to keep DPS from pulling off you late in the fight.
As an oft-off tank, I feel assuaged. As long as the duration is long and even little ticks of AOE set off Vengeance, it’ll be good for us tanking wingmen too. And, finally, an excuse to stand in void zones.
4. Holy Shock will still have a damage component despite being baseline and available for Ret/Prot.
Q: Now that paladin’s Holy Shock is baseline is there any plans to change the Art of War talent?
A: We like Art of War, so we don’t expect it will go away. We understand the concern that Holy Shock might compete with Art of War a little bit in terms of role (an instant damage spell) and that’s something we’re going to have to address.
Just don’t screw it up for us! I want that ranged goodness to stay intact, more or less.
Armory Feed
I think in a way we did get a gap closer; we can use our interrupt instead of blowing our stun, now. Granted, that’s more in a PvP situation than a PvE one, but I’m not convinced we need a PvE closer. Death Knights can have the pull portion of deathgrip negated (as it is on most bosses) so it’s not like it’s unprecedented. A bit annoying when trying to save folks from adds, but that just means we need to train people to move toward us.
but that just means we need to train people to move toward us.
Which is what we have always had to do before hand of reckoning anyway. “if you have aggro come stand in my consecrate. No, Mage, Dont blink away…. Hunter, why are you running further away? IN MY CONSECRATE!!”.
I would love a gap closer but we don’t need it IMO. As prot we have run speed increase, avengers shield and stun, plus two ranged taunts (not really interested in prot pvp just referring to pve).
Pvp ret has run speed talent, hand of freedom, repentence (ranged sap, I mean, come on), stun, bubble. I have no trouble with hunters or warlocks and only trouble with mages when two are kiting me.
I can’t see Pala’s getting a gap closer. I think blizz are doing their best to not give every class everything. Trying to stop the class homogenization. (regardless of personal views on how well they are doing at it lol) The interupt however, was needed. It’s too big a penalty not to have one. It’s still early days and I think we’ll get a few new interesting toys to spice things up a bit
I’m still not sure I’m thrilled with the Holy Shock change. It’ll be nice for pallys, but fighting them in bgs. Ugh, do they really need another instant heal? Although they did say bubble’s getting a nerf, which for pvp purposes is pretty necessary, really. Nothing more annoying than having to kill the same holy pally twice. Actually I’d say Bubble is the single most annoying pvp ability currently in the game. As far as gap closers go. Well I’m still scratching my head on why Warriors got a second one (again pvp nightmare for my hunter) while pallies got……more aoe damage? Oh yea and a pet that will probably end up as one of those things we use heavily in heroics, but then never in raids as the damage absorption will likely not be worth the gcd. Right now the change I’m really hoping and praying for is a complete re-balance around Lay on Hands, Bubble, and Wings to get rid of Forbearance. Yet another example of how pvp has really hurt pve and created a mechanic that just feels silly.