3 trends you can see in our “new” tree
I did one pass with wow-tal.com this morning and came up with this selection of talents. A complete waste of time, though, because our tree is obviously a work in progress. Everything is subject to change. Yet, there are still some trends you can see through the fog of war.
1. A radically different Consecration
Consecration on the beta server right now lasts for 15 seconds and has no cooldown. You drop it in one place, then can move and drop it in another immediately. Old one disappears, new one comes up. Then, the talent Hallowed Ground increases the duration by 15 seconds and damage by 15% for 1 point, and 30 seconds/30% for 2. A 45 second Consecrate.
Basically, the ability shifts to almost like a harmful aura than an actually ability in a rotation. I think this is a good change for sure, especially once you consider point #3 of this post. It’s shifting to more of a “fire and forget” ability. Moreover, even if the 45 second duration doesn’t stay, it’s obvious what the new path they want Consecration to take is.
2. Clickable Ardent Defender
This was probably one of the biggest complaints masochistic Paladins like yours truly leveled at Ardent Defender in the past, that it was automatic. At the beginning of Ulduar, we begged Blizzard for a second cooldown and instead we got the grotesque god-mode that has hung over our class ever since.
As of this latest build, Ardent Defender is now an on-click ability. Finally, some reactivity. Nonetheless, I sincerely doubt this is anywhere near the final version of this ability. Especially since 35%-0% seems too small a window to have for AD, you’re either going to misuse it or miss using it.
I’m still heartened that we’re being trusted with activating our own cooldowns now.
3. Many more buttons to push
Holy Shock, Crusader Strike, Exorcism. Those are three new single target abilities we’ll be juggling next xpac. Well, probably not Holy Shock.
The talent Improved Exorcism returns to us our precious instant Exorcism, though it’ll be a tad late if Hand of Reckoning retains its damage component. And Improved Crusader Strike… removes the cooldown entirely. Um. I can’t imagine this’ll will persist through later builds, unless it’ll be a lingering stupid trap for Paladins that think spamming a physical damage ability is a good idea for threat.
The biggest downside of all these buttons is a severe case of GCD-lockage, which will hamper us with attempting to throw out helpful abilities like a Hand of Freedom, a BoP, a self-Holy Shock in a pinch, whatever.
I would advise against obsessing too much about the tree and spending more than necessary (like I did) trying to finesse a spec with Righteous Vengeance (this will be must have, mark my words) and other major Prot talents. Next build may see a radical shift in talent placements and cost that will change the picture completely. Save your energy for then!
Bonus: What the hell is happening to Holy Shield?
We are going to turn both Holy Shield and Shield Block into short cooldowns. A short cooldown is an ability that you don’t save for an absolute emergency (like Shield Wall) but we also don’t want it to be on such a short cooldown that it feels maintenance-y. It’s a tricky number to get right, but something in the 30 sec to 1 min zone feels about right. Then you might use Holy Shield one GCD instead of SoR or you can choose to save it until the next big boss attack.
Sigh.
Armory Feed
Yet to look at Prot, but putting together a Holy raid spec seemed decent. Most interesting for me was the inability to spec Divine Sacrifice for any of the non-Prot specialists.
I can definitely tell it is a work in progress. I felt almost forced to talent Improved Hammer of Justice in my sub-spec.
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@Rhidach
14 July 2010 at 9:30 am #
Divine Sacrifice lost the raid wall aspect, it’s only use is to get to Divine Guardian for a 0 cooldown Divine Plea. Which doesn’t auto refresh anymore. Ugh.
He does realize that a mitigation talent on a short-long cooldown is just as maintenance-y as one with a short-short cooldown right? If you feel the need to use it every time it is available, it is a maintenance cooldown. It’s not a tanking cooldown because they don’t expect it to be saved.
I am also curious how this will impact the previously stated paladin philosophy of block more often but for less than a warrior who will block less often but for more. Bringing holy shield and shield block more into line with each other doesn’t change how they feel maintenance-y but does remove some of the class flair when both classes are functioning so very similar to each other already.
@Rhidach
14 July 2010 at 9:44 am #
Yeah you’re either using it in a rotation or using it as a reactionary cooldown. There’s no middle of the road “I haven’t hit this button in 30 seconds, let’s use it now.”
One thing I found interesting about the new Holy tree is the preponderance of what were previously seen as PvP talents towards the bottom…..either that, or Cleanse is going to play a much larger role in Cata for Holies.
They’re turning us into warriors, not that that’s horrible, but I do like both play-styles almost equally. This may turn my warrior into a non-used alt though. Shame to lose so much distinction.
@Rhidach
14 July 2010 at 11:19 am #
The homogenization is rapid. Pretty soon we’ll be clones of one another.
@hazmacewillraid
14 July 2010 at 10:59 am #
Maybe try this:
http://www.wowtal.com/#k=-pbE9oGPN.9mn.paladin
It’s missing Judgements of the Just and Vindication to get Righteous Vengeance, but maybe reduced melee attack speed and reduced physical damage will come from a melee DPS / other tank?
Since Righteous Vengeance has “Hammer of the Righteous” included in its affected spells, one has to surmise that they intended for prot paladins to take it (or be able to take it) in some form or another.
@Rhidach
14 July 2010 at 11:14 am #
I don’t know how much our crit will be to make that talent worth it, tps-wise. Also it looks like (with all the hp we’ll have and the new longer TTL tanking model) that Divinity might be must have for survival. I’m done agonizing over the tree, I’ll just wait for the next build, haha.
As it is now, Eye for an Eye might be a very nice talent indeed. Especially since as tanks, we expect to take a lot of hits and a free judgment may be a really sweet bonus. It might also possibly free up a GCD preventing us from having to manually judge at all.
So far it seems they’re really putting too many abilities as on click abilities. Will we ever be able to actually attack anything or just react to everything all the time?
The loss of the Divine Plea refresh is a pretty big blow. They’d better make sure we don’t go oom every trash pull since we are also losing Judgment of Wisdom. Maybe they’re upset we were getting by with only one point in Spiritual Attunement?
The new Divine Sacrifice is very disappointing indeed. It feels like a waste of a talent point. (What you want me to take more damage while I’m holding the boss and a few adds? Sure no problem!)
I’m not a huge fan of being forced to spend 2 talent points to keep our silence on Avenger’s Shield. I’m really hoping they’ll remove that talent completely and replace it with something more favorable.
Although we knew Sanctuary was moving to a more permanent ability, it’s still pretty exciting to see in person.
One more thing I’ve noticed. Judgments of the Just claims to increase the duration of Seal of Justice by 1 second, although we’ve been told Seal of Justice is being removed. Obviously I expect that talent to change.
Unlike the hunter trees, there are just too many talents I want to take, and not enough points to get them all. So far I’m kinda thinking the following build. It sacrifices some damage for utility and survival.
http://www.wowtal.com/#k=e8Nk2iaB.9mn.paladin
Apparently they’ve changed a lot in the paladin trees since the patch went live Tuesday.
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/25969020290/a-couple-questions-paladin-trees/
@Rhidach
15 July 2010 at 7:42 am #
Well then, there’s goes my post idea for today. :\
“And Improved Crusader Strike… removes the cooldown entirely.”
Wait. Heroic Strike- on a Paladin.
Oh my goodness… There are radical changes in 4.0- maybe I could put up with them, maybe not. But hopefully I won’t have to put up with the homogenisation of my class to ‘Warrior + Holy animations’, a weird and ugly trend that seems to be occuring as of late.
@Rhidach
15 July 2010 at 7:48 am #
At least it isn’t on next swing, haha. Considering the next build our whole tree is likely to be different, I wouldn’t worry about it much… at this juncture. Maybe if it’s still there next build.
They might as well cave and just make 3 playable classes, DPS (with different skins and cosmetic items that change how your character appears…mo’ money, mo’ epic!), healer (with different skins and cosmetic items that change how your character appears…mo’ money, mo’ epic!), tank (with different skins and cosmetic items that change how your character appears…mo’ money, mo’ epic!),
I forgot to take a screenshot, but when you lay Consecrate, there’s a timer underneath your unit frame that shows the duration – similar to the totem timers.
@Rhidach
16 July 2010 at 12:43 pm #
I must have a screenshot of this!