We’ve got the power
Imagine my surprise when I read the leftovers of the Twitter Q&A from Friday and saw that our world had suddenly been turned upside down. Well, that might sound a bit dramatic, but what was announced was a tectonic shift in the play style of the Paladin class. Right now, as it stands, we just throw abilities at the boss while attempting to sync cooldowns and maximize output.
To say the least: Boring. Overly simple as well.
Something had to give and I’m glad to see that we’re finally getting that much-needed complexity that many of us have been clamoring forever for.
All of the paladin specializations will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Holy Power accumulates from using Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, and some other talents. Holy Power can be consumed to augment a variety of abilities, including:
An instant mana-free heal: Word of Glory
A buff to increase holy damage done: Inquisition
A massive physical melee attack for Retribution paladins: Templar’s Verdict
Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power
Divine Storm’s damage is now increased by Holy Power
969 is dead and rightfully so. We’ll be shifting to using a more priority-based system in Cataclysm that builds on using abilities when the payoff is at its apex. For example, say Crusader Strike builds Holy Power for us, then we would do some normal attacks, mix in CS, and build HP to 3. Once Holy Power is maxed out, that’s when we would pop Holy Shield for a longer damage reduction “break” (which begins to make sense of GC’s assertion that you would only use Holy Shield once a minute or so, it becomes much more manageable when there’s a clear point to use it).
Or, you could opt for casting Inquisition and going for a threat boost (probably more useful for trash or farm content?). In any case, choices! And priorities! We’re not just doing A, C, B, D, A, E, B, C, etc, anymore!
Has it been properly conveyed how excited I am about this system yet? I realize this is a weird reverse of Rogue combo points, where we’re stacking these on ourselves, but I am sure in the end it will be just the tonic class needs.
Likewise, this GC quote from this weekend is pertinent:
We felt like we needed to add several new spells to the paladin rotation, including making Holy Wrath a real part of the rotation. With all of those changes, we thought it was hard to justify having a mechanic to choose your Judgement when you were already choosing your Seal and Aura. It’s just a different model. If anything at the moment I’m worried that we made paladins too complex and might have to reign it back in a little. We’ll see when players can try it out in beta.
Yes, wait and see! After the long time we’ve spent wallowing in “easy mode”, erring on the side of complexity is not a bad thing. Just go with it.
Lastly, I would like to /sign the suggestion given by many on the official forums, as well as by Rohan and Sucidal Zebra: rename Holy Power to Zeal. Holy Power is an undeservingly lame moniker for something with so much potential.
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@Anafielle
19 July 2010 at 10:09 am #
Paladins becoming “too” complex? Damn!!
It’ll feel like a nerf to most players because now that optimal DPS will only be pumped out by those who really, really take the time to learn… the learning curve will be steep; the official forums will be full of QQ…
All I say is… BRING IT ON! I’m so excited!!!!
One of my fav 40K quotes – “Zeal is its own excuse.”
I like the idea that we’re getting another resource. After all, shadow priests, warlocks and balance druids are getting something like them as well come Cataclysm. It also riffs off the idea that the original DKs were corrupted Paladins. So in that vein I can see calling it Divine Power. That being said Zeal does have a nice ring to it.
@hazmacewillraid
19 July 2010 at 10:34 am #
Perhaps Zest? That way we can clean up minions with an orange-y scent and the power of citrus.
@Rhidach
19 July 2010 at 10:40 am #
I lol’d… so much…
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rhabella, Rhidach. Rhidach said: New post: We've got the power – http://tinyurl.com/32hra7w [...]
Zeal…isn’t that what we’re harvesting for the Apothecaries in that follow up quest to Going, Going, Guano!?
@Rhidach
19 July 2010 at 12:01 pm #
Hearts of Zeal! Close though, good memory. :)
[...] name, as well as on what it does, so you should check out Blessing of Kings, Suicidal Zebra, or Righteous Defense. To recap, Holy Power is a combination of Combo Points (we build up three points with Crusader [...]
I’m excited about being a pally again. They may not address absolutely every problem I have with the class, but they are addressing the biggest one.
Given I plan to race-change to Tauren as soon as allowed I’m really, really fighting the temptation to tie those power-blowoff skills to a macro /yell “MORE COWBELL!!”
LabRat’s last blog ..Government Inaction
Or you could take to calling it your ‘Ho Po Load Blow’.
@Rhidach
20 July 2010 at 8:51 am #
Ha!
It seem Blizzard is attempting to go in the direction of “easy to play, difficult to master”. It should really separate the good players from the horrible ones. Talent choices will be much more simplistic, but in exchange rotations will no longer be as simple as “Press A then B, then C, then D, then back to A and press X whenever it procs.” You’ll now have to say to yourself, “well the hunter is coming pretty close to my threat, I’d better press this button”, or “well the boss is about to do xyz move and it’s going to hurt unless I press this other button”. I like the idea of true choice as opposed to feeling like a poorly trained monkey following the same rotation over and over and over again. I really hope this works out this way as it’ll add some excitement to my pally tank again. They also seem to be traveling in a similar direction with healers, DK’s and Warriors. Hopefully it’ll work out to be the same with all classes eventually.
Oh please not Zeal. I like Faith, much better. Zeal does not cap. Faith can wax and wane. Faith is the one word we want to describe the new ability.
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If you’re all that bored tanking on a paladin and want an idea of what this will be like, roll a warrior tank. I don’t understand how everyone that is bored with paladin tanking hasn’t done this already. I’m not knocking warrior tanking, I kind of enjoy it, but now I’ll have 2 tanks that play very much alike. In the end, I may switch to the dark side and go with my warrior as a main since by the time everything is live, the enormous effort Blizz has put in to catering to warriors will really pay off.