More clarifications from GC
Lots of insight from the crab!
On Holy Shield
Holy Shield, it is going through rapid iteration. Our current implementation has it providing 5% block per stack of Holy Power, up to a max of 15%. So you can use Holy Power for threat, healing or mitigation depending on current circumstances. You should be able to keep the 15% block up all the time with a very small amount of effort.
Warriors get 15% block baseline, so this means the paladin has to work harder for it. Seeing as how the paladin doesn’t have to maintain Demo Shout or Thunderclap’s debuff, this doesn’t seem too great a burden.
So much for a 66% Holy Shield. The new plan seems to be a return to the old “use Holy Shield as soon as it falls off” with the added twist of accumulating 3 HP first to push block chance up to 15%. I hope that the duration of Holy Shield will be long enough for us to accumulate at least 6 HP, 3 to either use Word of Glory or Inquisition depending on situation, and then another 3 to max out the next Holy Shield.
On Raidwall
Divine Guardian doesn’t affect the paladin. Otherwise we feared it would just get used as another tank cooldown instead of for the raid utility for which it was intended.
This makes sense, but saddens me.
On Bubblewall
We’re strongly considering changing Divine Protection into a short cooldown. It is currently a clone of Shield Wall. Considering the paladin 85 also offers strong emergency damage reduction, we thought they could use a short cooldown ability (say 30-60 sec). Shield Block for warriors is being repositioned more as a short cooldown ability.
The mirroring of warriors continues a-pace!
On Grand Crusader
Grand Crusader no longer affects Crusader Strike. That was an older model we were trying.
I wonder what the new ability will be? Probably not Judgement, the cooldown is too short. Maybe Avenger’s Shield, or a free/instant Exorcism (Art of War: Electric Bugaloo)?
On Avenger’s Shield
Avenger’s Shield silences as a baseline effect. It no longer dazes, since all that seemed to accomplish was making pulling take longer.
Good change! Very good change!
On threat in general
Righteous Fury now affects all threat.
Also an excellent change. Needed to be done with Crusader Strike coming into our toolbox, and Vengeance affecting Attack Power.
On stamina
Since I am sure it will be asked based on that info, paladins and warriors have the same Stamina curves now. A naked warrior and paladin of the same race will have the same health at 85. Both Protection trees get the same amount of Stamina as a passive. That number will likely be something like 10 or 15% Stamina depending on tuning. (In our current build it is 15%.) In similar gear, their health should be very similar. We’ll provide the differences in their cooldowns and how they tank. DKs and druids are likely to have different amounts of health as well.
While I never freaked out about 10% vs 15%, it’s good to see–as rational minds suspected–that was not going to be anywhere near a final design.
Armory Feed
@Rilgon
22 July 2010 at 10:45 am #
Good change! Very good change!
In what universe? Avenger’s Shield is a godsend on Heroic Saurfang without a Moonkin.
Rilgon Arcsinh’s last blog ..Wish Upon a Star
@Rhidach
22 July 2010 at 10:47 am #
In what universe would a tank shield toss a beast and possibly pull aggro and draw one into melee?
A niche use hardly justifies keeping its primary use (pulling mobs) gimped, I would say.
@hazmacewillraid
22 July 2010 at 11:28 am #
While I agree with the concept Rhidach is going for, I have used AS on a loose (i.e. unslowed) Blood Beast before when I’ve had Rune of Blood.
Usually though, I wait until the kiters have sufficient aggro before doing it, as I’ve had a beast come nom on me for a while after throwing my shield at it. Not good for heroic Saurfang; basically negligible for normal.
But overall I’d have to concur with GC, good riddance to a clunky mechanic.
Perfect candidate for a major (medium) glyph. Just like the current AS glyph that nobody uses.
And, yes, as somebody who tanks more heroics than raids I support this change.
@Rhidach
22 July 2010 at 12:49 pm #
Agreed, this is a perfect example of a glyph waiting to be made.
Just because it’s great on one hard mode of one fight, doesn’t make up for it being excessively annoying 99.99% of the rest of the time. It’s a great move, one I’ve asked for several times, and am really happy about. Most of the time all the daze really did was cause more issues as dps thought it meant they were free to aoe blow up mobs before they got to us. (Wiped us on Anub several times because of this)
I have to agree, good change on AS. Too many times has an extra caster joined in a fight (either a patrol or splash aggro) at range, get hit with AS and start running for me, only to stop short of melee range and start casting again. If the caster had been moving at full speed, he would have been right in the thick of things.
After a little more thought, this will make AoE tanking a bit easier, but the daze effect sure is nice in PvP.
@Rhidach
22 July 2010 at 1:05 pm #
Yeah, no kidding. Considering we are still being denied a gap closer, any easier way to ranged pick up mobs is a plus.
So much for being able to save some HP for Inquisition.
“Inquisition is now Exclusive with Holy Shield.”
from the latest patch notes.
@Rhidach
23 July 2010 at 8:28 am #
Yeah I saw that last night too. How lame. With a 15 second duration, you have enough time for 3 Crusader Strikes… so 3HP. In other words, we’re only using HP for Holy Shield. Lame.
Am I the only one that felt the daze on Avenger’s Shield was extremely helpful for CC pulls? Hit the CC target with AS and give the mage plenty of time to cast sheep before it gets inside consecrate range where I’ll just break it anyway.
Sure, we haven’t had CC pulls since BC but that daze sure was useful back then, and I really hope to see CC matter again in Cataclysm.