Lingering worries in beta are worrying
I’ve been generally upbeat about Protection Paladins in beta. Perhaps to a fault, but I truly, honestly believe the foundations of the class are solid heading into the final stretch of beta. It’s the numbers that need tweaking here and there, sure, but like I said–generally solid. Now, things aren’t all cupcakes and gumdrops, there are some big issues that could have a negative effect on our “solidity” going forward. These are things that I feel confident will be resolved by launch or in the future, but for purposes of awareness, Justice herself compels me to bitch about them.
1. Word of Glory will fall behind
The amount of healing WoG does is based on two things: how much HoPo (as Ana calls it) you have, and talents. Spellpower doesn’t modify it, so that free spellpower we get from Touched by the Light only goes towards holy damage/threat. And we can’t generate more than 3 Holy Power, so while initially WoG will be okay at first for the ratio of healing done vs. total hp we have, only the second number will go up. Eventually the disparity will make WoG not worth even feeling guilty about not hitting.
This is coupled with the fact that Blizzard wants us to use Word of Glory. Guarded by the Light cements it, but the talents has the most unwieldy mechanics of anything else in our tree. Never mind that they want us to expend precious HoPo on that button, they want us to time it to maximize self-overheals? It defies explanation.
There is a major rework needed on Prot and WoG, which hopefully will come in our next pass. We need some kind scaling, and we need some kind of incentive to use this spell. Why do only overheals put up that damage absorb effect? Why not any self-WoG heals? What’s the downside? It’d be an Interesting Choice™, eh?
2. HotR > CS on single targets
This I cannot imagine not being resolved when they do their final numbers passes, but at the moment Hammer of the Righteous does more damage against a single target than Crusader Strike. The solution can’t be to nerf HotR (it seems pretty perilously balanced right now to interact properly with Inquisition), instead it must be to buff Crusader Strike.
If this doesn’t change, this will seriously damage the stated goal of separate aoe/single target rotations. As always my boundless optimism assumes this will change, however.
3. ShoR is a huge liability if and when avoided
On beta right now, when you hit the ShoR button, you expend three Holy Power and strike out with your shield. As on live, ShoR can be dodged/parried/missed, and if it does the Holy Power you expended disappears into the ether.
We’ve been playing tennis with concerns over ShoR, and Holy Shield, and Holy Power since the inception of the HoPo apparatus. Then we finally hit a plateau where the 15% block was the only degree of Holy Shield available, no matter how much Holy Power you expended. And that’s great. But, considering ShoR is designed to be a huge portion of our single target threat, the fact that it can miss and then you lose 13 seconds of HoPo accumulation… that’s a huge deal.
Conversely, if a Ret Paladin misses with Templar’s Verdict or Divine Storm they only lose one Holy Power. Much better design. Needs to apply to ShoR as well.
ShoR being avoided should carry some sort of penalty, if only to give a reason to carry hit or expertise, eh? ShoR first becoming avoidable in 3.3 was what began to make Paladins start favoring expertise. I suspect this will carry on into the future.
I’ll play the optimism card here as well: I think this will change, and the penalty will be one Holy Power like Ret currently “suffers”.
4. Quality of life things that will never be fixed
This is the point where I approach the closest thing I can muster to despair. I don’t think, especially at this juncture, we’ll ever get an off-GCD, short cooldown interrupt or any kind of gap closer. Cataclysm was the perfect chance for these niceties to be implemented for Prot, and I suspect that the opportunity will pass untaken. It’s not upsetting, but it is disappointing.
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@hazmacewillraid
13 September 2010 at 11:35 am #
“The solution can’t be to nerf HotR… instead it must be to buff Crusader Strike.”
Yes. Good. Good.
Seriously though, I imagine this is why the prot 2pT11 bonus is a 10% damage increase to CS. Seems an odd way to balance a basic mechanic though, so I’m guessing it’s not a final solution.
“Conversely, if a Ret Paladin misses with Templar’s Verdict or Divine Storm they only lose one Holy Power. Much better design. Needs to apply to ShoR as well.”
Agreed. How they managed not to implement this is beyond me…
@PinkRaidFrames
13 September 2010 at 11:55 am #
I’m glad you’re generally positive about prot in the Beta because I’m generally a bit negative about it. :-) I really feel like Blizzard bit off more than they could chew in this expansion and a lot of things feel about 1/2 done. It makes me a bit nervous that 4.x has already hit the PTR.
I can’t decide if Blizzard is comfortable with things and will therefore, just do minor tweaking now or if they are rushed to get things moving for Nov. and therefore are pushing forward without the polish that has previously been indicative of their work.
@Rhidach
13 September 2010 at 12:27 pm #
Personally, I’m going to save any true teeth gnashing until after the numbers pass has been done, haha.
I’m curious though what you don’t like. Is it the mechanics? The numbers? Or something else I haven’t really considered?
@PinkRaidFrames
13 September 2010 at 1:13 pm #
Yeah, good call on waiting.
Mostly it is the mechanics. I like the idea of HoPo but not how it has been implemented. I don’t like that we only have one source for generating it, mostly.
I’m also not a huge fan of our talent tree. I really like Sacred Shield and WoG doesn’t fill that gap well. The first tier of our tree is really disappointing when compared with the other plate tanking classes. However, I never really found the old passive talents in the WotLK trees “boring”.
CS / HotR is disappointing because of the advantages of HotR over CS even for single target stuff.
I’m also somewhat disappointed that we didn’t get more single target abilities in a world where CC is going to matter more.
Right now, imho, the rotation is exceedingly boring, esp. in packs of mobs with CC’d targets nearby.
@PinkRaidFrames
13 September 2010 at 1:16 pm #
Oh, and mark my words.. Vengeance is going to turn out horribly and will get a fast revamp before the first Cata. content patch. ;-)
@Rhidach
13 September 2010 at 1:33 pm #
I completely agree. Especially since a disc priest can completely negate Vengeance stack generation on a tank, apparently.
Vengeance is hilarious. Everything’s hitting for normal numbers and then suddenly you get a 60k+ SotR crit out of nowhere.
So either you can’t grab aggro because nothing’s hitting you and you’re doing no damage, or the boss you already have aggro on is nearly killing you but you’re getting stupid big numbers!
Well if there are issues with Power Word: Shield again, I assume they will fix that.
I HOPE so, because I don’t want to experience the whole DON’T BUBBLE ME tankrage again.
Right now a prot paladin is the only that marginally suffers from PW:S, but only if the content is overgeared. Heroics, mana starvation – and there are ways around that.
It was really hard to convince warriors and bears that bubbling helps – even after the change to rage generation through absorbed damage.
If this is about to happen again, I will not be amused :\
Xerian’s last blog ..Great raid!
@Rilgon
13 September 2010 at 7:33 pm #
they want us to time it to maximize self-overheals?
No they don’t, they just want any potential overheal to not go to waste, hence the shield.
It’s actually ridiculously elegant in design. It’s like back before they made LoH have Forbearance – you either use Holy Power on Word of Glory for emergency healing because you don’t think the heal will land before you die, or you use it on other abilities instead because you’re confident in that next heal that’s inbound
Rilgon Arcsinh’s last blog ..Dig For Victory!
@PinkRaidFrames
13 September 2010 at 8:02 pm #
That’s part of why I wish HoPo would be generated faster. Although WoG is kinda nice for the self-heal / shield using it instead of HS is kinda like trading a momentary small heal for longer term dmg intake.
@Rhidach
13 September 2010 at 10:04 pm #
Yeah at the moment, the trade off pays off much better getting the threat of ShoR plus the damage reduction of Holy Shield. Unless WoG starts having a much better payoff, I can’t see it ever overtaking ShoR/HS for bosses, especially as boss damage scales higher (thus making the 30% DR of block “return” more value, contra static WoGs).
@PinkRaidFrames
14 September 2010 at 8:31 am #
Totally. I’d even be satisfied if it scaled off of AP.
@Rhidach
14 September 2010 at 8:51 am #
That would be pretty great. ANY kind of scaling, honestly.
@Rhidach
13 September 2010 at 10:08 pm #
Hrm, I agree with everything but the LoH comparison. I’d almost say the more apt analogy is WoG is like downing a health pot, and ShoR/HS is like popping an Indestructible Potion.
@Rilgon
14 September 2010 at 8:24 am #
Fair enough. :P
I’ve attempted to comment here before, but it’s not worked, so I have low expectations.
You HAVE been generally upbeat, and it’s been fascinating to read. I’m (in beta and) more on the critical side at the moment. You’re posting your concerns on the official forums, right?
I’ve been campaigning hard for an interrupt and I’m generally in alignment with all your other statements here (including waiting for a numbers pass to fix a lot of these issues). I agree with Rilgon’s point above, in that the GbtL talent is elegant in theory, but the base problem lies with the HoPo problem you outlined. It’s a giant mistake to use your HoPo on anything other than SotR/Inq right now, and that needs to change.
Edit: Zomg! It worked! Hi!
@Rhidach
13 September 2010 at 10:01 pm #
Has the spam filter been eating your comments? … This worries me.
I have no idea. I just assumed I’d said something so completely offensive and controversial that it was better if we all pretended it didn’t exist.
@Rhidach
14 September 2010 at 8:55 am #
You said warriors were better than paladins, didn’t you?
NOW who’s being offensive?
@Anafielle
14 September 2010 at 8:14 am #
Rhi, I swear to god, if you blame this HoPo nonsense on me…. *shakes fist*
I HATE THAT TERM!
Can’t we call it HP? No one calls Combo Points “CoPo”! COME ON!
/raeg
@Rhidach
14 September 2010 at 8:54 am #
Oh but it’s so much more fun saying “as Ana likes to call it.” :( Why do you hate fun?