3.2 : Paladin

Update - Upcoming Paladin changes
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
We know it's hard to evaluate the Retribution changes without understanding how the Seals now work. Here is how they work.

Seal of Command
OLD: Gives the Paladin a chance to deal additional Holy damage.

NEW: All melee attacks deal additional Holy damage.

Seal of Vengeance / Corruption
OLD:
Fills the Paladin with holy power, causing attacks to apply Holy
Vengeance which deals additional holy damage over 15 seconds. Holy
Vengeance can stack up to 5 times.

NEW: Fills the Paladin with
holy power, causing attacks to apply Holy Vengeance, which deals
additional Holy damage over 15 sec. Holy Vengeance can stack up to 5
times. Once stacked to 5 times, each of the Paladin's attacks also
deals 33% weapon damage as additional Holy damage.




Upcoming Paladin changes
Quote from: Eyonix (Source)
We
have several big changes coming up for the paladin class in patch 3.2.
The paladin class Q&A is still in progress, so rather than making
you wait, we wanted to give you a preview of what we’re trying to do
with all three paladin talent trees. We thought some of the patch notes
might not make sense until you understand the design goals.

Caveats:
Some of these changes are still in progress and may ultimately end up
in a different form or with different numbers. We definitely want to
see these changes in action on the PTR and we will iterate on them
accordingly based on player testing and feedback. None of this is set
in stone. Furthermore, assume that talents, glyphs or set bonuses that
affect any impacted abilities will also be changed accordingly.
Finally, don’t expect that every class will see this many changes. We
are making far fewer changes to class mechanics overall in 3.2, but
paladins in particular have some issues we feel are in need of being
addressed.

Protection
Currently,
we think paladin tanks are almost there and that they just need
slightly better cooldowns to handle some of the tougher boss fights.
Rather than add a new ability that felt like a clone of another class’s
ability, we decided to buff an existing talent that was no longer
cutting it. Ardent Defender has two important changes. The first is
that the damage can no longer “skip over” the 35% health level – it
will always be reduced. Secondly, it has a new effect that if a blow
would kill you, it instead sets you to 30% health. This portion of the
ability cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes. Think of it as a
Last Stand that you don’t have to push.

A second change to
Protection is we want to make sure Blessing of Sanctuary is always the
tanking blessing of choice. A likely change here is to have it boost
stamina as well.

We also recognize that block does not provide
the mitigation it once did. While we have long-term plans to change the
way block works entirely, in the short term we are doubling the effect
of bonus block value on items (so jewelry, but not shields).

Holy
We
like that Holy paladins have a niche as single-target healers. The
problem is we think this niche is a little too narrow at the moment.
Furthermore, paladins don’t have a wide arsenal of healing spells so
it’s important that all of them are being used.

First, we are
changing Flash of Light so that it places a heal-over-time effect on
any target with Sacred Shield on them (the effect will be similar to
Sheathe of Light). This should make Flash see a little more use.

Second,
and more importantly, we are changing the way Beacon of Light works.
Currently, it does not count over-healing on the target. We are
changing that. In other words, if you place Holy Light on a rogue who
is already at full health, it will still have the full effect on a tank
with Beacon of Light on them. This is a huge buff, particularly when
you consider the Holy Light glyph which allows for a small amount of
“splash” healing. This effect isn’t common when you use Holy Light on a
tank because the tank is often standing alone. But if you heal the
melee, you are likely to get a lot more total healing from this effect
(while still healing the tank through Beacon of Light). We are also
going to try to allow a target to have more than one beacon (i.e. from
different paladins) on them.

Many players may surmise that this
change would make paladins far and away the best healers in the game.
This is partially because paladin mana regeneration is so potent. That
isn’t an issue when the paladin can generally only heal the tank. With
the Beacon of Light change, the paladin can provide a lot more raid or
party healing. To adjust for this, we are going to reduce the amount of
mana returned by Illumination. If you use Holy Light too recklessly
(such as on targets who don’t require that much healing) you do risk
burning out of mana too quickly. Of course, they will still have Divine
Plea and other mana regeneration mechanics.

As a footnote, we are also likely to slightly adjust Replenishment and buff the amount of MP5 on gear.

These
changes should lead to healing as Holy being more dynamic – you are
going to be targeting a lot more group members than just the tank,
while still providing massive healing on the tank. However, you won’t
be able to just constantly spam your biggest heals, at least not on the
more challenging encounters. There is an opportunity here for skilled
players to really do some outstanding healing as paladins, but it’s
going to take a little more effort. This is something a lot of players
have been asking for so we hope that it delivers without completely
changing what some paladins enjoy about their healing style.

Retribution
Depending
on who you ask, Retribution paladins are either perceived as being in
need of improvements to make them stronger or are in need of changes to
make them less powerful. We are really happy with the overall changes
to the Seal and Judgement system from Lich King. However, Ret still has
some problems. There aren’t enough buttons to push and they are all
limited by cooldowns, allowing Ret paladins to have a lot of up-front
burst without requiring a lot of skill or timing to actually hit those
buttons (now after the opening moves of a fight, we think things get a
lot more interesting because now the paladin’s defenses, healing and
dispelling can come into play). We have other problems to fix as well.
Exorcism currently can’t be used on players, which we think is a weak
design. We have also become less enamored with the drawback to Seal of
Blood / Seal of the Martyr causing damage to the paladin.

Here are the design changes we hope will fix all of these problems:

First,
Exorcism has a cast time of 1.5 seconds but can be used on players
again. This will let paladins use it in PvP, but not while moving
towards a target.

Second, we are changing The Art of War to make
not only Flash of Light instant, but also Exorcism. Choose healing or
damage. Paladins will have to watch for this proc and use Exorcism when
it happens. The spell itself is still ranged, but the proc will only
occur when the paladin is already in melee.

Third, we are
lowering the cooldown and damage of Crusader Strike to four seconds
from six seconds. This accomplishes a few things. It lowers burst, it
gives the paladins more buttons to push since they aren’t always
waiting on cooldowns, it requires a little more skill since the player
will have to choose between Crusader Strike and other attacks more
often (such as the new Exorcism procs), and it gives Retribution a
chance to get more damage out of their Seals (providing a sustained DPS
boost for PvE).

Fourth, we are removing Seal of Blood and Seal
of the Martyr. The damage recoil increasingly felt like a liability in
PvE, and wasn’t serving to offset the massive burst damage capable in
PvP. We are buffing Seal of Vengeance / Corruption and redesigning Seal
of Command with the expectation that these are now the seals of choice
for PvP and PvE. Righteousness can remain a tanking seal.

Finally,
we are replacing the current effect of Vindication with an attack power
debuff that works like Demoralizing Shout. In PvP, Ret paladins can
still debuff melee targets, while in PvE they can provide another
necessary debuff in the case that the tank is not a warrior or druid.
In addition, the talent may be more attractive to Protection paladins.

These
changes do not close the door on adding additional attacks, PvP utility
or even the oft-requested Crusader Strike debuff. If the changes
outlined above finally accomplish the goal of balancing Retribution in
PvE and PvP, then we can start exploring those other design issues.

Again,
these are our current plans and they may change based on testing and
feedback. The changes to all three trees are things we are working on
right now. Some of them might not work out quite the way we intended
and will have to undergo iteration before finally showing up in 3.2.
Even once the patch goes live, we are still likely to have to tweak
numbers. This is simply a preview of what may yet come and we hope that
it will be viewed as such.

Eh bien, cette fois, je trouve ça intéressant.

On récupère l'exorcisme en pve & pvp avec un instant FOL/Exorcisme en fonction du proc, sinon avec un temps de cast de 1,5 sec.

On perd le sceau du martyr, mais j'aime beaucoup autorité, et vengeance est fortement modifié.

Notre sceau d'autorité fera des dégâts moins gros mais plus constants.

Etc ... bref, des changements intéressants, y compris pour le palasoins qui pourra soigner un peu plus le raid par des sorts multi en plus des sorts mono.

Pour les palatanks je dirais : pas mal de bon et un peu de moins bon !

-gros up sur "ardent défenseur" qui nous permettra d'éviter une frappe fatale à moins de 35%des PV ça c'est énorme

-up de la béné de sanctuaire avec augmentation de l'endu => cette volonté de faire prendre sanctuaire au palatank va être un régal pour les raids ou on a sanctuaire+roi

-up du blocage sur les items (mais ce qu'ils ne précisent pas et que 'jai lu sur le forum c'est qu'en contrepartie on va avoir un nerf des dégâts de bouclier de piété mais bon en même temps c'est normal ce serait trop abusé sinon)

-nerf d'exo en pve : en instant on pouvait s'en servir pour tauner des mobs et c'était bien pratique d'avior un outil de frappe à distance de plus, or on va perdre l'instant au profit du vindicte (à moins qu'on puisse avoir de qyuoi aller chercher le talent en question mais pour l'instant il est trop loin dans la branche)

-je suis pas trop convaincu par le changement de sceau de vengeance, ok les stacks s'empilent vite avec marteaux du vertueux qui les décalque mais est ce que ce sera vraiment mieux (je rigole quand les dévelopeurs disent que sceau de piété est le sceau pour tanker, jouent-ils bien à leur jeu ? aucun palatank digne de ce nom ne tank avec lol)

Par contre je trouve intéressant le changement du vindicte d'avoir le choix d'exo instant ou se soigner