Preliminary Paladin Ability Changes in Mists of Pandaria

Yesterday, Blizzard released their Official Talent Calculator for Mists of Pandaria, which includes not only the redesigned talent system, but also a list of all class skills and specialization skills. I'll spare you descriptions of all of the talents since you can just go there and look at them, and instead I'm going to go level-by-level through the Paladin abilities (both class and specialization) to outline the various changes I see. Here goes!

Level 1:

• Armor Skills (Passive) remains relatively unchanged. It just removes the reference to training, since classes will automatically learn abilities rather than having to train them.
• Weapon Skills (Passive) is unchanged.
• Crusader Strike deals 176% weapon damage (rather than 135%) and generates a charge of Holy Power [ed. note: it generates a charge presently, but for whatever reason the WoWhead tooltip doesn't show it].

Level 3:

• Seal of Command: a new single-target damage-dealing seal. "Fills the Paladin with Holy Light, causing direct attacks to deal 26 additional Holy damage." Seal of Righteousness is being moved to level 42 and having the AoE component from the Seals of Command talent built in.
• Judgement is being moved to level 5.

Level 5:

• Judgement is being moved here from level 3 and given a 30 yard base range (up from 10 yards) and 6 sec base cooldown (down from 8 sec).
  
• Devotion Aura is effectively being removed. There is a new Holy specialization ability with the same name at level 60, but the effect is completely different.

Level 7:

• Hammer of Justice is being moved here from level 14, but is otherwise unchanged.
• Holy Light is being changed to a level 32 Holy specialization ability.

Level 9:

• Word of Glory appears to be having the base cooldown removed for all Paladins.

Level 10:

• Parry is conspicuously absent. Not sure if it's being removed or if it's just not mentioned in the new talent calculator.

• (Holy) Holy Shock remains as-is, though the new calculator does not mention the 40 yard range for friendly targets. Not sure if this is an intended change or oversight/tooltip limitation, but I'll assume the latter.
• (Holy) Walk in the Light remains mostly unchanged, but no longer mentions the cooldown reduction for Word of Glory. Combined with the Word of Glory change from above, it seems the cooldown will simply be removed for everyone.
• (Holy) Meditation is gone.

• (Protection) Avenger's Shield is unchanged.
• (Protection) Touched by the Light gains some new effects. In addition to the current effects, it now "reduces the chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks by 6%" and "increases your mana regeneration by 10%".
• (Protection) Vengeance seems to be unchanged (though it will probably follow 4.3 mechanics).
• (Protection) Judgements of the Wise is being moved to level 30.

• (Retribution) Templar's Verdict appears to require 3 Holy Power to use, and only deals 39% weapon damage (down from 90% with 3 Holy Power currently).
• (Retribution) Sheath of Light gains some new effects. In addition to the current effects, it now also "increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 25%" and "increases your mana regeneration by 10%".
• (Retribution) Judgements of the Bold is being moved to level 30.

Level 12:

• Righteous Fury is unchanged.
• Redemption is being moved to level 13.

Level 13:

• Redemption is being moved here from level 12, and is unchanged from the 4.3 version which increases the range to 40 yards (up from 30 yards in 4.2).
  

Level 14:

• Flash of Light is being moved here from level 16, but is otherwise unchanged.
• Hammer of Justice is being moved to level 7.
• Hand of Reckoning is being moved to level 15.

Level 15:

• Hand of Reckoning is being moved here from level 14, but is otherwise unchanged.

Level 16:

• Lay on Hands is unchanged.
• Flash of Light is being moved to level 14.

Level 18:

• Divine Shield is being moved here from level 48, but is otherwise unchanged.
• Exorcism is being changed to a Retribution specialization ability at level 50.
• Hand of Protection is being moved to level 48.

Level 20:

• No mention is made of the summon mount abilities for Paladins. Not sure if they're being removed or just not mentioned in the new talent calculator.

• (Holy) Holy Wrath is being moved here from level 28 and is now a Holy specialization ability. It only costs 8% of base mana (down from 20%), has no cooldown (down from 15 sec cooldown), and no longer stuns demons and undead, but instead "prevents targets from causing critical effects for the next 6 sec."

• (Protection) Hammer of the Righteous is moved here from the Protection tier 3 talent position. In addition to a damage increase to 39% weapon damage (up from 30%), it now also "reduces [the targets'] physical damage done by 10% for 30 sec."

• (Retribution) Also gains the above Hammer of the Righteous ability.

Level 22:

• Supplication (Passive): a new passive class ability with an effect similar to the last part of Crusade. "For 15 sec after you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor, your next Flash of Light heals for an additional 300%".
• Blessing of Kings is being moved to level 32.

Level 24:

• Consecration is unchanged.

Level 26:

• Seal of Truth is being moved here from level 44. Remains relatively unchanged, but now mentions "direct attacks" instead of "single-target attacks".
• Retribution Aura is being removed, as are all current Paladin Auras. =(

Level 28:

• Divine Protection is being moved here from level 30, but is otherwise unchanged.
• Holy Wrath is being changed to a level 20 Holy specialization ability.

Level 30:

• Divine Protection is being moved to level 28.

• (Holy) Judgements of the Pure (Passive) is being moved here from the Holy tier 1 talent position. It no longer increases haste, but retains the 4.3 function of increasing Spirit. It now states "Your Judgement increases your mana regeneration from Spirit while in combat by 30%".

• (Protection) Judgements of the Wise (Passive) is being moved here from the level 10 Protection specialization. It no longer grants mana, but instead states "Your Judgement hits grant one charge of Holy Power".

• (Retribution)  Judgements of the Bold (Passive) is being moved here from the level 10 Retribution specialization. It no longer grants mana, but instead states "Your Judgement hits grant one charge of Holy Power and increase the physical damage taken by your target by 4% for 12 sec."

Level 32:

• Blessing of Kings moved here from level 22, but is otherwise unchanged.
• Seal of Insight is being moved to level 33.

• (Holy) Holy Light is being moved here from level 7 and is now a Holy specialization ability with a 2.5 sec cast time (down from 3.0 sec).

Level 33:

• Seal of Insight is being moved here from level 33. The Glyph of Seal of Insight is being built in, so the seal now improves healing by 5% innately. Additionally, the seal now mentions "direct attacks" rather than "single-target attacks".

Level 34:

• Cleanse is unchanged.

• (Holy) Sacred Cleansing (Passive) is being moved here from the Holy tier 4 talent position.

• (Retribution) Crusader's Zeal (Passive): a new Retribution specialization passive ability. "Your normal melee attacks have a chance to increase the attack speed by 25% for your next 3 melee swings" [ed. note: awkward wording straight from Blizzard—personally I think it should read "increase the attack speed for your next 3 melee swings by 25%"].

Level 36:

• Rebuke moved here from level 54, but otherwise is unchanged.
• Righteous Defense appears to be removed.

Level 38:

• (Retribution) Divine Storm is being moved here from the Retribution tier 3 talent and is changed into an AoE version of Templar's Verdict. It now requires 3 Holy Power to use rather than 5% base mana, no longer generates Holy Power, no longer heals allies, and has no cooldown (down from 4.5 sec). It now states "An area attack that consumes 3 charges of Holy Power to cause 100% weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards".

Level 39:

• (Holy) Beacon of Light is being moved here from the Holy tier 4 talent position and is unchanged from the 4.3 version, which only transfers 50% of Word of Glory, Holy Shock, Flash of Light, Divine Light, and Light of Dawn heals and 100% of Holy Light heals.

Level 40:

• Again, no mention of the Paladin summon mount abilities.

• (Protection) Shield of the Righteous is being moved here from the Protection tier 4 talent position and now requires 3 Holy Power to cast. In addition to dealing damage it "[improves] your block chance by 10% for 5 sec."

• (Retribution) Hammer of Wrath is being moved here from level 46 and is now a Retribution specialization ability, but is otherwise unchanged.

Level 42:

• Seal of Righteousness is being moved here from level 3 and now has the AoE component of the Seals of Command talent built in.
• Concentration Aura is being removed, as are all current Paladin Auras. =(

Level 44:

• Heart of the Crusader (Passive) is the always-on passive replacement for Crusader Aura.
• Divine Plea is being changed to a level 46 Holy specialization ability.
• Seal of Truth is being moved to level 26.

Level 46:

• Turn Evil is being moved here from level 78, but is relatively unchanged. No longer states "Damage caused may interrupt the effect".

• (Holy) Divine Plea is being moved here from level 44 and is now a Holy specialization ability, but is otherwise unchanged.

• (Retribution) Seal of Justice is being moved here from level 64 and is now a Retribution specialization ability. Now properly slows instead of capping movement speed, and states "Fills the Paladin with Holy Light, causing direct attacks to reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 5 sec and deal 12 additional Holy damage".

Level 48:

• Hand of Protection is being moved here from level 18, but is otherwise unchanged.
• Divine Shield is being moved to level 18.

Level 50:

• Plate Specialization (Passive) is unchanged.

• (Holy) Infusion of Light (Passive) is being moved here from the Holy tier 3 talent and no longer increases Holy Shock critical effect chance, but retains the 4.3 change which includes the option to reduce the cast time of Holy Radiance.

• (Protection) Grand Crusader (Passive) is being moved here from the Protection tier 4 talent and no longer includes Hammer of the Righteous.

• (Retribution) Exorcism is being moved here from level 18 and is now a Retribution specialization ability. It no longer costs mana and instead generates a charge of Holy Power, but is not always available and states "Your autoattacks have a 20% chance to activate Exorcism".

Level 52:

• Hand of Freedom is unchanged.

Level 54:

• Rebuke is being moved to level 36.

Level 56:

• Blessing of Might is being moved to level 81.

• (Holy) Divine Light is being moved here from level 62 and is now a Holy specialization ability with a 2.5 sec cast time (down from 3 sec).

• (Retribution) Sanctity of Battle (Passive) is being moved here from the Retribution tier 4 talent and while it continues to affect Crusader Strike, it now affects Judgement and Hammer of the Righteous instead of Divine Storm. Additionally, it affects the global cooldown of the 3 abilities as well as the ability cooldown.

Level 60:

• (Holy) Devotion Aura is effectively the Holy specialization ability designed to replace the Holy tier 5 talent Aura Mastery and its combinations with Concentration Aura and Resistance Aura, and has no real relation to the current Devotion Aura other than reusing the name. It is an instant cast, 2 min cooldown ability which states "Inspire all party and raid members within 40 yards, granting them immunity to Silence and Interrupt effects and reducing all Fire, Frost, and Shadow damage by 20%. Lasts 6 sec."

• (Protection) Sanctuary (Passive) [ed. note: yes, it intentionally links to Toughness] is the Protection specialization passive ability version of the Protection tier 2 talent Toughness, and has no real relation to the current Protection tier 3 talent Sanctuary other than reusing the name.

Level 62:

• Crusader Aura is being removed and replaced by Heart of the Crusader at level 44.
• Divine Light is being changed to a Holy specialization ability at level 56.

Level 64:

• Seal of Justice is being changed to a Retribution specialization ability at level 46.

• (Holy) Tower of Radiance (Passive) is being moved here from the Holy tier 6 talent, but is otherwise unchanged.

Level 66:

• Hand of Salvation is being removed.

Level 70:

• (Holy) Light of Dawn is being moved here from the Holy tier 7 talent position and is unchanged from the 4.3 iteration, which heals up to 6 targets (up from 5 in 4.2).

Level 72:

• Avenging Wrath is unchanged.

Level 76:

• Resistance Aura is being removed, as are all current Paladin Auras. =(

Level 78:

• Turn Evil is being moved to level 46.

Level 78 80:

• Hand of Sacrifice is unchanged.
• Mastery (Passive) is unchanged.

• (Holy) Mastery: Illuminated Healing (Passive) is unchanged [ed. note: the base shield is 12%, though for whatever reason the WoWhead tooltip doesn't show it].

• (Protection) Mastery: Divine Bulwark (Passive) is unchanged  [ed. note: the base block chance is 18%, though for whatever reason the WoWhead tooltip doesn't show it].

• (Retribution) Mastery: Hand of Light (Passive)  is unchanged  [ed. note: the additional Holy damage is 17%, though for whatever reason the WoWhead tooltip doesn't show it].

Level 81:

• Blessing of Might moved here from level 56. No longer increases attack power and mana regeneration, but instead increases mastery by 5.

• (Retribution) Inquisition is being changed to a Retribution specialization ability and as the latter portion of Inquiry of Faith partially baked in so it lasts for 10 sec per charge of Holy Power (up from 4 sec per charge without Inquiry of Faith, but down from 12 sec per charge with Inquiry of Faith).

Level 83:

• (Holy) Holy Radiance is being changed to a Holy specialization ability that is otherwise unchanged from its 4.3 incarnation.

Level 85:

• Guardian of Ancient Kings is unchanged as far as I can tell due to tooltip limitations.

• (Protection) Shield of the Templar (Passive) is being moved here from the Protection tier 6 talent and no longer affects Avenging Wrath or Divine Plea, only Guardian of Ancient Kings.

Level 87:

• Blinding Light: a new short-duration crowd control ability that costs 20% of base mana and is instant cast with a 3 min cooldown. "Emits a dazzling light in all directions, blinding enemies within 10 yards, causing them to wander disoriented for 6 sec."

A Sand-Filled Vial

Today, this happened:

Wait...did I just drink a vial filled with sand?!

It took me ages to gather up the necessary materials, but thanks to some very good deals on flasks on the Auction House and my relentless determination to annoy all my transmute-capable friends, I managed to obtain a Vial of the Sands. Since I know no one who is willing to be recruited into World of Warcraft for the purposes of getting me an X-53 Touring Rocket, this was my only real option for a passenger-carrying flying mount. Now, I just need to find a passenger to carry around. =P

Do not anger me, for I have plenty of BBQ sauce!

On PvE Scenarios

I was sorting through some of the news from this past BlizzCon and I was reminded of an upcoming Mists of Pandaria feature that I had completely forgot about: PvE Scenarios. These scenarios will essentially be smaller, lighter versions of PvE dungeons, and without the physical dungeon aspect (i.e. in an instanced open world environment). They're supposed to be similar to the various group quests found throughout World of Warcraft, but repeatable and with Valor Points as a reward.

Personally, I've been waiting for something like this since PvP Battlegrounds were introduced back in patch 1.5 way back in 2005. Back then, I was replaying my way through WarCraft 3: Reign of Chaos and I ran into chapter 2 of the Orc campaign which entailed escorting a caravan of kodos through the Barrens and defending them from centaur and harpy attacks. While playing it, I found myself thinking, 'Hey, a quest like this would be awesome to have in WoW!'

Now there's a chance that such a scenario will be made into reality, and I think that's just flat-out awesome. I really hope Blizzard takes the time to flex their storytelling muscle with the feature, because it seems like an excellent opportunity to push the Alliance/Horde conflict in a PvE setting, as well as reintroduce some of the minor characters that we haven't seen for a while, such as Gryan Stoutmantle.

Well, That Sucks

I wish this post could be about how my raid group took down Ragnaros and now we're good and ready to see the Dragon Soul raid of patch 4.3. Unfortunately, we didn't. We managed to get into phase 3 again, but things just didn't pan out.

As it stands, I'm not sure what the plans our for my raid group and Firelands once patch 4.3 finally launches. It's possible that we'll bring back a second day per week for raiding old content, but I get the feeling that the other members of the raid are ready to move on and not look back.

I think the most frustrating thing about this situation is that I am probably the reason why we didn't manage to defeat Ragnaros, since I'm the one who was bringing up changes in strategy and other tactical adjustments over the course of the night. Maybe if we'd just stuck with the same plan and tried to slowly and steadily push further into the fight, we'd have been better off. All I know is that unless Blizzard decides to hold off on releasing patch 4.3 until several weeks after Thanksgiving, we've pretty much officially failed at taking down the end boss of current content while that content was still relevant, and that's something that irks me endlessly.

On the Rivalry of Mastery and Beacon

Holy Paladins have traditionally been known through World of Warcraft's history for being the healing class with the smallest healing toolkit. Over time and expansions, our tools have grown more numerous and eventually Blizzard standardized healing abilities to some degree in Cataclysm, but generally speaking our toolkit has rarely had an excess of abilities that performed the same basic task. The current Holy Paladin mastery—Illuminated Healing—and one of the tree's defining activated abilities—Beacon of Light—seem to me to be the new exception.

As things currently stand, both Illuminated Healing and Beacon of Light are two tools that essentially share the same primary function: to act as a health buffer for tank healing. However, the two act in such conflicting ways that they feel like rivals competing for a single job rather than two distinct utility abilities that each have their place in our toolbox. The way Beacon of Light is designed makes it less appealing, even with Tower of Radiance, to cast directly on the buffed tank unless absolutely necessary, but the Illuminated Healing mastery makes it more appealing to cast directly on the tank and thereby bypass Beacon of Light's whole purpose. Since both Beacon of Light and Illuminated Healing are wasted on targets that are not consistently taking damage, the only time the two effectively work together are when multiple tanks are taking damage simultaneously and for prolonged periods of time, which only happens in raids, and even then not on every fight.

The problem is made worse by the rules governing the Holy Radiance ability in patch 4.3. Even though the ability is being redesigned as an active heal rather than a passive one, it still won't be allowed to transfer through Beacon of Light, unlike our other AoE healing ability, Light of Dawn, and our other primary Holy Power generator, Holy Shock. However, it will be allowed to benefit from the Illuminated Healing mastery, which makes it feel like it should be used on or near tanks in order to not risk making the tank's health less stable.

I hope Blizzard doesn't leave the situation as-is, especially as design moves forward for the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. To some degree, it feels to me that if the two abilities can't (or won't) be made to play nicely with each other, then either one should be altered to fit a more distinct role or the two should be rolled into a single ability.

Transmo-Gryph-ication

This is the gear set I plan to use for my main once 4.3 finally launches. It doesn't quite match 100%, but it's close enough that I think it looks decent:

For Great Justice!

The items are:

The 5 items of the Paladin tier 4 Justicar set:

• Justicar Diadem
• Justicar Pauldrons
• Justicar Chestplate
• Justicar Gloves
• Justicar Leggings

Plus:

• Girdle of Truth
• Boots of Valiance
• Gryphon Rider's Stormhammer
• King's Bulwark

Here's a closeup of the shield, because the above image does not do it justice (har har!):

Rawr!

On Ragnaros and the Raid Finder

The raid group I run with is currently 6/7 in Firelands (normal). This means that of the 7 total bosses, we've only managed to kill 6 of them. The final boss, Ragnaros the Firelord, continues to elude defeat, and this annoys me to no end. One of the reasons we haven't downed him yet is time: we only raid 3.5 hours on one day per week, not factoring in the 15-20 minute break we take midway through the raid. Compared to many other raids, this is a pittance, but overall it's an understandable reason to be stuck on the final boss—people have other things to do and one of the accepted truths in the TRI family of raids is that real life is more important than the game.

The other reason is that the Ragnaros fight is a complex one, and small losses eventually cascade into bigger problems later on. Eventually, this can be overcome through practice, but given our limited time investment, our progress is slow. Part of this can be helped with things like addons, but not everyone uses or wants to use addons, and considering that I refused to use addons throughout raiding in WoW prior to the Burning Crusade expansion, I have no room to criticize. Still, the limited progression is frustrating to no end for me.

This, I think, is why I'm looking forward to the Raid Finder so much. Perhaps it will be a way for me to get my fill of progression without becoming increasingly and irrationally frustrated with my regular raid group. Perhaps it will allow me to get more practice on various boss mechanics so I'll be less likely to screw things up when time is of the essence. Perhaps it will expose me to new strategies so I can step forward with actual, concrete suggestions for improvement instead of just "this doesn't seem to be working".

I wonder, if at some level, I'm just drawn to the potential promise of the Raid Finder more so than its pragmatic realities. I still haven't had a chance to experience it first-hand yet, so it's quite possible. Maybe it will come out and I'll just be left with a sense of disappointment, or maybe it will allow for everything in the above paragraph and me a better, happier player. The mystery is exciting. I hope the wait is worth it. =)

Blizzard to Discontinue Java-Based Mobile Authenticator

In case you haven't heard yet, Blizzard has announced that they are planning on discontinuing the Java-based version of their Mobile Authenticator. Before you start panicking, though, know that the version that's being discontinued is for older cell phones, not current smartphones.

If you're still using an older phone and want to buy the $1 version of the Java-based Mobile Authenticator, be sure to go to the Blizzard Mobile site before December 13th. The app will continue to function, but will no longer be available for download. After December 13th, you'll either have to get the physical Battle.net Authenticator, or you'll have to have a smartphone to download the Mobile Authenticator via your smartphone's market app.

Also, the various ringtones and cell phone wallpapers on the Blizzard Mobile site will also be removed on that same day, but before you go scrounging up the change to buy them, note that Blizzard's blog post also mentions that they're looking to bring them back as free downloads in the future.

On 11/9/11's Class Q&A

Blizzard had a live Class Q&A event this morning where the class designers Celestalon, Ghostcrawler, Koraa, Watcher, Wradyx, and Xelnath all participated to answer questions about World of Warcraft classes in real time. Unfortunately, they provided absolutely no answers for Holy Paladins, which makes me a sad panda.

Now, I can understand why they provided no answers. Earlier, Zarhym (@talkingcongas) posted the following tweet showing some of the statistics for the event:

Some #WoWCiL perspective stats: 1 hr 39 min live. 2 hosts. 6 devs. 4 mods. Over 130,000 readers. Over 10,000 comments/questions submitted.

In comparison, the class designers were only able to answer about 108 questions, so there was only about a 1 in 100 chance for any given question to be answered. Still, though, absolutely no answers for Holy Paladins is a real disappointment.

That said, I did participate in the event by submitting my own question. If you're curious what I asked, here's my submission:

Rumor has it that the upcoming Mistweaver spec of the Monk class will be a healer that stands in melee range of the boss while healing. Is there any truth to this, or is the rumor unfounded? If true, and if the heal-from-melee paradigm works out, has there been any thought to giving the plate-wearing, shield-bearing Holy Paladin a similar treatment?

Since I know not all Paladins are interested in a heal-from-melee playstyle, I'm not at all surprised that my question went unanswered. Still, I hope the more dynamic Monk playstyle works out and is successful enough for Blizzard to adapt it towards the Holy Paladin. It still annoys me that our healing plate may as well be cloth and our shield slot may as well be filled with an off-hand frill item for all the use they get in raiding.

On Patch 4.3's Holy Radiance Change

I'm not quite sure I like the upcoming change to Holy Radiance. The fact of the matter is that the current incarnation of Holy Radiance feels like it satisfies the potential that Paladin auras always had, but haven't truly been able to fill as always-on, free-to-cast abilities. Blizzard can't really make auras any stronger than they already are due to balancing issues, but Holy Radiance worked nicely as a short-term, mana-expensive buff that could bridge the gap between aura and non-aura.

Personally, I would have preferred that Light of Dawn have been made the chain-castable, mana-using AoE heal while Holy Radiance were powered up and turned into our AoE Holy Power spender. One of the benefits for this (in my mind, at least, since I'm sure there are plenty of Paladin healers who would disagree with me) would be to emphasize the idea of using the play area of the screen to heal rather than the UI. It's always kinda bugged me that tanks get to play with bosses, damage dealers get to play with the environment, but healers have to play with the UI rather than the friendly characters/positioning. There's already enough whack-a-gnoll with the single-target heals, so I feel as if AoE healing should take a different approach.