Wrath of the Lich King Beta Patch Notes

[admin]

Wowinsider has posted a copy of the Wrath of the Lich King beta patch notes and they are analyzing the changes for Paladins.  Some of the changes are pretty earth shattering, if you ask me.   What do you think?

http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/18/wrath-beta-patch-notes-paladin-part-i/
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/18/wrath-beta-patch-notes-paladin-part-ii/
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/18/wrath-beta-patch-notes-paladin-part-iii-the-holy-tree/
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/19/wrath-beta-patch-notes-paladin-part-iv-the-protection-tree/
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/19/wrath-beta-patch-notes-paladin-part-v-the-retribution-tree/

[Robert]

the primary concerns still stand...

1.  The overall itemization for prot pallys is still going to require some intel. This means that while spellpower will now scale with stamina the way a enhancement shammys spellpower scales with his attack power, we are still left looking for intel. Does this mean that we will be forced to enchant with intel, and if we do we do it at the cost of stamina which is now 11.16 hp and .3 spellpower after our talents. It is true that spiritual attunement has always helped with mana regen, but that regen ability does little for a holy pally. They will be needing the plate gear with intel more than any prot would and the crit mechanics will have to stay in tact or at least crit rating will have to apply to both spell and melee crit (as i belive blizz has said it will). Plate gear is going to continue to be pally specific and the dks and warriors are going to be left with the other gear. Dont think this doesnt apply to everyone though, there is going to be specific mail for casting shaman (at least the resto and elemental can use the same gear now) vs that gear that an enhancement shammy and a hunter are going to want. Leather is going to still be in 3 groups of druid bear/druid cat and rogue/boomkin and resto druid. This should actually go down since boomkin and resto will now be able to itemize with the same gear and could not prior to lich. The true winners of the spell dmg mechanic rework are the squishies (which i cant wait to witness since you often see dumb priests demanding lock pants and a lock insisting that the healing pants are better overall to his dps because his siphon life and drain life benefit from healign mechanics even though all his dmg is going down.) I do applaud blizzards attempt to at least streamline gear a little now.

2.  Another concern as a tankadin is the lack of spell interrupt. We are still left to take a punch in the mouth to casters and offer little in return to combat them. I know this is the trade off we take for the ability to aoe grind 10 melee mobs at once and lose hardly any health, but in an instance it would be nice if we could contribute a little more than a stun spell that has a cool as long as it is. A warrior has a shield bash that stops casting and a rogue has kick and the shaman can shock off a caster, why cant we have something with a more reasonable cool if only for some ability to tank casters. I KNOW I KNOW TANKING CASTERS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE JOB OF A DK, im talking more along the lines of a warriors ability to tank a caster or 2 from time to time. The talented hammer of jsutice will bringit down to 15 seconds it looks like, but what if they can resist stun?  Can we not get our shield slam to stop a cast as well?

3.  I dont know how many of you use healbot now, but with the blessings being replaced with the helping hands, I may have to keep it up for my prot pally (i currently only load it when i have the druid or shaman at work) and tie the mouse commands to the hands.  omen is up and a mage is getting greedy with his dps so you drop the hand of salvation on them.  I say screw the huntard that cant manage his aggro, jsut cause its fun to watch them squirm a little.  I think this will be fun for more skilled players, especially since tanks are threat hounds anyway.  We can be more proactive when it comes to managing threat compared a warriors abilities to react to the loss of it. so along with the hand of salvation.

4. The change to righteous fury and its threat modifier for an untalented improved righteous fury means that at least prior to heroics the other trees will probably be able to tank effectively albiet at a huge disadvantage to tankadins.  Not that I really perceive this to be an issue, tanks are still at a premium on my server and good tanks are even more valuable, and part of the fun of lvling for some is having those hybrid builds til 70 (or 80). 

[krick]

OMG....

"Retribution Aura damage increased and now gains damage based on Holy spell power."

...it's about frickin time.

[Mads Kampmann]

1: there's a major discussion about it on maintankdain atm, go check it ou

2: We're gonna be using Devo aura, more armor and everyone affected by it (everyone in range now, not just party but also raid) will increase healing taken by 1/2/3% with imp devo aura talent

[Rick]

Shield of Righteousness sounds awesome to me.

Most of the changes look quite good to me. I don't even think Hand of Salvation is that big of a nerf, as they've apparently also claimed that they are reworking the way threat works in our favour.

[Jeremy]

It will be interesting to see if they change the crit mechanic with the change in Anticipation applying to dodge instead of defense skill.  So we'll either have to stack lots of defense rating to up the defense skill, or still stay with keeping uncrushable to keep crits off the chart.  (I know this is just beta and things can/will change before the release)

Anticipation (Protection) moved to tier 1, now increases chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%

[Robert]

Shield of Righteousness sounds awesome to me.

Most of the changes look quite good to me. I don't even think Hand of Salvation is that big of a nerf, as they've apparently also claimed that they are reworking the way threat works in our favour.

WHY THE HELL CAN SHIELD OF THE RIGHTEOUS NOT HAVE A SPELL INTERRUPT!!!

[krick]

So we'll either have to stack lots of defense rating to up the defense skill, or still stay with keeping uncrushable to keep crits off the chart.

I think we'll still have to stack lots of defense rating to stay uncrittable, but Blizzard has been saying for some time that they want to remove the whole crushing blow mechanic from the game.  That would be awesome if they did.