A Brief Comment on Blizzards Brief Comments

(some originally posted in the comments of Ardent Defender.)

Well, the news on Blizzards 2 posts in the Alpha forums have now had time to percolate around the wider Paladin community, so I thought it would be worth making my own analysis of the comments.

With Paladins, Blizzard have to address both of the major role mechanic changes occurring in Wrath: the Unified Spellpower stat (no more +healing) and the "Tank specs get to do meaningful damage" philosophy. Given that to a great extent Druids already have the latter through an extremely efficient Feral tree, Paladins are the only class for which both are required. Hence, on the face of it, they have the most work to do with Paladins compared to other classes. This is especially the case if Blizzard want to redesign the class such that two or more specs gain benefit from any one stat or stat grouping (this is described pretty well by Rohan at Blessing of Kings). This is quite aside from any other buffs, mechanics changes and nerfs Blizzard may feel that the Paladin specs warrant.

However, while on the face of it the statement by Blizzard is positive in that Paladins will be getting changes, the reality remains that their statement covers merely their already stated general mechanics changes and says nothing about anything else. It does not for instance indicate:

That Ret Paladins will have proper scaling for their damaging abilities (HoW, JoC/JoB, PPM Seals),

That Prot Paladins will scale better with warrior tanking plate and/or no longer depend solely on spell damage for threat scaling or not be as vulnerable to Mana Drain mechanics,

That Paladins are getting an entirely new energy system (i.e. mana for Paladins being scrapped,

Or that Holy Paladins will see much improved healing mechanics and mana regen.

I'm generally optimistic about Paladins going forward into Wrath, but I don't think we should be fooled into believing that this statement is more than it is; it's not final proof that Blizzard understand our concerns and that Paladins are getting a good seeing to (figuratively speaking of course). When the abilities and talent trees are finally released we need to continue to be diligent in our analysis, especially in regard to our AoE threat abilities and how they stack up with Deathknights and Warriors. Above all, we must make sure not to be carried away by the new 51pt talents.

Further Reading:

Wowinsider.
Tankspot Forum Discussion.
Wow Paladin.