Build [8982] Hits the Beta Servers.
Yep, you guessed it, another Beta Build. Lets see what's in there for Paladins:
Skills:
Holy:
* Seal of Corruption/Vengeance now deals [ 19.2% of AP + 9.6% of Spell Power ] additional Holy Damage over 15 sec. (Down from [ 23.4% of AP + 11.4% of Spell Power ])
* (undocumented) Divine Plea: Regenerates 25% of your total mana over 15 seconds, reducing your Healing by 100% (previously 10 second duration, 50% reduction in healing output). Yes, the tooltip says something different. Yes, the tooltip is wrong.
Protection:
* Shield Of Righteousness (rank 1): Now deal Holy Damage equal to 100% of your Block Value + 300.
* Hammer of Judgement: Now Interrupts Spell Casting for 3 Seconds in addition to its' previous effect.
Retribution:
* Seal of Blood/Martyr changed to 28% of weapon damage (from 35%).
* Two-Handed Weapon Spec has returned to a 2/4/6% damage increase.
* Fanatisism has also returned to 5/10/15/20/25% Judgement crit chance.
* Seal of Command changed to 56% of weapon damage (from 75%).
(i'll update this post with any further changes as and when I seem them)
So, a nerf to Seals this time round. Again, how much this is warranted is debateable but given that almost every one of our common rotation DPS abilities can Proc Seals it effectively reduces our DPS by 5% (and significantly reduces our Burst Damage potential).
Is this warranted? Well without a bug-free parse of Naxx no-one can tell, but I'm still sticking to premature.
EDIT: Undocumented in the patchnotes, but DP has been heavily nerfed.
You can see that I am still casting as I gain Sheathe of Light, but whilst Divine Plea is up no heals are registered (healing reduced by 100%).
EDIT: Clarification.
It appears that SoR hasn't been nerfed in line with SoV/Cor, SoB/M and SoCom. However it did go through a pretty substancial nerf in an earlier build. The overall nerf to (non-SoR) Seal damage this build totals ~20%.
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5 comments:
I just got around to testing my level 62 ret paladin on the PTR this very morning. It was so awesome I knew that a nerf had to be in the offing. I stopped playing said paladin previously because at 62 I could only kill a few mobs before sitting down to drink, it was clear that getting to 70 was going to be a huge chore and it wasn't much fun. I felt like a mage without free water. There is a mob or two in Zangarmarsh that drain mana, too... and I have had no mana gems to get me through a fight. (If you couldn't tell, I usually play a mage.)
In the PTR, I could kill forever it seemed without stopping and I didn't even try that hard to make a decent talent build. I would often end fights with imperceptible amounts of mana and health missing. I didn't play long but I felt like I could blast through to 70. Hopefully that awesome feeling isn't totally gone...
Damage might be scaled back, but the JotW talent will still stay in Ret. The mana regeneration will still be there. I suspect the Paladin class will be very enjoyable once WotLK comes 'round, both from a Retribution and Protection standpoint (don't know about Holy).
Divine Storm helps out quite a bit too since it restores your health. I wouldn't have a huge issue with scaling back the damage a little, but I really hope they don't start swinging the nerf bat because people can't handle the idea of a Paladin doing actual DPS. I have faith in the devs as they have been doing right by us this time around. Even Holy, which is the least changed tree, is not being brought to its knees at all. We should still be able to be very effective healers, much better tanks, and way way better DPS. If I am dreaming, please don't wake me....
I think the test will be when i go and try to solo Onyxia again.
I did it yesterday morning ok, took me 45 minutes though.
So when I log into the PTR tonight I'll try solo'ing Ony again if its been reset.
Will be looking forward to those results Firelight =)
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