Glyphing For Victory in Build [9038]

The Server has yet again been taken down for a new Beta build, which for those of you counting is the second this past week, but there aren't that many changes for Paladins datamined so far. There are a few bug-fixes which may make it into the build but can't be mined so keep your eyes open tomorrow (my time) for bugfixes to previous talents or other mechanic changes. Anyway, without further ado here is the Paladin changelog so far:

Holy

* Divine Plea - You gain 25% of your total mana over 15 sec, but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 20%. (Down from 100%) [note, can now also be dispelled]


Glyphs

* Glyph of Flash of Light - Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140% of its inital effect over 12 sec. (Down from 15 seconds)
* Glyph of Holy Light - Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 100 yds (up from 5 yds) of the initial target.

(Source)

The change to Divine Plea was announced prior to this patch by GC, which given how swiftly it's been made implies that the change had already taken place before 9014 was released. It's a very nice PvE change, and whilst it being dispellable may not be fantastic for PvP it's probably a whole lot better than the 100% healing reduction mechanic. No news yet on Infusion of Light being un-nerfed.

The Glyph of Flash Of Light is more powerful than its previous incarnation, but it really strikes me as a very situational two-edged Glyph. It may be that the method of refreshing the FoL HoT works such that no potential healing is lost, that probably needs to be investigated. The situational nature of Glyphs and how relatively difficult it is to swap them mid-raid is a huge weakness for the Glyphing system as a whole, and may lead to a large number simply going unused. But that's a topic for another day.

The Glyph of Holy Light always had potential but a 5 yard radius is too unreliable in a raid setting, especially against bosses with large hit-boxes or strong anti-melee mechanics. Most Beta Paladins provided feedback to this effect and this is the result: the premier Holy Paladin Glyph. Hell, it may be the best healing Glyph in the game so far. At 100 yards you're pretty much assured that the splash effect will hit 5 of your raid members, increasing the effective healing of your HL by 50%. Even at 10 yards (the presumed value if the above turns out to be yet another tooltip typo) you've got a very good chance of hitting all of your melee DPS.

With good group co-ordination this spell opens up whole new avenues of gameplay for the Holy Paladin and provides us some leeway in scenario's where we are most vulnerable: AoE. It's certainly not the be-all and end-all, but when you compare it to the other Major Glyphs most healers have to play with it's pretty darn good. Most importantly it's free extra healing, much like Judgement of Light, which is never to be sniffed at when the opportunity cost is so low. My only unease is over whether a Glyph should be able to make game-changing mechanic changes or fill gaping hole in necessary class functionality.

Hopefully there are some more interesting changes to come. I'd expect one more build early next week before Blizzcon, but don't be surprised if 9038 is the build that goes Live on the 14th if it's stable and has no game-breaking bugs.

*note to self: write up a full Paladin change-log for 3.0.2*