How Do You Hotfix Burst...?

ADDED: Since writing I'm now aware of further nerfs, they are as follows:

-Judgment of light and seal of light reduced by around 50%
-Judgment of command dmg reduced by around 25%
-Divine storm dose 100% physical dmg instead of 100% holy dmg.

(the judgement nerfs are probably nerfs to its Attack Power coeff)

(Source)

So they are obviously targeting Judgement damage and SoC for now. We shall see how this pans out, but totalled up they start to account for a very signifcant PvE DPS nerf (the full extent of changes need to be datamined as Blizzard is not talking about exactly what they are doing). This is where lack of communication will become most frustrating, so hopefully GC will be around to discuss things this afternoon/later in the week.

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With paladins described as 'OP' by many, and apparently seen as over the top by Blizzard at lvl70, how do you hotfix burst without crippling sustained DPS? Well the first step has been taken by Blizzard and Divine Storm has been hotfixed to inflict Physical damage on the Live servers. The net effect is a drop of 1k or more damage on a critical effect against moderately armoured targets, significantly less of a drop on leather or cloth armour levels. And on the flip side means that Divine Storm can be used whilst Silenced (sorry Shadowpriests :( ).

This change really isn't that big a deal so long as the ~5% DPS loss for PvE raiding is made up elsewhere. We have to ask ourselves therefore if this will placate the screaming masses of 'Nerf Ret' claims? Short answer: No. Long answer:

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sorry, channeling Yahtzee again.

Anyway, the issue is that Paladin damage mechanics are inherently bursty (well, that and everyone and their dog believing Paladins doing damage is a crime against nature). Indeed their bursty mechanics are the only thing which makes them at all viable in PvP as part of a Cleave team, not BoP nor BoF nor heals or Divine Shield.

The DPS and PvP DPS roles working from the same mechanic playbook doesn't help. Rogues, Fury Warriors, Enhancement Shaman... all their DPS mechanics are more continuous DPS curves due to dual wielding. They fill a 10sec period with dozens of strikes, procs and auto-attacks, each one contributing a small amount to a large total. Paladins by comparison have maybe a dozen strikes plus procs total in a similar period, each contributing a significant amount to a similar DPS total. To put it simply, damage comes in huge chunks rather than small blobs and it will always be frontloaded to a much larger extent than any other class except perhaps the forthcoming Deathknight class.

There are a few things that can be done to eliminate Paladin burst in PvP, but I disagree with Rohan over removing Seal Procs from instant attacks being a solution. Weapon procs from instant attacks right now contribute significantly to Paladin DPS, and if you drop that DPS you're going to have to make up for it elsewhere. The problem is, there's not a lot elsewhere that you could make up that damage, we still only have 4 attacks in which to allocate this DPS delta: Auto-attack, Judgement, CS and DS all of which may be front-loaded. Nor do we have any DoT mechanics part of our general DPS rotation upon which to place this shortfall.

Another option could be to place a longer internal cooldown on Seal of Command on the order of 2 GCD's, or indeed removing it entirely. In such a circumstance one of the other Seals would take over in a PVP situation and our maximum burst potential - the 'once in a blue moon that very rarely happens but everyone has a screenshot of it bookmarked' occurrence - would be significantly reduced perhaps to acceptable levels. So, what's the issue with this?

It reduces our burst damage to around that of an Arms Warrior in PvP, but without any of the tools which make warriors such a force to be reckoned with in PvP such as MS, intercept, interrupts snares etc. Indeed arguably it would reduce our maximum burst DPS potential to below that in 2.4.3 /w Windfury at a time when Windfury as it used to be only exists for Shaman.

I think what I'm getting at is that there is no simple solution for PvP, and in PvE burst damage isn't really an issue. But Burst is all we have, take that away and we'll be just as good (or more accurately bad) in Arena PvP as we always were. The answer to this problem, if it is indeed that much of a problem (I'm still unconvinced it will be come 80), is going to take a whole lot more than a few discrete tweaks here and there, and may well warrant addressing the bizarre shortfall of Paladin PvP abilities.


All that said, Hand spells rock. Hotkey them all!

EDIT: Klepsacovic over at Troll Racials has a much more all encompassing approach. I'm not sure that distributing Crit Multiplier effects over all abilitites whilst reducing the multiplier would have the desired effect he seek, but I can certainly agree in principle to Divine Shield moving from a 50% attack speed slow to a damage reduction (I'd go further and drop it by 20+%).