Comments on The Suicidal Zebra: Updated: Ret Paladin Changes on the 3.1 PTR!

The reason for Spiritual Attunements' movement to ...

2009-03-24T22:22:00.000Z

The reason for Spiritual Attunements' movement to Prot's talent tree is precisely because of Holy gaining mana through being healed in Heavy AoE fights. The General Vexaz Ulduar encounter is the one glaring example where SA for Holy breaks the designed in limitations of the encounter. As such, Blizzard are loathe to put a SA analogue in any position where Holy can get it easily.

Retribution getting SA was never that big an issue, arguably it was required to make the spec viable. However removing it takes a lot of the guess work out of design and balancing process, so that's probably why they didn't have too many qualms doing it.

SA aside, there's a lot of trimming to be done with Prot's mana now. Roll on the next build I guess.

@ Eidlhe; Considering Warriors, Druids and DKs are...

2009-03-24T14:47:00.000Z

@ Eidlhe; Considering Warriors, Druids and DKs are generating Rage / Runic power constantly through a fight, it seems fair that a Paladin should have access to something similar, though I agree that NEVER running out of mana is a bit unfair, especially since none of the other Tanking classes start out with full rage/runic.

We will have to see how it turns out, but in all honesty, protection's mana regen feels very cobbled together, with Spiritual Attunement, Divine Plea, and BoSanc all sort of doing the same thing.

If I were doing things, I'd remove Blessing of Sanctuary, increase it's effect substantially, and roll it into Improved Righteous Fury (which would move deeper into the tree). I'd then remove all of the new talents that buff Divine Plea and Spiritual Attunement since Imp RF is now doing their job.

My logic is, since it is tied to Imp. RF, Holy won't use it because they don't want threat and they never get hit. Ret could probably grab it if it wasn't deep enough, though they'd be giving up a lot of DPS capacity for extra mana regen.

I would then suggest a new talent in place of Divinity or Divine Guardian that basically works like a highly gimped Spiritual Attunement (you receive a small amount of mana when healed), but have it require shields. To make it even more useful, it can increase all damage while wielding a shield.

In this way, Holy can increase it's damage and gain mana back when healed, but Ret cannot unless they give up their two-handed weapons; conceivable, but improbable. It would fit with Shockadin, Healadin, Prot, and maybe a strange Reckoning / Ret 1h Hybrid Spec.

Thoughts?

The Divine Plea change is actually REALLY nice for...

2009-03-24T14:33:00.000Z

The Divine Plea change is actually REALLY nice for my Herbalist Dreanei Paladin... Lifeblood won't be reduced when I use it on myself... and more importantly... I'll be able to Gift of the Naaru people for the full heal even when using Divine Plea.

So prot paladins get Spiritual Attunment and get t...

2009-03-24T13:40:00.000Z

So prot paladins get Spiritual Attunment and get to have Divine Plea up 100% of the time. Seems to me they are NEVER going to run out of mana if they manage to keep DP up all the time + heals they will be receiving. Whereas ret and holy are going to have to manage their mana really closely. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.