Friday, July 18, 2008

Paladin 51pt Talents Datamined. More Talents Discovered.

Those eager beavers over at WotLKWiki have datamined what appear to be the 51pt talents for each of the three Paladin talent trees. (- More talents and skills have been added, expect them to formulate a talent tree quite soon).

Paladin Talent Calculator up at MMO-Champion.

Holy
Beacon Of Light: The target becomes a Beacon of Light, healing all party or raid members within 10 yards for 2000 over 15 sec.
(Rank 5, Level 80, 2330 mana, 1.5 sec Cast)

- A targeted AoE HoT, probably our answer to Circle of Healing. The scaling will be the most interesting feature of this Skill IMO, if it scales well we may just have a winner.

Protection
Hammer of Righteousness: Hammer the current target and up to 2 additional nearby targets, causing 100% of weapon damage as Holy damage. This ability causes high threat.
(No rank/cost information available.)

- Wins for me if only because of the name of the Skill. A Prot Holy Cleave causing high threat, possibly with PvP application. It goes without saying that this needs to be an Instant Cast ability.

Retribution
Divine Storm: An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totalling 20 of the damage caused.

- Not the greatest of names, but potentially a winner. It's a weapon-based AoE, again much like Cleave, but also heals nearby party members based on the Damage done. Again cooldown is of significance, as is mana cost, but it looks good.

Nothing in the talents so far is truly innovative and plugs glaring gaps in Prot/Ret Paladin weaknesses and utility, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Gogo more talent releases, and check out WotLKWiki's Paladin page for more paladin news as it's released.

ADDED:

More Talents are listed on the page. Some very, very bizarre ones too, but here are the highlights IMO:

Shield of Righteousness: (Level 75, 6 sec cooldown) Slam the target with your shield, causing Holy damage equal to 200% of your block value. This spell causes a high amount of threat. - Block Value?

Seal of the Martyr: Seal of Blood for Alliance Paladins.

Retribution:
  • Sheath of Light (20 Pts req.): Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 20/40/60% of the healed amount over 12 seconds.(3 Ranks)
  • Sanctified Wrath (35 Pts): Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 25/50%, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 30/60 secs and while affected by Avenging Wrath 25/50% of all damage caused bypasses damage reduction effects.(2 Ranks)
  • Swift Retribution (40 Pts): Your Retribution Aura also increases casting, ranged and melee attack speeds by 1/2/3%.(3 Ranks)
  • Righteous Vengeance (45 Pt Req): Increases critical damage bonus of all attacks by 3/6/9/12/15% (5 Ranks)
  • Judgements of the Wise (25pts, Replaces Sanctified Judgements): Your Judgement Spells restores mana to up to 3 group or raid members totalling 20/30/60% of the damage caused - Paladin Mana Regen on the Hoof?


  • Protection:
  • Divine Guardian (15 Pts Req.):While Divine Shield is active 15/30% of all damage taken by party or raid members within 30 yards is redirected to the Paladin.(2 Ranks) - Does this mean that DS won't drop threat, or is it meant to be a PvP Ability/Retroactive Oh-shit to protect tanks?
  • Touched by the Light (40 Pts Req): Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your Stamina and increases the amount healed by your critical heals by 10/20/30%. (3 Ranks)
  • Guarded by the Light: Whenever you parry or dodge an attack you have a 10/20% chance to reduce the mana cost of your next Consecration, Holy Wrath or Avenger's Shield spell by 25/50%. (2 Ranks) - Our equivalent to Warriors getting rage from dodges and parries. Rather than a reduction I'd have liked to see this be a mana back from avoidance
  • Shield of the Templar (45 Pt Req.): Increases the damage and reduces the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 5/10/15%. (3 Ranks) - What is Shield of Righteousness? A typeo, or something significant?
  • Judgements of the Just (45 Pts): Your Judgement spells also reduce the melee attack speed of the target by 10/20%. (2 Ranks) - Immense mitigation talent on a par (Better than?) Thunderclap for single targets. It may be more interesting if this was rolled into Consecration rather than Judgements.




  • There you have it. AP->SD at 30%, some other interesting talents, but bizarrely some +healing talents in Prot and Ret. This gives the talent trees a decidedly schizophrenic feel. Additionally there is no spell interrupt listed (with any luck the new Shield of Righteousness will have a Spell Interrupt added at some point) but there are a whole lot of new Ret and Prot talents which augment our already existing strengths and abilities. One things for sure, if these beta talents go live, Ret Paladins will hit like a truck.

    4 comments:

    Unknown 18/07/2008, 12:59  

    Currently Beacon is looking lackluster, overall it would be more effective to spec into "Sheath of Light" as a Holy Paladin considering with a 50% spell crit rate (since Conviction now affect spells) on a Holy Paladin it will effectively increase our Healing output by 30%. Beacon at this point is FAR from Circle of Healing, there is much discussion and evidence on the official forums.

    Seal of the Martyr should have been given to Alliance in 2.4, this is pathetic.

    Suicidal Zebra 18/07/2008, 13:13  

    I think as a Holy Paladin you'd be more likely to want to grab the Divine Guardian talent in Prot, but I agree that it seems very mana intensive for the talent, esp. as it cannot Crit for Illumination regen. It really depends on how well it scales with +Spell Damage and who gets the aggro from the healing. The bare bones of a really good skill are there, it just needs tweaking IMO.

    As for Seal of the Martyr, it should definitely have been in 2.4, but making that point is like beating a dead horse these days. I'm just glad that Blizz finally got the message.

    Unknown 18/07/2008, 13:32  

    No doubt Divine Guardian is a big deal, but you have to go through 2-3 useless tiers in protection to get to it (Kings being the only real useful talent), and overall I see maybe one Holy Paladin speccing for it in a raid and/or a Prot Paladin.

    While ret offers Holy Paladins imp Might, HotC, Imp Judgements, Conviction (5% more crit on everything), which can effectively improve your own healing and raid viability more then Prot can getting to DG.

    While no doubt DG will be hugely important, it may end up being a difference similar to COH hpriests and imp spirit hpriests, one going prot for DG and getting Beacon while the other going for more pure healign output by going into Ret.

    Of course, won't be surprised if Blizzard nerfs both DG and ShoL.

    Ardent Defender 18/07/2008, 14:23  

    Some changes do look new and interesting and some left to be seen how it actually will work. Im kinda left to be seen how the new talent trees works out with mechanics in the end.

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