Another day, another blog. While reading PTR notes earlier I realized that I have quite a bit to say about my class. None of it might be profound or even new considering the number crunchers out there but the more on the information the better, right? As long as it’s not someone trying to convince you the sky is some abnormal color.

Paladin
Holy

• Flash of Light no longer heals for an additional 100% over 12 sec if the target has the Sacred Shield effect.

• Lay on Hands is now affected by Forbearance and can now be cast on self again – Heals a friendly target for an amount equal to the Paladin’s maximum health and restores 1950 of their mana. Once healed, the target cannot be targeted by Divine Shield, Divine Protection, Hand of Protection, or Lay on Hands again for 2 min.

• Infusion of Light now causes your Flash of Light to heal the target for an additional 50/100% over 12 sec.

The Sacred Shield change isn’t a big deal for Holy Paladins as it will essentially stay the same. The problem will come for Ret and Prot Paladins who use it to absorb a bit of damage. PVE wise, can’t really say that I understand the change. Even if you quest or do dailies with it on you at all times it can’t prevent you from taking all damage. PVP, though, is a slightly different story. While I can see it as being lame to have some of your damage absorbed, so is getting stun-locked to the point where you can’t even defend yourself. Or, you get melted to death because the dots on you crit for more life than you have. These are all fair things, right? The amount absorbed is amplified by your spellpower, which is interesting since all three trees have ways to turn something into spellpower.

Even the Lay on Hands change isn’t bothering me as much now that I’ve had a few days to stew on it. They could have done something more drastic like affect the percentage you get healed for but they could also have changed the amount of mana returned to make it not as lame in a PVP situation. It can be disheartening, I understand, to be clever by ganking someone only to find they are at a full health bar again but that does not mean the battle is lost. I have seen Paladins Lay on Hands and still get killed a second time. And the blue example? Totally not even in the same league as being healed for the amount of health you have. Giving a warrior an attack that does 50k damage with no questions asked is a different ballpark from healing yourself to full. Lay on Hands is a necessary oh shit button when even the development team is saying the amount of avoidance leaves little room for healers in end game content. Maybe OH SHIT buttons won’t theoretically be needed if the Chill of the Throne spell goes as intended.

I think the part that bothers me the most is removing the hot from Flash of Light/Sacred Shield combo. Why give it to us in the first place if you’re going to turn around and take it away? Are you now unhappy with your stance of trying to make every healer be more versatile? Paladin hots causing too much trouble in arena? In arena you need burst to win and maybe it is because I don’t arena but I fail to see how a 400+hps can turn the tides against a team without a holy paladin.