I am a Paladin in patch 4.0.1

I found out this week that my laptop is a useless piece of crap when it no longer had the space to contain the MMO juggernaut that is World of Warcraft. The new patch came out this week, breaking down and rebuilding the core concepts of so many classes. On top of that, established game systems were turned all upside down and changed. What does that mean for me though, a Paladin who likes getting punched squarely in the face and sometimes smacking things with a huge weapon? I just wanna talk about what this patch did for me today, I am not gonna go over this whole change to the game, because frankly, it's too much, I haven't played around with all the changes, and there are far better places to get that kind of information. So fuck it, let's get a move on. Cut goes here, so ya know, click on the title to read more.


First of all, let's talk about the most obvious change to me playing a Paladin. What the fuck is this bar under my mana? Well, that is Holy Power, the whole new resource for Paladins that acts kind of like a Rogue's combo point system. We build up Holy Power by primarily using Crusader Strike, which is no longer a Retribution only talent, it is used by every flavor of the Paladin spectrum. Other moves can grant Holy Power based on talents and such, however it seems that Crusader Strike, Holy Shock and Hammer of the Righteous (Holy Shock for healers and HotR for tanks) Once we have three Holy Power stacked up, we unleash some sort of finisher. For Ret Paladins, this would be Templar's Verdict for single targets, and Divine Storm for groups. Tanks have Shield of the Righteous, and the main dump for Holy Power is Word of Glory with the healer types. Now first of all, lemme just say everyone actually has access to Word of Glory, but it will be mainly Holy Paladins using it. Secondly, I said before to stack Holy Power until you have the max of three stacks. You will always want to do this, no matter what. This is because any finisher that uses Holy Power gets stronger with the more stacks. Finishers charged with only one or two stacks hit for pitifully small amounts, whether it be damage or healing so really, wait a fuggin moment and make sure your entire Holy Power bar is glowing.

Now this new resource has been a major game changer for me, and I am sure every Paladin worth his or her Tier 10. First of all, I just don't spam every ability I have anymore, when it is off cooldown. Both of my talent trees, (ret/prot) each have a bunch of proc talents that really mix up my rotation and dictate what I should be doing. Also not every move is useful anymore for every situation. Divine Storm is a useless finisher against a singular boss, Templar's Verdict is the clear choice now, especially when it can crit for 17k, and often does. Also, like I said earlier, I wait for my Holy power to stack to three, so you will find me holding off on actually using my finishers, even when they're off cooldown. Ret ramps up Holy power fast, prot not so much, and I have no idea about holy.

So when it comes down to it, it seems Paladins have gone from this first come, first serve ability class to something resembling a rotation, with a heavy heavy proc bent. I have to say I really enjoy this style of play compared to what I was doing. While it did take me a few heroics to get my bearings with my new playstyle, I find it's great because I actually have to pay attention. For retribution, I actually have to watch my myriad procs (although they are hard to miss with the new, and I have to say, awesome Power Auras) while keeping an eye out for the right time to unleash some beastly finisher. It's a lot better while fighting with my head turned away from the computer screen, watching TV while hitting random numbers and doing good dps. Flat out, we were something of a faceroll spec previously, and it is nice that they found a way to mix us up while keeping true to the class. Prot...is a bit odd on the other hand. Hammer of the Righteous hits for pitiful damage now, and really should not be used against single targets. SoR was re-tooled to be a single target Holy Power dump, which is great for boss threat and the like, but we really have no group finisher, nothing to really knock around a group of bad guys. I find myself in those situations actually using Word of Glory more than SoR, giving the healer a bit of help. From what I can tell, I should just be tossing Avenger's Shield whenever it is ready in groups, with a nice new 15 second cooldown now making it more than just an initial pull ability. I just need to re-do that spell over to a mouseover macro and maybe then I can use it on someone other than me. Tanking is a bit odd right now, but that may be because we are still in the Wrath dungeons. From videos I have seen, I think Cataclysm dungeons were better made for the way I tank now. I was also a bit worried about the removal of the ability to make Divine Plea last forever, but that was all for naught as Judgements of the Wise may in fact be a better way to restore mana than eternal Divine Plea. I am also a big fan of Vengeance, the DPS boost it gives is certainly welcome in the face of so many of my moves being nerfed on the face of things damage wise.

Besides actually fighting, there are more craaaazy-ass changes to the Paladins, in our talent trees. First of all, the talent trees have been reduced from 51-point to easier and honestly more interesting 31-point talents. It is in these trees we see a lot of boring shit chopped out and thrown into our new shiny mastery abilities, which feels like a big Christmas present of awesome given to you at level 10. Actually I wouldn't know yet, I haven't really played around with a lowbie, so I had everything anyway. But really I have to say the talent trees are actually exciting, especially compared to what they used to be, bloated messes where you would grind out an entire level just to give yourself a point of spell hit or something. While I love the new ret tree and all the fun it brings, like the new Divine Storm, and its new capper, Zealotry, Prot is a bit uninteresting by comparison, just buffing existing abilities, and having the capper being an ability that was nerfed so hard it barely feels like the same ability, Ardent Defender. While Cataclysm may not need such a passive 'oh-shit' ability, with more of a steady damage flow Wrath still does sometimes give you a smash to the face that no healer can be totally ready for, unless they're a robot.

One thing I have to say I do not like though is the homogenization of relics. My relics did, at least in my opinion, some awesome shit. I would often keep low level relics handy because they would better suit my playstyle than something 'better'. Now they're just another stat stick to be replaced whenever a new tier of gear becomes available, samey gem slot and all.

Really, Paladin wise, I am a big fan of everything that happened, even if I do have a minor gripe or two. Holy Power certainly took a bit of getting used to, but now that I know what I am doing, I feel like a class that cannot be scoffed at anymore for being too easy to play. When the patch first came out, Blizzard kinda screwed the pooch and nerfed all melee DPS across the board, by accident while casters were dropping tactical nukes in the form of Arcane Missiles. Since they changed their error though, my numbers have actually been where they should be considering my gear. That actually makes me happy now as I feel Blizzard brought their 'bring the player' philosophy to bear on the Paladin, requiring the player to be alert in order to bring the fucking pain. I was bored with ret Paladins for so long, and this change has re-kindled the love I had for this spec when I first started playing WoW, when ret Paladins were dps jokes, unable to make a critter bleed without repeated whacks to the forehead. So all in all, bravo, now to collect Justice Points like a madman till December 7th, when Turthias reacquires an experience bar.