UPDATED 11/19/09 @ 11:29AM EST
All
Tharvolde here. Given that we are in the height of PTR testing for patch 3.3, I thought it would be prudent to simply aggregate all noteworthy/relevant updates into one post for quick reference for those who don’t wish to go through the unabridged patch notes themselves. This is that post. I’ll try and keep this as updated as possible. I plan to keep the content of this post limited to Paladin changes and other changes that may directly affect Paladins. The organization of this post will be by Paladin talent tree with a fourth and final category titled “General” being the “catch-all” for anything related to Paladins (or otherwise interesting to Paladins) via some means.
PS: I have added the “Bug Fixes” section only because there are actually some interesting things in there. Also, I’ve formatted the Blizzard quote within the post so it’s cleaner and easier to read!
Quote from: Dresorull (Source)
Holy
- Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent.
- Infusion of Light: This talent now causes the paladin’s Flash of Light spells to heal the target for 50/100% of the Flash of Light healing amount over 12 seconds.
- Aura Mastery: This effect of this talent has been reduced in duration to 6 seconds.
- Sanctified Light: This talent now also has a 33/66/100% chance to prevent Lay on Hands from causing Forbearance when Lay on Hands is used on others.
Protection
- Sacred Shield: The damage absorption effect from this ability now triggers only once every 30 seconds.
- Divine Intervention: no longer clears the effect of Exhaustion and Sated on target. (Important – The official notes were changed to : This ability now also removes Exhaustion or Sated from a target if the recipient is out of combat when the effect end)
- Divine Guardian: This talent no longer increases the amount of damage transferred to the paladin from Divine Sacrifice. Instead it causes all raid and party members to take 10/20% reduced damage while Divine Sacrifice is active. In addition, the duration has been changed to 6 seconds, however the effect does not terminate when Divine Sacrifice is removed before its full duration.
- Divine Sacrifice: Redesigned. The effect of Divine Sacrifice is now party-only and the maximum damage which can be transferred is now limited to 40% of the paladin’s health multiplied by the number of party members. In addition, the bug which allowed Divine Sacrifice to sometimes persist despite reaching its maximum damage has been fixed. Divine Sacrifice will now cancel as soon as its maximum damage value is exceeded in all cases. Finally, Damage which reduces the paladin’s health below 20% now cancels the effect early
Retribution
- Repentance: This crowd control effect will no longer break early from the damage done by Righteous Vengeance
General
- Lay on Hands: This ability will place Forbearance on the paladin if used on his or herself. It will not place Forbearance on others.
- All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards
- Arena Set Bonuses: The two-piece set bonus for all Wrath of the Lich King Arena sets now provides 100 resilience and 29 spell power or 50 attack power. The current four-piece bonus will remain, however it also now provides 88 spell power or 150 attack power.
- The existing /welcome emote now greets/welcomes targets (character says “hello”), while the new /yw is for saying “you’re welcome.”
Bug Fixes (NEW)
- Aura Mastery: The animation for this ability will no longer be extra bright when used with Concentration Aura active.
- Beacon of Light: The effect of this ability will no longer sometimes continue past the duration of its buff. In addition, the duration when used with the Glyph of Beacon of light will now correctly be 1.5 minutes. Finally, the tooltip was corrected to indicate benefitting targets must be in the paladin’s party or raid.
- Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell.
Blessing of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects. - Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength.
- Devotion Aura: When in a party with another paladin using a different rank of this ability, it is no longer possible to see two different Devotion Aura icons displayed as buffs.
- Divine Sacrifice: This ability now properly counts all damage transferred against its limit, instead of not counting some damage.
- Greater Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell.
- Greater Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength.
- Guardian’s Favor: Corrected a tooltip error in rank 1 of this ability.
- Hand of Freedom: It is no longer possible to use this ability while under the effects of the druid spell Cyclone. In addition, disconnecting while rooted will no longer sometimes trigger casting this on oneself.
- Hand of Reckoning: Tooltip clarified to indicate taunt immune targets will not take damage from this ability.
- Hand of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects.
- Heart of the Crusader: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff.
- Judgements of the Just: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff.
- Judgement of Righteousness: The damage from this ability will no longer sometimes increase when the paladin’s agility increases (only occurred with low strength and high agility).
- Judgement of Wisdom: Corrected incorrect information in the combat log tooltip.
- Retribution Aura: It is no longer possible under some circumstances for the UI to display buffs from two different ranks of this ability.
- Seal of Corruption: Tooltip corrected to list the actual amount of damage done instead of a higher number.
Season 8 Paladin Set:
Tier 10 Paladin Set (Lightsworn):
Tier 10 Paladin Set Re-color (Used by NPCs):
November 4th, 2009 - 1:08 pm
Lay on Hands Causes forbearance? wtf is that shit? omg does that mean they will let in back into areana -_- ?
Crusader Strike getting a MS buff and casuing us forbearance…
Stuff it… Im gunna go play my warrior.
November 4th, 2009 - 1:10 pm
*arena
The sacred shield revert is funny… dont say it aint.
and 25 arena points per dailey pvp? thats nothing either dont add it or make it reasonable like 150 or something…
November 4th, 2009 - 1:37 pm
Oh hey, a You’re Welcome emote! I can finally be thanked properly for giving all those people the best buff in the game: 10% to all stats.
Nice to see they still don’t know if they want Paladins to be defensive or offensive in dot dot dot…just about everything.
I can only hope they finish what they started during that paladin revamp last year.
November 4th, 2009 - 1:52 pm
150 Arena points for a daily BG would be ridiculous considering you only get 261 for an entire week on a 2s team at 1500 rating or below…..
25 is fine and, quite frankly, I’m not sure it’s even needed but I’ll take it. It’s an extra 175 Arena points a week you can obtain. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen just BARELY shy of a particular item for the week.
November 4th, 2009 - 3:00 pm
Ah thankyou Tharvolde in your infinite wisdom and my clear lack of it, you have pointed out that the 25 would be for the daileys… just like arena points I thought it would only be givin once a week therefore the 25 a week i thought it would be will actully be 175 a week.
I retract my previous statement.
Thankyou for clarification.
November 5th, 2009 - 2:15 am
As for this round of updates: thank god the SS nerf was taken back, it was just retarded.
The LoH nerf I can survive, I don’t use that button unless shit starts going wrong anyways usually. The real problem I have with it is that it screws prot paladins, when in my opinion, their cooldowns aren’t what needs to be looked at, if anything does at the moment. If the Forbearance applies to the target not the user, then it doubly screws them if a Healadin uses it on them. It sucks for ret and holy, but its not anything major.
The Divine Intervention change is pointless, if I need to use it that often then there are bigger issues to address than the cooldown of that ability.
The FoL HoT nerf is moot. I forget it even exists half the time, its that unimportant to me
November 5th, 2009 - 2:39 am
FoL HoT nerf is kinda moot…but at the same time, why nerf something that hardly really makes a difference? I’m not a holy pally, so i’m just going by Duali’s words. But that point makes it seem like they’re just nerfing just to nerf.
so…why?
November 5th, 2009 - 7:26 am
I don’t know why they changed it that way personally. no Prot (true prot, not the gay Prot/Holy) I know ever stand around casting FoL… It’s decent when combined with the HoT from sheath of light, but by no means game breaking or really all that big of a deal at all. I imagine it’s just Blizzards way of twisting the knife a little further. to borrow how you said it, “nerfing just to nerf.”
The only thing I can think of is to take 1 more stab at Prot/Holy, but really, I stand by what I said earlier with that. “The FoL HoT nerf is moot.”
November 5th, 2009 - 8:48 am
im still trying to figure out the LoH forbearance thing and how it is a game breaker in pvp. at best it would seem that it would screw over pve prot pallys if anything. really there would be no reason to use it on anyone in pve content unless its on yourself where you can control when you get the forbearance. And what effect will the forbearance have on other classes and what they can do. even if you do use bubble and Loh in pvp, your wasting your survivabilities making it easier to take you down. And i hope they are not doing this to allow it to work in arenas. if thats the case then our forums will be flooded with QQ and requests for nerfs from every epic welfare wearing noob in the game. and we have enough of them already.
and the FoL nerf isnt that noticeable to even warrant a nerf. so yeah it wont be missed much but really whats the point. not to mention a -4 sec on aura mastery. and the Divine Intervention cd being lowered to 10 and cant be used in arenas? i hope this dont consider this a buff. not to mention, how often does this get used? i feel all this is just silly. silly i say.
November 5th, 2009 - 9:10 am
Nerfing just to nerf may be pretty accurate. So many people are whining about how Pally’s, DK’s, etc. are OP… but totally forget each toon has a particular role to play. Not that I use Aura Mastery… but I wonder how long they spent deciding to nerf that one.
November 5th, 2009 - 11:14 am
The HoT nerf is actually a very smart move from my point of view. It hits multiple problems spot on without murdering ret survivability. Not to mention it actually makes sense; something struck me as incredibly awkward about the first iteration of the SS nerf.
1. The HoT effect hardly mattered for ret in arenas. No doubt it did help a little in 2s, but look what happened to that bracket… Its main target was to stop ret from completely decimating people in 1v1.
2. This isn’t what I’d call “added holy utility” since its not really “adding” anything, but making it linked to a talent will be yet another nail in the coffin for prolydins, which was an UNINTENTIONAL healing spec exploited by clever use of class mechanics. They were never meant to be viable. This will make holy the go-to healer paladin once and for all.
As for the LoH nerf, I still say it should be “causes forbearance when cast on self” or something. Still, nobody hardly used it in a raid setting before, so now they wont use it even less… if that is possible.
November 5th, 2009 - 5:02 pm
I never liked the “popped collar” look in real life, nor do I like it on our pally.
= /, other than that…i dont know what to say about it.
November 5th, 2009 - 9:26 pm
WHY can that pvp gear not be my teir gear please.
Fake eyes with real eyes behind the visor, I like it. Unlike the dead muskrat helmet of t10
November 5th, 2009 - 10:51 pm
Ooh boy we get to be robo cop for our S8!
November 6th, 2009 - 3:11 am
I have a Boner
November 6th, 2009 - 3:31 am
When you think of it…look at the helmet. It looks like chicken :S seriously. The neckguard is way too high and the eyes make you look like a “WTF?”-tard. If they changed the eyes a bit maybe that’d make it look better..but with the feathers at the back of the helm, you look like a chicken.
The skin on the armor is fantastic though, bright, shiney and paladin-ish if you ask me. They finally got it into their heads that we’re warriors of light.
November 6th, 2009 - 7:26 am
To me, the biggest update thus far is that Repentance will “supposedly” no longer break from Righteous Vengeance. I think I may actually put three points in this talent now for the added damage output.
November 6th, 2009 - 11:41 am
Don’t worry, it will break again after two or so more minor patches.
November 6th, 2009 - 4:53 pm
Is it just me, or are our shoulders getting taller instead of the traditional wider for each pvp set? I would REALLY like it to be less… overbearing shall we say.
I do however love the T10. Pally dress FTW!
November 6th, 2009 - 9:12 pm
Can we PLEASE get away from the damn skirts? Can we PLEAE get a real set of armor to wear?
Like everyone else has said: nerfs for nerfs sake.
November 6th, 2009 - 9:39 pm
boths sets look okay but i really dont like the helms. and whats with making the cool looking part of the helm on top of the head.. bring the skull down over the face might look better.
November 8th, 2009 - 10:47 am
I’d just like to say, woot for a plate modeled boots!
S7 boots /laugh
November 8th, 2009 - 3:47 pm
Guys they arn’t nerfs for the sake of nerfs.
The reason Healadins go into ret/prot instead of spec’ing into holy is because besides the talent on the second or third line holy doesn’t actually offer any more healing throughput than any other spec. Therefore they are trying to shift some of the healing ability. IE the hot effect into Holy to stop healers specc’ing 40+ points into other tree’s. Which is exactly what all the holy pala’s have been asking for. Prolly expecting buffs that arn’t justified nor needed.
I honestly think its a good idea. Take away rets passive survivabilty and give us stronger abilities to survive that require skill to use.
Who cares about the LoH nerf.
The Sacred shield nerf while handleable is surely aimed @ my 2s comp
clearly Ret/Arms warrior is becoming too strong.
P.s. Don’t believe the repentance fix til you see it! I remember the week it worked as intended and god that was a good week until the next Tuesday when they broke it.
November 8th, 2009 - 8:13 pm
season 8 makes me think of the bastard child of lawlbringer and crystalforge..
November 9th, 2009 - 4:51 pm
FYI I’ve taken to posting the changes in the General forum as well, updating them pretty much whenever I see new info.
November 10th, 2009 - 1:41 am
Season 8 Paladin Set = Robocop
November 10th, 2009 - 7:15 am
Cool, thanks Teleros!
November 10th, 2009 - 11:19 am
“This ability will place Forbearance on the paladin if used on his or herself”
Its good to know blizzard failed english.
November 10th, 2009 - 11:21 am
I hope blizzard gets his or herselfs into da classrooms and do da teachin thign to get betters at comprehension and grammars.
November 10th, 2009 - 10:56 pm
More senseless nerfs, put all the power into the most successful spec and murder the other 2 specs.
Thanks blizz, what’s next, ret isn’t allowed to wield 2 handers and prot isn’t allowed to use shields?
November 20th, 2009 - 5:03 pm
The recolored NPC T10 set is a vast improvement color-wise, imo.