There are a lot of posts on blogs and forums--including this one--arguing for "fixes" to the paladin class, and changes to the various talent trees or spells.
Rather than spelling out specific changes we'd like to see, let's look at it from another angle. What is the goal for Blizzard? What should a successful paladin class look like?
Here's my definition of success for the paladin class:
Everyone expects a Holy paladin to melee.
If whatever changes Blizzard makes results in this, I will regard those changes as successful. If the changes do not result in this, those changes will be unsuccessful in my view.
For those of you who would like to see changes for the class, what are your criteria for success?
Nobody expects a paladin to heal.
ReplyDeleteYou know what, I love playing a healer but if they can't make a melee class that can heal, then get rid of healing. Make paladins buff/debuff specialists, with Judgements either debuffing mobs or buffing the party in a noticeable way (which should be a fair exchange for the removed healing ability). Judgements require a paladin melee strike to keep them refreshed, thus requiring a paladin to be in melee, which is an added bonus.
A paladin who can melee and heal should be the goal of every healadin. If you can melee you get to have HoT (judgement of light) on all melee classes and a little extra damage. However it is mostly not needed and it is very difficult to pay attention to everything when you are meleeing and healing. IE watch everyone's health and avoid cleave's etc.
ReplyDeleteBlack Morass is only place where I really melee and heal. The extra 50k damage I do over the course of 18 waves makes a different between killing fast enough or failing.
Most of the time I don't keep judgements up, but they are a big pally buff
I try to melee/heal when possible, but only in areas I've been in before. If it's a new instance or it's our first 'attempt' at a boss, I try to learn the basics of what's required of me as a healer before I jump in and figure out the requirements of a melee.
ReplyDelete"Everyone expects a Holy paladin to melee."
ReplyDeleteThe only problem with this is that you have to wear healing gear if you are going to function as any sort of healer. This means massive amounts of +heal, mana/5, and possibly spell crit. This also means very little in the way of +hit, +crit, +AP, etc. Mean you *will* whiff a lot in raids, dealing pittance for damage (when I melee attunemen, I do perhaps 100-150 a hit).
If you buff paladin baseline healing to allow paladins to wear tank/ret gear and heal from the frontline, you overpower holy paladins in healing gear. So what's the solution?
Mimic the paladin tier 1 set bonus and battlemaster. Improved Seal of Light and Seal of Wisdom. On Crits, a paladin restores HP or Mana to their group. People always complain about how melee'ers like Rogues take more damage from AoEs. This would counteract that.
This is one way to get the paladin to melee, without overpowering Holy Paladins.
MMO Rule #1: If you rolled a healing class, don't expect to have more fun healing than any other healing class.
ReplyDeleteI will view it as a success when people who spec the way they want can contribute in a manner appropriate to their spec in the endgame of their choice.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not full time, like a Prot spec paladin will not always be the best option for tanking some boss, but not have them be shunned because of some perceived weakness. Of course some of that is player perception, and we need to work to overcome those perceptions whether your prot or ret.
I would like to see the "holy warrior" AKA Ret come into it's own. Contributing significantly to a raid with DPS OR more support - or finding themselves useful in PVP. Currently Ret paladins aren't great at either. I would understand if Blizzard chose to make Ret only good at ONE of those but they need to pick one and buff it imo.
ReplyDeleteHave Retribution and Protection Paladins welcome in groups/raids. That would be so refreshing.
ReplyDeleteIf you really were going to design a class that could melee and heal, then their heal spells would be what?
ReplyDeleteInstant cast
Priests should have had Flash of Light and Holy Light and Paladins should have had PW:S and Renew
Holy Paladins really should have more incentive to melee than they currently do. Judgment of Light is the current big reason, and I plan to use it every chance I get, along with the requisite melee strikes to keep it rolling along, but I'd like to see some more active participation - rather than delaying my heals a half second to swing my weapon.
ReplyDeleteOf course only if I'm not in danger of dying due to AoE - I rolled a Paladin specifically to be a healer. Getting rid of Paladin healing (or nerfing it even further) would make me very sad.
And yeah, I tried playing a Priest - hated it. Spent a lot of gold trying every combination of talent specs you can think of, and was really unhappy with it. The combination of healing and those wonderful lovely Blessings and Judgements... the versatility makes me grin.
I agree 100% that the goal of the holy paladin in raids should be to melee and heal with some level of effectiveness in the same encounter. I like the idea of reverting to tier 1 style gear point allocation, and i think a revamp of judgements is necessary, i.e. actually make them noticeable as a heal.
ReplyDeleteNope leave my holy Pally alone...I dont want to be some wierd hybrid melee/healer, I like standing back and being able to see whats going on - in between whacking moles. I like whack a mole
ReplyDelete