First off, I'd like to say that I like the 5.0 Holy Paladin. For the most part it looks like it will play the same as the 4.2/4.3 Holy Paladin, and that's good. However, I have a small concern, and that is the fact that Hammer of Wrath is going to be Retribution-only.
Hammer of Wrath is an extremely fun ability. It always has been. I remember when it was first introduced, and it has always had a spot on my bars since that time.
It's definitely not a necessary ability for Holy. But you know, when it's the end of a tense fight, down to the last 10% with the enrage timer coming up, being able to throw a few Hammers of Wrath at the boss is extremely fun. It feels like you are contributing even more. It hits hard, but has a cooldown so you can't abandon your healing.
I don't really know how to phrase it well. It's the perfect ability at the perfect time. Our dps is terrible, but when things go down to the wire, Hammer of Wrath allows us to step up, like the ace up our sleeve.
I'm sure every long-time Holy paladin has a story about the one time the boss hit enrage with 2% left and people were dying left and right so you bubbled and flung a Hammer of Wrath for the kill.
And even if you've never done that, there's always the hope that someday, somehow, it will happen. That you'll need to step up and drop the boss with Hammer of Wrath.
Even in PvP, it's quite fun. I've always enjoyed sniping killing blows with Hammer of Wrath.
I guess I'm just saying that as a Holy Paladin I love Hammer of Wrath. I know it's not essential to healing, and may even cause small balance issues. But it is just plain fun, and I think the spec will be poorer for its loss.
I urge Blizzard to consider giving Holy access to Hammer of Wrath in Mists of Pandaria.
What about protection pally? We want our share of fun as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Hammer of Wrath button is my favourite button. I love everything about it. The animation, the sound effect, the drunk dwarves in Wildhammer Stronghold who hit each other with it, everything.
ReplyDeleteThis is glorious, starting from about 14:00, a continuous stream of hammers.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6178392750138730216
The talent/ability preview points to a direction for Paladins of removing nearly all "off-spec" abilities (Exo and HoW Ret only, only one cast-time heal for prot/ret). Meanwhile Druids are getting new abilities that make them more effective in off-spec roles. This makes me a bit annoyed.
HAMMERTIME!
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm a little concerned with this move toward making abilities spec-specific. They are kind of doing the same thing with priests -- i.e. making divine hymn for Holy spec only, and the mana regen one (forget the name) discipline spec only.
ReplyDeleteI'd be really disappointed if this change went through. It's probably my favorite spell in the game. As a holy pally, I too am using it often. I'd like to think my hammers are the reason we kill a boss close to an enrage timer, or if people are dying close to the end of the fight. It's probably not as important as it feels, but there is something special about chucking hammers.
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