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  Class Q&A Series: Paladin |
07/09/09 10:15:51 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Bornakk |
Community Team: In this
segment, we will be talking with Greg Street about the paladin
class and discussing where this class started and where we feel
they are going, as well as covering an assortment of topics
relating to itemization, buffs, abilities, and other cool
stuff.
Q. Where do paladins fit into the larger scope of things
currently and where do you see them going from this point
forward?
A. The paladin is an iconic class from fantasy role-playing,
and one which Warcraft has been able to put its own stamp all over.
Obviously they figure prominently in the lore, up to and including
the Lich King himself.
The paladin started out as a defensive buffing class. Early on,
buffs were pretty much the entire reason you'd want to group
with a paladin. (And if you want to put a fine point on it, it took
about all of the paladin's attention to keep those buffs
up).
End-game paladins in vanilla World of Warcraft were pretty much
healers, which was disappointing for some players to discover once
they reached level 60. As most of our readers probably already
know, the paladin class was exclusive to the Alliance. We realized
that we kept pushing the paladin and shaman abilities closer and
closer together to solve faction imbalance issues, and that process
was hurting the classes, so we'd be better off just having
paladins and shamans on both sides. In Burning Crusade, paladins
gained the ability to tank and could do so quite well in some
situations, but were still positioned more in an off-tank role. In
Wrath of the Lich King, we finally embraced all three specs of
paladins: Protection paladins can tank anything. Retribution
paladins are a legitimate dps spec in both PvE and PvP. And of
course, paladins could still heal.
Q. What is it that makes them unique compared to all other
classes?
A. Despite our design changes to share buffs around among
more classes, we still kept several abilities unique to the paladin
in order to keep a hint of their original role. Thus paladins have
everything from their powerful Blessings to their bubbles like
Divine Shield, the ability to dispel multiple kinds of debuffs, and
utility abilities like Blessing of Freedom or Hammer of Justice.
Paladins can wear plate armor in all three roles, which is
particularly powerful for a healer. Finally, the Seal and Judgement
system is a unique mechanic that works like no other class.
Community Team: We've received quite a bit of feedback
concerning the current itemization for paladin tier-set gear and
the importance of other stats over MP5.
Q. Specifically, how do we feel about the healing
itemization for paladins thus far? Do we still feel MP5 is as
important as other stats such as Int, Crit, Haste, and Spell Power?
Are there plans to incorporate more of these other stats in later
tiers of paladin healing gear?
A. In Lich King up until now, MP5 has not been as valuable
to most paladins as say Int, Crit, or Spell Power, and really it
wasn't intended to be. It is particularly relevant that you
are hardly ever choosing between Int and MP5. However, we also
think that MP5 became undervalued as a stat and as most of you
know, we are buffing it for 3.2. Furthermore, we think we have
allowed paladin mana regen through Int and Crit to get a little out
of control. We don't want to force paladins to care only
about MP5, but we also don't want them viewing it as a total
junk stat, like say Agility, either. Crit is just too beneficial to
be strictly a regen stat.
From the 3.2 PTR testing so far, it seems like some Holy paladins
are taking a second look at Haste and MP5 possibly instead of Crit.
It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, and we will
adjust as necessary, but it's nice to see paladins at least
consider the stats now before making a gear decision.
We have also hinted before that we've had trouble developing
distinct niches for MP5 and Spirit and are considering collapsing
those two stats in the future. This would be a change with a lot of
ramifications though -- we wouldn't just replace MP5 on gear
with Spirit and call it a day.
Community Team: Paladins provide a slew of powerful buffs
and spells that help all classes with tanking, healing and
damage-dealing.
Q. How do we feel about raid-wide paladin buffs instead of
limiting the buff applications per class, only?
A. We think it works out fine. It's a different buff
mechanic than other classes and helps to ensure that the second or
third paladin is still considered valuable instead of letting a
single one buff everyone.
Q. Blessing of Sanctuary is designed around providing buffs
for tanks; are there plans to re-work its design to provide added
benefits for more than just tanking?
A. No, we want it to be a tanking Blessing. However, we want
it to be a superior tanking buff than Kings for the Protection
paladin. In the 3.2 patch notes, we indicated that Sanctuary will
also provide the same Stam buff as Kings, but will not stack with
Kings (though Kings would still provide bonuses to the other
stats).
Q. Do we feel Flash of Light and the changes in store for it
will allow for additional diversification for the existing healing
spells available? Aside from Healing Light, Flash of Light, and
Holy Shock, are there any plans to provide paladins with other
interesting healing spells later down the road?
A. Later down the road most likely, but it won't be
for 3.2 and it won't be with something that looks like Prayer
of Healing or Wild Growth. We do think paladins will have more of a
use for Flash of Light now with the extra benefit to Sacred Shield.
The changes to Beacon of Light in 3.2 should make paladins an
exceptional dual target healer.
Community Team: Now that we're on the topic of paladin
buffs and spells, dps and versatility has been a topic of concern
for many players with respect to both PvE and PvP.
Q. All classes vary in dps from one encounter to another;
however, some paladins may feel their dps can be less competitive
at times in comparison to other classes, more so in straight
stationary single-target dps encounters. How do we feel paladins
are doing in terms of dps across the board?
A. Retribution dps is too low in PvE in 3.1. We are buffing
it in 3.2 through the new way Seal of Vengeance / Corruption will
work. This Seal is designed to really deliver damage once the
paladin gets five stacks up, which will make it the Seal of choice
for boss fights. Seal of Command will be used in PvP or PvE for
short fights. We expect overall for Corruption / Vengeance to be
the "go-to" Seal much of the time, perhaps even in PvP,
provided you can keep the buff up.
Q. Exorcism will be usable in both PvE and PvP once more
which is great; aside from allowing this ability to be used against
other players, what were the reasons to go down this route in
redesigning this attack?
A. Exorcism never did a ton of damage to players, but it was
an instant attack which meant paladins could use it while closing
with an enemy. It was essentially just free damage and never a
decision of any kind. The new approach to the spell prevents it
from being used while closing, and also makes Retribution paladins
have to pay a little more attention to their combat rotation -- you
want to use Exorcism when Art of War procs, and generally not at
other times.
We understand this is a small adjustment to Protection paladins,
which is why we improved Hand of Reckoning. The 3.2 patch will be
pretty good for paladin tanks overall so hopefully they will
forgive us.
Q. Consecration seems to utilize a sizable portion of mana
per application of this spell; do we have plans on making this a
bit more mana-efficient?
A. We think the mana cost is appropriate. Retribution and
Protection paladins have enough ways to earn mana back that it
doesn't seem to be slowing them down much.
Community Team: Specifically with the various spells and
abilities that paladins have in a PvP encounter, there have been
questions concerning regarding survivability and utility,
let's get into some of these.
Q. Do we feel Divine Shield is fine in its current rendition
versus other abilities such as Shattering Throw and Mass
dispel?
A. Divine Shield is just a very powerful spell, so
game-changing that we thought it needed a counter. The problem is
that only one class has access to Mass Dispel, which we feel makes
priests too much of a "hard counter" to paladins. We
understand that classes will to some extent always have other
classes they are better or worse against, but we want to avoid
extremes. Shattering Throw is an attempt to let someone other than
a priest have the chance to break the bubble. We implemented the
ability as a ranged attack to help discourage warrior "tunnel
vision" in just always unleashing all their attacks on the
same target rather than having to switch targets on occasion.
|
07/09/09 10:15:58 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Bornakk |
Q. Will it be possible to
prevent Avenging Wrath from being dispelled as well? This ability
is the means to allow for on-demand maximum dps output for a brief
period of time and only affects the paladin.
A. It’s possible but not probable. Really this is
symptomatic of a larger problem, which is that the dispel game has
become too important in PvP. If the other team has a dispeller,
then abilities like Avenging Wrath get totally shut down. If the
other team lacks a dispeller, then they may be in trouble. This
leads to junk buffs and inconsistencies on which abilities can be
dispelled or not. We are going to redo the entire system, though
not for 3.2. One direction to take dispelling is to give magic
dispel to all the healers (since 90% of player spells are magical),
but to prevent offensive dispelling of any kind, or at least
prevent dispels for
“your-class-is-supposed-to-have-this
buff” like Arcane Int or Fort.
Q. Do we have plans to introduce a stand-alone interrupt
ability for paladins?
A: We would like to add this kind of utility to paladins.
First we have to get the burst damage under control so that Ret
paladins are not winning PvP encounters by blowing players up. When
we accomplish that, we’ll look at finally giving them more
tools.
Q. With the slew of options to either "jump into" or "jump
out of" PvP encounters for either offensive or defensive purposes
many classes receive, do we have any plans to incorporate special
abilities for paladins to either help them escape tough situations
or quickly get into pvp battle (i.e. Deathgrip, Typhoon, Summoning
Circle, Disengage, etc.)? It seems paladins are the only class
without a short cool-down ability on the same scale.
A. Players are pretty good at detecting problems, but for
solutions they tend to just look around at what other classes have
that is working for them. Homogenization is something we fight as
much as we can, which is the reason not every class has Death Grip
and not every class has Charge. Judgment of Justice is intended to
be the gap-closer for paladins. If it becomes a huge liability,
we’ll evaluate, but at the moment paladins are doing
extremely well in PvP without it.
Q. Ranged attacks are extremely limited for paladins and are
not considered a primary form of dps. However, players feel they
would like an ability that will aid them in bridging the gap
between melee vs. ranged. Do we have any plans to implement
something to this extent?
A. We’ve already changed the “no ranged
attacks” philosophy on paladins already and don’t feel
the need to continue making them better at range.
Community Team: We’re on our last set of questions
here, so let’s switch it up a tad and talk a bit about
Librams and aesthetics.
Q. Do we have plans to incorporate a larger variety of
Librams?
A. We try and make sure the three main paladin roles have
their Librams covered. As these are special items that no other
class can use, we have to make sure we don’t drop them too
often in PvE encounters, but we have no problem putting more on
badge vendors. Usually it’s just a matter of time because a
new tier of content, like the Call of the Crusade patch, already
involves making literally over a thousand new items.
Q. Do we have plans to incorporate Librams as a more
prominent aspect of the paladin class? Also, can we expect to see
Librams as a physical aesthetic item on the paladin? Much like the
quiver is for the hunter (except only the hunter can see their own
quiver mounted on their back).
A. This is something players suggest a lot, and honestly
something we’d like to do. It’s a pretty iconic image
from Warcraft, especially Warcraft III, to have the paladin toting
around their libram. Someone at BlizzCon last year asked if they
could beat on people with it. This is a big task to put on the art
team though so we would want to make sure we do it right. The same
answer would apply to shaman totems and hunter quivers. On the
other hand, it took a long time to finally update the druid cat and
bear art so don’t look for this in 3.2.
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