WoW Cataclysm Class Changes Unveiled for Paladins

Don’t you worry; the Paladin class changes for the World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Cataclysm, have finally arrived. They are somewhat interesting… only the Holy trees new abilities are shown, but there is some talk of their intended changes for Retribution and Protection. The detailed list of changes can be found on the Cataclysm forum.

Paladin Changes for Cataclysm:

Blinding Shield, available at level 81, is a new AoE ability that deals damage and blinds all nearby enemies facing the Paladin’s shield. It is similar to Eadric the Pure’s Radiance ability in TotC5. There will be a talent in the Holy tree that increases its damage and critical strike chance but in the Protection tree there will be a talent to make it an instant cast. This ability can have some interesting advantages for PvP. It will have a 2 second cast, no cooldown but it will require a shield to use. Duh!

Healing Hands, available at level 83, is an all new healing ability for Paladins. Similar to the Healing Stream Totem, it will radiate heals from the Paladin within a short range. It will be an instant cast and the Paladin may continue to cast other spells while it is active. There will be a 15-second cooldown and it will only remain active for 6 seconds. This will effectively give the ability to heal multiple targets beyond the typical single focus or dual heal Paladins are used to facing.

Guardian of the Ancient Kings, available at level 85, is a mastery type spell. Depending on what spec you are, you will summon an ancient guardian of the light, similar looking to a valkyr. If you are Holy it will heal the lowest target, for Protection it will absorb incoming damage, and for Retribution it will deal extra damage to your target. It will have an instant cast, 30 sec duration, and a 3-minute cooldown.

There are only a few changes to abilities and mechanics for Paladins in Cataclysm, however. Cleanse is being reworked just like all other dispel abilities. They mention a change to only be able to dispel defensively including magic, diseases, and poisons. If I’m not mistaken, isn’t that exactly what it does already? Holy Shock and Crusader Strike will now be available to all Paladins. Crusader Strike gives low level Paladins an instant attack, which they were lacking. Blessing of Wisdom is getting merged into Blessing of Might. Awesome, people can’t complain they are missing buffs now. Just like all other healing classes, Paladins will rely on spirit for mana regeneration as the mp5 system is getting abolished.

Blizzard didn’t give much in-depth details on new talents for the Paladins but they did give their vision of what they want them to become. First, Retribution Paladins will be less defensive.  Many ideas around Divine Shield are being tossed around, to either reduce the duration or to make it so one cannot heal to full while it is on. I think Ret Paladins already have enough burst damage and CC abilities that they fill a niche Arena spot, why give them more damage? Retribution is also getting added mechanics to it to no longer allow it to be the literal faceroll class. I guess Blizzard is getting tired of all the moron Retadin jokes and wants to beef up their rotation and make it less forgiving if you use the wrong ability.

Holy Paladins will get a new big heal with the intention of leaving Holy Light as the main healing spell and leaving Flash of Light as the quick, high cost spell. Sacred Shield will now have a 30-minute duration. I assume that is Blizzards way to lessen the strength of Sacred Shield in Arenas. It will probably have an increased mana cost so the Paladin can no longer keep switching targets with it. Blizzard also intends to give Holy Paladins the ability to raid heal so that they aren’t a niche tank only healer.

Protection will be getting beefed up a bit, only slightly, just to make them more interesting. They will be gaining abilities that add cooldowns to both AoE tanking and single target. Holy Shield will also be changed to remain active like Righteous Fury and give a passive gain to block chance. It will still deal a small amount of damage and product threat.

Just like I predicted yesterday, the Holy tree will gain additional healing and meditation. Their mastery talent called Critical Healing Effect will increase the amount healed for when a healing spell gains a critical strike. Protection Paladins will gain the usual damage reduction, Vengeance, and Block Amount which will passively increase the Paladins chance to block. Retribution will obviously gain an increase to melee damage and melee critical damage as well as Holy Damage which will increase all Holy damage done by the Retribution Paladin’s abilities.

That concludes the Paladin class changes for Cataclysm. It was also the last class released by Blizzard, so now expect to hear more information on raids and dungeons as well as new factions and major quest lines over the next few weeks/months. Raid on, my friends!

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