Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Blizzard hates Paladins...again


Ghostcrawler recently announced that they will be doing something to "fix" the problem with deep Protection spec'ed paladins in healing gear. This one hits close to home because I found that the prot/holy spec was much better than any other Holy spec for 2v2 and possibly 3v3 arena. The main problem for Blizzard is the deep Protection talent Touched by the Light which when used with full PvP healing gear, can put a paladin's spellpower well over 2200 and I've had Flash of Light crits for 8000+. It's such a major problem for Blizzard that apparently they won't start the next season of Arena until they fix it.


I haven't done any serious Arena games in a while, but I was planning on getting back into it once things settled down post 3.2. Since I'm pretty much forced to heal in Arena because of the many problems I have with Retribution, I found the Prot/Holy spec to be incredibly fun. Lots of stuns and throwing shields meant I was doing more other than standing there casting Flash of Light over and over and over again, with Holy Shock thrown in every now and then. It was the perfect Arena healing spec for me and MANY others and now they're going to gut it. This, right after they gutted Retribution by giving it a completely lame Seal of Command. Some dedicated Ret players have figured out that a specialized Seal of Righteousness build gives better burst than the lame Seal of Command that Blizz force fed to us as the PvP seal. If the Righteousness build becomes popular, expect to see the nerf bat smash it "to the ground" just like everything else that was good for paladins.


I'm really getting sick of the constant nerfs to paladins. I don't know why they are in the cross hairs so often. I have a feeling that the top 100 teams next season will be nearly paladin free just like they have been for so long now (excluding this season). These kinds of changes aren't really doing much to motivate me to play the game and given my recent lack of motivation I'm not sure I'll be doing much in game other than trying to sell yetis and ammo. Oh yea, they nerfed ammo sales too....




For those who care to read, here's the source Blue posts:

11 comments:

  1. QQ Pallys have been OP in arenas for way too long

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  2. As OP as rogues stunlocking in Arenas & BGs :P

    I just hate the this will impact PVE greatly im sure. Which is something Blizz said they would never do.

    PS: my bank alt is pissed about the ammo too just cause its cheaper to make doesnt mean you have to charge less.

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  3. I'd love to see your prot/holy spec build so I can at least try it out b4 it's too late.

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  4. Anonymous people calling it QQ, with zero info and just a lie to boot: "Pallys have been OP in arenas for way too long"

    Actually check the top 100 teams for all the past seasons.....then look at the amount of paladins in there. If paladins were really OP there'd have been loads more every season....which there weren't.

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  5. Pallys have been OP for wrath and have done well the last 2 seasons in arena. They can fulfill all 3 roles in the game very well (I have seen exceptional parses from Ret pallies who actually know what they are doing).
    Now you want to heal in a prot spec? And you don't expect that to be nerfed? Seriously have you even been paying attention at all lately? Its not hating, its called balance. Try playing something besides a pally or a DK for a week to see how everyone else feels then come back and QQ more.

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  6. Jederus, this is the build I use: http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=2&tal=503021403000000000000000005032313522310200133331232000000000000000000000000000

    There are some slight variations but they all go at least 51 points into Protection. Most of the top arena prot/holy players use Glyph of Avenger's Shield for added burst.

    To the multiple Anonymous posters, please create a Blogger account and maybe provide a little more insight into the classes you play and why you think they are inferior to paladins. Use your brain. Also remember to keep this about PvP and not PvE.

    Posting responses like "more QQ pls" is very childish. If you act like a child, I'll treat you like one.

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  7. I'm sorry, but the Prothealer spec has been disgustingly overpowered for some time now, and even moreso with the Prot spec changes in the last patch. (Which by the way make Prot Paladins amazing tanks by just about everyone's measure, so not sure how you can say Blizzard hates them.)

    It's hardly a nerf when something just blatantly overpowered gets fixed.

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  8. (continued from my above anonymous post)

    And considering that for much of the beginning of wrath DK's and Paladins made up over 50% (Yes, two classes made up over half) of top-end arena representation...and even now Paladins make up almost a full quarter of top-end arena representation, I'm not sure where you can possibly claim that Blizzard hates Paladins.

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  9. I don't think Blizzard hates paladins in PvE. They do a pretty good job of making all hybrid class variants viable for PvE. Druids, Shaman, Paladins and Priests can pick whatever role they want to fill and not be shunned by a raid leader like Retribution was in the early Burning Crusade days. They just do a really bad job of making those same hybrid roles interesting in Arena. I'm not asking to be overpowered. If the deep Holy spec was interesting, I'd be doing that. If Retribution could kill a healer on their own without needing long CC chains then I'd be doing that as well. This is all more focused on 2v2 so next season it probably won't matter much anyway.

    I do agree that the change to Sacred Shield putting a HoT on with Flash of Light is over the top for the deep Prot spec. If they pulled their healing abilities down to below what a full Holy paladin could do, I wouldn't mind that. I have a feeling that they're going to nerf the build so it isn't a viable healing spec at all, which means back to boring Holy. If they spruced up Holy to be a little more interesting and involved, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

    And you are right, I looked up class/spec representation on SK-Gaming and Holy is very well represented in seasons 5 and 6. It's still boring as hell though.

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  10. To Anonymous - Dude, have you lost like 100% of your arena matches to pally teams? That's the only reason I can come up with for YOU QQ-ing about Rorik's post. By the way, have you ever heard about that whole thing where the pot calls the kettle black?

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