Aura changes

Improved Concentration Aura: The resistance to silence and interrupt granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Concentration Aura.

Improved Devotion Aura: The additional healing granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Devotion Aura.

Sanctified Retribution: The bonus to damage done granted by this talent now becomes active when any Aura is used, not just Retribution Aura.

This is an interesting change. Blizzard is allowing paladins to utilize two auras as long as you improve it. I’m really curious as to why. Why now? Then it hit me, Blizzard is planning to add encounters/boss fights which resistance will be needed. This reminds me of the AQ 40 days. I just hope Blizzard does not go overboard where we have to aura dance.

Also I’m curious to know if this stacks. I can see a healer improving concentration aura and devotion aura to benefit both aura and the active one.

Overall I love the change

Patch 3.1 Paladin Updates

Here is a list of the Paladin changes coming in 3.1 but you can view all the changes here.

Paladin

General
Auras will now persist through death.

Blessing of Kings is now trainable at level 20. Removed from talent trees.

All Paladin auras have had their tooltip changed to note that they work on the entire raid, not just the party.

Talents
Protection
New Talent Divinity:Tier 1 protection talent, increases healing done by and to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Potentially a healadin can have a 10% healing increase if the tankadin spec into this. This is very nice. Now I wont have to spec deep into ret

Sacred Duty (Protection) rank 1 now increases Stamina by 4%.
Stamina increases are always good

Retribution
Benediction (Retribution) now affects Hand of Reckoning.
OK, it is a start but Blizzard needs to work more on HoR. Tankadin should not have to max out their hit just to ensure HoR does not miss.

Fanaticism reduced to 3 ranks for 6/12/18% bonus and 10/20/30% threat reduction.

Repentance no longer resets the Paladin’s melee swing timer.

Righteous Vengeance reduced to 3 ranks for 10/20/30%.

Holy
Skills
Exorcism can now be used on all targets, but is now a guaranteed critical strike vs Undead and Demon type mobs.

Judgement of Light now procs off spells as well. (Previously only “attacks” would trigger this)
Major buff. Seals will finally be useful for the entire raid.

Shield of Righteousness now deals 130% of block value + 520 at the highest rank. It no longer causes a high amount of threat. (Previously increased damage by a set amount)

Blessing of Kings is now a baseline ability. Trainable at level 20.

Talents
Purifying Power (Tier 6) now reduces the cooldown of your Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells by 17/33%. (Previously increased the critical strike chance of those spells by 10/20%)
I’m not a theorycrafter but if I did my math correct, Exorcism will be cut down to 10.05 seconds. That is quite interesting. Is this Blizzard’s way in helping Holy DPS, particular the Shockadin spec? It’s unfortunate prot or ret can not benefit from this.

Pure of Heart (Tier 5) now reduces Curse, Poison, and Disease effects by 15/30%. (Previously was 25/50% but did not include poisons)

Blessed Hands has been moved from Tier 5 to Tier 4 and now reduces the mana cost of Hand of Freedom, Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Salvation by 15/30% and cooldowns by 10/20%.

Improved Concentration Aura’s (Tier 4) reduced silence/interrupt effect now works while any aura is active.

Talents
Shield of the Templar (Tier 10) no longer increases the damage of your Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells. Instead it gives your Avenger’s Shield a 33/66/100% chance to silence targets hit by it for 3 sec.
Finally a spell that can pull casters.

Judgements of the Just (Tier 10) now reduces the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice by 10 sec, increases the duration of your Seal of Justice effect by 0.5 sec, in addition to its previous effect.

Avenger’s Shield’s (Tier 9) damage has been increased across all ranks.

Guarded by the Light (Tier 9) now reduces spell damage taken by 3% and gives a 50% chance to refresh the duration of your Divine Plea when you hit an enemy. (Previously reduced the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 15%.)

Holy Shield’s (Tier 7) damage slightly increased across all ranks.
I would rather like this spell to slightly reduce the damage than slightly increase damage.

Ardent Defender (Tier 7) is now a 3 point talent, reducing damage taken by 10/20/30%. (Previously was a 5 point talent)

Sacred Duty (Tier 6) increases stamina by 4% now. (Previously was 3%)
Again, any increase to stamina is helpful

One-Handed Weapon Specialization is now a 3 point talent, increasing damage done with 1 handers by 4/7/10%. (Previously was a 5 point talent)

Blessing of Sanctuary (Tier 5) now only grants 2% of maximum displayed mana when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack. (Previously granted 10 rage or 20 runic power or 2% max mana)
Did this become useful to only paladins? That’s unfortunate.

Divine Guardian (Tier 4) now has been changed to redirect damage “(up to a maximum of 150/300% of the Paladin’s health).” (Previously had no limit)

Improved Devotion Aura (Tier 4) now increases the amount healed on any target affected by any of your Auras by 2%. (Previously only worked with Devotion Aura active)

Improved Hammer of Justice (Tier 4) is now a 2 point talent, reducing the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 sec. (Previously had a 3rd rank that reduced cooldown by 30 secs)

Paladin Glyphs
Glyph of Exorcism — Increases damage done by Exorcism by 20%. (Old: Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.)

Glyph of Divinity — Your Lay on Hands grants twice as much mana as normal and also grants you as much mana as it grants your target. (Old: Your Lay on Hands also grants you as much mana as it grants your target.)
Not bad but I still think the glyph is worthless.

Glyph of Lay on Hands — Reduces the cooldown of your Lay on Hands spell by 5 min.(Old: Increases the mana restored by your Lay on Hands spell by 20%)

Glyph of Beacon of Light *new* — Increases the duration of Beacon of Light by 30 sec.
I like this glyph but I would hope Blizzard increases the duration to a minute. I believe 2 minutes total is about right.

Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous *new* — Your Hammer of the Righteous hits 1 additional target.

Glyph of Divine Storm *new* — Your Divine Storm now heals for an additional 15% of the damage it causes.
Is it a self heal or a party heal or both?

Glyph of Shield of Righteousness *new* — Reduces the mana cost of Shield of Righteousness by 1 to 6%.

Glyph of Divine Plea *new* — While Divine Plea is active, you take 3% reduced damage from all sources.

Glyph of Holy Shock *new* — Reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 sec.

Glyph of Hand of Salvation *new* — When you cast Hand of Salvation on yourself, it also reduces damage taken by 20%.

I’m Famous…..

Well not really but it is nice to get noticed.

My Wintergrasp QQ post made it to WoW Insider. It’s nothing big but I appreciate Dan O’Halloran taking in the time in reading my post and thinking it was good enough to be mentioned in his post at WoW Insider.

Thanks!

My Top 10 Wintergrasp QQ

10. Allow easier controls of your vehicle’s target area. I hate it when a small bump/hill doesn’t allow me to target beyond it. If I reposition myself my target area shoots 20 yards farther than I want.

9. Blizzard should only allow level 71+ in Wintergrasp. I see lower level players as a moocher (i.e. AFKavers) than a contributor to the battle.

8. Wintergrasp does not have a set time. I find this very annoying. Yesterday WG started at 7:30 server time but today it starts at 7:00 server time. Blizzard should set WG every two hours no matter how fast the previous battle was won.

7. The Daily Quest Givers should be at the portal before you enter in Wintergrasp. This will ensure you get your daily before the battle. I am tired seeing “share daily” spam in general/raid chat because the quest givers have not spawned or we have lazy people.

6. Put guns in the middle part of the fortress. There is really no defense once the opponent breaks through to the middle part of the fortress.

5. Make it easier for vehicle to move through the fortress. I want to be able to move from one side to the other without having to go outside the fortress. (If there is a way, please let me know).

4. Disappearing portal. I’m not sure why the portal disappears when your faction controls Wintergrasp. But it is annoying when you want to see the quartermaster in Wintergrasp and the portal is not up but you have control.

3. Daily Quest. Blizzard should “borrow” the Public Quest idea from WAR that gives you credit toward your daily quest even if you’re not in the same raid group. There are times which I was unable to complete my daily because someone from a different raid group “tagged” the siege engine. Quite annoying.

2. The Wintergrasp buff should be world wide buff not just Northrend. The 5% experience increase would be useful for my alts not in Northrend.

1. Invite raid? PLZ! Blizzard please stop this insanity and automatically form the raid when we enter in Wintergrasp. Once the battle begins it is hard to get invite in the raid because everyone is immerse in the battle. If you’re 5-10 minutes late forget it (see #3), wait for the next battle.

**Other QQs that did not make the list
Allow the vehicles to move a bit faster.
Lag, lag, and more Lag.

Obsidian Sanctum: Sartharion Downed

Guild First

The Paladin’s Way

I found this at World of Raids and thought is was great.

One thing, I want to get a felhunter toothbrush!

PAL.MPG

Consumable Ammunition

Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game. Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.

Hmm, I am not sure I like this change as an engineer. My arrows/bullets will be worthless in 3.1, frankly they’re worthless to make now due to the announcement. Sure I can sell some but not the near profit I can make prior.

I hope Blizzard has some plans to help engineering, if not I will have to switch my profession. That will suck because I love my goggles.

Paladin 3.1 Changes

There are some interesting changes to the Paladin class coming in the 3.1 patch. So far I like what I see but I am proceeding with caution because I believe most of the changes are overpowered which will be nerfed soon.

Blessing of Kings – this spell is now a base ability trainable by all paladins.

I’m kinda of iffy with this change. Yes I like it but how much % will you get? 2%? 4%? Tthe entire 10%? I’m leaning toward 4-6% and we’ll have to use a glyph and/or points to max it out.

Exorcism – this spell now causes damage to all types of enemy targets. However, it always critical strikes undead or demon targets. This change should make sure paladin damage doesn’t drop when going from Naxxramas to later tiers of content.

Hmm, giving another burst damage spell to ret in PVP…I am beginning to see other classes’ eyes watering up.

Shield of the Templar now causes your Avenger’s Shield and Shield of the Righteousness to silence targets for 3 sec. The old damage bonus of this talent has been folded into Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield, and Shield of the Righteousness.

Nice PVP CC but I believe the cooldown for Shield of Righteousness will be raised to around 10 sec. Having a 3 second delay before your next silence is a bit overpowered. (6 second cooldown; 3 second silence).

Ardent Defender, Improved Hammer of Justice, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and more have had their ranks reduced.

I am wondering if this will potentially free up more points to use elsewhere. Hammer of Justice maybe nerfed because of the Judgments of the Just.

Guarded by the Light – no longer reduces the mana cost of shield spells, but now has a 50/100% chance to refresh Divine Plea duration.

Ah, this maybe one of the reason why Divine Plea was nerfed.

Judgements of the Just – now also reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 seconds and increases the duration of the Seal of Justice stun effect by 0.5/1 second.

This will be nerfed or Hammer of Justice will be nerfed before it hits PTR. You can potentially lower the cooldown to 10 sec, then stun them for 6 seconds then silence them for 3 seconds with SotR. This is overpowered.

Molten Core still has an attunement (sorta)

As you know Blizzard removed the Molten Core attunement but they forgot to do one simple thing, allow Lothos Riftwaker to port you to Molten Core. If your not attuned Lothos does not offer the port so you are forced to run though Blackrock Depths to enter in the Molten Core portal. Since you’re making the run you might as well complete the attunement. I’m not sure that was intentional or a mistake on Blizzards part but I found it very annoying.

I know the attunement quest is extremely easy to complete and can take a 5 minute run to complete it or have a warlock summon you but I was not expecting it.