official World of Warcraft

[Shaun N.]

WTB Paladin changes please

[nubs]

The new DK changes look like they will rock. I can't wait til Cata. As for not wanting to buff, you picked the wrong class, you are the consummate support class.

[dead.cell]

The new DK changes look like they will rock. I can't wait til Cata. As for not wanting to buff, you picked the wrong class, you are the consummate support class.

Talents changes, I agree. New skills though were sort've underwhelming imo.

[nubs]

I was also thinking of the way the runes will change. It wont be based on going through rotations as fast as possible. This will reduce the huge differences in damage output by DK's simply because of latency and will IMO require more skill than before.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Paladin changes up yet?

[dead.cell]

I was also thinking of the way the runes will change. It wont be based on going through rotations as fast as possible. This will reduce the huge differences in damage output by DK's simply because of latency and will IMO require more skill than before.

Oh definitely liked hearing about that change. Will probably take some tweaking on their part to get it just right, but that's to be expected.

Right now though, I'm sort of tired of my DK. Leveling my mage (71), shaman (26), and hunter (started yesterday, 13) at the moment. :p

Paladin changes up yet?

Tomorrow. ;)

[nubs]

I've wanted a shaman for a long time but never wanted to work on him. I wish there was a way to become traitors with your race so I could create an Orc Shaman and have him play under the Alliance.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Paladin Changes

Yay @ getting a pet!

[Noveed]

Can someone post them here please Neowin now is probs the only site not blocked at work :(

[Shaun N.]

posted for Nov.

New Paladin Spells

Blinding Shield (level 81): Causes damage and blinds all nearby targets. This effect might end up only damaging those facing the paladin?s shield, in a manner similar to Eadric the Pure's ability Radiance in Trial of the Champion. The Holy tree will have a talent to increase the damage and critical strike chance, while the Protection tree will have a talent to make this spell instant cast. 2-second base cast time. Requires a shield.

Healing Hands (level 83): Healing Hands is a new healing spell. The paladin radiates heals from him or herself, almost like a Healing Stream Totem. It has a short range, but a long enough duration that the paladin can cast other heals while Healing Hands remains active. 15-second cooldown. 6-second duration.

Guardian of Ancient Kings (level 85): Summons a temporary guardian that looks like a winged creature of light armed with a sword. The visual is similar to that of the Resurrection spell used by the paladin in Warcraft III. The guardian has a different effect depending on the talent spec of the paladin. For Holy paladins, the guardian heals the most wounded ally in the area. For Protection paladins, the guardian absorbs some incoming damage. For Retribution paladins, it damages an enemy, similar to the death knight Gargoyle or the Nibelung staff. 3-minute cooldown. 30-second duration (this might vary depending on which guardian appears).

Next you will find a list of some of the paladin spell and ability changes, followed by our intentions for improving each talent tree for the release of Cataclysm. There will be further changes, but those revealed below should offer some insight into our goals.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

Crusader Strike will be a core ability for all paladins, gained at level 1. We think the paladin leveling experience is hurt by not having an instant attack. Retribution will be getting a new talent in its place that either modifies Crusader Strike or replaces it completely.

Cleanse is being rebalanced to work with the new dispel system. It will dispel defensive magic (debuffs on friendly targets), diseases, and poisons.

Blessing of Might will provide the benefit of Wisdom as well. If you have two paladins in your group, one will do Kings on everyone and the other will do Might on everyone. There should be much less need, and ideally no need, to provide specific buffs to specific classes.

Holy Shock will be a core healing spell available to all paladins.

New Talents and Talent Changes

We want to ease off the defensive capabilities of Retribution and Holy paladins slightly. We think the powerful paladin defenses have been one of the things holding Retribution paladins back, especially in Arenas. One change we?re considering is lowering Divine Shield?s duration by a couple of seconds. Having said that, Retribution does pretty well in Battlegrounds, and Battlegrounds will be a much bigger focus in Cataclysm since they can provide the best PvP rewards. Furthermore, the healing environment of Cataclysm is going to be different such that a paladin may not be able to fully heal themselves during the duration of Divine Shield to begin with, so this may not be a problem.

We feel Retribution paladins need one more mechanic which involves some risk of the player pushing the wrong button, making the rotation a bit less forgiving. In addition, we want to add to this spec more PvP utility. Right now the successes of the Retribution paladin in PvP seem to be reduced to either doing decent burst damage, or just being good at staying alive.

We want to increase the duration of Sacred Shield to 30 minutes and keep the limit to one target. The intention is that the paladin can use it on their main healing target. That said, we would like to improve the Holy paladin toolbox and niche so that they don?t feel quite like the obvious choice for tank healing while perceived as a weak group healer.

We want to add to the Holy tree a nice big heal to correspond with Greater Heal. Flash of Light remains the expensive, fast heal and Holy Light is the go-to heal that has average efficiency and throughput. Beacon of Light will be changed to work with Flash of Light. We like the ability, but want paladins to use it intelligently and not be constantly healing for twice as much.

Holy paladins will use spirit as their mana regeneration stat.

Protection paladins need a different rotation between single-target and multi-target tanking. Likewise, we're looking to add the necessity to use an additional cooldown in each rotation.

Holy Shield will no longer have charges. It will be designed to improve block chance while active, and will continue to provide a small amount of damage and threat.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Holy

Healing

Meditation: This is the spirit-to-mana conversion that the priest, druid, and shaman healers also share.

Critical Healing Effect: When the paladin gets a crit on a heal, it will heal for more.

Protection

Damage Reduction

Vengeance: This is the damage-received-to-attack-power conversion that all tanks share.

Block Amount: We want to keep the kit of the paladin as a tank who blocks a lot. So by contrast, the warrior tank will sometimes get critical blocks, but the paladin will absorb more damage with normal blocks.

Retribution

Melee Damage

Melee Critical Damage

Holy Damage: Any attack that does Holy damage will have its damage increased.

[Noveed]

Im really feeling the Holy changes here :D

• Sacred Shield Duration increased for 30 minutes (Thats full of win, constantly having to put it up is a pain)
  
• Healing Hands (sounds good im guessing this will be like an aoe heal over 6 secs would suck if its just a single target one)
  
• Guardian of Ancient Kings (Don't understand how this will work just yet for Holy, yeah i get the part that it will heal the target for 30 secs that needs most healing however will it jump to another person once the previous person has healed or will it stay on that person for the duration :o )
  
• Holy Tree getting a bigger heal? Bigger than Holy Light? WoW! I managed to Crit for 45-50k last night in ICC25 with Holy Light... Now this Greater heal/holy light heal thing will be a bit OP no?
  
• Crits make your crits bigger due to Passive Talent Tree Critical Healing Effect ... hmm nice however i fear lots of overhealing much more than what we have now :(
  
• They do not go into too much information as to how Beacon of Light will change to work with FoL... i get the feeling they may scale up FoL and Scale down HoL when used with Beacon or something along those lines
  
• No MP5.. so spirit as a regen stat.... ewww :x so now i have to fight against Healers and maybe dps' for trinkets/neck pieces and possibly cloaks?
  So in addition to all the Holy Stuff theres a few DPS buffs that holy can benefit from?
  
• Crusader Strike... Very nice!
  
• Blinding Shield .... Ooo Tasty!
  These should come in handy, my dps in holy spec/gear currently sucks On trash i can get around 1.5k-2.5k but single target i barely manage around 1.3k dps. (i know Holy is meant to heal but running hcs these days sometimes tanks do not need as many heals as they used to so to speed things up I tend to spam and cycle through some dps abilities that i have.)
  

I wonder if other classes will be able to use Holy Shock as an attacking spell seen as though it can be used by any spec now.

I am somewhat dissapointed overall about the Paladin class changes... they came out last, it took them longer and I was expecting them to be super ice cool like blazingly out of this world (should'nt have got my hopes up :( )

Forgot to mention the following:

Blessing of Might will provide the benefit of Wisdom as well. If you have two paladins in your group, one will do Kings on everyone and the other will do Might on everyone. There should be much less need, and ideally no need, to provide specific buffs to specific classes.

Great Stuff, means ill be saving on reagents :D Will be sweet change, now more Give Me BoW :D

Cheers btw Shaun, internet filter at work kicked in a few days ago anything related to gaming/games is now blocked :(

[dead.cell]

Celestial Steed

$25 - http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100000942

20? - http://eu.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=221003877

I'm never, and I mean NEVER one to buy things like this but...

I'm sold! Call me a sucker all you like, I think it looks spiffy.

How does the Celestial Steed mount work?

Much like the Headless Horseman's mount from the Hallow's End event, the Celestial Steed will automatically upgrade in speed as the player advances in Riding skill. For example, the Celestial Steed will run at normal ground speed if the character knows Apprentice Riding, and epic ground speed with Journeyman Riding. The mount will be able to fly at normal flight speed with Expert Riding, and at epic flight speed with Artisan Riding. In addition, if the character has a 310%-speed flying mount in his or her collection, the Celestial Steed will also fly at 310% speed.

[DrCheese]

?17?! that's almost as much as a full on expansion pack. Christ.

[kazuyette]

Celestial Steed

$25 - http://us.blizzard.c...l?id=1100000942

20? - http://eu.blizzard.c...ml?id=221003877

I'm never, and I mean NEVER one to buy things like this but...

I'm sold! Call me a sucker all you like, I think it looks spiffy.

I'm so buying it right NOW ! ( geez there's a queue in the virtual blizzard' store ! OMG ! )

I mean this mount can be used EVERYWHERE in the game .

[dead.cell]

Goes to all characters, including future created ones.

Said 27 minute queue when I went to buy it, took 10 minutes tops though. (probably not even that)

Queue is now at 3 hours (my fiancee wants it too lol). Says 98% stock left, so it may be a limited time purchase.

Good luck to those buying it!

----------------------------------reposting this------

Celestial Steed

$25 - http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100000942

20€ - http://eu.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=221003877

I'm never, and I mean NEVER one to buy things like this but...

I'm sold! Call me a sucker all you like, I think it looks spiffy.

How does the Celestial Steed mount work?

Much like the Headless Horseman's mount from the Hallow's End event, the Celestial Steed will automatically upgrade in speed as the player advances in Riding skill. For example, the Celestial Steed will run at normal ground speed if the character knows Apprentice Riding, and epic ground speed with Journeyman Riding. The mount will be able to fly at normal flight speed with Expert Riding, and at epic flight speed with Artisan Riding. In addition, if the character has a 310%-speed flying mount in his or her collection, the Celestial Steed will also fly at 310% speed.

[Kondrath]

Question to you WoW players - ... I used to play back in 05/06. I remember the graphics being pretty decent back then, and I think even now they look okay. But are there any plans to release a "WoW 2"? Or some sort of "Make the graphics look x10 better than AION" expansion? :laugh:

The graphics aren't stopping me from playing again; I'm just curious as to if they're considering updating it anytime soon.

[+SOOPRcow MVC]

Question to you WoW players - ... I used to play back in 05/06. I remember the graphics being pretty decent back then, and I think even now they look okay. But are there any plans to release a "WoW 2"? Or some sort of "Make the graphics look x10 better than AION" expansion? :laugh:

The graphics aren't stopping me from playing again; I'm just curious as to if they're considering updating it anytime soon.

The whole old world is being re done for the next x-pac. Also, from what I got to play on at the last blizzcon... it looks pretty amazing. The art still matches the general art style of the original game. It just looks better.

[Kondrath]

The whole old world is being re done for the next x-pac. Also, from what I got to play on at the last blizzcon... it looks pretty amazing. The art still matches the general art style of the original game. It just looks better.

Whoah! That's great news. I didn't actually think it would be happening. I can't wait to see what it looks like in it's final stages.

[_neutrino Veteran]

I'll Just leave this here

[Spyder Veteran]

Goes to all characters, including future created ones.

Said 27 minute queue when I went to buy it, took 10 minutes tops though. (probably not even that)

Queue is now at 3 hours (my fiancee wants it too lol). Says 98% stock left, so it may be a limited time purchase.

Good luck to those buying it!

wait, what? you buy it one time and all characters you have on any server will get it? even a character you create after buying?

[_neutrino Veteran]

You buy it once and it is account bound they give it to you just like the chilly penguin and what not Also

if you have a 310% it is 310% or if you are 20 its a slow walking mount, it grows with your riding levels.

[Spyder Veteran]

You buy it once and it is account bound they give it to you just like the chilly penguin and what not Also

if you have a 310% it is 310% or if you are 20 its a slow walking mount, it grows with your riding levels.

:o

/gets wallet out

[kazuyette]

I'll Just leave this here

I see what you did here ... :D

[_neutrino Veteran]

I was hoping there would be a feat of strength however, there was not it was sad.

[dead.cell]

I'll Just leave this here

Hahah, I got my screens, but I had to leave for work before I could post them.

Grats though! (Y)

Be prepared to answer a barrage of "OMG, WHERE'D U GET THAT?!" Got bad pretty quick for me since I was one of the first few. (only 1 or 2 others in Dalaran had it, no one in SW) Whispers quickly turned into open discussions with those around me lol. :p