Paladin Revamp

[Rinnhart]

New Eyonix post on the paladin boards:

I've been reading through a substantial amount of the feedback presented on this board. Some of you have done an outstanding job presenting your thoughts, and I thank you greatly. I wanted to take a moment to discuss of few items with you. First, I see a number of threads begging for some explanation pertaining to the Paladin's overall role in World of Warcraft, primarily of course, the role of the class end-game. The Paladin class is designed to be a great support character with high survivability and very efficient heals. Not only should the Paladin serve any group well as a useful off-tank, if played well they can be used effectively as a main tank in smaller dungeons.

We don't intend for the Paladin to ever be as effective in tanking as the Warrior or even the Druid, which was designed specifically to be a replacement tank in the case that a Warrior wasn't present.

Now as I've stated, one of our goals is to improve the Paladin's ability to main-tank since currently they are not as effective as we'd like them to be. What I haven't elaborated on however is the specifics of how far we'd like these improvements to take the class. We're looking to improve the Paladin's tanking abilities in such a way that players who take advantage of their class strengths can main-tank in instances capped at 5, 10, 15 and even 20 player instances. We don't feel the Paladin is too far from being able to accomplish this feat.

I've seen requests from players to change Holy Shield so that it generates threat. Players should be aware that damage caused by Holy Shield does in-fact cause 20% additional threat. This has been active since 1.9, but was undocumented. The tool-tip will be updated accordingly for patch 1.10. With that being stated, we are in the process of evaluating the amount of threat this spell generates.

It should also be noted that currently, Righteous Fury is not generating the correct amount of additional threat on all holy damage. There are some abilities, such as Retribution Aura that this did not work correctly. Once 1.10 is live, this will be fixed and Righteous Fury will be a more effective threat generating ability.

We're taking a pass at all threat generating abilities, and it's likely that players will see some mathematical improvements to abilities over the course of the next few patches. In addition, we're in the process of reviewing the Protection tree with plans to make it more appealing for players choosing to follow the protection path.

I'm reading your feedback, and I'm discussing it with the design team. Please continue to work with me and remain constructive in your posting. Even more importantly however, please realize that messages such as this aren't necessarily all that's in-store for the class but rather all the information I have for you at this particular moment in time.

Stick a fork in 'er, she's done.