08-09-2005, 02:09 PM
Tal,Aug 9 2005, 08:18 AM Wrote:I really don't have any hope that Blizzard will actually do anything to make the Paladin trees more intuitive or attractive. Personally I feel that if a paladin gimps him/herself to go protection that it should be Protection specc'd warrior -> Protection specc'd paladin -> Arms/Fury warrior for tanking. Just a Arms/Fury Warrior should be -> Retribution Paladin. A paladin that spec's healing should be a better healer than a feral specc'd druid in my opinion as well. But that is probably more of a nightmare to balance than Blizzard wants to worry about. :(
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I'm not sure that a holy spec paladin is a worse healer than a feral druid right now. I'm only part way into my holy spec and I'm pretty impressed with how well a paladin can heal. I had no more trouble healing Maraudon with my partial holy spec paladin than I did with my full on restoration spec druid. The thing a paladin lacks is healing people other than the tanks efficiently. Priests have good AoE heals and a good HoT. Druids have a HoT. Paladins have to use Holy Light or Flash of Light.
Lets look at L46 which is where I was with both classes when I healed Maraudon
Druid
L44 Healing Touch 1199 to 1427 3.5 second cast 545 mana
L42 Regrowth 511 to 575 + 546 over 21 2.0 second cast 510 mana
L46 Rejuv 488 over 12 instant cast 235 mana
My spec changed that to
HT: 1259 to 1498 512 mana
RG: 537 to 604 + 573 over 21 510 mana, 20% chance to crit the first part
RJ: 586 235 mana
natures swiftness
Paladin
L46 Holy Light 945 to 1053 2.5 second cast 465 mana
L42 Flash of Light 197 to 221 1.5 second cast 90 mana
L40 Blessing of Ligth 210 to Holy and 60 to Flash 85 mana
My spec changed that to
HL: 1058 to 1179 465 mana
FL: same
BL: same
can't be interrupted with concentration aura up.
20% chance to get all mana back after a crit heal.
can crit heal when I want
I had Blessing of Light up on the tanks. That means 1268 to 1389 healed with a 2.5 second cast spell. That is better than the restoration spec druids healing touch. Flash of Light was 257 to 281 healed then. I had Blessing of Protection to stop damage when I needed to, the druid has two HoT's to slow it down. I can crit heal when I want to, every 2 minutes, though I still have a 2.5 second cast to get that. The druid can instant heal with any one of their spells every 3 minutes.
I was wearing leather, plate, chain, and cloth items for +int on the paladin. I had a shield on. My damage reduction was around 45% still. The druid had around 22%. The paladin could get up there and swing and do more damage thanks to AP bonus than the druid could. And both are reduced to doing melee damage in order to help do damage. If I got aggro I could keep healing without issues, the druid couldn't because of stuttering. The paladin actually was a lot less likely to get aggro as well.
A 2.5 second cast heal is not that bad, it's about the same time as the druids "fast" regrowth which is 2.0 but doesn't heal as much damage up front and takes a lot more mana.
At L60 the paladin does drop off in healing some but I'm not sure a feral druid is a better healer.
Druid
HT: 1890 to 2230 790 mana
RG: 1003 to 1119 + 1064 over 21s 880 mana
RJ: 756 over 12s 335 mana
Paladin
HL: 1246 to 1388 580 mana (1646 to 1788 with BL up)
FL: 343 to 383 140 mana (458 to 498 with BL up)
BL: 400 and 115
Holy Spec
HL: 1396 to 1555 (1796 to 1955)
Druids use Healing Touch a fair bit to stay mana efficient and Holy Light with the blessing up casts faster and has healing right around the same amount with the blessing up for less mana. Flash of Light might need some work I won't disagree with that. Don't forget about that healing that judging Seal of Light can do. It is no Rejuvination but it does help. Rejuv and Regrowth are powerful, but they do take away the mana pretty quick. Holy Light, while you need to be pretty much always casting it, is not a bad heal.
Just throwing some thoughts out there on the healing. I find paladins to be quite good at healing while growing up. I find that I don't really use Flash of Light at all though, in emergency situations Blessing of Protection is generally
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.