08-23-2005, 07:43 PM
MongoJerry,Aug 23 2005, 11:35 AM Wrote:If you (and this is a plural use of you) don't realize how powerful having plate wearing invincible healers, cleansers, and buffers is in both in PvP and PvE, then I don't know what else to say. Listening to some of the comments here, you'd think that paladins are some weak marginalized class, when in fact they are one of the most powerful nearly unbalancing classes in the game -- especially in any kind of group encounter. Yes, the shaman has great solo capabilities, but throw some paladins who know what they are doing in a group, and the results are unbelievable.
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Plate isn't all it's cracked up to be. It doesn't offer any inherent damage mitigation to spell damage. They also have to choose what stats they want to buff. That paladin with 6.5k mana doesn't have anywhere near the 5.5k life of a decked out warrior. No, he has around 3-3.2k life. The paladin with 4.5k+ life has half the mana.
Paladins are third-rate healers. Even though they can attain a high amount of mana, their lack of a "good" fast heal makes them even more expectant healers then druids. In group PvP, blessing of light doesn't stay up long on people getting hit a lot (dispel/purge) and then they lack in healing over time.
Cleansing in PvP is debatable. In the large AV fights there's not many important debuffs to get rid of. A couple priests using decursive easily cure everyone of magic as enemy priests and warlocks periodically decide to dump mana trying to mass DoT people. I would think purge is just as useful as you have a class that isn't (usually) a primary healer that can pay attention and target enemies rather then focusing on allies.
Cleansing in PvE is useful. Unfortunately most debuffs in raids tend to be magic or curse and oftentimes an extra priest would've been more preferable then the paladin.
I agree that Paladins are strong as buffers, most noticeably in PvE. Paladins can actually get in range and use judgements to good effect. Judgement of Wisdom is great for hunters and wanding casters. Salvation is awesome. They don't get all the nice offensive buffs that compare to shaman totems but they definitely get better "defensive" ones.
Paladins might be seen as weak because they have distinct weaknesses that offset their strengths. They lack in damage on call, ranged options, and "spammable" snares/stuns. When you look at a class like shaman, you don't see any glaring weaknesses. Mana in-efficient shocks might've been a more apparent weakness in beta but not now with the buff to mana gain from int and new gear.