Blizzard to Paladins:

[Quark]

1.  I have consistently said that paladins as a class are far and away overpowered in PvP.  The only times that paladins are weak in PvP is because the player has no clue how to play one and thinks that his or her job is to whack on people.  If the player plays the character as a "priest wearing plate," he or she can be incredibly devastating.  And, as a bonus, I'd like to add that paladin dps is climbing sharply with all the new weapons being added to the game.  They're starting to hurt now, too, which is disturbing.  Having an invicible player who can also kill things is would over the top unbalance the PvP game.

What, you mean like those warriors that can out DPS rogues with the uber-items? I still think itemization is becoming a problem more than class balance with the 2 handed weapons.

Sadly, the closest thing I've seen to a "priest wearing plate" is actually a paladin wearing cloth. He gave up a lot of plate to get better caster gear. So much for the extra armor ...

2.  I think that paladins aren't as useful in 5-man PvE parties.

There are two times I think "If only we had a paladin" in 5man. One, when a druid's the main healer who only has one res every 30 minutes. Two, when I want to be lazy and not watch my aggro. The second passes when I remember what the 5th class is bringing that Paladins cant.

Also, the ineffectiveness of their short cast time heals become less important as they can spam their long heals on the tank(s).

Haven't really heard of a group using Paladins as essential healers since they changed Blessing of Light. Just making it so you need less priests with Cleanse and occassional heals.

... and sacrifice themselves to get a rezer out of combat.  (It is much more difficult to do this with a shaman ankh, because the shaman has the contradictory task of finding a spot where he or she can die and then rez in a spot where he or she won't get hit and put in combat).

Bull, it can't be any harder than someone Soulstoned trying to get in a good spot. It also, unlike the other wipe recovery options, has a strict time limitation - do it too early, the DI'd person will probably die anyway.

The shaman heals and totems and such while useful aren't nearly as powerful or versatile as all of the seals and other abilities that paladins bring to a large raid.  In a large raid, shamans are basically relegated to dropping a fire resist totem and either an agility or windfury totem.  Or in a caster group, the shaman can drop a mana spring and/or mana tide totem.  Otherwise, shamans are just there to add some extra healing.  A common comment on our guild chat during raids against a tough boss is, "What I wouldn't give for just one paladin...".

So you're basically saying "Paladins add some to party effectiveness, and little to healing" then "Shamans add little to party effectiveness, and some to healing"?