12-09-2005, 09:53 PM
I know this may seem like an obvious statement, but I've seen it glossed over and it bears being on a forum as opposed to our guildchats.
Paladins, by design mechanics and historical background information from Azeroth, are superior to warriors. Paladins, in lore, are warriors who have advanced beyond the skill of normal men through faith and devotion. They are fully trained knights who then are bestowed additional power from The Light ™.
Ergo, the Paladin is a fully functioning warrior, with the ability to shield himself and continue to damage his opponents, smite those who aren't of his PoV, and heal himself of any and all conditions (along with his teammates). As the "shock troop" for the Alliance, the paladin is supposed to embody everything his opponents DONT want to face on the other side of the field.
Needless to say, this doesn't translate into the game well unless you make Paladin a "Hero" class, let it's godlike status stay as is, and call it a day. Well, the devs didn't take that path...
So, what's the point? I don't think that Blizzard has ever had a clear, balanced approach to the Paladin Archtype, as it is inherently an unbalanced AT. It was never supposed to be balanced, and they have tried various ways to make the paladin a class on it's own with only the vaguest of concepts to follow while still trying to preserve said balance.
Shifting the talents around in a shuffle does feel to me like they're stalling, trying to keep people happy with the class without changing anything significant (perhaps it is because feel that they can't). A lot of the class changes came from playerbase for the rest of the classes that were evalutated. From what I've seen, ALL of the paladin talent/skill changes were directly from the boards, each one seems to be in direct response to the pacification of a complaint.
As it stands, as a former Fury warrior, I feel your pain, specifically, about your gear. It's very frustrating to have your class changed, for better or worse, and then have to go out and redo all of your phat lewts because of it.
Best of luck,
~Frag :huh:
Paladins, by design mechanics and historical background information from Azeroth, are superior to warriors. Paladins, in lore, are warriors who have advanced beyond the skill of normal men through faith and devotion. They are fully trained knights who then are bestowed additional power from The Light ™.
Ergo, the Paladin is a fully functioning warrior, with the ability to shield himself and continue to damage his opponents, smite those who aren't of his PoV, and heal himself of any and all conditions (along with his teammates). As the "shock troop" for the Alliance, the paladin is supposed to embody everything his opponents DONT want to face on the other side of the field.
Needless to say, this doesn't translate into the game well unless you make Paladin a "Hero" class, let it's godlike status stay as is, and call it a day. Well, the devs didn't take that path...
So, what's the point? I don't think that Blizzard has ever had a clear, balanced approach to the Paladin Archtype, as it is inherently an unbalanced AT. It was never supposed to be balanced, and they have tried various ways to make the paladin a class on it's own with only the vaguest of concepts to follow while still trying to preserve said balance.
Shifting the talents around in a shuffle does feel to me like they're stalling, trying to keep people happy with the class without changing anything significant (perhaps it is because feel that they can't). A lot of the class changes came from playerbase for the rest of the classes that were evalutated. From what I've seen, ALL of the paladin talent/skill changes were directly from the boards, each one seems to be in direct response to the pacification of a complaint.
As it stands, as a former Fury warrior, I feel your pain, specifically, about your gear. It's very frustrating to have your class changed, for better or worse, and then have to go out and redo all of your phat lewts because of it.
Best of luck,
~Frag :huh:
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.