Pally Changes

[JustAGuy]

So, you want to know how Paladins differ from how they are described in that html link you provided, from WC3, to WoW. To quote the aforementioned page:

Paladins are described as:

Upholders of the Holy Light and defenders of the Alliance. ... Wielding their mighty hammers and the strength of the Light, these holy warriors command forces in battle, continuously throwing themselves into the fray wherever the fighting is the thickest

With Blizzard's current implementation, this is what they are. They defend, and ... uphold the holy light. They sure do wield mighty hammers. They do throw themselves into the fray. Notice, holy warrior.

The Paladin is a mix of a melee fighter and a secondary spell caster.

At current, no. Not even close to a mix. He's described as a secondary spell caster. Currently, spell casting is his primary function, as he has no real damaging melee abilities (aside from the bandaid Hammer of Wrath). But, that sentence describes his role in a party, wherein he's the "secondary spell caster" to be sure.

Paladins are pretty hard to kill, thanks to their assortment of defensive abilities.

Definitely true, no one refutes this.

Paladin can also heal with Holy Light, unlike other combat classes.

They refer to him as a combat class. My feeling is that they mean "combat class" as in "melee class". Every class can engage in combat, therefore every class is a combat class. As far as Paladin being a melee class, it's pretty clear that he is not.

The Paladin is an Undead specific fighter as well, with several abilities designed to be used against the Undead.

This should be changed to "undead only fighter", because as far as fighting goes, he doesn't do much against humanoids. He cleanses and heals vs humanoids, and only against undead, he can do real damage.

Now, that was blizzard's preamble. They continue with a bulletted list of strengths and weaknesses. This is where they list him as a "melee fighter" that can also heal. This is where you seem to think I have gotten the impression that he should be more than he is. Well, it's one of his "strengths", isn't it? The preamble I just read told me he's a melee fighter. The strengths told me he's a melee fighter. Shouldn't he be a melee fighter then? He isn't, and that's where Blizzard's false advertisement has me ticked-off. He's not, and he should be.

Also in the strengths is "Can wear the heaviest of armors". Why would he need the heaviest of armors if he's not in melee range? In practice, he's not needed to be in melee range, he could hang out at the back with the clothies. In theory, he's suppose to be in the thick of it, like they said in the preamble, causing a ruckus with his melee prowess. The armor is only needed for that purpose, and nothing else. For healing, there's plenty of better cloth items he could be wearing. In his current implementation, the Paladin does not need plate, nor does he need "[not] as many weapon types as the Warrior". He could use a wand for all I care. He'd still be as effective as he is now. The only reason for a big weapon is to use it. He does not.

Now there's another section, that describes his class role.

Paladins are the consummate knights in shining armor, meant to be in the thick of things.

Well, I suppose he is. He's in the thick of it, he's got shining armor alright.

Their defensive abilities allow them to stand toe to toe with monsters and take a beating - they are tanks overall.

They do take a beating, but they are not tanks in the WoW sense of the word. A tank takes damage and holds aggro. Only a well played Paladin with an intentionally easy-on-the-dps party can accomplish this, but it's not because of the Paladin's abilities. This is a player-skill issue, and not how the class plays.

This is not the sole purpose of a Paladin, of course; their auras, seals, heals and resurrection spells give them the chance to act as a support healer.

Well, yeah.


The rest of Blizzard's page goes into detail about his available skills. One tibit I found interesting, was this:

Two-Handed Weapons vs. Shield and One-Handed Weapons
Both are great. A two-handed weapon is good against monsters with a lot of armor. A one-handed weapon is better against monsters you wish to interrupt and against monsters with less armor. You might want to train both up and switch between them.

This implies that the Paladin, at some point, either had or was to have a shield-bash maneuvre to interrupt spells. Currently, he can only stun with that devestating 6-second job he can do. So, in actuality, 2-handed vs 1-h + shield is a non-issue, because his damage output is so miniscule to begin with and his spell interruption is independent of his weapon setup. You'll notice, also, that shield bash ended up being a Warrior ability.

So, as far as how the Paladin is advertised, he is advertised as melee more than once. It is made to sound like he is going to be a threat in combat not just for his healing, but for his damage capability.

Here's a tidbit on the Shaman page:

The Shaman is similar to a Paladin without as much armor.

Not even close. Even their healing abilities are dissimilar.

So, the Paladin plays much differently than how he is described in the page you linked. I'd quote some more, but I'm at the limit of quotes that this forum software can handle.

As far as how different the Paladin plays in WC3 to WoW, the difference is in the combat. The Paladin runs in, with an aura selected, and bashes things with his hammer. He uses divine shield when necessary, and throws some heals around. That's exactly how he plays in WoW. The problem is, that's not fun. People agree with me when I say it's not fun. Having no push-to-attack combat abilities makes him boring. This is World of Warcraft, not Warcraft 3; the way the Paladin plays is acceptable in an RTS game, but in a MMORPG, you should be in more command of your character. You can buff and heal, sure, but with respect to combat, there's not much you can do except "click... wait...". This is not fun and not intended (from what Blizzard has stated on their page). The WC3 Paladin should be similar to the WoW Paladin. Currently, they are much too similar.

BUT, all of this is just crap anyway. None of the stuff written on that page matters, because it was written during the beta, at a time when the classes were all still in flux. It's my opinion that they never actually finished the Paladin, and having played him in the beta and having played him recently, there's not much difference in how broken he was then, and how broken he is now.