#1 - Feb. 28, 2017, 7:42 p.m.
However that doesn’t mean the specialization doesn’t have its worts. In my opinion, a lot of Protection Paladins problems revolve around talent viability. I want to get a constructive dialog started to help increase the visibility to these issues. So without further ado.
Talent Feedback
Consecrated Hammer
This is an interesting talent as it gives us a 100% GCD locked rotation. Always having a button to press can be very appealing instead of waiting twiddling your thumbs. It also gives a Protection Paladin a lot of flexibility in terms of mobility. It removes the restriction of being constantly tied to Consecration. However it has a number of downsides.
- No encounter has that much movement where you can’t stand in Consecration. Maybe this is an encounter design issue but there isn’t a fight where taking this talent mitigates one of the mechanics presented.
- No real mitigation benefit over the other two options. All it does is offer the baseline 20% Consecration bonus. But with good play, you should always have the 20% bonus in addition to having the extra block from Holy Shield or reduced auto attack damage taken from Blessed Hammer.
- No real DPS benefits over the other two options. In terms of priority, Hammer is the lowest. Its not a high DPS button. But on a fight like Krosus, Holy Shield can be a very competitive in terms of DPS. Blessed Hammer is generally considered the best general purpose DPS option.
Retribution Aura
This talent is supposed to fulfill the “Aura” fantasy of the Paladin class. In theory that sounds cool. Paladins should buff their allies based on their proximity. But in practise, this talent has some serious issues that can’t be overlooked.
- Procs reset the swing timer. This might be a bug but this is the biggest issue with the talent. On paper, the talent should be free damage. However in practice, its actually a DPS loss. The damage lost from the swing timer resets is far more than the damage gained from the damage reflection.
- Very Low damage. Even without the swing timer issue, the proc damage is very small; only 4.5% of AP which results in ~1.5k to 2.5k proc depending on gear. Looking at Heroic boss logs (Since there are no Mythic logs with this talent), it averages <1% of the total damage. Its simply not enough damage to give up the benefits of Spell Warding or Cavalier.
Crusader’s Judgment
Grand Crusader is very effective proc in AE damage situations. It can proc quite often providing a nice DPS increase and a good cadence to the rotation. However its a bit awkward to hit Judgment after hitting Avenger’s Shield. With charged abilities, the player will want to avoid capping to prevent losing out on charges they might have gotten otherwise. In its current state, its too much of a mix between AE and single target abilities.
Judgment of Light
With all three Paladin specs having access to this talent, it no longer makes sense for it not to stack between multiple Paladins. It would be a nice quality of life change if it did.
Aegis of Light
There are a very few situations where this talent is viable. It could use some quality of life changes to increase viability compared to Consecrated Ground or Judgment of Light. The top issue with this talent is that its channeled and we can’t attack or use other abilities for its duration. This is a lot of trade for only 20% damage reduction on a 3 minute cooldown. If it usable more frequently or was more effective then this could be a valid trade-off.
