Boubouille over at MMO-Champion has listed a bunch of changes for the new PTR, which is testing out 4.0.6.
The changes that directly affect holy paladins are few (as in, 1) but it’s a buff, at least, not a nerf.
* Divine Plea now gives you 12% of your total mana over 9 sec, up from 10% of your total mana over 15 sec.
* Light of Dawn base healing has been reduced by 40%, from 1008 – 1124 to 605 – 675.
* Tower of Radiance no longer affects Holy Light.
The change to Divine Plea is a good one, probably meant to encourage us to remember that it doesn’t completely suck. The increase in mana gained is nice enough, but packing it into 9 seconds is the real buff. That’s only 9 seconds with 50% reduced healing done. This can mean a great reduction in the use of /cancelaura macros AND a reduction in cooldowns being blown in order to counter Divine Plea’s healing reduction. 9 seconds isn’t very long; there are several moments where you can easily take 9 seconds to do less healing if you need the mana back. If you feel that you can’t do that, for example in the early phases of Halfus, that’s when you blow your cooldowns, since the fight after the first couple of minutes gets easier.
Also, the actual patch notes are out. Here’s a link to them at MMO-Champion.
Of particular interest to us:
Glyph of Divine Plea now adds 6% mana, for a total of 18% over 9 seconds.
So that’s 18% mana over 9 seconds, glyphed, instead of 15% mana over 15 seconds.
That’s a positive change and I’m pleased to see it on the PTR.
*** Edit *** For crying out loud, three separate updates with paladin stuff? Really?
There was another push of updates last night while I was raiding.
General Paladin Stuff:
* Inquisition is no longer dispellable.
* Rebuke can now be trained by all paladins at level 54. Existing characters will need to visit their trainer, even if they had talented Rebuke before.
We rarely use Inquisition, but there are some cases where we probably should (Halfus post-enrage when you’re spamming the crap out of Exorcism?). But Rebuke? That’s the new-with-Cataclysm retribution talent that is an interrupt. Baseline now? That’s EXCELLENT news. I know pally tanks are OVER THE MOON about this. I’m pleased to have the utility, myself.
Holy
Denounce now has a spell overlay.
I don’t spec for Denounce, although I’m thinking of having a second spec with it for burn phases on Magmaw, for instance. A spell overlay (“power aura”) for it could come in handy.
With regards to the other listed changes, no worries, we are NOT being nerfed again. The Light of Dawn nerf is simply the official change for what they’ve already implemented. Same with Tower of Radiance.
So it’s a pretty boring PTR for us PTR that’s not too game-changing for holies, but it’s definitely a positive PTR for paladins as a whole, particularly with the decision to make Rebuke baseline.
Oh, my. The duration reduction for DP is going to be enjoyable indeed. The last few seconds of that 15 are always the most painful.
On top of that, the DP glyph is being upgraded to +6% for a total of 18% over 9 seconds. It may get some use now.
Enlynn – I’ve purposely tried NOT to use Divine Plea except in utter emergencies just because the last 5 seconds seem interminable and I hate the idea of not getting the maximum mana I can when I do need to hit it, so I try not to cancel it. The shortened duration is marvelous!
Criph – Thanks, I saw that and your comment prompted me to update my post. :)
It’s a minor thing, but our Blessings are increasing in Mana cost by 217%. Since we only cast those outside of combat normally, it’s not that huge a concern, but it will make me think twice before casting BoK after a battle rez.
All in all, I am very pleased with this change. 3% More mana 40% faster is a win in my book.
errr… pleased with the Divine Plea change. WTB Edit button. :)
One thing that I think you either forgot or didn’t think important enough to mention…
Paladins of all specs now get Rebuke, a melee interrupt. Now, this isn’t all that exciting for Holy paladins, but it sure has its uses.
Oh and btw, I do love me some Divine Plea’ing now!
I feel Rebuke is definitely worth mentioning.
Even if it seems very unlikely we would be in range to interrupt just remember there are several paladin healers who take the shorter judgment distance to spec 2 in Enlightened Judgement for the free heals through Beacon and all of those who go in for some free holy power through Crusader Strike. It being off the GCD means it will only cost you in reaction time and not really effecting your HPS.
Though not directed at holy paladins, it is still one more way to mitigate damage and save us mana if no one else in your group is willing to do it. (I’m looking at you 5 man PUGs).
Fannon – Yeah, I elected to skip the blessing cost. Meh. People die, they get a BR, I still need to buff them, usually. But with only two pally buffs (one if you run with a druid), it’s easy for a ret and a prot or a ret and a druid to cover buffs.
Kaboomski & Risotto – The change came down while I was in a raid and I didn’t have time post-raid to change it. It’s not that I think it’s not a significant change. :)
Anyways, post is updated to reflect Rebuke.
Mandala of Stirring Patterns now grants Intellect instead of Mastery.
I know its not purely a paladin change but its something worth mentioning! The spirit trinket from Tol Barad is getting its proc changed to intellect instead of mastery. Not much information yet on the ICD etc but it may be a awesome trinket now!
o/ hooray! No more having to use a Cd everytime I use DP. Do you think we are always going to have to glyph DP? I am hoping that as mana pools get larger we can replace the glyph with something like Glyph of the Long Word.
Craon – I did see that, but I’ll likely edit my loot list post rather than post about it here.
Pkcp – I think our majors are really swappable depending on the encounter. If you KNOW you’re not going to run oom, swap out DP for something else, like LOD. I’m currently using Divinity, LOH and DP as my “go-to” majors.
Notable regarding Rebuke (and Judgement for that matter) is we have a reason to pay attention to the melee hit cap. With 2/2 Enlightened and average 330 ilvl I’m well over 8% hit. Reaching hit cap so easily, relative to dps classes, could have some interesting implications.
Surprised the Lay on Hands and Beacon nerf hasn’t been mentioned yet.
I can’t remember it if was this update, but basically LoH will no longer hit the Beacon target if you cast it on someone else (ex. Tank is Beacon’d, you LoH a DPS, tank won’t get the benefit).
Holy Nerfbat Batman.