PTR 2.3 – Retadins will retain tanking capabilities
Blessing of King’s Coriel and all Hybrid-minded pallies will be glad to learn that their plea has not fallen on deaf ears: On the latest 2.3 test build, Fanaticism has been changed so that the threat reduction isn’t active when Righteous Fury is up.
If you haven’t paid attention to this whole matter yet, Paladins have been asking to get raid viability & utility for, probably, forever. Promises were made at Blizzcon, and patch 2.3 first added several boosts to the Retribution tree… without the means to use it in PvE since there was no threat reduction available.
So Blizzard added threat reduction (up to 30%) to the Fanaticism talent, deep in the retribution tree. This was met with glee by part of the Retadins, but the paladins holding the notion of Hybridisation dear pointed out that off-tanking was now closed to the deep Retribution specs.
Fortunately, this has just been fixed, as seen on the latest tooltip.
This is actually a bigger step for the paladin class than it appears on the surface. While I may be less formally pro-Hybrid in my own view on the class than Coriel for instance, I see this as the first time in ages that Blizzard actively implements a feature allowing for Hybrid play.
With Patch 2.0 came the Age of Choice for paladins – by making the Protection Tree into what it is today, suddenly a second career was opened beyond buffbot / cleric. But getting this second career choice came at a hefty price, which worsened with patch 2.1′s overloading of the protection tree: To become the most efficient tank, a pallie had to commit fully to that role, with current cookie-cutter builds recommending up to 49 points spent in that one single tree… and the rest in the protection talents found in Retribution.
Two highly specialized niches are available for paladins these days, and they pretty much exclude other options, which goes against the notion of active hybridization. Even more frustrating is the comparison with druids, the definite demonstration that when they set their mind to it, Blizzard can actually build a good Hybrid.
It’s in that sense that I welcome this change as a ray of hope for more things to come. I’m a tankadin at hearth but have become a healadin for arena a couple of months ago. I have little interest in Retribution as a main spec. I do however hope that this is the first step to remove over-specialization from the class, and offer three cheers for both the pure Retribution paladins and the Hybrid faction. To the Paladin’s future!
As spotted by the ever-dilligent World of Raids.
Its a great change for our class and for Rets. I think its the best way to do it having threat reduction and a way to cycle it on or off. Cheers for Rets.
Huzzah!!
But.. does anyone else look at that tooltip and think.. its a massive bug waiting-to-happen?
Maybe its just my dismal programming skills, but the idea of having to figure out exactly when the threat reduction is on/off makes me shudder!!
Massive bug? yes.
Am I the only one who is quite frightened by Blizzard actually listening to Paladin complaints and responding with changes in line with want people actually ask for?
Is this one of those be careful what you wish for situations?
Nah, on the programming side it’s not any more complicated than accounting for a stat bonus when you swap some armor.
As for the being careful what you wish for, I don’t think I’m really an optimist at heart but it reminds me of what happened when the SA nerf hit the test realms – we were so used to be kicked (and so busy fighting amongst each other we couldn’t even mount a proper attempt at reversal) that we all thanked blizzard in tears when SA got “boosted up” to 60% return a bit later on – like one would thank someone trodding on his hand on purpose for eventually removing the boot.
Keep fixated on druids. In WoW 1, druids were the only class as badly implemented as druids, and suddenly they have become one of the most well-designed in the game. They kept asking for changes with one voice, regardless of whether the choir was made up of ferals, moonkins or resto.
Look at priests, who finally got their shadow tree turned into a raid-worthy spec. Look at rogues, who would be hard pressed to name an objective nerf to their class since weapon speed normalization happened in patch 1.8 or something. Look at hunters getting amazing changes they didn’t even ask for.
If we could just stop bickering amongst each other and get our seven factions to start clamoring for buffs as one, where would we be today?