Beta 25mans, Holy PoVFollow

Paragon has released videos of the first three 25 man encounters in Cataclysm from a Holy Paladin's PoV.

Thus far it appears Cataclysm PvE content jives well with Holy Paladin's style. On all three kills a paladin does the most healing despite being grouped with a Shaman and 2 Druids. The paladin is casting Holy Shock and Word of Glory liberally with Holy Light filler and nearly keeping Light of Dawn and Holy Radiance on CD. During each fight, every 25-35 sec, a spike of AoE damage hits the raid which allows for effective usage of LoD and HR.

Amidst many gripes about the new holy paladin, even though we can't account for all the variables in the footage such as gear disparity and skill of players (though I feel these are minimized as this is Paragon here people), these videos provide evidence of holy paladin's strengths at 85.

I am not as worried about "proc based healing" as I had been. HL and DL are filler so Infusion of Light is nearly a passive bonus. Now that the GCD for our filler isn't floored, we have some time to monitor for Daybreak and Eternal Glory procs. These talents provide burst healing but their real strength is mana efficiency. We already have a ton of cooldowns to help deal with periods of heavy damage (Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor, Hand of Sacrifice, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Lay on Hands). I'm optimistic.

Final note, the paladin was geared/gemmed with a focus on haste, spirit, and intellect.

The increase to single target healing felt good tonight.

If they nerf Holy Radiance and it is still sexy I think my biggest concerns from there would be the nature of LoD vs HR.

The homogenization of the game is partly a result of the dungeon finder. In a world (of warcraft) where you need x,y,z to do a random encounter and you get a,s,s from the computer you are screwed.

In any case, priests must choose between Disc and Holy. Shamans can reach a nice balance for 5 mans but will talent/glyph to min/max for raids. Druids are looking at a giant cluster ****. I have no experience as a Tree but they get a ton of useful talents with not even close to enough points. There are decisions to be made which will distinguish each healer. Dumb people will still be dumb.

Right now Paladins have the fewest options, but we just got a new resource system ffs. It's hard to argue that anything could be less interesting than FoL/HL spam. As long as the numbers are there people won't be too upset.


Speaking of which, aside from the hotfix that was already in place at the time of the OP, it's funny that most of your concerns went away after the HM LK kill bodhi...Congrats!

HR and LoD are cool spells and our mobility is better now. If they figure out how to scale them with player density they could be great. At this point I doubt we'll be getting a new spell, so hopefully the changes coming make these more versatile.

While the design on Divine Plea makes it extremely tactical, that's fine, it rewards smart play and punishes stupidity. Altering the ability is acceptable too, but it can't be a button you mash on CD. Then it becomes a passive bonus which could be rolled into the class.

Beacon is another neat spell, though I see no reason it couldn't have a much longer duration.

It's sick in pvp. Beacon yourself, grab a suicidal guildy dps to heal and you're basically unkillable. I take it as part of my ret pvp and soloing specs too. Even 1 point word of glory's and flashes provide a good burst of healing.

edit: It's very obviously balanced for 85, where it will probably be somewhat equatable to having a moderate hot on yourself.

Edited, Oct 26th 2010 1:01am by ArtemisEnteri