World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 - Paladin Changes on the Horizon

Blizzard has recently released the patch notes and set up a public testing realm for World of Warcraft patch 3.2. There's some big changes to paladins in this patch that affect all playing styles of a paladin. According to Blizzard these changes are meant to increase paladin's ability to tank some of the tougher bosses in WoW, increase the utility of healing paladins to be more than just tank healers, and give damage dealing paladins a more interesting & fun class to play while evening out their damage a little better for boss fights. Here are some of the highlights for the WoW patch 3.2 paladin changes:

Retribution (Damage Dealing Paladins)
According to Blizzard, retribution paladins don't have "enough buttons to push and they are all limited by cooldowns." Also, they don't like the mechanics of seal of blood and seal of the martyr damaging the paladin when used. This is what's on the plate to combat these issues:

• Exorcism is now a 1.5 second cast, but can be used on players. (This will be fun in PvP along with the next item)
• Art of War now makes your next Flash of Light OR Exorcism an instant cast.
• Crusader Strike is now a 4 second cooldown instead of 6. (Higher PvE sustained damage for boss fights)
• Seal of Blood & Seal of the Martyr are being removed from the game. Seal of Vengeance / Seal of Corruption are receiving large buffs to offset this change.
• Vindication now reduces the attack power of the target (like a warrior's demoralizing shout).

Holy (Healing Paladins)
Blizzard thinks it's great that holy paladins are such strong tank / single target healers, but they also feel that it's a little limited for them at the moment. Here's what's on the plate for healadins:

• Flash of Light now places a heal over time effect on any target with Sacred Shield on them (similar to Sheathe of Light).
• Beacon of Light targets now receive all healing (including over healing) instead of just effective healing. In other words, if you heal a hunter who is already at full health, your beacon of light target still receives the full amount of the heals. Beacon of Light's radius has also been increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target.

Protection (Tanking Paladins)
Blizzard feels that tankadins are "almost there" when it comes to boss fights. Mainly, they feel that protection paladins just need some slightly better cooldowns to handle some of the tougher boss fights. The changes for prot pallies are outlined below:

• Blessing of Sanctuary now also provides 10% increased stamina.
• Ardent Defender has been redesigned to now reduce the damage of any attack that would bring the paladin's health below %35, and any attack that would kill the paladin sets their health to %30 instead (Can only happen once every 2 minutes. Think of it like the warrior's last stand ability without having to press the button).
• Block values on all items in the game have been doubled, except for shields. (Not a pally specific change, but affects them in a big way).

All of these changes may come as a delight to some people or an atrocity to others. And now is the perfect time to start leveling your paladin, or ditch your paladin to play something else.

Whatever your choice is, you want to level your character before the patch arrives. And in order to do that, you have to use a leveling guide. Head over to Level Smarter, Not Harder to find a leveling guide that fits your unique playing style.

What are you waiting for? Go! The patch is coming!

By Michael H Brown

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