Legion Paladin Class Changes

By Wowhead Updated: 2016/08/23

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Holy Paladins reworked to encourage them to be closer to those they want to heal--since the fantasy of the other two specs has them in the thick of battle.

The biggest change to Holy Paladins from Warlords of Draenor to Legion is the change to our Mastery: Lightbringer. Our new mastery increases the effectiveness of our healing based on our proximity to whomever we're healing; meaning we'll spend a portion of our time near the boss with Tanks and melee DPS. This also means that we won't have any absorption-based healing.

The second biggest change is the removal of Holy Power. We no longer have any form of builders or spenders. As such, Word of Glory and Eternal Flame were removed, but Light of Dawn remains as a baseline ability with a 10 second cooldown; though Light of Dawn has reverted to being a frontal cone like it was in Cataclysm.

Another big change to all healers is the removal of Spirit as a stat. All healers recover 4% of their maximum mana every 5 seconds. There are a few trinkets that allow you to recover mana in various ways, but we should be seeing much less change in how to manage mana over the course of the expansion.

Our only new baseline ability is Light of the Martyr, an instant-cast heal that sacrifices a portion of the healing as self-inflicted damage.

Many spells are removed including Exorcism, Hammer of Wrath, Hammer of Righteousness, Blessing of Sacrifice, Divine Protection, Emancipate

Blessings have been reworked.

Hand of Protection has been changed to Blessing of Protection which no longer inhibits the targets ability to use physical attacks.

Divine Shield no longer reduces your damage dealt.

is now a talent.

With Holy Power removed, the abilities that formerly required Holy Power instead have cooldowns or charges such as Shield of the Righteous.

Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous were quite similar and have been merged together. Protection Paladins no longer have access to Crusader Strike, but Hammer of the Righteous now hits all other targets for Holy Damage while you are standing in your Consecration.

Protection Paladins get Divine Steed as an ability, which temporarily increases movement speed, while other specs will have to talent into it.

Word of Glory, a single-target heal in Warlords, is now a Retribution Talent (). A new self-heal ability for Protection Paladins is , which heals for more when you stand in Consecrate.

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Speed of Light

Long Arm of the Law

Pursuit of Justice

Selfless Healer

Eternal Flame

Sacred Shield

Hand of Purity

Clemency

Holy Avenger

Beacon of Insight

Saved by the Light

Empowered Seals

Seraphim

PvP TalentsPvP Honor CalculatorAbilitiesNew

Aura Mastery: Empowers your chosen aura and increases its radius to 40 yards for 6 sec..

Divine Protection: Reduces magicalall damage taken by 40%20% for 8 sec.

Mastery: Lightbringer: Proximity to your target causes your spells to heal for up to 12% more.

: Your maximum health is increased by 15%.

Absolution: Returns all dead party members to life with 35% of maximum health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat.

Light of the Martyr: Sacrifice a portion of your own health to instantly heal an ally for (500% of Spell power). You take damage equal to 50% of the healing done. Does not cause your Beacon of Light to be healed. Cannot be cast on yourself.

Changes

Beacon of Light

Flash of Light

Holy Light

Holy Shock

Infusion of Light

Light of Dawn

Removed

Devotion Aura - Talent

Daybreak - Removed

Holy Insight - Removed

Holy Radiance - Removed

Sacred Cleansing - Removed

Sanctified Light - Removed

Supplication - Removed

New

Rebuke: Interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec.

Blade of Justice: Strikes an enemy with the Blade of Justice, dealing 400% Physical damage and generating 2 Holy Power.

Retribution Aura: When any party or raid member within 40 yards dies, you gain 100% increased damage for 10 sec.

Shield of Vengeance: Creates a barrier of holy light that absorbs (Attack power * 10) damage for 15 sec. When the barrier is consumed, all damage absorbed is dealt as Holy damage divided across all enemies within 8 yds.

Hand of Hindrance: Places a Hand on an enemy target, reducing movement speed by 70% for 10 sec.

: Places a blessing on an ally that causes them to regenerate 1% of maximum health and mana per 15 sec. You may only have 3 Greater Blessings active at one time.

: Places a blessing on an ally that gives their attacks a 10% chance to deal 30% additional damage as Holy. You may only have 3 Greater Blessings active at one time.

: Places a blessing on an ally that grants them an absorption shield. It absorbs up to (1.8 * Spell power) damage, and will be refreshed to full strength every 6 sec, even if fully consumed. You may only have 3 Greater Blessings active at one time.

Cleanse Toxins: Cleanses a friendly target, removing all Poison and Disease effects..

Changed

Avenging Wrath

Divine Storm

Flash of Light

Templar's Verdict

Removed

Hammer of the Righteous - Protection Only

Hammer of Wrath - Removed

Absolve - Removed

Emancipate - Removed

Exorcism - Removed

Righteous Vengeance - Removed

Sanctity Aura - Removed

Seal of Justice - Removed

Seal of Righteousness - Removed

Seal of Truth - Removed

Supplication - Removed

New

Divine Protection: Reduces magicalall damage taken by 40%20% for 8 sec.

Rebuke: Interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec.

Righteous Fury: Increases your threat generation while active, making you a more effective tank.

: Calls down the Light to heal you for 25% of your missing health. While you are standing in your Consecration, Light of the Protector's healing is increased by 20%

Avenging Wrath: Increases all damage and healing you deal by 35% for 20 sec.

Cleanse Toxins: Cleanses a friendly target, removing all Poison and Disease effects.

Divine Steed: Summons your Holy Charger to ride for 3 sec, increasing movement speed by 100%. Useable while indoors or in combat.

Changed

Ardent Defender

Avenger's Shield

Consecration

Grand Crusader

Guardian of Ancient Kings

Hammer of the Righteous

Mastery: Divine Bulwark

Shield of the Righteous

Removed

Flash of Light - No longer Protection

Hand of Salvation - Removed

Holy Wrath - Removed

Sacred Duty - Removed

Seal of Righteousness - Removed

Shining Protector - Removed

Changed

Hand of Freedom now renamed to Blessing of Freedom

Hand of Protection now renamed to Blessing of Protection

Cleanse: - Holy Only ( Removes Poisons, Diseases, and Magic )

Cleanse Toxins: - Protection & Retribution Only ( Removes Poisons & Diseases )

Crusader Strike - now generates Holy Power for Retribution Paladins

Divine Shield

Hammer of Justice

Hammer of Wrath

Crusader Aura

Judgment

Lay on Hands

Removed

Blessing of Kings - Removed

Blessing of Might - Removed

Divine Protection - Holy & Protection Only

Hand of Sacrifice - renamed to Blessing of Sacrifice and Holy and Protection

Harsh Word - Removed

Rebuke - Protection & Retribution Only

Righteous Fury - Protection Only

Sanctity of Battle - Removed

Seal of Insight - Removed

Seal of Truth - Removed

Seal of Command - Removed

Turn Evil - Removed

Word of Glory - Retribution Talent

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Divine Tome: Contemplation: teaches Contemplation. Sold by Quartermaster Miranda Breechlock in Light's Hope for .

Fantasy and Gameplay BlogLegion Class Preview Series: PaladinThe paladin’s tools of war lay bare their motivations. Clenched in one hand is the weapon, a deadly device for exacting righteous judgment. Locked in the other hand is the shield, a symbolic and literal barrier protecting good from evil. Stalwart and steadfast, these protectors are ardent defenders of the Light and all that it touches, and are rejuvenated by its radiance in return. So dedicated they are to their cause that they consecrate the very ground upon which they battle corruption.GameplayTo serve as instrument of the Light is to hold an unshakable faith. Oftentimes the most dedicated paladins become fanatical in their devotion, instruments of retribution against those who dare defy the laws of the divine. These paladins are vengeful guardians of the weak—crusaders judging and punishing the wicked. Their resolute conviction in the divine order of all things assures them that victory is inevitable—but they will fight to the end to ensure that the Light prevails.GameplayLike priests who serve the Light, holy paladins are devout in their faith. After spending much of their lives in hallowed halls studying divine doctrine, those who pledge themselves to a holy order become beacons of the Light for their allies in conflict, taking up the heavy armor and weaponry of justice. Holding the unwavering belief that any battle waged to eradicate evil in the world is righteous, these paladins stands on the frontlines in service to all others dedicated to the cause. The truth and virtue of the Light imbues these sacred knights with the power to revitalize their comrades. If necessary, they even lay down their own lives to serve as martyr for the greater good.GameplayBlue Tweetsactive on TwitterBlue Tweet TrackerHolyProtectionRetributionGeneralBlue Posts

Celestalon

In the latest Legion Alpha build, tanks and healers will notice significant changes to the tuning on many of their defensive abilities. These may appear to be “nerfs” at first glance, but are actually part of a widespread adjustment to improve overall tank (and tank healer) gameplay, that includes reducing the strength/frequency of defensive cooldowns, and adjusting creature tuning to compensate.

Over the course of Warlords of Draenor, tanks have been mostly self-sufficient, providing the vast majority of their own survival, with only minor direct assistance required from healers. Encounter design has unfortunately reinforced this, focusing tank damage into more and more bursty moments in an attempt to challenge tanks. This has made long-cooldown defensive ability usage more and more important, while also further trivializing direct healing requirements.

For Legion, we want to return the overall tank gameplay to a more stable environment. In that, we have laid out some specific goals that we aim to hit:

Tanks will require more direct healing. This will also improve on healer gameplay, as it’s more engaging when there’s a mixture of the types of healing that need to be used on any single encounter.
Active Mitigation abilities for tanks (such as Shield Block or Death Strike) should feel rewarding, allowing an experienced tank to meaningfully reduce damage taken.
Healers should care about the time and mana required to heal tanks, so that taking less damage as a tank is considered valuable.
Tanks and healers’ long-cooldown defensive abilities (such as Barkskin or Shield Wall) should feel like a valuable resource. These abilities should be strong, but not necessarily available for every danger during a specific encounter.
Tanks should have much more survivability than a non-tank. However, they don’t necessarily need to be extremely more sturdy. If the difference in ‘tankiness’ between tanks and non-tanks becomes too much of a gap, we then risk having situations such that if any one add gets loose, it’s likely to instantly kill any poor healer or damage dealer they hit–as the damage that these creatures deal would need to be exponentially higher to offset the sturdiness of the tank. This also brings a risk that tanks would opt to ignore enemy abilities that are designed to be dangerous to non-tanks, just taking those relatively minor blows rather than trying to avoid them as intended.
In raid encounters, tanks should spend more time tanking, and less time waiting for their turn to tank.
Tanks should be able to handle solo content quite effectively. They need to do less damage than dedicated damage dealers, but that difference can be moderate. It doesn’t have to be a massive difference.

Looking at these goals, we’ve made the following changes for tanking in Legion. We hope that these explanations will help you understand the bigger picture, in that these should be viewed as an overall improvement to the style of tank gameplay, rather than nerfs.

In order to ensure that tanks require direct healing from healers, we’re increasing the amount of damage that makes it past a tank’s mitigation. This will include reducing or removing passive defensive abilities, along with the below changes.
We’re toning down how frequently you’re able to use Active Mitigation abilities. This change will generally affect the length of their cooldowns, and not necessarily the strength of the ability. We believe these abilities are important to tank survival; but, when the uptime on these abilities gets too high, skill in knowing when to use them strategically matters less.
EDIT: Passive healing from healers (such as Beacon of Light) will be toned down, and other tank heals adjusted to compensate.
There are many long-cooldown defensive abilities that will be able to be used less frequently, and, in some cases, these abilities may be weaker. Many of these abilities are currently either too numerous or usable too frequently, resulting in a strong cooldown for almost every threatening moment of every encounter.
Encounter design will be adjusted to account for these changes. Overwhelming burst damage will be toned down, in favor of more steady and consistent damage on tanks.
The damage of creatures that are intended to be tanked in group content will be reduced overall, in order to ensure that tanks can still perform their role just as well as before.
Damage output by tanks will be increased, and their scaling with gear will be improved. This is being done so that tanks can stay in-line with damage dealers as a group gears up together.

Please note that many of these changes are preliminary, and we’ll be tweaking our changes based on testing and feedback. We’ll continue making adjustments as the Alpha moves along, until classes are in a more balanced state, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts throughout this process.

For more info on the latest Legion Alpha changes, see our summary thread: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20420212939

A lot of great discussion here, and we share a lot of the concerns (even the cynical ones), and will be doing our best to actually meet the stated goals.

Tanks will indeed have much more health than DPS; apologies if that was unclear. It's just that their total effective health can safely be in the 5-15x of a DPS range, doesn't need to be 50x. 50x is kinda silly. Raid bosses will still 1-shot DPS, and that's fine.

Healers are being adjusted with tank healing in mind.

The comments about tanks spending less time waiting for their turn to tank isn't an indication that they'll be expected to run around more, just that they'll have more engaging encounter gameplay.

We especially look forward to more feedback based on playtesting; thanks for what you've given so far! This is going to be an iterative process, and we'll keep adjusting based on it. It surely isn't perfect yet, but we'll keep reading, responding, and tweaking!

Are encounters going to be tuned to have longer time-to-kill for tanks as well?

I ask because in a world where tanks need to be actively healed, dying so quickly that they must be spammed all of the time (read: less than 3 or 4 seconds for 100-0) just leads to a WotLK situation where one person gets to spam the tank forever and everyone else ignores it and nothing is really any different.

I'd like to note that "use Active Mitigation to avoid X ability" isn't usually engaging gameplay. How about I use AM because it helps me survive a powerful attack, not because I get a debuff if I don't.

In regards to tank healing, I am very much a fan of "Many hits to be killed, many heals to be healed." This adds variety and allows the engaging task of healing prioritization (i.e. what makes healing fun).

Most of the posts on here have pretty much already spelled out the problem which is scaling. Once you start scaling these heals more than you scale the HP pools, you run into near instant top offs. Then this begins the slippery slope of competitive (raids) top offs, and the trivialization of mechanics. Then the mechanics become more bursty to make healing more engaging and the cycles repeat.

More attention needs to be paid to ensuring that the gear scaling doesn't lead to instant topping off, so that encounter design no longer needs to keep ratcheting damage to extremely bursty levels. Exponential gear curves work great for DPS, but terrible for healing and tanking. We are of a symbiotic relationship in this regard.

I echo the sentiments of other tanks in this thread regarding the removal of active mitigation abilities. Being responsible for accurately recognizing and appropriately responding to potential threats is fun, is engaging, and does not need to be changed. Requiring active responses to incoming damage increases the skill cap, and is one of the things that allows good tanks to outshine other more mediocre players.