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Hammer of the Righteous

Hammer of the Righteous

3% of base mana	Melee Range

Instant	4.5 sec cooldown

Requires Paladin (Protection, Retribution)
Requires level 20

Requires Melee Weapon
Hammer the current target for 42% Physical damage, causing a wave of light that hits all other targets within 8 yards for 24% Holy damage. Grants 1 Holy Power.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

3% of base mana

Range

5 yards (Combat)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect #1

Weapon Damage - %
Value: 42

Effect #2

Normalized Weapon Damage

Effect #3

Give Power (Holy Power)
Value: 1

Effect #4

Trigger Spell

	Hammer of the Righteous

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted

Guides

Overview of
Tanking and
All Tank Specs

Protection Paladin Guide

Retribution Paladin Guide

Warlords of Draenor
Paladin Changes

Comments

Comment by Archdmon

Paladin Shield Slam :D

Comment by Vehemence

Blizzard sound design at it's finest, It sounds so great!

Comment by airsoftmatt101

It appears that this ability now shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike(noticed in a H CoS run). Not sure if this gets reduced to a 3 second CD along with Crusader Strike.

Comment by Kaylthas

The way I see it, this now works like the old swipe, hitting all mobs in range for a small amount of damage.

Currently on live it does NOT spread Seal of Truth around to other targets than the one you're hitting with your weapon.

In short for those that are familiar with early 3.0, TO THE GROUND BABY

Comment by zeitgeist99

Here's what I figure so far with about a day of tanking since 4.0.1 went live:

As above poster said this shares a CD with crusader strike. So far it seems to hold AoE threat pretty well in wrath, but that just might be due to over gearing. Consecration can still be dropped, but as its on a 30 second CD (36 glyphed) it's only up a 3rd of the time. Hammer of the Righteous will be off CD almost every other spell, there will be some CD gap, so instead of the old 9,6,9 rotation, the protection rotation resembles retribution first come first serve with other attacks filling in between Hammer of the Righteous as needed.

A bit more switching between targets will be necessary to hold threat on groups. The number of mobs that can be held with AoE threat is reduced for a Paladin now, but with holy power single target threat seems to be improved.

Comment by shipwrecksos

After Patch 4.0.1 went live I decided to tank a couple heroics to get a feel for the new mechanics (in full ilvl 264 gear and T10 2pc bonus). After failing miserably on AOE threat and having to spam Righeous Defense as a core part of my new rotation just to keep agro off of everyone else in my group (who were all in much lower level gear), I logged out of the game and cursed Blizzard as I cried myself to sleep in the fetal position...

Then the next day I thought..., maybe, just MAYBE I'm missing something very basic here. Turns out, I was (it pays to do a little research/practice). Here are some CRITICALLY IMPORTANT, yet easy to miss changes that you may not have caught yet which will play into the new HOTR/AOE threat (read the tooltips closely as i explain the significance):

-Holy Wrath: This spell has undergone changes that are just as extreme as HOTR. Before the patch it had a 30 second cooldown (glyphed down to 15 seconds) and only affected undead targets. Now it natively has a 15 second cooldown, and affects ALL TARGETS (yes, any target in the game) and can be glyphed to stun/interrupt elementals and dragonkin in addition to undead and demons. Simply put, this alone nearly fills the AOE threat gap for HOTR and should be used on cooldown during every single trash mob you tank.

- Avenger's Shield / Grand Crusader: Avenger's Shield has now been buffed tremendously. Before the patch, it was on a 30 second cooldown and costed a ton of mana which made it only practical as a pulling tool or "oh crap, get over here!" crowd controller. Now it costs almost no mana at all, does more damage, and has only a 15 second cooldown (currently via talents; baseline in cataclysm) with a 20% chance to be INSTANTLY RESET each time you use HOTR or Crusader Strike. This means that if you open up with Avenger's Shield, followed by HOTR, it is possible to launch two Avenger's Shields within less than 5 seconds! Grand Crusader also has no internal cooldown, so with all the HOTR and Crusader Strikes you will be casting, this will generally proc multiple times in every fight. Add in the fact that it automatically silences (and dazes if glyphed) any mob it touches, and it becomes a core part of your rotation that can and should be used on cooldown every chance you get.

- Consecration / Hallowed Ground: This has probably undergone the most extreme change out of all tankadin abilities. Before the patch, Consecration lasted 8 seconds and had an 8 second cooldown, which meant that it was part of our core rotation with 100% uptime. It costed a ton of mana, but our Divine Plea (also nerfed hard) had 100% uptime, so it wasn't a problem. Now it does the same amount of damage with a whopping 30 SECOND COOLDOWN and no more constant Divine Plea (and all Tankadins said in unison, WTH BLIZZ!). However, the new Hallowed Ground talent makes this spell dirt cheap manawise and increases it's potency. Instead of having 100% uptime, it lasts only 33% as long, but does 40% more damage. If used as an opener on each trash mob this makes it much easier to gain initial crowd control due to it's high levels of threat generation through Righteous Fury. When used in conjunction with the huge buffs to Holy Wrath and Avenger's Shield your mobs will stick to you like glue even through the most powerful mage's blizzard or druid's hurricane.

I hope these tidbits have helped clear the air on what Blizzard was trying to do in this patch. I urge everyone to play around with these talents and abilities, and I assure you, you WILL be able to find a spec/rotation that is just as much if not MORE powerful than what you had before the patch.

Good luck everyone! (Oh and rate me up if this was helpful, it took a while to type up and my fingers are tired : )

Comment by Arxroth

This spell has gone through quite change.

Basically from almost macroable rotation Paladin tanking has gone into way more interesting priorization style of play, where you need to see few things and choose which action to take, rather than managing with one key...

Basically it seems that this ability suffers from transition issues as weapons now are gonna be different in power in cataclysm, but nothing sure is not yet known.

Comment by shipwrecksos

As a followup to my post above, I thought I'd attempt to set the record straight on the Hammer of the Righteous Vs. Crusader Strike. issue, and what Blizzard was trying to do with these two abilities.

For most trash mobs in the game, you will need some manner of mulit-targeted AOE threat. The reason that Hammer of the Righteous shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike and generates Holy Power is because Blizzard was redesigning our AOE "trash" tanking and our single target "boss" tanking to be two independent and distinct processes.

In order for these processes to make sense, you will first have to look at each of the abilities that will be consuming Holy Power in Cataclysm; Inquisition, Shield of the Righteous, and Word of Glory. Your abilities are logically designed in the following groups:

- For Single-Target (Boss) Tanking: Crusader Strike / Shield of the Righteous - These two abilities are the bread and butter of a tankadin's single-target threat. Crusader Strike has enough burst damage to grab the initial threat you need, and Shield of the Righteous will build you large enough cushion that even the most powerful cooldowns from your raid's DPS'ers will not be able to pull agro from you during longer fights.

- For Multi-Target (Trash) Tanking: Hammer of the Righteous / Inquisition - Before Patch 4.0.1 went live, Hammer of the Righteous was powerful enough that even if you were tanking a boss, it still did enough damage that you could both hold threat off of a Rogue burning burning single target cooldowns AND maintain threat on any surrounding targets that the Mage and Druid are spamming Blizzard and Hurricane on. Now Hammer of the Righteous does far less damage PER TARGET, but affects an UNLIMITED number of total targets with holy damage. The more trash you have swarming on you, the more effective this ability becomes.

The biggest issue with Hammer of the Righteous is that it will not fully hit its stride until you pick up Inquisition at level 81 in Cataclysm. Just as you will be alternating Crusader Strikes and Shield of the Righteous with single-target fights, Blizzard has designed the new AOE threat system for you to be alternating Hammer of the Righteous and Inquisition. Simply put, Hammer of the Righteous is only running at 70% of it's maximum potency until you hit lvl 81 in Cataclysm. From lvl 81 and above, you will be able to maintain 100% uptime for Inquisition, which will not only dramatically benefit your Hammer of the Righteous, but your other holy damaging AOE abilities such as Consecration and Holy Wrath as well (see my post above for information about these two completely redesigned abilities)

- For Survivability (Boss and Trash) Tanking: Word of Glory / Guarded by the Light - Once you have established the threat cushion you need with the proper ability set above, you can use extra charges of holy power for even more survivability. Through talents, your Word of Glory not only gives you a powerful mana-free self heal, but can serve as an extra defense cooldown that will create a protective barrier if used when your health is already topped off.

What makes this full tankadin overhaul of Patch 4.0.1 so great is its versatility. Tankadins can now generate a vast amount of either AOE OR single-target threat at any moment during any fight, and yet can still handle even the hardest hitting blows from that 25 man heroic mode raid boss. Believe me when I say that once you get a handle on all of these abilities, Warriors will envy you, DK's will curse you, Bears will bite you, and and every healer in the game will love you.

Good luck tankadins! (And please rate me up if this was helpful. It takes a while to put this stuff together ; )

Comment by emysoab

I don't know how common my experience with HotR is, but I thought it was worth sharing nonetheless. I'm finding that, in my current state, HotR actualy does a more damage than Crusader Strike, even against a single target. I'm only lvl 78, so this might just be a gear scaling issue. At the moment my crusader strike hits for around 900-1100 while the holy portion of my HotR alone is hitting for approximately 1100-1300 damage, in addition to the 150 or so I get from the weapon damage. My weapon is not ideal speed, but at 2.4 it's not incredibly fast either. I have 2/2 Wrath of the Lightbringer, before anyone brings that up, and 3/3 Crusade.

Comment by Karadine

The visual effect of this has been changed (screenshot submitted) - ripples of Light radiate now from the paladin and show the area of effect. The sound is still the familiar bell-ringing "BONG!" we love.

Comment by MorecofRivendare

Hammah! Of the Righteous!

Comment by Tigerjoe

Real important and I only just found this out (I'm an idiot): this hits EVERYTHING AROUND YOU. Not, as I thought for about a year, everything in front of you. Although your primary target still has to be in front of you.

Laughing at me for being a total nub may now commence.

Comment by ipullfortank

Leveling this guy http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/spirestone/Justaburger/simple

Makes tanking a breeze..

Comment by WyvernVJ

Buffs and debuffs map (5.4.2)

Buffs

Stats
Effect: +5% Strength, Agility, and Intellect
Brought by: Any Druid (Mark of the Wild), any Monk (Legacy of the Emperor), and any Paladin (Blessing of Kings).

Stamina
Effect: +10% Stamina
Brought by: Any Priest (Power Word: Fortitude), any Warlock (Dark Intent), and any Warrior (Commanding Shout).

Attack Power
Effect: +10% melee and ranged attack power
Brought by: Any Death Knight (Horn of Winter), any Hunter (Trueshot Aura), and any Warrior (Battle Shout).

Spell Power
Effect: +10% spell power
Brought by: Any Mage (Arcane Brilliance/Dalaran Brilliance), any Shaman (), and any Warlock (Dark Intent).

Haste
Effect: +10% melee and ranged haste
Brought by: Frost and Unholy Death Knights (Unholy Aura), any Rogue (Swiftblade's Cunning), and Enhancement Shamans ().

Spell Haste
Effect: +5% spell haste
Brought by: Balance Druids (Moonkin Aura), Shadow Priest (Shadowform), and Elemental Shamans ().

Critical Strike
Effect: +5% ranged, melee, and spell critical chance
Brought by: Guardian and Feral Druids (Leader of the Pack), windwalker Monks (Legacy of the White Tiger) and any Mage (Arcane Brilliance/Dalaran Brilliance).

Mastery
Effect: +3000 mastery
Brought by: Any Paladin (Blessing of Might), and any Shaman (Grace of Air).

Debuffs

Weakened Armor
Effect: -12% armor
Brought by: Any Druid (Faerie Fire), any Rogue (), and any Warrior ().

Physical Vulnerability
Effect: +4% physical damage taken
Brought by: Frost and Unholy Death Knights ( and Ebon Plaguebringer), Retribution Paladins (), and Arms and Fury Warriors (Colossus Smash).

Magic Vulnerability
Effect: +5% spell damage taken
Brought by: Any Rogue (), and any Warlock ().

Weakened Blows
Effect: -10% physical damage done.
Brought by: Blood Death Knights (), Feral and Guardian Druids (Thrash and Thrash), Brewmaster Monks (Keg Smash), Protection or Retribution Paladins (Hammer of the Righteous), any Shaman (Earth Shock), any Warlock (), and any Warrior (Thunder Clap).

Slow Casting
Effect: -50% casting speed (-25% on players)
Brought by: Any Death Knight (), Arcane Mages (Slow), any Rogue (), and any Warlock ().

Mortal Wounds
Effect: -25% healing received
Brought by: Arms or Fury Warriors (Mortal Strike and Wild Strike), any Rogue (Wound Poison), any Hunter (), and Windwalker Monks (Rising Sun Kick).

Note: Buffs and debuffs provided by pets, profession perks, items and any other NPC are left out on purpose.

Comment by mecheye

For those wondering, this ability WILL knock enemies off the flag in AB, AV, etc like Arcane Nova will.

The 4.5 sec CD means you can only really do this once though, but that might be enough!

Comment by Lordplatypus

This is very useful in pvp, believe it or not, It's a physical damage debuff that doesn't ask anything other than one less crusader strike on the target, Best used to lower the burst on hunters and rogues, while also quite effective with warriors and DKs.

Comment by DestinTheFallen

Is this a "Aggro" spell? The tank alwayes say that i shall stop use it

Comment by malrion

This only starts dealing more dmg then crusader strike at 5 targets or more, so don't be simple and think this is aoe so i need to use it with 2 targets.

For retribution, prot is a different story ofcourse.

Hammer of the Righteous

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