New Beta Build, New paladin mechanics...again

Well, a new Beta Build was deployed last night, and paladins are once again seeing sweeping changes. Here is the list according to MMOChampion.com:

Holy

• Divine Plea is now trained at level 44, down from 58. Now reduces the amount healed by all your healing spells.
• Concentration Aura is now trained at level 42, down from 54.
• Holy Wrath is now trained at level 28, down from 50.
• Lay on Hands is now trained at level 16, down from 38.
• Seal of the Pure is now named Seal of Insight.
• Tower of Radiance - Directly healing the target of your Beacon of Light has a 33/66/100% chance to generate Holy Power.
• Healing Light - Increases the amount healed by your Word of Glory and the damage and healing of your Holy Shock by 10/20/30%.

Protection

• Hand of Protection is now trained at level 18. Down from 42.
• Divine Protection now reduces all damage taken by 20% for 10 sec. (Down from 50% for 12 sec) Cooldown lowered from 5 min to 1 min. Spells restrictions (Divine Shield/Divine Protection/Hand of Protection/Avenging Wrath) removed.
• Devotion Aura is now trained at level 18, down from level 22.
• Blessing of Kings is now trained at level 22, up from 18.
• Hammer of the Righteous now causes 160% weapon damage as holy damage. (Old - 3 times your main hand damage per second as Holy damage.)
• Shield of the Templar has been revamped - Reduces the cooldown of Avenger's Shield by 2/4 sec, Guardian of Ancient Kings by 10/20 min, and increases the amount absorbed by your Sacred Shield by 10/20%.
• Holy Shield now Holy Shield - Consumes Holy Power to grant 5% block per stack of Holy Power and deals 97.8 Holy damage for every attack blocked. Lasts 15 sec. / 10% of base mana, Instant cast
• Sacred Duty has been revamped - Increases the critical strike chance of your Hammer of the Righteous by 5/10%. In addition, your Hammer of the Righteous critical strikes have a 50/100% chance of making your next Judgement a critical strike. /
• Grand Crusader - When your Crusader Strike deals damage, it has a 10/20% chance of refreshing the cooldown on your next Holy Wrath.
• Ardent Defender is now a Tier 7 talent (Up from Tier 4). Cooldown increased from 2 to 3 min.
• Judgements of the Wise is now a primary skill.

Retribution

• Inquisition is now Exclusive with Holy Shield.
• Seal of Vengeance is now named Seal of Truth and its Holy Vengeance renamed to Censure.
• Zealotry now has a 2 min cooldown, down from 30 min. Now lasts 15 sec. (Down from 30 sec)
• Wrath of the Lightbringer gone.
• Acts of Sacrifice *New* - Decreases the cooldown by 10/20/% and mana cost by 10/20% of your Hand of Freedom and Hand of Salvation.
• Righteous Vengeance is now Inquiry of Faith - Increases the periodic damage done by your Seal of Truth by 20/40/60%.
• Swift Retribution now also increases damage by 3%. Moved from Tier 6 to Tier 5.
• Sanctified Retribution is gone.
• Improved Crusader Strike is gone.
• Heart of the Crusader is gone.
• Sanctity of Battle no longer reduces the cooldown of Exorcism.
• Templar's Verdict is now a primary skill of Retribution.
• Communion *New* - Your Judgement grants the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 1% of their maximum mana per 5 sec for 15 sec.
• Improved Judgement no longer decreases the cooldown of Judgement.
• Judgements of the Wise is now a primary skill.
• Selfless Healer (Tier 5) - Increases the healing of your Word of Glory by 30/60% when used to heal others.
• Divine Purpose is now a Tier 4 talent - Your Templar's Verdict, Divine Storm and Inquisition have a 40% chance to generate Holy Power.
• Divine Storm is now a Tier 3 talent.

What a wall of changes. My thoughts:

• The whole "Inquisition" vibe in the Ret tree is very cool. Finally, Rets get talents and abilities that seem to match the coolness factor of the Tier2 Judgement Armor.
• Divine Protection (a.k.a. bubblewall) cooldown reduced from 5 minutes to 1 minute. Damage reduction reduced from 50% to 20%. This is very analogous to the Warrior's Shield Wall.
• The OP version of Holy Shield (I touched on in this post) has been changed to something much more reasonable, but still cool.
• Ardent Defender is now our 31 point talent.

Speaking of Ardent Defender...It doesn't mention it in the notes above, but if you go look at the new talent trees here, you will notice that the "below 35%" requirement on Ardent Defender has been removed. THANK GOD. It retains it's Guardian Spirit like effect which is also cool.

Another thing not mentioned in the notes above, but notated here, is the fact that Righteous Fury will now apply the threat multiplier to ALL damage, not just Holy Damage. This makes it okay for us to use Crusader Strike (which is pretty clear what the Devs want us doing).

Also mentioned in a previous post by Ghostcrawler, is the fact that Spiritual Attunement is gone. No more mana from heals received. We will now regen our mana the same way the Ret does, with Judgements of the Wise. This is a big change, and we will just have to see how it works out. Obviously, I don't think that Blizzard wants to gimp our ability to generate threat, but it may take a little more thought on the part of the player now (a.k.a. not a bad thing).