Holy Shield Slam!

According to Ghostcrawler, here is the latest Prot Paladin design (Source):

Here is how Prot paladins are working in our current beta build. You might not see these changes in the next beta build, but in the one after that. Things are still in a high degree of flux however.

Shield of the Righteous -- Now consumes Holy Power to cause damage.

Holy Shield -- Now a passive ability that causes your Shield of the Righteous to provide 5% block per stack of Holy Power consumed. In other words, you never click Holy Shield. You just click Shield of the Righteous and buff yourself.

Hammer of the Righteous -- Now generates Holy Power but shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike. Almost all talents that affect one or the other will affect both. The intention is you use Crusader Strike -> Shield of the Righteous for single target and Hammer of the Righteous -> Shield of the Righteous for multitarget.

Avenger's Shield -- No real change, but it still hits pretty hard. Both CS and HotR can proc Grand Crusader to lower the Avenger's Shield cooldown.

Vindication -- can be caused only by Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous.

Holy Wrath -- With the above changes, we think Prot paladins have enough rotational buttons to hit, so we are downplaying Holy Wrath. Holy Wrath is really intended as a Ret filler spell (for when other attacks are on cooldown). Prot could technically use Holy Wrath, but we aren't providing any talent hooks.

Consecration -- Now on a 10 sec duration with a 30 sec cooldown. The Hallowed Ground talent makes it cheaper and hit harder -- it does not affect duration. Use Consecration when you need it, but you can't spam it. This is consistent with the AE changes we are making to all tanks.

With these changes in mind, Prot will be thinking about buttons such as these:

Single Target: Judgement, Crusader Strike, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield.
Multi-target: Judgement, Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous, Shield of the Righteous, Avenger's Shield, possibly Exorcism.

None of this includes things like Seals, Inquisition, defensive cooldowns, Word of Glory, etc.

What I like:

• I kinda dig the fact that Holy Shield is going away as a button to push, and becoming a buff to block granted by Shield of Righteousness. Hopefully that stays.
• I also like the "use CS on singles and HotR on groups" setup.
• Also interesting, is the intended inclusion of Avenger's Shield into our rotation (it's not just for pulling anymore).
• The removal of Holy Wrath as our de-buff spell, changing back what had become almost a direct clone of Thunderclap

What I don't like:

• Consecration being a 10 sec duration with a 30 sec cooldown. I don't mind the cooldown, but it will have to hit like a truck in order to do it's job if we can only keep it up 33% of the time. I mean, if it is not going to be up 100% of the time for mobs to "bake" in, then it will need to hit a LOT harder than it does now, or else I fore see prot paladins never using it.
• Vindication is only applied by CS or HotR. Each of those is on a cooldown (and share a cooldown with eachother). I still don't like that warriors and druids can put their attack power debuff on all mobs in one GCD. Death Knights can do it in two. Paladins, however, can only put their attack power debuff on one mob at a time. Seeing as how we are the "AOE tanks", doesn't that seem a little bit odd to you? (I understand that AOE tanking is going to be toned down quite a bit in Cata, but still, I feel my point is valid)

Then when someone asked about how hard ShoR was going to hit with three stacks of Holy Power, Ghostcrawler went on to say (Source):

It will be a hard-hitting button, especially with 3 stacks. I'd guess your highest damage ability.

That makes me happy. I, personally, miss our "Holy shield slam" being our hardest hitting ability.