Just in case any of you don't know, the PTR for patch 4.0.1 (a.k.a the pre-Cataclysm patch) is available. This is the patch that will bring all of the class mechanics changes, as well as, the new talent trees that we have all been so fervently debating since the NDA was lifted.
A small aside
There has been a considerable amount of "sky is falling" sentiment on the forums over the way HoPo (Holy Power) has been shoe-horned in and how Grand Crusader procs conspire to destroy the protection paladin's beautiful and elegant 969 rotation. I have mostly tried to avoid commenting on how the rotation felt because I wasn't in the beta, so I didn't really know. I didn't feel there was any reason for me to just regurgitate here what other people were saying. I have made a post or two about how we can map out the "rotation". But have tried to spend my (often infrequent) posts on things that were not opinion, but were hard dataz.
Also, I do really like the new "power auras" that Blizzard has added to the game, but they need to add one for when paladins are at 3 HoPo (more about this in a moment).
What it is
For those who have been living under a rock, Paladins now have a secondary resource called Holy Power (HoPo) and here is how it looks in the UI.
How it feels
Between my raiding schedule, and other, real life, issues, I haven't been able to spend as much time on the PTR as I would like. However, last night, i got to spend about an hour beating on taget dummies in trying to get comfortable with our new "rotation". This is all in reference to the single target "rotation". I'll have a later post to discuss the AOE "rotation".
My initial thoughts . . . it is mostly okay.
It doesn't feel as "clunky" to me as it first did. And it certainly doesn't feel as "clunky" as it looks on paper. It mostly feels awkward when you get the rare two GCDs in a row with everything on cooldown and without a Grand Crusader proc.
I have a couple of ideas that could go a long way toward fixing this spec, though.
First, as I mentioned above, Blizzard have added a ingame "Power Auras" functionality to the game. I think this is great! But they need to add a "Power Aura" for whe you get 3 HoPo. The one big drawback to the way the "rotation" works now, is that you really have to watch your action bars to know which button to push when. As a result, you can easily miss the fact that you are at 3 HoPo (since the default unit frames are nowhere near the default action bars).
Next, either Grand Crusader needs to proc more, or one of our 15 sec cooldown abilities need that cooldown lowered. I think adjusting Grand Crusader is the better way to go. I found that I never remembered to cast Avenger's Shield unless I:
a) hit a patch of two GCDs with nothing to do, or
b)had Grand Crusader proc
When Avenger's Shield would just come off cooldown naturally, I found I would forget to use it right then (even though I probably should just to reduce the chance that a Grand Crusader proc is wasted.
There are two ways Blizz can go about this:
1. Increase the proc rate from 20% to 30-35%
2. Leave the percentage at 20%, but add Judgement to the list of spells that can proc Grand Crusader
I prefer option 2 above.
That is all for now. Comments?
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