Holy Power Batman!

I’d almost bet money I won’t be the only blogger to use that for a title when talking about the information we got on the latest Paladin revamp during Blizzard Twitter Developer Chat.
Here’s what came out of the Blue.
Q: What is the goal when re-designing the paladin class? How do you plan to change rotations, talents, etc?
A. All of the paladin specializations will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Holy Power accumulates from using Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, and some other talents. Holy Power can be consumed to augment a variety of abilities, including:

  • An instant mana-free heal: Word of Glory
  • A buff to increase holy damage done: Inquisition
  • A massive physical melee attack for Retribution paladins: Templar’s Verdict
  • Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power
  • Divine Storm’s damage is now increased by Holy Power
We also introduced several new heals for Holy Paladins including Healing Hands (an AoE heal-over-time that is applied to all players standing near the paladin), Light of Dawn (a cone heal with a 30-yard range), as well as a new heal called Divine Light, which is similar to a priest's Greater Heal, and the new instant heal mentioned above, Word of Glory.
Q: Can you give us a sneak peek at one or two of the new Retribution abilities or talents?
A. Templar’s Verdict: An instant weapon attack that causes a percentage of weapon damage. Consumes all applications of Holy Power to increase damage dealt:

  • 1 Holy Power: 55% Weapon Damage
  • 2 Holy Power: 125% Weapon Damage
  • 3 Holy Power: 225% Weapon Damage
Word of Glory: Consumes all Holy Power to heal a friendly target for a specific amount per application of Holy Power (0 mana cost, 0 cooldown, instant cast)
So Paladins have a new resource bar to manage called Runic…err, I mean Holy Power.
Holy Power builds up to an apparent cap of 3 and then is consumed by a number of different spells or abilities. In this respect it works more like combo points. We build up Holy Power (Combo Points) and we use an ability that consumes them.
In an Honors Code EXCLUSIVE, because we are tight with the boys in Blue, we have been given and first look at the new graphic for using Holy Power.
The way you use Holy Power varies by spec. I would assume all specs of Paladins get Inquisition, a buff that increases Holy damage done. Holy gets a new instant Heal. Ret has a new attack that scales via the number of points.
Prot gets to extend the duration of Holy Shield. This one is a head scratcher for me. Remember that the Developers are turning Holy Shield into Shield Block. It will be a short cool down, something between 30 seconds to 1 minute. What it will do is basically the same. It will probably increase our chance to Block by 30% still. This is based on the Developers statement
Your block chance won't be 5%. That's too low. It will probably be something like 30%, but we haven't figured out yet where to provide that 30%. It is likely to be a warrior / paladin only thing or even a Prot / Prot passive. (Source)
I would say Holy Shield fits the bill pretty well.
Currently on Live, Holy Shield and Shield Block have a duration of 10 seconds. Now I’m guessing here, but perhaps each application of Holy Power increases the duration by 10 seconds. That would make it a 1 minute cool down and 30 second duration with 3 Holy Power used. It forces the Protection Paladin to choose between using his Holy Power for threat through Inquisition, or using it for survival by extending Holy Shield. This is a good choice dynamic for the Protection Paladin rotation, but I can already here the howls of the Warrior tanks if we get a 30 second Shield Block and they are still stuck with a 10 second durations.
It’s important to remember that this is a first pass in Beta. The Holy Power system is likely to change several times before we see what it will actually look when it goes Live. It’s an excellent start.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a Developer chat without trying to make Paladins a punch line a couple of times.
Q: How is Heroic Leap working so far? Is it progressing better than your last attempt at putting it in-game?
A. We’re pretty happy with it so far. The version we have right now lets the warrior target where they want to leap, so they can use it as an escape tool as well. We all know paladins would never retreat from a battle, but warriors have been known to do so.

any word on that cosmetic Tree of Life Form glyph? Some players are sad to lose Tree of Life Form completely.
A. The only new glyph we are ready to announce right now is the Glyph of Divine Shield, which reduces the cast time of your Hearthstone whenever Divine Shield is active
.

It gets really old being a punch line. I wish the Developers would stop constantly picking on the class.

Comments

Sougent said…
lol, sometimes I hate being the punch line, sometimes not.

I just hope there really is such a glyph. ;)
Shwitz44 said…
ABOUT FREAKING TIME

I've been waiting and waiting for the devs to realize that mana as a resource for melee doesn't work.

I'm actually really excited to use the new resource as a Holy paladin, though. It opens up new healing strategies instead of just spamming Holy Light mindlessly!
Anonymous said…
So, we'll have to manage Vengeance, Holy Power, Divine Plea, and mana. That doesn't actually sound good.
Anonymous said…
@ Sougent

I agree. I get tired of being the but of the jokes, but at least they are good ones this time.

@ Josh

If all you did were cast Holy Light, I think you would be a failadin at healing. There are a lot of other things that should be going on other than spamming one spell, but most players probably don't realize that.

@ Anonymous 1

It does sound like quite a bit to manage, but it is in beta so let's see how it works out. I personaly just don't care anymore. I have relearned my class every expansion it seems, so what is one more?
Bacon said…
Interesting concept. It sounds like a different take on something like Maelstrom Weapon in the shaman enchancement tree. Whereas that one decrease casting times on certain spells, this paladin change increases the effectiveness on certain paladin abilities. Thanks for the post Honors.
Anonymous said…
Ok... I would be mad, but I want my bubble hearth... and well, Paladins don't flee, its kinda in our nature and lore Joke or no, These colors don't run... even when pink
Anonymous said…
I know you were just speculating and thus probably didn't pay much mind to the math, but wouldn't 3 Holy Power cause the duration of Holy Shield to be 40 Seconds? 10 Sec Base + (3 Holy Power * 10 Sec Increase). Not to nitpick or anything *whistles*

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