Updates: 8-8-23Infinus wrote: ↑Fri Aug 04, 2023 3:45 amAfter playing Turtle Wow for some time, I have given Protection Paladins some serious thought. I have provided a breakdown of talents and abilities below that I feel would make Protection a much more flavorful spec to play and making them somewhat viable in raids, but still not as perfect as Protection Warriors for big boss fights.
When looking over these talent changes, you will notice a dramatic difference in the required number of points spent in the Protection tree. This is because the Retribution tree points are very cheap and go a long way compared to the ridiculously expensive talents in the Protection tree.
Effectively, the points are not actually massive when you consider the new changes.
Protection Paladins lose access to Vengeance and Seal of Command with this new build and Paladins must choose between One Handed Weapons Specialization talent or having Improved Retribution Aura. Aoe dmg vs Single target dmg flavor choice.
I really like the intended function of classic Protection Paladins, a tank that slowly drains their target through attritional damage.
Essentially, Holy bleeds that come from multiple sources of passive abilities. Ret aura/Holy Shield/Sanctuary/Shield Spikes/ETC.
I wanted to build on this idea that Protection Paladins are not immediate damage dealers, but stack damage over time and build threat slowly but surely over time for tanking purposes. This makes for incredibly fun gameplay, but also keeps the spirit and functional place of Paladins in the tanking tiers.
What is the end goal here? Make Protection paladins a very viable, but second choice tank, behind Protection Warriors.
Allow Protection Paladins to enjoy themselves with entertaining gameplay and not constantly fight an uphill battle. Protection Paladins should be able to MT most bosses in raids and hold threat on their intended targets. Swapping Protection Warriors and Paladins depending on the fight would be a nice change of pace. Edited
(Talent)Improved Devotion Aura 2/2: Increases the armor bonus of your Devotion Aura by 15%(Total 30%) per rank. Devotion Aura also grants the Paladin 4% Stamina per rank(Total 8%).
- Devotion Aura is largely useless to Prot paladins in it's current state. This change helps Paladins soak damage from
raid/dungeon bosses without also buffing them during AOE farming(which they already are good at). This means this
buff really only buffs the Paladin in specific situations and is not a flat-out increase at all times. It could also be tied to
"Requires a Shield to be equipped". Obviously, this talent will only benefit the Paladin casting it and not the party they are in. Think of this as almost a defensive stance.
(Talent) Redout 3/3: No changes except 10% per rank(Total 30%).
-Dropping cost to 3 points to be used in conjunction with Improved Devotion Aura.
(Talent)Toughness 5/5: Increases your armor value from items by 4% per rank(Total 20%) and reduces damage taken from spells by 3% per rank(Total 15%).
-Toughness is an expensive talent for only a 10% armor buff. This talent would be best suited for deeper in the Protection tree as to not benefit Retribution. If you look at other classes, the majority of 5/5 talents are vital to their build. This would give Paladins a decent hardiness to melee damage as well as a bit of magic protection, considering the lack of a spell reflect. Protection paladins do not use bubble during PvE encounters, as they are the tank and lose all threat.
(Talent)Anticipation 3/3: While under the effects of Righteous Fury, increase the Paladin's chance to block by 2% per rank(Total 6%).
-Anticipation is known to be the worst talent in the Protection tree. 5 ranks for only 10 defense is completely worthless. The block could also be replaced with a dodge increase. Knocking this down to 3 points allows Prot paladins to learn the next talent change listed.
(Talent)Improved Hammer of Justice: Delete. Replace with:
Holy Ground 2/2 : Increases the threat generated by Consecration and all affected targets are slowed
by 10%(Max 20%) per rank. Targets affected by Consecration cannot flee.
-Consecration is a wildly expensive ability for Protection paladins but is also the bread and butter of aoe threat. This
allows the Paladin to keep mobs nearby and a speed/time buffer to re-target and aggro loose mobs. The anti-flee mechanic would be a really nice flavor add to Prot paladins that would make them unique to other tanks, but it is not as necessary as the extra threat.
(Talent) Improved Righteous Fury 2/2: Increases the amount of threat generated by your Righteous Fury spell
by 30% per rank(Total 60%).
- 10% threat buff, nothing major. Dropped to 2 required points.
(Talent) Improved Seal of Justice 3/3: Replace with:
(Talent) Seal of Justice 1/1. Melee attacks strike two additional targets and apply Holy Justice, which deals 50 holy damage
over 15 seconds. Holy Justice can stack up to 5 times. Each of the Paladin's weapon attacks also deal up to 25% weapon
damage as additional holy damage, based on the number of Holy Justice stacks applied to the target.
- This obviously is an aoe version of Seal of Vengeance, with a slightly less bonus damage multiplier. This would be extremely
beneficial to hold threat on multiple targets in dungeons and aoe farming would be much more entertaining, not to mention
questing would be much better.
(Talent) Reckoning 2/2: Gives you a 17.5% chance per rank(Total 35%) to gain an extra attack after successfully blocking an attack. That can only happen once every 5 seconds.
Updated Reckoning change after discussion in Discord.
(Talent) Reckoning 2/2: Gives you a 20% chance per rank(Total 40%) to gain an extra attack with an additional 60% holy damage after successfully blocking an attack. That can only happen once every 6 seconds.
-Reckoning is currently never taken in favor of Vengeance in order to deal more damage and hold threat. This could be averted by making Reckoning actually aid in damage. Vengeance is also super RNG dependent and leaves the paladin without threat generation often. By giving this ability a higher probability of the extra swing, but capping how often it happens, gives the paladin a sustained damage increase without making it a lottery jackpot when aoe tanking multiple mobs. These updates were applied after discussing the damage output of vengeance being far superior to even the Reckoning changes. This attack would also stack with the updated Seal of Justice aoe changes.
(Talent) One-Handed Weapon Specialization 2/2: Dropped to 2 points from 5. Increases the damage you deal with one-handed
melee weapons by 5% per rank(Total 10%).
- This talent is a flavor choice for the Paladin. They can either choose this talent or dig into the Retribution tree and finish off their points with Improved Retribution Aura. Trade off is increased damage to 3 melee targets vs increased damage to 4+ targets.
(Talent) Ardent Defender 1/1: Reduce all damage taken by 35% for 15 seconds and regenerate 15% of your mana over that time. 2 minute cooldown.
Updated Ardent Defender after Discord discussion.
(Talent) Ardent Defender 1/1: Reduce all damage taken by 35% for 15 seconds and increase your threat generation by 30% for 15 seconds. 1.5 minute cooldown.
- Ardent Defender has been skipped over by every decent Protection Paladin due to it's benefit almost never working. If a Paladin reaches 25% health, even a 35% reduction in damage will not stop them from being one-shot. It would be nice to have a panic button when boss fights get hairy or a quick mana boost if you make a mana mistake. The updates to the changes were made because other Paladins felt that mana management should not be as forgiving as this change would allow. Also, threat generation for later tiers of raiding has become problematic, this change would assist the paladin with holding threat for the duration of fights.
(Ability) Hand Of Reckoning. Taunts the target to attack you. If the target is tauntable and not currently attacking you, deal (1*0.5 Spell Power) holy damage. Costs 5% total mana. 25 second cooldown.
This ability was given to paladins in wrath pre patch because it solved so many issues with core mechanics. The Paladin community has been begging for it. With the change to seal of justice, a taunt will still be needed for major fights. This should not be useable on PvP targets. I increased the mana cost from 3 to 5% because many paladins want mana conservation to be a prime consideration for paladins.