Straight after Blizzcon I let it all out with how I felt about the panda’s bit for the coming expansion. I wrote about it here. Short summary:
Not so much a fan of pandas.
Love the asian look SO much.
Totally going to roll a monk, not a panda, a monk.
Boring talent revamp.
But these are all new things, what do I think about changes coming that will directly effect me? My paladin will remain my main character, how about all these other host of changes? Surely things will be shaken up, right? Abso-fucking-lutely!
What we know so far.
As with in every single expansion, they are revamping the talent system! Yay? Nee?
In this case, they told us they are making it more simple, less complicated (more casual?) and less able to be “cookie cutter” spec’d. Well, unless they really change their plans from what they previewed us last weekend, I’m calling bullocks. We’re getting forced into even MORE cookie cutter specs.
Here’s what we’re getting, presumably, if the plans don’t change before MoP launches.
- Step 1 – Choose a Specialization. No more big multiple talent trees -we get to choose a specialization first. This specialization (like holy, ret, or prot paladin) will give us a whole host of predetermined spells. For example, all paladins with the Holy specialization will get signature spells that we currently have to spend points to acquire. Fab! This is great! No more requirement to take a, b, c because they increase throughput or are signature abilities for holy.
So what do we get to choose? Actually not that much.
- Step 2 – Introducing the new “talent tree”. Well, once you choose a specialization all 3 specializations will then get presented with a tier or 3 spell options, every 15 levels. This new “talent tree’ isnt’ really a tree, and it’s the same options for every single paladin. Each tier is a utility tier or a quality of life tier.
<<<< choose your specialization: Holy > Prot > Ret >>>
…then every 15 levels you get to choose 1 spell/talent from the same list of 3, no matter what your specialization. If you are pvp, there’s one for you! If you are a tank there’s one for you, too! Same for healers and dps. So, how is this interesting?
Every spec will see the same tree, like this:
You get to choose 1 of 3 options every 15 levels.
It’s not very interesting. It’s even more cookie-cutter than what we have before. And, wave goodbye to theorycrafting as we know it. The talents you choose here are things like utility and cc and stuns and not so much pure throughput. If you are doing pvp as holy I’m wiling to bet, you’ll mostly only chose one path.
Let’s take a closer look at the tiers!
Tier 1 (level 15): Mobility
This tier is about mobility. This is all about giving paladins choices in how they get around without forcing any one of the abilities on a paladin. The Abilities: Speed of Light, Long Arm of the Law, Pursuit of Justice.
Basically, Holy Pallies will take Speed of Light for the speed boost + healing. Ret and Prot will take either Speed of Light or Long Arm of the Law if they don’t want to manage the cooldown. Pursuit of Justice will be too random.
Tier 2 (level 30): Control
This tier is all about utility and control. It offers an improvement on Hammer of Justice, a CC, or an Auto-apply snare. The Abilities: Fist of Justice, Repentance, Seal of Justice
Basically, Holy Pallies will take either First of Justice (this is the current Hammer of Justice stun but double the range and less cooldown too) or Repentance (this is the current Repentance CC). Ret and Prot will take any of them as they are for cc.
Tier 3 (level 45): Defenses
This tier is all about defensive abilities, some are passive and some are clicky – depending on what your preference is. The Abilities: Blessed Life, Sacred Shield, Ardent Defender.
Most Holy Paladins will take Sacred Shield because its passive self proc like the current Retribution’s Sacred Shield. Tanks will take Ardent Defender. PVP Holy will take Blessed Life, as they do now.
Tier 4: Support Healing
This tier is all about buffed healing abilities, one we are actually more interested in. The Abilities: Selfless Healer, Eternal Glory, Holy Shield.
Here, Holy Paladins actually have some choice! Selfless Healer gives a free Flash of Light (no cost and instant) after 2 judgements. If this were today, I’d be all over it considering I judge every 8-10 seconds. But as of the next patch, we’ll just closer to 1 minute so it’s not as interesting anymore. Meh. Eternal Glory is the same as now (chance of not using Holy Power when using abilities), it’s still pretty good. But as a tank healer, I find Holy Shield to be the most interesting. Something super useful I can spend my Holy Power on, bubbling the tank! And you know how much I love bubbling 
Tier 5 (level 75): CC reduction and support
This tier is all about support. The Abilities: Veneration, Acts of Sacrifice Clemency
Holy Paladins will most likely go with Clemency, it’s another clicky that allows me to finish the cooldown on HoS, HoF, and HoP. I would have LOVED this for heroic halfus and heroic Shannox! Those who like passive, will go with Acts of Sacrifice. PVP goers will choose Veneration.
Tier 6: Empowering Light
The final tier! I expected it to be more interesting so I hope some of this still changes. The Abilities: Holy Avenger, Sanctified Wrath.
Holy Paladins can technically chose any of the three. The first gives buffed healing (casts as 3 HP) with Kingsy Dude (long cooldown, no thanks), The second removed the cooldown of Holy Shock when you use Avenging Wrath (very nice!) and the third gives a chance to cast abilities that cost Holy Power as if they had 3 charges (way too RNG for my liking). I’d definitely go with the middle.
Tank Healing Holy Spec
As it stands right now, this will be my tank healing spec. It’s pretty cookie cutter, not really much difference in taking a different a different cc/stun. I will take the stun because I don’t see myself doing much cc as a healer in raids, but I can be useful to have a stun on certain mobs (like ragnaros today).
As we know these items will surely change, nothing is set in stone. A hell of a lot of information came out at Blizzcon but I’m willing to bet half of it will still change. But for now, this is where we sit and I’m not so enthusiastic about the talent revamp
Give me Rift style badass talent trees anyday, this is becoming so boring and simple to me now. I’ll miss the art of theorycrafting.
However, I know that a lot of you are excited about this change to talents and tree. Why is that? I don’t want to be single minded so I want to hear why you feel the way you do!
5 Responses to “Revamped MoP talent system, for the cookie-cutter in you! Holy Paladin Edition”
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I disagree on the “cookie cutter” bit, to be quite honest with you.
Tier 1:
Long Arm of the Law can definitely see a lot of use as Holy. It provides an on-demand speed boost when using Judgment. Sure, it may end up being a bit of a loss on mana return, but Judgment doesn’t have a 1 minute cooldown, which is the big downside to Speed of Light. Pursuit of Justice isn’t RNG at all – it’s based on your healing anyway. If there’s Tower of Radiance style mechanics in place, this could be very beneficial. It does have the downside of not being on demand, however. I’d actually see LAotL being the most widely used just because it’s on-demand with Judgment.
Tier 2:
No disagreements here. Each will be situational, of course.
Tier 3:
Blessed Life will proc from AoE damage in PvE, if I remember correctly, so will still be a good choice in certain encounters, especially if you’re using LoD frequently. If you take Holy Shield in the next tier, it will also help with using that more often as well. That’s not to say that Sacred Shield is a [i]bad[/i] idea, but for some encounters, Blessed Life may be more appealing.
Tier 4:
Same thing with PoJ. Selfless Healer can mean an on-demand FoL. Holy Shield doesn’t particularly appeal to me, but that’s mostly just my opinion there being a mostly reactive healer.
Tier 5:
All three talents will be situational (with Veneration being more PvP-oriented, but with possible use in PvE). Clemency and Acts of Sacrifice are both going to see situational use.
Tier 6:
Divine Purpose might not be a terrible idea, but may conflict with Eternal Glory if that talent is taken. Holy Avenger just makes me giggle with the thought of LoD spam.
Must of it to me is based on if you want to have a clicky or passive ability. Blessed Life is still pretty poor with the inner cooldown thing
I tried builds with both and never found it useful enough outside of pvp, currently it’s sufficient with 1 point but in MoP with the choice, I’d not take it and rather go with a passive in this case.
Good point on the T1 abilities, I guess it depends on fights but Speed of Light also will be healing which is why I’d rather take it over LAoTL as holy. I’d def not take PoJ I want my holy power for healing abilities and not speed (fights we have to see though).
Time will tell, but if LoD stays useful like it is in the ptr atm, it will be somewhat useful finally in 10s (I don’t raid 25s) so that could also be a difference — the 10 vs 25 raid size — in builds.
Holy shield I love it! But I’m a bubble bot with my roots as disc so I’d love to pre-shield my bear
But in general, I can still imagine we’ll have cookie-butter builds for fights / raid sizes. It’s not as grand as it used to be or feel when specing. Gief beta to test!
Not inclined to agree that the choices will be that rigid. You’ll be able to change these similar to changing glyphs, and many of these will work better on a fight-to-fight, situation-to-situation basis.
Re: Blessed Life. 8 seconds isn’t a terrible ICD, and on an encounter with steady AoE damage (think Beth’tilac), that’s 3 Holy Power every 8 seconds, instead of just two from Holy Shock alone – overall, this means more Flashlight – err, LoD – and WoG usage, or Holy Shield.
I think my aversion to Holy Shield comes more from it being a HoPo consumer than being an ability that doesn’t require it. Granted, damage prevented is damage not healed. But, there’s also the problem of whether it stacks with Power Word: Shield or other Holy Shield effects. Moreover, Selfless Healer doesn’t seem to have a time limit based on its tooltip.
LAotL is also on any successful Judgment, too, so while it doesn’t provide healing, and it is a lower speed boost, it does come up more often (e.g., any time you Judge, ever). I actually imagine tanks will be using PoJ most, while SoL will probably be used more for the “stack” bosses where we use our ground effects a lot. On the whole, it’ll still be situational, as there will be times the healing is little enough to make no matter due to spreading out (e.g., Maloriak Blue Phase).
Flashlight.. I LOL’d
I don’t use it much in 10s of course (after the 4.3 changes will have to see how much more useful it is) but having more 3 HP for Holy Shield could be nice for tank healing 
Blessed Lift I guess its just situation but you are right that it would convert to throughput where the self bubble would not. Hmmm I want to test it out! 
For the Holy Shield it better stack with PWD or I’l cry!