The Light and How to Swing It: Bugs or Features?

Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Paladin issues, interviews experienced Paladins and reports her findings in The Light and How to Swing It, formerly The Paladin Report.

I used to work in Software Development and later tested Video Games. A prevailing joke in all software companies is "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Today, we are looking at some issues that Paladins have encountered and determining if they are Bugs or Features.

Purging Divine Shield: Bug or Feature?
Biggillard complained in the forums that his pally's Divine Shield was purged by a Shaman in PvP. He assumed it was a Nerf. Others who complained about the same problem thought it was a Bug. But Byzantine got it right. According to Hortus:

Because of the Client-Server nature of the game it is possible for two mutually exclusive actions to occur at the same time resulting in some unexpected behavior. Although efforts are made to minimize these situations they will still happen on occasion.

So, if your Divine Shield gets dispelled as soon as it is cast, rest assured that this is not a Nerf or a Bug, but in fact a Feature of WoW's Client-Server architecture.

Auras removed by Cyclone: Bug or Feature?
It sure looks like a bug. Why would a crowd control spell remove buffs? But again, according to Hortus, this is a Feature:

This is working as intended, aura spell effects should be removed when under the effects of cyclone. These spells will need to be re-cast to take effect again.

An explanation as to why Cyclone works this way is explained in a separate post by Hortus:

mechanically cyclone is a banish effect, abilities can not be used on them

I find this rather annoying because while I expect to have to recast Blessings over and over, I don't think to check if my aura is functioning. Also, things can get so crazy in PvP, I may not notice that a team member has been Cycloned, so I won't know that I need to recast my aura.

Casting Blessing of Protection on another player while stunned: Bug or Feature?
You get stunned, but someone in your group is about to go down. So you cast Blessing of Protection on them. Quite useful, but this is a known Bug in 2.1.2, so don't get too used to using it.

Vengeance hitting without a critical: Bug or Feature?
Have you noticed Vengeance procing when you have not landed a critical hit? Or are you getting critical triggered procs against you when your opponent has not achieved a crit? This is actually a Feature built in to the resilience gear. Eyonix explains:

We've seen many players report a bug when abilities that activate upon landing a critical strike activate inconsistently when used against a target with resilience. For instance, if a warrior has both Enrage and Blood Craze talents, only one may activate when a critical strike is prevented by resilience.

This isn't a bug.

This is due to the underlying implementation for this feature. The game doesn't actually know that hit would have been a critical hit if not for resilience. Instead we've added a small chance to activate off non-crits based on resilience gear. Each ability rolls this chance separately, so they will only occur together if a player is very lucky.

Beard showing through Merciless Gladiator's Ornamental Headcover: Bug or Feature?
Alright, I admit this is a very minor issue that only affects those pallies that can grow beards. But when you work hard to get a shiny new hat, you want it to look good. And, yes, this is a Bug. Hortus says:

this is a known issue with the Merciless Gladiator's Ornamented Headcover and will be fixed in a future patch

Have you encountered a paladin-related bug that is not covered in this column? Other than commenting on it here, you should also report it in the Bug Forum. This guide on writing a good bug report, created by a guildie of Sneet and Onnix, is Hortus approved, so read it first. Of course, we would all rather play a bug-free game and not bother with writing up bug reports, but if something is really ruining your enjoyment of the game, you might as well spend a little non-gaming time venting your frustrations constructively by notifying Blizzard of your problem.

Robin Torres is raising a couple of Blood Elf Paladins of her very own on two different servers, because one just isn't enough. In her search for knowledge about her new favorite class, Robin interviews more experienced paladins. If you want to be one of those paladins, please email Robin.Torres@weblogsinc.com for a possible future column.