Holy and Protection buffs incoming for Paladins
Ghostcrawler just recently posted some good news for both Protection and Holy Paladins. Some of them are simply a matter of convenience, but all of the changes posted were nice little buffs.
First, Righteous Defense now has an 8 second cooldown. It's 15 seconds on live realms, and was 10 seconds previously in the beta. I'm very, very glad this change was made, though it's an example of the 'slippery slope' of homogenizing classes/tanks. Paladins were the only class with a ranged taunt, but now all of the tanks have one. Righteous Defense still taunts multiple mobs, but all of the other tanks had/have AOE taunts as well. Righteous Defense mostly lost what made it beautiful compared to the other taunts, so it really needed this buff to not look terrible. I'm glad they did it.
Next up are some Holy changes. Infusion of Light now affects Flash of Light in addition to Holy Light. I think this is a good compromise that will give Holy back a little mobility. Instant Holy Lights on the run was a little absurd, even if Paladins did need help healing on the move. Instant Flash of Light will help mobility without being an absolutely insane amount of instant healing. Flash of Light isn't a powerhouse heal, but an instant Flash after a Holy Shock crit is still a fair amount of HP returned. Again, good compromise. This was needed, and I sort of wonder why they didn't make this change earlier. Oh well! They made it before retail, that's what counts.
Judgements of the Pure increases spell haste by 15%, up from 10%. Straight buff, those are always good.
Enlightened Judgements is up to 30 yards from its original 20 yards, which is very nice. The way things were looking, Holy Paladins were going to end up ignoring this entirely in favor of healing at max range, where it's safer. Running in and out of Judgement range is a pain and loses crucial casting time in boss fights, so Paladins just sat at max range. A healer never wants to put themselves in the line of fire, or even closer to the line of fire. Increasing the range on this just makes it feel rewarding to pick up and use rather than slightly punishing or too bothersome to babysit. The above Judgements of the Pure buff will encourage you to use this more often as well.
Bacon of Light is still delicious.
Overall, good changes. As someone who plays their Paladin primarily as Protection, I'd love to see a few more Prot buffs, but maybe that's a little selfish of me eh?
