Class Balance Q&A: Paladin

Psytank asked:

Any plans on making Ret paladin damage less random?

Ghostcrawler answered:

In 5.0 we moved Divine Purpose to a talent, so if you skip that one then the main source of RNG will just be Art of War procs, which should be a lot less random than today if that suits your play style.

Kinmaul asked:

Retribution, and the paladin class in general, has seen many iterations since release. The past few expansions have brought changes that basically make spec unrecognizable to how it handled in the previous expansion. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, players are forced to completely relearn the class with each expansion. Will Retribution recieve another overhaul in MoP in regards to Holy Power, resource management, and rotation, or are you happy with the feel of the class as it currently performs in cata?

Ghostcrawler answered:

That's always a hard decision to make (when to overhaul a class). Demo and Destro locks for example are gettign a bit of that in 5.0. We like the Holy Power model for Retribution (and all paladins) and aren't going to dramatically overhaul it. We are fixing some issues with it that players have brought up. We understand some players liked the LK version of the Ret paladin, but we worry they liked it either because it was very simple to play or because it did too much damage, neither of which is great for the long term of the game. We think classes need a resource of some form to be interesting.

Alex Ziebart asked:

Forgive my obsession with visuals: any chance Templar's Verdict will get a new spell effect/animation in the near future? It feels wimpy!

Ghostcrawler answered:

We know Retadins love their Divine Storm, so we want to make TV use a similar graphic (perhaps just one spinny hammer) so both finishers will have the same feel. DS goes back to a finisher in 5.0 since Ret and Prot both have Hammer of the Righteous. We are looking a lot at spell effects for melee in 5.0 since their attacks just aren't as flashy as the casters'.

Richard Goins asked:

Is Word of Glory still going to be on a 20s CD for protection paladins? With the new active mitigation paradigm, it would seem paladin-ish to heal myself every time I can (or to choose a heal OR a holy shield).

Ghostcrawler answered:

Word of Glory does not need a cooldown in 5.0. Prot can choose whether to use it for healing, Holy Shield for absorption, or Shield of the Righteous for block. '

The Clash asked:

Any chance we can go ahead and change Judgement to produce Holy Power baseline for 4.3? It's so needed. And it's a shame to have wait to get the tier bonus just to have stable rotation.

Celestalon answered:

We currently plan for Judgment in 5.0 to have a 6sec cooldown, 30yd range, and to generate 1 Holy Power. In 4.3, the set bonus should be fairly accessible, to get the Holy Power generation.

Zeranox asked:

Retribution have some issues with Hand of Freedom and Wings being dispellable. Especially against mages I feel like it's bad using Hand of Freedom because it can be spellstolen so easily

Ghostcrawler:

Dispels are just too frequent. They are supposed to be decisions, but they aren't. We don't think the answer is to give everyone dispel protection. We think the answer is to make dispels harder. In 5.0 we want dispels to have a cooldown and duration more like Spellsteal but get all buffs or debuffs at once to make them more tactical -- you can dispel Avenging Wrath if you really want to, but then you won't have it if the paladin uses Freedom immediately after.

Sephiroth asked:

Is Inquisition on a ret pally going to see some changes, currently it's needed for decent DPS but has such a short duration, to a point the ability feels awkward.. People liken it to Slice and Dice, but Slice and dice has such a nice long duration even with a single combo point, and feels so much more natural to keep it running.

Celestalon answered:

We're currently considering a glyph for Inquisition which would significantly increase its duration, at a cost of slightly reducing its effect. We're interested in hearing feedback on how people would feel about that sort of glyph.