Dear Activision Blizzard Inc,
This is a feedback from a long time fan of World of Warcraft and not only, regarding the Main Paladin talent tree and the Retribution talent tree, more specifically.
Please take your time reading this, because it is very important to “us” - the Paladin community - and we are interested to hear (read) your thoughts on this topic below.
Let’s get started!
General Paladin Tree:
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Paladin Auras – Auras are very situational. Especially is such the case with Concentration Aura and Crusader Aura. You cannot use them very often in Mythic + or in raids, because not too many bosses interrupt or silence you. Same case with Crusader Aura where you hardly can get a chance to mount in some dungeon or raid instance and the reason is that we have most of the time roof above our characters. One of the most recognizable Aura is the Retribution Aura – years ago it was causing “X” amount of Holy damage to any enemy that strikes a party or raid member within 40 yards. Is it possible to redesign the Retribution Aura, because at the moment it feels like the paladin is too selfish. Why? Because you benefit only if someone takes more than 50% of his health or dies. The idea of the Aura is to be utility that can be used by the whole group or raid. Why would any Raid Leader or Guild Master take a Retribution paladin in his raid roster if he doesn’t use, for example, Devotion Aura. That’s right! You need a second paladin for that. And still, only the Retribution paladin can benefit from the Retribution Aura. For sure that is not the class identity. Paladins were always recognized in the years back with their Auras, Seals and Blessings. And I know we have the Seals right now as passive talents in the Main tree, so this is the reason why I won’t ask about them;
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Blessings – Where are they? You have removed them, then gave them back in the last few expansions. Do you plan to bring them back to the paladin community? You know that years ago paladins could literally buff the entire raid with these buffs. And now there is no reason for some Raid Leader or Guild Master to bring a paladin in the raid, because “they” cannot buff anyone. So, I want to talk a bit about the Blessings:
- Blessing of Kings: We used to bless a target or the entire group/raid increasing the total stats by 10% for “X” amount of time. Very useful. Players playing all roles would love to have a paladin for such a buff;
- Blessing of Might: We used to bless a target or the entire group/raid increasing the melee Attack power by “X” amount for “X” amount of time. Very useful for melee classes. Tanks and melee specs would love to have a paladin for such a buff;
- Blessing of Wisdom: we used to bless a target or the entire group/raid restoring “X” amount of Mana for “X” amount of time. Very useful for Healer classes. Healers would love to have a paladin for such a buff.
These were one of the core strengths that paladin had before. This is the true identity of the paladin, personally to me, of course. Is it possible to add some of the above somewhere in the Main Paladin tree? Passive talents like getting Haste, Critical, Mastery, Avoidance or Speed doesn’t feel so tempting as one of our most beloved spells, abilities and/or skills – our Blessings. And there is one interesting idea for you, you can put additional nodes or by removing some, if you would like, of course, to give us the opportunity to buff these Blessings or Auras, even. How? By “X” amount of armor, for example. Or damage. Or maybe extend the duration of something. There are so many ways to make this interactive. People would love to see such changes. You are so close!
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Mobility – I know this is a very sensitive topic and a lot of players talk about it. You gave us an explanation, your explanation, of how you feel about Divine Steed. Some people don’t mind it, some people like it, most doesn’t. Let be honest here. If we are to use this ability, can we at least get some interesting nodes regarding it? For example, instead of getting a second charge, can we get a node where we can reduce the cooldown of it with 15-25 seconds? Instead of increasing the duration with 1 second, maybe make the character to be immune for that duration? I will play the advocate here for the rest of the community, but is it possible to get a different mobility talent somewhere here around Divine Steed? If you would like us to keep it, then let us have it, but give us the opportunity to get something else – an additional option for those who doesn’t want to use the talent. There were so many mobility talents in the previous expansions. I am sure you can think of something. I am sure you will get the best possible decision regarding this topic. I believe in you!
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Cleanse Toxins – I want to share a bit of feedback here. Will play the advocate this time for the PvP fans and part of the community. Some content creators were right about something – after you use the spell and you remove all Poison and Disease effects, the enemy opponents apply them instantaneously again. This case goes especially versus rogues and very few occasions against death knights or Shadow priests. For example, the Rogue applies his poisons with his attacks and you literally cannot either move, or reduce the damage taken. Is it possible to redesign a bit this talent and make you immune to future poisons and disease effects for the next 1 to 3 seconds. Nothing less, nothing more. You pick the duration;
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Fist of Justice – I believe in Shadowlands this talent reduces the remaining cooldown on Hammer of Justice by 2 seconds, not 1. Is this a bug or it is intended?
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Holy Avenger - From a very long time this talent has 3 minute cooldown. The talent itself is very strong, but the cooldown is the one and only thing that forces players to avoid it. Players are striving to get more consistant damage and shorter cooldowns than longer ones. Almost haven’t seen a single content creator to use this talent. Is it possible to reduce the cooldown from 3 minutes to 2? If “not”, then maybe revamp it in some other way?
Retribution Paladin Tree:
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Put Seal of Wrath on the place of Empyrean Power – that way we can have 4 Judgment nodes in a row on the left side of the tree, close to each other;
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Then remove Holy Crusader entirely from the Retribution tree and place Empyrean Power there instead. The reason is because almost no one gets this talent right now on Beta and just after you get Divine Storm, you can upgrade it a bit with this Empyrean Power;
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Blade of Condemnation is a talent that no one uses right now, because the increased critical strike chance of Blade of Justice is pretty low. 5% is way too low. Is it possible to place on this node instead the old Virtue’s Blade (A flat 33% increase to Blade of Justice’s critical strike damage). 25-33% makes this node far better than 5% and that would make me invest 1 talent point here;
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After moving Seal of Wrath on the place of Empyrean Power, now you can put in this blank node Divine Hammer – Replaces Blade of Justice, dealing slightly less damage (and over time), but dealing it to all nearby enemies. If you would like, you can make it to deal reduced damage beyond 5 targets, even, but still generate 1-2 Holy Power points;
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Righteous Verdict – I believe this talent was nerfed a bit too much from 15% on Retail, to 5% on the Beta. Personally, I won’t invest 1 talent point here anymore. 10% was okay;
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Seal of Wrath – it feels like 25% chance is a bit low. Is it possible to increase it to 30-35% at least?
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Boundless Judgment – same case here as Seal of Wrath, it feels like 25% chance is a bit low. Is it possible to increase it to 30-35% as well?
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Radiant Decree – this talent is not useable at the moment, because of few reasons. First, it requires you to spend 3 Holy Power points instead of generating them like Wake of Ashes does. Second, even if you take it, you don’t benefit from Art of War talent above in the tree and it doesn’t reset the cooldown. Yes, it’s on 15 seconds cooldown, but getting free Wake of Ashes, is far better. The reason is, because you can hit for more damage, you get Holy Power points instead of using them and finally, but not least, you can spend your extra regenerated resource to hit your enemies. For the time 45 seconds pass, I can get 1 to 2 procs with Ashes to Dust, while using Radiant Decree, you not only lose between 3 to 9 Holy Power points, but as well you have to spend some for less damage. The reduced cooldown doesn’t help enough in this case. Is it possible to redesign the talent, so it can generate you 2 Holy Power points or at least have 2 charges with higher cooldown? For example, 20-25 seconds. Either way is good, but at this state, you will see in time that no one is ever going to use this new ability – one of the few added in Dragonflight;
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Truth’s Wake – this talent is very interesting, but the damage over time effect is way too low. Seems like no one is investing his 1 talent point here on any of the content creator videos. Can you redesign it a bit? For example, Wake of Ashes burns the target for an additional 10-20% every 2 (or 3) seconds for 6 seconds? Other option, burns the target for an addition 5% every 1 second for 6 seconds (that makes it total of 30%);
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Fires of Justice – after the nerf of Blade of Wrath, now players will be even more motivated to get Zeal instead of this talent. Is it possible to redesign it a bit? I don’t think at this state Fires of Justice can compete with Zeal, to be honest. The reason is that Zeal causing your auto attacks to occur 30% faster and deal additional damage. That way you players increase their chances of getting Art of War from Blade of Justice. Honestly, I have always thought that Crusader Strike was not performing so well regarding damage. Is it possible to redesign the talent and instead boost the damage of it somehow. That way we will avoid the RNG part and get extra constant damage outside of cooldowns, which was always a big problem for the Retribution;
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Consecrated Ground & Sanctified Ground – I have tested these 2 talents and if I am not wrong, 15% larger Consecration is ~1 yard in the game, correct? This is not enough, because the Consecration range is about 5 to 6 yards at the moment. If you stay close to a dummy in one of the capital cities, you can use your Hammer of Justice from 10 yards, but placing a Consecration on the ground doesn’t hit anything. It’s half way there. Is it possible to increase the area of effect somewhere between 15% to 45%? That way the Consecration will be increased with at least 2-3 yards;
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Exorcism – all of the paladin abilities generate or spend Holy Power points. Even Consecration with the added nodes. Personally, I believe this ability does good AoE damage if Consecration is put on the ground. People still skip this talent, yet. Is it possible to redesign it, so it can generate at least 1 Holy Power point and we add it in our rotation? That will motivate players to take it;
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Justicar’s Vengeance – I remember using this talent back in Legion. It was nerfed from 100% to 50% when you were dealing damage on a stunned target. My calculations and tests showed me that you have to hit a stunned target to get the same or at least close to the same damage as Templar’s Verdict or Final Verdict. You buffed the talent – instead of spending 5 Holy Power points, to spend 3. Yes, you heal yourself of the amount of damage dealt, but in which situation you are going to use it? In PvP? Nobody takes that talent at all. In Mythic + or in raids you hardly get the chance to stun someone. Maybe while clearing trash or if you have a lot of adds in some boss fight. Still, that is so rarely. I understand that you don’t want to remove this talent and replace it with Divine Protection as many players suggest, so I will play by your rules. We don’t remove the talent, so what now? If you want us to use it, then we need a good reason to invest 1 talent here. After all you have invested a lot of time designing it, nerfing and buffing it after. We need a better solution here. Is it possible to make this talent interact with some of the other abilities or spells somehow? Or if we assume you decide to remove it after all, would you place here Divine Protection and put above with Shield of Vengeance some new or old talent?
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Relentless Inquisitor – getting extra Haste is always good and that comes for all the rest of the secondary stats, but we do get these from our items, right? Is it possible to put something else here at this node? Maybe some extra interaction between the spells or something new? Something that will buff some of the other skills?
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Divine Toll & Divine Resonance – Personally, I haven’t played Kyrian on Shadowlands, but I know very well what Ringing Clarity does. Here I will play the advocate of the rest of the Retribution community. Players keep saying that the above talents don’t work pretty well without Ringing Clarity, so is it possible to replace it with Divine Resonance?
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Vanguard’s Momentum – a lot players believe we should invest not 2, but 1 talent point here. Is it possible to redesign it as 1 talent and put 2 on Final Verdict. If “yes”, you can make that the second talent point to increase a bit the chance to reset the cooldown of Hammer of Wrath or get a third charge for it as one of our legendary items from Shadowlands. Other idea is to put a new node somewhere aside with something similar – damage, healing, some interaction with other skill. You name it.
That being said, I am not here to have a fight with you - the Paladin class design developer/s. I am just here to give feedback you, nonetheless how big it is.
I will be perfectly fine if someone steps and say: “We don’t want to give you this, because X, Y and Z. We don’t want to remove this talent, ability or spell, because X, Y and Z. We don’t want to add…” You get my point. I will be okay with that. We just need someone to step and share his/her/their own opinion with us about this Class, because it feels like there is no communication between us at all. And this is very sad and not enjoyable for us.
I would love to have a conversation with someone from the developer team who is taking care of the paladin or at least you can try to reach for the streamers or the YouTubers who are more involved with this and update us with some of your so called “Blue posts”. Maybe a video, even. Or an interview for 1 hour with someone, I don’t know.
Nothing will happen if you invest that time. I know you are listening and reading this, but please give some feedback and share your thoughts. Why? Because it is very important to us!
If you are the creators of this game - the parents, - try to imagine we are your “kids” that you are taking care of.
From a very long time I feel like each Class is a different kid and a representative of the whole “Family” we gave in Azeroth. Not giving love or not having a conversation with us - one of your “kids”, the Paladin community in general, feels like you have picked a favorite in most of the time. It feels like you are sending some of us to study at college (the rest classes that receive a lot of love) and the rest… you don’t mind or bother with us.
Thank you very much for your time reading this post! I believe in you! I believe that you will bring back the Paladin where the class deserves to be.
Best Regards ,
A long time fan of World of Warcraft and not only