New Talent Tree Info from PTR

I am going to focus on 2 changes to the protection tree -- for this current build they are, in my mind the most significant changes (and maybe the only ones for protection? not sure).

Filling out the talent with 32 points in protection we now have Spiritual Attunement -- working much like it used to when bought from trainers.

"A passive ability that gives the Paladin mana when healed by other friendly targets' spells. The amount of mana gained is equal to 5/10% of the amount healed."

There is a lot of talk about this move and what it does for all 3 specs. At the moment it is a definite nerf to both Holy and Ret, although Holy can probably get away without it because they aren't receiving many heals from friendly players. Ret however is currently counting on this mechanic to get mana back because of the Seal of the Martyr/Blood self-damage mechanic (this takes a bit to explain -- if you want to know more check out any of a number of the retribution paladin blogs).

Eat dirt Archavon!

I think this is a great move on the developers part -- although it most likely means that they will need to do some extra work in the Retribution tree. It makes sure that when tankadins need mana they will have it.

Speaking of having mana when you need it there is another interesting change in the protection tree. Fully talented at 42 points is Guarded by the Light.

"Reduces spell damage taken by 3/6% and gives 50/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Divine Plea when you hit an enemy. In addition, your Divine Pleas spell is 100% less likely to be dispelled."

Jigajiga-what? Alright. Now this talent used to be insanely useful: Did the same work on spell damage, but lowered the mana cost of the 3 most used tanking spells. Now it gives more uptime to our biggest mana generating spell, Divine Plea.

I am not sure this is so great anymore. Sure it gives us the ability to be generating mana like crazy, for ourselves, but I think it may be too much. With Blessing of Sanctuary and Spiritual Attunement I generally have more mana than I know what to do with -- ending many boss fights with full mana. This WILL help tankadins when it comes to trash fights I suppose, when they're not getting healed quite as much, but my experience has shown me that normal unbuffed Divine Plea works just fine.

Of course there is still the reduction to spell damage, which is always nice, but I am of the opinion that this might not be one of those HAVE TO HAVE talents anymore. Testing will prove one way or another. I hope to get on the PTR tonight to get a look at just that.

Cheers.