Public Test Realm Notes

The new patch notes are out for 3.0.8 and there are some major changes all around. And some interesting things for us Paladins.

Paladins

• Avenging Wrath: Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Hand of Protection, and Avenging Wrath cannot be used within 30 seconds of each other anymore. Forbearance removed from Avenging Wrath.

WOO HOO! We've been asking for this for some time now. Avenging Wrath no longer causes Forbearance. Now it's only a seeming 30 second cooldown before you can use it again.(Although you might be able to use AW again within those 30 seconds, it's not entirely clear to me.) AND you can bubble if you need to right after. I think this is great.

• Divine Protection: The penalty has been removed.

There is currently an attack speed decrease here. This means that this can be used by and on tanks and they don't need to worry about losing threat. I think this is great.

• Divine Shield: The penalty has been changed so that all damage done is reduced by 50% in place of an attack speed penalty.

There currently is an attack speed penalty of 100%, less if you have talented for it. Now it looks like it's just a plain old damage decrease -- which I guess was to lower spell damage coming out of the bubble, and it seemingly helps Holy paladins because their spellcasting is no longer slowed (or at least that's how I've come to understand it).

• Hand of Reckoning(NEW): Available on trainers at level 16. It’s a 30 yard range taunt that causes Holy damage.

I and all Paladins should be thrilled with this. We now have a ranged attack with which to pull mobs!! Granted the dmg of this spell is probably going to be very minor, but it's great that we don't have to body pull anymore before we reach Holy Shock in the Holy tree or Avenger's Shield in the Protection tree.

• Judgements of the Pure: This Holy talent now increases the damage done by Seals and Judgements.

I wonder if this is in addition to its current effects or in replacement of ... Right now it says "Your Judgement spells increase you casting and melee haste by 3% for 1 minute." If so, it's a nice buff to this talent. Well done.

• Judgement of Wisdom: Now returns a percentage of base mana instead of a percentage of max mana.

This is good news to all paladins except Holy. Sorry guys. This basically means that you will be getting more mana back quicker if you have less +Int. Because of the "BASE" part there.

• Sacred Duty: Interaction with Divine Shield and Divine Protection removed, but stamina bonus increased.

This follows the above changes to DS and DP, but low and behold MORE STAMINA. Never a bad thing.

All in all, I think this is a nice set of changes for Paladins. I'm very excited and can't wait for this to go live.