The paladin solution

General Discussion
1

Hey guys,
Seeing all those threads about possible paladin buffs, i figured out the main reason why he is not picked as the first hero. Actually, paladin viability is different in different stages of the game. For example:

  1. Paladin as a first hero means you will not lose many units in the early game due to holy light, however the paladin himself is going to be under a lot of pressure as he cannot heal himself. Other than that, he is a slow moving melee hero with almost no harrasment potential, and no way to contest creep camps (land last hits on creeps, compared to heroes such as the blademaster and death knight).
  2. Paladin as a second hero is a decent pick, however at that point in the game, you will have priests for healing, and you can also get a tavern hero a minute earlier than the paladin as a second hero, which is why alchemist is a lot more popular. Also, the mountain king allows you critical damage and stun to pick off individual units, which is something a tier2 human army lacks. Therefore, I don’t see what kind of buffs the paladin could get to replace the mountain king in that role, even against undead.
  3. Paladin as a third hero is a great pick alongside the archmage and mountain king, that is, if the human can get to tier3. This is his place in the current meta. Even then, he will be under a lot of pressure as he is the most vulnerable target in the human army.

In the other threads, there were paladin buff suggestions to make him a better first hero, however they would make him too strong as a third hero.
Therefore, in order to make paladin more viable as a first pick, while not making him too strong of a third hero, i suggest three changes:

  1. ADD UNDEAD CREEPS TO THE MAPS - this will enable the paladin to last hit creeps without worrying that a blademaster or a deathknight will steal the experience. It will also allow him to creep faster and also solo creep in certain situations. This will be a small nerf to the deathknight, but he is a great hero anyway, so as an undead player i think it is fair.
  2. Increase the paladin’s strenght by 1 allowing him to deal more damage and survive longer as a first or third pick, as the human tier3 is still slightly underpowered.
  3. Enable siphon mana and healing spray to affect the paladin using divine shield.
2

Or we can just accept that some heroes are meant to be 2nd or 3rd pick. What next? Critical strike for Tauren Chieften? Summons for Lich? Just because they aren’t first hero choice.
Paladin just got buff for devotion aura.

It would be nice if Human players finally stopped complaining about their race. Last ptr patch buffs defend so much. Besides militia nerf, all HU nerfs were reverted in some way and you got other buffs too. Including indirect ones like heavy Destroyer and Blademaster nerfs.

3 Likes
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Some heroes will never be good first picks mostly because they cannot contest creep camps (TC being the most obvious). However blizzard wanted diversity and a lot of people would like to see paladin as something more than just a big priest.
Lich doesn’t need summons, he can use rod and is sometimes picked as a first hero in UD mirror (if you make undead creeps, he will be even better compared to the DK in the mirror matchup).
Paladins devotion aura may be picked only if he gets lvl4 as a third hero which is very unlikely and even then most people will pick divine shield lvl2.
I think Human doesn’t need big buffs, because archmage-casters is already good in most cases, however if we want to see the paladin and bloodmage in action, other strategic options must be opened (knights, gryphons, breakers and other stuff that synergizes more with them rather than the archmage).

3 Likes
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Just to be clear, in my post i was talking about hin as a 2nd hero, not a 1st.

I want to see him as a viable support hero for the human army.

5

I still don’t see the point for picking the paladin over the alchemist. The alchemist just seems to do the paladin’s job better. Maybe if they focus one unit really hard you can benefit more from a holy light than a healing spray?

80 points of extra healing on a single target might be enough to save that one unit, but…there’s just so much more value from healing spray.

And the alchemist ultimate is way better.

1 Like
6

Plus the dps of chemical rage/acid bomb.

The alchemist is OP

1 Like