this is gonna be long
i really love the aesthetics of paladin, but for a long long time now I’ve kind of felt like an arms warrior with combo points. (which is extra funny because for the longest time i’ve also felt like arms should have a mastery focused on dealing bonus damage to low health enemies and ret should have the deep wounds in the form of a fire/radiant dot effect)
Ret(talents)
Righteous Cause resetting judgement stacks and having herald of the sun(should probably be templar to fit the hammer thing but still) focused on a bunch of judgement procs(or blade of wrath procs for expurgation)
Crusading Strikes: i kind of hate this ability tbh. it feels like a balancing nightmare, and while it feels nice not watching crusader/templar strike sit off cooldown for so long because of the amount of proc resets we get? i’d much rather just have a smoother resource economy than a flood of procs and a weird lul in my rotation because i had bad RNG.
Masteries:
this is just kind of important for later on so I’m getting it out of the way early
Holy: Long have me and my other paladin friends(the two of us) thought avenging crusader should just BE the mastery, paladin should not have to fight to be the defacto combat healer that has felt like their theme even when we were just a priest in heavy armor(the dark days of TBC)
Prot: i don’t play protection quite as much, but i think leaning more into the healer tank could be interesting as opposed to a prot warrior delux? something like your over healing is converted into a shield based on your mastery? this one im not nearly as strong of opinion on tbh but as a side note giving prot paladins the diablo 3 crusader ability to use a 2h weapon would be amazing ty <3
Ret: while its a pipe dream because it involves TWO masteries being reworked as a whole, and i did already mention it, but arms being the go to executioner feels more appropriate than a bleed since they haven’t(to my admittedly limited knowledge of arms) been a bleed focused spec in many a moon. anyway giving ret a burn in the fire of the light/loa for bonus radiant damage after consuming a judgment proc would be hot in my opinion(puns) even if it is kind of similar to fire mage.
Herald of the sun:
anyway im sure i’m not the only one who see’s issues with herald of the sun design even if the theme is amazing. the jumprope(the capstone laser of sun’s avatar) is a mechanic blizzard acknowledged didn’t work for unholy but they threw it in anyway which is kind of baffling. i’m shocked they didn’t just take the old awakened wrath azerite trait and slap it in this! you spend holy power during avenging wrath/crusade you deal holy(radiant damage probably more thematic) around you and heal allies as holy. hero talents as a whole kind of feel lackluster, with emphasis more on a single ability than depth of rotation changes. enhancement shaman is the worst example of this, stormbringer you almost never cast lava lash which leaves the rest of the kit feeling incredibly lackluster. I’d love to see herald of the sun more focused on damage/heal over time effects and the paladin kit as a whole having more options than consecrate and expurgation(and the shorter lived wake of ashes dot)
If the mastery idea isn’t met with appeal(in this pipedream of a fix) then some of these changes could scratch that burning itch(more puns)
Dawnlight: just make it apply a weaker dot on any application of holy damage, similar to stacks of ironfur and shadow word:madness they just reapply/stack but for some other mechanics I’m gonna propose its important we can see each stacking dot individually(like dawnlight with a little 7 on it when you have 7 stacks not 7 individual stacks of the debuff thats insane)
morning star/will of the dawn: similar concept for morning star as its existing component, just applies extra stacks of dawnlight instead of increasing that damage. and will of the dawn being focused on amplifying your damage towards targets already aflame with dawnlight
will of an’she(we need more an’she themed goodies) this needs a huge buff to compete with the insane mobility that templar provides. something like the 5-10% mobility it provides now(or should) on top of a stacking movement speed increase based on applications of dawnlight active. put a cap on it if we’re worried about hyper mobile holy paladins but still, templar is literally leaving this hero spec in the dust(in more ways than one, more puns)
blessing of an’she(my goat) and lingering radiance: i really like the idea of blessing consuming all stacks of judgement for a really fat buff to your spender and the dawnlight it applies(or just the dawnlight) and so much that i think the hammer of light for templar should ALSO consume all the judgement stacks for a fat buff. as for lingering radiance maybe have it apply just an ungodly amount of eternal flames and judgement stacks for more spread as opposed to bigger dots/hots?
Sun Sear: could make this focused on critical strikes, since everyone is getting crit damage these days just have it be that but as a hefty dot over 5 seconds or so when you crit consuming a judgement stack
Sunwells grace(as opposed to Solar grace, i didn’t forget about the blood elves) 2% haste as a hero talent in any tier is bunk, make it something more interesting like 1% or 0.3% haste for every active dawnlight you have up.
Sun’s Avatar: during wrath you pulse radiant damage when you spend holy power. this can quickly rack up dawnlight stacks and get your haste to some insane levels pretty fast.