Sure, but your era exp doesnt matter. Even the devs see melee needed more gap closers in SoD, why do rogues have ranged slows/stuns/step? Why does warrior have 5 CD gap closers in 30 seconds? Hmmmm, HMMMMM, HMMMMMMMM. Idk yeah devs got it wrong melee don’t need gap closers.
Oh, wait I forgot they did give paladins a cap closer, 30 second CD + 3 seconds of weapon swapping nvm paladins are op.
It is not significant to their mobility. That’s not how that ability is used or works. Now, if we were talking about say, the PVP 4-piece set bonus on Cata Classic that allows a priest to freedom themselves every 13 seconds, in an environment where classes live long enough to use that often, and where positioning is more important, we’d have a different argument. But that’s not the realm of classic pvp and no one is sitting here using dispersion for mobility in SoD. There’s a reason the most popular thing to do with dispersion in wotlk and cata is nitro boost. Because you still need something in ADDITION to the immunity to create distance. For imp fade and cata pvp set, that something extra is another player, or nitro boosts.
That etc is doing a LOT of work there. And neither of those are enough to get into the engagement. Cleanse isn’t going to help against getting crowd controlled. The problem is that the paladin has to walk into the fight at the same speed as every other class in the game.
If you fear, root, and otherwise lock down a rogue temporarily, they can sprint, shadowstep, or vanish and get back into the melee fight.
If you do the same to warriors they can charge or intercept to get back in.
The paladin walks. If you get hit with cc as the paladin you have to walk at everyone. You’re the same kind of engagement as a melee hunter, but without the ranged slow. And 1 minute long cooldowns are not meaningful ways to address this.
If you’re a paladin your best way to engage and stay in a fight is to get in with your mount asap and then bubble as soon as you are hit with anything you can’t get out of. Because if you don’t you are dead in the water.
Roots, snares, and freedom are not gap closers, but they can contribute to that. That is why they are called “snares” and not “gap closers”
Sprint IS a gap closer, so it’s really weird you put it there, almost like you didn’t think your post out enough.
Think about this. When people talk about cc they call it a root, a snare, a slow. They don’t call it a gap closer. They DO call shadowstep, sharge, intercept gap closers. Because that’s what those are. Abilities that immediately contribute to closing distance with a target as their primary purpose. That’s important. Leaps, dashes, teleports, these things all change the distance between you and the target and they do so immediately.
If I put freedom up to remove a slow, and start running, and my target starts running, I will NEVER reach my target. We both move at the same speed. The only way I am catching up to them is if I use something external to my class, or if they are close enough (10/20 yards) for me to use one of my 2 forms of hard cc on them.
The melee uptime for a paladin is absolutely awful. And people seem to seriously discount the power of slows on melee targets. It’s very powerful to be able to lock down the ability for a priority target, especially a caster or healer, to retreat from an area in a BG. it prevents them from regrouping with other players, it keeps them locked to the area you are either attacking or defending so you don’t have to move as far, and it can keep them out of range of other important objectives or other players.
All freedom does for the paladin when used on themselves is prevent the use of slows to inhibit their progress. But you can still get hit with grenades, blinds, disorients, stuns, and other crowd control, and once that happens the gap widens again, and you have the longest possible close to make out of the classes because you don’t have any ranged slow to reduce the target’s speed and not speed bonus for yourself to cover that lost distance.
Why is it ok for shaman to have all their powerful totems, all this insane damage, a ranged slow on a 6 second cooldown, AND the paladin’s freedom if it’s suddenly not ok for the paladin to have anything themselves?
It’s so bad that most paladins use avenger’s shield on their pants, gutting their damage potential in PVP and being forced to use a weapon swap macro just to get a ranged slow on a 30 second cd, something plenty of other classes have access to on a LOT lower cd with way less effort. All because Bubble exists.
If they can make Divine Protection not offer immunity on a rune to change the functionality, they can make Divine Shield not allow you to attack, or reduce your damage by 50%, or not make you immune at all and give paladins their sorely needed engagement tool/tools.
well if by gap closer you mean something like death grip, that ain’t gonna happen, pally 
They gave the two most mobile melee classes EVEN more power and left paladins to rot.
Warriors gained a ranged weapon with a rooting effect, the ability to charge in combat and in any stance, the ability to remove roots and snares when using charge or intercept. Alongside their immunity to fears.
Rogues gained a ranged slow, a ranged kidney shot, and FREAKING SHADOWSTEP.
Melee uptime and mobility went through the roof for the already powerful classes. Everyone knows that rogues and warriors are king melee for PVP in Era. This is WHY with SoD they talked about making everyone more powerful like warriors. So then why did warriors get more powerful in the mobility and fight control department, while paladins got next to nothing?
Divine Steed and Long Arm of the Law are both historical things paladin gained for gap closers. You’re just here to argue and be biased, so just go away already.
lol @ wanting to use mounts in combat
Ah, I see we are working with a special kind of ignorant. Or you’re just a troll. Either way not worth my time. Welcome to the list.
EDIT: Private profile, yep 100% troll.
cause r14 grind is not impressive.
Avenging Wrath should be a gap closer. You put wings on your target and they are lifted off the ground and flown directly into melee with the paladin.
Divine Steed should also be a gap closer. You summon your horse and it charges your target, bites them by the nape of the neck, and drags them directly into melee with the paladin.
Paladins should also get a /pray emote where they ask The Light for the gap to be closed. A beam of divine intervention appears over the paladin, beams them up, and drops them directly into melee with the target.
I mean if you use it from ranged to close the gap, you usually have GCD available by the time you’re on top of them. hold the first exo for when you’re up in their grill.
but you make a fair point that it’s not something crazy or gamebreaking when compared to things like rogue teleporting behind you and going “nothin personnel, kid” before stunlocking, warriors meat hook (it’s gonna be cool for them to have it, I ain’t complaining) charge and intercept.
still kinda on the fence myself about how much mobility (if any) should be given, but I am with Dip
people comparing SoD to Era paladin are just incorrect when none of the other classes resemble their era counterpart, nor have the same limitations
i read avenging wrath as hammer of wrath and that would be funny to watch
hammer of wrath available for use during unpurgeable avenging wrath tho???
looool
At this point, why can’t paladins have a speed increase or snare? They gave Shamans freedom.
Continuing the discussion from WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 4 PTR Development Notes - Updated 6/21/2024:
looks like got steed, boys. wings still dispellable GG
Looking at your profile, you’re a horrible Paladin who sucks at the game, I am not listening to you.
bro how much wpvp u have on ur paladin? try to catch mage with triple blink, try to catch druid, rogue with shadowstep and sprints, shaman with wolfs, hunter with aspect and new raptor strike speed, i want to see that lol. its not vanilla anymore, all classes have more mobility now, pala just get turbo button on his wheelchair, it still need to be buffed with charges or less cd and removing gcd
its okay dude the guy who privates logs hangs out with pro pallies on discord in a version of the game without a pro scene
The problem when people say things like “Forcing Era Playstyle in SoD” is RECKONING.
We are still talking about a class with Bubble, Blessing of Protection, Self-Healing, Freedom and Cleanse… THAT IF IT TOUCHES Something… It dies.
Not so much on the PTR where they gave your a wet noodle for a 2 Hander. But being touch by a Paladin for any length of time usually is a death sentence for most Classes.
Warrior has a similar effect. They have Gap Closers… but no freedom, bubbles, Cleanse, or self healing worth mentioning.
Arguing Paladin needs GAP Closers is almost identically to saying Warriors need Freedom / Cleanse, Bubble, and self healing (Dimond Flask?)
At some point you are going to make a monster in PvP.
Example: Pally Warrior… is EASILY one of the most BROKEN PvP Duo’s in WoW History… Classic, TBC, Wrath and onwards PERCICELY for these reasons.
The only scarier then Pally Warrior… is Pally Lock… Because the Lock wont’ die while the pally lives… and you can’t kill the paladin before the Lock DoT’s the world.
That paring as ZERO Gap Closers and can over 2v4 Easily.
People want to believe the Paladin Playstyle is Different in SoD… so far I haven’t seen even one significant change.
Reckoning wants to tough you for as hard and as long as possible.
Deep Ret Wants the same thing…
Holy variants want to grind you down over time…
Where is this news SoD Playstyle you speak of? I don’t see it.
After sifting through all the arguments being given in this thread, I would like to say that I fully agree that ret paladins should be nerfed into the ground.