I’d like to start by saying I am NOT a Prot Paladin Main but have tried it briefly and have asked people on forums their opinions about this class (in the paladin section obv).
I’ve already mentioned this before but I feel like the gameplay loop of the spec is just wrong and doesn’t feel good. Imo Judgement and HoW do not feel good to press as abilities especially not as core as they are and it DEFO does not feel good to press them over Avengers Shield since it doesnt generate HP.
Also the miltigation being almost entirely passive and SotR not feeling that great to press either doesnt help its case imo and I feel like prot paladin is due for a gameplay rework (not a talent rework like in 10.0.7).
I really do genuinely think Blood DK and Prot Paladin are the 2 tanks that feel the worst to play right now and genuinely need reworks, this is pretty unanimously agreed on for DKs but I dont hear paladins talking about it that much.
Am I wrong? If so what do yall like about the spec lmk I really wanna hear feedback on this
Avenger’s Shield’s CD is too RNG-ish. A fixed short CD should be better.
Divine Toll is too arcadey and comical in its visual. A typical medieval round shield weighs about 8 pounds. Nobody can throw 5 of these to targets at 30 yards. I would rather have an ascended spirit (i.e. a Kyrian angel) version of myself, with the wings, appearing above me that tosses the 5 shields.
At least the angel would make the Divine Toll somewhat convincing, instead of the current visual which looks like a private server cheat, or some game bug caused by a sudden latency spike.
no, ur only passive mitigation comes from parry and mastery which u have to activate and stand on it. + u have to actively mitigate it with SoTR, along throwing some word for a lil bit or capping ur block chance.
there are 2 fundamentals for paladin tank build, the meme way or the meta way.
Meta is haste build right now as the fundamentals of the “OLD meme build” youtube(.)com/watch?v=6g3mym6UubE - it was meme build back in the day and were mostly hated for it. LEL
The current meme build are “Go full crit with mastery” or “Crit + Haste” if u want to make everyone cry in your party.
Crit + Mastery = avoidance tanking(parry is king) while maintaining SoTR before it tiks off (picking the left talent tree, say good bye to all ur talent CD reducing abilities cuz u wont be spamming hpower.
Crit + Haste = who needs a tank?
^ all these 2 meme build revolves around absorption and proc spamming AS.(if only it can regen HP) D:
I’ve given feedback about prot pally before. Granted this is the first tier I’ve ever played paly at a high level to bring spellward to the team.
The offensive rotation generally feels fine. Avenging Wrath is cool and feels good. I also don’t mind the mitigation aspect being more passive since it allows Pallies to focus on their ability to assist allies. Coming from a DK/BrM backround I’d prefer to see and manage the damage intake more as it make me feel like a tank, but all tanks are different and I don’t mind if Pally prefers to be a more passive. Talents also offer some decent, meaningful choice and variety. However;
Avenger’s shield not generating HP is criminal, if feels weird getting procs for a button I can’t press because I need to hit judgment first for HP. Any longer CD/proc ability should be a top priority press.
Shield of the Righteous base duration increased t 6 seconds. a base 4.5 sec duration means it can’t be maintained playing optimally with 5000+ haste outside of CDs. there’s a weird cadence where with Wrath I have shield time to spare for WoG casts and outside wrath I’m fighting not to drop it.
Remove DR/DoT block from Consecration. The biggest issue with prot pally. I challenge the prot pally dev to prog Mythic Tindral, massive aoe damage, mushroom soaks, a tank dot that melts you and never being able to stand in a conc for more than 3 seconds.
I enjoy SotR this expansion, you have to choose between AS or generating SotR which provides more engagement in our rotation.
I disagree with the passivity of our mitigation - keeping Consecration and standing in it, while refreshing SotR doesn’t feel that passive.
I know I’m in the minority, but I play Protection over other tanking specs mainly because of Consecration mechanics. I love the fantasy.
I wish Consecration was just a mob control tool for Prot.
However we have to recognize that some do like the “feeling” of being a “fortress” when they stand in it. (I don’t personally feel it TBH unless I forget to refresh after an empowered one and instantly start getting trucked)
I think a possible in-between would be to make it an actual defensive CD, maybe as a choice between it and Eye of Tyr.
Prot paladin is one of my fav specs in the game. I don’t think it needs any fundamental changes. Maybe slightly more damage in single target fights because we fall behind every other tank. Even our aoe damage is on the lower end.
The gameplay loop is pretty fun and satisfying for me. I’d be upset if they fundamentally changed it but I’d adapt as I always do.
My main issue with blood dk is gaining aoe aggro. As you only have 2 charges of blood boil and 2 of death and decay. If you wanna pull big it can be difficult to grab em all before dps get aggro. That’s my biggest pet peave about it. Making our dot spread like unholy does would probably help a lot.
I disagree. IT’s one of my fav abilities thematically and visually. It feels powerful and I absolutely love it. We aren’t medieval knights. We’re paladins with magical powers. We’re not throwing 5 physical shields. They’re constructs made out of light just like how our judgement produces a hammer made out of light.
I love prot pally. It has so much utility. Off heals, good solid reliable rotation with consistent rather then only bursty defensives. Potent defensives for myself and others. I can cleanse poisons, use lay on hands. BOP to break out of a stun and divine toll to instantly aoe taunt everything and look cool while doing it. It is a low movement tank and low damage tank but if that’s the trade off for all the other sexy things I’ll take it. I also like DH tanking a lot but it just lacks utility. It has almost no group utility besides the ability to hold aggro. Blood DK at least comes with a brez. Same with druid. Druid can also help heal out of combat. Monk can throw some off heals but not as effectively but I believe they also have a cleanse. Warrior… I don’t like warrior tank. As little utility as DH but even less fun.
It has such a small cd that I rarely notice this as a problem. I feel like DKs have a bigger issue cuz they can’t aoe much without their D&D plus a much longer CD.
Consecration is tied to DR. You walk out, you lose 30% DR and feel squishy AF. Remove consecration all together, or make it proc off judgment or something while removing DR from it OR make it a radiant Holy Damage with all the current benefits of consecration so we can move with it.
WoG should be off GCD.
Spellwarding should be a choice node with BoP for Prot Spec or NOT share a CD as they are two different nodes in two different trees.
AS should generate HP as this is one of our strongest abilities and it feels bad to not generate HP.
Make SoTR 3 charges, no HP cost, 4 sec duration, 4.5 sec recharge.
Give us a new spender that acts like TV and radiates additional damage in AoE like Divine Storm.
Bring Eye of Tyr down to 40-45 sec Cd and off GCD (provide mitigation coverage for SoTR downtime).
Buff Bulwark of Order to 150%.
These changes would make talents like divine purpose relevant again and give us CD and damage mitigation coverage for SoTR downtime.
Doing this you could also attach our mastery DR to SoTR for 90% uptime leaving Eye of Tyr to cover gaps in coverage.
To manage button bloat Id make Judgment turn into Hammer of Wrath with a decreased CD to 4 sec during wings / under 20% enemy HP
I just hate the way Consecration works, if it’s going to be that important to the build. Someone mentioned Glyph of the Consecrator, that is exactly what it needs in order for me to enjoy it as a core ability. If Consecration is to continue to be stationary, then it should be the least important ability in the whole arsenal, something you just fire off when you have no other buttons to press.
i also agree with alot of these points, con is such a non issue that i dont think its exactly a problem. its a short cd and if its sang week you just see when mobs are gonna die and plan accordingly
The issue I have with playing my Prot Paladin is it’s very demanding to play when you have 40%+ haste in keys. Judgement, Blessed Hammer, and Shield of Righteousness reset basically every 1s so you’re constantly mashing your keys. After 3-4 keys of doing this I’m getting worn out.
Prot has tons of interrupts, but is lacking in the AOE knockback/stun department. You have Blinding Light on a 1.5 minute cd and Hammer is 30-60s depending on talents. That’s it.
The forced Consecration playstyle is a bit punishing at times because it’s 30% dr when you’re standing in it.
I would also like to see the talent trees reworked a lot. There’s too many mandatory talents and it really limits build options a lot. I think we’ve had the same exact prot paladin tree build the entire expansion.
Prot is pretty good and fun to play imo, I enjoy it consistently but there are a few things that annoy me.
Consecration/Mastery just sucks, having our damage reduction tied to a stationary ground effect is just awful. I like that we can set up and face tank stuff but that can be done without forcing us to play around consecration. We could at the very least have a 30 second cd or something that makes consecration move with use for a while. Pulls that require movement, have ground effects, (sanguine week is cancer) are just not fun. Not to mention consecration doesn’t interact in a noticeable enough way for it to even feel good, it is barely visible ground effect with underwhelming damage and passive buffs. Consecration is also annoying to play around because we also have SoTR giving use two maintenance defensive we need to keep up, it is just annoying.
Avengers shield needs to generate holy power again, it has been almost an entire expansion now and it still feels clunky and just wrong that it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter that the class functions without it, IT FEELS BAD.
Mana cost on WoG usually isn’t an issue at all, but when it is, it feels absolutely terrible. the fact that it is pretty much never an issue except for when it occasionally becomes a massive nuisance is an indication that they tried to fix something in the wrong way. Holy power spenders absolutely should not have a mana cost, across the board. What the hell is the point of them spending holy power if they cost mana, just remove the holy power at that point then.
The lack of choice between Blessed Hammer and Hammer of the Righteous is also annoying. I’d like the latter to be buffed to be more viable but right now it just doesn’t really ever feel worth using. I prefer the control it gives but it just doesn’t compete.
My last gripe is just a personal beef across the class with Blinding Light, it needs to be changed to a stun, knockback, knockdown, AoE silence or something that is actually useful. The current iteration, especially on prot, is less useful than Divine Toll. The micro interrupt that instantly breaks is just stupid, in what situation is the actual CC component even useful, they could move it to a .5 second duration and it would make no difference outside of leveling/solo play, it functions only as a micro interrupt.
As the top prot paladin world in SL, I agree they killed prot and buried it in the dirt. Its only mechanics are designed for m+ and prot is unplayable in pvp unlike other tanks and all other specs. Prot paladin should go back to its battle for Azeroth design which was the best or at least the shadowlands design with ashen hallow reinstalled into the talent tree. Sadly they only listen to wowhead guide writer for prot Lincoln which ignores every top prot paladins and bans them to advertise his own ideas making the spec worse as time goes on since bfa.
