here’s a history lesson on Reckoning over the course of Vanilla by way of Blue posts - what we do know for a fact is that the talent CHANGED multiple times over the course of the 2 year vanilla era:
Poster: Baconn at 5/25/2006 11:30:17 AM PDT
Subject: Guide to Reckoning V2 (Current 1.10)
A Short (And Subjective) History (Thanks Nidhogg)
Reckoning originally reset your swing timer + gave you the extra attack if you were in melee range. This was nice, but did nothing if they were behind you (rogue) or at range. There was a bug with this, where if you had a Reckoning attack but were stunned, your swing timer was bugged, and you would not be able to attack until you were crit again (to fire your reckoning off).
They patched this, and gave it its second incarnation. This was the current form minus the charges. This was the most fun you could have as a Paladin to date in my opinion. Unlimited stores equalled insta-shotting anyone with enough charges stored up. The fix was to give Paladins a way to still have the talent be useful (instead of useless by being stunned from behind) and also to fix the attack swing bug the original had.
Well Blizz didn’t like this new method of killing people. Sure it was situational, but it had adverse affects on PvE content. You could, if devoted enough time, one shot the outdoor Raid bosses. There are instances (I dont have the links) of a Paladin getting Kazzak to 50% and even killing him in one swing.
Blizz realized that they had struck gold with this talent fix but needed to fine tune it, so they added a reckoning limit, and voila. They should go one step further and explain the conditions it fails and call it working as intended… but whatever.
http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-paladin/1069149.htm
Poster: Pavonum at 5/7/2006 12:35:58 AM PDT
Subject: Re: Reckoning. Is it fixed yet?
It would appear that this particular issue is still active, but we are currently investigating the matter in our efforts to determine its cause and devise a more permanent resolution. In the meantime, Ochie, I’d like to apologise for any frustration this may have caused you during your battles.
http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-customer-service/9456.htm
Poster: Fangtooth at 9/12/2005 5:52:23 PM PDT
Subject: Re: “problem with reckoning”
We are aware of the issues with Reckoning, and we hope to have them fixed in an upcoming patch.
http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-paladin/407317.htm
Poster: Hortus at 6/3/2005 2:52:04 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Bug? Reckoning resets swing…
Thanks for the report. This issue has been noted and can be found here:
http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-realm-test/40837.htm
Poster: Tyren at 5/12/2005 11:32:06 AM PDTSubject: Hotfix - Paladin talent: Reckoning
We have hotfixed the Paladin talent Reckoning to stack a maximum of 4 times. This change will take effect the next time realms are restarted.
http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-general/3097293.htm