Admittedly, there are several abilities the Unpruning is bringing back that I’m happy about. The problem is many of them are just…well, worthless.
Take Sense Undead for example, how did this ever REALLY benefit us? At least Hunter’s Sense had a point behind it: to help them find specific animals for both questlines and adding them as combat pets.
And once this expansion is done, then what good is it when the majority of mobs AREN’T undead?
This brings me to the next ability: Turn Evil. While this could be useful, again I’d argue that it is far too depend on fighting very specific mobs that simply won’t make up the vast majority of enemies when the next expansion comes out.
To me, these abilities are just unnecessary baggage that should have been removed in favor of better previously pruned abilities that have more to offer the class.
Take Exorcism for example, I loved that ability! And just imagine a retuned Holy Wrath that didn’t just damage and stun Undead, but EVERYTHING? How awesome would that be?
And on a side note, Retribution Aura…why? This seems remarkably counterproductive to have an Aura that only actually works if someone FAILS. What if a group is good and people DON’T die…it’s useless!
If anything, it should function like a passive Thorns ability or something that steadily burns health from enemies in proximity to the Paladin and his affected party members. Now THAT would be nice, THAT would fit the idea of ‘retribution.’
Turn evil will be good for pvp. Can peel your healer or yourself well from lichborne dks. Hopefully they also allow you to use it against metamorphosis dh.
From other fear affects but turn evil is supposed to fear lichborne dks. It’s also currently testing like that on alpha from my understanding which is really good.
Would be nice to also effect demon hunters in meta. Granted the window on a DK in Lich form is a lot shorter than demon hunter. Also I thought TE always had a cast time, same as repentance.
These extremely niche abilities are the coolest thing about paladin. Being an actual bane of evil is awesome, in fact i want more of them. Holy Wrath would be incredibly lame if it just damaged everything, damaging only undead is so unique and thematic for paladins.
I like the flavor abilities. It hurts nothing for them to bring back Sense Undead and Turn Evil. For me as a Paladin, it was fun to go into the Eastern Plaguelands into an area heavily populated by Undead and just be like “They’ve got me surrounded. That simplifies things.” That “let them come” attitude should be what Paladins fighting Undead/Demons is all about.
I miss Exorcism. That it was taken from us is just a travesty. Paladins having Exorcism is definitely a part of class flavor.
Retribution Aura used to work exactly as you describe: Enemies took damage when they attacked anyone in our aura. That’s how it should be, in my opinion. While the Inigo Montoya effect of the upcoming version would technically count as “Retribution”, you’re right that it only works if someone dies, and that makes it not feel good to me as an aura,… As a Paladin self-effect, maybe, but not as an aura.
And what about Greater Blessings? Am I to understand we’re losing those completely in Shadowlands? What craziness is this? Almost as much as smiting Undead/Demons was a Paladin thing, Blessings were too. Part of the class flavor for me was always that I could randomly buff someone if I came across them. I loved that. Pass by a Warrior? Throw him Might. Mage? Throw him Wisdom. Already had one of the above? Here’s a Kings. “Compassion” is one of the Tenets of the Light, after all, and what’s more Compassionate than handing out free buffs in passing?
But no, we ended up with these two travesties that Blizzard continued to call “Greater Blessing of Kings” and “Greater Blessing of Wisdom” that could only be cast on ONE person EVER at any given time. Should’ve just renamed them “Buff 1” and “Buff 2” at that point. And it sounds like soon we won’t even have that.
Long story short, I want REAL blessings back. Just because I don’t want to group up with every dang person I see on the map doesn’t mean I don’t want to be nice and throw them a buff every now and then, especially if they were kind enough to throw one on me (Thank you to all the Priests who have done so when I wasn’t looking, heh).
All of this is why I moved to Classic. My Paladin, which I’ve played since vanilla, just wasn’t the same character at all anymore. Being surrounded by nine demons in ZG and unleashing a holy wrath that just obliterates them all is incredibly satisfying. Sure there are downsides but I’m judging, blessing, consecrating and throwing hammers at mobs trying to flee again and it’s great. It’s like an old friend has returned in his true form.