I have mained a Paladin ever since The Burning Crusade. I can no longer accept the job that our developers are doing throughout a wide array of certain class elements.
This will primarily be through the lens of Paladin. But I will also touch on Death Knights.
The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was Templar Paladin. I cannot stress this enough, but its current class fantasy is the biggest miss for The War Within out of any Hero Spec and its not even close.
Hammers? Really? Blizzard, you could have delivered an absolute slam dunk with this Hero Spec. Templar Paladin will of course always draw some name relation to the Knight’s Templar. How on Earth could you land on the decision to skin this Hero Spec into Hammers rather than Swords?
Hammers not only are the wrong thematic choice from a class fantasy perspective, but it also makes zero sense at all from a logical perspective.
How do Hammers achieve a new exciting class fantasy? Paladins in general are already primarily based in Hammers for their theme. Looking at this from my Ret Paladin’s perspective, where do all of my Sword themed abilities come from if not from Templar?
Furthermore, you mean to tell me that Wake of Ashes (The Ashbringer ability) augments itself into Hammer of Light? How on Earth does that even make any sense?
Templar easily should have been grounded on the physical (Holystrike) capabilities of the Paladin player and offered an amazing theme based around Swords. We also should have seen Eye for an Eye make a return instead of Shield of Vengeance from the talent that procs this from using Wake of Ashes. This is the correct direction for the theme.
Moving on from the obvious and disappointing miss of Templar’s class fantasy, I want to quickly comment on the Rider of the Apocalypse Hero Spec.
I want to start by saying that the talents, On a Paler Horse and Death Charge seriously nail this class fantasy. That is a fantastic job.
As a Paladin main, I have no issues at all with Death Knight’s receiving these abilities. Personally, mounted combat has always fit in with the class fantasy of a Death Knight more so than a Paladin to me.
Here is where the issue is. You are telling me, that Paladins could not receive Wings of Liberty (Paladin Leap) during our rework because, quoting from Morgan Day in an interview with Towelliee, “that would basically be just giving them a Warrior ability.”
Please explain to me, how Death Charge and On a Paler Horse are not just giving Death Knight’s a Paladin ability?
The hypocrisy is beyond believing and I can tolerate it no longer. How do you expect me to purchase your next expansion set and pay monthly when this is the kind of rational treatment you are giving to Paladin players.
When was the last time that Paladins actually received something visually or functionally amazing? Avenging Wrath was and is iconic. But everyone else has caught up on this arms race. We now have Demon Hunters and Evokers. Even priests can use a new ability in Ultimate Penitence.
There is a massive amount of feedback on the Templar forum, giving their preference for a Sword based theme rather than Hammers. You guys still refuse to acknowledge it. Even after claiming that Hero Specs would still be shaped by our feedback many times.
The problem goes much deeper than this, as this is just my frustration surfacing through the Paladin lens.
Take Death Knights again for a quick example. I recently saw comments about how you guys are keeping the Wounds system for Unholy and Breath for Frost Death Knights for The War Within.
Why Blizzard? How could you make this much of a massive mistake? Next to no Death Knights want these systems and abilities. In fact, many have been screaming for a rework all throughout Dragonflight.
Please start listening to your players. They are lining up giving endless feedback for your team to deliver slam dunks! But for whatever reason, you guys ignore it time and time again.