Nerds at Play

Now that WotLK has entered the first beta phase and all the good info is officially posted on Wowhead, I’d say it’s safe to take a look. I steered clear of the initial “alpha leaks” and early reports of changes for Lich King because, well, you couldn’t tell what would pan out and what would just get junked.

At this point, it’s safe to peek around and comment on what’s coming. You can expect some observations and comments about pending changes over the next few weeks.

First up? The utterly awesome Shield of Righteousness.

Shield Slam for Paladins?

One thing that has set Paladins apart from Warriors and Druids is single target tanking. Paladins can certainly hold their own in survivability, but they just aren’t made for generating single target threat over the long term.

Why? Most of the Paladins abilities are geared towards multiple targets. As such, they’re relatively weak in terms of up-front burst threat. Consecration, Holy Shield, Retribution Aura, and Blessing of Sanctuary can all generate massive amounts of threat over the long term.

For burst threat, there are few options. Judgement of Righteousness is the main option - and it’s on an 8 to 10 second cooldown. Avenger’s Shield is ok, but it’s mana intensive for one target, and risky if you’re taking a lot of damage. Exorcism is awesome, but it’s situational and it’s on a long cooldown as well.

In WotLK, Paladins are going to receive a new ability to help remedy this. At level 75, Paladins will be able to train Shield of Righteousness.

Why’s That So Good…?

This new ability is great for several reasons.

First, it gives Paladins another option for single target threat generation. Currently, it deals 200% of your block value as Holy Damage. That would be a low end of ~600 damage and a high end of ~1500-2000 damage with current gear. Take into account Righteous Fury and the “high threat,” and you’re looking at an incredible amount of threat - a low end of 1500, with up 4-5000 possible.

That seems somewhat excessive for a 6 second cooldown, so that amount of damage will probably be adjusted - but it’s the mechanic that counts. Another reason that this is awesome is that you no longer need to use Consecration when single target tanking. This should deal as much if not more threat to a single target, and it’s on a shorter cooldown. Your normal rotation will now probably include Judgement, Holy Shield, and Shield of Righteousness whenever it’s available.

Dropping Consecration from the rotation makes Paladins much more mana efficient when tanking bosses. Consecration is a mana intensive spell, and one mob - even a boss - usually isn’t going to deal enough damage for you to regain it through Spiritual Attunement. Shield of Righteousness provides you with a cheaper alternative. 6% of base mana is slightly more than Judgement (5% of base mana). I’d say it’s a fair assumption that you can spam Holy Shield, Judgement, and Shield of Righteousness in most fights without going OOM. Throw in some Consecrations when you have excess mana and need a bit more threat.

Finally, this helps Paladin threat scale with a much needed stat - Block Value. It always struck me as backwards that Warriors - the so called king of single target tanking - should have an ability that scales threat with block value. When a boss hits you for 3, 4, or 5k, Block Value is fairly insubstantial. Block Value matters most when you’re dealing in multi-target tanking - a Tankadin’s reason for being. Currently, a Paladin needs to sacrifice avoidance and threat (spell power) in order to gain Block Value. With Shield of Righteousness, Paladins will get an extra bonus from their Block Value.

In short, Shield of Righteousness is awesome for the following reasons:

• Paladins get single target threat equal to or greater than warriors.
• Consecration is no longer necessary as a single-target threat generation tool. It can either be removed from the rotation or used as a mana-dump and GCD filler for bonus threat.
• Mana efficiency is greatly increased on single targets. Shield is far cheaper and cost effective than Consecrate.
• Paladin threat will scale, in part, with Block Value. More stat synergy ftw.

And that’s just one of many reasons that Tankadins will be monsters in WotLK…