My one Prot Paladin gripe

[Meagree]

I'm sure not many of you agree with this, but as a player whose first level 60 was a Prot Paladin, I always felt that Holy Shield was the most iconic ability for them - including the animation, the increased block chance, and the damage on block.

Nowadays we have Holy Shield as a talent, but it's mostly regarded as a pretty uninteresting talent as it's passive and doesn't give a lot.
We've also got a fair amount of people thinking Prot Paladin misses something, namely a choice for mitigation abilities (currently only SotR)

So what I was thinking was: what if Holy Shield (as an active ability) took the role that Shield Block has for Warriors?

Imagine the following:

Holy Shield
Shares charges with Shield of the Righteous, 10 sec CD.
Increases Block Chance by 50% for 10 seconds, and reduces damage taken by 25% (increased by Mastery and Consecration, same as SotR currently) for 4.5 seconds
Every attack you block causes (75% of attack power) as Holy Damage to the attacker, up to a maximum of (600% attack power, 50% more than SotR), when Holy Shield expires, the remaining damage is dealt to nearby enemies, split evenly among them.

Shield of the Righteous would work as it currently does.

Obviously I'm not saying this'd be the best way to do it, but doesn't anyone else feel that Holy Shield needs to be an active ability again?

[Veyloris]

The idea of it as an active ability again would be cool, but that would be insanely strong. Pallies would have far and away the best mitigation. Adding another guaranteed 4.5s window living into our rotation would mean we have nearly 100% uptime.

Cool idea, though, but I doubt we'll see any major iterations in this direction, barring someone at Blizzard having a stroke and accidentally making sweeping gameplay changes.

[Meagree]

The idea of it as an active ability again would be cool, but that would be insanely strong. Pallies would have far and away the best mitigation. Adding another guaranteed 4.5s window living into our rotation would mean we have nearly 100% uptime.

Cool idea, though, but I doubt we'll see any major iterations in this direction, barring someone at Blizzard having a stroke and accidentally making sweeping gameplay changes.

The ability would share charges with SotR, meaning no gain in direct DR (just a gain in block chance, but maybe too much).

That aside though I agree it's unlikely to happen, I just figured it would be nice if it did.

[Gallahadd]

I think what they should do is make Holy Shield baseline, then have it as an active ability which shares charges with SHoR.

Change SHoR to only work on physical damage, then make holy shield increase block chance by 10% for 4.5 seconds, allow Block to effect magic attacks and reflect a certain % of magic damage taken while its up. This way, we have a choice between physical mitigation from SHoR, or magic mitigation from HS.

[sage]

Change SHoR to only work on physical damage, then make holy shield increase block chance by 10% for 4.5 seconds, allow Block to effect magic attacks and reflect a certain % of magic damage taken while its up. This way, we have a choice between physical mitigation from SHoR, or magic mitigation from HS.

So, basically bear active mitigation, except worse?

[Meagree]

I think what they should do is make Holy Shield baseline, then have it as an active ability which shares charges with SHoR.

Change SHoR to only work on physical damage, then make holy shield increase block chance by 10% for 4.5 seconds, allow Block to effect magic attacks and reflect a certain % of magic damage taken while its up. This way, we have a choice between physical mitigation from SHoR, or magic mitigation from HS.

10% block is terribly low, and this doesn't really match Holy Shield's past effect very well.

[Gallahadd]

10% block is terribly low, and this doesn't really match Holy Shield's past effect very well.

I'll be honest, originally I had it at 100%, but figured that was overkill, so I cut out a 0.

[Noradin]

I'll be honest, originally I had it at 100%, but figured that was overkill, so I cut out a 0.

Overkill? With the pittance of block paladins get today?
And you do remember that blocks only reduce the damage by 30%?
Your version is even worse than the current one, and that is quite the archievement.

- - - Updated - - -

I think what they should do is make Holy Shield baseline, then have it as an active ability which shares charges with SHoR.

Change SHoR to only work on physical damage, then make holy shield increase block chance by 10% for 4.5 seconds, allow Block to effect magic attacks and reflect a certain % of magic damage taken while its up. This way, we have a choice between physical mitigation from SHoR, or magic mitigation from HS.

That one would net even be worth using except when you expect to get one-shotted.

[Gallahadd]

Isn't block 40%? I stopped playing for WoD, but I could have sworn it was 40% due to improved Shield Block.

So if we revert to the 100% block version, it would essentially make Holy Shield a 40% damage reduction, which also reflected a chunk of all magic damage back on the enemy.

If anything, it feels a little strong.