Twitter Dev Chat, Blue post

[Pumps]

Yay, 5pm american west coast time - that's something like 2 in the morning. Thanks a lot guys.

[Mahtamori]

Considering the Crusader Strike change to a default ability at level 1, Retribution are due an activated ability at that position in the tree. Now, the question is whether it's actually a offensive strike or not. We just don't know how the rotation is going to look like for Paladins. Will they be using builder attacks (a'la original beta)? Will they go to having procs and twitch-striking?

Ironically, this is the situation with Paladins:
Holy: Has no AOE
Protection: Has too much AOE
Retribution: Has too much AOE
That said, I don't particularly see how Paladins are in any shape or form better at AOE than the other tanking classes, unless we're talking about Undead. I find only the Warriors are worse off and Death Knight AOE tanking is laughably easy. Sure, Paladins may be easy up to 4-5 targets, but after that it's excessively difficult to keep mobs off the dpsers since the abilities are too unpredictable.

[Dezeray]

I'm still going to continue to level my paladin that I'm working on right now. She is going to be ret/prot and I'm going to enjoy playing her along with all my other classes come Cataclysm. I play a resto Shaman as well and I was a little sad to hear they were taking out the cleansing totem and it's abilities, but you know what? Life goes on. I'm going to enjoy my cleansing totem while I have it and damn well put it out in every fight it needs to be while I can lol. Maybe in Cataclysm things we'll be mostly magic based, and we will need to cleanse that, and that is why they gave it to everyone. That is just my guess.
Anyway. In the words of Arnold -- Stop your whining

[Deleted]

I thought enhancement shamans were already tedious enough to play.

[Panoramixe]

So the twitter thing is in 4 hours right? Damn Americans and their stupid hours ...
Not sure if I'll still be up at 2am here, if I am I'm sure to follow it.

[Radux]

Well, here's to hoping that the developers chat will clarify some various ongoing questions. Cheers.

[Arthas]

Divine Storm
Divine Storm will get the Whirlwind treatment (less damage per target but unlimited targets).

:-\ :'(

[Mibuwolf]

While I dont really know what the final product will be like... as far as i can see they are planning to nerf paladin's defensive capabilities, nerf the damage of divine storm, remove magic (the bloody frostbolt) cleansing from a prot and ret repertoire, nerf the aoe tanking ability of a prot pally, nerf beacon of light, make FoL expensive to cast...

kinda depressing if you ask me.

The new pet better be some frickin god. On a 3min cd. with any luck people will still whine and they'll give it a forbearance effect

[BlackMage66652]

Man, Paladins are so doomed. :-[

[Switchshot]

Good god... people just cry and cry and cry!!!

1. IT'S ALPHA
2. Shut up
3. They will compensate
4. Classes are contantly being balanced
5. Shut up
6. Just relax and let it play out. If you insist though, delete your pally. Less QQing FOTM noobs playing my class, the better. But really, just have some patience. DS isnt a nerf

[Jasyn]

Man, Paladins are so getting balanced so that they don't have insane survivability, and as a result will get a boost in damage

I fixed that for you.

[Sirsimeon]

Damnit, why do blizzard have to get into twitter, soon they'll be on Facebook..

I HATE these fads

[Jukaï]

Damnit, why do blizzard have to get into twitter, soon they'll be on Facebook..

I HATE these fads

They already are on Facebook. :

[Demran]

Really liked the Blessing changes, since it takes most of the time of buffing..

[Deleted]

Divine Storm
Divine Storm will get the Whirlwind treatment (less damage per target but unlimited targets).

o.O

Interesting how they are making a 51 point talent as useless as a baseline warrior ability. How they claim Divine Storm heals so its good makes me laugh.

[Dedal]

That said, I don't particularly see how Paladins are in any shape or form better at AOE than the other tanking classes, unless we're talking about Undead. I find only the Warriors are worse off and Death Knight AOE tanking is laughably easy. Sure, Paladins may be easy up to 4-5 targets, but after that it's excessively difficult to keep mobs off the dpsers since the abilities are too unpredictable.

Seriously? 4-5 targets only?
Avenger Shield + Holy Shield + HotR + Consecration + 1 tab = easily 8 targets in the first 1-2sec of the fight.

[Sageth]

Next comes the Retribution paladin, getting 4 chaining DS procs and they all hit the 4 mobs you've hit the least. You can't control which mobs will be hit by SoC cleaves, HotR, AS and Holy Shield. You could get unlucky and hit 3 mobs with all attacks and have nothing on the other 5 mobs.

[Panoramixe]

The chat seems to have started and Boubie seems to be sleeping (I hope for him there's a pair of boobs lying next to (or on top or below) him.


Q: Any plans to give Fury Warriors more hit from precision or another talent due to the removal of Heroic Strike as"next weapon" hit?
A: Part of the problem is that Fury warriors undervalue hit as it is because of the way Heroic Strike works today. We’ll make sure they do appropriate damage with the new model, but that probably won’t be with a talent that says “I don’t have to worry about getting hit for my gear.”

Q: Will Protection Warriors have improved AoE tanking in Cataclysm?
A: We will make sure they don’t feel gimp compared to the other 3 tanks. We’re not going to give them an ability that they can just spam endlessly to maintain AE threat. We think Thunder Clap and Shockwave already work well for that. We want you to have to manage threat, but we don’t want it to be insanely hard to manage. (You also might be doing less AE tanking in Cataclysm overall.)

Q: How will haste affect channeled spells. Will it be similar to DoTs and HoTs?
A: They will channel faster but their duration will remain unchanged. You will get more ticks on the same cast.

Q: Do you intend to have all 280% flying mounts scale to 310% when a 310% mount is earned, or will only purchased mounts do so?
A: Our current plan, is that in Cataclysm, you can learn a new rank of flying that lets all flying mounts move at 310% (even current 280% mounts). That will probably be as fast as mounts will ever get. We don’t like it that when you get a 310% mount that you stop using your old ones.

Q: Will healing hands be a paladin-centered tranquility, or something we have to run around to keep people in range of?
A: The idea is that it matters where the paladin is, so it won’t be raid-wide like Tranquility will be in Cataclysm. We will make sure the magnitude of the heal is sufficient that it’s a button the paladin wants to use. The cooldown and duration aren’t set in stone either.

Q: When does the homogenization of classes stop? Paladins are starting to look like priests. Where is the diversity?
A: We want the challenge of beating PvE encounters or enemy teams in PvP to be how awesome you are at strategizing, not how often you are at recruiting the right classes. While it is very, very important to us for classes to feel different, it’s also very important to us that friends get to play together.

[mushi2106]

Mastery and multiple trees
If you are a 5/20/51 Ret paladin, you get mastery bonuses for spending 51 points in Retribution, and nothing else.

If a rogue is 55/21/0, they get mastery bonuses for spending 51-55 points in Assassination and nothing else.

What happens when we'll be lvl 85 (= 76 talent points) and let's say someone (even though it's quite useless) has a 38/38 spec. Which tree bonus would u get?

[Ealyssa]

4. Classes are contantly being balanced

Tell that to balance druids who were doing shit ALL wotlk until late last patch.