What's up with Holy Power?

[JakeSteel]

I plan on making a Paladin once Cataclysm comes out, and they've apparently got a new mechanic Holy Power. I can't recall any thread I've read about it being positive, just people complaining about how it's going to ruin Paladin DPS. I never used DPS meters or saw this as a numbers game, so that doesn't bother me (I like to play tank anyway), but I'm curious as to how the Holy Power mechanic is really supposed to work.

All I've heard so far is that generating Holy Power is random or something, and thus everyone is complaining. My assumption is that Blizzard made the Holy Power resource like that just to spice up gameplay, make it exciting every once in a while. But other people are assuming that because they're adding it to the game, it's 100% required to use it all the time to do well.

This is an uninformed opinion, of course, which is why I've come to you guys to fill me in on what's up.



Also, what the hell is Word of Glory? I've seen it several times in talent descriptions but I can't find it in any spell list.

[Deleted]

Long story short: Holy combo points. You get holy power from skills such as crusader strike and holy shock, and some procs from talents.

Word of Glory is an instant cast, 0 mana cost heal which uses up your holy power and heals more depending on how many holy power points you had.

[JakeSteel]

Oh alright, that actually clears a lot of it up, thanks

[JakeSteel]

Awesome, thanks for the spec clarification. I'm looking forward to this Paladin every day! Can't wait for Cata!

[Typhron]

1. It generates too slowly. This is mostly a prot concern, as they only have a single source of Holy Power on a fixed 4.5s cooldown. Their primary threat ability is tied to it which effectively puts a 13.5s ramp up time on it. Naturally this is causing some burst threat concerns.

Pretty much this. It's a bit like combo points, only a lot less flexibility (Anything less than 3 HP/5 CP seems to be unacceptable).