Prot paladins in 4.2

[Seani]

Yeah the HS changes are a nerf, I read the developers' comments. They felt that Prot pallies were too op going into the firelands. Personally I disagree, but I havent played all the tanking classes so I dont know. I do know that saying we had too much self healing pre- 4.1 is rediculous, you look at blood dk and feral druid self healing, we were never close. I dont know if we were op in pvp, personally I dont play much pvp with my prot pally. Im thinking that prot pallies arent that viable in pvp, but then again I dont know. People ask me, "well why dont you use seal of insight to tank." I dont use seal of insight because its a silly idea, single target threat for us still terrible even with seal of truth, we were never meant to use seal of insight for tanking.

[Deleted]

Its not. 6969696 was a static rotation. So is the current model, even with the largely superfluous GC proc.
EJL

Stricly speaking the optimum threat "rotation" is using SotR when Inquisition or Sacred Duty are active and also appropriately using GC procs to not create holy power overspill.

[Talen]

Stricly speaking the optimum threat "rotation" is using SotR when Inquisition or Sacred Duty are active and also appropriately using GC procs to not create holy power overspill.

Strictly speaking, the optimum threat rotation isn't an issue at the best of times. Moreso, the rotation is CS followed by one of three separate skills and repeating. Simply put, bnut essentially true.

EJL

[a1derful1]

The passive ardent defender from wrath was much better imo cuz you always had that safety net. It saved me many times when the healer slipped up or I got smashed hard and was a wake up call that there could be no more bs now. It being a button now is kinda lame....just something for ppl qq'ing about not having enough buttons to push....gg.

Holy shield as a button again is kinda lame as well...we already have divine protection and ardent defender to push for some dmg mitigation....I don't really need another button.

If I wanted a lot of buttons, I'd go play my warrior more.

[jeffersonian000]

I could stand for pally to be a little less "interesting" and a tad bit more "boring". Over the past several hotfixes abnd patches, I've gone from being able to keep up with the DK and Warrior tanks to now being a third-rate class. The other day, a healer asked me if I was normally this squishy. I told him no, 6 patches ago healers were asking me if they should switch to dps, as they just weren't doing much healing. Even just 2 months ago healers were fighting over who got to tank-heal me in raids, as the other tanks ' damage taken were too spikey. That's just not the case today.

On a PvP note, I've been PvP prot since WotLK, and have at times been a god in battlegrounds and arenas. Not anymore. Its as if my gear doesn't exist and I'm running around naked with a wiffleball bat and a piece of cardboard with "shield" written on it. Everybody self-heals faster and with less effort than Prot Pallies do atm. Everybody.

I'll wait and see what Firelands brings in, while leveling a different class to tank with. Prot Pallies just aren't as fun as they use to be. The last thing I want is a another button to push at the last moment that may or may not have been worth pushing.

SJ

[Nyghtfall]

People have stated before that the Holy Shield change is not that big of a difference in damage taken but it is a difference in HOW the damage is taken. As our block system currently works, our damage intake is much smoother than other tanks, and as such we are easier to heal. Apparently to Blizzard this is a problem with tank balance, so they changed the Holy Shield system to provide with moments of less damage and moments of more damage, effectively making our damage intake spikier and alittle more on par with the other tanks. The biggest effect of this change will be in how we are healed.

[silentsyco]

I have only had time to run a pug BoT on the PTR, so I can't really speak too much about the HS change, but right now the biggest problem is remembering to actually push the damn button. Once I can get my mind trained to look for it every 30 seconds, I can start thinking about if I should push it or wait for an incoming damage spike then push it.

It won't be a giant nerf, but it will require a little bit more attention to get the most out of it.