Originally Posted by
Reglitch
No, you don't understand, holy paladin mastery is worse than spirit shell. Spirit shell at least requires the finesse of planning, IH is completely passive and rewards heal spam regardless of the situation. Paladins already intrude on the gameplay of HoT healers such as Mistweavers and Restoration Druids. Without even considering the fact that you have one talent which makes you arguably better at the specialized niche of two other classes, how on earth do you think it's fair that it also has a buffer to the main caveat of said niche (overhealing).
I'm lucky enough to play with two very talented holy paladins, I cannot compete with either of them until damage starts getting past their shields. Even in heroic content, their shields can stack during low damage phases to absurd amounts, when it comes time for actual damage on the raid it's completely neutered.
Paladins have currently by far the best HoT in the game, the best shields in the game, the best cooldowns in the game, and the best tank healing in the game. All of which they can access with one talent build, which is pretty much godmode as far as PvE healing is concerned. As far as I can see, every problem with paladins at the minute is caused by their cheap access to Eternal Flame, which could be solved either by entirely removing the ability (my ideal solution), giving it a minimum HP cost, making the HoT portion not transfer to beacon and not generate IH, making your mastery not generate shields on overhealing, or nerfing the crap out of your mastery.
I don't like this solution, because by next patch we'll be in the same boat all over again, but it's better than nothing and I'll definitely take it.