Hi guys. Unfortunately I don't have time to play WoW anymore (not in the way I want to play it at least), but I still like checking up on classes and cool abilities. One particular class was of course the Holy Paladin, but a lot of the fun that there was once seems to be gone in MoP, even though they might be strong.

The reason for their awesomeness was because of having to choose, being limited and because it required positioning. It seemed like Blizzard wanted healers to look out on the encounter too rather than only focusing on raid frames, and that was what was so great about Holy Paladins in Cataclysm. This was especially true because of two particular spells:

Light of Dawn, the most interesting spell before. Every time I found opportunities where I could hit 5 or more targets, I swear I could see rainbows while hearing the Robot Unicorn Attack Song. Everytime! That spell design was just perfect. You would have to know the position of your allies, you would need to face them and you would have to charge up Holy Power. Some fights would limit you, but that limit was what made it interesting, and not just a "click-it-and-it-works-spell" like Prayer of Healing. So healing wasn't only about "does people need health?" but position and encounter too.

Holy Radiance!!! Fabulous spell as well. Again, because YOU were forced to being the beacon of healing, you had to position yourself, and sometimes it was risky and not worth it, but that's what is so great about it. I remember the glitter and the sound, and the tons of numbers. It was also a great design.

Divine Plea. Another spell that required timing to be efficient, rather than being able to spam it every cool down and get mana. Hymn of Hope is limited because it's a channel spell, and in the same way Divine Plea was not effective to use while healing was needed, and these types of spell was great because the player would need to find situations where to use it. Genius idea. Now, you can pretty much macro it to your main spells.

I honestly think the reason why Blizzard simplified the spells was just be able to create content where no classes was being limited. That would force them to design the encounters so that Holy Paladins could heal with their cone heal and be on pair with the other healers than don't necessarily rely on cones. They probably just wanted to free themselves to be able to design more diverse fights, not having to think "Guys, what about Restoration Shamans, this will be a bull shit fight for them", and I understand that, but, the encounters where you would have to prove your personal skills by your limitation of your class was the funniest, because good players would always find their way. And I think instead of removing the limitations, they should add them to the other classes as well.

Simple spells where the good players would be those able to use them effectively was the best. This is what was great about WoW. Now there's too many spells that does not require anymore thinking than just clicking them whenever you have less than 80% mana or people have less than 80% health.

I haven't played Holy Paladins in MoP, so perhaps it isn't that bad. So please, feel free to share your ideas.