Figured for fun, and also because I want to pass some time at work, I would talk about my experiences so far as a protection paladin after the patch.
If you never played a paladin before, here is some information about how the old tanking worked. You had a rotation of skills you utilized one after the other, maximizing cooldowns. Our main bread and butter attack was Hammer of the Righteous, which could be used effectively for single and multi-target. We also used other skills like consecration, judgement, etc... to either snap aggro to us from certain mobs or help debuff the target.
4.0.1 changed a lot of how the class played, some for the better, and some for the worst.
The first big change is that Hammer of the Righteous is now a paladin version of Thunderclap that you spam and requires a regular target. It can now only be used well in mutli-target situations, because the overall damage is very low. This has some good sides and downsides.
The good side is that now it does not have a cap on the amount of creatures it "hits", allowing you to spam it and hit all mobs, even when you have more then 3 (or 4 with the old glyph). The bad side is not only is the damage itself feel lower, but since it no longer hits other mobs with a regular strike they no longer apply Censure (formerly Vengeance) to the extra targets. Overall, the skill has become more "spam" with little in the way of building up a sustained aggro generation. You miss a cooldown in multi-target and something is very likely to peel off you. Now in single target you have to use Crusader Strike if you want to hold aggro in high damage situations, which takes getting used to.
This wouldn't be so bad if Consecration was not nerfed. Before, the skill had a cooldown that was the same as the duration, meaning when used in a proper rotation the skill can have nearly a 100% uptime. It has been changed now to a 10 second duration with a 30 second cooldown. It now can only be used 33% of the time and thus loses a whole lot of it's luster.
Holy Shield and Shield of the Righteous (formerly Shield of Righteousness) also saw major changes. You can no longer start a fight with Holy Shield, as you must hit something with SOTR before it applies, and SOTR requires Holy Power. With only one Holy Power the ability already hits like a wet noodle, but you have to do it to get the extra block. Worst yet, Holy Shield lost 15% of it's block bonus, the extra aggro generation, and the damage component. It has become a very generic and uninteresting buff, but still required.
One of the hardest changes to my skills were the removal of Judgment of Light, meaning you can no longer apply a "heal on hit" debuff to the target. We also lost Sacred Shield, which talented was an excellent tool for mitigation when starting a fight when you didn't have a paladin healer. Hand of Reckoning even lost it's damage component.
On the bright side, mana regeneration is ridiculously high now thanks to Judgments of the Wise. I never leave a fight without 100% mana at the end. Also, Avenger's Shield is now one of our bread and butter skills for both pulling and attack, since we can refresh the cooldown during combat, which I think was one of the better changes to make up for so much lost aoe threat gen.
Anyways it will take some time to get the hang of the new style of play, but I admit, I am rather sad about losing so many of the skills I considered the flavor of the paladin, just so I can now have a silly version of combo points.
If you never played a paladin before, here is some information about how the old tanking worked. You had a rotation of skills you utilized one after the other, maximizing cooldowns. Our main bread and butter attack was Hammer of the Righteous, which could be used effectively for single and multi-target. We also used other skills like consecration, judgement, etc... to either snap aggro to us from certain mobs or help debuff the target.
4.0.1 changed a lot of how the class played, some for the better, and some for the worst.
The first big change is that Hammer of the Righteous is now a paladin version of Thunderclap that you spam and requires a regular target. It can now only be used well in mutli-target situations, because the overall damage is very low. This has some good sides and downsides.
The good side is that now it does not have a cap on the amount of creatures it "hits", allowing you to spam it and hit all mobs, even when you have more then 3 (or 4 with the old glyph). The bad side is not only is the damage itself feel lower, but since it no longer hits other mobs with a regular strike they no longer apply Censure (formerly Vengeance) to the extra targets. Overall, the skill has become more "spam" with little in the way of building up a sustained aggro generation. You miss a cooldown in multi-target and something is very likely to peel off you. Now in single target you have to use Crusader Strike if you want to hold aggro in high damage situations, which takes getting used to.
This wouldn't be so bad if Consecration was not nerfed. Before, the skill had a cooldown that was the same as the duration, meaning when used in a proper rotation the skill can have nearly a 100% uptime. It has been changed now to a 10 second duration with a 30 second cooldown. It now can only be used 33% of the time and thus loses a whole lot of it's luster.
Holy Shield and Shield of the Righteous (formerly Shield of Righteousness) also saw major changes. You can no longer start a fight with Holy Shield, as you must hit something with SOTR before it applies, and SOTR requires Holy Power. With only one Holy Power the ability already hits like a wet noodle, but you have to do it to get the extra block. Worst yet, Holy Shield lost 15% of it's block bonus, the extra aggro generation, and the damage component. It has become a very generic and uninteresting buff, but still required.
One of the hardest changes to my skills were the removal of Judgment of Light, meaning you can no longer apply a "heal on hit" debuff to the target. We also lost Sacred Shield, which talented was an excellent tool for mitigation when starting a fight when you didn't have a paladin healer. Hand of Reckoning even lost it's damage component.
On the bright side, mana regeneration is ridiculously high now thanks to Judgments of the Wise. I never leave a fight without 100% mana at the end. Also, Avenger's Shield is now one of our bread and butter skills for both pulling and attack, since we can refresh the cooldown during combat, which I think was one of the better changes to make up for so much lost aoe threat gen.
Anyways it will take some time to get the hang of the new style of play, but I admit, I am rather sad about losing so many of the skills I considered the flavor of the paladin, just so I can now have a silly version of combo points.
