@Lovemace: I’m so happy to hear that Fel Hunters will FINALLY have a reasonable counter. And how appropriate that it would come from a Paladin! Great analysis of regeneration issues of the four healers. It sounds like they may have taken the Illumination nerf too far. Then again, Illumination wouldn’t really help in terms of reactive mana regeneration after being the victim of drains. >.<

Although fel hunters have very high magical resistance, as I understand it at this point in time there is no holy resist in the game. While Paladins (and priests) may get a “resist” show in their combat log, these are spell misses – hense why spell pen is a waste of time for shockadins

If there was holy resistance in the game, I doubt that you’d ever see a holy paladin unload on a warlock pet. Holy shock and Exorcism are pretty mana-intensive, and if they had a chance to partial or full resist it wouldn’t be worth it – its not fantastic dmg as it is. So thankfully thats one thing we don’t have to worry about!

The biggest thing about the Turn Evil change is that now when vsing a lock we will be able to get out of combat for a longer period than the “bridge jump” currently buys us to drink (not that you should be letting the pet live that long anyway, at least in 2s).

However, with these new water changes I honestly think Paladins were set to suffer the most. With terrible regen on pvp gear, BoW dispellable, and no reliable way to cc pets to get out of combat (hammer is a joke – as magical and a stun, it can both miss and resist), we need drinking more than anyone in that once we’re out of mana we’re very definately out – and in the current drain-dominant state of the game, we get out of mana very fast (bg9 seems to be over-populated with hunters atm – and hunters find paladins dee-licious).

Priests have the pet and fear (and good regen), druids have innervate (albeit dispellable too), great mobility, and root and cyclone (albeit resistable), and shamans have the new form of water shield (zomgwtf-regen).

Often all we can grab is a couple of ticks at a time, and now thats pretty much worthless!

One the other point, once again I don’t really understand Blizzard’s logic – they wish to nerf druids in pvp, yet nerf the pve-strong element of lifebloom. Go figure :s

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4665465789&sid=1&pageNo=1

I’m well into the point where chain heal is beginning to perform very well, and supposedly it only gets more powerful as the content increases. It might not seem like a huge deal to people when they only quote one lifebloom stack, but with 4 stacks druids are losing anywhere from 2-300 HPS.

To be quite frank, it was completely uncalled for in PvE, as very high end resto druids already have work cut out for them to stay competitive. All the mana change is going to end up doing is encourage people to cast regrowth more often, as most people already gemmed pure +healing anyway – Funny that they don’t seem to get the notion that, very often, I don’t have that 2 seconds to spare. If I do…it’ll be after I finish refreshing the stacks on the tanks.

Live:
http://www.kamileon.net/wow/Live_lifebloom.jpg

PTR:
http://www.kamileon.net/wow/PTR_Lifebloom.jpg

@Kaymoo: Paladins have actually been nerfed at least twice, once for Illumination and once for Blessing of Freedom. I find it really irritating that it’s often the overpoweredness of Warriors that results in a nerf to the classes who happen to be synergistic with them.

@Lovemace: What a very insightful set of comments. You certainly have no reason to be shy about sharing a Paladin’s outlook here, even if it is a Druid blog. =) I think that the Turn Evil change is definitely a step in the right direction, but I’m afraid that without a corresponding reduction of the spell resistance on Fel Hunters, it’s not going to accomplish as much as was intended (Paladins really need a way to protect themselves from perma-Silence, especially since it doesn’t suffer from the DR that it should). I’m curious what percent of the time TE will actually work on a Fel Hunter; I know trying to Root or Cyclone one is frequently an act of futility!

As for Warlocks, am I correct in understanding that while the base spell of Drain Mana was buffed, there is no longer (or a substantially less) spell dmg coefficient for the spell?

As for druids, I wish Blizz would do away with their nerf bat. They need to actually put some effort in, stop listening to “nerf x” QQers and find constructive ways to balance the healing classes, and indeed the role of healing in pvp in general.

Does anyone else feel that Blizz has sacrificed the soul of this game in pursuit of PvP balance? Making whole-sale changes that don’t so much reflect the flavour of the class? E.g. adding a mortal strike effect to x dps class to increase efficacy in the post resilience, high hp and healer centric pvp world?

And seems like resilience is their vehicle for pushing through balancing changes. While I guess its a good thing, somehow it seems like they’re taking the easy option so as to not have to actually balance pvp properly. Remains to be seen, but I’m still dubious as to whether the drain effect of resilience will make pvp gear the first choice for successful pvp paladins. Its great for the classes for whom resilience-based gear is the best option, but yea get the feeling I’ll still be shafted given that I don’t (can’t afford the time/commitment) raid. I could go on and on and on…but this is a druid blog and I’ve ranted enough already

@Nilanil: I was actually freaking out because my mana regeneration had actually DROPPED when I logged onto the PTR. Then I noticed I had no talents … Oops. And I think we’re probably in the same boat. Free regen out the wazoo means more room for +Healing increases!

@Yunk: My experience was the same when I tested it this morning (I edited this post to reflect that). No changes on the PTR yet! /crosses fingers