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First Look at Protection Paladin in Dragonflight 10.0.7 - Feedback & Wishlist
PTR
由
Lincoln
发表于
2023/02/20，11:21
Protection Paladins have received significant changes with the 10.0.7 PTR, but were these changes enough to fix some of the issues plaguing this Tank of Faith? Our Protection Paladin Writer, Lincoln, breaks down all changes while providing insightful feedback and a wishlist that might help Protection Paladin meet its full potential.
With the release of the 10.0.7 PTR over the last few weeks, we have seen several class changes to the Paladin class including changes for Protection, Retribution and Holy. 10.0.5 did not bring much except some minor quality of life changes for Holy. Protection and Retribution were effectively unchanged compared to launch day Dragonflight.
Looking at the current state of live balance, Protection Paladins are not a "meta" spec this tier. It's not a highly popular spec for raids -- most Mythic teams are progressing with Death Knight and Warrior tanks with very few Paladins who have cleared 8/8M. And for Mythic Plus, Paladins are strong but again Warrior and Death Knight tanks have higher representation in higher keys. Andybrew is once again pushing the highest Mythic+ on Paladin but looking at the larger population, Protection Paladin is not that popular.
Paladins have been patiently waiting since beta for their day in the sun as other classes saw major changes repeatedly while Paladins saw really none. The class tree is effectively the same as it was in early Dragonflight alpha builds. There were some changes and iterations during alpha and beta to address feedback but none of them were really that satisfying. But based on the PTR, it seems like improving the gameplay experience for Paladins is now a focus!
In this article, I'll be going over the changes for Protection Paladins in 10.0.7 and why I think it's a vast improvement compared to 10.0.5.
About the Author
This content was written by Lincoln. He is a moderator for the
Hammer of Wrath Community
where he helps players on a daily basis get better at playing Protection. Feel free to message him questions, comments or concerns about what you read here.
You can find him posting random opinions on
Twitter
.
First, let's start with some of the improvements in the Paladin Class tree.
Paladin Class Tree: More Generic Options
The first major change to the Paladin class tree, especially early in the tree before the 8-point gate, was just increasing the number of generic options available. Generic options are talents that can be used in any situation and the 10.0.5 tree was lacking them. As an example, in 10.0.5 we were forced into talents like
制裁之拳
since it was required for
强效审判
but in raid situations, those two points were effectively zeros. 10.0.7 solves problems like this in a meaningful way by making talents like
制裁之拳
independent and skippable. If I want to drop
制裁之拳
because it's not useful, I can spend a point on
坚决
instead for something passive and generic.
Paladin Class Tree: More High Value Nodes
They increased the value of existing nodes through buffs or redesigns.
力量圣印
was redesigned to be active all the time instead of just during
复仇之怒
.
敏锐圣印
now affects the
审判
cooldown.
圣光审判
was buffed to be more impactful for small group content. They also added new nodes like
圣化护甲
and
信仰之盾
that make Paladins more survivable. In 10.0.7, spending a talent point in the class tree will have more weight and feel a lot better.
Paladin Class Tree: Improved Gameplay
The redesign of
黄昏与黎明
reduces some of the gameplay pressure on Protection Paladin to maintain so many buffs. It was quite common for Protection Paladins to message me that they were having trouble maintaining
黎明祝福
, while also keeping up
正义盾击
. The 10.0.5 version of
黄昏与黎明
restricted your Holy power usage quite a bit as there was this inherent conflict of trying to maintain a damage buff or core defensive mechanic. Additionally, procs like
神圣意志
or
明澈圣印
would disrupt the ability to refresh either buff. It was one of the reasons why those talents were dropped when people were looking to truly min/max. Now that
黎明祝福
is tied to buttons that generate Holy power, it should happen more naturally without needing to juggle so many buffs and procs.
黄昏祝福
will now proc. when
黎明祝福
is consumed -- again something that will be natural as you use any Holy Power spender.
They also removed a few procs namely,
明澈圣印
and
神圣志向
. While they weren't the most impactful talents, it just cleans up buff tracking, and UI overload. Sometimes cutting down on this is better for gameplay and in this case it is.
Just like the class tree, the Protection spec tree on the 10.0.7 PTR is a vast improvement over live. Let's talk about why.
Protection Spec Tree: Improved Pathing
The pathing in the tree is much improved in 10.0.7. This was done mostly by adding new lines and paths between talents. As an example, you can go directly from
提尔的执行者
to the
专注敌意
/
飞舞之盾
choice node. There was also new pathing added to the bottom of the tree so you can now path towards the middle from the left and right branch which cannot be done on live. Most talents now have multiple paths to get to it, which cuts down on the restrictions and what talents can be combined with each other!
Protection Spec Tree: New Build Options
There are a myriad of new build options. Here are some examples of talent changes that expand the number of possible builds:
守护者之手
is way more accessible in this tree than it was before. Before it was locked behind
泰坦之光
but now you can pick up
信仰圣光
instead.
信仰圣光
makes spending that GCD on
荣耀圣令
just a bit safer especially if you use Holy Power for it.
Speaking of
信仰圣光
, it's actually a viable choice to pick now for some passive damage reduction. It's 15/30% block for 5s after you press
荣耀圣令
and in normal play, you'll have ~25% uptime on it or ~7.5% more Block chance.
It's now easier to pick up
庇护
for some passive damage reduction while in
奉献
.
十字军审判
is now less costly as it's not gated behind a low power 2-point node.
专注敌意
has been redesigned so it's not as punishing on raid fights with split Single Target and AoE phases. The old version was not playable at all on some bosses this raid tier and the only choice was to take
飞舞之盾
or to unspec the node. Now, you can pick up
专注敌意
for some extra single target damage while still maintaining the ability to hold AoE threat.
心底耀光
is back! The beloved Legion Legendary is now back as a talent option to modify
提尔之眼
and make it the heavy hitter that people remember.
Cooldown reduction galore: You can get sub two-minute cooldown on
破咒祝福
and
圣盾术
, sub one minute cooldown
提尔之眼
and
炽热防御者
, and even sub three-minute cooldown on
圣疗术
! This is on top of retaining access to sub two-minute
远古列王守卫
and one minute
戒卫
/
复仇之怒
.
10.0.7 Protection Paladin Sample Build
Here is a sample build that could be used in 10.0.7 in Mythic+. Note: This is just a sample and not a recommendation. The PTR is very much in flux.
You can see that the class tree is similar to live and that will be the case until they fix some talents. More on this later. But in the Protection tree, you can see that I was able to grab
庇护
,
信仰圣光
, and
守护者之手
, which are not used on live. I did give up
破咒祝福
and
决一死战
but I'm taking the gamble that the increased access to
炽热防御者
and
提尔之眼
on top of increased passive survivability will make up for it.
10.0.7 Protection Paladin Suggestions
There are some bugs on the PTR, which are being tracked
here
, but I think both trees are headed in the right direction given the foundation that Blizzard created for Protection Paladin in Dragonflight. But that doesn't mean it can't be better. Here are some changes I would make to improve both the class tree and spec tree.
Paladin Class Tree Suggestions
Separate
圣洁共鸣
and
急促祷告
into two separate nodes that can be taken together. With the removal of
,
急促祷告
might not be powerful enough to take on its own so being able to combo it with
圣洁共鸣
for stronger
圣洁鸣钟
could make it more appealing for some situations
Give value to Protection for
光铸祝福
and
十字军的恩赦
. Neither work with anything in the Protection kit so we're just not going to take them if things don't change.
黯淡之光
will likely need a buff for Protection as the shield will never outvalue spending that point on
秩序圣印
or even on another talent node all together.
Redesign
惩罚
so it's not such a blatant DPS increase. Encouraging kicks and interrupting is good for dungeon gameplay but make it more nebulous like movement speed or even cooldown reduction on
责难
itself.
信仰之盾
should be switched to trigger on
荣耀圣令
for Protection. This would help align it with the newly buffed
信仰圣光
talent. Getting armor when your primary Holy Power spender gives armor is ... weird. I would also consider moving it up a row. It's currently exceedingly difficult to select as a talent below the 20-point gate.
敏锐圣印
has two issues. First, it's increasing the cooldown on
审判
- not reducing it. The second is that the tooltip is deceptive for Protection. Protection has a 50% reduction to the cooldown of
审判
on the spec aura, which is modifying the value of cooldown reduction provided by
敏锐圣印
. It's really giving .25s/.5s reduction for Protection. The tooltip should be fixed to reflect this.
Buff the healing options on the left side of the tree --
辉金之道
is very weak, and
残光
has some weird behavior with free procs like
神圣意志
. Paladins should have more viable off-healing options in their class tree like Druid's
自然的守护
or Shaman's
先祖指引
and none of the current options hit that mark.
Protection Spec Tree Suggestions
Make
乌瑟尔的劝谏
playable. This is the hardest talent to include in any build right now for Protection and that's because the tree structure has six required talents after the 20-point gate for difficult content: 1 in
圣洁怒火
, 2 in
决意守护者
, 1 in
正义保护者
, 1 in
金色瓦格里的礼物
, and 1 in the
专注敌意
/
飞舞之盾
choice node. That leaves 4 points to pick between
提尔之眼
/
心底耀光
,
光荣时刻
,
正义之怒壁垒
,
决一死战
, and
乌瑟尔的劝谏
. Out of these options,
乌瑟尔的劝谏
is strictly utility and is a lower priority pick. One solution could be to swap it with
雪恨圣印
so all the choices below the 20-point gate are pure damage and power increases, while the middle section has some flexibility to opt into utility with some flex points. That said, I could see this being tabled till a future patch as it could require more structural changes to the tree that aren't on the table right now.
泰坦之光
needs some love. In a lot of cases, it's just overheal and ineffective healing. This is disappointing as it blocks access to
明澈圣印
, which could be very nice to use.
Reconsider
提里奥的虔诚
and move it to the class tree. This could be a useful talent for all Paladins, especially if it were in the healing section of the class tree. It could be extremely hard to spend a Protection spec tree point on this talent.
Change
光荣时刻
to 80% cooldown reduction on Avenger's Shield. This is mostly quality of life. All of Protection's abilities have a cooldown that are a multiple of 1.5 and
光荣时刻
messes with that. It creates these micro-gaps in the rotation that are less than a GCD and are very awkward.
Conclusion
What Blizzard is doing for 10.0.7 is hitting all the right buttons for Protection Paladins. There is always room for improvement but the overall gameplay experience for Protection Paladins in 10.0.7 will be much better. I can't wait to see what's next in 10.1 and beyond.
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