wow Dragonflight Alpha Hotfix Testing With Paladin Class

[Staff 1,488]

Blizzard have announced they will be testing the Dragonflight hotfix process, using the Paladin class as a Guinea pig for the process, so there will be some strange changes coming to it today. 

Hotfix testing (Source)

Today, we’re planning to test our hotfix process. Specifically, we’re going to deploy hotfixes to the Paladin class. This will involve changing various states of both the class and individual spec trees, possibly breaking individual talents or the UI in the process of doing so. You might see some temporary talents added or removed, and the state of the talent trees and any node connections will change throughout the day.

We expect to return the class back to how it previously looked and felt, once we’re done with this test exercise.

[Migol 433]

The problem with Paladins is, in theory they're supposed to be support-ish warriors.    That was how it was in vanilla with many blessings to choose from, actual offhealing that mattered, and so on.    Over time though Paladins became "slightly different warriors".    Buffs got taken away...and we're to the point where a warrior with battleshout and Rallying cry provides a better raid buff and raid cooldown than Paladins, who provide a much "less sought after" 3% mitigation buff and a couple of damage reduction cooldowns for single players (with restrictions).    That's on top of being vastly less mobile, generally dealing less damage (obviously fluctuates every major patch but usually warriors are better), and generally being less valued in a raid/pvp/m+ composition.

[Ken007 97]

4 hours ago, Migol said:

The problem with Paladins is, in theory they're supposed to be support-ish warriors.    

I agree, WoW has dropped the support class concept. I think they should revisit it though, there is a place for it. Think about it: 1) Can use a raid wide damg reduction buff when big damage goes out, 2) Has a dps increase buff when there is a burn, 3) Has an aoe buff when there are a lot of adds, 4) a mini heroism, 5) Can help out with a spot heal or dmg if needed. 

It could be an engaging and interesting class to play.

 

[Starseed 113]

14 hours ago, Ken007 said:

 

i would love tho have real support class in wow. its probably a niche class that not many people would want to play but it would certainly be good for the game flow and interesting to play. i always thought that the spot a bard class could take. do a bit of dmg and healing yourself but take a major role on buffing your mates. but i think in modern wow there is no place for that because you cant participate in the wich dps graph is bigger fight with it

[Ragingwolf 310]

 I'm not opposed of Blizzard creating a pure support class but would it not take away the uniqueness of other classes abilites that are brought to the gaming table?  How would you go about creating something like and balancing it out where it won't over shadow current classes?  

Like right now each class brings an unique skill/ability for group/raid oriented content.  What can a pure Support bring?  Minor Heals?  Revive, Short Buffs/Debuffs?  Dispel? Other?

[Migol 433]

5 hours ago, Ragingwolf said:

 I'm not opposed of Blizzard creating a pure support class but would it not take away the uniqueness of other classes abilites that are brought to the gaming table?  How would you go about creating something like and balancing it out where it won't over shadow current classes?  

Like right now each class brings an unique skill/ability for group/raid oriented content.  What can a pure Support bring?  Minor Heals?  Revive, Short Buffs/Debuffs?  Dispel? Other?

Buffs to dps would be required for it to have a chance.   It would need to have the cumulative buffs it provided to be at or close to the dps levels as if you had brought a dps in their place.     Beyond that though?     Many things could be done.     Increased healing taken, faster cooldowns, movespeed, etc.

[Starseed 113]

16 hours ago, Migol said:

Buffs to dps would be required for it to have a chance.   It would need to have the cumulative buffs it provided to be at or close to the dps levels as if you had brought a dps in their place.     Beyond that though?     Many things could be done.     Increased healing taken, faster cooldowns, movespeed, etc.

thats what i had in mind.

just dmg and heal buffs for the group like a affi needs to manage his dots. you could sprinkle in some speed buffs and cdr buffs and ofcourse some dmg and heal spells so the class can fight in openworld or maybe even make a pet class that so you fight in buffing your pet 

[Teufel 331]

23 hours ago, Migol said:

Buffs to dps would be required for it to have a chance.   It would need to have the cumulative buffs it provided to be at or close to the dps levels as if you had brought a dps in their place.     Beyond that though?     Many things could be done.     Increased healing taken, faster cooldowns, movespeed, etc.

...at which point the class becomes completely mandatory in any raid group and questionable in 5ppl one. 

Which is why there shouldn't be neither supports, nor the spec designs that heavily depend on external buffs for performance (looking at you, Demonology).

[Starseed 113]

8 hours ago, Teufel said:

...at which point the class becomes completely mandatory in any raid group and questionable in 5ppl one. 

Which is why there shouldn't be neither supports, nor the spec designs that heavily depend on external buffs for performance (looking at you, Demonology).

but isnt that the fact allready with some classes? i kinda try to bring all the classes that give raid buffes and its rare you dont bring a warlock because they are so convinient.

the only thing that the only problem i could see is all the complaints from the dps players because the hunter is just number one dps because he is bestfriends with the bard and gets more buffs xD

[Ken007 97]

15 hours ago, Starseed said:

but isnt that the fact allready with some classes? i kinda try to bring all the classes that give raid buffes and its rare you dont bring a warlock because they are so convinient.

the only thing that the only problem i could see is all the complaints from the dps players because the hunter is just number one dps because he is bestfriends with the bard and gets more buffs xD

There will always be overlap between abilities of the classes. I think a support class (with the abilities mentioned in my post above, I won't repeat) would be fun to play, a great class to strategize with (who casts the healing buff- a priest or the bard? When do you want the bard doing dps, when do you want them healing) and it would be a great starter type class for a new raider or for someone who wants to contribute, but doesn't want to be tied to the meter.

We always manage cd's in my raid, m+ team. I think it would be a fun class to play.