So details on 3.2 have been announced along with a lot of information on Paladin and Shaman changes. The patch is pretty “meh” in my opinion. It makes me wonder if the relative lack of content since Ulduar is due to Blizzard preparing 3.3 and the expansion. The Colliseum has some nice ideas – seperate lockouts, the need for progression on “hard modes”. But the limited number of encounters, just five, is very unwhelming. The changes to badges is also a “what?” moment. A blue has actually stated it’s to reduce the frustrating gear gap some players face. I wonder if they actually understand the concept of gaming anymore …

Shield block Value

I play prot most of the time so I’ll start with those. The changes to block value (affecting warriors too of course) at first seems nice. However when you actually look at it the changes won’t make any significant difference for most players. In my normal tanking set (high health, decent avoidance) I have a whole 68 SBV … all from my [Conqueror's Aegis Handguards]. So my SBV will increase by a whole … 68, big deal. In my block gear set it’ll be more significant, a few hundred more. Even then it’s a “meh” type of “buff”. What’s more they’re reducing the damage done by [Shield of Righteousness] from 130% to 100% – although that may have more to do with the following …

Seal changes

In buffing/changing retribution they have dumped [Seal Of The Martyr] and significantly buffed [Seal of Command] and much more so [Seal of Vengeance]. Currently Vengeance (the tanking seal of choice) applies a DoT to the targt which stacks up to five times – it’s a nice source of ongoing threat. In 3.2 baring changes it’ll do that and additionally with five stacks in place will deal an additional 33% weapon damage as holy damage (thus it cannot be mitigated by armour). That’s a nice little buff.

Ardent Defender – our new cooldown

By far the biggest change is to [Ardent Defender]. Other tanking classes generally have two short cooldown “oh shit!” abilities, e.g. warriors have both [Shield Wall] and [Last Stand]. The paladins have … well … one, [Divine Protection]. The only other thing we have is [Lay on Hands], a very nice ability but not typically one that allows you to survive – it more gets you out of trouble. Ardent Defender has been viewed with both addoration and disdain! On the one hand it’s a life saver but on the other it’s all too easily overcome. A good example is where you take a hit which reduces your HP to less than 35%, Ardent Defender kicks in, you’re healed to say 40% of your HP and take another hit … *BOOM* … you’re dead, it’s been leap frogged.

The change they are making basically eliminates the leap frogging problem. Now instead of reducing damage if your HP is below 35% it’ll reduce damage whenever your HP will be reduced below 35%, no leap frogging. Additionally they’re throwing in a [Guardian Spirit] like effect. Every two minutes any hit you take which would otherwise kill you … won’t … it’ll reduce your HP to 30% (assuming three points in the talent). This is a great buff. Some peeps are complaining we need more active abilities. I understand what they are saying, make decisions is good. However ask any warrior about Last Stand and most will say they wasted it early – no such difficulties with our ability.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the protection changes thus far. Holy paladin changes I think are pretty “meh”. Blizzard say they are significant buff – allowing [Beacon of Light] to count overhealing and having [Sacred Shield] plus [Flash of Light] combos to apply a HoT. They well be a nice buff but they seem like easy solutions to me, glyph style solutions really. Where’s the additional spell?

Well the PTR’s will be up soon – I guess we’ll see what all these changes amount to!