Holy Paladins - General PVP Discussion

#0 - Feb. 18, 2009, 8:29 p.m.

So, let's discuss about Holy paladins in PVP (aka. healing PVP paladins).

I'll give you some facts for starters:
About the paladin class:

- The most represented class in arena, overall, and by far, in all brackets, at any rating - http://www.realmhistory.net/arena-statistics/class-breakdown.html

- Paladins have over 20% representation in any bracket, meaning they represent over twice the intended value. The value fluctuates from 22 to 26%.

- The most represented class in the SK-100 (top 100 rated players in the world) with a current whooping 29% (aka. 29 players in the 100 highest rated over all brackets are paladins) - http://www.sk-gaming.com/arena/player

- On SK-100 90% of the paladins are Holy. On Arena Spec Statistics, 73.33% of paladins over 2k rating are Holy, while 74% are Holy over 2.2k, over all brackets. In 2v2, 82% of the paladins over 2.2k are Holy.

Numbers aside, let's have facts about what they can rely on:

- Sacred Shield scales at 75% of Spell Power into healing. 2000 Spell Power will give you a 2000 absorbing Shield (1500 + 500 base) every 6 seconds. When you factor in trinket procs and the likes, the spell can be cast (and lasts 30 seconds) for 2.3k+ absorbs. This also happens to give them 50% crit chance on Flash of Light whenever a shield procs.

- Blessing of Sacrifice mitigates 30% of the target's damage into the paladin and also breaks crowd control on the paladin.

- The only healer with a complete immunity effect. For 12 seconds.

- The only healer that supplies some sort of full immunity effect to one of the 2 forms of damage: Hand of Protection. It absolutely forces DPS to switch or reset, something no other third party targeted effect manages in most situations. This is also the only possibly removal for Blind in-game.

- Judgments while using Seal of the Martyr (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53720) break CC effects on the paladin if timed correctly. Much like Shadow Word: Death.

- Holy Shock, an instant heal on a 6 second cooldown, scales at 81% of spell power and gives the paladin an instant Flash of Light whenever the shock crits.

- Hand of Freedom breaks stuns if talented. Most paladins pick this up, making it the only 3rd target stun breaker in the game.

- You can easily get a Holy Light down to under 1 second after critting a Shock. That same Holy Light can easily crit for 16k on a non-MS'ed target.

- Best mana efficiency in-game, while gearing not for spirit, but for crits, which increases healing done.

Well, I layed down the "offense" facts. Feel free to defend them, but overall let's discuss it properly. So...

Discuss.

Slorkuz

#111 - Feb. 20, 2009, 1:57 p.m.

Q u o t e:
It still doesn't justify unending mana pretty much.

This is one of the concerns we see lots of players talking about - the ability to seemingly heal and out heal the mana pool of any opposing team without a paladin. What we don't seem to be seeing much of though, is some sort of agreement within the community on what can be done to resolve the matter. Perhaps we could turn this thread into some intelligent and constructive discussion involving both numbers and players building posts off each other?

Ghostcrawler has recently been posting a lot about our thoughts on mana regeneration, which you can read at this link for reference: http://www.worldofraids.com/wow-blue-tracker/us-forums/14990765234-i-don-t-get-the-regen-nerfs.html

Food for thought would be incorporating this theory/philosophy into some creative discussion. We already know that some of you are quite adept at participating and contributing with some rather intelligent debate regarding classes, and for the sake of encouraging discussion - why not give it a crack and see what happens? At the end of it all, we might not agree on the results and suggestions you produce for a variety of reasons - never the less, exploring the option of constructive debate sure has a higher chance of providing valuable feedback than empty threads full of troll posts and class based bias :)

Edit: grammar

Slorkuz

#117 - Feb. 20, 2009, 2:07 p.m.

Q u o t e:
I'm nominating you to the retard-post-of the-month award. Your comment had relevans to what exactly?

This is not an acceptable way of posting on these forums. Let's leave the petty attacks and insults behind and move forward in a manner that both coincides with the forum rules and guidelines as well as is of interest or value to other players.

In other words: this thread is about Holy Paladins in a PvP setting. Let's stick to it.