Messing with the last two tiers
Messing with the last two tiers
This is an interesting design philosophy that shouldn’t just apply to the Paladin class but to all trees of all classes. I believe that Ghostcrawler was referring to making Tier 10 more appealing than just mere point-fillers in order to get to the whopper 51-point talent. For the most part, this is true. Players look at the 51-point talent with little regard for the 45-50 point filler. This applies less to Holy, where the haste bonus from Judgements of the Pure is a significant raid contribution self-buff (see what writing at 4am does to you…). On the other hand, Shield of the Templar in Protection is mediocre and Righteous Vengeance from Retribution can be skipped.
The problem with Tier 10 in Wrath — as with Tier 8 in The Burning Crusade — is that most have only one 5-point talent. It’s feels like it’s pretty much only intended to reach the last tier. While avoiding the bloat, it would be nice to see more than one option for Tier 10 and one amazing power for Tier 11 that matches up competitively against 21-point talents. Righteous Vengeance is skippable mainly because it excludes Crusader Strike, still the Retribution Paladin’s bread and butter, from the bonus. Players opting to hybridize should feel the sting of skipping out on the tenth tier of a tree and not just think, “I can live without Divine Storm”.
Filed under: World of Warcraft