Warspear v12.2 Paladin Rebalance. Initial Thoughts

[Gladiator 1148]

This goes without saying, these are preliminary thoughts. After playing in the open test, I might revisit my evaluations.

 

 Fetters of Justice

• Adjusted the skill area: now the skill is applied to all enemies within a radius of 2 yards around the character. 

 Illumination

• Adjusted the skill area: now the skill is applied to all targets within a radius of 3 yards around the character.

 

These skills already have this radius. However, if it means that now this radius is a square rather than a diamond. Then it's pretty big for fetters. If not, then Idk what changed...

 

 

 Heavenly Light

• Skill cooldown decreased from 13 sec. to 12 sec.
• Now the chance of critical healing from the skill is increased by 3 \ 6 \ 9 \ 12 \ 15%.
• Adjusted the amount of healing from the character's magical power: from 105 \ 110 \ 115 \ 120 \ 130%, to 110 \ 115 \ 120 \ 130 \ 140%.

 

That's pretty cool, I like the 15% extra chance to crit heal. It's definitely gonna be needed without Prayer's heal.

 

 

 Illumination

• The skill no longer deals magical damage to targets.
• Adjusted the skill area: now the skill is applied to all targets within a radius of 3 yards around the character.
• Additionally the skill now moves all enemies 1 yard closer to the character.
• The skill now also casts Scorch debuff for 6 \ 7 \ 8 \ 9 sec., which reduces healing received by targets by 5 \ 12 \ 20 \ 30%.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the PvP-target limit on Aggression debuff from working

I already gave my opinion about this change:

 

Also I'd add the heal reduction is pretty weak if not maxed out...

 

 

 Light Aura

• Adjusted the skill area: from 3 \ 4 \ 5 \ 6 \ 7 yards to 7 yards.

 

K

 

 

 Harad's Banner

• The basic period for Banner dealing damage has been adjusted: it was every 2 sec., now every 1 sec.
• Now the damage period of the Banner increases for each attack by 15% for each unique skill target, but not more than 6 times. The more targets, the slower the Banner attacks.
• The skill no longer deals increased damage to targets under Sun Seal debuff.
• Fixed a bug due to which the animation was not displayed at the moment of dealing damage to the target.

 

This is one of the more exciting changes. I like how the banner scales back according to the affected targets, so that it is not as weak as it is in smaller fights, just because it is strong in larger fights. This is a concept I've been suggesting a lot for various Paladin skills, and now, we're seeing it in multiple skills/talents.

 

If you're interested, I did some number crunching. Here is an overview of the new banner vs the old one:

 

 (Note: I don't know if the starting gap between hits is 1 seconds with 1 target in the banner or 1.15 seconds, because the banner can have 6 targets in it, and it says that every target adds 15% and up to 6 times. If it started with 1 second, then it would only increase by max 5 * 15%)

 

As you can see, with larger fights, banner is basically still the same, but in smaller fights, it is greatly buffed. Pretty exciting.

 

It's also very interesting to see if single target physical banner will always apply the 1 target hit frequency or it will still depend on the number of affected targets (by the debuff). If it the singe target Banner always maintained its 1.15 second gap between hits, ooo boi... I think it might make physical damage Pallys a bit happier after hearing about Prayer.

 

 

 Paladin's Prayer

• Skill cooldown decreased from 32 sec. to 18 sec.
• Reduced energy cost: was 20 \ 24 \ 28 \ 30 units, now is 12 \ 16 \ 20 \ 24 units.
• Changed the type of skill from active with target selection to active without target selection.
• Change in skill mechanics: now the skill casts Paladin's Prayer buff to the character and group members within a radius of 9 yards for 8 \ 10 \ 12 \ 14 sec., or with a chance of the Critical Hit, a Paladin's Retribution buff for 8 \ 10 \ 12 \ 14 sec. The next successful auto-attack or skill attack with instant damage under Paladin's Prayer buff will deal additional magical damage equal to 100 \ 110 \ 125 \ 140% of the character's magical power. The next successful auto-attack or skill attack with instant damage under Paladin's Retribution buff will deal additional magical damage equal to 120 \ 140 \ 160 \ 180% of the character's magical power. The cooldown time of the skill increases by 1.5 sec. for each group member.

 

Ok, this one is a lot to take in. There is a couple of variables that will determine if this is going to be a good damage dealer or not. Like does it deal critical damage? Does it proc multiple times with AoE hits? And does it get amplified by Banner and Sacred Shield's damage boost? If so, we're definitely looking at a juicy damage dealer. I mean just imagining +2ks flying all over the party's and Paladin's AoE hitters, it's pretty sweet. Especially that it unlike, Illumination, this will not punish the Paladin with too much aggression when trying to deal more damage in dungeons.

Also right off the bat, I like how the skill still has good damage even if not leveled up. And when leveled up, it can have better multipliers than Harad's Call. But I guess will have to see how it plays out, but for replacing an almost 4-5k HP based healing and a big chunk of Paladin's support potential, it has to be really good. 

 

 

Shield Damage Calculation

 

The mechanics of calculating the amount of damage absorbed by the shield have been changed: now the damage amount depends on the attack and defense stats of a target that reduce incoming damage, as well as on any effects and influences affecting the incoming damage. 

 

 Sacred Shield

• Adjusted shield durability: was 40 \ 55 \ 65 \ 80%, now is 10 \ 15 \ 20 \ 30% of the character's maximum health.

 

Finally! Now shield power calculation is gonna be easier and also more accurately determine its power. Instead of people looking at 80% HP shields saying "oMg!!11! 10K sHiEld oP!!" when in reality it would only protect from 3k damage in reality. 

Overall, this is a slight buff to Sacred Shield when considering all the damage reduction that would be ignored from high defense, resilience, maxed inner force, and mermen gear. 

 

 

 Sun Seal  

• Adjusted the amount of damage from the character's magical power: from 130 \ 135 \ 145 \ 160%, to 135 \ 145 \ 160 \ 180%.
• Adjusted the amount of damage from the character's physical power: from 115 \ 120 \ 130 \ 140%, to 120 \ 130 \ 140 \ 155%.
• Adjusted skill debuff duration: was 10 \ 15 \ 20 \ 25 sec., now is 8 \ 10 \ 12 \ 15 sec.

 

The skill is just... Whatever... I just don't think that the skill needed more damage, I don't see Paladins leveling it up just do more damage in a singe target. The further duration reduction is even a less reason to sacrifice skill points from other skill points. If the healing power would be increased, maybe I can see it as an alternative to Prayer for the physical Paladin.

 

 

 Inner Forces 

• Adjusted the amount of missing health from the maximum for the skill effect to trigger: was every 12 \ 10 \ 8 \ 6%, now is every 10 \ 8 \ 6 \ 4%.

 

Very surprised to see this. But, again, without Prayer's heal, I'll take whatever boosts defensiveness... Although, I'd rather have more support rather than just Paladin tankiness.

 

 

Talents Rapid fire:

 

 “Paladin's Prayer+” replaced with “Sacred Shield+” (2nd branch “Holy Warrior”)

• Increases the strength of buff by 0.5 \ 1 \ 1.5%.

 

Cool.

 

 

 Patronage of Light

• Now the buff from Light Defense skill additionally increases the maximum health by 5% (previously, it increased the maximum energy by 15%).

 

I like.

 

 

 Everburning Candle

• Adjusted the amount of transferred healing: was 8%, now 30%.
• Now the amount of transferred healing is reduced by 4% for each group member.

 

Same idea with banner, buff on small-scale fights. I like. Next: Light Defense.

 

 

 Focused Anger

• Adjusted the bonus to the damage of Harad's Banner skill: was 15%, now 10%.
• Fixed a bug due to which the interaction of the talent with Harad's Banner skill changed the radius of the skill.

 

Sure.

 

 

 Faith Reckoning

• Now the talent increases the character's magical power by 15%.
• Adjusted the size of periodic damage: was 20% of the character's magical power, now 25% of the character's magical power.
• Adjusted the chance of applying the talent effect that deals periodic damage: was 15%, now 20%.

 

Now the branch is interesting.

 

 

 Intercession

• Adjusted the healing activation period from the talent: was every 1 sec., now every 2 sec.

 

Sad, but expected. Hopefully though, the healing can be amplified by healing buffs and Aura. Otherwise Paladin's support is down the drain.

 

 

 Divine Lightbringer

• Adjusted the amount of healing transferred to allies: was 10%, now 15%.

 

Whatever.

 

 

Overall:

I like the attempts to make the magic Paladin deal more damage and offer more offensive support to his team. I think it was definitely lacking.

However, this took away a healthy chunk of the Paladin's support and tankiness potential, while trying to slightly make up for it through other skills. But I think the overall survival and support will still significantly decrease.

The physical Paladin might struggle even more defensively now, but the damage potential with the new banner might be greater than ever.

I like the way they treated Banner and Everburning Candle, making them more relevant in smaller fights. I wish they'd apply the same concept for Light Defense. 

Personally, I'm very excited for this new era of damage/support magic Paladin! But I'm also ready to be disappointed by the end of the testing. What do you think?

Edited December 14, 2023 by Gladiator

[Sigma 363]

yes, the paladin's magical potential really increased. I like how the banner will once again deal damage to single targets. The magical branch seems more acceptable now. The physical paladin, however, without any relevant changes. I just don't understand how the new sacred shield will work now that there is an interaction between shields and defensive attributes.

[Khrone 648]

4 horas atrás, Gladiator disse:

 Illumination

• The skill no longer deals magical damage to targets.
• Adjusted the skill area: now the skill is applied to all targets within a radius of 3 yards around the character.
• Additionally the skill now moves all enemies 1 yard closer to the character.
• The skill now also casts Scorch debuff for 6 \ 7 \ 8 \ 9 sec., which reduces healing received by targets by 5 \ 12 \ 20 \ 30%.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the PvP-target limit on Aggression debuff from working

I really don't understand why they did that

 

Both Paladin's and DK's aggro became purely PvP skills, but at least DK reduces Secret Reserves cooldown

 

4 horas atrás, Gladiator disse:

Now the branch is interesting.

Is it better than the other 2, tho?

[Gladiator 1148]

5 hours ago, Khrone said:

 

Both Paladin's and DK's aggro became purely PvP skills, but at least DK reduces Secret Reserves cooldown

I'd obviously take the periodic stun though, it still has some value in PvE, I don't know what we're supposed to do with heal reduction though...

 

5 hours ago, Khrone said:

Is it better than the other 2, tho?

Maybe. If the reckoning triggers on the new faster banner, and the prayer's damage (on AoE, and party's AoE), who knows. Also the Aura talent is actually pretty good in smaller fights as well. Will see.

[Gladiator 1148]

14 hours ago, Sigma said:

I just don't understand how the new sacred shield will work now that there is an interaction between shields and defensive attributes.

I got you. Now, with the new mechanics, it is slightly buffed; the more defensive you are, the stronger the shield effect in comparison with the older shield (relative power).

 

 

 

 

However, these calculations are without changing first Sacred Shield + talent, which adds 6% power to shield at 3/3. The shield was decrease from 80% to 30%, this is a 37.5% reduction. So, now, this 6% would be equivalent to about 16% with the old shield mechanics. So I don't know if this is intended, I doubt it is. Maybe @Dr Strangeor @Holmes can confirm.

Regardless, the new shield gets slightly stronger with more defensiveness, the extent of that, depends if they keep that talent as it is. For example, without including the talent at all (Or, similarly, adjusting it to give 2.25% which is 37.5% of 6%), instead of +15%,+33%, and +41% relative power, it would be +3%, +19%, and +26%, respectively. 

[Gladiator 1148]

10 hours ago, Dr Strange said:

 “Paladin's Prayer+” replaced with “Sacred Shield+” (2nd branch “Holy Warrior”)

• Adjusted the bonus to the effect strength of the skill: it was 2 \ 4 \ 6%, now it is 1 \ 1.5 \ 2%.

Do I take credit for this? 

[Gladiator 1148]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:23 AM, Gladiator said:

I got you. Now, with the new mechanics, it is slightly buffed; the more defensive you are, the stronger the shield effect in comparison with the older shield (relative power).

After playing for a couple of days after this change, I felt that the shield is weaker than before in some situations, and I forgot to include that in my initial assessment. 

Yes the shield got weaker in few instances.

 

1. High HP/Before or without mermen gear buffs

At the beginning of the fight, there is only defense and resilience as damage reduction. Without 15% from Mermen and 2% reduction per 4.5% HP missing, the new shield is up to 75% weaker than the old one in some situations.

 

Knowing this, it might be worth to re-emphasize to not cast the shield immediately before the fight begins. Cast it early, like around 10-15 seconds before engaging in a fight to take in an initial strong blow, while it can cool down and be ready again faster, then you can use it again after you've stacked up some mermen buffs, that way, you get more benefit out of the shield. 

 

 

2. Very high opponent penetration/Pierce attacks

Pierce attacks completely ignore your (and now, your shield's) defense, it is probably the most powerful counter to shields at this point. If let's say you have 50% defense and you receive 1000 out of 2000 damage, and if your shield has 4000 power, it would take 2 pierced hits instead of 4 normal hits to destroy it. Before this change, the shield already received "pierce damage", i.e. it absorbed let's say 9000 damage worth of 2k hits. And whether you receive pierce damage or damage with very high penetration or not, the shield would still receive the same damage.

 

 

3. PvE

In PvE the resilience is out of the equation, this makes the shield relatively less effective. Since in PvE, you're mostly using 2h hammers, the defense would be around 50%, and with that kind of damage reduction, the shield is weaker than before. But don't worry, it will get stronger once mermen buffs and inner force start stacking.

 

 

4. Shield as a support skill

More importantly in both PvP and PvE, shielding damage dealers, that don't have heavy mermen or damage reduction passives, has become much less efficient now - another blow to the Paladin's support sadly. 

 

 

All in all, besides points 2 and 4, I'd still consider the shield mechanic change as a buff for the general utility of the shield for the Paladin himself, as it reinforces Paladin's shtick of being tanky at lower HP. But as a support skill, it is has been weakened when using on healers and light armor damage dealers. 

 

P.S. I'll be changing the topic's purpose, from initial reaction to the changes, to more like a review after having played the new version for a little bit. Right now I'm letting the new pala cook a little before I can provide a final review. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Gladiator