Why is it that Paladins always seem to get a larger number of changes than the other classes? You’ve got a whole slew of Patch 5.4 Paladin Changes this time around. Most are tweaks, but a few are bigger. Get our your character sheet and start scribbling.
Skip to: General notes, Holy, Protection, Retribution, Talents, Glyphs, Paladin Pages
The Paladin Changes for 5.4
General
- Nice change: Sanctity of Battle now also affects the cooldown of Holy Shock.
- Nuts: Seal of Insight no longer has a chance to restore mana on attacks. Previously it would restore 4% of base mana. For Protection is made up by Guarded by the light, see below, but Holy?
- Nuts: Turn Evil now has a 15-second cooldown, up from zero, and the glyph is gone (it was: 0 cast time, 8 second cooldown.) A new talent allows it to be used on players (see talents, below.)
Holy
Ouch: Mastery: Illuminated Healing no longer activates from periodic healing effects.- Ouch: Judgment for Holy Paladins now costs 12% of base mana to cast (up from 5% of base mana.) If you take the Selfless Healer talent (below) then your Judgments also provide a point of Holy Power.
- Hmmm…: Divine Plea no longer reduces the amount of healing done, and now restores mana based on the Paladin’s Spirit. The Glyph was also changed. There’s also a glyph change (see glyphs, below.)
- Hmmm…: Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Holy) now has a cooldown of 3 minutes (down from 5 minutes), and summons a guardian that heals the ally that the Paladin healed for 100% (up from 10%) of the amount healed, but no longer heals nearby friendly targets.
- Hmmm…: Holy Radiance now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability. The Selfless Healer talent (see talents, below) now also applies to Holy Radiance.
- Buffed: Holy Insight now increases the effectiveness of Eternal Flame, Light of Dawn, and Word of Glory by 50%. Effectiveness of other heals are still increased by 25%.
- Sweet: Holy Shock‘s mana cost has been reduced by 50%, Sanctity of Battle now applies, and Sanctified Wrath (talents, below) increases the crit chance by 20%.
Protection
- Nice: Crusader Strike now applies a Weakened Blows effect to the target for Protection Paladins.
- Hmmm…: Grand Crusader no longer has a chance to activate from Crusader Strike and Hammer of the Righteous, but now has a 30% chance to activate when dodging or parrying a melee attack (up from 12%).
- I like it: Guarded by the Light now restores 15% of the Paladin’s maximum mana every 2 seconds (up from 6%). This should nicely make up for the Seal of Insight nerf (above.)
Retribution
- Guardian of the Ancient Kings (Retribution version) now has a reduced cooldown of 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes, and the maximum number of stacks has been reduced to 12.
- Inquisition now lasts 20 seconds per charge of Holy Power consumed, up from 10 seconds.
The Patch 5.4 Paladin Changes: Talents
Level 30 Talents:
- Replaced: Burden of Guilt has been replaced with a new talent called Evil is a Point of View. The New Talent is Evil is a Point of View which allows the Paladin to use Turn Evil on players and beasts.
Level 45 Talents:
- Eternal Flame‘s periodic heal-over-time effect now heals for 40% more than before.
- Sacred Shield (Holy:) Sacred Shield now applies its damage absorption shield immediately, can be active on more than one target at a time, but the talent now costs mana and has 3 charges with a 10-second recharge.
- Protection: Sacred Shield is 30% less effective.
- Selfless Healer in addition to its current effects, now also causes your Judgment to generate a charge of Holy Power for Holy Paladins. Stacks of Selfless Healer now reduce the cast time, mana cost, and improve the effectiveness of Divine Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Radiance.
- The Bastion of Glory effect from your Shield of the Righteous will now apply Selfless Healer‘s bonus to healing to the casting Paladin as well as other targets and consume all stacks of Bastion of Glory in the process.
Level 60 Talents:
- Hand of Purity now reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects by 80% (up from 70%) and reduces damage taken from harmful periodic effects that cannot be prevented by immunities by 40% (up from 0%.)
- Unbreakable Spirit has been simplified. It now reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Lay on Hands by 50%.
Level 75 Talents:
- Sanctified Wrath (Holy:) Sanctified Wrath now also increases the critical strike chance of Holy Shock by 20%.
- Protection: Sanctified Wrath now causes Judgment to generate 2 Holy Power instead of 1 while Avenging Wrath is active.
Level 90 Talents:
- Execution Sentence will now immediately damage the target for 5 times the amount of damage that had been dealt by Execution Sentence’s most recent periodic effect when dispelled. Stay of Execution will now immediately heal the target for 5 times the amount of healing that had been dealt by Stay of Execution’s most recent periodic effect when dispelled.
- Light’s Hammer now functions like a smart heal, healing the 6 most injured friendly targets within range, and minor guardians are no longer targeted (Wild Imps, Bloodworms, Snakes from Snake Traps, etc.). There has been no change to the total amount of healing granted by the ability.
Glyphs
New Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Divine Shield: Removing harmful effects with Divine Shield heals the Paladin for each effect removed. This heal cannot exceed a percentage of the Paladin’s maximum health.
- Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice: Hand of Sacrifice no longer transfers damage taken by the target to the Paladin. I assume this means that the Hand now puts a shiled on the target, making things somewhat safer for the Paladin. There is a very similar change to the Warrior’s Vigilance ability.
Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Denounce now causes Holy Shock to reduce the cast time of the next Denounce by 0.5 seconds, and the effect can stack up to 3 times, previously there was a chance to have the cast time lowered by 1 second.
- Glyph of Divine Plea now reduces the amount of mana restored and cooldown of Divine Plea by 50%. Previously it returned some mana up front and eliminated the healing reduction that Divine Plea used to provide.
- Glyph of Holy Wrath now also allows Holy Wrath to stun Aberrations.
- Glyph of Immediate Truth now increases the instant damage done by Seal of Truth 40% (up from 30%).
- Glyph of Inquisition has been redesigned. Previously (5.3) it reduced the damage bonus of Inquisition, but increased its duration. Now the glyph now increases the duration of Inquisition by 30 seconds (up to a maximum of 2 minutes) each time the Paladin lands a killing blow on targets that yield experience or honor.
- Glyph of Rebuke has been replaced with Glyph of Devotion Aura. The Glyph of Devotion Aura causes Devotion Aura to no longer affect party or raid members, but the cooldown is reduced to 2 min, from 3 min.
- Glyph of the Alabaster Shield now increases damage for the next Shield of the Righteous by 10% per stack (down from 20% per stack).
- Glyph of the Battle Healer has been redesigned. The glyph now causes Seal of Insight to no longer heal the Paladin. Instead, a nearby raid or party member will receive healing for 30% of the amount the Paladin would have received from Seal of Insight.
- Glyph of Turn Evil has been replaced with Glyph of Burden of Guilt. The Glyph of Burden of Guilt causes Judgment to reduce the target’s movement speed by 50% for 2 seconds.
New Minor Glyphs
- Glyph of the Exorcist: Exorcism will now appear to remove the evil from its target.
- Glyph of Pillar of Light: Critical heals on other players display a small pillar of light at their location briefly.
The Paladin Pages
- Paladin guide – Paladins in general, what they are all about.
- Paladin leveling – tips to get to 90, faster
- Holy Healing – A guide to dungeon & raid healing as Holy.
- Holy PvP – Help the other guy to kill them all.
- Holy PvP Gear – The gear you need.
- Retribution PvE – DPSing as Ret. in raids and such.
- Retribution PvP – Crush the opposition
- The patch 5.4 changes for PvP
- Getting leveled to 90
