World of Warcraft™

Once touted as the most powerful defense in the game, Divine Shield has become more and more limited in it's usefulness to the class as a whole and many Paladins feel it can no longer fill the role it was originally intended in a realistic fashion. Many, myself included, feel this ability is long overdue for a proper revamp for a number of important reasons.

1. Too Long a CD- In a world where short CD crowd control and CC breaks are king, long CD defenses like Divine Shield have become dinosaurs. When the game was first developed, this type of long CD ability worked because classes did not have the level of CC they have at their disposal today. But that was many years ago and the game has changed significantly while the fundamental mechanics of this ability have not.

2. Too Effective for Holy, Not Enough for Ret/Prot- In the beginning, Divine Shield worked well as a classwide defense because of the way healing used to work as well as the lack of a debuff like Forbearance. As a Ret Paladin, healing oneself to full health during it's duration was not only possible back then, it was expected. As well, there was no 50% damage loss upon use like there is now, so it was possible to pressure enemies while under it's effects as a DPS.

But then came the catastrophy that was 3.0. Not only were Ret Paladins possessing of horrendous burst in that time period, they could also chain Avenging Wrath alongside Divine Shield, which allowed them to deal 20% more damage and healing while being immune to all damage for 12 seconds. Naturally, this caused a large outcry which resulted in AW no longer allowed to be chained with DS, which set the unfortunate precedent which was to follow.

Next, Divine Shield was given a 50% damage debuff upon use and the duration lowered to 8 seconds from 12 with the 5 min CD still remaining in place. As well, the Forbearance debuff was added which, upon using an ability like Divine Shield, would lock out other forms of defense for up to a min.

Not only that, the Cataclysm expansion saw a revamp to healing which particularly hurt Retribution by no longer making it possible to heal themselves to full as a result of the high mana costs of heals as well as the low healing potential of Paladin spells outside of Holy. This last move essentially destroyed any lingering usefulness Divine Shield had for Retribution, essentially turning their most powerful defense into a glorified CC break on a very long CD. And even this aspect has become noticeably ineffective as a result of the huge CC increase most classes have gotten.

On the flip side of the coin, Divine Shield remains a powerful defense for Holy as they alone are perfectly capable of healing themselves to full in it's duration alongside the fact that the 50% damage loss from using it is of no consequence to them as healers for reasons that should be obvious. In short, Holy is the only Paladin spec that really benefits from Divine Shield anymore.

3. Causing Paladins to be too Vulnerable to CC- Touching on what was mentioned earlier, Divine Shield functioning as the Paladin 'break-everything' ability worked decently when it was first developed because we do not have the level of CC then that we do now.

Now that CC has become far more prolific and efficient than ever, the over-reliance on Divine Shield to avoid being easily CC'd no longer works as the result of A) it's overly long CD, and B) CC being spammeable and on CDs shorter than a min. Simply put, Paladins can be CC'd far more often than they can break out of it as a result of relying on such a long CD which is supposed to be used to soak up damage. Fears in particular are hugely effective against Paladins in general because of their total lack of defense against them outside of this one CD, but they simply cannot get access to a necessary Fear break ability like Lichborne for example because Divine Shield covers too much of their defense and yet not nearly enough.

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I'll be frank. Many Paladins HATE the current Divine Shield because as specified earlier, it is too limited for too many specs outside of Holy, is on too long a CD, is causing Paladin defense to stagnate by trying to be our save-all button but failing in too many areas, and it's original design intention has become outdated as a result of how different healing has become since Vanilla.

Many Paladins feel Divine Shield needs to become a more effective general defense for the entire class as a whole instead of just Holy and are willing to have the ability toned down to make it possible. Here's an example of how it could be an effective defense for the entire class WITHOUT being OP in a realistic manner with regards to today's PvP environment:

Divine Shield- Protects the Paladin in a powerful shield, absorbing damage equal to 30% of their total health and preventing application of any harmful magical effects for 8 seconds. If Divine Shield is destroyed before the duration expires, you regenerate 10% of your total health over the next 5 seconds. 3 min CD.

With a 3 min CD, Divine Shield would become a more consistent defense to not only Holy, but the entire class. Even Protection could finally have a use for Divine Shield outside of select PvP scenarios with this implementation by being able to use it as a damage soak during high boss damage phases without losing aggro. As well, Retribution could actually pressure their opponents without taking a monumental damage loss in order to properly defend themselves. And Holy would essentially be in the same boat they are in now, only not so powerful as they will no longer be able to freely heal themselves to full without fear of interruption, which can be made up for thru talents like Eternal Flame HoT effects now anyways.

Instead of making the Paladin immune to everything, we could tone it down and make it more realistic by making it an absorb shield that absorbs damage equal to 30% of their health and prevents only magical effects from being applied to the Paladin. This means physical debuffs could still effect them, but also opens the possibility of expanding the Paladin defensive toolset to better cover consistent CC as specified earlier as the ability is no longer so all-encompassing.

In closing, I implore the developers to take a closer look at this signature Paladin defense and ask themselves whether or not this ability is working the way it should be or as we said is only benefitting one spec when it should be benefitting the class as a whole. Thanks for your consideration.

Pretty good ideas lol. Yeah pretty much I never found much use for divine shield outside of my holy PvP spec, and the idea you had sounds pretty good. But maybe instead of getting rid of immunity as a whole they could change some other things like maybe if you decide to spec into ret or prot divine shield would increase your healing done by say 30% (talent point?) and decrease damage done by 30% as well, so that it becomes once again the paladins "ultimate defense" without being too OP. IDK I am a paladin so maybe whatever I say may sound OP to other classes but divine shield should be more useful than simply a damage break for prot and retribution, which can be dispelled anyways. In regards to damage, divine shield shouldnt just be a move where you HAVE to be healing and otherwise it is useless, it should be incorporated into strategies of people who PvP in protection and retribution specs as well, giving them not only the chance to heal up, but also to perhaps get out of a nasty cc and then start smacking around the guy if you arent low on health, with the damage reduction you couldnt kill the guy, but at least you would keep them on their toes. In Warcraft III when you were a paladin hero, you could pop divine shield and charge into an enemies base, smack away at it if you were bored, and then get out. In WoW this would look pretty wrong... lol. But the whole aspect shouldnt be removed entirely. You should be able to do some modest damage/healing while at the same time not being able to decimate your opponent easily while being immune all at the same time.

02/22/2012 02:34 PMPosted by Andarin

Divine Shield- Protects the Paladin in a powerful shield, absorbing damage equal to 30% of their total health and preventing application of any harmful magical effects for 8 seconds. If Divine Shield is destroyed before the duration expires, you regenerate 10% of your total health over the next 5 seconds. 3 min CD.

Isn't this basically just anti-magic shell with 4x longer of a cooldown and a little bit of melee absorb and 45% less magic absorb?

1. Too Long a CD- In a world where short CD crowd control and CC breaks are king, long CD defenses like Divine Shield have become dinosaurs. When the game was first developed, this type of long CD ability worked because classes did not have the level of CC they have at their disposal today. But that was many years ago and the game has changed significantly while the fundamental mechanics of this ability have not.

3. Causing Paladins to be too Vulnerable to CC- Touching on what was mentioned earlier, Divine Shield functioning as the Paladin 'break-everything' ability worked decently when it was first developed because we do not have the level of CC then that we do now.

Now that CC has become far more prolific and efficient than ever, the over-reliance on Divine Shield to avoid being easily CC'd no longer works as the result of A) it's overly long CD, and B) CC being spammeable and on CDs shorter than a min. Simply put, Paladins can be CC'd far more often than they can break out of it as a result of relying on such a long CD which is supposed to be used to soak up damage. Fears in particular are hugely effective against Paladins in general because of their total lack of defense against them outside of this one CD, but they simply cannot get access to a necessary Fear break ability like Lichborne for example because Divine Shield covers too much of their defense and yet not nearly enough.

While agree with your points here about CC of other classes and the lack of Paladin options to deal with them, I don't think it's inherent to Divine Shield or even reasonable to assume that "bubble" is considered all that heavily when it comes to balancing out the tools.

I think it would be more accurate to say that Paladins already have a set of CCs and breaks that is more akin to what the developers are moving the other classes to. Dropping down the number of instant, long duration, and short cd CC's will do a lot more to solve this issue than tweaking Divine Shield.

2. Too Effective for Holy, Not Enough for Ret/Prot.

Probably true, but I'd rather see Ret and Prot have more diverse tools to deal with this shortcoming than to have Divine Shield be changed.

Divine Shield- Protects the Paladin in a powerful shield, absorbing damage equal to 30% of their total health and preventing application of any harmful magical effects for 8 seconds. If Divine Shield is destroyed before the duration expires, you regenerate 10% of your total health over the next 5 seconds. 3 min CD.

Certainly possible. I certainly like the idea of it being a counterpoint to HoP, just like Cloak of Shadows and Combat Readiness work for Rogues. Even a 50-70% damage reduction, with immunity to magical effects could probably make it on a 3 min CD. But does Prot have too many/potent tank cooldowns then?

They could always just turn it into iceblock, if you like. :P

While we are on the subject of pallies, I dont like avenging wrath. Its an absurdly powerful ability ( chain hammers from range that auto crit) on a relatively low cooldown that is deemed balanced because it can be hard countered by dispels and spell steal.

What this means is classes who cannot dispel are screwed by this ability and classes who can dispel/steal it make the paladin feel like the ability is useless. The ability should lean more towards the middle ground. Make it undispellable, but tone down its level of burst.

02/22/2012 03:44 PMPosted by Hexs

Its an absurdly powerful ability ( chain hammers from range that auto crit) on a relatively low cooldown

Auto crit?? Ret only have a talent that increases the critical strike chance of HoW by 6%.

02/22/2012 02:34 PMPosted by Andarin

Divine Shield- Protects the Paladin in a powerful shield, absorbing damage equal to 30% of their total health and preventing application of any harmful magical effects for 8 seconds. If Divine Shield is destroyed before the duration expires, you regenerate 10% of your total health over the next 5 seconds. 3 min CD.

This way DS will not be a ''save-all'' button. But I agree with your text, it's too effective for holy, not enought for ret/prot. DS in cata feels useless for rets ands prots because the nerf of the heavy heals, like Holy Light in Wotlk, with high cast time, high mana cost and high amount of healing. Divine light has high cast time and high mana cost , but it has a little amount of heal for ret. In MoP, rets aren't goig to have any big heals, and any 'save-all' button anymore, exept Lay on Hands, but I hate this spell . Sry for my english and thank you for the big post.

02/22/2012 03:35 PMPosted by Aureon

They could always just turn it into iceblock, if you like. :P

and they could give them mirror image, frost nova, blink, invisibility, a permanent guardian of ancient kings, and ice barrier too. As well as deep freeze and the ability to freeze targets on spell hits... oh and ice lance

I'd love to see Divine Shield revamped, since it's been a broken mechanic that has negatively affected the class for the longest time.

02/22/2012 04:06 PMPosted by Flayer

This way DS will not be a ''save-all'' button.

No it wouldn't be, which is exactly the reason it is necessary. Too much of our defense is invested in this one ability which as a result must be a long CD because it covers too much, and yet in actual practice cannot realistically cover the weaknesses we need it to.

Divine Shield needs to be toned down to something more realistic and less all-encompassing so that it is effective to the class as a whole instead of largely benefitting one at the almost total expense of the others. As well, it would allow room to be made in the Paladin defensive toolset to add defenses that better fill the gaps individually instead of investing them all in one long CD that for balance reasons simply cannot defend Paladins in all the areas it needs at the times it needs it.

02/22/2012 04:21 PMPosted by Zancovious

and they could give them mirror image, frost nova, blink, invisibility, a permanent guardian of ancient kings, and ice barrier too. As well as deep freeze and the ability to freeze targets on spell hits... oh and ice lance

Because that's a totally rational thing to suggest, based on my comparing two abilities that grant total immunity.

lol since you failed to understand, i was saying that you implying that "at least divine shield is better than ice block" is silly when you consider all the other perks mages have

02/22/2012 05:42 PMPosted by Zancovious

lol since you failed to understand, i was saying that you implying that "at least divine shield is better than ice block" is silly when you consider all the other perks mages have

The OP is specifically complaining about his total immunity ability, I'm just pointing out it could be iceblock.

02/22/2012 05:50 PMPosted by Aureon

lol since you failed to understand, i was saying that you implying that "at least divine shield is better than ice block" is silly when you consider all the other perks mages have

The OP is specifically complaining about his total immunity ability, I'm just pointing out it could be iceblock.

Sadly, your equivalent of Forbearance lasts less seconds than ours and you can refresh Ice Block cooldown by Cold Snap, given our low mana pool and low self healing, as long a dedicated healer is present, you will get it better, even from the prespective of "Paladins have total inmunity and can move, cast and attack with it on... OP!"

02/22/2012 05:57 PMPosted by Rarity

Sadly, your equivalent of Forbearance lasts less seconds than ours and you can refresh Ice Block cooldown by Cold Snap, given our low mana pool and low self healing, as long a dedicated healer is present, you will get it better, even from the prespective of "Paladins have total inmunity and can move, cast and attack with it on... OP!"

While I admit my jealousy, I wouldn't go as far as to claim OP. At least not with forbearance as it currently is. Also hypothermia only affects ice block, whereas forbearance is linked to 3 powerful abilities, ones that become problematic when used together.

That aside divine shield is superior, if for no other reason than using it isn't delaying the inevitable.

02/22/2012 06:14 PMPosted by Aureon

That aside divine shield is superior, if for no other reason than using it isn't delaying the inevitable.

If you have to use Divine Shield as Retribution you are already a dead man. Ice Block works better for Mages because you can use it to stall long enough to get that Frost Nova or Blink CD back up while you are avoiding getting pummeled, whereas all Ret Paladins can do is just run and hope their opponent leaves them alone as they certainly can't heal themselves enough to matter.

Whereas this useage of Ice Block is beneficial to all Mage specs, Retribution is heavily penalized from using it as a result of the 50% damage loss, making Holy the only Paladin spec able to use it to the effect it is intended.

I don't know I'd rather have it changed to this

Divine Shield
Instant cast 2minute cooldown
Removes all harmful effects and all effects that cause a loss of control of your character. In addition makes the paladin immune to these effects for 8secs.

02/22/2012 06:14 PMPosted by Aureon

Sadly, your equivalent of Forbearance lasts less seconds than ours and you can refresh Ice Block cooldown by Cold Snap, given our low mana pool and low self healing, as long a dedicated healer is present, you will get it better, even from the prespective of "Paladins have total inmunity and can move, cast and attack with it on... OP!"

While I admit my jealousy, I wouldn't go as far as to claim OP. At least not with forbearance as it currently is. Also hypothermia only affects ice block, whereas forbearance is linked to 3 powerful abilities, ones that become problematic when used together.

That aside divine shield is superior, if for no other reason than using it isn't delaying the inevitable.

Yeah, it's a fair point, Divine Shield sometimes it's a free "I Win Button", with the new talent "Unbreakeable Spirit" that might allow us to use it more often, maybe it won't need any tweaks, we will have to see.

02/22/2012 06:27 PMPosted by Andarin

If you have to use Divine Shield as Retribution you are already a dead man. Ice Block works better for Mages because you can use it to stall long enough to get that Frost Nova or Blink CD back up while you are avoiding getting pummeled, whereas all Ret Paladins can do is just run and hope their opponent leaves them alone as they certainly can't heal themselves enough to matter.

...and in that 10 seconds your opponent has had their own gap closer cooldowns reset, and healed themselves. At least a ret paladin can stay on their opponent for the 8 second duration, and maybe get lucky and kill them.

Though I agree it's virtually useless for prot, but no one said every ability had to be useful to every spec. Plus it leaves them free to cast LoH, far more valuable IMO.

While we are on the subject of pallies, I dont like avenging wrath. Its an absurdly powerful ability ( chain hammers from range that auto crit) on a relatively low cooldown that is deemed balanced because it can be hard countered by dispels and spell steal.

Currently they do not auto-crit at all, and 'chain cast' means four per Wings, at best (HoW has a 6s cooldown). It's also doesn't even hit very hard. In arena vs high resilience targets it hits for ~6K and crits for ~12K. While it probably doesn't need to hit harder during Wings, as an execute it sucks (SW:D hits twice as hard during execute phases, and has a lower effective CD). IMO the Crit chance needs to go back up to nearly automatic when used as an execute.