Battle For Azeroth Holy Paladin Changes

While there are many new abilities and spells, there are also returning ones, previously removed during pruning. On top of those spells, the legacy from Legion lives on with different legendary effects and artifact traits returning in BfA as talents, baked into the core spec, or are now azerite traits, the BfA version of artifact traits. Gameplay changes are also happening, as some abilities and spells that could be used together with others are now added to the GCD. Some Legion systems got reworked, like Honor talents, now active while questing with War Mode turned on, which also grants bonuses, like 10% extra experience while leveling. In this overview, we'll highlight all class abilities, as well as new, changed, or removed talents. Grey to green text indicate changes between Legion and the current version of Battle for Azeroth; more information can be found by going to the Changelog within the relevant spell page.

Keep in mind that information is largely derived from the tooltips, so typographical errors may be intentional to match. Arcane Torrent and Every Man for Himself changed. Two of the strongest racial effects have received changes in BfA, with Arcane Torrent receiving a new effect and added to the GCD and Every Man for Himself having its cooldown increased. The majority of class cooldowns have been added to the GCD. Abilities that are in the Global Cooldown, or GCD, cannot be used at the same time, meaning you must wait for the default GCD, 1.5s reduced by haste, until you can use your next ability. Before BfA, many abilities were called "off-GCD" as you could two or more of them at the same time, even in the same button macro. For BfA, Blizzard started to reduce to amount of abilities in this state. All melee abilities now scale with both Attack Power and Weapon Damage. The actual ability damage formula for all non-casters has changed, and now all those abilities use both weapon damage and attack power, even abilities like Shield Slam or Howling Blast.

This appears to be intended to create a better balance between classes, rather than some favoring weapons heavily (Warrior), while others hardly at all (Monk). Battle for Azeroth has a huge stat and ilvl squish. Battle for Azeroth implements the second stat squish for World of Warcraft, two expansions after the Warlords of Draenor Squish. Unlike Warlords, Battle for Azeroth will also have an item level squish, changing the item level previously found on classic items as well. Abilities that are in the Global Cooldown, or GCD, cannot be used at the same time, meaning you must wait for the default GCD, 1.5s reduced by haste, until you can use your next ability. Before BfA, many abilities were called "off-GCD" as you could two or more of them at the same time, even in the same button macro. For BfA, Blizzard started to reduce to amount of abilities in this state. In Battle for Azeroth, many artifact traits and legendary effects from Legion are turned into talents and baseline abilities. It is known that we will lose our Artifacts in a future event.

To add to that, we've also discovered that Legion legendaries won't work past level 115. To learn more, check out our full article about returning effects in Battle for Azeroth. The artifact trait Vindicator has been incorporated into Avenging Wrath. The artifact trait Second Sunrise became the azerite trait Second Sunrise. The artifact trait Blessing of Sacrifice became the azerite trait Share the Burden. The Topless Tower effect became the new talent Awakening. Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus effect became the new azerite trait Resounding Protection. Earlier in the testing cycle, we had a series of articles covering the main changes to every class in the game up to that moment. Check out the Community Opinion - State of Paladins article. I don't think I hate Aura of Sacrifice as much as other people do. I like the trade-off between sacrificing your health (or at least the cooldown of Divine Shield) for an incredibly impactful raid cooldown.

However, I will agree with other posters that both the passive and the active don't feel different enough from Devotion Aura. I still think Aura of Mercy is fine as an option among a row of aura talents, but I'm not very excited by it. Using Aura Mastery with Aura of Mercy feels like you haven't really done much. At least in Legion we were able to provide the 15% increased healing for 8 seconds from Protection of Tyr. I like the choice between Judgment of Light and Holy Avenger. I don't know how noticeable losing 15 stacks per application on top of losing Il'terendi will feel for Judgment of Light, but my guess is that this is still a comparable decision. I feel like Holy Prism is still lackluster. 20 seconds as a Holy Power spender when Holy Prism was more prominent in Cata/MoP). I think the design of damage plus healing can work really well with other more damage-focused talents, but it just doesn't feel as impactful as other choices on this row.