Holy Paladin Review of Lightsmith Hero Talents - Support Fantasy Over Gameplay
This past week, Blizzard revealed new Hero Talent Trees in a First Look at the new system coming with the The War Within expansion. Our Holy Paladin guide writer, Clarius, offers an early review of the Lightsmith Paladin Hero Talents for Holy and addresses why there might be a lot of frustration with the current design.
First Look at Hero Talents in The War WithinHero Talents Overview
Lightsmith Paladin Hero Talent Tree
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Initial Thoughts
The Lightsmith Hero talent tree is a clear and obvious case of fantasy and thematical choices being put before gameplay considerations. Having to cast on the ground and then needing someone to move over it to pick it up is a step that does not need to exist. Why is it not just a buff you cast on a target of your choosing? Sure, it will probably have a cool animation and be thematically fitting, but trying to use this optimally in a raid setting sounds unfeasible, tedious, and frustrating.
Imagine if you are trying to buff that Unholy Death Knight with Sacred Weapon for their big burst, but they are standing in the melee clump. Good luck hitting the right player. You would have to place it out of the group and then have the player run out and take it.
Having it be a ground effect adds visual clutter and takes the agency of the spell out of the hands of the paladin and puts in to hands of dps players who will have to identify the effect on the ground and then be knowledgeable enough to know whether they or someone else should pick it up.
While there are still a lot of open questions as to the tuning of the talents and the cooldown and duration of the buffs from, my initial reaction to the Lightsmith talent tree is one of antipathy, and frankly I hope the
