Have Paladins lost too much of their Warcraft fantasy over the years? Many players miss some core mechanics.
Whenever major changes are coming in an MMORPG, some things get left behind that some players may have enjoyed before. A discussion about Paladins has now been sparked in the official forum of World of Warcraft. It is about the fact that the Paladin no longer matches the original fantasy that was envisioned for Classic WoW. One user writes:
“When I started playing a Paladin, he was described like this:
As a guardian of the Holy Light and protector of the Alliance, Paladins empower their allies with auras and blessings to shield their friends from suffering and enhance their strengths. (…) In battle, they can wield two-handed weapons, incapacitate their enemies, destroy undead and demons, and smite their foes with Holy Wrath. Paladins are a defensive class who endure their enemies.”
By now, much has changed for the Paladin and more and more players note that the class feels more like a “Diablo-Crusader” than a Paladin in the Warcraft universe. Auras and blessings have disappeared, even though many players enjoyed them. The Community Manager Ornyx then asks why auras were fun, after all, they are practically purely passive mechanics that require little to no interaction and thus create “boring” gameplay.
The user Tyberim wrote a long response explaining what made a Paladin for him and what he now misses:
“There isn’t ‘one’ reason why players loved the auras of Paladins. Giving someone 2% physical protection with the Aura of Devotion wasn’t game-changing, but it was there. You could always say that the Paladin is protecting you just by seeing the icon with the shield of the aura in the upper right. But the ‘Hell Yeah’ feeling of the aura was not just a gameplay function. (…)”
A Paladin is a knight who leads the charge, but that is not what defines him. A Paladin is a righteous crusader who protects the innocent, guards his allies, and absorbs a large portion of the damage. When a group of soldiers sees a Paladin, it boosts their morale because now a Paladin is there who can save them and suddenly there is hope for victory that wasn’t there before.
The aura of a Paladin perfectly represented this. When a Paladin fights, he is not only fighting against his enemies; he also inspires his allies. Wounded soldiers suddenly recover from the brink of death because the Paladin has laid his hands on them. Soldiers who wished to flee realize that their morale has been restored. Soldiers who were completely exhausted suddenly find the strength to lift their weapon and return to battle.
A Paladin brings this understanding of duty, bravery, and hope with his mere presence, and granting Paladins the ability to empower their allies through auras was a fun and thematically fitting way to represent that.”
The dialogue continues for a while; you can find the complete thread in our sources.
Cortyn says: I recently had a very similar conversation with a long-term Paladin player who expressed exactly this concern. It’s not about the aura needing to be “super strong” or providing “exciting gameplay”. It’s simply about the feeling associated with an aura, even if the effect was small. I can therefore understand well that the class doesn’t feel the way it used to and now something is missing.
But what do you think?
