Blizzard continues the class presentations and introduces Paladin, Warlock, and Death Knight in the new World of Warcraft expansion.
Strengthening the Fantasy Behind the Classes
As part of the upcoming expansion World of Warcraft: Legion, Blizzard aims to better delineate the various classes along with their different specializations. After taking a look at Priests, Mages and Hunters, Paladins, Warlocks, and Death Knights follow now.
Paladins – Away with the Light, Charge to the Front!
Holy Paladins are considered the cowards of World of Warcraft for a reason. Despite their plate armor, they typically stay far from the front lines and heal from a safe distance. With Legion, healing Paladins are brought right into the fray, as their heals become stronger when they are close to their targets. This is complemented by cone spells that require close proximity.
Not much changes for Protection Paladins. They receive a new, solid self-heal and bid farewell to “Holy Power”, otherwise, players are quite satisfied with the current gameplay.
Only Retribution Paladins still have “Holy Power” as a resource. Many of their ranged spells will have their range reduced, as the aim is to enhance the feel of a melee fighter. However, talents will allow the Paladin to throw their sword up to 30 meters and then teleport there – a nod to Tyrael from Heroes of the Storm.
Warlocks – More Demons, Less Complex Interactions
Affliction Warlocks can rejoice, as their DoTs are set to come more to the forefront. Recently, it felt more as if “fillers” like Soul Leech and Life Tap were considerably more important than the actual Damage-over-Time spells. This will be corrected by giving DoTs more significance.
Those dedicated to Demonology should prepare for extensive changes. Metamorphosis disappears completely, and Warlocks will now be able to summon significantly more demons than before. “Hand of Gul’dan” now consumes Soul Shards and summons up to 5 wild imps simultaneously, depending on the number of shards. The additional demons can be buffed. Overall, Demonology will likely become a “Minionmancer”, following the motto: “Go forth, my minions, show them how strong I am!”
Not much changes for Destruction Warlocks. Instead of unstable sparks, they now rely again on the good old Soul Shards, otherwise, the typical playstyle remains largely intact with only minor adjustments.
Death Knights – Few Changes, Just Refinement
All three Death Knight specializations are in a very solid state, according to Blizzard, hence there are only minimal changes, and the biggest hopes rest on the yet-to-be-released talents.
For Blood Death Knights, the main change is that Death Strike now costs Runic Power instead of Runes. This resolves the issue that occasionally hindered self-healing when a wrong rune was invested.
For Frost Death Knights, there is a small change to the passive bonus “Killing Machine”, which now only affects “Obliterate” (and makes this ability always a critical hit).
Unholy Death Knights receive a buff to their “Festering Strike”, which is set to become a central part of the rotation again. At the same time, talents will ensure that fallen champions can control more undead than before and summon an additional ghoul each time with “Raise Dead”.
More information about the Legion expansion can be found on our World of Warcraft topic page.
