I've been informed that for some reason, a large number or perhaps all beta posters are unable to post in the Lich King beta forums. I'm not trying to avoid you or stop you from responding, so I'll post my beta - related content here as well. The same rules for replying to this thread still apply.

Enough with the nonsense. Just follow the posting rules.

Hello, paladins!

I'm sorry that we didn't have the opportunity to announce these changes in advance before the data was pushed to the beta. I won't sugar - coat it; these are indeed nerfs.

As I attempted to explain before, a few weeks ago, we reached the conclusion that Retribution paladins were dealing too much damage in PvP. We tried to reduce their burst damage through previous changes like those to Divine Storm, etc. Unfortunately, those changes weren't enough. Not only were paladins dominating other classes in PvP, but also, when we tested at level 80, we found that their PvE damage was too high. Many classes felt weak when comparing their damage numbers to those of paladins (and to be fair, hunters and in some cases mages and warriors were also in relatively strong positions).

Here are the new changes:

1) Judgements of the Wise: The mana gained has been decreased from 33% to 15% of the base mana. We spent a long time determining this number. For instance, we conducted numerous Patchwerk fights to observe the mana bar. In Battlegrounds, we noticed that paladins could switch from one target to another continuously without pausing, even while using all their attack skills. While we don't want you to run out of mana in a few seconds, we also don't want you to completely ignore your mana bar. Mana is not rage; warriors typically don't start a battle with a full rage bar.

2) Judgement of Wisdom: The mana gained has been reduced to 1% of the maximum mana, and the proc frequency has been cut in half. This is to make the mana regeneration of Shadow priests and Retribution paladins more comparable.

3) Judgement and Seals: The damage has been reduced by 20%. This is a major damage adjustment, as a large portion of the paladin's damage comes from these. We do realize that this also affects Holy and Protection paladins, and we are prepared to offer compensation for this (especially if it affects the Protection paladin's threat generation).

4) Hammer of Wrath: Now it can't be used until the target's health is below 20%. Generally, our rule is that core "Execute - style" abilities are usable at 20% health, and those with talent support work at 35% health. Originally, we had Hammer of Wrath set to be usable at 35% due to some other limitations of the spell (such as the Sanctified Wrath talent).

5) Art of War: The damage bonus to Judgements, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm will be increased. I'll report the exact numbers once we've decided on them.

I also want to mention that the change to the Blessing of Might was not a joke. It's designed so that Battle Shouts won't overwrite the more powerful and costly Blessing of Might in a group setting.

These nerfs may seem quite severe, but that was the intention. It's difficult for some players to be truly objective about issues related to their class, but in this case, we felt that Retribution was seriously overpowered. This was not a minor issue that could be fixed with small tweaks (although we did try initially). We made a comprehensive review of the paladin class for the Lich King expansion, so it's unfortunate but not entirely unexpected that the damage - dealing spec requires a lot of adjustments. The mistake is on our part, not the players or the beta testers.

Nerfing a spec or a class is never pleasant. It indicates that our initial estimations were inaccurate, and we know that the community will react negatively (to put it mildly). However, we must strive to keep the game in a relatively balanced state, which means making unpopular decisions at times. If you need to blame someone for these nerfs, blame me.

As always, if we've overdone it, we'll adjust the numbers again. But as I said, our initial round of nerfs wasn't sufficient. Don't worry that the Lich King expansion is coming soon and there won't be any further changes. That's not our view. We've made a lot of changes in the game, and we need to be able to correct problems. I expect that early patches or even hotfixes will deal with class or balance issues, and hopefully, these will become less frequent as we approach major content releases. But nothing is set in stone after the release; we may even rework the talent trees if necessary. This doesn't mean we're not satisfied with the current state of the game. Instead, I'm promising that we'll continue to address problem areas as they arise.

I also want to emphasize that we don't make balance decisions based on the complaints of other classes. At most, if there is a strong outcry, it will prompt us to re - evaluate the numbers to see if something is wrong. As vocal, passionate, and sometimes logical as forum posts can be, they represent only a small part of the entire fanbase, and it would be unwise for us to punish one group of players just because another group is whining.

If you need to vent, go ahead. We won't delete posts or ban posters in this thread unless they are overly offensive. We ask that you don't create a large number of other threads so that other paladin - related issues can still be discussed. Similarly, we don't mind other classes participating in the discussion, but blatant gloating or trolling will not be tolerated.

And I do sincerely apologize for putting you through all this.

II

Since it seems that the first thread is about to reach the post limit, here is part II. The same rules apply. You can call me whatever names you like as long as you're not overly offensive to other players. Other classes are welcome to participate as long as they have something intelligent to say and aren't just gloating.

For what it's worth, I strive to be honest about the state of the game. When something isn't working, I'll admit it. When we're wrong, I'll admit that as well. If we've nerfed Retribution too much, I'll come back and say you were right and we were wrong, and I'll be happy to buff Seals or other abilities again.

It's a bit sad if someone hates me or Blizzard for trying to keep the game balanced, but it comes with the territory of game design. But I don't think it's accurate to say that you were lied to. We thought Retribution was at a good level, but we were wrong. These things happen.

Original post follows:

I've been told that for some reason, many or all beta posters can't post in the LK beta forums. I'm not trying to dodge you or stop responses, so I'll post my beta - related post here. The same rules for replying to this thread apply.

This "II" is actually a repetition of "I", but I'll translate one of the replies.

A few weeks ago (whenever it was), we thought Retribution's PvE performance was fine. We thought some of the extreme numbers were due to the weapon - stacking bug. We thought some of the complaints from other classes were because they were over - reacting as they weren't used to the new abilities. But since then, we've been able to conduct a lot more testing on the beta server and collect a large amount of data, and we've seen that Retribution paladins often had higher numbers than players with better gear. A small part of this could be attributed to skill or unusual situations, but as the data set grew large enough, we had to admit that these were not just outliers.

I try to be cautious in everything I say because in game design, especially in an MMO, and particularly in an MMO beta, things are going to change. My options are to keep you informed of the latest developments, which may not always be accurate, or wait until I'm 100% certain, in which case my posts will be very few and far between. I'll try to be even more cautious with phrases like "we think" and "at this time" and similar warnings so that no one is caught off - guard or feels "lied to."

I'm disappointed that I was wrong because I know it undermines our credibility. We knew that paladins would be very unhappy, so you can be sure that we wanted to make these changes.

I'll take it at face value that many of you are as hurt by these changes as you claim, and I'm sorry to be the one causing you this pain.

III

I know that many of you asked good questions before the posts reached their limit. I'm not sure that answering these questions will calm anyone down, but I'll give it a try. If not, when the paladin community has vented all their frustrations, I'll still be here.

Also, be aware that there are probably hundreds of questions at this point, and I can't answer them all. Here are some common themes:

I thought we were supposed to be bursty?

Yes, that's the design. It's also a difficult design to get right because if you're too bursty, the opponent doesn't even have a chance to respond.

You reviewed our class last because you don't care.

We made a comprehensive review of the entire class. We rebuilt the way Seals and Judgements work, and overall, it's a positive change. Paladins received a lot of attention in the Lich King expansion. Your response makes me think that the correct way to balance the game in the future is to make a class weak at the start and then buff it so that players are happy and excited instead of angry and disappointed. Progression is key.

I thought you didn't want us to run out of mana.

We didn't want you to run out of mana in three hits, especially in a sustained dps fight. What we don't want is for a paladin to kill one enemy and move on to the next without using any mana. I'm a bit surprised that so many people deny that this was happening or that it was a problem.

We think we've adjusted your mana situation well now, but mana is one of those aspects of the game that requires a lot of adjustment, and there are many classes that still want us to further review how mana works for them. If you're running out of mana too quickly, believe me, we'll hear about it and adjust it if we weren't precise enough this time.

But we don't care about Battlegrounds.

A lot of people do care. And if you don't care about them right now, I'll bet it's because they don't offer the same rewards as Arenas or raiding. This is something we want to address in the future.

Again, though, we think Retribution was out of line in several situations. Other classes are also OP in some situations, and we have either recently nerfed them or are still discussing how to address those classes as well.

Look at all the other classes laughing at us.

Well, they're not very nice. Many of them probably suspect they are OP too and have so far avoided being nerfed. So far. We want Retribution to be a formidable class to face. We don't want to see 30 Retribution paladins on one side in Battlegrounds, which is actually something we've witnessed. Yeah, I know it's annoying when people say "Lolet." It's also annoying when people say "huntards." But that doesn't stop people from playing either class. There will always be some competition in this game, whether it's directly in PvP or in the PvE damage race. If I can read 1200 angry posts from Retribution paladins today, you can ignore some senseless gloating from warlocks or warriors. We'll delete the trolling comments when we see them.

Why didn't we compensate Holy and Protection first?

We want Holy to have better dps than in BC, but compared to their healing ability, that's a secondary consideration (and we believe they are good at healing). We are also still committed to making Protection paladins able to tank anything a warrior can. Consider that the boss armor changes affect warrior threat more than paladin threat. The overall result should hopefully be equal. So far, I'm not aware of a boss fight in the game where a Protection paladin main tank struggles. As I said, though, this is something we're currently working on.

Why did I describe our initial attempts to nerf Retribution as "surgical"?

Because that's what we were aiming for. Looking back, we were so worried about nerfing Retribution too much that we ended up not fixing the problem. We should have made more significant changes initially.

Why did we say Retribution was fine for so long?

Because we didn't want to have to nerf the spec. Retribution players were having fun. We thought and hoped that some well - known bugs were responsible for the excessive damage. As I've said, if I wait until I'm 100% certain to post, you won't get as many posts. Many posters have said they appreciate getting occasional developer communication and insights. But that comes with the risk that things will change. As I said, I'll be more cautious in the future.

That you're somehow paying to beta test the game.

First, I don't think we'll ever get the game balance to a point where 90% of you would say, "Yes, it's perfect! Don't change a thing!" Second, it's an MMO. Things change. The game evolves. We will always be making changes on our end as well. Players are just as likely to be unhappy with too few changes as some of you are with too many changes.

You may also have noticed that we nerfed level 70 raiding and that level 80 raids are relatively easy compared to our previous instances. We wanted to ensure that we didn't focus too much on balance differences until everyone had enough time to get used to the changes - more time than even our large beta can offer. Nobody should be left behind in Naxxramas, and by the time Ulduar and later instances are launched, I predict we will have made many balance changes.

We don't believe you because we've been at the bottom of the barrel before.

There's not much I can do to make you believe me or not. I try to be honest so that my words carry weight, but I also try to be a bit humorous so that you know I don't take myself too seriously. I don't know how else to respond to the fact that your PvE performance wasn't competitive in BC or that you weren't a major force in the Arena. That's not where we wanted you to be, and it's not where we want you to be this time either. I'm not going to show you my daily tasks or how I spend my time so that you can monitor my progress and make sure it doesn't happen again. Sorry. The best thing you can do is point out the situations where you're struggling so that we can investigate. Most of you haven't even had a chance to test with these changes yet.