The Paladin Talents Dragonflight 10.0.7 has brought significant changes to the tree. While there are marked improvements, there’s room for further development to better align talents with all specs and to enhance the decision-making process in talent choices.
A Deep Dive
Pathing Improvements and Throughput Nodes
Dragonflight 10.0.7 has introduced substantial pathing improvements to the Paladin tree, such as the removal of the necessity to take 2 ranks of Fist of Justice to increase throughput. Moreover, there is no longer a lock behind utility nodes for throughput nodes, although there remains a significant number of them you’ll want to acquire.
Passive Stat Nodes and their Effect
Despite these changes, most passive stat nodes, such as Holy Aegis and Seal of Might, remain as multi-point passive nodes, which can be perceived as lackluster. The exception, Seal of Alacrity, bears the same passive bonus as another node in the Ret tree, Teachings of the Light. In my view, this could benefit from the addition of more exciting effects, especially if 4-6 points are to be invested in these types of damage nodes.
Interrupting Bonus: Punishment
Punishment provides a welcome bonus for interrupting, offering a much more balanced approach compared to its original mechanic of casting a free Templar’s Verdict.
Offhealing Options
The current Paladin tree could benefit from better options to meaningfully offheal. Most options are either passive benefits like Lightforged Blessing, Golden Path, or Judgment of Light, which offer limited help during heavy damage situations, or effects like Afterimage or Strength of Conviction, which may increase throughput for Holy but offer minimal help for a Ret Paladin trying to offheal.
Consecration and Incandescence
With Consecration now on a longer cooldown and fewer free procs available, Incandescence has lost much of its potency.
Spec-Specific Usefulness
Many talents, such as Lightforged Blessing and Faith’s Armor, seem spec-specific and are effectively useless outside of their designated specs.
Capstones and Throughput
It remains easy to acquire every capstone without losing much, rendering them as baseline passive damage bonuses rather than unique choices.
Quickened Invocation
The Quickened Invocation talent will likely see minimal use, as it would desynchronize Divine Toll from other 60s/2min cooldowns, and the loss of Divine Resonance is too significant a price to pay.
Seal of Order vs Fading Light
In a comparison between Seal of Order and Fading Light, both are very similar abilities. However, one offers a stronger throughput bonus while the other merely provides an absorb shield. A more engaging choice might be between a flat damage reduction or an absorb shield, instead of one being strictly superior for throughput.