Mmm....not sure how I feel.
Mechanics/Itemization kinda bother me, since a lot of gear is going to become outdated/worthless and if you have it on, you're in trouble. And some gear is also going to become more valuable, and it sucks if it was something you had but ended up replacing or passing on before because back then it wasn't quite as valuable.
As a holy paladin, I am looking for spell crit gear, but it's not -the- most important thing. With the new talent abilities, it's going to be much, much more valuable, though. Still, it's an upgrade I was looking for, so I shouldn't be affected too much (hopefully!). And the holy pally is my only really high level character, so the only one who might get affected much.
I do worry a bit over how guildies will be affected. We're only now getting to the point where everybody knows how to run Kara. Kinda going to suck if a lot of guildies have to re-gear up as well as relearn new/changed abilities and how they affect encounters. Especially tanks as we're lacking in those. Having tanks that are suddenly not geared for fights that they used to be geared for would suck.
Talent changes and additions I'm split on, since a lot I like, a lot I feel 'meh' about, and some I downright dislike. It should be a little interesting to see the split between holy pallies that put all their points into expanded holy tree, those who keep some in protection tree for kings, and those who may start putting points into retribution (I may be one of these). Hell, seeing how any class modifies their talents should be interesting.
Ability changes, for the most part, I think I'm going to like.
Two things off-hand I don't like. I'll miss having blessing of salvation since I don't like Hand of Salvation (although I may change my mind, but currently, it doesn't sound as useful anymore). I also don't like many abilities turning from a base mana cost to a %total_mana mana cost.
C'mon, pallies already level up gaining more strength than intelligence, and they're making divine intellect a second tier talent while divine strength remains first tier. And now their abilities are gonna cost much more than a retribution/protection pally too? That's lame.
Now, I understand if the ability is more powerful for the holy pally because of the spell damage/healing gear they'll have. More powerful = more expensive, makes sense. On the other hand, using a Hammer of Justice stun, and it costing more for the holy pally just because he has more mana? Meh. Gimme an extra few seconds or make it a hell of a lot harder to resist as a holy pally, and I'll accept the more expensive mana cost. As it is, HoJ is going to suddenly cost about 3x as much as it currently does with my current mana pool.
Still, a lot of changes are welcome. Blessing of Protection/Freedom not overwritting the real blessings is really welcome. Avenging Wrath adding to healing and not just damage -and- not causing forbearance? Woooo.
I'm curious as to hairstyles we can get, and inscriptions are probably going to be very welcome, especially with my main profession being enchanting. Being able to sell enchanting scrolls will be nice. No more trade channel stupidity, or dealing with people asking about enchants and wasting your time only to say "Oh, too expensive. Nevermind" or "thanks for info, I'll get my enchanter friend to do these for me", or even the people that don't tip or give you something so pathetic (Honestly...1 silver? For an enchant where mats cost over 100g?) it'd have been better if they didn't tip.
