Paladin in Forever

Paladin is the class Forever rebuilt hardest. It has the most talents that are not in the Classic tree (20), the most talents built on spells that do not exist in Classic at all (19, where the next highest is 12), a new baseline attack at level 6, a new seal, and two talents that stopped being talents and became abilities everybody gets. It also has the one change that reshapes the class most, and it is a single clause in a level-4 tooltip: Judgement no longer consumes your Seal. Blizzard flagged two of these on stage; the rest is in the beta build.

Numbers below come from build 1.60.1.69913, compared with Era 1.15.9.69722. No builds, no recommendations; the trees are in the Paladin calculator.

The largest single change to the class is one clause in a level-4 ability. Era’s Judgement reads “Unleashes the energy of a Seal spell upon an enemy”. Forever’s reads “Unleash the energy of a Seal spell upon an enemy. Does not consume the Seal.”

The judged debuff also got longer. Seal of the Crusader, Seal of Light and Seal of Wisdom all judged for 10 sec in Era; in Forever they judge for 40 sec. Seal of the Crusader’s Holy damage increase went from up to 20 to up to 23.

29 Paladin abilities read differently in this build. The rest of the ones that change how the class is played:

Healing numbers came down at the same time: Flash of Light rank 1 heals 43 to 49 where Era’s heals 62 to 72, and Hammer of Wrath hits for 274 to 302 against Era’s 304 to 336.

Blizzard stated that Consecration is baseline at level 20 and that Paladins get Holy Strike at level 6 (Blizzard: Deep Dive Panel Recap). The beta build shows what that means in the trees.

Greater Blessing of Kings is still there at level 60.

Blizzard said Consecration is baseline; it did not say the same about Blessing of Kings. The two rows look identical in the data, with the talent removed and the level-20 ability kept, so we read them the same way, but only the Consecration half is confirmed.

23 ability rows in the Paladin list are new against Era. Three of them are new abilities rather than extra ranks.

Holy Strike: level 6, eight ranks up to level 60. An instant strike for 25% weapon damage plus Holy damage on top; rank 1 adds 11 to 14. Blizzard named this one on stage.

Seal of Fury: level 10, seven ranks. A seal that adds Holy damage to melee attacks, and, while a shield is equipped, turns each of those hits into an absorb shield worth 50% of the Holy damage dealt. Unleashing it deals Holy damage and taunts the target for 4 sec. It is the first Paladin seal that is both a threat tool and a mitigation tool, and three Protection talents key off it.

Hammer of the Righteous: level 40. Hits the current target and up to three more nearby for Holy damage equal to three times your main-hand damage per second. The tooltip says its cooldown is shared with Crusader Strike; Crusader Strike is not in the Paladin’s ability list in this build.

In Era, Holy Shock is the 31-point Holy talent and the ability arrives at level 40 with three ranks. In Forever it is the 21-point talent, the ability starts at level 30 with a new rank 1 (Holy Shock, 129 to 139 damage or 110 to 118 healing) and Era’s old rank 1 becomes rank 2 at 40. It also lost its prerequisite: Era required Divine Favor first, Forever does not.

The 31-point slot it vacated is now Light's Vigil, three ability ranks at 40, 50 and 60. It puts a 30-second mark on a target; your next Holy Shock on that target has no cooldown and either heals the target’s party for 315 to 333 or deals 175 to 189 Holy damage and refunds 75% of the mark’s mana. One per Paladin, per party.

Three Holy talents were rewritten to name Light’s Vigil alongside Flash of Light and Holy Light: Spiritual Focus, Illumination and, indirectly, Infusion of Light.

52 talents against Era’s 44, the largest increase of any class. 17 talents that survived changed tier, rank count or prerequisite.

Holy

• Improved Holy Strike (2 ranks): 1 or 2 sec off the Holy Strike cooldown, at the very first tier.
• Voice of Truth (1 rank, the 11-point talent): immunity to Silence and Interrupt effects for 6 sec.
• Reverence (3 ranks): 10% to 30% of mana regeneration continues while casting. Illumination now requires it.
• Purifying Power (2 ranks): 20% off the mana cost of Cleanse and Purify and a third off the cooldown of Exorcism and Holy Wrath at two points.
• Infusion of Light (2 ranks): a Holy Shock or Flash of Light critical hit takes 0.5 or 1 sec off the next Holy Light within 15 sec.
• Divine Precision (3 ranks): 6% to 18% Holy spell hit. Requires Holy Shock.
• Consecrated Ground (2 ranks): Holy spells deal 5% or 10% more damage to the first four enemies that walk into your Consecration.
• Light's Vigil (1 rank): the new 31-point talent, above.

Protection

• Improved Seal of Fury (1 rank, the 11-point talent): restores mana when Seal of Fury’s shield is fully absorbed, scaling with how far the attacker’s level is above yours.
• Sacred Duty (2 ranks): 2% or 4% Stamina and 30 or 60 sec off the cooldown of Divine Shield, Divine Protection and Templar’s Bulwark.
• Swift Judgement (1 rank): the 16-point talent: clears the remaining cooldown on Judgement and makes the next one free.
• Templar's Bulwark (1 rank, the 21-point talent): an absorb shield worth 100% of your maximum health for 8 sec, with 1 min of Forbearance. Holy Shield now requires it, where Era required Blessing of Sanctuary.
• Iron Creed (5 ranks): 5% to 25% more threat from Holy Strike, and with Righteous Fury active, Holy Strike also cuts your damage taken by 2% to 10% for 6 sec.

Retribution

• Holy Conduit (2 ranks): 20% or 40% off the mana cost of Consecration, Holy Wrath, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath.
• Sanctified Judgement (3 ranks): Judgement has a 33% to 100% chance to return 20% to 60% of the judged seal’s mana cost. Vengeance now hangs off it.
• Sacred Arbiter (1 rank): the 16-point talent: Holy Strike deals 10% more damage and refreshes every Judgement effect on the target.
• Crusade (2 ranks): 1% or 2% more damage to everything, doubled against Demons and Undead.
• Champion of the Light (3 ranks): spell damage and healing from up to 33% / 67% / 100% of your Intellect.
• Instrument of Law (2 ranks): 0.5 or 1 sec off the Hammer of Wrath cast, and 10% or 20% less threat while Righteous Fury is off.
• Twist of Light (1 rank): the new 31-point talent. Replacing Seal of Command, Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Fury or Seal of Justice with a different seal leaves an Echo, and your next melee attack applies the replaced seal’s effects.

Eye for an Eye now reflects 10% of any critical strike taken rather than 30% of spell criticals only.

Twelve Era talents have no counterpart. Besides Consecration, Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Sanctuary, they are the aura and blessing modifiers: Improved Devotion Aura, Improved Concentration Aura, Improved Retribution Aura, Sanctity Aura, Improved Blessing of Might, Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Improved Seal of the Crusader, Improved Lay on Hands and Lasting Judgement. Most of the space they freed went to the new talents above.

Two entries in Blizzard’s Known Issues thread for September 17 are Paladin-specific (Blizzard Forums: Beta Known Issues – September 17): Retribution’s Vengeance “incorrectly procs from periodic critical strikes”, and Holy Strike’s per-rank scaling “doesn’t feel satisfactory”, which reads as a design note rather than a defect, so the rank values above may not be the values at launch.

The beta level cap is 20, rising to 30 later in the test (Blizzard: Beta Now Live). At 20 a Paladin has 11 talent points, Holy Strike at rank 3, Seal of Fury at rank 2, and none of the three 16-point talents.

Coming soon The mana Improved Seal of Fury restores. The talent’s own text in this build reads “restore 0 Mana, increased by 15% per level the attacker is above you”. The base figure is not filled in, so we are not printing one.

Coming soon The trigger chance and block count on Redoubt. Era’s version triggered on being critically hit; Forever’s triggers on any damaging melee attack with a chance the game’s own text does not spell out.

Whether Forsaken Paladins, confirmed as a new combination and tied to the Forsaken Kingdom storyline with a level-60 epic mount questline (Blizzard: Found Photos Panel Recap), differ mechanically from any other Paladin. Nothing in the class data distinguishes them; see New race and class combinations.

That these trees are the ones a Forever character spends points in is our reading of the beta build, not something we have confirmed in game. The reasoning is in Forever talent trees.