Midnight Season 1 OverviewHoly Paladin Guide
Learn about the iconic abilities and talents that might still exist in your spell book but you likely won't be using in Season 1.
Collapsing Star - Devourer DH
Hogstrider - SV & BM Hunter
Melee Healing - MW Monk
Healing Rain - Resto Shaman
Players who have miraculously been able to keep up with the changes to Holy Paladin over the Midnight Beta, will know that Judgment has gone from being a spell we used on cooldown, to a spell that is now only worth casting for damage when there is nothing to heal, even as Lightsmith. But what actually changed to make Judgment so bad and what does it mean for the gameplay and our potential talent builds?
What Changed?
The talent that made Judgment worth using in the first place was Empyrean Legacy. Prior to Midnight this had a 20 second internal cooldown, but it now procs from Judgment crits without any cooldown. For most of the beta it would cause your next Word of Glory to cast a free Light of Dawn at 125% value, but just a week before the expansion, it was nerfed to 30%.
Class Tuning - February 17
Empyrean Legacy now casts Light of Dawn at 30% effectiveness (was 125%).
This change alone destroyed the viability of Judgment as a healing spell and any talents tied to it. Empyrean Legacy was the main reason that using Judgment was better than just casting Flash of Light. The issue Judgment has compared to Flash of Light is that Judgment relies on several talents at the bottom of our talent tree for its power, while Flash of Light does not. Even if you were to take every single talent that increases Judgment's healing, Flash of Light is still a better spell.
Because Judgment is never worth using for healing, those talents (Empyrean Legacy, Veneration, and Truth Prevails) are also never worth taking. This is true for Lightsmith as well, even though Lightsmith is seemingly built around Judgment with talents such as Hammer and Anvil and Reflection of Radiance.
Is the Gameplay Really so Bad Without Judgment?
No. The gameplay of the spec is still really fun and fast paced. Even though I did prefer the rotation with Empyrean Legacy and how fun it was to have such a proc to react to, I also think that Flash of Light feels great with Infusion of Light procs, and we get quite a lot of those with how low Holy Shock's cooldown is.
I don't think Judgment is inherently an interesting or fun spell, I simply think it is a major design flaw that we have a Hero Talent tree and several normal talents dedicated to Judgment that are now never worth taking.
Empyrean Legacy was the linchpin talent that held those other Judgment effects above water and made the spell fun to use, while also giving us more interesting decisions in our gameplay. With Empyrean Legacy in raids, you had a reason to use both your Holy Power spenders instead of just spamming Light of Dawn. You had to react to the procs and make sure you actually consumed them by casting Word of Glory.
The takeaway from this shouldn't be that I want Judgment to be better for the sake of Judgment, but that it sucks to lose Empyrean, and it seems silly to have so many dead talents tied to Judgment. If Judgment is to be made worth using again, it has to be done by buffing Empyrean Legacy, because without it, Judgment just feels like another random dull damage spell.
Do you miss Judgment being part of the core rotation? Do you enjoy a more straightforward playstyle or having procs to react to for healing?
