Ch-ch-changes.

Welp, the old interweb done exploded over the weekend with the new WotLK Paladin talents and skills.

It seems that there's going to be a major shift in Tankadin gearing. The new Touched By the Light talent means that Stamina has become a major threat stat for us. With the elimination of Crushing Blows from WotLK bosses, it seems stamina junkies will have a field day. Of course, there are some people moaning that this new ability also boosts our healing efficency.

Block Value will also become important with the new Shield of Righteousness ability. Tied into that is the news that Strength now gives Block Value at a rate of 2:1 as opposed to the current 20:1 ratio.

Stacking Strength will also apply to other abilties. There's evidence from the Beta to suggest that Seal of Righteousness and Seal of Vengeance now get extra damage from both Spellpower and Attack Power. Also, the new Protection 51-pointer Hammer of the Righteous (god dammit Blizz, come up with some original names!) is based solely off weapon damage. This means that for best results we need to stack Strength/AP and pick up the slowest, highest-DPS one-hander we can find. I can hear the tears of Fury Warriors, Combat Rogues and Enhancement Shamans.

All-in-all, these changes are geared towards standardising gear choices amongst all three plate tanking classes, including our forthcoming Death Knight brethren. Rather than have three items drop with the same item level, but statted differently for different tanking classes, we'll all be able to use broadly the same items. Should be an interesting place to be in.

The changes feel exciting to me. the downside of them is that in the process of changing our talent trees, Blizzard hasn't done much to remove the bloat from Protection. It already seems that if you're not spending at least 56 of your 71 points in Protection, you're not going to be an effective tank.