Blizzard has been asking for questions from community members of each class on the forums for awhile now and lately they’ve been releasing their official Question and Answer sessions one at a time for each class.  Today was the paladin’s turn.  There was no surprises in the Q&A and we’ve talked about these questions on this blog before.  There was really only two questions for Holy Paladins in the Q&A, but here they are.  You can also view the entire Q&A post on the forums.

Q: How do we feel about the healing itemization for paladins thus far? Do we still feel MP5 is as important as other stats such as Int, Crit, Haste, and Spell Power? Are there plans to incorporate more of these other stats in later tiers of paladin healing gear?

A. In Lich King up until now, MP5 has not been as valuable to most paladins as say Int, Crit, or Spell Power, and really it wasn’t intended to be. It is particularly relevant that you are hardly ever choosing between Int and MP5. However, we also think that MP5 became undervalued as a stat and as most of you know, we are buffing it for 3.2. Furthermore, we think we have allowed paladin mana regen through Int and Crit to get a little out of control. We don’t want to force paladins to care only about MP5, but we also don’t want them viewing it as a total junk stat, like say Agility, either. Crit is just too beneficial to be strictly a regen stat.

From the 3.2 PTR testing so far, it seems like some Holy paladins are taking a second look at Haste and MP5 possibly instead of Crit. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, and we will adjust as necessary, but it’s nice to see paladins at least consider the stats now before making a gear decision.

We have also hinted before that we’ve had trouble developing distinct niches for MP5 and Spirit and are considering collapsing those two stats in the future. This would be a change with a lot of ramifications though — we wouldn’t just replace MP5 on gear with Spirit and call it a day.

Q. Do we feel Flash of Light and the changes in store for it will allow for additional diversification for the existing healing spells available? Aside from Healing Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Shock, are there any plans to provide paladins with other interesting healing spells later down the road?

A. Later down the road most likely, but it won’t be for 3.2 and it won’t be with something that looks like Prayer of Healing or Wild Growth. We do think paladins will have more of a use for Flash of Light now with the extra benefit to Sacred Shield. The changes to Beacon of Light in 3.2 should make paladins an exceptional dual target healer.

I do like how gear decisions aren’t going to be as straight-forward for Holy Paladins in Patch 3.2.  Its pretty boring when everyone just says “Stack Intellect!” all day.  There’s no skill or interesting decision making to do.  Maybe now people will look at Mp5 a little more and Crit less and try for a better balance of stats, although I still think Intellect and Crit will be very important.  In my opinion, Blizzard should do more to nerf Intellect and give us a talent that improves our regen from Mp5.

For the second question, I’m sure paladins will receive a new crazy healing gimmick in the next expansion.  Something like Beacon of Light only crazier, I’m sure.  Who knows what it will be.  I really appreciate how Blizzard doesn’t just give everyone the same abilities though.