4.0.6

Biggest news is Rebuke for all paladins (mostly protection as it has a melee range).

Divine Plea hope

Score! Let's hope this change goes live!

We changed it so Divine Plea will generate 3 Holy Power when used so you can start with Holy Power on the pull.

No reason to be a Prot Paladin in Cata

Well, I have to say (irregardless of the death of 25 man raiding which I hate) that I don't hold much enthusiasm for my paladin in the coming expansion. Ret is looking good, but that's not really what I want to play as. Holy is a new beast but with a little work could be something fun (really, don't cut illumination, find another way to nerf regen). But Prot is really, really aweful on beta right now.

A large number of talents we're forced to take are unwanted. Massive amount of loss in terms of mitigation and actual abilities (yes, seriously, we have less tools to use to tank with and a lot of the ones we kept just do less - like HoR not doing damage anymore). A clunky and unfun Holy Power mechanic (Ret and Holy make it a lot more fun) -- which btw when we play the stuff for a month before Cata we won't even get Inquisition (level 81) which is really the only useful ability for Prot Holy Power (we'll be forced to use shield which is less useful and even more clunky).

But worst of all, is that there's just no reason to play Prot Paladin when you could be something else. DKs and warriors just blow us away in terms of tanking ability, tools, and talents. Druids bring better hp and mitigation as well as having that healing dual spec with better utility (paladins now only have hand spells--last build judgement of light in addtion to wisdom was dead--while druids have innervate and battle rez). I honestly feel like Cata is worse for prot paladins than vanilla. I was a prot paladin for one of the first Nefarian kills anywhere--back when I had int, mp5, and agi forced on my gear--and Cata Prot Paladins are in a worse position.

New holy power bar

Well, then new holy power bar is on beta, but when I played with it wasn't working correct yet. It does however look real nice, heh. The power auras that mmo-champ previewed look pretty good in the screenshots. So far holy and retribution seem to be shaping up nicely with holy power, but protection still feels awkward and underpowered.

BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter

Interesting...

A. All of the paladin specializations will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Holy Power accumulates from using Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, and some other talents. Holy Power can be consumed to augment a variety of abilities, including:

• An instant mana-free heal: Word of Glory
• A buff to increase holy damage done: Inquisition
• A massive physical melee attack for Retribution paladins: Templar’s Verdict
• Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power
• Divine Storm’s damage is now increased by Holy Power

We also introduced several new heals for Holy Paladins including Healing Hands (an AoE heal-over-time that is applied to all players standing near the paladin), Light of Dawn (a cone heal with a 30-yard range), as well as a new heal called Divine Light, which is similar to a priest's Greater Heal, and the new instant heal mentioned above, Word of Glory.
Source

New Talent System Unveiled

Well, the new talent system is on the Cata-beta server... and I'd tell you how much holy/prot talents suck (ret actually looks pretty sleek), but I would prefer to play them first and currently some talents are broke so you can't actually learn them. O_o

I'm sure they'll get some changes before release; but the removal of redoubt and reckoning makes me very sad. They weren't the most powerful talents; but they were very unique, flavorful, iconic, and historic prot paladin talents.

Slow

Boring few months for paladin news. Still waitin' on Cataclysm infos, which will likely change a lot when Beta goes live and the NDA is lifted.