Prot Paladins and Exorcism

I sometimes managed to slip in Exorcism on the mob I am currently tanking for more threat or more damage. And I definitely use it when I'm not currently tanking but helping to do some damage. I assume that HoR causing that extra damage is done after the taunt effect so that we get a giant boost on threat? Or is it just intended to be useful on mobs immune to taunt?

We realize Prot paladins sometimes use Exorcism to generate threat at range. While you can technically still do that, we understand that sometimes you might not be able to afford the cast time (say you are already in melee and adds join the battle).

To address this, we are going to change Hand of Reckoning to cause a lot more Holy damage. However, it will not cause this damage if the target is already attacking you. This lets you use it at range on adds, but won't turn it into a rotational ability that you have to keep using while something is beating on you.
Source

on the topic of Paladin mana regen

Not sure I agree with GC's numbers here. I know I certainly can't afford to use Plea all that often.

Illumination 70,000
Divine Plea 50,000
Replenishment 36,000
Other sources of mana 30,000
Mana from gear 10,000
Overhealing 60%
Source

Here's 2 records of me on Mimi:
Illumination 30371
Replenishment 30155
Divine Plea 12122
Mana Restore 9000
Revitalize 2909
Hymn of Hope 1600
Judgement of Wisdom 440
~ gear mp5 / wisdom buff 54000
Overhealing 43.6%

Illumination 42758
Replenishment 27907
Mana Restore 11400
Divine Plea 5738
Revitalize 4606
Hymn of Hope 728
Judgement of Wisdom 175
~ gear mp5 / wisdom buff 54000
Overhealing 56.3%

Here's our primary holy:
Illumination 61560
Replenishment 30165
Soul of the Dead 9900
Mana Restore 4800
Divine Plea 3661
Revitalize 1375
Judgement of Wisdom 88
~from gear mp5 / wisdom buff 25000
Overhealing 61.8%

Now, that mana from mp5 estimate would be if we weren't full the whole time. Generally we both divine plea up to full at each phase transition. So it's probably safe to drop that by 10% to 25%, even then, I'm way different from GC's figures.

Also in GC's thread, if there was confusion, in the next patch Beacon will be able to be applied multiple times to one target.

on Illumination nerf

Resilience thread, GC talks about doing the illumination nerf because of the beacon buff. Honestly, I think they've been wanting to nerf Illumination for a long time and this Beacon buff is really just a fix (making it truely reliable without much additional effective healing, tons more overheal) and it still doesn't solve the problem of raids not wanting 2 holy paladins.

Illumination was nerfed for PvE reasons.
Source

Patch 3.2 pre-PTR notes

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html
I doubt we'll see all the ardent defender changes last through testing. Exorcism is a Ret change but it hurts Prot. We'll have to see how Seals they play out in game. Holy didn't really get anything to help with raid healing better; it's just heal the tank better while getting some raid healing--still don't see a reason to bring 2 holy paladins?

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
• Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.
  Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
• Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
• Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker's maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
• Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target's armor.
• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
• Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal over time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
• Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed. Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.
• Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with
  critical strikes dealing double damage.
• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.
• Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.
• Talents
• Holy
• Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
  Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect
  instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
• Protection
• Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35%
  health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an
  attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the
  paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
• Retribution
• Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
• Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4 second cooldown.
• Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
• Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Big Paladin Changes Coming

Pre-Patch note info, Patch Notes to follow.
Protection: Ardent Defender will no longer “skip over” the 35% health level – it will always be reduced and it has a new effect that if a blow would kill you, it instead sets you to 30% health. This portion of the ability cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes. Blessing of Sanctuary will likely increase stamina to be competative with Kings. And they are doubling the effect of bonus block value on items.
Holy: Changing Flash of Light so that it places a heal-over-time effect on any target with Sacred Shield on them. Bacon to do overhealing.
Retribution: Damage seals to be redesigned; Martyr being removed. Exorcism to have a cast time and work with Art of War. Crusader Strike down to 4 second cooldown. Vindication to attack power reduce like Demo Shout.
Source

3.2 will have holy paladin changes

They said they were working on it; and here they now say it will come in patch 3.2.

We have some changes in 3.2 that will address some of the concerns healing shamans and paladins have.

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We are working on a (long) post to explain some of the paladin changes. I don't have an ETA.

...We're okay though with expanding their breadth a little bit for those situations where you have more paladins than tanks or the raid is taking a lot of damage...
Source

Slow News

Been rather slow on Paladin news last few days.
Ulduar has seen some nerfs. Source I know I enjoy no more mind control on Yogg while tanking.
They also announced riding mount changes for next big content patch; prices and level lowered, as well as cast time down to 1.5:

Paladin
Warhorse: Requires level 20
Charger: Requires level 40
Source