Additional Changes in Patch 3.2.2

I already addressed the changes to tankadins in patch 3.2.2 in an earlier post, but Blizzard has added some more changes to the PTR since then.

• Seal of Corruption and Seal of Vengeance: These seals will now only use the debuff stacks generated by the attacking paladin to determine the damage done by the seal and by the judgement. [This is actually a bug fix. It was discovered that several paladins using SoV ended up using the same stack of debuffs on the mob. Apparently, it was the smallest stack of debuffs that was used to calculate the damage, which both hurt the dps of retris and the tps of prots.]

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now grants 10% strength in addition to its current effects. Also, the strength and stamina bonuses from this blessing will no longer be lost when Blessing of Kings is removed. [With the changes to Touched by the Light, Blizzard had to add the strength multiplier to BoS to make it comparable to the almighty Kings. Just losing 10% agility, spirit, and intellect in exchange for 3% damage reduction and mana regen is finally starting to look like a nice deal.]

• Hammer of the Righteous: The damage from this ability is now considered physical instead of Holy. The threat generated by the ability has been increased such that it will continue to do approximately the same threat it did when it was Holy damage. [This is a change I do not like. It is obviously another PvP nerf. I assume plate wearers were whining about getting hit hard by holy damage that ignored their armor. The main reason I do not like this change is not because I think it is a threat nerf (it is a dps nerf actually, but hopefully not a threat nerf), but because it is another step away from the signature spell damage tank paladins used to be. I liked the fact that we were doing holy damage to mobs, and that we got threat multipliers from casters. Now we are just as dependent on Sunder Armor or Faerie Fire as warrior or druid tanks (but we do not have an ability like that ourselves).]

• Added a recipe for Drums of Forgotten Kings. These drums increase all stats by 8% for all players in a raid. Does not stack with Blessing of Kings. [All leatherworkers can now bring Kings to the raid.]

• The Black Heart: This item’s animation has been changed and no longer resembles Hand of Protection. [I think many of us got a heart attack when we first saw this animation on the tank. I really do not know what Blizzard was thinking when they picked this animation for the proc of the trinket.]

• Relics: All buffs provided by relics (idols, librams, totems and sigils) now share an exclusive category such that gaining a buff from one of these items will remove all other buffs gained from items in this category. [No more libram swapping, which I think is good since it was a stupid exploit.]
  

Overall, tankadins are looking at many nerfs this patch. Each nerf on its own is not devastating, but when you add them all up, I fear we will feel them.
Also, when looking at the QQ on the forums, and the blue responses to these QQs, I am quite sure we will see a nerf to Ardent Defender sooner rather than later.