Paladins for Tanking - Shamen for DPS

[Elwood]

Blizz has posted some links on their main page from interviews they have done concerning the expansion. The quote that sums up their thinking for Paladins and Shamen (women???) is from the Joystiq interview with Jeff Kaplan, where Jeff comments concerning the two classes now being cross-faction:

We feel like because we made this decision, we're finally free to make the classes be what they were originally supposed to be. We wanted the Paladin to be more tank oriented, that holy tank that heals. And, we can focus the Shaman more on his DPS and utility roles.

That pretty much clinches it for us pallies who have been looking to improve dps. We will have to do so without real support from Blizz.

On the tanking side, Blizz has announced that they will be adding an ability to for paladins to grab aggro. The announced taunt seems underwhelming to me. In a 1up interview with Tom Chilton (lead designer) he states:

The Paladin class will see a class-defining ability of its own in an ability to pull aggressive creatures off of classes with a "snap-aggro" ability. That ability, Chilton explains as the equivalent of an AOE taunt, but instead of being cast on the enemies, instead, true to the Paladin's role of buffing and supporting players, it is castable buff on a party member. At that point, the mobs that were attacking the party member within an Area of Effect range will then turn and attack the Paladin. It continues to reinforce Blizzard's desire to turn the Paladin into a secondary tank and a healer, instead of the simple healer the class has been relegated to.

Although I have read posts on the WoW forums concerned that this will devalue warriors, I do not see this in the least. My concern is that some will think that a paladin can now gain aggro off of a number of players should he lose it. What I read here is that it is a removal of aggro of a single player. So what happens if two mages and a priest have more threat than the pally? Can the pally buff all three players or is the buff limited to one per group? If multiple players can have the buff, then can the pally buff them fast enough to prevent their death? Warrior taunt is aimed at the mob - pally taunt (really de-aggro) is aimed at the player. This could make being a pally tank in a 10-man raid very difficult. We will have to see what other information develops on this ability.

 

[faust]

I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard made Paladins nearly as good as warriors at tanking, afterall druids are nearly as good. Just the same there is still a general sentiment in the community that warriors are better (whether deserved or not), so I suspect that for a long while warriors will be the tank of choice.

Even if perception changed such that Paladins were considered equally good, many warriors would shift over to a dps role. Those that wanted to tank still likely wouldn't have a hard time finding work.