The Paladin and the Shaman

[Rinnhart]

Because I've refused to play Alliance, I can't comment on how Shaman are in PvP at the later stages of the game, but I do know that they can frontload some incredible damage.

However, I have a major gripe with Paladins.  Frankly, I think they're ridiculously overpowered in PvP for a number of reasons:

/sigh

Hammer of Justice:  At rank 3, which is acquired at Lv.40, this is a ranged stun that stuns for five seconds.  Comparing Paladins with Warriors, the only way we can get a five-second stun is by delving 21 points into the crappy Protection tree for Concussion Blow.  The difference is that Concussion Blow does not have a ten-yard range, is next-melee and not instant, and has a 45-second cooldown instead of a one-minute cooldown.  I wouldn't mind this skill if it required talents to make it really useful.  Perhaps give it a casting time (2.0s maybe), and add a talent to reduce said casting time, or give it a flat 3s stun, and give it talents to increase that stun duration.  But getting a ranged five-second stun for free is crap, especially when other classes have to invest talent points to get an instant ranged stun.

A five second stun, at level 40, with a minute refresh. I'll trade you this for shield bash.

Trade ya a few combat buffs for hamstring, too.

Divine Protection:  This skill is utter bull#$%&, pure and through.  Unlike Power Word: Shield, there is no way to counter this shield, and they can cast spells completely uninterrupted while shielded.  In addition, it dispels all snares and other effects active on them, making them more than able to run back to the town guards after ganking someone who was simply fighting mobs.  And I thought Paladins were supposed to be brave Holy Warriors.  Bastards.  Combine this with Blessing of Protection (which says "friendly target", which I'm assuming means it can be cast on self), and you have a bunch of cowardly Holy Warriors who do nothing but run away with their tails between their legs whenever they start losing a fight THEY started.

I like Divine Shield more, personally.

Blessing of Protection only blocks physical damage.

And discretion is the better part of valor. Most of your cow brothers in STV seem to agree.

The average warrior's going to be playing with himself for a few seconds while we heal up using our shielding abilities. How about you bust out a bandaid? There's a thought. Runecloth bandages heal the same as our biggest (level 54) heal.
Or take a few steps back and whip out a gun for a little free damage when we're done.

Seal of the Crusader: Just looking at this skill makes me think "Flurry and Rockbiter Weapon for free", but since the skill description isn't very good at describing the damage penalty, I'm just gonna have to go on my bias here :)

Currently bugged in such a way that it doesn't reduce the weapon's damage at all if you equip a weapon while the spell is active.

But - you can do equal/better/vaguely similar damage with several other paladin abilities.

Warriors will still kick us into the ground on raw DPS.

Frankly, I think the various Auras are a bunch of crap, too.  Shaman get party-benefit effects, too, but they have to plant a stationary totem that costs mana and can be destroyed.  The only way to remove an aura is to destroy the Paladin, and when they have their little coward-skills like Divine Protection, and if they haven't used Lay on Hands yet (I have yet to see this used on a party member in PvP; they always save it for themselves.)  For the love of whatever is held dear, give auras a duration and a mana cost.

Sure, as soon as I get my mana regen, resist, damage shield, group proc, stat buff, ae dd/dot, heal, and damage reduction auras that stack (and I might have missed a few), I'll happily accept a mana cost and duration.

What the #$%&. Seriously, what the #$%&. Did you even look at paladin auras and shaman totems before posting? #$%&, a majority only have token mana costs!

Lay hands has an hour refresh and drains all our fricken mana. You're right, unless the #$%& really hits the fan, we don't use it on group members. Guess why while I go spam some heals that don't use all my mana, and will nigh fully heal a cloth or leather class of similar level, over there in the corner.