Paladins and 1.9

[Rinnhart]

Actually many paladins were complaining about not having controlled DPS. They did get some of that with the new seal/judgement.  My burst DPS is better, my overall DPS has been worse though.  Playing with my gear more might be able to fix that.

I also agree that paladins that spec to it should have had a snap aggro skill, something similar to mocking blow.  Long cooldown the shortest I could see would be once every 30 seconds but have it give a longer hold on the mob, like mocking blow or the druid taunt.  With the new seal and judgements that paladins can do to get multi target aggro and the timered stun something like this would go a long way to helping them tank but would not put them on a the level of a warrior.  They would be taking less damage than a druid tank would (parry, block and dodge with warrior level armor vs just dodge with higher than warrior armor) and without having to build rage to do other aggro generation skills they should end up as good a tank as a druid in most situations, if they spec for it.  I would also like to see shaman that spec deep  enough for it get something that helps their armor even more so they can take the physical beating while tanking.  Rockbiter and their shocks work well enough as taunts and good use of a stoneclaw totem works as a taunt as well.  However the prot spec shaman simply can't take the beating well enough at times.    I wouldn't mind seeing a high level restoration talent that lets shaman do more dispel as well.

Having paladin and shaman experience the grass isn't greener on either side, it's different grass and the grass that shaman have is more fun to play in, in most situations, it's a more fluid class that has more control on what it can do.  You have more choices of what you can do.  As mongo says the paladin can follow a warrior around and heal and dispel them and not add much else.  A shaman can choose to be effective as an offensive or defensive weapon they can pair up with and enhance pretty much any other class in PvP with play style change (they can be the offensive force with a healer backing them, they can be the healer, they can snare) as people say a paladin can do defense or heal an offensive player.  You would laugh at a paladin that was trying to do damage.  People don't seem to laugh at a shaman trying to do offensive damage.  They don't seem to laugh at a shaman that is healing and snaring in a defensive capacity.  They don't laugh at shadow priests who do offensive damage.  They don't laugh at shadow priests who heal.  This is the issue that paladins have.  Other classes get much more choice on how they want to play, mages are probably the next least flexible as they pretty much have to kite no matter what spec they are.  Rogues can do offense or defense (sap, blind, gouge, stun).  Warlocks depending on spec play differently, warriors play differently with different specs (as a prot spec in PvP I still don't do a lot of damage but I'm better at disrupting the enemy than a damage spec is), priests are limited by their spec, but their spec changes the play style.  Even with the changes pretty much all paladin specs will still only be able to do one thing in PvP or PvE.  Stand around and wait while things die.  Be able to tank if the group works with them to do so but if they lose aggro it's lost. 

I don't mind specs choosing your playstyle, but a protection paladin still doesn't really tank better than other paladin specs (of course neither does a prot warrior in 90% of the game) a retribution paladin really doesn't do more damage or deliver it differently than a holy or protection paladin.  Shaman specs change the playstyle, enhancement and elemental shamans get more DPS but they deliver it in different ways.  Druid specs change the play style and druids have low level and high level cross talent tree talents.  Heart of the Wild deep in feral helps your healing by giving more mana, and helps you if you want to do feral balance for the same reason.  Nature's Grace and Moonglow deep in Balance help with both balance and healing by lowering costs or casting times.  Innervate can help you do more damage if you are a resto/balance by extending the mana pool.  So the talents for a druid do help specialize you and do help other trees with talent synergies. 

They did a little of this for the paladin with some low level talents but I see no high level synergies for them.  I see no play style changes for any spec like the other hybrid the shaman gets.  I don't see the complaints that people raised about this being addressed.
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Can this one get stickied?

Perfect post, Gnollguy.

I think "synergy" can only describe what they did in the paladin trees in the most generic sense. Mix-n-match is far more appropriate. If they went to mages and took Ice Shards and swapped it with Ignite that would be as close to synergy as paladins have.

Every class has a concept behind the logic of their talent trees, and then the talents designed around that concept. The paladin trees had that, but it was poorly defined and, as noted, the talents never altered the playstyle of the paladin (versus a shadow priest, dagger rogue, or frost mage, for example, who are defined by their talent choices).

The entire class needs to be reviewed, and they seem unwilling to do that for whatever reason.