Paladin Preview

Preview has finally gone up and while there is some interesting stuff in there some of it is still rather vague.

New Paladin Spells

Blinding Shield (level 81): Causes damage and blinds all nearby targets. This effect might end up only damaging those facing the paladin’s shield, in a manner similar to Eadric the Pure's ability Radiance in Trial of the Champion. The Holy tree will have a talent to increase the damage and critical strike chance, while the Protection tree will have a talent to make this spell instant cast. 2-second base cast time. Requires a shield.
This sounds very nice and quite similar to warriors shockwave giving us that snap agro ability we need for large AoE pulls. Also Rhidach called it on us getting Eadrics ability.

Healing Hands (level 83): Healing Hands is a new healing spell. The paladin radiates heals from him or herself, almost like a Healing Stream Totem. It has a short range, but a long enough duration that the paladin can cast other heals while Healing Hands remains active. 15-second cooldown. 6-second duration.
Who called this one. Player targeted AoE HoT with sort range. Granted its only on yourself but still interesting, only problem is Blizzards current trend to spread ranged out so this seems very situational unless we have a way to quickly get into melee.

Guardian of Ancient Kings (level 85): Summons a temporary guardian that looks like a winged creature of light armed with a sword. The visual is similar to that of the Resurrection spell used by the paladin in Warcraft III. The guardian has a different effect depending on the talent spec of the paladin. For Holy paladins, the guardian heals the most wounded ally in the area. For Protection paladins, the guardian absorbs some incoming damage. For Retribution paladins, it damages an enemy, similar to the death knight Gargoyle or the Nibelung staff. 3-minute cooldown. 30-second duration (this might vary depending on which guardian appears).
Sounds like a fun ability and another CD is always good. I just hope that the effect isn't to big with 2/3 of them using it in melee range. Also very nice for boss kill screenshots if can be popped with wings.

Crusader Strike will be a core ability for all paladins, gained at level 1. We think the paladin leveling experience is hurt by not having an instant attack. Retribution will be getting a new talent in its place that either modifies Crusader Strike or replaces it completely.
This is good to see but not very unexpected.

Blessing of Might will provide the benefit of Wisdom as well. If you have two paladins in your group, one will do Kings on everyone and the other will do Might on everyone. There should be much less need, and ideally no need, to provide specific buffs to specific classes.
Hopefully the "on everyone" means all at once and not class by class. No mention on whats happening with Sanctuary though

Holy Shock will be a core healing spell available to all paladins.
This is very nice handy for spot fixes on yourself while tanking. No word on if the damage component remains so we can add it to rotations though.

We want to add to the Holy tree a nice big heal to correspond with Greater Heal. Flash of Light remains the expensive, fast heal and Holy Light is the go-to heal that has average efficiency and throughput. Beacon of Light will be changed to work with Flash of Light. We like the ability, but want paladins to use it intelligently and not be constantly healing for twice as much.
This was expected with how they have handled the other healing classes this also gives us a total of three new baseline heals two of which are brand new heals completely.

We want to increase the duration of Sacred Shield to 30 minutes and keep the limit to one target.
Nice little quality of life change.

Protection paladins need a different rotation between single-target and multi-target tanking. Likewise, we're looking to add the necessity to use an additional cooldown in each rotation.
Another change we knew was coming, this is re-enforced by Blinding Shield being added to the game.

Finally Mastery's

Block Amount: We want to keep the kit of the paladin as a tank who blocks a lot. So by contrast, the warrior tank will sometimes get critical blocks, but the paladin will absorb more damage with normal blocks.
Well still assume this will be called Redout, nothing we haven't known since Blizzcon.

Overall not a lot we didn't expect and a lot we already knew. Will be interesting to see what changes they are working on that they haven't announced and if that involves something finally being done with Forbearance. Still no word on an interupt and charge yet ether, if they are coming they will be a big thing so they might be holding back for a surprise.