Divine Sacrifice - Single Point, Teir 3 Prot Talent

I like it. A lot. We needed another situational use button. This also makes LOH more viable. Also, there's a badass feel to it. Kind of a "I CAN TANK IT ALL" button.

Helps that my healer is Disc.

I do like this, while I agree it's somewhat situational, it will find it's uses when you creatively think about it.

Examples I can think of:
> When forced into an OT role, gives us something to take damage, forcing heals our way, increasing mana regained and thus more threat output capability
> Less chaos for healers in fights like Gothik
> Runs through areas in Naxx such as the slimes before Patchwerk and after Heigen, where I've never died, but DPS'ers and Healers have
> Dealing with impatient AoE dps on the packs of little critters since they don't like to let our Consecrate tick a few times (brings back the conversation of HW getting the same tweak as Exorcism)

I'm sure I'll be taking this talent. While definitely situational, there's some clear situations where it'll be used.[/list]

If "Only half the damage being prevented is being redirected to the paladin atm.", it also prevents the paladins damage making it a mini Shield wall with 15% damage reduction?

Well everyone has been asking Blizz or another oh shit button. I guess this is what that DS is. Its like an, "Oh shit I just fat fingered divine sacrifice.....Im dead" button.

My question: Is the damage redirectet also reduced by talents? And is spell damage also reduced by spell-damage reduction? If both answers are yes, this will be very interresting:

1000 fire damage redirected:
12% overall-damage-reduction
6% spell-damage-reduction
820 fire damage taken
with Divine Protection the paladin would gain only 410 fire damage.

As a comment on the usefulness of Divine Guardian as a main tank: Several people in this thread have suggested DG is useless for MT-ing. Yes, DG is fairly useless on basic "tank-n-spank" fights, where all you do is stare at a monster's crotch for 5 minutes while spitting out your rotation. However, it's a strong utility spell on technical fights that involve tank-swapping or multiple phases.

Here are some obvious cases where it's quite useful:

• Malygos Deep Breaths - by that point the melee adds should be dead, so you can reduce raid damage considerably here
• Sapphiron Air Phase - I MT Sapphiron every week, and every week I use DG during the air phase, either to cover for a bad blizzard/iceblock combo, or just to reduce blizzard / iceblock damage while getting in position
• Heigan Dance Phase - if you have people with two left feet
• Razuvious, depending on your role in the encounter (I usually tank all the un-controlled trainees, so I don't actually ever get to use it here)
• Gothik, since he swaps tanks. This may only work after the doors open though, never tested it.
• 4H, while traveling between horsemen (either using zerg strategy for the front two, or any time for the back two).

Now admittedly, that's a short list. But it's enough to make DG better than "useless." Also consider that Blizzard has a history of multi-phase technical fights that involve some tank swapping or downtime (c.f. any fight in SWP, most of BT, and assorted fights in TK/SSC/Kara), so it's likely we'll see more in Ulduar.

My only hope is that they make it's replacement off the GCD so i can macro it to my Divine Shield, because a 1-button solution is far more convenient than a 2-button solution.

I'd like to point out that while it's not in effect on the PTR DG is changing to modify DS so you will only have DS.

And as far as usefullness in Ulduar goes, of the 6 fights i've participated in, i can see its usefulness in 4 each with proper usage.

Hodir - One tank fight (As of this time) Prolly won't be here cept to MT, usage low. Hard mode timed

Kologarn - Multi-tank fight, i was an add tank. DS could be popped either when the boss is lasering and shockwaving or when the disaster that is add tank getting gripped you can pop it. No Hard mode

Ignis - Multi-tank fight, Add tank. MT gets SLAMMED and adds hit like babies. Can be used to releive healer stress. Hard mode unknown

Iron Council - Multi-tank fight, hard mode Steelbreaker last. Many opportunities to assist in taking dmg from MT on steelbreaker as he will be hitting like a Semi-truck.

Flame leviathan - Vehicle fight, nuff said.

XT - Multi-tank fight, hard mode kill heart. Didn't get enough testing in before they closed Ulduar. During hard mode there is an unbeleivable amount of raid damage going out. Earthquake that will deal 125% of a players hp in dmg over 8 seconds. Void zones, nature dmg auras. It's a mess but DS + bubble can save the whole raid if earthquake and a nature dmg aura pop up at the same time.

I can't believe that nobody has mentioned how much FUN this talent is going to be.

Forget usefulness for just a minute and bear with me.

Picture this...

MTing Patchwerk 25. Drop Holy Shield. Pop Divine Sacrifice. Eat 30% of two hatefuls. Drop immediately. Scream at healers for not being able to keep you up against content that you have been clearing for months.

If you really want, you can let your fellow tanks know that they may need to adjust and pick up to prevent a wipe.

Seriously. I will be picking this talent up for the FUN uses of it. There are indeed legitimate progression uses for it as well though, and it will be a boon.

So, does anyone know if Divine Guardian is going to buff both bits on Divine Sacrifice or not? Or if its going to be multiplicative or additive?

In other words, is it going to change it from 30% damage redirection up to 150% of the paladins health to:
40% redirection up to 160%
Or 33% redirection up to 165%
Or 40% redirection up to 150%
Or 33% redirection up to 150%
Or 30% redirection up to 160%
Or 30% redirection up to 165%

I'm thinking taking divine guardian to buff this new talent could easily make the difference between it being useful, and it meaning a dead pally.

I wonder if using Divine Sacrifice and hand of sacrifice will stack dmg (most likely multiplicatively) in conjunction with divine shield. Massive reduction in MT dmg

theothersteve7 wrote:I like it. A lot. We needed another situational use button. This also makes LOH more viable. Also, there's a badass feel to it. Kind of a "I CAN TANK IT ALL" button.

Helps that my healer is Disc.

how does it make LoH more viable now?

or help you main tank an encounter?

its best used for when your idle, and there is something big right around the corner, nice tool for the right job

Hi !

Just wondered : capped at 150% max health. Got that. But how will it be distributed ?

Preventing 150% of my health on 25 guys ? (meaning I'm going to prevent up to 150/25=6% of my health on each of them ?)
Or will it be "preventing 30% damages from sources until 150% maxH is redirected"? (as printed)
And in this case, how will the lucky ones getting damages prevention being choosen ?
By timeline most of the time, I guess but what happens in case of aoe damages ?

It gives another situation where LOH could be useful. Pop Sacrifice while tanking a boss with raid damage, and use LOH once your health drops far enough. Your healers are probably going to need a second to adjust to healing Sacrifice and it smooths it out much better.

This would also be decent for iceblocks on KT, no?

theothersteve7 wrote:It gives another situation where LOH could be useful. Pop Sacrifice while tanking a boss with raid damage, and use LOH once your health drops far enough. Your healers are probably going to need a second to adjust to healing Sacrifice and it smooths it out much better.

This would also be decent for iceblocks on KT, no?

its kinda suiciding just to use LoH, but yes, you can do such a thing, for your other question, KT iceblocks, especially in 25 man on melee sucks, i specced DG and i pop it for the first iceblock on melee to help them out

It is a really really great talent. If you are a Off-Tank or Holy-Paladin. Not that useful for a MT, but still situational. If you have on point, you might as well..