Divine Plea

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Everyone head for the hills. Save the women and children! It's the end of the world as we know it!


Or maybe it's not. I mean, it could just be the inevitiable change that we had to know was coming. After all, it only makes sense, and I think anyone who didn't see it (at least those of us in heroic raid content) are just fooling themselves.
What is this catastrophic event of which I preach? Why, it's the nerfing of our mana pools of course. OK really it's just increasing the cost of our baseline heals, but that's really the same thing. Right? Come on guys, right!?!? I mean, isn't this a total slap in the face to Paladins everywhere?
Or maybe it's just bringing us in line with everyone else.
I don't know about other Paladins, but mana is not my issue in raids. Now while I can't just spam Divine Light every two seconds, our mana bar lasts a good long while. Find me 10 seconds where I don't have to heal anything, and I'll show you someone who just picked up at least 30% of their total mana pool.
A look at some numbers
Now I haven't seen any numbers on gear from Firelands yet, though I'm sure they've been datamined and are available. Looking at our current gear and numbers though, it's pretty easy to see that without an increase in the base costs of our spells, we would be nigh on unstoppable as the expansion moved on.
Divine Light - Now is 7026. Will be 8197.
Flash of LIght - 6323 going to 7260.
Holy Light - 2342 to 2810.
Holy Shock - 1873 to 2107.
While that's a noticeable chunk, let's look at the next set of numbers. Stats on gear.
We pick up an average of about 30 points in Intellect every step in gear - so 346 to 359 to 372. That's fairly big, especially when you think about this. For every 100 INT we gain, we get about 1800 more mana, plus the increases in mana returns from Divine Plea and our Spirit. Sure, the bosses should be hitting harder, and AoE damage may go up - but so will the size of our heals.
Imagine if our heals went up in power, and our ability to cast them for a longer duration scaled with it? Especially given our regeneration mechanics now. Divine Plea would be nerfed so fast it would make your head spin, and we'd be back to sucking fumes for the majority of the fight. Plus with the new 2pc bonus, we'll not only be getting Holy Power from casting on our BoL target, but mana as well. Sure, it's only 1%, but that's 234 mana. Better than a kick to the head.
Who it's really going to hurt

Just like the previous changes to Paladin healing, this is going to have the most profound effect on the player leveling a new Healadin, and especially one trying to get through those first heroics and lvl 85 dungeons. Once a few pieces of 346+ gear drop, and remember you'll be able to buy T11 with JPs instead of VPs in 4.2, things should be smooth sailing.

In the end, I think this "AMG MASSIVE PALLY KILLING NERF" is really going to be like water off a ducks back. We probably won't even notice it after the first week of 4.2 being out.