NDA is lifted!

"Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we've gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year", says Blizzard as they release the statement saying that the NDA has been lifted.

Quickly looking over the Paladin Spells/Tree, the following can be found:

Seal of Corruption/Vengeance:

Fills the Paladin with holy power, causing all single-target attacks to apply Blood Corruption[Holy Vengeance], which deals [ 13% of AP + 6.5% of Spell Power ] additional Holy damage over 15 sec.

We can infer that the Seal system is not going anywhere, which is kind of disappointing and is a lackluster mechanic. In any case, the key word here is that all single-target abilities will stack the debuff (which also benefits form haste and crit)- Meaning that currently, instead of taking 15 seconds to build up a 5 stack, it should take about 9 seconds instead (3 Melee hits and 2 Crusader Strikes).

Blessing of Might:

Places a Blessing on the friendly target, increasing attack power by 10% and restoring 1 mana every 5 seconds for 1 hr.

Blessing of Might and Blessing of Wisdom will be combined, however, it looks like the Ap gain is changed to a flat percentage, which is bad news for us overall. 1 hour Blessings are welcomed.

Vindication:

Gives the Paladin's damaging attacks a chance to reduce physical damage done by the target by 10% for 10 sec.

The current Vindication reduces Boss Physical damage by about 10-15% already, and the AP debuff was inconsistent with other AP using classes- This change should help to even the board (without reducing Magical damage dealt by Deathknights, Paladins, or Shamans in the process).

Judgement of Light:

Unleashes the energy of a Seal spell to judge an enemy for 20 sec, granting attacks made against the judged enemy a chance of healing the attacker for 1% of their maximum health.

A slight healing nerf- To be expected with scaled HP pools.

Swift Retribution

Your auras also increase your party and raid's melee and ranged haste by [7%/14%/20%].

More Buff homogenization for 10 man groups.

Crusader Strike:

An instant strike that causes 100% weapon damage. 5% of base mana, 5 yd range, Instant cast, 4 sec cooldown

Crusader Strike damage is increases across the board (this is the baseline version), however still no secondary effect keeps it as a boring 2nd auto attack.

As a whole, I would say that the Paladin class is mostly "incomplete" with it's changes. Hopefully this means news will be out soon!

Until then

~Ron