TadaceAce's discussion about paladins helped me identify a bug.

It looks like Vengeance isn't receiving it's 20 point talent bonus from it's own talent. Instead Rebuke applies the 20 point bonus to both Rebuke and Vengeance.

Paladins have extremely low dps compared to other classes. Even with this bug I feel the class is behind all others. Maelfyn, would you consider boosting them elsewhere if you fix this talent?

Mmm two 20 point bonuses for the price of one. I took a look at the talents after seeing this and they opens up another 20 point benefit and paladin is one of the few classes that have 5 worthwhile 20 point benefits. Maybe they scale better into endgame, I tend to play classes that are more powerful early level because they're easier to level.

My pally is only 28, sort of gave up on him but I'd agree to at least fire one up and see how they play endgame. Honestly, I'd be surprised if anyone could take out Maelentia on hell without full Elite gear and quite a bit of luck. My high level characters are all around 2k dps sustained, perhaps I'm wrong but I see pallies only being 1k or so over a long chain.

Those are metrics I'd definitely love to see more on. It's practically impossible for me to test every possible build in this game.

Nice bug find, btw. I'll fix 'er up for next patch. Don't be surprised if Paladin gets a slight rework.

I think you've done a great job overall balancing the classes. Having them dead even isn't a big concern considering this is a single player game. It's not like the classes are competing with each other for raid spots.

Having said that, the paladin could deal double the damage on all its abilities and it would still be outclassed by others I've played (ranger, enchanter, bard, and rogue). Paladins are that far behind even with the Rebuke talent providing double the mileage.

Though I like the pace of play the Paladin is at. My Enchanter and Ranger don't interact with the mobs when they're killing stuff under 6s. I'd argue in favor of making the tough choice to lower the power of the stronger classes.

Maelfyn, do you find it productive to talk about numbers balance at this point though?

Easy there, keep in mind normal and, depending on class, nightmare are both training wheels. I went through normal and nightmare on my druid all but naked only to have him pretty much unable to finish hell even with all the elite gear farmed on other chars.

Yes, I think there are a lot of new players that don't realize how painful Hell difficulty is. I am looking forward to season 1 so I can try it myself. I want to go experience the game without my test environment hacks.