Holy Power in Cataclysm

Last Friday's developer chat contained, big, big news about the paladin class.  Ghostcrawler had recently said

If we do one thing for class design in Cataclysm, it will be changing the paladin (all 3 specs) rotation up a bit!

He wasn't kidding! As a long-time player of the paladin class, I have often felt that the developers haven't had any great ideas about what to do with the class, and have thrown a bunch of band-aid fixes at it and second-hand abilities from other classes. We've never had an interesting core mechanic; for a long time protection and retribution have been just about watching cooldowns and that's about it.  While it was nice in Wrath of the Lich King that we finally got to be powerful, I can't say that we were the most interesting class to play.  I have stuck with it because for some reason it's what I chose on launch day, and I've enjoyed being along for the ride, trying to make the best of whatever they give me.  But it seems like the days of feeling like the afterthought class are over.  Cataclysm is giving us some interesting mechanics to call our own.

 Q: What is the goal when re-designing the paladin class? How do you plan to change rotations, talents, etc? 

A. All of the paladin specializations will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Holy Power accumulates from using Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, and some other talents. Holy Power can be consumed to augment a variety of abilities, including: 

An instant mana-free heal: Word of Glory 

A buff to increase holy damage done: Inquisition 

A massive physical melee attack for Retribution paladins: Templar’s Verdict 

Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power 

Divine Storm’s damage is now increased by Holy Power 

We also introduced several new heals for Holy Paladins including Healing Hands (an AoE heal-over-time that is applied to all players standing near the paladin), Light of Dawn (a cone heal with a 30-yard range), as well as a new heal called Divine Light, which is similar to a priest's Greater Heal, and the new instant heal mentioned above, Word of Glory. 

Q: Can you give us a sneak peek at one or two of the new Retribution abilities or talents? 

A. Templar’s Verdict: An instant weapon attack that causes a percentage of weapon damage. Consumes all applications of Holy Power to increase damage dealt:
1 Holy Power: 55% Weapon Damage
2 Holy Power: 125% Weapon Damage
3 Holy Power: 225% Weapon Damage

Word of Glory: Consumes all Holy Power to heal a friendly target for a specific amount per application of Holy Power (0 mana cost, 0 cooldown, instant cast).

As I said, this is big, big news.  People are already calling it a knockoff of the death knight's runic power and the rogue's combo points, but while there are similarities,  holy power is not the same as either of those mechanics.  More importantly, it promises to make combat for retribution and protection paladins much more dynamic, as we shall see in future posts exploring the likely rotations that will result from the new design plan for retribution and protection paladins. (I haven't given as much thought to how holy power will affect paladin healing, mostly because I haven't played a holy paladin in a long time.)

One thing that the developer's haven't said explicitly, but which seems like a safe inference from the information we have, is that we can have a maximum of 3 holy power at any time.  It's not clear how it decays if not used, but I'm guessing that it doesn't decay in combat, and it's possible it won't even decay out of combat.