During the World of Warcraft: Forever beta, a player on the official Blizzard forum broke down the protection paladin and concluded that there are too few buttons to press and some abilities conflict with each other. There is no developer response in the thread yet.

During the beta (currently at level 20), one player on the official Blizzard EU forum took a detailed look at the protection paladin and concluded that the rotation feels empty. He emphasizes: Forever is neither retail nor classic, and he is not asking for retail-level button-press speed. It is about the decisions — between presses there should be something to choose, not just waiting for the cooldown.

The main abilities that remain on the tank paladin in the current kit: Holy Strike (10-second cooldown), Holy Shield (10 seconds, 4 charges total), Consecration (8 seconds, but in practice you don't spam it), and Judgement (8–10 seconds). Judgement currently also serves as a taunt — and that is what throws people off: if you use it as a regular attack, the taunt might not be available when you need it.

The player suggests several options: give Judgement an additional effect (e.g. a temporary threat bonus after the recent Righteous Fury nerf), allow Exorcism on normal targets, add an ability where you have to decide whether to pool or use immediately. By his count, offensive button presses come to about 10 per minute; in a dungeon damage breakdown he gets 60% white, 20% Reckoning, and the rest from presses. Reckoning itself, he says, also raises balance questions.

The thread on the forum has so far gathered one participant, and there is no developer response. This is one player's feedback, not a Blizzard statement — but it is interesting precisely because the analysis is concrete: button presses per minute are counted, and the comparison is made with warrior and bear (druid) in the tank role.