Tier 7 set. A closer look & comparison

So WotLK is upon us with all its splendor and all that. I've leveled to 80 and with no small amount of mana issues, but that's neither here nor there. I figured we'd take a closer look on the next tier set. Tier 7, Heroes/Valorous Redemption Battlegear.

At first glance it looks fairly decent. One thing that you quickly notice is that there's no intellect on our gear. Blizzard decided to shape paladins to become more like warriors, and to share gear with warriors and death knights.

Right.

So let's take a look at the gear.

There are two types. Heroes Redemption Battlegear - which you can get from Normal Naxx / Heroic badges (Emblems of Heroism) and Valorous Redemption which you get from Heroic Naxx / Sartharion, et al (Emblems of Valor).

Starting off with the Heroes Redemption.

Heroes Redemption Chestpiece
2241 Armor
73 strength
103 Stamina
1x Red Socket
1x Yellow Socket
+6 Haste as Socket bonus
Adds 74 crit rating
Adds 45 haste rating.

The first thought that crosses my mind is: Why is there no hit? And why do we have a Haste rating socket bonus when it would've been far more beneficial with strength or crit?

Take a look at the warrior equivalent, the Heroes Dreadnaught Battlegear.

Heroes Dreadnaught Breastplate
2241 Armor
73 Strength
90 Stamina
1x Red Socket
1x Blue Socket
Socket bonus adds +6 hit rating
Adds 52 hit rating
Adds 81 Crit rating.

Why is it that the warrior piece is ten leagues better than the paladin piece? The small amount of difference in stamina is negligible for the awesome stats you get. 52 hit. 81 crit. Socket bonus that adds 6 extra hit. I want that!

Let's take a look at the Valorous Redemption pieces.

Paladins have:

Valorous Chestplate
2241 Armor
+73 Strength
+103 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Haste Rating
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 84 (1.83% @ L80).
Equip: Improves haste rating by 50 (1.52% @ L80).

Warriors have:

2298 Armor
+73 Strength
+100 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Hit Rating
Equip: Improves hit rating by 66 (2.01% @ L80).
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 92 (2% @ L80).


And once more, the warrior piece outshines the paladin piece. Warriors have everything a paladin wants on their set. Haste is moderately decent but we (paladins) benefit more from having a large crit base to act upon. Why is this taken away in favour of haste?

A full comparison between the paladin and warrior tier sets shows that paladins - once again - drew the short end of the stick. Check this out.


Paladins - Heroes Redemption set:
Summary:

Strength: +351
Stamina: +452
Armour: +9105
Crit rating: +222
Haste rating: +232
Hit rating: +68
Sockets: 1x Meta, 3x Red, 3x Yellow, 1x Blue

Warriors - Heroes Dreadnaught set:
Summary:

Strength: +345
Stamina: +439
Armor: +9105
Armor penetration rating: +68
Critical strike rating: +284
Expertise rating: +105
Hit rating: +85
Sockets: 1x Meta, 3x red, 2x Yellow, 2x Blue


Wow...

Warriors get more crit, more hit, Armor Penetration, Expertise which is absoutely awesome and far more balanced stats overall.

The devs wanted Paladins to be more like warriors and to share the same gear and yet the utter failure that is the Paladin tier 7 set shows that we'll never get the same good stuff warriors have.

Paladins aren't Warriors, I'm quite well aware of that, but why can't we get some decent god damn set bonuses?

"We would want every class to be within 5% of each other in terms of DPS." Everyone but paladins, yes? Give us some proper set bonuses. We couldn't care less about haste. Give us crit, or Expertise as they benefit us far more than haste does. Hell, give us socket bonuses for Strength if need be as it pushes our AP upwards.

The utter failure that is our tier set becomes even more apparent when you look at the Valorous Redemption items from the heroic raid dungeons.

Paladins Summary:

Strength: +397
Stamina: +472
Armor: +9335
Critical strike: +259
Haste rating: +270
Hit rating: +83
Sockets: 1x Meta, 3x Red, 3x Yellow, 1x Blue


Warriors Summary:

Strength: +385
Stamina: +495
Armor: +9335
Armor penetration: +86
Critical strike: +326
Expertise rating: +116
Hit rating: +108
Sockets: 1x Meta, 3x red, 2x Yellow, 2x Blue

All the good stuff ended up on the warrior tier, again, and we get stuck with the half-assed tier set once more.

Blizzard fails once again in creating something even remotely decent for us. Hell, even some of the Heroic blue items are better than this crap.

"We want Paladins to be more like warriors." Then give us a proper set with proper bonuses, then.