Consecration hits four targets hard and the rest barely

In Forever, every Paladin learns Consecration at level 20; it is no longer a Holy talent. Blizzard’s Paladin deep dive of 15 October also says it has been redesigned so it is not too strong a tanking tool.

Four targets, not a hard cap

Consecration now deals moderate damage to the first four enemies to enter it and very low damage to every other enemy.

That is an emphasis, not a hard limit. A fifth enemy standing in it still takes damage, just very little. What changes is how much each target matters. Blizzard’s stated aim is to let a Paladin reliably generate threat on four targets at a time, on par with a Warrior’s Thunder Clap.

The wording also makes order matter. It is the first four to enter that get the moderate damage. The deep dive does not explain how that is tracked when enemies move in and out, so do not build a plan on a precise rule.

Why Blizzard drew the line there

The deep dive is unusually direct about the reason. Blizzard calls the limitation critical to keeping the combat feel of Classic Era, and to avoiding a slide into the more AoE-focused play of early expansions.

The numbers have already moved

The development notes posted on 16 October made two changes that pull in different directions:

• Consecration’s spell power coefficient per tick dropped to 0.042, from 0.095.
• Righteous Fury’s threat from Holy damage rose to 90%, from 60%.

The deep dive, a day earlier, had described Righteous Fury’s threat bonus as reduced, on the grounds that Protection now has more Holy damage. The notes raised it again. Use the 16 October values as the later ones. Neither source gives figures for how much threat a Consecration tick produces in practice.

Earlier fixes in the same notes thread addressed Consecration’s vertical reach, including a bug that could pull targets above or below the caster.

For Holy, a bonus within the same limit

The Holy talent Consecrated Ground raises the damage of your Holy spells by up to 10% against the first four enemies to enter your active Consecration. The same four-target idea, applied to damage.