Leaked 1.8 patch notes. This looks like the real deal.

Edit: If these notes are false, it's the last straw!

The irony. The very day after I said that I wouldn't touching "leaked" notes with a ten foot pole, the notes for 1.8 leaked. What I said came right back and bit me in the butt, so to speak. Obviously Blizzard isn't confirming or denying these, but they look absolutely too elaborate to be faked.

Fellow guild member Tanis alerted my guild on this. Trust me, these notes look dang true (already deleted off of the official boards). Let's focus on the things that affects the Paladin:

Judgement of Fury – Design changed. Now forces the target to attack you.
Blessing of Salvation – Design changed. Now causes a friendly target to generate no additional threat for 10 seconds.
Consecration – Fixed a bug where the spell sometimes did nothing if cast in rapid succession.
Sanctity Aura – Design changed. Now increases healing done by 10% for party members within 30 yards.
Holy Shock – Cooldown reduced to 6 seconds.
Improved Blessing of Salvation – Design changed. Now increases the duration of your Blessing of Salvation by 2/4 sec.

Bye bye, current incarnation of Salvation! (let's face it, it was pretty expected). Awesome buff to Judgement of Fury, much needed because requiring holy damage to grab aggro was just completely unnecessary. Awesome buff to Sanctity Aura, Healadin aura of choice from now on! Awesome buff to Holy Shock to make it in line with Shaman's shock cooldowns, one thing it misses though is an effect. But I guess it's better to have a ranged attack than none.

For all that we know, these notes could be incomplete and more things will be added to the list as development progresses. If you read the list, the changes to the Druid seem to be pretty much complete (for example they got their own version of Shadowform now). So, I would not be surprised at all if we also got our talent revamps in 1.8. Caydiem said they were giving the Druid a priority -- and the changes look pretty much complete there to me.

But... If you only read the Paladin part you've already skipped over one of the most crucial changes that will affect how we play our class forever:

Hearthstones can no longer be used while invulnerable.

It is an end of an era. The defining ability of the Paladin class will be sorely missed and forever remembered.

R.I.P. Shield + Hearth.