Retribution paladin buff and other hotfixes incoming tonight
by Alex Ziebart 
Sep 9th 2011 at 7:00PM
The other hotfixes are aimed at quest-related bugs that may have been interfering with players' solo progression. The explanation for the retribution buff and the details of these quest hotfixes can both be found after the break below.
Censure Hotfix Incoming
After monitoring thousands of Firelands kills, we've concluded that Retribution's damage was not where we wanted it to be, so we're going to increase Censure damage by roughly 40%. We'll also be keeping an eye on paladin damage as we move towards patch 4.3. We expect that this hotfix should be applied sometime later today.
We're also considering shifting some of the damage from Hammer of Wrath into other attacks. While that may not necessarily cure some of the current concerns about proc reliance, it should help smooth out damage a bit.
We're also considering shifting some of the damage from Hammer of Wrath into other attacks. While that may not necessarily cure some of the current concerns about proc reliance, it should help smooth out damage a bit.
September 9 Hotfixes
Classes
-
Paladin
- The damage dealt by Censure from Seal of Truth has been increased by 40%.
- If the Steamwheedle Rescue Balloon is killed at the start of Rocket Rescue, players should now be ejected properly, and the ballon reset to its home location.
- When a player exits the Skeletal Steed vehicle in Welcome To The Machine, all quest NPCs will now despawn.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
tobiasmoller Sep 9th 2011 7:04PM
hooray!
Lemons Sep 9th 2011 7:15PM
Agree about shifting damage from HoW to something else. It does stupid high damage even on my paladin alt it hits for like 24k and his gear is incredibly shitty.
Durenas Sep 9th 2011 7:19PM
The only issue with hammer of wrath is that the damage doesn't scale well. If I was to redesign the ability, I would make it scale with weapon damage. As it is now, in firelands gear, it's not even very high in the damage priority list.
MisterRik Sep 10th 2011 11:13AM
Yeah, there's an awful lot of "wasted" damage from HoW, particularly when solo questing — dailies, etc. (I don't know about raids, since I don't raid.) I mean, it's kind of stupid that I have to slowly chip away at a mob with my once-every-3.5-seconds attacks until I get the mob down to, oh, 15k (20% for a mob with 75k HP), and then WHAMMO! 30k HoW. I'd much rather have that "overkill" incorporated into my other attacks one way or another so that I can get the mob down to 20% a bit quicker and then finish it off with a HoW that does "just enough". Like my warrior's Execute. Because it's silly how my Ret paladin is much better geared than my Arms warrior, but the warrior burns the mobs down more quickly.
Gendou Sep 9th 2011 7:16PM
As someone currently leveling a paladin, this is welcome news indeed.
Telwar Sep 9th 2011 7:18PM
...a positive ret paladin hotfix? Is this still Blizzard?
Jamie Sep 9th 2011 7:45PM
4.3.2 will sort it out. No doubt, that's how the Paladin rolls from experience.
devilsei Sep 9th 2011 10:32PM
Agreed Jamie. We'll likely see a 24hr cooldown added in for our fancy Wings ability.
zweitblom Sep 10th 2011 3:50AM
At least the paladins haven't changed - and complain...
Wallahalla Sep 10th 2011 1:53PM
It's clearly a troll
Durenas Sep 9th 2011 7:17PM
It's a start. It means about a 3% dps increase, which isn't mindblowingly awesome or anything, but it's good. Personally I think there will be more buffs to come, but small ones. Blizzard has made larger buffs before and they've always been too much, and ended up having to scale back and forth to overcompensate. Smaller buffs, especially with the ability to hotfix changes, is the way to go.
Grayswindir Sep 9th 2011 7:18PM
Awesome!!!! Really excited.
/dance
Shyster Sep 9th 2011 7:44PM
Although much appreciated it still doesn't solve the problems ret has, but at the very least we get to see them trying to correct it's faults, so i guess thats something.
Fletcher Sep 9th 2011 7:43PM
Praise the Light, brothers and sisters! Prrraaaaaise the Light!
This is, unfortunately, more of a band-aid adjustment and not the kind of underlying issue fix I'd like (some way to refresh the duration of Inquisition a la Assassination rogues). But it's welcome none the less. Not hugely relevant to me - I don't raid on my pally - but welcome.
Literaltruth Sep 9th 2011 8:37PM
While this adjustment may help Ret be more competitive in short-term, I still think Blizzard needs to go back to the drawing-board altogether with its Cata Ret design. With an 85 of every class except warrior, I would say that Ret is by far the most clunky feeling DPS spec in the game. Holy power is terribly designed right now - building up far to slowly (especially if you CS and it doesn't proc it and you have to wait the full CD to try again). When you don't have procs there's way too much time twiddling your thumbs (especially if your haste is relatively low). It's brief moments of excitement seperated by long periods of relatively little to do - and this change, a passive damage buff on an ability we cast once every 30m and forget, isn't going to help that.
Ret in Wrath was what I used to play if I was feeling the need to chill out and have a load of fun. Ret in Cata is what I play if.....I want to feel frustrated and bored? Right now Ret seems to be mainly designed with a view to making sure there are enough tanks and healers in the RDF - I'm sure I'm not the only paladin specced Prot / Holy for this reason..
Chance Sep 9th 2011 9:43PM
The only way CS won't proc a charge of HP is if you aren't hit/exp capped, which should be priority numero uno. Though I agree at the start of a fight Ret may feel a bit clunky and slow, after about 30 seconds its pretty good. Its just getting that initial HP to hit your first Inq and building back up again for the first Zealotry/AW/TV combo that takes a bit. Weaving in Judgement, concecration, and if your procs suck, Holy Wrath inbetween CSs rarely leaves me sitting around for more than 1 GCD at a time.
Before I get flamed, I have indeed read all the articles around that state Holy Wrath is a decrease to dps, however it is not a decrease to damage done as it doesn't reset the swing timer and still deals damage. I pull on average 28 - 32k dps as Ret and am not in top end gear (I just last night upgraded from a 353 to a 359 helm and have yet to see my dps with the upgrade). The worst I've pulled barring obvious mistakes on my behalf is 25k with completely godawful luck from the RNG gods, getting only 2 TV procs and 5 Art of War procs on a Shannox kill.
Considering that no other classes are penalized a wopping 7k dps from lack of procs, yes something needs to be done, however Ret is nowhere near the abysmal state most people claim it to be in.
JBluntz Sep 10th 2011 12:15AM
@Chance: "Considering that no other classes are penalized a wopping 7k dps from lack of procs" - replace procs with crits, and you have fire mages... Retadins are hardly the only spec to suffer the cruel hand of the RNG gods.
Complete aside- I love pallies and will never hate on them, but I really love how my iPhone tried to autocorrect retadin into retard... ;)
restodr00d Sep 10th 2011 2:33AM
"I'm sure I'm not the only paladin specced Prot / Holy for this reason.."
haha so true... at least for me.
Daniel Maccabee Sep 10th 2011 5:49AM
@Chance
"The only way CS won't proc a charge of HP is if you aren't hit/exp capped, which should be priority numero uno."
Not true. I'm hit and expertise capped but on Firelands fights where we stack to take damage (such as Domo's scorpion phase) the boss tends to parry my Crusader Strikes, thus preventing me from acquiring a Holy Power.
MisterRik Sep 10th 2011 11:27AM
"Right now Ret seems to be mainly designed with a view to making sure there are enough tanks and healers in the RDF - I'm sure I'm not the only paladin specced Prot / Holy for this reason.."
I really think this is the case for plate DPS classes in general. Just my opinion/hunch, of course, but right from the beginning of Cata, if you look at the plate gear available from the various faction rep vendors, the BoE shoulders and helms that have shown up on the AH, and now the gear available from the Molten Front vendors, it really seems Blizzard decided to "subtly" tell plate DPS players, "LOL, respec to tank (and/or heals if you're a paladin), dumbass". What do plate DPS characters get from those vendors? Rings, a trinket or two, rings, a relic, rings, a belt, rings...