The Light and How to Swing It: Retribution paladin feedback
by Dan Desmond 
Oct 5th 2011 at 7:00PM
Before we begin, let's have a quick overview of our snazzy new tier 13 armor, complete with set bonuses!
Aesthetically speaking, I really like the look of it. Sure, the helm is a bit gaudy, but I think the color scheme and overall design really fit the concept of paladin well. Blizzard stated that it based the design off of Guardian of Ancient Kings, but it obviously went beyond that just a tad. Also, for those of you not keen on plate dresses, this set should be right up your alley!
As for the set bonuses:
Quote:
Retribution, 2P -- Your Judgement ability now also generates 1 Holy Power.
Retribution, 4P -- While Zealotry is active your abilities deal 12% more damage.
The two-piece, recently changed from its 50% proc chance iteration, should increase our holy power generation by anywhere between 40% to 50%, depending on your amount of haste. I imagine this set bonus will bump Judgement's priority up a few notches as well as smooth out our opening sequence.
The four-piece is your typical 2% buff (12% damage increase during an ability with a 16.67% uptime), but it comes with an increased emphasis on our cooldowns. We have long considered ourselves a cooldown class, a very burst-centric melee DPS spec, and it seems Blizzard is giving us a reassuring nod with this bonus.
Anyway, this week I thought I'd deviate from playing catch-up with the Firelands guides and answer Blizzard's call for class feedback. I've spent a fair amount of time browsing the paladin class feedback thread on the official forums, comparing others' thoughts on the state of the retribution paladin against my own. I have to say it has been an enlightening experience, and I recommend that those comfortable enough with posting on the forums go ahead and fill out Blizzard's questionnaire.
What are your biggest quality-of-life issues?
A lot of the quality-of-life issues I read from posters had to do with Inquisition. I'm going to try to contain my disappointment long enough to type this out:
Having to maintain a 36-second buff to our holy damage does not mean we have a lot to micromanage.
If you want to see an actual example of micromanagement, talk to someone with a feral druid. Blizzard heard our initial pleas to roll a part of our tier 11 four-piece bonus into the spec and dutifully fulfilled that request by buffing Inquiry of Faith. I know that refreshing a buff once every 30 seconds or so can be slightly annoying, but trust me -- it could be worse. Imagine if we didn't have Inquisition, and all you had to spend your holy power on was Templar's Verdict and the occasional Word of Glory. I don't know about you guys, but I would hate to see our spec lose some of the complexity it gained this expansion.
The next most common quality-of-life concern involved seals. Some want Blizzard to remove their duration, similar to what it did with Righteous Fury in patch 3.2. Others (myself included) want Blizzard to remove seals from the GCD to make seal-swapping less punishing. A few even suggested that they need more fish and open water for recreation.
Get it? Seals, as in both the paladin mechanic and the seaborne mammal ... bah, forget it.
The seal duration complaint is very minor, similar to the calls of rogues for an end to poison duration. Truthfully I would be fine either way, but I think we have bigger fish to fry.
For instance, taking seals off the GCD. Having to burn two global cooldowns just to switch between AOE and single-target scenarios is unnecessary and quite cumbersome in practical use. Keeping mana costs of seals restrictive (even after minor glyphs reduce their cost) would help prevent seal-swapping from getting out of control. If Blade Flurry is off the GCD, our seals definitely should be off the GCD.
What makes playing your class more fun?
This section is highly personal and varies from post to post, but I'll try to summarize the many opinions I have seen on the forums.
Utility Having one of the most impressive sets of utility abilities for any DPS spec is what draws many people to play a ret paladin, and it's hard to blame them. Reducing threat, transferring damage, protecting friends against melee attacks, freeing others from slows and snares, healing injured allies -- the sheer amount of game-changing abilities we have at our disposal is truly awesome.
Burst damage Have an enemy that is only going to be vulnerable for short periods of time? Ret paladins are uniquely suited to maximize these weak points by combining cooldowns such as Zealotry and Avenging Wrath. Toss in Guardian of Ancient Kings and a Golemblood Potion and you become a holy wrecking ball.
RNG This is truly a double-edged sword. The "fun" edge of the sword is when RNG works in your favor and blesses you with a Divine Purpose proc right when you need it and Art of War procs when you are wanting for fillers.
What makes playing your class less fun?
RNG The "not fun" edge comes when you just don't get any procs, and your DPS suffers as a result. More importantly, your enjoyment suffers because you are left adrift in a sea of longing, waiting for your next big and shiny ability to come off cooldown.
Aside from that, I am having trouble finding much else that I consider not fun about the spec. Do not, however, take that to mean that we only have one small issue. Our reliance on procs, namely Art of War and Divine Purpose, makes our DPS extremely variable, even leading some in the theorycrafting community to conjecture that "player skill" takes a back seat to RNG in determining our damage on any given fight. I have always relished the fact that if I spend time honing my skills and truly learning how to play, I am eventually rewarded with higher returns. As it stands now, I am more inclined to agree with the theorycrafters as I watch my damage fluctuate week after week without any changes in gear or skill.
How do you feel about your rotation?
The favorite adjective among feedback posters is "clunky." Again, this comes back to the RNG nature of our rotation. You can either be busily pumping out TVs faster than Samsung, or drumming your fingers on your desk waiting for Crusader Strike to come out to play. I believe this variation was by design, however. I remember some discussion about a number of specs being "GCD-locked" and how this was leading to tunneling, among other things. Not being GCD-locked means we can take a moment to survey the battlefield for potential dangers, help our allies in need, or even just admire the scenery.
For ret paladins, these lulls in the action are intended to be ideal opportunities to spend a global on a Hand spell or a quick heal, but we all know that these moments rarely intersect with when these utility abilities are most needed. So in the end, the rotation only becomes clunky when the player refuses to use these downtimes wisely. Personally, I really like our current rotation. Sure, it could stand to be improved in certain areas, but I generally enjoy myself while playing my paladin. The rotation isn't so involved that you miss out on what's going on around you, but it also isn't so mindless that you're playing a game while you're playing a game (might want to turn down your sound for this one).
What's on your wish list?
First, give us another single-target filler ability and/or get Holy Wrath out of our single-target repertoire. Blizzard hinted that it's considering toying with Hammer of Wrath, redistributing its damage to other abilities to even out damage between cooldown cycles. Here's a way to kill two birds: Lower Hammer of Wrath's damage when not in execute range or under the effect of Avenging Wrath and make it available all of the time. If the improved HoW has a short enough cooldown, we can take Holy Wrath and the occasional Consecration out of the single-target rotation entirely.
Second, turn Consecration into an AOE holy power finisher. The HP-dependent functionality could be folded into a talent (might as well be Sanctity of Battle for all the good it's doing right now), so it wouldn't break Consecration for the other specs. Make the damage significantly lower than TV on a single target, but scale it so that the damage over four or more targets results in higher DPS overall. Naturally, moving Consecration over to the holy power resource would remove its mana cost and prevent us from going OOM on AOE-heavy encounters.
Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with retribution. Going into Cataclysm, I wasn't expecting much out of our new resource system, but it has grown on me. Refreshing Inquisition at the right times has become a sort of minigame. With the changes to Divine Storm and Seal of Righteousness, our AOE DPS is back to being competitive, and it is pretty fun to boot. Having to use Holy Wrath as a filler on single-target encounters is a mere inconvenience, and not having an AOE finisher just makes our AOE rotation a bit of a bore. Of course we would all like to do more damage, but let's wait and see what 4.3 has in store for us before we grab the torches and pitchforks!
The Light and How to Swing It teaches you the ins and outs of retribution paladins, from Ret 101 and how to gem, enchant and reforge your retadin, to essential ret pally addons.Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
EaterOfBirds Oct 5th 2011 7:18PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoJTbfnCVkA
Seal of Approval! XD
Noyou Oct 5th 2011 7:23PM
I am not at all thrilled at Holy Power for Ret. For prot and holy is is ok. I don't play with addons that tell me when to hit something at the proper time. If that makes me bad then so be it. I would like consecration to be a low damg/low AoE heal for Prot and for ret a higher dmg dealer that leaves you with a DoT. Perhaps you could roll holy power into that. I am a DPSer who likes to use interrupts and CC's. This makes me a little worse at hitting the meter but I get more out of helping my fellow adventurers that way.
Amaxe Oct 5th 2011 10:18PM
Retadins were in a better place without the Holy Bar. I miss the fun I had with my paladin in WOLK. He's now my least played character.
Ilmyrn Oct 5th 2011 10:24PM
Having played my Paladin since Vanilla, (Ret in Vanilla, Prot in BC, and Ret in WotLK and Cat), I will one hundred percent say that Holy Power is a Lightsend for Ret.
Also, CCing and interrupting is not something that should have ANY effect on your DPS. Nine times out of ten, CC will be before the pull, and even if something has to be re-CCed, it's a single GCD. Ditto interrupts. If you want to talk about paying for utility with DPS, I'm certain that every class with a cast time CC or an energy based interrupt would like a word.
Barachiel Oct 5th 2011 7:26PM
Here here! I like most of these proposed ideas, especially the one about turning Consecration into a HP AoE Finisher. Either that or Holy Wrath. Ret needs an AOE finisher for its Holy Power track.
terph Oct 5th 2011 8:34PM
Yeah, Consecration as a finisher is a really interesting idea. Right now, it feels like a tiny bit of DPS for a lot of mana waste. It really feels useless. If it had some power to it and didn't blow half of our teeny tiny mana pool, I might actually like it again.
Ilmyrn Oct 5th 2011 10:25PM
An AOE HP finisher is the only thing I really think Ret needs badly. A real gap closer would be awesome too. Long Arm is fun, but it's not enough against any remotely skilled kiter. We need something that gets us into melee NOW, not ten seconds from now.
Barachiel Oct 5th 2011 11:50PM
I'll second that. We used to have one, back in Wrath, I think. I remember getting a movement boost when initiating combat with a certain power. Think it was from a talent that's since been removed.
Kolyarut Oct 5th 2011 7:27PM
Wow, uh, to be honest I thought Inquisition was one of those obvious targets for hate, like lawyers, tax inspectors and syphilis. I had no idea anybody ever actually liked it. Ever since I learned it, I've always said it's less an exciting new ability and more a burdensome obligation.
I don't know about anybody else, but I'll never have enough spare holy power going around that I'll feel happy about pissing it away on an anticlimactic buff to try and maintain a level of DPS that other classes get as baseline (even if our numbers were comparable to other classes lately), rather than turning it into a big exciting Templar's Verdict crit.
paulmewis Oct 5th 2011 8:30PM
Combat Rogues and slice and dice say hi!
Poleposition Oct 5th 2011 8:40PM
My eyes have been opened to Inquisition since I started leveling a Rogue - it's really similar to Slice and Dice. The difference is that my output goes to the MOON when I pop Slice and Dice, where Inquisition doesn't really feel like it has that much of an effect. I'm not sure what they could change on it to keep it from being a perfect analog to SnD, but I bet that's the feel they're going for and if they upped it just a little I'd be more excited about it.
Baribal Oct 6th 2011 12:46AM
Ferals with Rend, Savage Roar, Rip, Mangle botting and praying for clearcasts to make that Bite not screw your rotation send a hello as well!
eel5pe Oct 6th 2011 1:01AM
It's nice that it adds a bit of complexity to our rotation. Like the author mentions, would it really be fun using TV for every finisher? It's also a (minor) skill gate: refreshing the buff optimally adds to your DPS.
Pyromelter Oct 6th 2011 1:31AM
For those of you who are defending Holy Power and comparing it to a rogue or feral druid, I will give you this quote by a good friend who was a ret through-and-through until cataclysm:
"If I wanted to play a rogue, I'd play a rogue."
And I have a really hard time arguing against that position.
/salute to Kolyarut and every other ret paladin who speaks up against paladins being rogues.
Lemons Oct 6th 2011 11:10AM
"If I wanted to play a rogue, I'd play a rogue."
What exactly is a ret paladin? Before cata it was a faceroll spec that got no respect because it was a faceroll spec. So when you say things like this I take it to mean "I want to go back to facerolling."
bodiandras Dec 5th 2011 9:30AM
As an assassination rogue i have to keep up slice and dice and also rupture on the target to have viable dps. While poison procs from rupture give a nice boost on boss fights, in dungeons the combo points are wasted since mobs will die fast. So much harder to keep up a good dps.
Daniel Maccabee Oct 5th 2011 7:47PM
Can't believe you didn't mention Divine Storm and Zealotry. During fights like Ragnaros, Zealotry tends to come off of cooldown during an add phase. It'd be nice if I could use either Divine Storm or Crusader Strike during Zealotry to keep my TVs on Ragnaros while still maintaining AoE on the adds. If Blizzard were to grant us a Holy Power AoE finisher, then it could be Divine Storm => AoE finisher => Divine Storm etc during Zealotry.
Shyster Oct 5th 2011 9:18PM
I personally seal swap during that phase and keep on hammering the ol' cs>tv when zealotry happens to be up at that period during rag, it's not ideal but it's still effective enough to help out with the adds.
Daniel Maccabee Oct 5th 2011 9:27PM
I do the same; as soon as the Molten Seeds appear I swap to Seal of Righteousness while I'm on the move. The adds die quickly enough to make this a poor example. Think pre-nerf or the Maloriak fight last tier during the green phase. Even the current Zul dungeons have fights with many adds.
I tend to pop my cd's early (read: right away) so they'll be off cooldown to use again during the fight. Some fights have phase changes which are based off of the boss's health pool; the single target phase could change to an add phase during our Zealotry rotation. In a fight where the boss disappears and we must kill the adds before to bring the boss back this is a waste of Zealotry and we must wait another 2 minutes to use it again.
NSS Oct 5th 2011 7:56PM
For me, 95% of the problem with inquisition is that the UI doesn't support using it in a non-clunky manner. I don't want to constantly play Where Is Waldo with the inquisition buff in the huge stack of short term buffs that are up at any given time during combat. Especially when I'm looking at the top left of my screen for holy power, the top right of my screen for inquisition, and the bottom left of my screen to see which abilities are off CD. Especially when as a ret you are also looking at health bars in case you need to save someone, and watching for cast bars to interrupt.
Bad UI makes a non-clunky thing clunky. Cataclysm has felt like a phoned in expansion. They did a half-baked implementation of power auras with the launch of cata, but never finished it to de-clunk abilities like inquisition.