Possible Additional Ret Changes...

These may be a complete hoax/rumor, but they make sense. Got them from this post on the Paladin forums. Note that these would be in addition to the other officially-announced changes.


*The Tier 4, Tier 5, Tier6 and all Gladiator Sets have had their Spell Damage removed and the points have been reinvested in other stats, such as Strength and Critical Strike Rating.

*Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Retribution) now also reduces threat caused while wielding a Two-Handed Weapon by 8/16/25%.

*Seal of Command (Retribution) now does 85% Weapon Damage, but is no longer affected by Spell damage.

*Judgement of Command (Retribution) now does holy damage equal to 25% of your Attack Power and 50% when the target is stunned or disoriented and is no longer affected by Spell Damage.

*Crusader Strike (Retribution) cooldown reduced from 10 to 6 seconds and does 110% weapon damage instead of weapon damage plus 40% of your Holy Spell damage.

If they're true, Ret will be made of win.

2.3 Retribution Changes

Here are the changes officially announced so far, with my take on them. Note, I've only shown the ones put up by Drysc in this forum post.

The Good

• Mana cost for Exorcism, Holy Wrath, and Hammer of Wrath lowered

Yawn, yawn, and light clap. Mana efficiency is always a good thing, and important for Ret, but hardly fanfare and fireworks info here.

• Vengeance duration increased to 30 seconds

This is good. Good for PvP and PvE DPS.

• Improved Seal of Crusader benefits put into base spell, talent benefits replaced with those of Sancitified Crusader

Some have complained that they took our only viable utility (Sanctified Crusader) and placed it within easy reach of Holy/Prot. To those, I say big deal. It rightly helps Prot with threat generation, and I don't foresee many Holy Paladins suddenly running up to swing their 41DPS healing maces in order to keep the judgement up. In any case, it made room for sexy time as revealed next.

• Sanctified Crusader renamed to Sanctified Seals, which increases chance to critically hit with all spells and melee attacks by 1/2/3% and reduces the chance your Seals will be dispelled by 33/66/100%

Undispellable seals - it's about damn time. I've got to give Blizzard a standing ovation here. Never thought it would happen. I've even seen some non-Ret Paladins whining to make this baseline. It's nice that Ret will finally have something other specs will actually want. More crit is also welcome in this brave new world of abundant resilience (at least in PvP).

• Crusader Strike cooldown reduced to 6 seconds

Should never have been raised to 10 seconds in the first place, but I'm glad they've come around. This alone should help raise Ret's DPS substantially.

• Vindication frequency and duration increased and reduces all attributes by 5/10/15%

Now here's some real honest to goodness group utility that's unique. It remains to be seen whether or not they allow it to function in PvE (my guess is probably not), but it will be very nice in arenas/BGs. That 15% reduction will include health and mana pools (via Stam/Int), as well as reducing melee damage a bit.

• Pursuit of Justice is now 3 ranks and increases movement speed by 5/10/15% and reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 1/2/3%.

This one's made of win, especially for leveling up. And just so people hang onto it after reaching the level cap, the spell avoidance is enough icing on the cake - at least for me. Well worth the 3 points IMO.

The Bad

PvE Ret Paladins are already up in arms over no mention of threat reduction - something even I'll admit the spec direly needs. There has been at least one blue post acknowledging this fact, but offering no info otherwise. Many have been speculating as to what will happen with Ret. We could be very pleasantly surprised and Blizzard could tweak SoC so that its bonus procs generate no threat. They're doing this with Elemental Shamans' Lightning Overload procs. We might also see SoB/SoV lose their faction distinctions and be given to both Alliance and Horde. At this point, though, it's just guessing.

There's also no mention of what they plan to do with regard to Ret's itemization pitfalls. The forums are flooded with ideas. Some want spell damage turned into straight-up +healing in order to give Ret a true hybridesque feel. Personally, I think this is stupid. The most spell power laden gear in the game right now only totals about 400, which would end up being around 800 healing. Ret already has too many stats to mess around with. It needs simplifying. I favor the complete elimination of spell damage, with its item points distributed into mostly Str/Int. A couple simple tweaks to Crusader Strike and SoC so that they scale with Int or a melee stat, and they'll have essentially fixed the bulk of the problem

The Ugly

What worries me most is what we don't see being heralded all over the forums and fansites - the hidden nerfs and fundamental changes to spells and abilities that will probably come from way out in left field once 2.3 hits the PTR. They may try and tweak SoC again, further reducing the damage dealt by the bonus attack and slightly increasing the PPM rate to balance it out. It already happened once (100% weapon damage and 5 PPM to 70% and 6.8 PPM). A change like this would partially address threat (smaller spikes in damage) as well as help them keep Ret's burst damage under control - something they've expressed as a desire before.

I may be wrong. Things might truly and finally be improving for Ret and I'm simply drawing on past experience and fear. I even hope I'm wrong, but we'll have to wait and see. In the end, though, there's always the Death Knight and of course, WARHAMMER!

And There Was Much Rejoicing

The last I heard about unlocking the Death Knight class was from Blizzcon. Supposedly, one would need to level to 80 and complete a quest or series of quests in order for the Death Knight class to become available. Now it seems that life for would-be Death Knights just got easier. Behold the following forum post from Nathaera in which she responds to an earlier poster:

Q u o t e:
i just dont like that you have to get to 80 before you can even play the deathknight!

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Lameness

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Actually, this idea has changed and most likely you will need to just have a character of (say) level 55 in order to unlock it. This is still subject to change, but we really didn't want people rushing to 80 only so they could unlock the Death Knight. It just doesn't feel right to do it that way.

Looks like I won't even need to gear out my Paladin now, though I'll continue down that path anyway. Who knows what will happen in patch 2.3. I'm not holding my breath, but in the event Ret does get fixed I'll be that much better off.

Death Has Been Named

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
~Revelation 6:8~

I've named him. My Death Knight, that is. No, I can't play him yet. I'm still trudging along on my Paladin. I've obtained every piece of epic honor gear available for Ret, as well as begun my arena set. Every matchup makes the weaknesses of Retribution more and more clear. They also make me more and more determined to forsake the impotent Light as soon as I am able. It will have been a long and arduous journey, but tonight I took the first step. The name currently enslaves a level 1 Draenei Shaman who will be sacrificed on the day of reckoning. The same day on which I shall thunder into the Cathedral in Stormwind and spit on the archbishop. It shall echo the day on which Arthas impaled his father and brought the Kingdom of Lordaeron to a bloody end. Retribution is an empty word to the remaining order of Paladins. They no longer feel sufficient pain and anger over the betrayal and destruction of their former homeland. They have grown weak and decadent. Their time for spamming two spells will soon be at an end.

On the Warhammer front, I have no news. I'm still waiting on a beta invite. If anyone has anything new, feel free to post among the comments and I'll highlight it in a post.