So currently there were two builds that are viable. The first one plays very much like a traditional Paladin. using a legendary that gives you two charges of infusion along with the conduit that replicates 20% of your healing from Holy light onto all targets around the initial target (seems like it’s meant to be about 10 yards but they keep changing it right now it works at 30 yards which is a bit mental). This plays a lot more like a traditional Paladin, very little need to be Melee. No requirement to deal damage and lots more flexibility and it’s play style. Unfortunately cos it doesn’t bring that damage component it probably won’t get used in the world first race.
The second build is very similar to the existing glimmer however the introduction of spending breaks up the glimmer gameplay into a very satisfyingly feeling big payload at the end of each one of your gameplay loops
Generally speaking and this applies to both specs the feeling of building in spending your holy power is amazing right now word of glory feels like a supercharged light of the martyr and you can really feel the healing it does on both your target and your beacon target. Light of dawn Feels like it could probably do more. if you haven’t got the legendary it can be a bit lack laster. But with both holy light cleave or glimmer to fall back on it works really well
There’s a lot of diversity in the talents to. obviously if you’re speaking glimmer it’s fairly locked. But because the other builds are competitive you have the ability to instead speck out of glimmer in situations where it makes sense to have something like beacon of virtue without feeling like your gimped in your play style. this is because glimmer has become the side dish instead of the main course where your core rotation is about building and spending on those super powerful word of glories or light of dawn’s
On top of that our cool downs feel super good to use. Each one able to stand in its own space without relying on others to make it viable. In addition the attachment of holy power on things like hammer of wrath provide an extra skill element that rewards clever use of those damaging abilities to further your healing through extra holy power.
All in all it’s a very solid spec right now that’s very easy to get started in in with some very interesting choices those in its rotation and in its talent tree with a lot of different answers for the problems in dungeons
Say example if we look at something like grievous almost every spell in the paladin spell book will remove one stack of grievous so you get to make the choice between beacon of virtue or light or dawn to heal it off quickly. You can even use spells like holy prism which will get rid of five stacks. Or with the aforementioned holy light conduit and clear them with cleave healing. Not to mention faith and glimmer both also being viable
And this is before we get to covenant abilities and soul binds. So at its core the holy paladin plays very well in a fun and satisfying way before we even get to the covenant choice meaning that regardless of which covenant you choose you’re not looking for the covenant to fix the spec the way a lot of other classes are.
That said divine toll is incredibly fun to play. It works really well with any of our final row talents not just glimmer and it is a very satisfying spell to press. The ashen hollow rework looks interesting. And fill the role of a strong aoe healing CD. It remains to see see.how viability is after the numbers tuning however for some people who miss things like tranquility it’s a really nice option. Vanquishers hammer looks to be ok. A lot of our power is in our spenders so the bonus light of dawn particularly if you take the light of dawn legendary works quite well. Again numbers tuning will determine how viable it is. And thankfully blessings of seasons has been nerfed because frankly it felt terrible to play with
So we’re in a position with three covenants provide viable healing play styles with 2 unique and distinct builds to choose from both of which compliment paladins historic play styles. So for people who aren’t in the top 1 percent of the player base paladin is in a really f****** good state at least as far as holy is concerned. Almost every criticism I have seen of glimmer is either addressed in the new glimmer build or catered for via the alternative holylight build. Frankly I’m not sure it could get better for Holy unless they scrapped blessing of seasons entirely or perhaps if they rework to the mastery. But neither of those are significant complaints in my mind
I know you asked about protection as well but I decided to focus on holy here because it’s the spec I’ve spent the most time playing over the years and it’s where I’ve spent most of my time testing alongside the paladin discord to see what works and what doesn’t. So it’s the one I feel the most qualified to talk about
And as this post is about retribution. That should be the last I say the subject. Apologies in advance to the people who came here for juicy ret gossip
or maybe thats why they hate us
