It was stated that all paladin specs would get access to the ability “Shield of the righteous”, what implications does this have for ret paladin? That spell makes no sence on ret as it implies you would be hitting the target with a shield, whilst rets are locked into 2h.
Please share your opinion below
I guess it just means you have the option to bunker up if you’re too pressured in PvP. Like a druid going into bear form, even if not tank specced.
That, and rumbling people from stealth. Nice tool to have.
I get how it could be a realy usefull spell for pvp but i just have a feeling it does not fit the spec , heck ret does not even use a shield. Sure we can advocate for it being good because it makes ret paladins stronger … you know … us being
ret paladin players and all that. But would you not rather have another tool thats just more fitting?
I do think that avenger shield fits more in ret and holy spec than sotr. Yeah, I know, it’s quite strong to have a ranged hopo generator AND interrupt, but it’s more usefull than sotr (which does not make holy and ret efficient off tanks)
Actually the best arena Ret’s in Wrath and TBC (especially Wrath), used a sword and board almost as much as they used a 2 hander. There was a proc called Art of War which gave you an instant Flash of Light on a white crit, and obviously 1 handers are way faster, giving you far more procs if you were getting pressured.
I’ve barely played PVP since Wrath because it went downhill, butsince there was also a LOT more physical damage from melee classes in the game, armor helped a LOT if you were being prssured by a warrior or rogue. It could lower their damage by around 10%, so don’t knock it until you see how it works out.
I’m memory serves it’s an armor buff right ? And we can still swap weapons in combat
Just macro it
You are correct. The best Ret Paladins will use it in PVP to negate the burst of other melee classes. Feral, Windwalker, Warrior, Rogue, etc.
Is the same giving shield block to warriors, it’s an extra defensive that should cost you some.
I’ll wait to see it in action to judge, but if it’s the same spell and require a shield equipped, the amount of dmg you lose in swapping weapon feels to heavy compared to the limited benefit of it.
I used it back in time in wotlk i thing not sure, in pvp and it was juicy to swap to sword and shield against rogues and warriors. It could be great even situatinaly in m+ scenarios paired together with 35% physical dps reduction and seraphim? Literaly monster…
This is what people asked for though , this is why they pruned alot of abilitys in the first place.
I don’t think it requires a shield to use, its just the name of the ability.
Although this is true and i plan time macro it myself, the biggest draw back is it requires Holy Power to use i believe, therefore there’s highly likelihood that you won’t be-bale to use it when you most need it, that and it’s a trade off for using a WoG.
yet to see a single paladin ask for useless abilities back like turn evil, sense undead and SOTR for anything other than prot… cannot be used in m+ and not without using a shield, which doesn’t serve a purpose in today’s wow.
we’ve not getting anything we asked for, and not anything new for shadowlands. paladin class design has been a awful experiment since the launch of cata.
this is not true.
we got much some of what we asked, like a better sotr uptime for prot, more fillers for the ret rotation etc.
it’s the execution that isn’t what we asked, but it’s hardly ever been as we wanted.
im ngl… but the reviews of ret in ALpha all seem pretty positive 
so far every comment i’ve heard about it says a shield is needed.
I thought the same, but it requires a shield and a 1 handed weapon indeed…you have to macro it, not sure if I like that.
Unpruning seems to bring a lot of fluff just for the sake of unpruning. Divine Protection among all specs, Blessing of Might/Kings and some of our former mobility options would have been the better choices to unprune.
SotR will only be used by high rated PvP players…which is…1% of playerbase?
Not sure, i expect proper raid groups to use it to cheese something, taunt+sotr to get on a dps some dot or reset something on the tank.
The problem with any ret offtanking scheme is that rets are not crit immune. Feels as much as a gamble as a big brain play.