Shadowlands PVE quality time as a ret paladin

[Säreth-archimonde]

- YouTube

Here is a sample video of what most of us, retribution paladin trying to play PUG are experiencing every day.

I spend like 1 to 2,5 hours/day on the LFG getting no invites, and when someone invite me for a dungeon, there is a leaver in the group 10 or 15min after we begin the run.

I’m 1325 RIO, with decent gear, I timed all dungeons in 15 with the help of a DH tank friend, but I still struggle to get invites to do my 14+ for vault with 900RIO meta slaves group leaders…

I don’t even want to talk about raiding, I’ve been asking to some guilds if they would recruit me, not a single one wanted a ret.

I do not understand why Blizzard killed the rets in PVE and do not seem to want to make it attractive for m+ and raiding… At a time we weren’t doing that much dmg but we were THE utility class to bring, now we do not compete with top tier classes in utility, AOE dmg, ST dmg, and sustain dmg.

Almost all of our class design is top tier garbage :
-An aura that needs people to die.
-A sac forcing us to use bubble or wall to survive.
-A BoP useless for magic dmg
-A useless freedom
-A useless fear we have to cast
-A ST slow
-Dmg only each 1min or 2min, causing us to almost die everytime we pop wings in M+ because of aggro if we are able to maximize it, if not we waste it and do no dmg…
-We don’t have any group/raid buff or CD.

I love playing ret, and I think we shouldn’t have to go DK or monk to be able to play melee and bring something valuable to a group, but today I feel like all the time I spend on my ret since the begining of the expansion has been totally useless, and will never get me invited or accepted for raiding in mythic raids… and it gets worse when I read the 9.0.5 patch note.

Are you guys considering giving up playing ret ? quitting the game ? giving up PVE and go PVP only as a ret ?

[Willzzon-stormscale]

No I will continue on my paladin.

I like the flexibility of being able to tank, heal and dps. I also like ret alot so I will just play it. Maybe it will take longer for me to find groups but I don’t mind.

Though I won’t be playing super high m+ so maybe I will have a different experience.

Also imo I think warriors have it much wrose in pve on what I experience and have heard.

[Mythicos-turalyon]

Why do you use aura of retribution in a M+, you are not supposed to die, you are suppose to keep your team mates alive, Aura of Devotion and Concentration are the only auras that should be used at all times when you have a Hpala / Prot pala & Retri pala. You only use Retribution Aura during a encounter on a raiding boss or in PvP.

[Säreth-archimonde]

Yeah of course for M+ I’m always using devo if there isn’t any pala in the group, but for raiding there if often a hpala or tank to use devo, my example of retribution aura was to show that when we can use it, it requires events to happen that no one wants (dying people) to make it usefull…
What about making this aura usefull for a group or a raid with a dmg buff, stats buff or even passive healing like the seal of light from wotlk ?
Devo aura is also not that good without aura mastery, it doesn’t compete with Dk’s CD , a warrior shout or a mage intell buff…
I’m ok with being middle-under the pack with dmg, but we don’t even have any single utility that would make us worth to pick in a group or a raid instead of another underperforming PVE class like warriors and their shouts…

[Mythicos-turalyon]

perhaps a 5% increase damage on holy power would suffice, even a 3%

[Matrlx-kazzak]

Even 1600+ R io and a 1200 R io will decline you
by the way what’s the name of the addon to see what the groups are?

[Jóôló-drakthul]

And this is why i reroll to my WOD main shaman back to the roots
CBA playin paladin with this design i played paladin all BFA and it was decent but SL change my mind completly

[Bateman-the-maelstrom]

This is sadly the state for the Ret spec in SL. Ret Paladin is my main and I face the same situation as you OP in m+ pugs, I’m close to 1600 IO and I don’t get invited to anything higher than 15s, the only option I have is to run my own key which very much reduces my options and enjoyment. I will not continue to play this game unless things change by 9.1, but sadly I’m pretty sure Blizzard have no idea how to solve it and are just “fine” with the way things are.