What happened to retri...?

[anon93379526]

So, ive just logged into one of my paladins and decided to give retri a whirl…

And i have to tell you, my verdict is not good, not good at all.

Now your probably wondering what this random dk knows about paladins and the answer is quite simple, i was a paladin from within the first weeks in WoW vanilla up until the class was annihilted in cataclysm when I had to leave in disgust at what they did to protection, retri and even holy.

After doing a single dungeon, i could immediately tell that all of the heart and soul tht the class once had was just gone, there was no replacement, it was all just gone completely, from the blessings doing next to nothing to the absoloute lack of auras, seals, interactions. It was just reduced to pressing what lighted up out of 4 buttons, there was no anticipation, there was no order requirement, the whole spec was completely gone, everything that made the paladin unique and interesting was gutted.

If it were down to me, I would have simply removed crusader strike, blade of jusice and templars verdict.

This would be replaced by an improved form of seals which grant the paladin varying effects from the healing of seal of light, the hard attacks of seal of command, the DoT of seal of vengeance, even the mana of wisdom while also acting as strike attacks.

These seals would effectively act as the holy power which would release the effects of all the currently active seals upon the enemy when using judgement with debuffs, essentially the paladin would gain a completely unique form of combination system which could affect a battle in much more important ways than just walloping an enemy with some more damage and more importantly, move it away from just being another warrior… furthermore this could then easily be extended into holy and protection with their own unique seals.

Anyway, it’s getting a little long now but what i am trying to say is that this class was so much more before and is right there waiting to become that more again.

[Almostholy-outland (Almostholy)]

Paladin right now is very shaky position.
Low mobility, nice utility, huge burst, 0 sustain damage.
Boring rotation ugly animated spells like Blade of Justice and Divine Storm and probably the most boring defense system…i don’t know if it just me but i find the bubbles just boring…so boring.

Maybe the problem is not that the paladin is bad or have nothing to offer to the party and raid, maybe others have too much.

I will give one example DH in 3-s arena : Mobility - SSS, Range interrupt through BOP LOL… 2 stuns one of them AOE and Imprison(another control). Darkness(AOE defense ability HUGE) Very nice self defense abilities , not even to mention that every 9 sec they have 1 sec 100% dodge back and front Isn’t it amazing?? Purge…and Mana burn on the top of all lul. Don’t forget the DMG probably the best in the game atm equal to enh shammy, and random cleave that have been removed from the Paladin because random cleave dmg is not good for the game as i remember.

I think few simple changes will make paladin good again maybe lower our burst and increase sustain dmg?
Maybe few changes to our mobility like cleanse to remove snare and roots? Or maybe something else i don’t know but definitely we need mobility buff.
I am just giving my opinion right or wrong that is what i think for the state of the paladin(my opinion is based on PVP). Hope they would give us some love because right now it’s frustrating to sit in snare and root and healing your party, and i know that we have to be half support class i respect that but cmmon, is that is all we are there for?

[Keyur-draenor (Keyur)]

WoLK golden era of ret with shadowmourne.

Then comes combo points mechanic - holy power + Aoe Nerf. Complete overhaul of class theme.

After that slight changes by Dev and we have current ret.

My trapped within froze throne with lichking. Whatever changes made after that I just didn’t care and keep playing ret.

On opposite prot and holy I liked a lot.

[Zeratux-outland (Zeratux)]

I dont think its that bad other than way too slow, and those nasty gaps in rotation, there is something wrong, but as a whole is kinda enjoyable.
I played vanilla too, and ret was pretty useless, only started to get better by the end of TBC if I recall.

[Lightness-the-venture-co (Lightness)]

In PvE ret is not so bad. Also word of glory is such a good talent in mythic+. You know there are times when your healer is in CC or dunno something and you have to buy him few seconds before he can heal the group and then is your moment of word of glory. Also spaming divine storm in mythic+ when there are 3+ mobs is fun.

[Pyrobybylo-drakthul]

on high tyranical keys its actualy the top utility. Wisdom + World of Glory are breaking the biggest problem of boss fights, one shots mechanics are no longer the biggest problem or tanks one shots. The biggest issue is healers mana and this is the reason why there is no better utility for high tyranical bosses then Rets. Sadly rets aoe is in such a bad state, its killing even such strong and potent utility. But overall ret is blessing for healer when its played properly strong deffensive cds, free dispel, insane efficency and realy broken aoe burst heal + 7min cd on lay on hand on the top off it.

[Seffi-kilrogg (Seffi)]

I would say biggest problem is Inquisition, I would actulay make this an passive skill that works whit both Blessings instead, for example if you hit Wisdom on a player, you get inquistion buff your self, this meens you still gain something from your buffs also that is usefull also, and then put whatever talents in it place in last tier.

[Ghimrizz-argent-dawn (Ghimrizz)]

From a PvE standpoint retribution is acctually in one of it’s best positions ever(Does not make the position good thou). Sure i can miss the seal and mass blessing gameplay. But on a overall playability level retributions better then ever(yeah even better then legion). What retribution could use are some solid cleave, It’s acctually a bit better on PTR with the new azerite trait which both helps a bit with rotation and a bit of cleave. I won’t say “it’s enought” but it’s a step in the right direction.

Protection feels a bit jarring with steed and protector on GCD. Holy’s simply solid, but the removal of the artifact ability etc. sort of puts their mastery in a really iffy position and that the tools required to use it properly(long arm of the law) are talents don’t really help.

I won’t deny that paladin as a whole have issues that need to be dealt with. Given that two of the specs are tank and healer, paladin as a class really felt the GCD changes.

When you are playing the reactive roles; Healing and Tanking, GCD’s really are felt like a huge obstacle that’s hard to play around. If you need an emergency heavy heal/defensive you need it “NOW” not in 1.5 sec(on average). But that’s not really a paladin unique issue since it affects all healers, I mean as a healer you sometimes have; use CD 1,5 sec GCD -> Cast time 3-4 seconds which Is quite unsustainable in many scenarios. Which means you always use a CD in synergy with a instant cast or are using the cooldown before it’s required, potentially wasting it.

The greatest dissapointment of 8.1 in this regard are that other classes gets their mobility stuff off GCD; All warriors charge mechanics, DH’s vengeful retreat, Druids Wild charge and Survival Hunters Harpoon.

When atm. divine steed feels the most Jarring out of all forms of mobility in game, low uptime, long CD, must be combo:ed with Blessing of freedom(thats almost 3 seconds) to be remotely usefull in certain areas etc.

[Anduinlothar-aszune]

No, it is most certainly not in one of it’s best positions ever.

Number-wise, below average.

Gameplay wise? Never, ever been worse. But then again most of all the Classes in Battle for Azeroth haven never been worse.

[Anduinlothar-aszune]

Wait what? Healing, is preventing one-shot mechanics?

If you are killed in one hit, how does a heal, which mind you sacrifices your highest damaging ability help?

What?

[Liaara-drakthul (Liaara)]

I said one shots are no longer a problem, becouse of its no longer exists in the game when you do right. The game is much better designed around one shot mechanics. These, which still exist are avoidable in 99,5 cases. So healing is more valuable. Btw chill its start of the expansion, the time will do a lot as gear and ap system scales up. By the way new azerite trait Lights decree currently simms 7,5% dps buff (5% more then top traits on live) at the top of it, this think does AOE, i dont expect the nerf becouse of its not stackable.