Cataclysm and the future of the Ret Paladin

So, after all the talk yesterday about spending less and less time playing WoW, I thought I would do a WoW related post today just to remind myself, and everyone else, that I do still enjoy playing and keep up with the times in Azeroth.  The Paladin class changes for Cataclysm have been trickling in over the past week or two, and I thought I would go over those and give my thoughts on what I think about each of the updates.

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Image courtesy of K-Rocket

Retribution Paladin changes in Cataclysm

Blinding Shield (level 81): Causes damage and blinds all nearby targets. This effect might end up only damaging those facing the paladin's shield, in a manner similar to Eadric the Pure's ability Radiance in Trial of the Champion. The Holy tree will have a talent to increase the damage and critical strike chance, while the Protection tree will have a talent to make this spell instant cast. 2-second base cast time. Requires a shield.

This new ability is obviously not a spell designed for use by Retribution paladins.  However, if paired with a weapon swap, it could have limited use in PVP for peeling off of your healer.  However, the fact that it is a 2 second cast will make it practically unusable as an offensive ability.

Healing Hands (level 83): Healing Hands is a new healing spell. The paladin radiates heals from him or herself, almost like a Healing Stream Totem. It has a short range, but a long enough duration that the paladin can cast other heals while Healing Hands remains active. 15-second cooldown. 6-second duration. 

Another spell that is blatantly not Retribution material.  However, you can bet that this spell will be widely used by Ret paladins.  Unless the mana cost is substantial (more than Divine Plea and JotW can compensate for), this has the potential of becoming a useful spell for Ret in both PVE and PVP gameplay.

Guardian of Ancient Kings (level 85): Summons a temporary guardian that looks like a winged creature of light armed with a sword. The visual is similar to that of the Resurrection spell used by the paladin in Warcraft III. The guardian has a different effect depending on the talent spec of the paladin. For Holy paladins, the guardian heals the most wounded ally in the area. For Protection paladins, the guardian absorbs some incoming damage. For Retribution paladins, it damages an enemy, similar to the death knight Gargoyle or the Nibelung staff. 3-minute cooldown. 30-second duration (this might vary depending on which guardian appears).

 This is one of the more useful spells we will be getting in Cataclysm.  Much like the Deathknight's Gargoyle, it will be a summoned DPS boost on a mid level cooldown.  This will significantly boost Ret's dps when rotated in between Avenging Wrath cooldowns.  Also, this spell is described as "a winged creature of light armed with a sword."  How epic does that sound?  The only thing that could be better about this thing would be a booterang.  It is definitely an overdue and much needed cooldown (for all three trees), but I would have to say that it is hardly a new and exciting ability.  It does the same thing as a DK's Gargoyle, which has been around for quite a while now.

Crusader Strike will be a core ability for all paladins, gained at level 1. We think the paladin leveling experience is hurt by not having an instant attack. Retribution will be getting a new talent in its place that either modifies Crusader Strike or replaces it completely.

Wow, talk about overdue.  Nearly five years into the game's existence, paladins continue to level from 1 all the way to 40 using only two offensive spells!  Judgements and Consecration carry Ret paladins all the way to level 50, are on long cooldowns, and drain mana with the quickness.  So finally we can have a party, because leveling a paladin will finally be somewhat engaging pre BC.

Cleanse is being rebalanced to work with the new dispel system. It will dispel defensive magic (debuffs on friendly targets), diseases, and poisons.

While this change doesn't look like much at a glance, it has an incredible effect on the Retribution tree.  In light of the recent changes to dispel mechanics, we will no longer be able to use Cleanse for defensive utility.  That means no more cleansing Roots, Slow, Frost Nova, etc off of yourself.  This makes Hand of Freedom an incredible crutch for our mobility in PVP (when a healer is not present).

Blessing of Might will provide the benefit of Wisdom as well. If you have two paladins in your group, one will do Kings on everyone and the other will do Might on everyone. There should be much less need, and ideally no need, to provide specific buffs to specific classes.

This is a buff for Ret.  We are getting mp5 that we didn't have previously, and we are getting it for free.  This will also ease the frustration of setting up buff assignments pre-raid.  The only possible negative thing that could be said about this change is that it may reduce the need for a paladin in the raid.

Holy Shock will be a core healing spell available to all paladins.

I would expect to see changes to this in the future, or at least within the Retribution tree.  We already have an ability that is much like this one (Art of War), as in it makes us choose between damage and an instant heal.  If this spell is left the way it is described, it will both give us added burst potential, as well as more survivability.  Which would be nice, but I don't see it going down quite that way.

We want to ease off the defensive capabilities of Retribution and Holy paladins slightly. We think the powerful paladin defenses have been one of the things holding Retribution paladins back, especially in Arenas. One change we're considering is lowering Divine Shield's duration by a couple of seconds. Having said that, Retribution does pretty well in Battlegrounds, and Battlegrounds will be a much bigger focus in Cataclysm since they can provide the best PvP rewards. Furthermore, the healing environment of Cataclysm is going to be different such that a paladin may not be able to fully heal themselves during the duration of Divine Shield to begin with, so this may not be a problem.

Wow, I can't believe that nerfing Divine Shield was even mentioned. If this is followed through with, the infamous bubble hearth will be a thing of the past, which simply cannot be!  No, if trading a few seconds of our bubble in exchange for actual viability in PVP is what they want, then so be it.

We feel Retribution paladins need one more mechanic which involves some risk of the player pushing the wrong button, making the rotation a bit less forgiving. In addition, we want to add to this spec more PvP utility. Right now the successes of the Retribution paladin in PvP seem to be reduced to either doing decent burst damage, or just being good at staying alive.

A more involved rotation sounds quite refreshing, to be honest.  Our rotation falls heavily on 4 abilities, Judge/CS/Consecration/DS.  While we do have added abilities that help pad our dps output, our ability to do damage falls mainly on those 4 spells, which makes poor decisions and fat fingerings only a minor setback.  As for PVP utility, I hope to God that they are considering a gap closer.  Ret is already a very easy target compared to most other melee classes, and that can be attributed almost entirely to the fact that we have very limited options when it comes to closing range on an opponent.  However, even if we don't get the much coveted gap closer, any additional PVP utility will be welcome!

We want to increase the duration of Sacred Shield to 30 minutes and keep the limit to one target. The intention is that the paladin can use it on their main healing target. That said, we would like to improve the Holy paladin toolbox and niche so that they don't feel quite like the obvious choice for tank healing while perceived as a weak group healer.

This is a great thing, no matter how you look at it.  Sacred Shield is vital to us and our role in PVP, and it has proven to have its uses for Ret in PVE as well.  Not having to refresh it ever 30 seconds will be a burden off of our shoulders!

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So there it is.  All the changes, wrapped up into a relatively long post.  While my playtime has indeed gone down, I do try to keep up to speed on changes and announcements that are made.  And I'm looking forward to playing Cataclysm.  The changes that the blues have enlightened us on, so far, are hardly impressive.  However, there is promise of a better Ret experience in Cataclysm if you read into things a bit more.

1. We will either be getting a new offensive ability all together, or Crusader Strike will be getting juiced up.  Either way, it is promising in and of itself.
2. Holy Shock is becoming a baseline ability and has a chance of finding its way into our rotation. 
3. Our dps rotation will be more involved, more strategic, and more fun to play as a result.

While there are indeed some disappointing aspects in these changes, we have nowhere near enough information from Blizzard to warrant a paladin uprising, dev bashing, or hate mail.  So just relax, have a beer, recover from 4/20, and wait for the beta to be released.  Then we can begin celebrating...or uprising.