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Mocked… but not stifled. Rejected… but not swayed. Stricken by the unforgiving fist of oppression… yet not hindered. Our shields set aside for the breadth of that which requires both hands, we have prevailed my brothers and sisters. Our voices echoed from the bastion of Ironforge to at last be heard. Our cries resounded from the pavements of Silvermoon to finally be acknowledged. With the impending Northrend invasion, who better to march upon the forces of the Lich King? Who better to rend justice upon those without moral limitation? Let us band together on the strength of a memory which is now of our past. Take up arms and come to my side, brethren! Let the unending rage flowing through our veins provide ample fuel for that which is righteous.

Let the age of the Retribution Paladin begin…

The WotLK Paladin talents have now been released and upon first glance I felt an overwhelming burst of satisfaction build up inside me. Our utility has always been phenomenal but now will be improved. Our damage potential has always been acceptable but now will be sought after.

At this junction, I would like to take a moment to share with you some insights I have regarding the new talents as they apply to Retribution. It should be noted (as well as assumed to be obvious) that I am can only use information that which is before me to draw my conclusions but the implications of that which has been revealed are simply astounding. Entertain the following:

1. Sanctity Aura has been removed but its effects are now part of Retribution Aura
   1. Since auras are now raid-wide, everyone in the raid will now receivee your 2% damage increase
   2. Thanks to the talent “Swift Retribution”, the entire raid will now benefit from 3% casting, ranged and melee speed as well
2. Paladins will now have a new offensive ability in the arsenal that does AoE damage and heals nearby allies for 20% of the damage caused
   1. 1000 damage * 4 targets = 4000 damage = 800 healing to up to 3 allies within 10 yards. This essentially means that the Retadin will now provide an AoE heal to their melee group every 10 seconds
3. Repentance now lasts 1 minute in PvE and is useable on Dragonkin, Undead, Demons, Giants and Humanoids. In PvP, Repentance will last 10 seconds.
   1. Now a Ret Paladin has the ability to provide CC
4. Alliance is getting Seal of Blood (renamed for them to Seal of Martyrdom)
5. Horde is getting Seal of Vengeance (renamed for them to Seal of Corruption)
6. Improved Hammer of Justice now decreases the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20/30 seconds. Partner that with the Retribution 4-piece bonus from Arena gear and you now have 20 second cooldown on a 6 second stun.
   1. This is essentially now the Paladin interrupt. Partner it with the fact that Blood elves have Arcane Torrent and I think you’ll see Blood Elf Retadins doing very, very well in Arena.
7. Blessing of Protection, Sacrifice, Salvation and Freedom are all now part of the “Hand” system for Paladins. Like Blessings, these “Hand” spells can only have one instance of each per Paladin. The best part about it is that they are now part of the physical school and thus not dispellable.
8. Sheath of Light, a new Retribution talent, now provides a conversion from Attack Power to Spell Damage.

Although I’m sure the official Paladin forums will be ridden with both sides of its ongoing argument, I believe it should be clear that Retribution Paladins are receiving everything they have asked for and more.

From here, my first order of business is to nail down my DPS rotation given the new ability to use. The DPS cycle should be interesting given the abilities’ respective cooldowns of 6 (Crusader Strike), 8 (Judgment after talents) and 10 (Divine Storm). One thing to note, is that given the aforementioned cooldowns, they will seldom be up at the same time. The lowest common factor of 6, 8 and 10 would be 2 making them equivalent to 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Mathematically, assuming perfect execution, the first time these cooldowns would ever be up at the exact same time is at the 120th second or at the 2 minute mark. Given the talent Sanctified Wrath which reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath (among other things) by 30/60 seconds it then follows that upon execution of a perfect DPS cycle, that Avenging Wrath will also come off cooldown if used to begin the fight. This provides some very interesting possibilities for the Retadin DPS cycle and leads me to believe that the Blizzard developers knew what they were doing when designing this talent tree.

One thing I would also like to note is that currently there is math supporting that putting only 1 point in Improved Judgment actually yields a slight DPS increase given the fact that it makes it such that Judgment is less likely to come off of cooldown at the same time as Crusader Strike. With the DPS cycle mentioned above, however, I would argue that this point will no longer be the case. Here’s why:

If executed perfectly, the WotLK Retadin DPS cycle will yield a MINIMUM of 2 seconds after a GCD-triggereing abiilty is used before the next GCD-triggering ability must be used so long as you put both points in Improved Judgment.

Let’s look a bit closer at the numbers:

What the above shows is the second at which you will use each of the respective abilities during your DPS cycle. I have taken it only to 120 because at that point the cycle begins anew as described previously. What you’ll notice is that the closest any two abilities come to one another is, in fact, 2 seconds which is a half second longer than the global cooldown.

So what about normal weapon attacks then? Certainly you don’t want to be caught auto-attacking without Seal of Blood (or Martyrdom as it may be) present. Let’s assume an attack speed of 3.0 (what my Shivering Felspine attack speed will be exactly once I get all the gear I desire from Sunwell). What follows is a breakdown of the above table with auto-attacks added:

At first glance the above chart may not mean much to you. However, take a closer look. What it’s showing you is that upon a perfect DPS cycle and a 3.0 attack speed, Judgment and a GCD-triggering ability will both come off of cooldown at the exact time of an auto-attack only once in the first minute (at the 48 second mark). It’s at this point you would have a decision to make:

1. Go ahead and judge and then reseal after Divine Storm is used at the 50 minute mark. This will, however, make you miss a second auto-attack with your seal (the 51 second mark)
2. Forget about judging for this cooldown and instead wait until the next cooldown would expire to do so. This will cause you to miss one seal proc (the one in question at the 48 second mark) but will ensure that your DPS cycle continues as normal with all auto-attacks gaining the added benefit of your seal.

After evaluation, it is apparent to me that 2) is the best option. Certainly I’d be forfeiting one Seal of Blood proc but at the expense of ensuring my DPS cycle continues as normal and nothing further is hindered.

That’s all I have time for today. I hope you’ve found this post both informative and helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll respond promptly. Additionally, look for me to update my “A Beginner’s Guide to Raiding as Ret” guide for WotLK some time in September or October.

This is Synovia, taking her leave…