A “Bright” Future for Shockadins?
With WotLK being tentatively slotted for a November release, it’s easy to get overly excited about the possibilities. However, something in particular caught my attention today as I was browsing through the Beta talent calculator over at www.wowhead.com: Are Holy Paladins to be limited to back of the raid healbotting? After some deliberation and placement of talent points, I’m inclined to state that it certainly seems as though this time around Blizzard has opened the proverbial doors for a large variety of Paladin playstyles: the Shockadin being one of them.
Now while I won’t at all claim a Shockadin now or even then to have any kind of raid viability, as of the present I am extremely confident as to their effectiveness in PvP. Let me share with you my thoughts on just why I believe what I do.
As of present, the Shockadin arsenal requires the expenditure of talent points to retrieve all of the following:
- 1/1 Sanctity Aura (Retribution)
- 1/1 Holy Shock (Holy)
- 5/5 Holy Guidance (Holy)
- 5/5 Improved Seal of Righteousness (Holy)
- 5/5 Divine Intellect (Holy)
- 3/3 Crusade (Retribution)
Now we can all agree the list above, although comprised of “essential” Shockadin talents, is lengthy. They are required as such due to the nature of the spec. It is unarguable that each of these talents directly affects the damage output of the build but what’s more is that although WotLK is removing the first altogether (Sanctity Aura), it is providing not just one replacement to increase DPS but several.
At this time, I would like to draw your attention to the following build:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sEA0xhzGVzMxkZZVbhxbczh
The list above now receives the following additions:
- 3/3 Healing Light (Holy)
- This talent currently only increases the healing done by Flash of Light and Holy light by 4/8/12%. As of WotLK it will still do this but it will additionally increase the effectiveness of your Holy Shock spell by 4/8/12% as well.
- 5/5 Conviction (Retribution)
- As of today, this talent only increases your melee critical strike chance by 1/2/3/4/5%. With WotLK, it will also increase your spell critical strike chance by 1/2/3/4/5%
- 3/3 Sheath of Light
- This new talent increases your Spell Power by 10/20/30% of your attack power and puts a HoT on your heal targets any time your crit them with a heal.
- 1/1 Sanctified Retribution
- Allows for 2% flat damage increase by anyone affected by Retribution Aura. This essentially replaces Improved Sanctity Aura directly.
So we’ve lost the flat 10% damage increase to Holy spells granted by Sanctity Aura but in return we’ve gained the above four sources of extra damage on our Holy Shocks. Let’s see how this all breaks down in WotLK terms.
For this demonstration, I’m going to make a floored assumption that my statistics on my Holy Paladin, in her Holy gear, will remain unchanged at level 80. The only difference I”m assuming is the acquisition of 10 more talent points to spend within the WotLK talent trees. I makes these assumptions for simplicity in calculation and also so I can use real numbers taken directly from my Holy Paladin.
The coefficient used for instant cast damaging spells is 42.86%. Although Blizzard has noted that coefficients are being adjusted for healing spells given the removal of +healing gear and the introduction of spell power, the damage coefficients will remain in tact as no change is needed.
Holy Shock, at level 80, does a base range of damage beginning at 967 and ending at 1047. From here, we would first apply our +damage (or Spell Power) at rate consistent with the above coefficient of 42.86%. For my Holy Paladin, this is done as follows:
- 1047 + (740 spell damage * .4286) = 1365
However, we know that Sheath of Light will yield an addition Spell Power value of 30% of my attack power. At first consideration this many seem negligible but even someone completely naked has an attack power granted by their level alone. For example, my Holy Paladin’s level 70 attack power, while garbed in full Holy PvP gear is actually 436. Taking this into account we have the following base damage instead:
- 1047 + (740 + (436 * .3) * .4286) = 1421
With the base damage calculation completed, we now turn to talents for any further benefit to the spell. The order of application for these talents is irrelevant so we’ll begin arbitrarily with Healing Light which adds 12% effectiveness to Holy Shock:
- 1421 * 1.12 = 1592
Next, we account for Sanctified Retribution:
- 1592 * 1.02 = 1624
Lastly, we consider Crusade:
- 1624 * 1.03 = 1673
As we can see, our basetop-end damage on Holy Shock, in level 70 Holy (not even spell damage gear) PvP gear and without any additional stats (that will obviously be accumulated on our way to 80) is 1624. Now, let’s add the icing on our delicious cake by applying Avenging Wrath:
- 1673 * 1.20 = 2008
Now the fun begins. Spell critical strikes deal 150% damage after damage-increasing calculation has concluded. Given a top-end of 2008 damage as calculated above, let’s assume either a straight away critical strike or use of Divine Favor to yield one:
- 2008 * 1.50 = 3012
Please remind yourself that all these calculations were done off the statistics present for my level 70 Holy Paladin in healing(Ornamented) PvP gear. Most Shockadins presently in World of Warcraft float around 1200 spell damage and not my awe-devoid 740. Let’s make one last assumption, shall we? Let’s assume, on what I would consider to be the far low end of the potential spectrum, that a level 80 Shockadin has 500 attack power and 1600 spell damage. Using these new numbers, let’s run through the calculation one last time:
- 1047 + (1600 * .4286) = 1733 (base spell damage including Sheath of Light)
- 1733 * 1.12 = 1941 (Healing Light)
- 1941 * 1.02 = 1980 (Sanctified Retribution)
- 1980 * 1.03 = 2040 (Crusade)
- 2040 * 1.20 = 2448 (Avenging Wrath)
- 2448 * 1.50 = 3672 (Critical Strike)
As you can see, even low-balling the potential spell damage of a level 80 Shockadin immensely still leads us to near 4000+ damage Holy Shocks. I would argue that it won’t be uncommon for Shockadins, with proper buffs to be capable of putting out 5000+ damage Holy Shocks in PvP.
So what are the possibilities? You tell me. Seemingly, they are endless as already at level 70 the Shockadin has proven his worth in 2v2 arena by bursting down topped-off Warriors with 13K HP in 3 seconds. Perhaps Blizzard saw this video as well and realized the potential for a very fun aspect to the Paladin game play. We can only wait and see.
This is Synovia, taking her leave.
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Shaun said,
August 6, 2008 at 2:19 am
The thing is… we’re all forgetting easily the most amazing part…..
6 second cool down versus the current 15.
in a 90 second arena match, thats 15 holy shocks versus the current 6…… 2.5 x damage increase with that alone.
I just wish they hadn’t made judgements based off ranged instead of spell….. :(
Synovia said,
August 6, 2008 at 4:40 am
True enough, Shaun, but the viability of Shockadins even in today’s arena lies in the ability to burst someone down all at once. So yes, while a 6 second cooldown provides greater sustained DPS, it doesn’t necessarily lead to greater burst.
Good observation though and it is something I should have mentioned in the post.
J said,
August 6, 2008 at 10:47 am
In essence, the new Shockadin now gets to chain Holy Shock, Judgement of Righteousness with Justice, Shield of Righteousness, then Hammer of Wrath (assuming that the burst damage will bring it down to HoW range) right away, and back to the rotation if the target is not dead.
0.0 - Holy Shock
1.5 - Judgement
3.0 - Shield of Righteousness
4.5 - Hammer of Wrath
6.0 - Holy Shock
7.5 - Hammer of Righteousness
9.0 - Judgement
10.5 - Hammer of Wrath
So yes they indeed look very promising. With shield that makes them super hard to kill, and instant heals that keep them alive all the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if Shockadins dominate the upcoming PVP scenes at all.
Drakomakis said,
August 6, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Very nice post synovia, all in all i agree, just wanted to make a few points here and there:
1. now i dont have a beta account and cant test this, but seeing as the healing and damaging aspects of holy shock are different spells (notice that it will have a 40 range for healing as all healing spells and the already existent 20 range for damage, and also the different healing and damage values) i would expect the healing light 12% bonus to only apply on the healing aspect of the spell, although i have to admit the wording on the talent (it says “effectiveness”, not “healing” as it does for fol and hl) is promising and it might in fact turn out u are right
2.http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sEA0xhzGVzMxkZZVbhxbczh
This is a build i just made focused on maximizing damage. it lacks some of the healing efectiveness of the build u posted (none of that nice instant hls) but otherwise should provide a greater dmg output due to vengeance being included. With holy shock cd down to 6 secs 3/3 vengenace should be up in no time. This build misses also misses divine illumination for the simple reason that i always forget to use it (hehe, noob pala) and unfortunately the extremely nice improved concentration aura, which is a must for arena, but cannot be used in conjunction with ret aura that increases dmg. I’d say that a shockadin teaming with someone else would probably follow your buld, but a team of 2 shockadins would benefit most by one having your build and one mine.
Notice also that there is a point missing from my build, which can be used in various talents depending on play style. eg enlightened judgement to increase judgement range to holy shock level, judgements of teh wise to achive some sort of mana regen, since shockadin dmg is pretty mana heavy (especially since they have increased holy shock mana cost in a recent patch and also made the cd twice as fast), repentance for another cc ability or interrupt, or sanctified seals for the extra 1% crit and 33% undispellable seals (since u cant really judge if u get your seal purged/ dispelled)
well, these r my thoughts, awaiting feedback from all u palas out there
Drakomakis said,
August 6, 2008 at 3:03 pm
plz ignore previous build, i linked to synovias built by mistake, try this link and lets hope i dont fail again hehe
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sEA0×0zGVz0xZZVfzxbczA
Henri said,
August 6, 2008 at 5:50 pm
you are forgetting the nerfs too spellcoifs for other spells. Shockadins will be dead
Proudfoot said,
August 6, 2008 at 9:49 pm
What nerfs to spell co-efs? from everything I’ve seen our spells have gotten stronger not weaker.
Synovia said,
August 6, 2008 at 11:18 pm
To Drakomakis:
Excellent points. I have verified that “effectiveness” does indeed include the damage portion of the spell. I agree 100% with you that dual Shockadins would most benefit from running with one of each of our proposed specs. This would provide the greatest synergy - as you pointed out.
To Henri:
Please pardon but I think you may be confused on the change from +damage and healing/+healing to simply Spell Power. With WotLK, there is no longer and +healing or +damage and healing. All “spell effectiveness” is gained via Spell Power. Spell Power will essentially line up with the currently existing +damage and healing attribute. To make up for the fact that +healing no longer exists, any healing spells have had their base healing range increased to compensate. No changes to coefficients have been proposed with respect to damaging spell (like the offensive use of Holy Shock which is still 42.86%).
Rewind said,
August 7, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Actually, in my test Shock build I went with 5/5 improved blessing of might. @ Rank 10 wowhead puts it at 350+ AP. With improved, that goes up 350*1.5 = 525. With BoM up, that is also +157~ spell power, just for showing up, not including gear.
Synovia said,
August 7, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Good point, Rewind. Since Sheath of Light pulls from attack power you can really add to your spell damage with Imp BoM.
lolretpally said,
August 11, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Ya hopefully i can stay shock in my already 4/5 venggear…. i want to knowmore about this spellpower dealsynovia? will a separate more “spellpower” set be available to shockadins? Or are all holy paladins going to be shock?
Synovia said,
August 13, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I apologize for the delayed response.
Blizzard has gone on record stating that a goal of theirs with WotLK is to ease the necessity of multiple sets of gear for various talent specs. One way they are doing this is by removing “+healing” and “+damage and healing” altogether and replacing both simultaneously with “Spell Power”.
Essentially, you are correct in saying that Healadins and Shockadins will both be wearing very similar (if not identical) gear, with the lone difference between the two Paladin being a combination of their playstyle and actual talents taken.
TLDR: Shockadins and Healadins will probably wear the same gear.
Henri said,
September 6, 2008 at 10:37 am
Concecration will get a big blow going from 95 percent to 40ish percent, btu this is more a blow in bg pvp i guess..
Judge of the wise nerf hits duo shockadin pvp possibility’s alot now, I was just drooling over the possibility’s at first :P (neverending bursting instant healing mana batery’s with repentance is teh shiznitt)
Templeten said,
November 4, 2008 at 12:30 am
just wanted to say thanks for the new information, and it looks to me like all your information is on track. Great Job!!!
dwaede said,
November 4, 2008 at 3:05 am
LMFAO, you are a little late templeten.
All this info is false now. None of the tactics thought of before would work like planned with the nerfs made recently.
Currently tanking is about all a pally can expect to do well unless they make these changes they are promising since we can’t burst anymore.
Templeten said,
November 5, 2008 at 2:23 pm
so u think it would still be better to just make my pally a death knight then??? cas i love pvp and raiding but i wanted to respec my pally right since all the patch’s and with the new talents i didn’t know wat to use em on…