- IT REPRESENTS TRULY BAD DESIGN
Mechanic-wise, the ability is utterly atrocious. In terms of closing gaps, it can only work when your opponent is a fool because it can be instantly nullified with any form of CC. You have to use HoF just to make what is supposed to allow us to close gaps even work, meaning we are using two CDs just to make one of them work as intended.
Even if we do waste HoF for this purpose, as stated it can still be nullified by any other form of CC such as Stuns, Fears etc. And this is just the mechanical faults plaguing the ability, we havenât even touched on the terrain issues it can cause by making the Paladin too big to fit in certain doorways, getting caught on low hanging branches etc.
And finally, a 45 second CD for 3 seconds of easily nullified speed is frankly a joke. Itâs far too long for too little an effect and there are no tools or talents that allow Paladins to improve this toolâs effectiveness in any way short of just adding another charge which doesnât fix any of the many deep seated problems it has.
No matter how you cut it, this ability just does not work for the role it is supposed to play nor does so efficiently.
- ITâS A BANDAID FOR AN ARTERIAL WOUND
This ability was introduced at a point when Retributionâs mobility had been gutted as it had never been before and consequently tried to fill in all their shoes when it was clearly an impossible task when it couldnât even fill one properly.
PoJ, LAotL, SoLâŠall these mobility tools were thrown out which meant no more consistent or passive speed boosts for Retribution, a spec that was already notoriously derided as the âwheelchairâ for being so slow and relatively simple to kite.
Performance-wise, we were relegated to the same slow juggernaut playstyle as Death Knights. Problem is, we didnât have the mobility tools or offensive utility to properly work that way.
With passive speed boosts, passive utility to prevent them from being slowed below certain speeds and an instant gap closer in the form of Death Grip, Death Knights can make this playstyle work well because they were DESIGNED to work that way. Retribution, on the other hand, wasnât.
ALL our speed is tied to one terribly designed CD that any half way decent player knows how to easily counter and subsequently leave Retribution a sitting duck forced to chase after people at normal speed for a not insignificant amount of time. No other melee DPS has this kind of obvious and crippling weakness, why?
Divine Steed was just tossed in the mix to try to make up for probably the biggest mobility nerf in our specâs history and it canât even do its one job properly without wasting another major CD to make it work.
- THIS IS NOT OUR CLASS FANTASY
You want to know what MY class fantasy is? Soaring through the air to cleave Frostmourne in two just like a REAL Retribution Paladin like Tirion Fordring and countless other Paladin NPCs that keep being able to do what the actual playable class has always wanted but never gets.
It NEVER involved mounting a smelly horse and painting a giant bullseye on myself to other players that practically screams âHEY EVERYONE IâM TRYING TO MOVE FAST, SNARE ME NOW!â
With all due respect, I think Divine Steed represents what the developers think is the Paladin class fantasy, not that of the people who actually play the class itself. I can count on one hand the number of Paladins Iâve met who actually enjoy this ability instead of fervently praying it is put down and replaced with something that actually works.
SUMMARY
The CD is too atrociously long, the duration is too short, itâs too easily nullified, the increased size causes terrain issues that can get you stuck at inopportune moments, it is simply trying to do too many jobs when it canât even do one right and just doesnât fit the class fantasy of the playerbase.
Boring, clunky, and horribly inefficient.
SOLUTION
Give the spec what it has always wanted and what you, the developers, have acknowledged it has always needed when you first tried to implement Turalyonâs Might: an instant gap closer.
You could just use Fordringâs Leap animation since it is unique and recognizable as distinctly Paladin and either use the Cavalier talent slot to give it two charges or lower the CD to something that would allow Retribution to stick to their opponents relatively consistently while taking into account the time in between uses of HoF so it canât be so easily exploited for kiting.
Deep down, I think in their hearts the developers know this is what needs to happen to make the spec truly complete. As stated earlier, the very fact that they tried albeit briefly to make something like Turalyonâs Might work was an open acknowledgment that they knew Retribution needed a standardized form of gap closing to work properly and be truly competitive.
So I implore the developersâŠplease get rid of this bloated abomination and take the plunge for instant gap closing. Commit to it and make it work, I know they can do it.
