Nonexistent, I assume. Who would play Ret? LOL!
Key word is âusedâ to be. Prior to patch 1.9 SoC procced 42% less (the extra attack was stronger which basically made it a wash in the dps department), JoC was a dumb âdoes damage when the target is stunned and doesnât scale her der,â 1.7 added hammer of wrath which is really nice.
In patch 1.12 Ret will not be falling behind in dungeon groups at all, Iâd say they are preferable over a rogue any day of the week. Where they really fall behind is the raids where you have every consumable and buff known to man as rogues and warriors scale much better due to attack speed increasing capabilities and DW. If Paladin could DW you would find the dps outcome slightly less than rogues on the high end and in MC being slightly less than the top warriorâs dps. If your raid isnât going to be world buffing, ret would still be behind but you are able to fill a utility role that your warriors and rogues arenât. Not to mention paladin tier gear has to go somewhere, disenchanters are more evil than goblins in spandex selling you beach front property in thousand needles.
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You are a support character. That said, 1.12 gives you all the tools to dps group content as well as warriors and rogues. I want to warn you that probably 30% of your groups you are going to want to pool your mana to back up heal at a moments notice. Properly handing out buffs is important, donât take it lightly.
As for solo content, your dps will match a warriorâs but with much less downtime. SoC is automated so it feels less active, but you are still doing just as much with more leeway for other things as you want or need.
no, ret paladins are pretty good at solo content. You level slowly and you wonât be soloing elite quests (at least not easily), but you should be able to stay alive pretty easily against regular mobs.
this is often debated, but the general consensus is no, basically every other class outperforms them, but thatâs really just looking at dps, when in reality a ret (or just a paladin in general) brings a lot more than just raw damage.
they CAN be middle of the road in dps but they have to basically put out 3x the effort as most specs that are considered good.
Usually when people say this it is for raids. For group content they are nearly as good as a 2h warrior when able to focus on the role.
Go lock instead. Free Mount, and you can actually farm instead of being Ret.
Ret Pallies in Vanilla are the worst that ret pallies have been in the history of the game.
People will make jokes at your expense if you want to dps as a ret pally. Thatâs how bad they are.
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well for dungeons I assume pretty much every spec is viable
but yeah, I was thinking in terms of raids, OP was probably asking about dungeons.
This is fact btw. Itâs an absolute meme, until like AQ40 gear at least.
You can get better dps and survivability out of prot spec imo, ret is ok from 20-40 but after that its pretty meh
The leveling is soâŚsoâŚsoâŚslllooooww.
Getting to 60 is like pulling teeth. Itâs not because you die a lot (relatively speaking). Itâs because the rotation is very slow and painfully boring in grinding situations.
Having said that, if you fully embrace the âsupport playerâ role that paladins play, you can be a god in PvP and do incredibly worthwhile healing with light dps in PvE. You can off-tank pretty well if you work it right (we had pally OTs in Vanilla, and paladins were competent to tank most 5-mans if specâd correctly for it).
Pallys have options, but they have to know going in what choosing a âhybridâ class really means for endgame.
Ok thanks guys for all the answers, this is why I started this topic was to get a general idea what to expect, and yes I didnât intend to take the class any further than regular dungeons, I just mainly wanted a class to level and farm with, do dungeons and some pvp with it, no min/maxing or trying to be elite in any way
The class still interests me but I intend to maybe make one down the road. For Classic launch its gonna be day 1 Mage, and couple weeks later Rogue. I usually play mmos in 3s, meaning I rotate 3 characters to prevent boredom but I can settle on 1 for long periods of time. I may just end up a druid or priest for my 3rd character not sure yet but I appreciate all the feedback.
Pretty terrible, but if they get lucky on procs they can global people once in a while.
Play what you like. If you hit 60 and arenât happy, re spec or roll a new toon. Form your own opinion.
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If you play a ret pally in Classic, you will get your face melted.
They are good classes, ret is the leveling spec, but youâll go holy at 60 as ret isnât wanted in raid, and pally tanks are sub part in raid.
But they are by far the best single target healers
With that said, as long as u macro for /sit and follow a few guides they can be cheesed into one of the best dps/ farm builds.
But it is sort of an exploit
Very cheesy
Ret is a lot of fun. There are a lot of naysayers out there. Playing one ârightâ wonât mean high dps⌠Being aware of those around you is key - tossing heals when needed, BoP the healer, LoH the tank, BoF on someone snared in fire⌠Etc.
Leveling can be a challenge. Caster packs, densely packed mobs and mobs that run will be difficult. Especially earlier on.
You wonât be a top pick for a lot of raids, but there are 39 others. Good groups will appreciate the utility.
PvP can also be a blast!
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Oh man. Itâs funny seeing the same bs repeated here that you see on Reddit from people who have NEVER set foot in Vanilla. These people read the posts and comments made by the private server community with their min/max mentality and then proceed to tell you how theyâre correct.
People chose a CLASS to play, not a single Specialization. A Paladin player was a PALADIN first.
There were a lot of Paladin players who played as Retribution back in the day and they were fine in raids. Guilds did not bring Ret Pallies for their damage. First and foremost, Paladin is a support class and as such, they are not meant to top DPS charts. Their utility spells can save raids from wipes. They were brought for their blessings and auras. Yes, Holy Paladins were able to provide the same buffs but not every Paladin was Holy in Vanilla. This is a fact. Ret Pallies started to shine once you got to undead Raids and dungeons, Scholomance or Naxx for example.
Most good guilds had several Ret Pallies in the guild who swapped between Holy and Ret depending on their raid composition and raid fights.
The spec is âridiculedâ by the private server crowd who believe only Warriors can tank and only Priests can heal. Any sane player should avoid this toxic group of neck beards if they want to play the game for what it is.
I have a feeling this time around weâll be seeing a lot of Paladins and Druids in different roles.
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Every class is fine for leveling and having fun.
Ret is a lot of auto attacking so if you find that fun it will be a good fit.
They are kind of a joke at end game, providing nothing useful a holy paladin doesnt also bring and like 80% less damage than the ârealâ dps classes.
The build feels very different when fighting undead or demons. It actually feels like a full kit at that point. You have buttons to press. Cooldowns to watch. Itâll make you sad whenever you go back to regular enemies 
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