I liked templar at first because big hammer hits hard.
It was what everyone was saying to play. The sims don’t lie.
But I wasn’t satisfied with my dps.
I almost switched to warrior main.
I decided to try herald just messing around.
And I’m doing alot more dps now.
I think I know why.
I got rid of radiant aura and crusade and went back to the 1 minute CD avenging wrath.
Also as satisfying as it is to hit the hammer and see big numbers, it kinda felt like it was throwing a wrench in my rotation even though it’s just one extra button.
I switched to herald and I’m back to topping charts on most fights. Not just AOE.
I know the templars hammer is supposed to be the the better spec, but the change in playstyle was throwing me off.
I have been beating equally geared rets who are spec’d into hammer.
I just wanted to throw this out there for other ret players who might feel the same way as I did. Try herald. no hammer no jank.
+10% (+30% during wings) crit chance to your divine storm and hammer of wrath.
chance hammer of wrath does +200% dmg on any health target
I felt that as well, i didn’t like having to press Wake which is an aoe cone, and then use in AOE Hammer of Light which apparently i likened it to a ST attack, even though it does aoe, i simply didn’t like the feel of pressing it in ST.
Though that feel is probably due to its annoying animation, sound and most of all, delay!
It probably doesn’t feel fluid because of its delay.
In Valdraken at lev 70 in S3 DF pvp gear my Ret using a one button macro with talents picked by someone else did 900k dps in 5 target stacked AOE yesterday for about 30 seconds of combat. I dont even know what it is now at level 74. I can only imagine a passive AoE Hero tree like Herald works well. The nuance of maximizing Templar output including by casting it on CD is a bit of extra work.
Dummies aren’t reliable for testing Templar as, i think it was the small hammers, do not proc on the dummies, unless it’s the tank dummy that attacks back if i remember right.
So i would take any dummy testing for Templar with a grain of hammers.
What matters to me is the level of viability for pvp. An Execution Sentence doing tons of damage to a raid boss doesn’t help to know if it barely tickles a player.
Templar was better because Herald was bugged to hell and back. Now those bugs have been fixed and Herald is very competitive with Templar. Within a few percentages of each other. So play whatever you enjoy the most! I personally prefer Herald myself.
I think Herald is still behind in ST but ahead in AoE.
Templar doesn’t look good on the target dummies because Hammerfall doesn’t work on them. Which loses a lot of damage from the empyran hammers and slows down Lights Deliverance considerably.
The difference when simming between Herald and Templar is really small, i think i was simming 724k Templar and 721k Herald yesterday, so the difference is 0.42% dps which can be overcome by rng or by playing better anyway.
I don’t have good enchants or high end leg patch, or even any gems, i saw some 800k sims, albeit 4 ilvls higher, i’m just 589ilvl, so the difference may be greater with the good stuff on, but still.
And i heard that the tier set buffs are better for Herald than Templar, so it’ll likely go ahead in the end.
It’s sad eh? When I see a templar come up to me in pvp I smile and cackle. I out heal everything they push out on me. I don’t even break a sweat anymore with paladins. Now a good rogue, or warrior? I’m crying.
I also prefer Herald over Templar and am very happy that the bug fixes have made them competitive so people can pick which they prefer.
HoL costing five HP just feels like a speedbump in the rotation to me. Herald costs nothing and awards a Divine Purpose proc. Even if Dawnlights & Co do less damage than Hammer Time you have to factor in that its plus eight HP every thirty seconds.
It makes Herald feel so much smoother to me. Run towards a mob and hit Judgement as you’re going in (or DT if its up), hit Wake with RG/Wings, and then fire off three FVs in a row (four if you get a natural DP proc). I like it a lot.
Even the occasional HoW nuke proc feels great, and positioning the Sun’s Avatar lines is a fun little minigame.
I tried Herald because the updated WoWHead guides recommend it now and wow is it fun and productive. You don’t even have tab target Dawnlight. Divine Storm randomly puts it on a target that doesn’t have it. Wake of Ashes applies 4 of them.
