I often hear it’s a love it or hate it spec.
Well, yeah? It really depends, but I will say this, it has seen better days. Right now I can’t say either the class fantasy nor the gameplay is hitting the sweat spot for me. It still is the random down-time which is really annoying and being a melee DPS with almost no mobility, ranged attacks, or gap-closers, yeah, it can get pretty frustrating.
OBS: Crusade is pretty fun though.
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Seen better days alright, WoD Ret was best. That said there are somethings I do like. Blade of Justice is a nice change over Exorcism, both visually and in function. Shield of Vengeance is also a nice addition, though I wish its CD was a little shorter. And Wake of Ashes, looks good and suits the paladin fantasy.
Things I miss from previous expacs are, Final Verdict(the WoD version) I enjoyed the extra range it gave Templar’s Verdict and its visual. Pursuit of Justice, which frankly currret ret could do with having again. And Eternal Flame, which would be easily better than some of the current options ret currently has.
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Though there is a thread on the PTR forum stating that ret’s core design is fine (even without talents and azerite).
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/spec-re-invention-who-needs-it-and-who-doesnt/157172
Ridiculous. I hope no devs sees it and takes it seriously.
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seems there is a lot of division in the topic.
Welcome to the internet, I’ll be taking your coat now.
Although anecdotal, I know not a single ret (who played back then) who doesn’t state that WoD ret was lot better than Legion or BfA ret. So I think there is something to the narrative.
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Why is that though?
Slightly better mobility (almost a PvP-only problem), more range attacks (Judgment had a shorter cooldown, Exo was 30yd, Hammer of Wrath was a baseline ability), better defensive (Divine Protection), perks (Empowered Divine Storm), seals and first and foremost: better talents. LAotL comes to mind, Clemency, Sanctified Wrath, old Execution Sentence, Hammer of Light, Final Verdict…I’m sure I’m missing a lot.
Now that I type all those things I miss them even more.:-/
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it depends, there isn’t so much problem with PVE. Paladin is a bit above in Middle of The pack in DPS. You will feel terrible until you get 18-22% Haste. Once you get enough haste you will really enjoy it. It does not feels boring like DH/DK/Warrior. In PVP ret has Mobility issues. If you get used to it, you can smack down anyone during wings period ( Paladin brust is Really Really Strong).
So you played all those other classes? and you enjoy paladins dps spec the most?
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Depends on your definition of fun?
A large bulk of current WoW players equate raid/PvE performance with fun. That’s not my definition tho. As a long time WoW player, and MMO player, I find the class so freaking hollow rn. There are times when I’m watching my character stand around stupidly, or slowly swing his weapon autoattacking because everything else is on CD or I am GCD locked.
I have never played a class, or game such as this where I am stupidly staring at the screen.
This post isn’t a knock on pallies, specifically. Just that BFA is dreadful in class design. If you think otherwise, no disrespect, but you haven’t played a good WoW expansion or even a mediocre one.
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Thank you for everyones diverse input.
My main is DH, but its two button rotations is so boring i don’t play it much, but as a class its really powerful for M+ and Raids. DK and Warrior is Ok , but feels like the Damages is not there like a Paladin. So i switched to Blood and Prot and its really enjoying. What i like paladin most is, Big Templer Verdict damage. During wings the first TV always crit, my TV crit around 70k with my on use trinket and wings. Also in reaping mobs you will see your dps skyrocketed. And if you are bored with Ret, you can switch to Holy or Prot.
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Yea, that’s still a big problem…you either can’t press buttons fast enough at times or you stand there watching your abilities coming off of cooldown. It plays like a studdering engine. Was my biggest gripe since alpha. Here’s hoping that some of the new essences fix this somehow and that they redesign the spec next expac. Something like better haste scaling or reduced baseline cooldowns of abilities (CS and Judgment specifically).
Silly me used my level 110 boost on my pally alt thinking I’d have a lot of fun. Like others have said it sucks not having an ability to use sometimes. If you don’t get lucky with some procs, you can be waiting a bit for the nexy ability to come off cooldown.
The rotation is fun at times but not as much for other classes I’ve played and enjoy more like hunter and shaman. Gap closers is very noticeable as are tools to escape, this makes pvp tough. Not having at least one on demand ranged ability is a pain if your judgement or whatever the baseline ability is called is on cooldown.
Damage is ok, survivability is great as far as questing and pve. To me the pve rotation just seems wonky and too random. I have played enhance shaman and fury warrior, SV hunter, they have a lot of randomness too, but ret just feels awkward more than other classes.
One of the biggest letdowns I’ve found is how seemingly blah and boring most pally gear is for transmog. They have some holyish type pieces but not as much as I expected. Lot of really ugly and weird designs aa well, not sure what Blizz was thinking with some of models. Some ok pieces sets but nothing that blows my mind like other classes have. Also seems like the transmog gear from content you can solo is some of the ugliest of all classes.
At this point think im just playing the character mainly due to using my 110 boost. At 113 now getting bored and lack of cool transmog gear is really killing my enthusiasm.
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I agree with everything except for the removal of Exorcism, i found it to feel much better when looking at your character cast it, and the SOUND was just so nice. Also dont forget that exorcism was a 30y range rather than the now 15y and could be spammed. Spamming was especially nice for low level content that has you kill ranged enemies. Overall Exorcism was much better in function and i want it back.
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I myself don’t have any downtime on abilities. There is always something to press be it hoj, cs, empyrean strike, blade of justice, judgement…
Surprising how this is a common back and forth, some say a lot of downtime, some say there is always something to do.
For PvE it can be fun. How much you want to do has a lot to do with gear (proc traits), talents (DP/Crusade/Inquisition) and how much haste you plan on getting.
For PvP it can be a lot of fun or a lot of frustration. Honestly the only real issue is mobility. There are far too many ranged snares with little to no cooldown, couple that with our longer CD gap closers, which one is able to be dispelled and the other can be snared (rendering it completely useless) or rooted, it’s easy to see how badly rets can be completely shut down.
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