They don’t start feeling that off until you hit about level 38, their abilities are pretty strong until about that level. Then it’s a real struggle. I think it’s a scaling issue tbh.
Then rets aren’t really meant to be a main dps though, and I think they were more meant as a support class. For instance, blessing of wisdom → that is an insanely strong buff for casters. Devotion aura - you just gave everyone a massive increase in armor and makes it way easier to heal in dungeons/raids. This is the direction that hybrids should have always taken.
Seal of light for instance is SO FRIKIN cool dude. I feel that the pally should have been directed more to this type of playstyle rather than just another derp-dps character.
Unfortunately, those raid-wide type of benefits aren’t really appreciated.
Maybe if the paladin had better talents that buffed things like seal of light and the like a bit more.
Take sanctity aura for instance, would be a massively cool thing but uh, the only holy damage is coming from the paladin. If they made sanc aura +10% damage and HEALING, rather than just damage that might be a reason to bring a ret paladin. Like a boomkin with their 5% crit increase, still… it’s not even enough.
Vindication - what?! I can reduce the targets strength and agility by 15% on an auto attack? That’s insane dude, like that is so ridiculous. Unforch it doesn’t really apply to raiding so…