Sanctuary is very useful during progression fights on raid wide dmg boss encounters in all raid instances - Vael/Firemaw/Flamegor in BWL, pretty much all bosses in AQ40 and numerous bosses in Naxx with Thaddius and Loatheb being the most obvious
it’s a flat dmg reduction across the board and can be put on all 40 players - it’s one of the most underrated spells/abilities in the game as the damage reduction really adds up over long boss fight encounters for all 40 players
yes i know that but it proves my point that Holy Paladins would never swing it other than for Loatheb
but a way to combine both Blessing of Sanctuary + Nightfall is to have one Paladin be the AoE tank guy with BoSanc and then swing Nightfall the rest of the time in order to get the best of both worlds
I did that for a year in a guild back on Anathema and it was great all around.
You can just have a couple warriors with nightfall and rotate off who uses it when and it’ll be better uptime than a ret paladin or enhance shaman. This is something you know and also blessings can be done by hpals
Nightfall min/maxing isn’t worth it anyways. That uptime only works on a few fights. Most fights aren’t patchwork tank and spanks. Let an OT swing it when they aren’t needed and be done with it, a dedicated NF swinger is a waste of a raid spot. You are making one fight easier and two fights harder.
Plus anyone who tells you they’ll swing nightfall forever for your raid will eventually quit or just stop playing. NOBODY wants to just be a nightfall bot. But this the pill no one wants to swallow. Kind of like enhancement shamans who will “swing it forever” then find out later it’s actually the most awful weapon for damage.
A ret pally who can play to their protentional and able to utilize their spell kit to the fullest extent and give the advantage to the a raid group is very much wanted. However a ret pally who wants to nothing more than just pew pew dps dps and nothing more youll be hard pressed to find any serious guild doesn’t have to be hardcore just any guild looking to do progression. Your pure dps is below other melee like rogue or warrior and holy pallies come with the same kit and heal. A ret pally is a the pure definition of hybrid and most raids what you to bring your hybrid utility if your unwilling to do anything but pew pew your gonna have a hard time unless your just trying to be a casual social type guild.
Play Ret join a casual raiding guild enjoy yourself so long as you don’t mind not being Pure DPS but a support role that DPS’s and provides utility all around.
If that’s how you want to play and have fun please do, don’t let anyone here discourage you from doing that.