This isn’t a tuning thread, as Ret could use a relatively small tuning pass and the spec tree isn’t perfect (as mentioned in a wowhead article), but I wanted to point out many of the spec tree’s strengths that I wish were better reflected in other talent trees.
Leveling Feels Good
Having leveled multiple toons to 70, even on repeat classes (4 monks, 3 paladins, 3 warriors, 3 hunters, etc), none of them feel as rewarding to level up as a Retribution Paladin. Almost every talent costs only 1 point, and almost all of them have a meaningful impact on gameplay. The talents are spread out brilliantly throughout the tree so that you can pick one up with practically every (odd) level.
Players are given enough of a basic rotation to comfortably work with at level 10 (more-so by level 13 when both Blade of Justice and Divine Storm are unlocked), but the gameplay only gets more dynamic and interesting from there.
It also helps that there are options to make soloing easier, such as picking up Light’s Celerity and Shield of Vengeance early on in the tree.
Many of the Talents are Genuinely Interesting
Its very rare to encounter talents in the Ret Spec Tree that do nothing more than a straightforward increase to something like damage or healing done (which often become moot anyway in consideration of the lazy aura modifiers that Blizzard has lazily slapped onto every class/spec as a means to quickly balance under/over-performers). They add range, or proc chances, or AoE, or charges, or a number of other changes that have a meaningful impact on gameplay. It’s fun to experiment and explore.
Pathing Through The Tree Feels Good
Lots of 1-point talents, lots of choice talents, lots of good talents, and lots of paths that make it easy to move back and forth across the tree help the Ret Spec Tree feel really good to engage with. You can pick up ALMOST everything you want without feeling like you’re missing out on half of the talent tree, which is a really good spot to be in. It’s just the right amount of decision tension to keep it interesting. The number of situationally viable talent builds is pretty high, generally as a result of how much the talent tree allows players to tune toward single-target or multi-target damage profiles along with a choice of equally viable primary filler abilities.
What Other Spec Trees Feel This Good?
I’d say the Warrior Spec trees come pretty close, primarily due to a plethora of 1-point nodes and generous pathing options.
Most spec trees and toolkits hand you just about everything you need early on, then offer little more than levers to increase the numerical output of certain abilities that already exist within your toolkit. Not many offer an option like the Monk’s “Teachings of the Monastery” which provides a new and unique interaction for existing abilities that isn’t tuned poorly (which causes a lot of talent options to become moot).
The Paladin class in general has a boatload of baseline abilities and options in its class tree which provide a healthy support for its Spec trees to pursue interesting talents and options. Again, the Warrior kit and class tree do a decent job of this as well, but it lacks the optional variety and versatility made available to Paladins and Ret Paladins.
Those are my thoughts. Sorry for critting you with a wall of text, and thanks for reading.