Retribution Paladin Conduit Build Discussion

Classes Paladin
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Hello fellow Retardins~ So, I’ve been messing around with Soulbind/Conduit combinations for like hours. A lot of Ret’s answers to mobility and survivability lies in these borrowed power systems, but— they’re there.

Links:
Wowhead Conduit Calculator
Paladin Conduits
Ret Talents

This is the current build that I’m looking at using, it seems to somewhat address mobility and survivability, but I still need to look more closely at the other covenants.

Across all soulbinds, I will be choosing the same 2 potency, 1 endurance, and 1 finesse conduits, because they’re all really good:

Divine Call + Unbreakable Spirit can potentially reduce your Divine Shield CD to like 2.5 minutes! Wrench Evil buffs our returning fear ability Turn Evil (Read description is says humanoids). Virtuous Command and The Long Summer is just consistent DPS. I considered some other potency talents, but these seem to be the best damage to buff us outside of our burst windows.

Soulshape I think is the best mobility choice for Ret Paladins, which is why I’m choosing Night Fae, and there are two builds that I can see being viable. The one I quoted above is for the Korayn soulbind, and it gives:

• A charge+stun as an opener if you can get it off before combat starts
• 2% damage reduction
• and a conditional passive speed boost.

The big reason I’m choosing Korayn is for that passive speed boost, BUT I can also see Niya being really strong too:

• Run Without Tiring (thicc heal)
• Niya’s Tools: Burrs (%chance slow)
• Swift Patrol (blah)
• Grove Invigoration (+max health & mastery)

Idk. Looking at Niya more and more, I kind of am becoming more partial to Run Without Tiring, since we can’t use Wild Hunt’s Charge inside combat— so against stealth classes it’s going to be a dead pick. What do you guys think?

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For PvP, I would just like to state that I do not think Night Fae will be the best covenant.

I think lacking mobility is not fun, and a video game should be fun. - This is a problem.

However, just gaining 1 mobility button isn’t going to solve the other glaring issues with the spec, which can be seen with Ripple in Space Essence on live.

Most paladins do not go Ripple in Space Major, even tho it’s mobility and that’s what they truely lack.

Snares, stuns, and survivibility are also huge issues to paladins, getting the fox movement isn’t going to solve these issues.

Keep that in mind, we may double down on “what does the most damage” because that’s all we got.

(IE: Necrolord and Vanquisher’s Hammer)

With that said, for Night Fae, I think Dreamweave is a terrible soulbind and will probably be the last pick of the 3.

Overall, Korayn is the best choice.

  • Wild Hunt’s Charge - Charge + 5 second stun.
  • Echoing Blessing - BoF buff
  • Shield Word - WoG buff with Healing Hands talent
  • Face your Foes - Slight survival buff
  • Virtuous Commond - Burst damage buff
  • Templar’s Vindiction - Burst damage buff
  • Get in Formation - Divine Steed buff
  • Wild Hunter Tactics - Burst damage buff

Wild Hunter Tactics is insanely strong for Paladins due to how front loaded our burst is. Above 75%, we get to pad our Execution Sentence damage and below 20%, we get to obviously throw hammers.

I think this is the best Night Fae soulbind combo for paladins because it gives everything we usually need.

  • Importance of BoF
  • Importance of mobility
  • Importance of Burst

However, If I went to Niya, my build would be:

  • Run without Tiring - Good Regen for kiting
  • Virtuous Command - More burst
  • Echoing Blessings - BoF Buff
  • Niya’ Tools: Burrs - More burst and snare
  • Shielding Words - WoG buff with Healing Hands talent
  • Templar’s Vindication - More burst
  • Swift Patrol - this row is trash
  • Grove Invigoration - More burst (Fox blink - HoJ - +Mastery Burst)
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God yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. There is absolutely nothing in that tree.

I really wish Wild Hunt’s Charge was reusable in combat, but on like a 30sec/1min CD or something.

Echoing Blessing vs Wrench Evil
I think I agree with your choice versus my original thoughts. Seeing that Echoing Blessings also gives a %DMG reduc isn’t that shabby either.

Shielding Words vs Divine Call
I don’t know, Unbreakable Spirit is a 33% reduction on Divine Shield, and DC could proc 10 times in that window, reducing DS down to a 2:40 CD. But that’s only if you get hit consistently enough to proc it that much. You probably would get better use out of SW.

Virtuous Command — I really like this one, I agree with it.

Templar’s Vindication vs. The Long Summer— why this one and not TLS? Is TLS too small of a window to justify it’s use?

Then what covenant do you think will be best for PVP? I was looking at Kyrians and thought maybe since we’re losing the burst Holy Power gains from Wake of Ashes, Divine Toll might make up for it.

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Necrolords will be best for maximizing our burst window.

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I don’t think that the vial is extremely useful on Paladins, especially since Human and Dwarf are a playable race. I also think, with player LoS and CC, divine toll will usually only hit 1-2 people at a time.

Not to mention, it’ll feel awful in 2v2. Bgs it could be good tho.

I think Necrolord will give us the most burst potential, along with Final Verdict legendary, as often as possible.

If playing with a hunter, historically Ret’s best partner, you’ll have a Vanquisher’s Hammer every Hunter trap.

I just think the 45 second cooldown on Blessing of Summer isn’t going to line up enough with all our 1-2 min cooldown burst buttons, and more skill players will be able to recognize summer is active and CC you during that time.

I just don’t see Night Fae working out in more than a few comps/situations, sadly.

However, if the Blessings can be stacked, I do think a sleeper comp for Ret could end up being triple Night Fae Ret/Ret/Prot paladin comp.

With the amount WoG heals and the buffs you can give it with conduits, could result in some wacky hybird comps. :smiley:

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True. All things considered though, I think I’ll be going:

Night Fae > Korayn > Wild Hunt’s Charge > Echoing Blessings > Shielding Words > Face Your Foes > The Long Summer > Virtuous Command > Get in Formation > Wild Hunt Tactics // Legendary: Uther’s Devotion

I think that Soulshape and Blessings of Seasons really target what Ret needs directly. Specifically, Blessing of Seasons + The Long Summer give a really good bust for our opener.

Then Uther’s Devotion + Echoing Blessings is just a really good mobility boost, and way to get our boost back decently fast. All that plus Wild Hunt, which after a second glance would be really easy to keep an uptime on by simply throwing a judgement at whoever the focus target isn’t.

I really appreciate your input, as it really affected how I looked at some of these conduit combinations.

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Leaning towards Necrolord also. The 4min cooldown puts me off Venthyr.

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Yeah, I’m toying with builds for Necrolords right now because of what Rez was saying… here’s what I’ve got so far:

Necrolords > Emeni > Emeni’s Magnificent Skin > Echoing Blessings > Righteous Might > Hearth Kidneystone > Virtuous Command > Gristled Toes > Templar’s Vindication > Embody the Construct // Legendary: Uther’s Devotion

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