Sooo yeah. Read this article today and as a forever ret player I obviously like many of you probably died a little inside. Got to wonder what goes through the minds of Ion or other devs when the article writer plainly tells players to NOT play the spec. I would think this would sound off warning alarms or make someone go yikes or something. I mean its one thing I would think that we complain and say its bad and needs to be reworked or heck even finished, but when the #1 news site for your game tells you ret is so bad you shouldnât play itâŚIts all just a giant yikes for me.
Yeah, this is something weâve been calling out throughout the entire DF development whilst people buried their heads in their hands and said âitâs fineâ whilst continuing to queue for LFR.
They actually made another post back when they were simply reviewing classes before pre-patch which was along the same lines.
Itâs been pretty disgusting to see the development (or lack thereof) of paladins in DF, and the lack of updates and communication in regards to it.
If I recall correctly the last Ret related blue post was about post #27 of a 2000+ post thread of beta feedback, and that was when they were like âyeah mobility is fun, but we like you in a wheelchairâ.
So many changes showed a clear lack of understanding on behalf of the developers, and the clearest evidence of that is the fact Retribution Aura was not made passive, and not only that was actually buffed restricting use of any other beneficial aura.
The very first paragraph for why you SHOULD play Ret, is easily one of the most backhanded compliments Iâve read about a WoW class in years.
âYou should play Retribution Paladin if you enjoy playing a melee DPS with good healing options, and arenât concerned about picking something thatâs optimal for high end content. Retribution is also a popular spec for PvP, with a âglass cannonâ playstyle of high burst damage despite low defensive capabilities.â
The âWhy You Shouldnât Play Retâ is both brutal, and what several of us have been saying for months now. Just in the entry alone:
" Lack of Meaningful Choice
Ret, and the Paladin class as a whole, seems to have been abandoned midway through Dragonflight development."
The âLack of Defenses and Mobilityâ section is ruthlessâŚand exactly what the majority of the paladins in this forum have been saying, with the exception of a specific handful of M+ players.
Iâve been saying this since before we even got our new Trees: Paladins need a rework.
After reading the article, and seeing how Blizzard has âworkedâ on the paladin class, Iâm convinced that Blizzard hates paladins for some reason and wants no one to main the class.
I havenât read the article yet, but jumping back into WoW having not really played since early BFA I find the ret pally to be very unrewarding. Lots of stuff to track but almost no return on investment, ret still being worse dps than more simple specs. Can get much better performance out of my other toons with far less effort. Weird design, but I guess just Blizzard still doing Blizzard stuff.
Lol no credit at all. Go read his wishlist article for dragonflight and his first impressions of the tree. You should also read his comments on the beta forums. That guy has some warped headcannon of what ret should be and I 100% disagree with it.
Now, the latest article touches a little on the many problems of the spec but I cannot take you seriously when you call consecrated blade and boundless judgement âfantastic choicesâ. Also the trees are so bad that he couldnt even sugarcoat it. So yea class is bad, ret is bad and the trees are a failure. Good job I guess he got one article right.
No ofcourse⌠every single ret in the world wants that but go Go read his wishlist and first impressions. He is the one asking for more downtime for âmeaningful choicesâ. He is the one calling the very first tree we got âfull of choicesâ. Go read those articles on wowhead and come back to tell me hes the mesiah or the marthyr of the spec for finally saying the trees are garbage.
Fair is fair, itâs not like this is a sudden change for the writer. He might have been so dazzled by the possibility of having all of our covenant abilities he failed to notice our hand before the turn, but as soon as Blizz basically said âweâre doneâŚâ the guyâs been consistent in condemning the outcome. Can at least give him credit for coming around, either due to his own senses or a desire to please the audience.
I feel like this could be taken out of context, so Iâd need to have an exact quote on this.
Being GCD locked is worse than having a small amount of downtime(which is ideal), but at the same time âmeaningful choicesâ doesnât mean much.
The issue is that âmeaningful choicesâ usually means âDefensives / Healing / Decursingâ in between rotations⌠but thatâs the problem with âDefensives / Healing / Decursingâ, they donât wait for your rotation to finish before they become a problem.
You would need pre-emptive utilities.
Shields which stay on for a significant amount of time, decursives that stop the next spell from dealing damage, or a heal that heals the next time someone takes damage.
I agree with you 100% that I also did not agree at all with his wishlist. I donât agree with the fantasy of what either Blizzard or I guess and others have for this spec. Weâre damage, that has to be our #1 prio. If that means we do less healing or minimal healing so be it. The other problem I have is raid buffs. Blizzard took the lid back off that jar and gave it to everyone except Paladins, and more namely ret. You canât give it to some and not others or big shocker the ones that donât get them wonât be brought. Unless ret is going to do S tier damage which we donât.
I agree with Bolas on everything except button bloat. This is the best Retâs rotation has ever been imo.
He shouldâve gone harder at the mobility section. The fact that weâre stuck with a 3 second sprint on a 45 second CD thatâs on the GCD and doesnât even break roots/slows on cast is stupid. We still have to use Freedom just to make Steed work, and we have to spend an honor talent on Unbound Freedom just to make Freedom function well. Terrible design.
So getting sanctified wrath/zeaots paragon and dt/fr gonna fix the spec? Do you play other classes?
Go make a fury warrior and see them at 60, then at 70. They get a sizeable amount of power from the 10 points. What is ret getting? Nerfed fv, nerfed vh, nerfed fr, nerfed es, nerfed sw and more rng.
This is something that I dont know when it began but it is spreading across. Reading the comments on the same articles for unholy, affliction, and another I cannot remember they all mention"button bloat" like when did it become the norm to just use 4-5 rotational spells and anything above that is bloat? One thing is arguing that consecration and exorcism dont interact with the spec at all (that I agree) but people say bloat as a replacement to âtoo many buttonsâ. The beta forums are also full of people saying ret has too many abilities like what?
Lol you must have missed the awesome post in the Wrath forums about how Ret doesnât matter as long as Holy and Prot are doing well, now that is something everyone should read and go voice their disgust on.