I’m seeing that Seal-Twisting Paladins seem to be the strongest build again, but I just don’t enjoy the sound of it. I never enjoyed having to manage your auto-attack timer on my Warrior in Classic, and I don’t think I would enjoy it any more with the Paladin (no hate for those who enjoy it, though).
I feel like I’m at a point I have to make a decision; whether to push forward as a Ret pally going for the “Wrath-like” build, or fully commit to gearing up a Shockadin build.
The biggest factor for me is choosing whichever is the “easier” of the two to play. I’ve been playing a slightly janky version of Exodin, and I’m not sure I’ve been playing it well to begin with, but seems to be pretty terrible in SE, which is where I want to be working towards.
I’ll admit, I have a slight preference towards Wrath-like purely because it uses the Corrupted Ashbringer, which is a quest I’d love to eventually be able to complete. But also, since it’s the Corrupted version, it’s not quite as exciting as I’d originally hoped, and if Shockadin is going to be significantly easier to play of the two, that might be the better decision for any raids I might try to join.
Wowhead doesn’t seem to have updated any of their guides with any indication of what their rotations look like, so any insight would be super helpful.
Twisting really isn’t that bad, you mostly just need to wait .2 seconds for the meter to fill before pressing the twist button. Otherwise you just push buttons in order. It’s an easy rotation with the right macros, and if you have the correct amount of haste, you don’t even need a swing timer, really. You just can’t mash for the twist.
Corrupted Ashbringer is actually purified the majority of the time you’re using it. Once the Corrupted version’s buff stacks to 5 and your Grand Inquisitor procs, it gives you a new buff that has you wielding the cleansed version of the blade for 30 seconds. There’s no ICD on the weapon’s proc, so it goes hard and fast into purified.
Shockadin is definitely the easiest and most effective playstyle AT THE MOMENT - I suspect that we’ll see additional adjustments with how powerful it is at the moment, but perhaps not. It’s extremely good single target damage, but its cleave is awful. Ret specs will have crazy good cleave, especially with Ashbringer. With how important cleave is in SE, Twist still has an edge over Shockadin imo.
If you do just want to run wrathlite, that’s also fine. I have a guildie who’s scored some orange parses with it, especially in cleave. The only thing about wrathlite is that if you’re of a competitive mindset and want to be at the top of the meters at all times, you’ll have a tougher time doing so. Twist and Shock are going to give you that top DPS competitive edge.
I think exodin might be a bit easier considering their playstyle is very similar but basically only prioritizes casting exorcism rather than having to deal with resisting Holy Shocks and keeping our buffs active and being very careful with our rotation.
Exodin does a bit less damage but overall i think it’s the easier of the two to play since you can really just get the rotation down and then JUST worry about raid mechanics.
The way they implemented it is actually far cooler. When you get to 5 stacks of the proc and you have the weapon enchanted with Grand Inquisitor, the Corrupted Ashbringer is temporarily cleansed for 30 seconds in a brilliant explosion of light, transforming it into the cleansed weapon model. It also changes the proc into a Wake of Ashes style AoE.
Twisting is super easy, can’t compare to fury with fast weapons.
Try it on the ptr, set up the macros, get survielents swing timer, watch his video… You are going to giggle if you have your damage text on, i promise you… Pls don’t sell yourself short, give it a try…
This some kind of trick question? everyone already knows paladin is the easiest and most overpowered class in the game. Just press your buttons you’ll be fine