[Ret] Hand of Sacrifice (5.2 ptr)

[Trisrx]

Blizzard is clearly trying to be cautious, which is probably a good thing. Nothing would be worse than overbuffing us and then getting nerfed to death right after (which they have a history of doing). I agree though that this latest round of potential buffs is underwhelming. Lets focus on continuing to give them feedback, because they are apparently listening. Lots of good stuff mentioned in this thread and others. Changing unbreakable spirit to do something unique for ret, and making guardian a defensive CD in exchange for a modest buff to sustained damage, both sounds interesting. There is still plenty of time to push for better things before 5.2.

[Reith]

Yeah I would say the most obvious choice is to make Ret's Devotion Aura a bit better. It could use the Skull Banner/Stormlash treatment or something... in addition to the current effect, maybe it should have all attacks proc some Holy damage for 6 seconds and instantly heal everyone for 20% of their max health.

Well I like it that they're giving some attention to glyphs for Ret because there really isn't much of a choice there for Ret.

Iterating on Devotion Aura, make it a minute and a half cooldown for Ret and have it instantly dispel all magic effects on everyone affected by it. Hell of a lot better than the Hand of Sacrifice change they were proposing.

[Velshin]

On the bright side though GC and Blizzard finally noticing that Retri have issues in a serious pvp enviroments.

[Vathius]

On the bright side though GC and Blizzard finally noticing that Retri have issues in a serious pvp enviroments.

Problem is they are trying to use a band-aid to fix a severed limb

[Dristereau]

Doing 2's the other night. Ret Paladin and Arms Warrior vs Arms Warrior and Frost DK. Frost DK and my Arms Warrior die with me almost at full and Arms Warrior on the opposite team at about 120k hp. Could not kill the ****er through Second Wind, and he sliced me down with no issues. Was trying to heal my Warrior friend when he got executed, managed a fantastic 25k which didn't really help at all :S The Warrior was about as geared as my Paladin, or in the same HP region (Paladin Armory below.
Would love to see a sustained damage buff for Ret either through TV or CS, and make Divine Protection be both magic and physical. Or ofc something unique would be nice, maybe a Retribution Aura on a Cooldown that reflects 10% of all dealt damage for 10 seconds by nearby enemies back on them (similar to Devotion Aura range).

[Tangra]

On the bright side though GC and Blizzard finally noticing that Retri have issues in a serious pvp enviroments.

On the not so bright side, this happens almost every season...

---------- Post added 2013-02-01 at 04:18 AM ----------

Blizzard is clearly trying to be cautious, which is probably a good thing. Nothing would be worse than overbuffing us and then getting nerfed to death right after (which they have a history of doing). I agree though that this latest round of potential buffs is underwhelming. Lets focus on continuing to give them feedback, because they are apparently listening. Lots of good stuff mentioned in this thread and others. Changing unbreakable spirit to do something unique for ret, and making guardian a defensive CD in exchange for a modest buff to sustained damage, both sounds interesting. There is still plenty of time to push for better things before 5.2.

They have been cautious with Ret for like 6+ years... I really think it's time they stopped being so paranoid.

[Velshin]

On the not so bright side, this happens almost every season...

---------- Post added 2013-02-01 at 04:18 AM ----------



They have been cautious with Ret for like 6+ years... I really think it's time they stopped being so paranoid.

Haha I know man trust me I understand how you feel...I'm just trying to be faithful and optimistic so I can feel better. :P

[Vanguards]

I personally like the change. I feel this change will encourage people to train us less in arenas. Hopefully the glyph buffs will happen cause our glyphs are kinda meh

[Reith]

I personally like the change. I feel this change will encourage people to train us less in arenas. Hopefully the glyph buffs will happen cause our glyphs are kinda meh

It does almost nothing for RBGs though, which is why I proposed Devotion Aura should be the one to have it instead, change it to a 1 and a half minute cooldown for Ret and have it magic dispel everyone that's affected. That could potentially bring Ret back into RBGs and it's not over the top.

[gildra]

they should bring back magic dispell on cleanse for ret paladins now it has a cooldown. maybe they could add it in as a glyph that also increases the cooldown with 100% making it a 16 second cooldown.

or they could add something extra to hand of salvation since that spell has no place in pvp at all

[Icecold3000]

Thinking about it, Ret should get their stun removal back on their Hand of Freedom instead of this budget dispell. Add a 25 second cooldown to the stun removal effect, so Rets with Clemeny can't remove stun from the same target twice in a row.

Adding this mechanic to Holy will make them more OP`s.
Sounds more logic add the stun removal effect to Emancipate instead of Hand of Freedom , to make this unique for Rets.

[Valedus]

Adding this mechanic to Holy will make them more OP`s.
Sounds more logic add the stun removal effect to Emancipate instead of Hand of Freedom , to make this unique for Rets.

Or easily make it on a Ret passive like sword of light.

[Reith]

Adding this mechanic to Holy will make them more OP`s.
Sounds more logic add the stun removal effect to Emancipate instead of Hand of Freedom , to make this unique for Rets.

Because it could never be added to Ret only. /rolleyes Are you being serious right now? Seriously.

[Palatinus]

Making glyphs do unique stuff for ret, I guess....is a start? But glyph band-aids is not going to do anything. Nor will this 2min cd dispel.

Unless the changes are to every talent, they really need to do some baseline things. And if they don't want to tweak damage then it needs to be utility. But it really needs to be something offensive not more and more defensive utility. As scared as they are of doing it, it needs to be something big enough to warrant taken a ret over another melee in a RBG team, but they wont do this so I'm not expecting much.

Personally, I wouldn't get my hopes up, just because they are starting to agree that ret isn't very competitive doesn't mean they'll do anything about it, the best they could come up with was a 2min cd dispel? Even for a first try, PTR testing spell...its terrible....

[Tangra]

Making glyphs do unique stuff for ret, I guess....is a start? But glyph band-aids is not going to do anything. Nor will this 2min cd dispel.

Unless the changes are to every talent, they really need to do some baseline things. And if they don't want to tweak damage then it needs to be utility. But it really needs to be something offensive not more and more defensive utility. As scared as they are of doing it, it needs to be something big enough to warrant taken a ret over another melee in a RBG team, but they wont do this so I'm not expecting much.

Personally, I wouldn't get my hopes up, just because they are starting to agree that ret isn't very competitive doesn't mean they'll do anything about it, the best they could come up with was a 2min cd dispel? Even for a first try, PTR testing spell...its terrible....

Yeah currently the spec has so many weaknesses that several major baseline changes are needed; toying with glyphs can do the job, but they will have to be some pretty OP glyphs.

Weaknesses as I see them:

-No root.
-Mediocre CC at best (we traded repent for blinding light this xpack.. thus gaining nothing)
-Our mobility is great but in exchange for that we are probably the least threatening melee and can basically be tanked due to both mediocre damage and very weak debuffs, such as having no mortal strike effect or anything of the sort.

Some solutions:

-Baseline Denounce for all Paladins tied to abilities that would give each spec maybe 30% up-time of the debuff. For Ret perhaps tied to Exorcism.

-Blinding Light on a 1 min cd for Ret and Prot, and with the current glyph baked in so it always stuns for 3 sec in addition to the blind... the current glyph should increase the range by 3-5 yards.

-Retribution Aura (replaces Devotion Aura): in addition to the current effects removes 2 negative effects (magic or not) from all allies and reflects them to the attacker. 1 min cooldown.

-Exorcism now also incapacitates the target for 2 seconds if it is more than 10 yards away, this effect is broken by any damage.

I think this covers most of my concerns. I could be missing something thought.