How fun is ret?

[Flaryon]

As someone who absolutely loved ret at the start of WoD with the constant procs and fast chaotic playstyle. How has it evolved in legion and can i still find an engaging fun playstyle from it?

[Stk]

So far in few words, no fun but the spec is there.

[Morally Grey Storm]

It has nothing to do with WoD Ret.
It's an entirely different beast...crippled...mouthbreathing...trying really hard to look like the cool ones(rouges, warriors) yet remains a cut below .
Though it has it's moments.
Namely - retarded ST burst, and some people speculate Ret even retains some semblance of something distantly reminding of utility.

[Azyurel]

Saw the title and saw Storm of Sorrow post in it. Had to come see No hate, love you bro! lol

Think most covered it here. It's not as "fun" as it used to be. It get the job done most of the times and isn't an utter dumpster fire in ST, so that's at least something.

[Certa90]

Personally, it's my favorite spec out of the classes I've played and experimented with since Wrath. I'm also typically one of the top 3 dps in the raid, and usually the top dps in m+, never blown away in damage. This is from a semi-casual mythic raiding perspective.

I love the aesthetic and feel of the class, and crusade feels really amazing. The utility paladin offers is extremely helpful in progression, and I'm almost always the last person to die in the raid. Blessings of protection/freedom, throwing hands on the tank, bubble + steed for clearing Cenarius roots, great offheals.. I love the spec. Crusade is very engaging and fun.

Mobility isn't great, but that can typically be played around.

Link to my logs if you're curious, most of the early ones are me learning the class after rerolling from Arms: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/ranking...r/18205936/10/

[Deleted]

It's alright in terms of performance, but i wouldn't say its alot of fun. You rotation is always the same with the only variation beeing the finisher you use (TV or DS).

There really isn't much in the way of choices either. Talents are pretty much locked.

I loved WoD Ret and could've played that for many more years and still have a blast. Legion Ret i'm already bored of. But i'm a long date Ret paladin. Rerolling isn't really gonna happen and in this expansion it's too late for that, especially when i got two good legendaries already.

[Deleted]

Agree with above, the performance is better than it has been in a very long time. But fun? engaging? Depth? Not really. Biggest problem is still the flawed design with judgement debuff (making target switching a nightmare, and AoE DPS kind of limited with mastery to max 4 targets).

When playing on my DH havoc alt I actually have "fun". Guess most people are still debating the momentum playstyle, I think it's the most engaging spec I have ever played. On top of that, no ramp up at all (compared to holy power and Crusade). Also FeelsGood to do way higher AoE dmg with 15 lower ilvl
Aaand again, pretty much agree with above. Too much invested, also just got 5th legendary on the pala so cba rerolling.

[Team]

I just started Ret and it feels super similar to Arms Warrior, nothing wrong with that but if you like that play style then you'll definitely enjoy Ret. I just started it and looked at the Artifact traits and said holy fuck (in a good way) I'm guessing Ret is a spec that relies heavily on having your artifact filled up? The gold traits and some of the non gold traits look amazing, to me at least. I love being a utility type of player so I feel like this spec can fill both of these needs up.

[Moozart]

As someone who absolutely loved ret at the start of WoD with the constant procs and fast chaotic playstyle. How has it evolved in legion and can i still find an engaging fun playstyle from it?

it isn't really, its about 4 spells and then a random whak-a-mole spell

- - - Updated - - -

I just started Ret and it feels super similar to Arms Warrior, nothing wrong with that but if you like that play style then you'll definitely enjoy Ret. I just started it and looked at the Artifact traits and said holy fuck (in a good way) I'm guessing Ret is a spec that relies heavily on having your artifact filled up? The gold traits and some of the non gold traits look amazing, to me at least. I love being a utility type of player so I feel like this spec can fill both of these needs up.

more so on if you hit 30% haste without killing crit

[Ryuji]

Agree with above, the performance is better than it has been in a very long time. But fun? engaging? Depth? Not really. Biggest problem is still the flawed design with judgement debuff (making target switching a nightmare, and AoE DPS kind of limited with mastery to max 4 targets).

When playing on my DH havoc alt I actually have "fun". Guess most people are still debating the momentum playstyle, I think it's the most engaging spec I have ever played. On top of that, no ramp up at all (compared to holy power and Crusade). Also FeelsGood to do way higher AoE dmg with 15 lower ilvl
Aaand again, pretty much agree with above. Too much invested, also just got 5th legendary on the pala so cba rerolling.

That and it's a minor thing but I enjoy soloing older instances on my DH when I can just Fel Rush through a pack of trash mobs on the way to the next boss and they die in one shot :P

As someone who absolutely loved ret at the start of WoD with the constant procs and fast chaotic playstyle. How has it evolved in legion and can i still find an engaging fun playstyle from it?

It's...a thing. If you enjoyed working with Final Verdict/Divine Purpose/Divine Storm weaving, you will be dissatisfied with how it works now in terms of cleave/AoE. and imo the cancer that was Seraphim doesn't exist anymore for Ret so that's cool. The single target is quite strong through with Crusade and the trinket Faulty Countermeasure. Crusade makes the trinket proc like crazy and you get really nice burst DPS with it. Divine Purpose feels just as it always was but without Divine Storm weaving. You generate more HP than before but there's only 1 proc(besides DP if it's talented) to reset the cooldown of Blade of Justice and only if you talent into it.

Currently Execution Sentence and Consecration also are horrible options(and I hope it stays that way, they don't interact well at all with HP generation/consumption) so your only option in the first tier is a passive to just increase the damage of your HP spenders.

I still main Ret but I will say, while leveling and just playing in general, I enjoy Fury Warrior more. The burst feels really nice and they offer solid cleave/AoE. and I personally feel the single target can be kind of hit or miss, like Serenity for Windwalker(you either do amazing the whole fight or you do amazing in the start and trickle down into the middle of the pack). but man does it feel awesome to just charge at a pack of mobs, do your thing n' kill 'em all, have extra rage from that fight, charge into another mob or pack and just burst them down to 20% or less, Execute, repeat. Though if you do, get Fighter Chow, is amazing for leveling and solo play, for any class/spec really. Even in mythic+ if you're tanking.

TL;DR: Ret does pretty well in single target, isn't crazy burst for cleave/AoE like Windwalker/DH etc. can do. Feels slow without Crusade or enough haste(20-22% recommended).

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

IMO what they've done with Ret in Legion is strip it back to a DPS without flavor, add damage to make it viable and then polish it with shiny attractions like Ashbringer and "dazzling spell effects".

I gave up all hope on Ret being what it was in Cataclysm and MoP during Legion Beta, sure it's nice that they do somewhat decent damage now but having just about no utility and no "zing" to it makes them just bland and uninspiring compared to other melee options.

[Damonharp]

IMO what they've done with Ret in Legion is strip it back to a DPS without flavor, add damage to make it viable and then polish it with shiny attractions like Ashbringer and "dazzling spell effects".

I gave up all hope on Ret being what it was in Cataclysm and MoP during Legion Beta, sure it's nice that they do somewhat decent damage now but having just about no utility and no "zing" to it makes them just bland and uninspiring compared to other melee options.

Did... Did you just try and assert that ret... doesn't have utility? That's so full of crap I don't even know where to begin... bubbles, sac, LoH, Hand of freedom... none of that is ringing any bells at all?

[GutsAP]

It's alright aside from GBoM.

[Rekz]

I'm thinking about subbing for Legion. Is ret still trash? Is ashbringer worth it?

[Morally Grey Storm]

Did... Did you just try and assert that ret... doesn't have utility? That's so full of crap I don't even know where to begin... bubbles, sac, LoH, Hand of freedom... none of that is ringing any bells at all?

Did..did you just assume Ret still has HoSac?

[Tanthoris]

Crusade is fun, ret is meh. Doing what feels like 90% of your dps in a 30 secondish burst window, not really great class design. Not to mention the failure that is the new Judgement AKA crap Colossus Smash. I enjoyed ret for a while, then I realized that nothing was being done to actually help the spec overall on the PTR aside from like two buffs in 7.1, sure ret is now a viable dps spec, but it plays for crap and it's stats are all over the place.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm thinking about subbing for Legion. Is ret still trash? Is ashbringer worth it?

You know that april fools joke about ret getting ashbringer so what else could we want? That was kind of the design goal for legion it feels like.

[Ryuji]

Is ret still trash?

No. Good single target, meh AoE.

Is ashbringer worth it?

Eh.

[Gilgemesh]

Ret is fairly boring. It feels wimpy and way undertuned when crusade is down. When crusade is up....You shoot lightning from your ass. You proc naked woman. you do huge ungodly dps. Then it wears off and you're waiting to be awesome again. Also...you're dependent on two or three others doing good dps due to blessing of might.

[Rekz]

That's disappointing but not surprising.

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

Did... Did you just try and assert that ret... doesn't have utility? That's so full of crap I don't even know where to begin... bubbles, sac, LoH, Hand of freedom... none of that is ringing any bells at all?

Bubble isn't utility, it's a personal tool.
LoH turns into your personal "OH SHIT" button most of the time and something you use once a fight isn't really utility, it's good and can save tanks or morons though.
Ret doesn't have hand of sac anymore, they got hand of protection, 15sec physical protection which drops all aggro. can protect yourself or other friendlies from certain things but not that special.
Hand of Freedom being used on 1 or 2 fights per tier...

Back when Ret really was a Paladin (which it isn't now, it's a sparkly warrior) you would use selfless healer to spot heal people in shit, you'd use hand of protection (bop), dispelling and so on. More to the point the truly good Rets knew how to use them properly while still doing damage, now you MIGHT have to use Sac once or twice a fight but other than that it's nothing. Not even a raid cd, which DPS Warriors bring.