These are just some ideas I had in mind to rework Retribution to be more... fun? Please bear in mind these are just ideas that came to me (rather early in the morning) and are just here to kinda bring more diversity to the Ret style. Also, please understand that these numbers are just here to indicate how spells could be balanced around other examples and are not final numbers; I'm not a number-cruncher guy so I have no idea if these figures accomplish what they're going for.
This post is aiming to find a solution, or ideas, to fix;
-- PvP Damage and Survivability
-- Reduction to burst in favor of sustained
-- The minor problem of aura removal
-- AoE Damage
-- Self and Off-healing
-- More "finishers"
So without further ado;
Ret Play style change
The play style change will allow Retribution to play as a 1H or 2H spec, similar to a Fury Warrior or Frost DK, without the Dual Wield. However, abilities can compensate the lack of additional damage that DW offers with adding off-hand damage with increased damage from the main hand instead, mainly from the benefit of having Holy damage. The goal is to make 2H more burst-like as it is now, while having 1H style a more fluid, sustained damage role.
So at the moment;
-- Rework 2H fighting to benefit from Mastery > Haste
-- Rework 1H fighting to benefit from Haste > Mastery
-- Rework Sword of Light to have 2H benefit from 15% extra damage, up from 10%
-- Rework Sword of Light to have 1H benefit from 30% extra damage to make up for the DPS difference between 1H and 2H
Seals and Auras
Now the most iconic thing about Paladins, besides being powerhouses in 3.0, was our seals and auras. Some were taken, some were reworked, some were added, some were butchered. So I've thought of a few changes that could be made;
So for Seals;
-- Seal of Truth reworked from (107 (+ 9.4% SP) *5) to (107 (+ 10.4% SP) *Haste/4) This should see a small increase in DPS compared to what Censure does nowadays, but the haste scaling makes it the go-to seal for 1H haste builds.
-- *NEW* Seal of Blood(H)/Command(A), allowing each attack to deal an extra 30% of weapon damage as holy damage. This will be designed to benefit from extra damage from Mastery and weapon damage, so it becomes the seal of choice for 2H users.
-- Seal of Righteousness reworked to deal 10% weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards, up from 6%,
-- Seal of Justice reworked to reduce movement speed by 40% for 6 seconds, down from 60% and 8 seconds, but increases casting time by 40% to anyone hit. This will be our go-to seal when attacking ranged, casters, and healers.
-- Seal of Insight healing reworked from (0.15*AP.15*holy spell power) to AP.35; this will double the heal and a bit more, allowing for more solo work but also to help with raid tanking, though not by much. Still the go-to seal for tanking and healing.
And for Auras;
-- All Auras share the 3min cooldown.
-- Rework Devotion Aura from Silence and Interrupts to Movement Impairing effects and Snares, and from 20% magic damage reduction to Melee damage.
-- *NEW* Retribution Aura, allows all members in a 40yard radius to gain 10% Mastery for 8 seconds.
-- *NEW* Crusader Aura, allows all members in a 40yard radius gain 10% Haste for 8 seconds.
-- *NEW* Concentration Aura, grants players in a 40yard radius immunity from Silence and Interrupts and reduces magic damage taken by 20%. Lasts 6 seconds.
So basically, the Auras are divided; two offensive, two defensive. Devotion Aura is used to help out and defend against melee, while Concentration Aura works on casters. Retribution Aura helps out those who rely on Mastery, while Crusader helps Haste.
Retribution Ability changes
So at the moment we have solved a few problems in terms of the minor aura/seal removal sadness, and having a sustained damage role while keeping a burst option. Now we can work on our healing and AoE damage. So here is what I propose;
-- Consecration is baseline. I honestly have no idea as to why this wasn't done so before hand.
-- Divine Storm reworked from 100% down to 90%; this is due to the increase power from Sword of Light and Seal of Blood for 2H Ret.
-- Hammer of the Righteous reworked to be able to spread Censure while wielding a 1H weapon. This should be balanced so that Censure DoTs + 1H Divine Storm = 2H Divine Storm + Seal of Righteousness. This should add up to be around a 50% AoE damage increase without consecration, but again my number crunching is off...
-- Art of War reworked to make Flash of Light to become instant as well as its Exorcism benefits. This should increase our Heal output by a good amount, with the trade-off of damage.
-- Word of Glory reworked from 4803 - 5350 (+ 49% Spellpower) to 4303 - 4850 (+60% Spellpower) This will make low-end WoG not as ridiculously strong as before, but also allow it to scale well with gear, making it more beneficial at max level. By how much, I've no idea.
-- Hammer of Wrath reworked to increase damage from 161% to 181% spellpower. For an ability that is apparently a ranged execute it doesn't deal much damage outside of Avenging Wrath. Maybe it's just me.
-- Avenging Wrath reworked from 20% damage increase to 10%. This will be balanced around the fact that Hammer of Wrath does more damage, coupled with the new Seal of Blood/Command damage, as well as balancing overall damage.
-- Get fucking rid of Inquisition. The new damage outputs are balanced around the increases to certain spells and abilities, and additional auras, to offset the removal of Inquisition. Crit can just be baked into the Ret spec, I guess. Or just removed entirely.
As for new finishers... I honestly can't think of any more. We have a single-target, an AoE, and a heal. Do we really need any more finishers?
Nonetheless, feel free to leave your responses, suggestions, approvals, disapprovals, whatever.