Hello, everyone.
I've been having a rough time sorting through some of the Paladin talent changes on the PTR.
First, I think I may need to explain where I'm coming from when I propose this build. In TBC I was definitely what some would call a hardcore raider, putting in many hours a week at ungodly hours of the day. I went from Karazhan to Sunwell as Retribution and haven't looked back. I only mention this so that anyone evaluating this build knows it isn't coming from a FOTM re-roll, but from someone who (I feel) has a very intimate understanding of the Retribution Paladin.
Secondly, my primary focus is PvE Raiding. I don't play to PvP, Battleground or Arena but I do enjoy bouts of World PvP (PvP Realm) where I can find them while farming, doing dailies, et cetera. With those things in mind, I came up with the following build:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?pala...4&version=9757
I feel I might have to explain a couple choices here. The first and most obvious is going down to the fourth Tier in Protection. This is for Improved Devotion Aura. The reasoning here being that we rarely raid with a Protection Paladin, unless I'm asked to respec for a certain encounter or we're short on tanks for what ever reason. That said, the Holy Paladins spec in to Retribution leaving the Protection utility abilities on the Retribution Paladins. I feel that speccing this deep in to Protection and providing the entire Melee team (including the tank(s)) with the increased healing will be a huge help in Ulduar.
I avoided Divine Guardian and Divine Sacrifice with the knowledge that at a conservative average of 25 000 health as DPS, the ability when fully talented would only absorb ~40 000 damage and depending on the raid damage situation would potentially kill me without Divine Shield up.
Now here's the bit that breaks my heart. I've come to love Divine Purpose. Like I said, I enjoy bouts of World PvP and this talent is incredible against Rogues and some other classes, but mostly Rogues. You'd maybe need to know just how much I hate the Rogue class (Pre-3.0 Retribution, Rogues were the bane of my existance) to understand why this was a hard choice, but ultimately I decided on Pursuit of Justice for the increased raid mobility over Divine Purpose.
So overall, I think I've built a solid Retribution build (assuming no further changes to Retribution before 3.1) maximized for PvE Performance with a very capable World PvP undertone.
Advice welcome, constructive comments loved.
Thanks!