Ret paladins are balanced in PVP?

[Skiball]

Retribution has always been a sub-par pvp spec. Always, with the exception of a few short periods. Most commonly around new expansions, wich are quickly met with a swift bludgeoning of the Nerfbat. And then its back to being carried through arena till the next xpack for 4 weeks of glory (3.5 of wich pre-release).

There has never been a time that Retribution paladins have been balanced, and free of major flaws in pvp. Never. And this is why im always a bit surprised people still fight so feverishly for Ret in pvp. When its been a lost battle ever since the release of vanilla.
Keep fighting, by all means. But if you are truely serious about pvp you should reroll something else. Its been 7 years...

I hear ya bro. Late vanilla through all of BC it was shockadin for me, then wrath and cata it is prot. I have given up on ret pvp.

[VanishO2]

Rets are well balanced in RBGs, but need a boost in arenas. My suggestion has been to add a glyph that turns Holy Wrath into a short term silence or blind.

I dunno about a snare or slow....I can't think of anything that seems to fit the Ret theme that would function as either one of those. A snare feels to DK-y, and a slow feels too Warrior-y. I'd rather they improve us in other ways and give us distinctive strengths and weaknesses.

When you pop wings, your ret aura starts to pulse slows on the targets around you, kinda of old judgement of justice effect, or even baked on the aura by itself (hits the ret pally, can proc a chance of a little slow on the attacker thanks to his "righteous justice... yadda... yadda... yadda..." retribution theme)

OP, but it fits the theme... hahaha

---------- Post added 2011-06-17 at 04:15 PM ----------

We are slightly underpowered, but that only means you need to play differently. AKA actually play defensively for once.

Ppl QQ saying that ret paladins players played it way too defensively...

---------- Post added 2011-06-17 at 04:27 PM ----------

Nah, Rets do well in RBGs because the game flows a lot differently and our weaknesses aren't as big of an issue. In arena a target can put a lot of resources into kiting a single person, because that can nullify a lot of offense. But if the current target in a RBG puts resources into trying to kite one DPS, then 2-4 other DPS will absolutely wreck that person. Not to mention that the target is going to have tons of slows and roots on them, so you really don't have to struggle to keep uptime on a target the way you do in arena. Also, when you're trying to break a wall of 3 healers so you can retrieve your flag, no one is as good at bringing one down than a Ret in full burst mode. Not to mention the absurdity that is LOH making us a bit better there than arena.

Going way more simplistic... BGs/RBGs are a "mess". In fact every large group pvp activity where the objective isn't kill all the oposing players to win, every underpowered spec can, at least, do ok. Unless in weird conditions (like 1v1 in a BG. For example, you're the last flag defender standing) others can do the job for you and you help them.

Arenas is a diferent story, since you only win by defeating the entire team, they'll micromanage the match and always put you in a place where all your weakeness are exposed and these specs will be indentified as the weakest link. There is no heroic flag cap to save the day, no "almost 1600, hold it!", nothing... you die, your team is one step closer to loose, they die, you're probably done too.

[beingmused]

Going way more simplistic... BGs/RBGs are a "mess". In fact every large group pvp activity where the objective isn't kill all the oposing players to win, every underpowered spec can, at least, do ok. Unless in weird conditions (like 1v1 in a BG. For example, you're the last flag defender standing) others can do the job for you and you help them.

Arenas is a diferent story, since you only win by defeating the entire team, they'll micromanage the match and always put you in a place where all your weakeness are exposed and these specs will be indentified as the weakest link. There is no heroic flag cap to save the day, no "almost 1600, hold it!", nothing... you die, your team is one step closer to loose, they die, you're probably done too.

Yes, it is easier to hide underpowered specs in a 10v10 format than 3v3, for obvious reasons. But underpowered in Arena does *not* automatically translate into underpowered in RBGs. They play differently. Rets preform better in RBGs because the gamestyle plays more to their strengths and less to their weaknesses.

[Reith]

I would love it if they lowered the GCD of Cleanse for Retribution to a flat 1 second and lowered the mana cost by 20% with Acts of Sacrifice. That in itself would help our mobility immensely and it wouldn't be too powerful.