So I've played this game for four and a half years and its been a blast for the majority of it. Nearly the entire time I spent playing this game was on a ret paladin and I have no regrets about that. From my early days of Karazhan, Magtheridon, and Gruul to clearing 6/7 heroic Firelands, I have seen it all. From the highs of slaying the ultimate bad guys like Illidan, Kil'Jaeden and Lich King, I have enjoyed my time immensely, but its time for me to move along. Prentice is officially retired.
Recently I find that I've been struggling to find the motivation to log on. I'll try not to QQ too much about the current state of things, but this is not the spec that I have loved for almost half a decade. I completely understand the developers wanting to go a different direction and I applaud their efforts. While there are still a few glaring flaws with the spec, it has certainly evolved and matured. The days of whack-a-mole WotLK ret and Seal of Casino TBC are long gone. Seal-twisting, Judgement of Seal of Blood one-shotting me, and automating my Divine Storm procs are all a thing of the past.
Now I know better than anyone that I wasn't the best ret out there, but I was decent and I'm okay with that. Spending the last 9 months of my time in this game watching grossly undergeared players of other classes out-perform me simply because of the spec I chose has worn me down enough to make the decision to call it quits. I'm certainly not hating on those other players. I was the stupid one for continuing to play a spec that I knew wasn't going to cut it in the long run. I made several posts on the WoW forums with my opinions, but as you would expect they were unanswered. Changes need to be made, numbers need to be tweaked, and the developers need to realize that ret pallys(most) never wanted to be rogues.
I'll tie off the QQ there. Because I will no longer be playing WoW, I will no longer be needing the services here at MMO-Champion. Despite my tiffs with some of the big dogs here, its been a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed the community of the pally forums over the years. I've learned a lot here and it definitely made me a better player. For those aspiring to reach new heights as a ret pally, you simply need to ask. There are still quite a few excellent players that frequent these boards and most are more than willing to offer their assistance.
Best of luck to you all and thanks for the ride.
Prentice