Before I get started, This discussion is for Retribution ONLY
My Intentions here are solely to discuss my thoughts on how Retribution can be improved from in terms of fixing quality of life issues and address ability bloat without hurting the spec's depth. Keep in mind, none of my criticism's are related to balance itself, I don't believe Paladin's are imbalanced, so when I refer to something as weak, its more feel rather than realistic numbers.[/I]
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GCD:
Reduce our GCD down to 1s. At current, I feel the GCD issue hinders your output (Talking from a design perspective rather than balance) too much during CD phases where several damaging abilities are available. I feel its simply bad design to put players in a position where all their strongest spells are available at once but can't be capitalised on. It feels bad and isn't justifiable. If balance is an issue, then numbers deserve to be tweaked elsewhere.
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Seals:
At the moment they don't feel good. Whilst this issue isn't specific to Paladins (DK Presences are in a similar state), it doesn't mean it shouldn't be addressed.
I propose that the seals are reduced to 3, one for each spec. The 2 seals not assigned to your spec become semi powerful cooldowns.
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Seal of Insight:
Holy:
Increases casting speed by 10% and restores X mana on crit.
Protection/Retribution:
1 Minute Cooldown
Removes the Paladin's current Seal to empower the Paladin's damaging spells to heal for x% of all damage dealt for 15 seconds.
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Seal of Truth:
Retribution:
The Paladin's attacks and damaging spells apply Censure, dealing X damage over time and stacking up to 5. Censure also increases holy damage taken by Y%.
Protection/Holy:
1 Minute Cooldown
Removes the Paladin's current Seal to empower all single target damaging abilities to deal X% increased holy damage and restore Y% Mana for 15 seconds.
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Seal of Righteousness:
Protection:
The Paladin's attacks and damaging spells deal X% additional damage to all surrounding targets.
Retribution/Holy:
1 Minute Cooldown
Removes the Paladin's current Seal to empower all single target damaging and healing spells to deal additional x% holy damage or x% healing to surrounding targets for 15 seconds.
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Crusader Strike:
Whilst mentioned in the previously linked thread already, this spell should have its CD removed entirely, even if it means lowering its damage. With melee specs already experiencing more downtime in fights than ranged (as a result of having to move out of fire, etc), I feel there is less reason to leave our non-burst phases in such a slow, boring and plain weak state.
Hammer of the Righteous:
Just remove this spell and leave it for Protection Paladins. I don't think many Ret Paladin's like it and its not very exciting or interesting.
Holy Wrath:
Give it (Back) to Ret. Is worth casting at 3 or more targets. Short CD, generates Holy Power ONLY if it hits 3 or more targets.
Consecration:
Give it back to Ret. 15s CD, 8s Duration, let it not actually be strong itself but debuffs the target allowing Divine Storm to deal increased damage.
Divine Storm:
Let it cost 1 Holy Power and apply 1 stack of Censure to all targets (Regardless of whether Seal of Truth is active). (Allows a SoR > Cons > HW > DS > CS > DS > CS > DS type rotation.
Judgment:
Give it a higher CD, when damaging targets with 5 stacks of Censure the target becomes 'Damned' receiving increased holy damage. (This feels nice in terms of class favour, Censure is an expression of disapproval, so when its stacked and you judge the target, they become damned, its a concept that makes sense gameplay wise and thematically)
Exorcism:
Let it replace Denounce (The holy only spell) and become baseline for all paladins. Give it a cast time AND remove its CD/Holy Power Generation whilst buffing damage a bit, (allowing for ranged spam if needed to retain some DPS when you can't be in melee range).
Allow this to also replace cleanse. When casted on friendly targets, it doesn't have a cast time and if it dispels something, it triggers a CD (Much like dispels do already)
This way the spell now feels really cool and situational on all classes as a damage tool but also functions as a cleanse. For holy, it will help address ability bloat too and lets the spell do more of what it says it does.
Art of War:
Let it remove the cast time on Exorcism and allow it to generate holy power on the next cast. Allow AoW to proc off Censure and auto attacks though at a reduced rate when Censure is active on several targets.
This means when spamming Exo at range, they can stack Censure and still allow for some AoW procs.
Inquisition:
Remove it. We have an AoE Holy Power spell, a Single Target, and a self healing spell. We don't need a 4th holy power consumer. It doesn't feel good, Censure should feel like a ramp up mechanic, we dont need this.
Avenging Wrath/GoAK:
Next patch, both spells will have a 3m CD and will be stacked by all specs. Its unnecessary. Just combine them into one spell.
Vengeance of Ancient Kings:
Essentially it summons the Guardian and gives you wings as well combining and consolidating the two spells visually.
It should however function like the Holy Avenger talent generating 3HP per HP generating spell.
Single Target Rotation simples becomes: CS > TV > CS > TV > CS > TV replacing CS with HoW (when off CD below 35% HP) or Exo (during AoW procs)
AoE Rotation becomes: SoR > Cons > HW > DS*3 > CS/Exo/HoW > DS*3 > CS/Exo/HoW > DS*3
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Talents:
Tier 5 should be removed entirely due to the above changes.
The talents should be simple, and all competitive, but all change the spec's rotation considerably.
Some suggestions for replacement talents:
Crusader's Conviction:
Allows every second Crusader Strike (Ret), HotR (Prot) and Holy Shock (Holy) to generate 2 HP (This is naturally a big deal for everyone, downside is that it will not function during the VotAK cooldown)
Judicator's Judgment:
Reduces the CD on Judgment by 3s (to 12s CD) and causes Judgment to always generate 2 additional holy power (Justified by the CD, thats 5HP during VotAK though) and allows AoW (And Prot/Holy procs) to occur more frequently.
Vindicator's Vengeance:
Templar's Verdict, Divine Storm, Shield of the Righteous, Word of Glory and Light of Dawn all have a chance to consume no holy power whilst all holy power generating spells have a chance to generate an addition holy power.
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Conclusion:
This essentially adds depth to Ret spec without adding extra buttons. The AoE rotation is VASTLY different to the single target rotation and during the suggested VotAK cooldown, the rotations change further temporarily.
It removes frustrating aspects such as Inquisition and adds extra skill into the increased need to make decisions and absolutely optimise time spent in melee range (due to CS spam) whilst offering better players ways to mitigate DPS loss via Exorcism.
The rotation will feel more fluid and the level 75 talents offer differing playstyles that make you choose between high theoretical dps, higher realistic dps and potentially higher DPS if you can react quickly to RNG.
Being a discussion thread, post what YOU want to see done to Ret Spec.