Retribution Paladins are getting some welcomed changes in Patch 4.0.6. I have covered these specifically in another post, and I’d like to now focus on what we can expect to literally change our gameplay. If you would like to read the Patch 4.0.6 changes specific to Retribution Paladins, you can do so at the following page:
Now, as Patch 4.0.6 gets closer to going live, we will be making some changes to gear, stat priorities, rotations, gameplayetc. I’d like to cover all those main points, in addition to some of the smaller, more miscellaneous ones as well.
I will be pulling my information from the PTR 4.0.6 notes found HERE.
Major Retribution Changes
- Templar’s Verdict should jump up in priority on the FCFS rotation list. How far is yet to be determined, but with the new Hand of Light Mastery damage buff, Templar’s Verdict is trying to becoming our strongest attack, as it should be.
- Mastery rating itself will jump up in stat priority. Right now I have it ahead of crit and haste, but by the time everything goes live, it may fall more in line with being fairly equal. This means there may not be much reforging needed past hit/expertise caps. We will know more once Blizzard ends up with a solid Mastery damage buff number.
- Rebuke will be a trained talent at level 54. This means every Paladin spec now has a viable interrupt. If you haven’t learned to use it regularly in dungeons and raids, now is the time.
General Changes
- Guild Battle Standards will increase reputation by 10%, in addition to experience and honor. Good for placing one of these for a boss kill!
- Dwarf racial Stoneform now reduces damage taken by 10%. Big change for Dwarf Paladins!
- Human racial Every Man for Himself down to a 2 minute cooldown. Good for human Paladins in giving a more frequent movement impairing effect removal. PvPers /cheer.
Gearing Changes
- All crafted gear pieces will now have a gem slot. Get an extra gem or two ready, because when you log onto 4.0.6, you’ll have some fresh gem slots waiting on those Blacksmithing items!
- There will now be an Alchemist Stone for Strength. Yikes!
- There will be a new +50 strength enchant to wrists available. It’s a rare world drop, so I expect this one to be pricey. But at least it gives us something better than the Wrath attack power enchant!
- There is also a new meta gem we will be using (more than likely): Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond, which will give 54 strength and +3% crit damage. Meta requirement is 3 red gems. The recipe will be a world drop, so I expect these to be pricey at first too.
- All PvP 4-set bonuses have had their flat stat values cut in half. That’s a big blow to Paladins using these for PvE benefits, since the strength was outperforming normal PvE gear at times.
“All PvP sets have had their flat stat values cut in half. That’s a big blow to Paladins using these for PvE benefits.”
What does that mean exactly? Could you give an example? Pvp items offensive stats are being reduced?
Haha that’s pretty huge isn’t it! I was going too fast, it’s the 4piece set bonuses that are getting cut by half. Players were choosing to equip 4 PvP for the 4-piece bonus over normal PvE pieces. This is aimed to keep that PvP gear out of high PvE use. /fixed
Mastery is as you write quite equal to Crit/Haste BUT, if our mastery is going to start working with Inq then the Mastery rating is gonna get a great boost and end up alot better then Crit/Haste.
I am ofc saying this cuss of the post that blizzard did when they first stated the Mastery Change: “Instead, we are redesigning Retribution mastery to add a percentage of the damage of Templar’s Verdict, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm as Holy damage (which also plays better with Inquisition).”
The Elementium Deathplate did not have a socket as of last time I logged into the PTR. I don’t know if this is just a change that hasn’t been pushed yet, or if it’s permanent.
The Deathplate isn’t enough better without the socket to make it worth the cost, but after the socket it may just be worth it.
@ Random – Yes, my guess is that Mastery WILL outweigh crit and haste, but 4.0.6 isn’t live yet, so they could still make changes. They already nerfed HoL from 2.5% to 2.1%, so we’ll see if the adjust it further
@ Lykaon – The Deathplate is pretty much on par with the Justice Point chest (when gemmed correctly),. So my assumption is that, yes, the Deathplate will slightly edge out the JP chest once 4.0.6 goes live.
Hey, guys
Just wanted to put out a discovery a guildmate of mine has made regarding reforging. He told me of an add-on, Reforginator, which help decide which stats to select when reforging. I’ve been using it, and it seems to know we need 8% Hit Rating and 26% Expertise and then tries to balance out Haste, Crit, and Mastery. So far it seems to be a big help. Has anyone else used it? If so, are there any problems with it that I may have been overlooking?
Hi Khor
If mastery gets a boost with the patch, does the Baradin Warden’s mastery trinket become a priority? I’m trying to best determine how to use Tol Barad tokens. Thanks.
@ Hudewey – The TB trinket will be MUCH better, but I don’t think it will be top priority. I think top priority on trinkets will still belong to the +strength trinkets. The TB trinket should be a solid option until you can upgrade.
Will the elementium deathplate get one or two sockets?
I believe it is juts one socket. WOuld be nice if it had 2, though
It would have been nice to see a quicker cd on CS with this fix…
feels real slow, like I’m watching the second hand on a clock tick around or something. Glad so see some kind of DPS boost though!
So would it be safe to say for instance.. if CS is doing 135% wep damage & we get 16% extra from the base mastery 8% as holy…would we really be somewhere around 155%?….if so thats a helluva boost.
Posted by Rlimbaugh
Is the new Mastery we have suppose to be affected by inquisition or not? Been wondering that since it was announced.
Posted by Lylirra (blue)
It is. There was a bug that was preventing this from occurring, though, but it should be resolved in the next PTR build.
This means that Inquision goes back to the “base level” of mastery aka. 21% (16.8 * 1.3 = 21.84)
And per point we are getting 2.73% per Mastery (2.1% * 1.3 = 2.73%)
In net this makes as of now that Master is on top of Haste/Crit
And also a little update on HoW:
Posted by Samaul
Hammer of Wrath damage has been nerfed by 50% on the 4.0.6 PTR.
Posted by Lylirra (blue)
This is actually a bug. A very non-excessive, non-stealthy bug. There was small coding change in the latest PTR build that caused Hammer of Wrath, a ranged ability, to use ranged attack power instead of melee attack power. The change itself was completely unintended and has since been corrected.
This looks great for PVE but PVP is another issue. Mages and other casters continue to dominate. It is not a problem for a mage to freeze an entire raiding group in battlegrounds, and for another to do the same. Even as we gain in dps and damage, melee is going to get excluded and passed over for healers and casters.
The preference appears to be deliberate, wanton and capricious. Good luck with the new skill set but unless other chages occur there will be continued and significant frustration in BG’s and arenas from the crowd control and caster damage. I can’t imagine if we were left in our present state. If you look at the 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 ladder, you can rarely find a Ret Paladin in the first 100 teams!
Hi Khor
Any idea when this patch goes live? Very anxious to see what the changes do
. Thanks.