Updated 2/27/2011. Finally! Retribution Paladin news! Patch 4.1 has hit the PTR servers, and it looks like we are in store for a fun patch! I will continuously keep this post updated with the most current Ret Paladin news on the PTRs,so keep checking back!
My updates will be at the bottom of the post, and they will be updated frequently!
Here is a quick summary on what we know so far (non-Ret related):
- Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman are back as 5-man Heroics!
- ZG and ZA will again have mounts to loot! Different models, though.
- Loot in ZG and ZA will be epic level 353 quality.
- AoE is getting looked at across the board.
- Every profession trainer/profession supplier in every major city.
- Mages getting a Polymorph: Baby spell!
- 2 new account-bound, custom guild tabards via guild rewards.
- Work has started on a new Looking for Guild system.
- Several new achievements.
- Multiple epic quality 359 crafted gear pieces are getting stat reductions.
- Just kidding on the polymorph: baby thing.
- Old Ironforge will be accessible.
Extra
- For you keyboarders: “Spells bound to a key now start to be cast when the button is pressed down by default, instead of waiting for the key to go up. This is an option that can be turned off in the Interface menu under Combat. Mouse clicking has not changed and operates on mouse click up.”
Retribution Paladins Patch 4.1
General
- Word of Glory now has a 20-second cooldown.
- Divine Light now costs 30% of base mana, down from 33%.
- Flash of Light now costs 27% of base mana, down from 30%.
Retribution
- Divine Storm now generates 1 point of Holy Power if it hits (i.e. successfully lands on) 4 or more targets.
- Sacred Shield’s internal cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds, up from 30.
Sources:
- Blizzard PTR Notes: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2356431
- MMO Champion
Patch 4.1 Update 2/27/2011
Looks like old Ironforge will be available! That’s just awesome.
I copied my character over to the PTR, had to reset all my talents of course, and didn’t notice any major changes the last couple nights, other than what has already been mentioned. I tried to get into ZG and ZA, but for some reason I was plagued with bugs and crashes.
I was constantly unable to mount, had all kinds of inventory issues, and kept getting random crashes. I think I sent in maybe 5 bug reports overall. Anyways, tonight is a possible raid night for my guild, so I’ll try to jump back on the PTRs afterwards, or tomorrow.
Patch 4.1 Update 2/25/2011
Word of Glory
From the limited information thus far, it’s hard to get a read on what Blizz has in store for Ret Paladins. One thing that did catch my eye (of course), was this little snippet:
“Word of Glory: We want Retribution and Protection paladins to have reasonable healing on themselves or others, but we know paladins sometimes feel like they can’t use their Holy Power on anything but their heals in some situations. We’d rather these two specs spend most of their Holy Power on damage-dealing abilities, with occasional healing.”
So, Word of Glory gets a 20-second cooldown? Whugh. All of you out there who were constantly defending the utility role…say adios! I myself was not fond of being a utility player, so I didn’t even try, unless I was healing myself. But this still hurts.
I’ve got to believe there is something more to this change than what we are seeing right now.
Divine Storm
Looks like Elitist Jerks and Blizz agree! 4 targets or more for Divine Storm, and now we get that coveted Holy Power generation we were asking for!
I for one welcome any new changes. Especially when they are not too nerfifying. ( That is my word you can use it but only if you quote my name in honour )
Anyhow, the whole ‘Word of Glory’ cool down would have been a much more detrimental thing to me personally when I was grinding up to 85. Now its not so much of a problem. I can managed most adds and even in heroics the healer seems to do fine by me.
It would have been a greater problem for everyone as a whole if the latest patch didn’t give us the dps boost we needed. I was using it often even at 85 prior to the latest boost.
The role of ret seems to of lent back down to DPS from what you say Khor as a utility. I did enjoy the new way of playing and many a tank ive save with my lay on hands or healer helped with my word of glory or that heal over time thing we have that ive forgotten the name of er…. ” healotimer ” something like that.
Anyhow. I’m glad for the new content also and hope to get those mounts. Currently struggling through all the argent tournament dailies to get the mounts for my 100. sigh.
oh and Khor:
* Just kidding on the polymorph: baby thing.
I read this at work at 7:30 am. made me smile, ta very much
I’ll miss the WoG / Zealotry combo for filling up the health bar, especially when soloing.
But the Divine Storm change is great, just what we needed. So I’ll take it and be happy.
Soloed ZA today, just to celebrate the return of the troll mounts. Oh, and +433 Strength on multiple trinkets? Yes Please!
Nice to see that DS will finally be able to generate HoPo, personally I was hoping for 3 or more mobs, not 4. Trash packs, with 1 or 2 CCs on them will more often than not have 3 or less mobs so DS, for the vast amount of time, will still be less useful but more so than it is now. Still wondering if it will actually be worth it. Raid boss DPS doesn’t rely on much AoE, so when it counts it is still lacking (IMO). However, it will be good for soloing but I can make do without.
CD on WoG /sigh this is bad news, more so for the pvp side of things, that’s for sure, no more double WoG heals. Being able to use a double WoG or a single WoG and TV is very situational in both PvE and PvP, it should be up to the individual player as to whether or not they sacrifice a 3stack HoPo/Hand of Light/Eternal Glory proc to double WoG Heal. I would say 80% of the time I would use TV but against some classes/combos and in certain raid situation a double WoG is a serious life saver and can change the outcome in both instances.
Mages getting a Polymorph: Baby spell! – instantly thought of Mortal Combat lol thanks for the flash back Khor
Any mention of another ability to generate Holy Power besides Divine Storm? Has any one else noticed that in the beginning of a fight Divine Purpose procs. I tried a few fights while doing dailies and if I start with Judgement , DP seems to proc often. Is this just RNG? It would be nice if DP worked this way.
A new glyph could be made:
Glyph of Divine Purpose
Your initial melee attack will cause your next Holy Power ability to consume no Holy Power and to cast as if 3 Holy Power were consumed.
Or like Protpally let Divine Plea work for all pallys the same. They gave prot and holy Rebuke give us The part of Shield of the Templar that DP generates 3 HP.
Would be nice?!?
Hey – since there are no more forums, but there seems like a good number of knowledgeable ret pallys around here, I’m posting this request here.
I’m a lvl 74 Ret, currently running through my first time (started playing about 1.5 months ago). For the most part, I’m a key-binder, but as I’ve continued through my progression, I’m struggling with a good layout on keybinds. Particularly troublesome for me are things like Zealotry and wings.
I was curious about getting people’s thoughts on some tried and true keybindings for a ret pally. There’s a lot of information out there, but often it’s specific to other classes, and I have no idea what any of those abilities do yet.
Thanks!
-S
Very glad about the DS holy power generation. This was way too long coming consider a lot of us can AoE very effectively with Seal of Righteousness in raids and 5 mans alike. It will be nice to generate that extra holy power for the seal switch back to seal of truth on single target.
So does DS still share its CD with CS?
F’ck yeah! ZG is comming back!
goodbye soloing dailies easily… hello dense embersilk bandage… and foodstock…
Well I am terribly dissapointed on the WOG nerf as it seems that Blizz only care about PVE. I am a PVP Prot pally and this is going to hurt me. Blood DK’s have so many healing abilities, Druid and warrior tanks have the rage to health mechanic and WOG used to keep me alive in arena where LOH doesn’t work. My heals are so bad that if I try any heal while I’m are getting hit I end up lower than when i started or just in a stalemate.
And I honestly think the “We’d rather these two specs spend most of their Holy Power on damage-dealing abilities, with occasional healing.” is a load of crap, people are just finding it too hard to take down prot pallies in pvp.
Rant ended
I like the divine storm change.
I would also like to say, for the record, that I was defending the utility role when it was the only thing we had ;p
hi there..
I am new in game and would like ask about what you meant by “Old Ironforge”?
@ jello
Old Ironforge is an area that exists in the game but is currently inaccessible. Basically, according to the lore, it is a cavern complex beneath the city of Ironforge that serves as an ancestral burial ground for the dwarven rulers and also contains a titan artifact (*the* Iron Forge).
Some people have glitched their way in to this area and screenshots do exist, but is not possible to get in by any normal means. Apparently, Blizz is going to open it up and let us all inside.
as retribution pally I have been healing myself with WoG in 5-man instances or raid to help the healer in difficult situations (massive AOE damages). This has helped me a lot and saved my life several times. Also when the tank died and I was taking over for a few seconds, this helped me to survive enough to finish the mob (healer was focusing on me and I was then using my holy powers to keep me alive as long as possible). However it does not allow me to tank a boss like a real tank…it s just about surviving enough when mob is alreasy at like 10%
however it is wrong to think I am not using holy power for damaging abilities, as TV is one of our main spell in our rotation. So I find it very wrong to remove that from us.
This usage to heal me is just circumstancial and I do not see anything wrong with it.
at first i was like ” OMG WTF NOOOOOOO WHY”
but actually, it’s not that bad at all, though i find it concerning that rogues are getting a heal buff, which will probably make them way harder to kill :/
I’m only able to read this post and not the real patch realm notes cause the server is to busy,, but anyway
I can see how this can be sort of a good thing for Ret Palla,, who PVE,, for PVP on the other hand this just suck imo,, i mean a 20 sec cd on WoG and 3% less mana costs on FoL and Dl,, thats not really balanced if you ask me,, also the Ds ability i personally dont even have in PVP cause imo its useless there,,
Concidering i only PVP,, this new changes imo (so far ive read em here) just suck… WoG was my main thing to stay alive if i was fighting a warr or rogue,, the last patch was just perfect imo,,, sad to see they made this changes,, i hope it will become a bit more like it is now in future patches..
I have recently returned to my Ret Pally after a layoff of several months and am really struggling to get my head round the new rotation. Not only am I have trouble how to follow the rotation but how to set upi my keybinds. For some reason my mind has blocked this problem. After 3 weeks of play at lvl 85 and and average GS of 340 i can still only manage 7.9k dps. the rotation that applies to me is
?Inq > CS> TV> Exo> HW > Judge > HW > Cons
With 3 Holy Power
?Inquisition > TV
I have to start the rotation somehow and atm am using Judge as an opener – and tbh after that trying to watch for 3 HP and then decide to use TV or Inq is a trifle confusing.
Any helpful suggestions welcome
Thanks in advance
My toon is iskirra on Nagrand EU btw
If your getting rid of word of glory make it easier to gain holy power then. I find ret palys on the lower end of the dps meter. I felt word of glory evened that out. Also changeing that effects the pvp play. Thats what word of glory is for. You have you dk’s with blood tap. So if your going to give word of glory a cooldown might as well increase the amount of healing it does. Either then that does it effect holy as well.
Slim – “I was curious about getting people’s thoughts on some tried and true keybindings for a ret pally. ”
Dear Slim, it just so happens I solved your problem less than a week ago myself. Macro this:
#Showtooltip Zealotry
/castsequence reset=combat/target Zealotry, Avenging Wrath, Inquisition, Templar’s Verdict
and bind it to your [Mouse-wheel]. Make sure to pop your Guardian as well when you really want to wallop on someone/something. A 5 min CD isn’t something you want in your cast sequence tho. Make it separate. My personal guardian is on [Shift+Mouse-wheel] so if I really wanna roll face I just have to tap the shift while I’m rolling… yaddamean? If you use Bartender4 it’s quite a simple matter to keybind. If you don’t use Bartender4 download it from Curse.com that will help you organize your bars.
If you want to then keep track of your CDs without actually having the buttons visible on your bars, download ForteXorcist from Curse.com. That add-on provides visual timers so you know when your CDs are up and ready. I’ve removed the CDs off my bars entirely and its reliable.
Iskirra – “After 3 weeks of play at lvl 85 and and average GS of 340 i can still only manage 7.9k dps.”
Few things.
First: Max Pali dps still requires two filler spells between Crusader strikes. Based on priority, pick two of the following: Hammer of Wrath, x3_HP TV, Instant-exorcism, Holy Wrath, Judge, OR Consecration in that order.
Second: In most cases it’s an overall DPS increase to refresh Inquisition at 4 seconds or less regardless of how much holy power you have. Otherwise it should always be up during combat. I noticed it helps if I use my Divine Purpose proc to cast a 30 second Inquisition for longer fights and just a 1-2 holy power Inq. for short fights. Use your best judgement.
Finally: Unless you’re popping Zeoltry and Avenging wrath together every 2 min in a dungeon, you WONT break 7k. That’s just not gonna happen very often. In a 30 min dungeon you can cast those 15 times. My guess is you didn’t pop CDs +15 times if you cant break 7k dps. And make sure to pop Guardian on boss fights when you have enough time to DPS them.
Just saying… I’m frequently top 5 in Battle grounds for damage and kills, and have seen burst of over 26k DPS in dungeons.
To be honest…. i think paladins should get divine storm back with out being on a cooldown with crusader strike. You say want paladins to do more damage. Well this would help there damage and would be nice sence you are have WOG on a 20 sec cd