What a long.. strange trip it’s been. Err. Wait.
It seems like not that long ago that I was announcing that I’ve finally gathered together a makeshift Retribution set to finally represent the website that I write and am thoroughly a part of. All of the time spent with Slatyon on my Rogue granted me a spot on this website, and I tried not to abuse the power.. too much. Come February, I finally decided it was time to dust off the old Paladin alt off the shelf and give him a whirl. After getting Gladiator as Holy, it was about that time to be true to Retpaladin.com. Within two months, I’ve gathered together a set to be reckoned with. With high hopes of getting Gladiator this season as Ret without running a double melee cleave comp (Ret/Disc/Destro||Affliction is our combination), I hope to hold Slayton’s torch high and contribute to the community any way I can. Starting with videos. Some day.
I promised you all an update on the PTR situation. As it stands, I’m thoroughly impressed. There are a lot of threads on our forums discussing all of the changes that went down, some arguing for good for bad. For me, the PTR has given me nothing but a good taste in my mouth, and continues to do so. PvE DPS has been increased by a considerable amount, and I believe that our PvP viability has gone up as well. I stand far more of a chance against any combination of players that I’ve faced so far, and I haven’t lost any real duels unless I get RNGd by a fellow Ret. With Blizzard finally fixing the situation with Crusader Strike’s mana cost (8% -> 5%), the outlook so far is good as long as they integrate Seal of Vengeance into the.. not-breaking-repentance mechanic they promised us long ago. Still saving my final mega-post for when the patch notes are almost a guaranteed final (~Week before patch day)!
With all of my experiences with the class in the past, it’s been terribly fun to finally pick up Retribution and go buck-wild on people. I’ve turned from somebody who knew everything about the class with basic implementation into PvP, to an actual beacon of hope (surely no exaggeration here!). I’ll try my best to not disappoint you all, I should be releasing videos soon enough even though my system as of current is the virtual equivalent of a 9yr old gypsy’s toenail. With the site’s success and responsibility now riding on almost purely my shoulders (not to mention Hoff and the mysterious new writer), it has definitely become a priority to keep the #1 Retribution source on the top for as long as mortally possible.
Shenanigans. - Megaphone Miniphone the Ret
Edit : Have decided on a PTR dueling video. Trying to match up against some of the higher ranked players, so far I’ve dueled one frost mage that’s up-to-par. Don’t blame me if it’s Angeles quality though!
July 3rd, 2009 - 1:52 pm
Thanks for the insight/info into what the new proposed changes do for the Retribution Paladin (I feel you on the lack of a real system too). However, from everything I’ve read and researched these changes are considered by most to be a serious nerf for PVP and a nice buff for PVE. Will you elaborate more on the PVP aspect?
July 3rd, 2009 - 2:12 pm
Even before you were a paladin your views to the outside classes of WoW gave us a fair view point on where we stood in the overall scheme of things. Rather for, or against, whatever changes we had coming you’ve been honest about it. I don’t think there’s really anyone who could do any better in carrying the torch Slayton passed on than the man we have doing it, so keep at it Mega.
So you said you’ve gotten more PvP viability than many expected even with the changes, any particular reasoning to that?
July 3rd, 2009 - 2:18 pm
I feel like our pvp viability vs 3.1 went up. But with overall resil changes it just seems harder then before really.
July 3rd, 2009 - 4:07 pm
people are reporting on the ptr that when you use SoV in pvp not only do you build up the stacks you need to start dealing proc damage in a few cooldowns, but you also judge extremely hard, even without raid buffs. combined with having exorcism to line up nukes at regular intervals, this should only improve ret’s situation.
thanks for the continuing work you do on this site, megaphone. it’s nice to see that this will continue to be a useful ret resource even with slayton moving on to a career in the armed forces and, obviously, not having the time to keep the site updated and running. keep up the good work, man.
also, your undead pally looks funny with a mustache.
July 3rd, 2009 - 5:47 pm
Have fun when Blizzard changes SoV to say “Does not work on players” and we’re screwed.
July 4th, 2009 - 2:01 am
Thankfully is getting to the point where they can buff us in PvE when needed and its not effecting PvP to much to the extent they may have to nerf anything in PvE :D.
That being said its seems there is a lot of good and bad feed back from people in regards to our DPS, from my own PTR work for my guild I came to the same conculson as Mega/Mini in regards to our DPS
I’m looking at a 700-800 dps increase on a target that moves very little, yay.(on my live copy BTW) though i’d be interested to know what dps range other people have been getting(on their live or PTR copy). Oh is it me or did anyone else stop going OOM fast in the PTR?
oh I live for this site, hehe
July 4th, 2009 - 1:25 pm
I have no doubt about the DPS increase in PVE on stationary targets… my thing is in PVP when that resto druid is not going to just stand there like a statue (not like we dont struggle with healers as it is) and let us stack SoV 5 times. How does the SoV stack & judge mechanic really work in the battlegrounds/arena? What about the dreaded RMP 3’s combo? is that priest really going to let me stack SoV 5 times without a dispel? Because it seems to me that in PVP without an SoV we don’t have a enough DPS.
I might be off, but thats what it looks like from my angle.
July 4th, 2009 - 2:23 pm
Make us proud MegaMini
July 4th, 2009 - 6:36 pm
Oh trust me, I’ll try
July 4th, 2009 - 6:36 pm
*WILL
July 4th, 2009 - 9:42 pm
You have much to live up to, but I am sure you will rise to the challenge. On a side note, when are you going to get Khamil to write for you guys?
July 4th, 2009 - 10:27 pm
SoC was meant to be for PvP, they didn’t make the SoV remake with the intent for PvP. one of the reason for the 5 stack on targets was to lower burst damage and discourage its use for PvP. IN regards to the stationary targets, you should see a DPS increase even in ulduar where you have to jump around like a crazy jack rabbit, don’t forget you’re not off any bosses for too long which means where you lost DPS before you still have a 5 stack dot chillin on the boss, no matter how long it stays when your not attacking matters little. multi tasking dmg
Tho i will move m imputs to the forums and kep from cloggin the comments section, hehe
July 5th, 2009 - 12:03 am
well its about damn time! hopefully you can fill slaytons shoes well =P
July 6th, 2009 - 12:22 pm
SoV for PVE and SoC for PVP that’s blizzard’s goal. as of right now, who the hell use SoC for PVP?
I’m glad that we see dps increase, however; how are we comparing to other classes? if we are really getting 800-900 dps increase, are we now at the same dps level as other classes? remember that blizzard said our dps fell short in ulduar. we’re not the only one having changes with the new patch. wat “IF” other classes are getting 1500 dps increase? it will still make us useless and unwanted by raids.
SoV can be dispel, but I think with a PVP partner such as rouge’s poison or dk’s dieases or mage’s forst debuffs it will be very hard to dispel anything, even now i have trouble cleanse anything off anyone. then there is a chance where people will go dual ret with SoV. how many can you cleanse or dispel, your healer still have to heal. if we keep using SoV as PVP, I don’t think Blizzard will fix the repentance break from the DoT effect just to discourage us from using SoV for PVP. and yes, it will sucks if SoV stop working against another player. So, can anyone test the difference between SoV/SoC aganist a dummy and against other live targets(players).
July 6th, 2009 - 11:42 pm
I would not put much hope on that they will fix repentance. Blizzard have broken so many promises through the years and I think this is another of those. Especially when they don’t want us to use SoV in pvp.
I would not be surprised if they nerfed us in some way. The only way to make us use Seal of Command is to either buff it or nerf SoV in pvp. I suspect the later. I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I am wrong.
Right now I don’t like the feeling of spending 5 points in the holy tree and missing out on some really good prot talents.
July 7th, 2009 - 1:52 am
Gonna be big-headed right now, but I always rofl when people say things like “it will still make us useless and unwanted by raids”, because truthfully, I’m always in the top 5 on the dps recount in Ulduar 25man. I can’t wait to see ret dps in 3.2.
July 7th, 2009 - 7:40 pm
If you were planning on making a post regarding the new PTR patch notes I’ll apologize now MiniMega, but I can’t remain silent about it.
Blizz, in it’s great wisdom, has decided to give mages and priests a 20% MS on frostbolt and mindblast.
Personally I’m outraged.
Mages and priests are definitely not in need of a buff (especially an MS), and this will just encourage more RMP comps seeing as they all have MSs now….
One can only hope that, like the paladin MS on CS, this is removed.
July 7th, 2009 - 10:41 pm
Okay This is way wrong place for this, but I am stoned and lazy. I’m sitting in raid, bored, bitching about the JoL change, and how I liked having a Judge that was better for ret to use. When I starting thinking about how it would be pretty cool if they gave Judgments a secondary effect that was either Talented in each tree, or built-in that are situational. Not really sure if I have seen anything on adding to judgments, but I thought I would put it out there. Not really one to come up with anything cool, but you know. maybe light doing something for ret, wis for holy, and justice for prot. Not that we are known for getting secondary effects on out shit, but I can hope eh.
July 8th, 2009 - 6:50 am
I welcome these changes. Finally we can break free of these old stigmas. Even if these changes break us for a little while, hopefully they are the break through or leap we have desperately needed in our evolution process. Will we ever be ‘perfect’, of course not. What class is?
July 8th, 2009 - 7:57 am
I’m sure everyone hear will be happy to read that frost mages and shadow priests just got MS effects on the ptr.
~Seraphitalia of Gorgonnash
July 8th, 2009 - 10:39 am
orz
just give everyone MS effect then we’re all happy.