Hey, Solsacra here. I’ve been involved with the Paladin community since The Burning Crusade and am a longtime Mythic Raider, Retribution Theorycrafter and former guide writer. I also moderate the Hammer of Wrath discord server. I hope this breakdown will shed some light on the changes Retribution has been receiving this testing cycle.
Retribution in Battle for Azeroth continues to play similarly to Legion Ret. One simple yet powerful change, is a shift in Mastery’s design. Mastery now provides an increase to all Holy damage done, even when striking unjudged targets. As such, we no longer have
심판 as the centerpiece of Ret’s rotation in which we want to fit as many finishers into a brief window as possible.
심판 complements instead of dominates the rotation, being limited to only one finisher. Though, being consumed so quickly leaves a bit to be desired and raises questions of how its presence might impact the decision to AoE with three targets present when also talented into
정의로운 선고.
We also have significant improvements in the talent trees layout. Many of the rows now have a singular thematic focus. Such as Single target, AoE, utility, and survivability talents all having their own row. As opposed to what we see now in Legion, which is a mess of different types of throughput and pacing talents mashed on to one row, often times in jarring ways.
The ‘AoE’ tier is of particular interest, not only does it add to AoE, but also a considerable amount of single target value as well, in two of three cases. One talent, is
파멸의 재. The crucially important
파멸의 인도자 ability from Legion. The ability to line this up with many of the redesigned talents like
and
성전 will continue to provide pretty impressive burst, which is all i could hope for in it. We also see
신성화 migrate to this tier, and it now generates Holy Power. Resulting in a significant increase in both performance and ‘attractiveness’. However,
신성화 has its problems that many players would rather not deal with, particularly it’s immobile nature. Personally, i would just prefer Divine Hammer instead. It’s one less button to worry about, isn’t nearly as frustrating to use, AND we get more Hammers. There is nothing wrong with more hammers when every problem is a nail! Lastly, we have a new talent,
신성한 복수. I think it’s safe to say that
신성한 복수 needs some serious work, it’s not much more than
신성한 목적's stunted sibling. It’s a very underwhelming talent by comparison, thanks to it lacking Holy Power generation and single target benefit. Traits that both
파멸의 재 and
신성화 possess. If it does not have these properties it will never be used.
For the ‘single target’ tier,
has been redesigned to be a burst window talent, similar to what
심판 was in Legion, in a more limited form. This is a huge improvement over its predecessor and rewards clever usage of cooldowns, and is of course a good way to annihilate priority targets.
정의로운 선고 (formerly known as Final Verdict) is much more involved.
정의로운 선고 is clearly inspired by the success of
나스레짐의 속삭임, providing a 15% damage increase for the next
기사단의 선고 cast within 5 seconds. Which is very much an improvement, by giving us something to think about when throwing out Finishers.
열정, a fresh talent as of build 26175 offers a potentially promising auto-attack passive with further adjustments. Something i’m personally okay with, provided it has a strong visual presentation.
천벌의 망치 returning is certainly a big plus. But, the current implementation does raise a few questions, primarily relating to long term balance. Should
천벌의 망치 continue to be usable during
응징의 격노, its value will be tied to
성전. Which means we could ultimately see these talents not as individual choices, but a package deal to satisfy the balance concerns for the rows they occupy when taken together. To get around this, and to deliver on the old school feel (actually hitting hard, and not being yet another noodle), Hammer of Wrath could function as an execute with a much higher AP coefficient. Thus solving the balance problem while still keeping these talents where they are.
심문 is also returning. While controversial, it’s certainly worlds better than Holy Wrath. Inquisition functions a bit differently than what we remember, while it is still maintenance oriented, it now provides a damage and haste multiplier, instead of a holy damage multiplier with extra crit. Inquisition takes up a slot on the level 100 row, alongside
성전 and
신성한 목적. All in all, the inclusion of
심문 rounds out the tree in a way that will define how your character deals damage. We now have the very real choice between a Cooldown centric, RNG or sustained damage build. Not only for different gameplay tastes, but different tasks as well. Which is a nice improvement over being, essentially, a one trick pony.
Beyond these much needed and promising improvements players will, unfortunately, find a decrease in active time. BfA Ret has a significantly slower base rotation thanks to the cooldown increase of
성전사의 일격, and
파멸의 재 moving to the level 60 tier. While the Wake change isn’t so much a problem in and of itself, I view the
성전사의 일격 change as a significant issue. Because we don’t actually have a method in which we can close out that downtime whilst not sacrificing choices elsewhere that you may also want to make. Such as needing to take either
심판의 불길 or
격노의 칼날 to marginally satisfy that, and excluding
천벌의 망치. As a result the rotation just doesn’t flow ‘well’ (full of awkward pauses between abilities). It’s very much a “Wait for things to happen.”, rather than “Make things happen.” rotation. Which is a pretty bitter pill to swallow.
The current
성전사의 일격 cooldown also raises balance concerns with talents on the level 30 row.
심판의 불길 simply cannot compete with either
격노의 칼날 or the much stronger
천벌의 망치. By reducing the baseline cooldown of
성전사의 일격, it can better prop up
심판의 불길 (better than tuning the talent directly would), relative to
격노의 칼날 and
천벌의 망치, while retaining the current baseline pace that players find familiar. Not to mention that nerfing
천벌의 망치 (or
격노의 칼날) down to
심판의 불길 is most definitely not the answer. We want
천벌의 망치 to continue feeling like, well, what
천벌의 망치 should feel like! Something to be feared on the receiving end, and a strong niche ability that gives us a moment to shine.
With all that said I think Retribution will be in a far better place yet by:
- Reverting the change to 성전사의 일격’s cooldown
- 천벌의 망치 experimented exclusively as an execute, which would compliment a lower 성전사의 일격 cooldown & better 성전 balance
- Significant 신성한 복수 improvements
- Cut 신성화, return Divine Hammer. This could, in the process, create a better talent distribution on the level 60 row, and allow for a more involved 천상의 폭풍 talent.
Ultimately, in my opinion, this is very nearly the best DPS toolkit Ret has seen. BfA Ret is quickly shaping up to be a fusion of the last three expansions best sides, with very few of the downsides.
