Single Retribution Paladin Looking For Single Healer… To Kill

By Ryan Ross on October 12, 2012

Thanks to Blizzard’s redesigned talent system in the latest World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria, retribution paladins (rets) are viable in player versus player (pvp) combat.  Rets have improved off-healing, movement, crowd control, utility, snares, increased damage, and support for tight situations. These will increase their chance of getting into a rated battleground or arena team.

Word of Glory has returned to its former state, with no cool down besides the global cool down. Holy power is generated faster by using Crusader strike, Judgement, Hammer of the Righteous, Exorcism, and Hammer of wrath.  Boundless Conviction allows rets to carry up to 5 holy power at one time allowing them to heal and off-heal more frequently.  With the increased cap, rets don't have to worry about wasting holy power when they can use Judgement or Exorcism from range.

Clemency will now let rets cast hand spells instantaneously as well as twice at a time before triggering the cool down. Rets can use these on two different people, or one Hand of Sacrifice and Hand of Freedom on the team flag carrier. There are new first tier talents including Speed of Light which increases movement speed by 70% for 8 seconds, and Long Arm of the Law which increases movement speed by 45% for 4 seconds upon a successful Judgement. Burden of Guilt applies a 50% movement speed reduction on enemies every time rets cast Judgement.

At level 87, rets get Binding Light which is an aoe (area of effect) fear, pretty much the paladin version of the warrior's Intimidating Shout and warlock’s Howl in Terror. Rebuke (glyphed) interrupts and prevents spellcasting for six seconds. Follow that up with a 6 second stun using Fist of Justice and that’s 12 seconds of lockout time!

Avenging Wrath increases damage and healing by 20% for 20 seconds, and can no longer be dispelled! Inquisition consumes 3 holy power to increase holy damage by 30% and critical strike chance by 10%, lasting 10 seconds per charge of holy power. That’s a significant increase inret burst damage which has also been buffed in patch 5.0.

In earlier versions of the game, ret paladins couldn’t create enough offensive pressure or stay on their targets long enough to burst them down. Other classes could just kite (keeping another player at a certain distance) rets without much effort.  The major overhaul of talents, abilities, utility, and damage have made rets viable for killing opposing flag carriers, and healers, which are essential to successful rated battleground and arena teams.

Sources:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#b