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I am back to Retribution again! After a mishap in talent builds (&@^& Talented does not work) and eating another 50 gold respec, I am Retribution again. I've played a bit of beta so I knew the damage capabilities, but this is wicked.

How are you guys handling the new Judgement system? Right now I have a macro with ctrl/alt modifiers to cast Light, Justice, and Wisdom. My rotation is Corruption, Judgement of Light (boost mana and health), Corruption (stacks), Crusader Strike, and - oh, they are dead. Multimob is Corruption, Judgement of Light, Divine Storm.

Wasn't sure where else to post this. 

They nerfed ret again. 

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11296420043&sid=1

this sums up all the nerfs - changes (nerfs)

-Mark

For those of us blocked (damned Websense):

QuoteAs I stated yesterday, we are happy with Ret's PvE damage and sustatined damage in PvP, but were concerned that the burst damage in PvP could be too high. We discussed this for literally hours yesterday, which was certainly not the first time we have discussed the issue. Thus I hope these changes are not perceived as a knee-jerk reaction, but I am sure that will depend a great deal on which class you play. :)

Divine Storm -- the damage was changed from Holy to Physical. As you know, Holy damage is almost never mitigated and this talent could pack a lot into a very short time. This is a nerf to the ability's damage. This change is now active on Live.

Repentance -- this ability now lasts for only 6 seconds in PvP (down from 10). Obviously this is also a nerf. This change is also active on Live.

Art of War -- now affects all damage done by Judgements, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm (instead of critical strike damage). Net dps should be about the same but less bursty. This change will be made before Nov 13.

Righteous Vengeance -- now applies a dot affect similar to Deep Wounds (instead of critical strike damage). This ends up being a significant buff to the ability to make up for the damage lost to Divine Storm, but is also less bursty. This change will be made before Nov 13. EDIT: The dot will NOT break Repentance.

Glyph of Crusader Strike -- now reduces mana cost (instead of increased damage on stunned targets.) We thought paladins could stack too much damage vs. stunned targets. This change will be made before Nov 13.

We also fixed a bug with Seal and Judgement of Light that could sometimes result in too much healing.

In our tests, Retribution dps remains the same over longer periods of time, but they can't do quite so much damage in the initial few seconds of a PvP encounter.

I know Ret pallies feel a little picked on since we've made this mistake before of having them come out the gate too strong and then had to correct them. For that I do apologize. It's a difficult spec to balance since part of its design is to have large crits and stuns, which have obvious PvP implications. We are pretty confident this will not nerf pallies into the ground as I facetiously promised yesterday, but if we overdid it, we'll be happy to back off some of the changes.

On the other hand, maybe we'll see fewer BGs with 20 paladins on the opposing side and can get some reasonable feedback on all the other classes in the game.

EDIT: To clairfy the new dot will not break Repentance.

The Divine Storm one is the largest hit, since Holy is not mitigated and there is no resistance to Holy.  The Repentance change is silly, IMO, until they nerf Druid and Rogue stunlocks.

In addition:

QuoteThe Felguard magic damage reduction now extends to Holy. I believe this was hotfixed yesterday.

Typically we don't change Holy resistance (which this is not), but it's consistent with other damage reduction abilities (which this is) to reduce all magic damage. This should help warlocks stand up to paladins in particular in PvP.

Warlocks need more buffs in PVP? Have they not played a Warlock? :)

http://www.retpaladin.com/warcraft/2008/10/really-blizzard-cmon-use-your-head/

Nicely put by Slayton.

The big reason I don't like this change is that it becomes YAWA - Yet Another Warrior Ability. We should not have Whirlwind. We should be a storm of holy power. Tone down the damage perhaps, but give us Holy back, please.