#0 - March 18, 2010, 11:37 a.m.
I have to apologize in advance, because I'm not an active Wow community person. Therefore my hope is that I don't repeat too many of the previous posts.
I'm trying to get attention for the following. Ever since the start of season 7 (the big retribution nerfs) retribution paladins have not been even close to a face roll class in the arenas like so many others. Everyone who actually still disagrees with that should delete his mage or lock and jump off a cliff. On top of that don't even bother with replying to this with an "OMG bubble is overpowered or LoH is insane attitude". The mere lack of separating 1vs1 duels from the arena battleground by some people frustrates many of us. Many pvpers agree (read the forums like arenajunkies and other community sites) that ret is tougher to succeed with in arena than most other nuke/dps roles in the right setup.
What is the problem exactly? Why do only 10% of all the ranked paladins on the Cyclone battle group play retribution? (Source: Arenajunkies.com)
The arena's are dominated by having as much 'absorb', nuke and utility abilities as one can have. In the passed the retribution paladin was seen as a class which dominated on all those grounds, but today it's a totally different story. Bubbles get dispelled (instantly above 2k+), Absorbs got nerfed (400 dmg with internal CD), and our nuke gets absorbed by other classes' shields and dmg reduction abilities. On top of that most of our buffs, and debuffs get dispelled or purged in every fight that has a shaman, mage or priest. It's not the actual nerfs that are the most shocking, but it's the reason why. To many posts on these forums containing idiots losing against bubbled retribution paladins in a 1vs1 duel created this mess.
Looking at most dominating setups in every bracket it's clear that every class seems to have turned into a 'paladin'. Yes, the people wining about indestructible ret's in the passed turned into one themselves. Every class has defensive cool downs or dmg reduction abilities (sometimes even more useful ones that ours), every class has insane nuke (most of the time even better ones than ours) and every class has insane utility spells.
It started with RPM, it ends with the death of Cleave teams and dominating locks, mages, shamans and priests, who face roll to 2k and beyond. The mere fact that retribution is so lowly represented in the brackets should give an indication. If you don't believe me? Check the facts and check the stats on other classes.
This is not only a retribution paladin problem. Deathkights and yes warriors suffer from what pvp turned into. 2vs2 is the laughing stock of pvp. The word 'Balance' is a mere faint dream in that bracket. 3vs3 isn't much better. At least most class/spec combinations are represented at some degree, but the range of difficulty for each team is on it's highest peak ever.
What can be done? What about the Resi change next expansion? The resilience change next expansion, which removes the anti crit chance effect of resilience, can be very useful for us. But other classes will benefit highly of it as well, so there is not much difference after all.
The problem lies in pure mechanics. Nukers like locks, mages and elemental shamans are made not to get hit. Even hunters have defensive cool downs nowadays. And what do warriors, rets and dk's get? Either a nerf or nothing at all. What are these guys even thinking? Nuke classes, like mages, shamans and locks are turned into almost unhittable targets. This is what promoted the use of PvE gear in arena and combining this with shields, absorbs and hots of the the healers, this goes from face roll to ultra face roll.
We are hoping for either a restructure of most of the class' mechanics or just the retribution paladins themselves. Since it's probably to late now, the last option seems the most realistic.
What I ask of you is to sign this thread, because I want to show the development team, that they won't have a lot of retribution paladins or other melee plate dps left in pvp if this is the basis for the next expansion. Leave your comment and please use your brains instead of eating them.
