How to Fix Retribution - No Really!

I won't bore you with links to dps parses (that you probably wouldn't visit anyways) and the like, but it's a known fact that Paladins are struggling in the single-target dps area at the moment. Granted, you can find parses where Paladins showed fairly well on the surface, but if you look deeper, you can see that our effective single-target damage is abysmally low.

It's also a known fact that our dps cycle consists of a spastic, keep-everything-on-cooldown button-mash-fest, where even rigidly adhering to a set skill prioritization will likely only eke out a few extra percent dps (that could be barely noticable when you factor in RNG). This makes it relatively easy to hit the theoretical dps cap for a Retribution Paladin, which means less-progressed guilds may see it as a powerful dps spec, while more-progressed guilds will see it's obvious flaws.

Since we can come close to our maximum damage without a terrible amount of effort, while other classes can continue to push better and better numbers as their skill increases, many Paladins are frustrated with the current state of the class.

To use an analogy here, I don't mind getting paid slightly less for the same amount of work as the next guy, because I could take a different job more easily than he could (re-gearing/re-speccing vs. re-rolling). I mind getting paid significantly less than the next guy for the same amount of work, and knowing that I'll never be able to make more no matter how hard I try. Get the picture? If I'm just as skilled as that Rogue, for instance, I should have a reasonable chance of catching up to his output, say if he misses a few times and gets unlucky with crits, while I have a lucky fight and get more crits than normal. Generally, he should do better, but not to the point that we're seeing now.

There is little that can be done to increase Retribution's damage potential (through skill or otherwise) without making some fundamental changes in the way things work for us. Keeping our combat system the way it is currently (unleashing cooldowns one right after another) really limits the changes that could be made, because increasing the effect of any of these abilities just creates more burst potential. However, if you browse some WWS/WMO parses (particularly isolating damage done to the main boss NPC being fought), you can see that our single-target damage potential is lackluster at best. What's the best way to fix this problem?

Our passive aoe effects are sometimes helpful, but sometimes a hindrance. Adding extra cross-threat can be dangerous in certain fights (Thorim's arena or Guardians on Yogg phase 3 for instance), and not having a choice to use a single-target ability to fill that slot in our 'rotation' can be crippling if we need to avoid the extra threat. It definitely feels like we should be able to somehow channel our aoe abilities to gain more single-target dps. A focused DoT could take the place of Consecration, and a single-target version of Divine Storm would be extremely helpful, especially if they somehow increased damage potential.

In fact, we could come up with a method to reduce Divine Storm's baseline damage, and increase it's effect against targets who have been afflicted by a debuff generated by Crusader Strike. This would reduce excessive cross-threat, but increase damage against the main target. This idea combined with a higher-damage single-target version of Consecration could create great results. Our initial burst and AoE damage is tapered off somewhat, but our sustained, single-target damage is increased.

Another idea that Paladins have been toying with for some time now is the concept of letting Crusader Strike refresh a Seal of Vengeance stack on the target. So the first few seconds of single-target combat are spent building up this stack, then the seal can be swapped to Blood and we can continue to keep the damage-over-time from Seal of Vengeance rolling throughout the fight. Perhaps Crusader Strike could refresh the stack, but reduce the damage slightly (say ~5% per CS), forcing us to re-generate that 5-stack at some point during the fight in order to maximize damage. Queue oodles of theory-crafting on how many CS's to use before rebuilding the stack =D

Unfortunately, none of the suggestions I've made here (except for maybe that last one) would really make our damage more difficult to achieve for the average player, or increase our damage potential through skillful execution. I'm just hoping that the developers really look closely at the data and realize how far behind Retribution is when it comes to single-target dps, and that it doesn't seem like this is something that could be completely fixed with just a "minor tweak."

Hopefully we'll get some insight as to their thoughts on our damage method in the near future, but in the meantime, what suggestions can we come up with as a community?

Thanks for reading,
Meth