In Defense of Retribution Paladins

Note: This was stolen from Thrommel on the Paladin forums. I figured I would repost it here, because it seems like valuable information. Currently, I am on a quest to better understand the Retribution spec and perhaps even temporarily (permanently if I like it enough) change specs if my guild can find a healing replacement.

Retribution Paladins have, of late, come under frequent attack in these and other class forums for their supposed lack of usefulness in a raid or party setting relative to other single purpose classes or other talent tree options. This type of thinking is not only poorly conceived but illustrates a larger problem of evaluating the contribution of hybrid/support classes.

Support classes exist to not maximize their personal performance but to maximize the performance of the group they are supporting. Typical tools used to measure effectiveness such as Damage & Healing meters do not directly take this into account because the benefits the Retribution paladin provides are not attributed to the paladin but to the group members he supports. To understand this better let us take a look at how a Retribution paladin stacks up in the core categories of damage, healing, and survivability.

Damage Output

If you consider total damage output versus personal damage output then you will realize that a Retribution paladin is one of the highest DPS classes in the game. Consider:

Sanctified Crusader

This Retribution talent increases the critical strike chance of ALL ATTACKS made against a target by 3%. This additional DPS is huge, effects everyone in the raid (not just party), effects ALL types of damage (not just spell or physical), and scales with group size: Assuming a portion of each group is made up of non attacking healers on a boss fight:

5 man: 3% increased crit for FOUR PEOPLE
25 man: 3% increased crit for 20 PEOPLE
40 man: 3% increased crit for 30 PEOPLE

This damage boost comes on top of the DPS boost every paladin provides, namely Blessing of Might and Retribution Aura, both of which scale with group size:

Blessing of Might (untalented)

5 Man Instance: 3 melee attackers ave. = 47.1 DPS extra
25 man Raid: 10 melee attackers ave. = 157 DPS extra
40 man Raid: 20 Melee attackers ave = 314 DPS extra

Retribution Aura (untalented)

Assuming a 2 second mob swing speed:

1 Mob Being Tanked (Boss): 13 DPS (unmitigated)
2 Mobs Being Tanked: 26 DPS (unmitigated)
3 mobs Being Tanked: 39 DPS (unmitigated)

From a damage perspective, the question is not why bring a Retribution paladin but why bring a rogue...

Healing

With the exception of boss fights, most dedicated healers (druids, priests, holy paladins) spend the majority of their time doing nothing but waiting to heal for lack of need, fear of pulling aggro, or as a result of wishing to conserve precious mana. In short their lives can be described, to paraphrase a saying, as " Hours of boredom and seconds of screaming terror" and are providing no DPS or healing outside of these times.

A Retribution paladin is able to consistently add their damage to every fight (thus shortening the encounter) while still being able to greatly add to the group's healing. Consider:

Judgement of Light

Judgement of Light is a nearly mana free Heal over Time that scales with the number of melee attackers and is most directed at those high DPS raid members who rarely get them, namely rogues and fury warriors (who are usually told to bandage or crawl off somewhere and die). This form of healing is significant, allows your groups DPS to be sustained longer, and is not attributed to the Retribution paladin (whose strikes must keep it up) on healing meters. Assuming a 2.0 swing speed (high for most rogues/fury warriors/pets) and a 40% proc rate for the judgement, at max rank this judgement provides:


5 Man Instance: 3 melee attackers ave. = 36 HPS
25 man Raid: 10 melee attackers ave. = 120 HPS
40 man Raid: 20 Melee attackers ave = 240 HPS

If properly accounted for, I can guarantee you, that I would be near the top of any healing meter with this small spell alone. Add in my DPS, as well as the additional DPS of those melee attackers who lived just a few seconds more and you can see this is non trivial.

Improved Sanctity Aura

Improved Sanctity Aura boosts healing to effected targets by 6%. This coupled with Healing Light in Holy turns a Retribution paladin into a respectable healer, especially with some spell damage gear. In fact it is the equivalent of 205 spell damage gear considering the spell coefficient on a max rank Holy Light. More importantly it boosts the healing power of your main healer (priest/druid) who may be grouped with you to support a main tank. This talent not only scales with the number of healers but spell damage gear as well.

Survivability

Group

Paladin resistance auras, while not game breaking, are a significant source of mitigation in those encounters where it is critical (e.g. Ragnaros). From posted sources, 60 Resist was overall the equivalent of about 15% mitigation to spell damage. Since this means the rogues and warriors in my melee group last on average 15% longer during these fights you can see the DPS boost that this provides.

Personal

While DPS classes do it faster, few can maintain it longer than a paladin. A Retribution paladin, while not as hearty as his Holy and Protection bretheren is a warrior that needs no maintenance. High resists and plate ensure he is in the fight longer than any other melee combatant and he can allways self heal or bubble if need be to keep fighting long after his fellows have fallen. And all with no baby sitting from the healers who can focus their mana on the main tank.

The question is not why bring a paladin but why bring a non tanking warrior or rogue...


The purpose of the post was not to claim that the paladin or even the Retribution spec are "The Best" but merely to point out that the arguments typically being made are specious, myopic, and rest on well chosen examples that do not take into account all the things that a hybrid class is doing for the rest of the groups it is supporting.

/end rant