What is a Shockadin?

"I’ve seen Shockadin mentioned on your blog several times but I’m still not sure what it is and how it works. Could you maybe post some video and describe how one would gear for it and how to use it properly both for damage and for healing?

BIG THANKS,

Ruprecht – Skywall"

Well Ruprecht, it's something that I personally haven't dabbled in myself, or perhaps I have dabbled and haven't even realized it. Simply put, a Shockadin is built around Holy DMG and Spell Damage/Healing Gear and a lot of +crit. In my last post I touched upon the topic briefly and linked this cookie cutter build. I will try to break it down as basic as possible going over each talent and what I personally think it means to the build:

Holy

Divine Intellect - The more INT, the more Crit, and later on in the build the more SD/Healing you'll have.

Spiritual Focus - Doesn't hurt to be able to have guaranteed heals (With Concentration Aura) if a million mobs are beating on you, does it?

Imp. Seal of Righteousness - More Holy Damage is a good thing for this build, as that is what it's built around.

Illumination - You need this to get Divine Favor and nothing beats having extra mana to toss around, and it makes you a decent healer for 5-mans.

Divine Favor - Crits = Good, not much to explain here, a guaranteed half-cost crit spell is pretty sweet.

Sanctified Light - Not really much else to put this in, it helps out your healing a bit and can't hurt much, if you'd rather get Imp. Lay on Hands or something though, go for it.

Purifying Power - I personally like this one I have 2/2 in it, the crits on Holy Wrath are fun to watch in those AoE mobs in The Crypts & Blood Furnace or those ghost packs in Karazhan before Moroes. The lesser cost on Consecration helps out with mana too if you feel the need to AoE down mobs, and once again, crit (even against demons/undead) is always a good thing.

Holy Power - Crit = Good, once again not much to explain, this gets you crit on Holy Shocks, Healing Spells, Exorcisms, etc.

Light's Grace - This will help you be a good healer and launch out half second quicker holy light spells, it's more or less ideal for raid situations I would assume, or even some quick healing on tanks in Heroics where you just need to spam Holy Light, honestly though if healing isn't your thing, go for Blessed Life.

Holy Guidance - This is where it comes together for you, all that INT you've got is now being put into raw DPS & Healing, and you'll definitely notice the difference (35 SD/H per 100 INT you have, dressed in epics, is easily 100-200 more SD/H)

Retribution

Benediction - The less mana you have to spend means the more DPS you can put out. Can't argue with it.

Imp. Judgement - Most of your DPS is coming from your Judgements, the quicker you can do them, the more DPS you can do.

Imp. Seal of the Crusader - More bang for your buck, you'll always be judging Crusader and then unleashing Holy Shocks & Righteousness Judgements, so this can only be helpful.

Conviction - This is more of a "Why the hell not?" talent, I don't see any reason not to get it, you need 5 points to move on up in the world, and when you crit with melee strikes it'll cause your Righteousness Judgement to hurt more.

Eye for an Eye - It's a PvP talent and semi-PvE talent, If you'd rather have Vindication or something else, go for it. It's entirely up to you with this.

Crusade - Extra Damage is good Damage, can't argue with that.

Sanctity Aura - Kiss your other Auras goodbye, this is what you're after. 10% more damage on those Holy attacks, coupled with that 15% from Crusader, hey, that's a whole 25% extra (probably more or less depending on the mathematics of how these work, I'm not much of a math guy) holy damage you're pushing out.

Wrapping it up

So what does this all mean? What do you do? Honestly, I've never seen a Shockadin before, but I may actually BE a Shockadin (minus the talents). The way I play the solo game as my Holy Paladin is to pretty much unleash all my Judgements & Holy Shocks whenever I get the chance. I pop my +crit trinkets (The one from the Hellfire Citadel quest chain and the one from being revered with the Sha'tar), and let loose. I spam consecration when I'm in large groups (I also blow my Divine Illumination during that though, which you don't have as a Shockadin), and I just unleash.

The basic concept is:

Seal/Judgement of Crusader, Seal/Judgement Righteousness, Holy Shock, Exorcisms (on undead/demons), & Consecration in AoE packs. Heal as necessary, wash and repeat until mob/mobs are dead, make sure to refresh Crusader if it wears off.

What kind of gear do you need for this? I'll link you here to the Set Look Alikes page and check it out the look alike for Earthfury. I know, I know, you're completely offended at me saying to wear Mail, but it's built for elemental shaman who also focus on spell damage/crits, and so it kind of works out well in my opinion. However, I'm sure there are alternatives, look for gear with a high amount of crit and SD/H on it and I think you'll be fine.

Remember, I'm not a super expert, you can always learn more by inquiring on the hells known as the public forums (sometimes there is good information to be found if you ignore the QQ topics). Also, if any of you readers know something I don't, please feel free to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about and correct me.