A Ret Paladin's plea (part 1 of 5)

I've decided that since there's so much commotion about ret paladins (now that Wrath is one or two days from launching) a very deep (somewhat opinionated) view of paladins is needed. Hence I'm going to be writing about the five most important skills of a paladin:

• Art of War
• Crusader Strike
• Divine Storm
• Divine Shield
• Hammer of Justice

So let's start with Art of War, shall we?

There's been a recent commenting string on the EJ boards about Art of War. If you don't know what Art of War is, I won't explain it, because you're obviously not a ret paladin.

Just kidding.

Art of War gives you an instant Flash of Light every time you crit with Judgment, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm (known to us as Judgment, CS and DSt respectively).

Now, what's been causing the recent upheaval is that the instant heal resets your swing timer. This means if you're about to hit with your weapon and you throw around the instant FoL, your timer starts again, from 0, netting you a loss in DPS. The debate has been on whether this is intended or not.

I am still undecided if this is the intended behavior. Let's analyze both sides of this issue:

Hypothesis: Art of War shouldn't reset the swing timer.

Why AoW should not reset the swing timer

First of all, I'd have to say that I think the devs want us to be a mana/health battery (via Replenishment and DSt) and Art of War just adds to that vision. You are, after all, a holy warrior helping others in battle. You're there to smack things and help with heals every now and then. The fact that you have to stop to heal is detrimental to your main role, which remains dps.

Second of all, and it's somewhat of a stretch, is that the shaman equivalent of AoW, Maelstrom, doesn't reset the swing timer. Maelstrom is first and foremost a dps ability, which differs greatly from AoW (even though AoW provides %modifiers, the real ability itself is the instant FoL). You could also argue that a swing timer is a lot more valuable when you have a 2h than when you're dual wielding, and you'd be right.

Why AoW should reset the swing timer

Let's see the other side though. Maelstrom takes 5 crits to achieve full efect, and AoW requires one. If a shaman throws a heal he is definitely losing dps (as he could be dishing out some lightning bolts or some such). If a paladin doesn't use the AoW proc, nothing happens. He doesn't lose dps at all, since the ability only helps with FoL.

Some people seem to think that an instant FoL isn't going to save someone, but they couldn't be more wrong. FoL can crit for around 2.5-3k and when it does, you get the extra hot from Sheath of Light (SoL). This is definitely enough to save someone, not from immediate threat, but it buys precious seconds that might give the healers enough time to react to what's happening. Don't underestimate FoL.

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I can see both sides of the arguments have definitely good points.

My Opinion

Now, I'm still unsure, as I said before, but I'm leaning a little bit more towards AoW not resetting the swing timer, because it gives us a very good reason to be a hybrid. You want to just smash things? Go reroll warrior or death knight. A paladin is, in the end, a hybrid. Even though you're spec'ing 51+ points into Retribution, you still have to take care of your buddies in dire situations. When you can help by throwing out a heal, do it. Top someone off. It reduces the strain on healers by a bit, and every bit helps.

This is my philosophy as a paladin. Smack things and heal others when you have time.