Shockadin, what is it?

[bockhorn]

I've seen some people lately talk about a build known as shockadin, especially come 3.1. What exactly is a shockadin build and how does it work?

P.S sorry if this is the wrong forum to ask such things, maintankadin is becoming more and more an universal portal for all kinds of paladins I guess...

[Karaghiosis]

For whatever it's worth- here's my understanding


a shockadin is a paladin that attempts to fight as a ranged dps

the main dps comes from the use of the holy talent - shock of light

most builds use enough in holy to get to shock and maybe infusion (depending on desired healing capacity) and the rest into ret for the added crit and dmg bonuses. The most typical place for shocks is in the arena as you can get some decent burst dmg (but low overall dps).

Shock/heal hybrids have become fairly popular in pvp content because they can still heal well (specially for 2v2).

I've also played around with the build to try to apply it to paladin only raids where there is even less of a focus on healing so more points are dedicated to pushing out even a little more marginal dps.

wotlk added the increased judgement range and dmg which has helped increase shock dmg. The change to exorcism to allow non undead targets gives shocks another nuke spell to use in a general rotation which is the main reason the idea has suffered for so long. Against a standard mob you have very little tools - judge and shock (maybe consecrate) but if you're truely acting as ranged it'll be oor as will your melee attacks.

a typically pvp build for it would be like 37/0/34
down to infusion in holy, down to repent/jotw in ret

for pve you can ignore infusion and spiritual focus and instead pick up things like the crit bonus to exorcism/judgements of the pure etc.
I think I posted some sample specs in the gimmick paladin raid thread in the talent forum.

[sherck]

31/0/40 for Shockadin

31 pts in Holy. Take every talent the can increase damage or Crit rate to get down to Holy Shock

40 pts in Retribtuion. Take every talent that can increase damage or Crit rate to get down to Repentance, Judgements of the Wise, Fanatacism, and Sanctified Wrath.

Glyph of Judgement, Glyph of Seal of Rigthousness, Glyph of Exorcism

Use Spell Power gear and Spell Power coefficient spells.

Retribution Aura
Seal of Rightousness
Judgement of Wisdom
Holy Shock
Exorcism
SotR
Consecrate
Hammer of Wrath when possible

I can spreadsheet out about 1.8-2.0k DPS substained and I can burst around 10k in 4 seconds (Judgement / Holy Shock / Exorcism / Hammer of Wrath).

[Panzerdin]

What happens if you go Double Shockadin for 2s?

[sherck]

What happens if you go Double Shockadin for 2s?

I think survivability would be good because your double bubble and healing is solid. 2 HoJ, 2 Arcane Torrent (if Horde), are solid, if not great interrupts. Holy Shock, if used to heal, is a very powerful heal and double Sacred Shield is strong as well.

But I think that the damage output is sub-standard. Yeah, you get good burst damage if your target gets down below 20% with your 2 "excute" HoW....but getting them down that quick might be difficult.

And Kiting...ugh....remember, you don't have 40 yards Judgements in this build so your only have 30 yard Exorcisms and 20 yard Holy Shocks and them melee ranged attacks. If you get a good kiting team, you are dead.

My 2 cents....but then again, I don't PvP so....

Cheers,

[Melathys]

there was a video of 2 shockadins ripping people apart.

[Oneironaut]

double hand of freedom? gg?

[majiben]

there was a video of 2 shockadins ripping people apart.

Back before 3.0

[bockhorn]

hmm, for some reason this build sounds fairly outdated :p

[MrDuck]

Shockadin = healadin who thinks he can dps

Basically:
HI IM DEEPEEESSS
Holy shock
Judge
...(exor in 3.1)
...
Holy shock
...O SHIT I R OOM

and the target is at 80% hp...

Oh well it sorta kinda worked back in BC, but i never liked these shockadins, but the damage output was weak, it just had some kind of survivability, but it ran oom anyway.

[Rom]

At least 9 months ago, before the change to Holy Shock. I occassionally pug tanked heroics with my healadin brother. We often invited an obnoxious shockadin. As much as I disliked him personally, he did indeed outdps almost everyone else.

His downside was he was out of mana after every pull, and sometimes OOM before all of the mobs were dead. He consumed mana potions like there was no tomorrow. He had no health or armor (I remember him wearing leather legs because they gave more spell damage then the plate ones). He died the moment he drew aggro.

Then they changed Holy shock and the shockadins all went away.

I would love to see a semi-viable shockadin build again. Not a top of the charts dps, but something that allowed healadins high bursts at the cost of long downtimes. Something that would allow healadins moments where they can save the day and enjoy the dps side of the game, even if it is only for trash mob pulls.

Hopefully with the 3.1 change from a 6 second CD on Holy Shock to 5 seconds, they are moving in that direction. I would like to see shockadin become a build that people would consider, even if it isn't the best build.

[guillex]

Shockadin, what is it?

Dead.

[Wakeman]

Shockadin was a well-known and viable PvP build during TBC. They actually melee with Seal of Righteous and Consecration until the enemy player's health dropped below a certain level, then suddenly poped Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor, Holy Shock, Judgement, Hammer of Wrath, dealing a massive amount of burst damage in a short time that usually killed the opponent in surprise. Besides, their healing was quite good as well. I remember that amazing 2 shockadins 2v2 team someone linked several months ago.

I'm not sure how shockadins are doing now. At level 80 one can now take up both Holy Shock and Repentance, so imo should make it even more viable in PvP.

Anyway, one thing is certain: shockadin is not a good PvE raiding build.

[sherck]

Basically:
HI IM DEEPEEESSS
Holy shock
Judge
...(exor in 3.1)
...
Holy shock
...O SHIT I R OOM

Well, not quite. The 16 second combat rotation come patch 3.1 is actually:

Either Body Pull or pull with Hand of Rightousness
Judge (for extra crit chance from Libram of Furious Blows)
Exorcism
Holy Shock
Shield of Rightousness
Consecrate
Free GCD
Judge
Holy Shock
Shield of Rightousness
Free GCD
Consecrate
Free GCD
START OVER

Using that model, with full Spell Power gear with 1800 SP (down from 2250 SP healing set due to using Crit trinkets instead of SP trinkets and the loss of Holy Guidance talent), I can model out about 1400 - 1500 DPS substained DPS which will probably turn into near 2k DPS with crits since my Holy spell Crit rate is right at 44% with a 31/0/40 build.

With Judgement of Wisdom returns, Replenishment (which I self generate), Divne Plea, Arcane Torrent and this rotation, I lose about 800 mana every 16 second rotation. Since I have 22k mana, I can, in theory, run this rotation for 440 seconds before OOM, or 7 minutes, 20 seconds.

Switch over to Seal of Wisdom if more mana is needed and I can keep this rotation up nearly indefinantly.

Cheers,