Hanging up the shield... so, Ret or Holy?

[PsiVen]

I hate Holy. I considered going back because of IoL+Repent spec PvP, but they're nerfing paladins again because they don't know how to balance arenas and make Holy fun to play at the same time.

Ret PvE is really the only other spec I would do. I PvP as Prot whenever I get the chance.

[Elo]

Hanging up the shield...

regarding the fact that holy uses shields too, there ist only ret left for you

[kvark]

Hanging up the shield...

regarding the fact that holy uses shields too, there ist only ret left for you

gah, beat me to it.

[Nymeros]

Hanging up the shield...

regarding the fact that holy uses shields too, there ist only ret left for you

I can't refute that logic. Ret it is.

[Salgado]

So unretire my lvl60 Druid bank alt if I want a healer... or level a Shaman or Priest?

I'd go with priest since they're the only healer who doesn't keep getting showed into a niche.

However most druids seems to be happy with what they do and I don't see the shamans complaining overly much either.

For my money, shaman healing now after 3.0 is the most fun i've had playing a healer (I have never healed on a priest, tho). I have yet to come up against something I couldn't heal easily as a resto shaman, and I've healed everything but Maly/Sarth+3.

That said, it looks like you picked ret. I love ret almost as much as I love prot. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

[Baelor]

Holy crap, Nymeros lives!

Go ret. It's what all the cool kids (read: me) did.

[Eizen]

If you haven't tried out Ret then your missing out!
They changed the mechanics and it's much more enjoyable now not to mention you actually can be top DPS.

That's why I took my paladin to 80 first instead of my BC enh shaman.

[Ana]

I'd go with Retribution because its super fun and easy to level. I healed throughout TBC up through Hyjal, and while I was good at it, it was boring.

[djlar]

I'm finding that at least in my guild, ret dps is the best dps we have, doing like 6K on thaddious while my T7 rogue only does 4K, always on top of the charts, and aoe, multiple undead stuns, bubblewall, lay on hands, off heals, res, etc as a bonus...

When dual speccing comes I'm choosing ret, holy seems a once target heal and some cleanses..

[Zironic]

I'm finding that at least in my guild, ret dps is the best dps we have, doing like 6K on thaddious while my T7 rogue only does 4K, always on top of the charts, and aoe, multiple undead stuns, bubblewall, lay on hands, off heals, res, etc as a bonus...

When dual speccing comes I'm choosing ret, holy seems a once target heal and some cleanses..

Thaddius is not the fight I'd choose for benchmarking, we have mages doing 10k dps that fight ^^

[Seraphia]

Druid, Shaman or Priest (both flavors) all have their plus and minuses. It would be which you enjoyed more, play style wise.


Holy is just a kick in the balls. It doesn't matter if it is wildly overpowered or totally gimp, it just sucks to actually PLAY.

[Nymeros]

Holy crap, Nymeros lives!

Go ret. It's what all the cool kids (read: me) did.

For the record, I don't think I'd be able to wrestle a Paladin tanking spot from Cinaed this expansion if I tried. :p

Guess that's what happens when you miss the fun start of an expansion. No Internet in Basic (barley any contact with the outside world). Crap Internet in tech school. And buying a PS3/borrowing friend's 360 & working on the PS2 backlog didn't help me start playing WoW again once I finally got here to Active Duty. And Rock Band didn't help either...... (vocals expert and bass hard for me).

Good news? I finally forced myself to start leveling again and now I'm re-addicted to WoW. That'll save me some cash.

[Shathus]

However most druids seems to be happy with what they do and I don't see the shamans complaining overly much either.

As a pally tank with a Tree, I agree with this. I went Holy for a week to help the raid out and I must say I was not a fan of it. Granted after further reading, I realize I wasn't doing a number of things correctly... but I just didn't like it. I just wasn't sure if it was because I was biased towards druid healing. I just like having the mobility that comes with all the HoTs and instant casts and hate having to stay in one place (when needing to) to cast. But to each their own.

[Sober]

Pessemist's view:

Holy - boring, but some people like a healing niche. Nerfed a bit on the PTR. If anything, people always need healers (and tanks, so you should be safe at getting raid spots). If anything (glass half full) you can at least heal effectively if you want to go for it.

Ret - fun to begin with, but boring as soon as you get down the rotation (FCFS, then wait, then FCFS). I'm more concerned with what Blizzard wants to do with ret (add more strikes, interactivity, etc.) before proceeding. There is a cap to how well you can do and the cap is limited by gear alone rather than skill since there is almost no skill involved as ret atm, and they are acknowledged as low on the meters on the PTR, but there hasn't been anything beyond that.

My advice, if you are just burnt out is play another toon, play another game, or do something else (maybe achievements for the proto-drakes, etc.) to tide you over til Ulduar.

[Tonic]

I've recently started to find the Paladin Class as a whole a boring one overall. I've heard of a blue post (which I personally haven't seen) from years ago telling the Paladin Class is intended to be an "easy" one to play, which would indeed explain the simpliness of the combat system, which Blizz doesn't seem to be willing to change soon at all. If Seals are the core of it, shouldn't they be more interactive than just a spell you refresh every 30min ?

As Ret, I just press whichever ability happens to be off cooldown, keeping the prority in mind (which is simply just the strongest ability first). The best I can do to improve beyond that is to mix it a bit to reduce cooldown clashes, which has been estimated to result a maximum of 1-2% DPS increase. Blizz also seems to totally lack the imagination to tune the damage by nothing else but percentages through talents..

As for Prot, the combat system is extremely similar to Ret's, and the spec lacks the reactive and fun abilties and talents Prot Warriors have.

I personally haven't played Holy much, but I can see how the recent changes start push it towards the same boring spam-the-tank it was pre-WotLK.

If you already have characters of other Classes at high levels, I would choose another Class at this point.

e: typos