Monday, June 23, 2008

Raid Impact - Who Loves Us Most?

I've written on and on about how everybody should love Retribution Paladins and bring one to their 25-man raids. A question I've never addressed, though, is who should be lobbying hardest for our services in that raid? Retribution Paladins bring an array of benefits, but not all benefits are created equal, and not everyone gets the same mileage out of them. So the question is, who loves us the most? Let's break it down by benefit, see who benefits from each and by how much, and make a determination at the end.

First and foremost is Judgement of Wisdom. 50% chance for 74 mana returned upon striking the target with an attack or spell. I've linked the Ret DPS Theorycraft thread a bunch of times before, but I'll link it here again for reference, since it's where I'm getting my numbers from. The healers and non-mana users don't care about JoW, since they get no benefit from it. Healers won't have time to wand and regen mana, and the rogues/warriors simply don't have mana to regen. Those that get the most benefit out of JoW are Hunters, who get ~220 mana/5 depending on spec and rotation, and Enhacement Shaman, who get ~315 mana/5 (damn those dual-wielding bastages get a truckload from JoW...). Most everyone else is in the 60 to 120 mana/5 range, so it's fairly even across the board. The Hunters and Enh Shaman get far and away the most mileage out of JoW.

Next raid benefit is Judgement of Light. 50% chance for health returned upon striking with a melee attack. This only effects the suicidal up-close-and-personal melee DPS, which includes (other than yourself, the Ret Paladin) Rogues, Warriors, Enh Shaman, Feral Druids, certain Warlock pets, and Hunter pets. Rogues attack the fastest out of this bunch, so they have the potential to get the most healing from JoL. Hunters make a great argument though, since JoL relieves them of having to cast Mend Pet as much, freeing their mana and hands to do more MQoSRDPS to use a popularized term.

Judgement of the Crusader. Flat raid-wide 3% crit boost to anyone attacking the target, unrestricted. This gets complicated, since we now have to answer the question "who gets the most out of crit?" When a BM Hunter crits, Ferocious Inspiration goes up. When a Survival Hunter crits, Expose Weakness happens. When an Enh Shaman crits, his party gets Unleashed Rage. There are a ton of "on-crit" buffs and bonuses exclusive to certain classes and specs, and to be quite honest I can't contain them all in my head. It's probably safe to say that everyone has a use for crit. My gut feeling, though, is that either the Enh Shaman getting more Unleashed Rage up-time (since that affects his party, and therefore greatly increases the AP of 4 other DPS'ers) or the Hunters (since Ferocious Inspiration and Expose Weakness are fairly substantial group buffs, and their pets can crit too) get the best deal here.

Improved Sanctity Aura. 2% increased damage to your party, when in range. This can account for a nice little chunk of the Enh Shaman/DPS Warrior/Rogues' damage. It does not affect the rest of the raid, so no one else really cares. The rest of the melee DPS group probably would prefer a Feral Druid for Leader of the Pack and it's 5% crit/heals, but 2% increased damage I'm sure is not unwelcome.

Improved Blessing of Might. Most other Paladins don't have this - 44 extra AP over regular Might for every physical DPS. Drop in the bucket for personal stats, so no one will really notice.

That pretty much covers the static raid buffs a Ret Paladin brings. The winner? I'd say the Hunters, especially the BM Hunter. The extra pet heals from JoL, their fast shot speed proc'ing JoW, and the JotC crit boost helping to keep Ferocious Inspiration going (and thereby boosting his party's damage but a percentage) I'd think would be enough to make any gun-slingin', bow-wieldin', pet-lovin' Hunter go wild for having a pet Ret.

What's your opinion? Who gets the most mileage out of a Ret Paladin's raid benefits?

5 comments:

Honors Code said...

I think a compelling arguement could be made that the Enhancement Shaman gets the most out of your presence in the raid.

Shwitz44 said...

I implore you to explain, Honors!

Enhancement Shammy comes in second for my opinion on the matter. They can usually keep Unleashed Rage going without our extra crit, and while they do get JoL benefits and the largest return from JoW, I feel like the JoL for the pet plus the huge JoW return to the Hunter are bigger than the huger JoW return to the Shaman.

Why do you think the Enh Shaman gets the biggest benefit?

Brokenbyclouds said...

Its all about the hunters in my opinion. They make the most use out of all the things Ret brings to the table. You end up making a class that puts out superb dps do even more.

Stop said...

I would say that Ret Paladins are an Enhancement Shaman's charity case.

But that's just me.

Brian Dunne said...

First of all Expose Weakness is an enemy debuff so it affects the physical dps of the entire raid. Also, enh shammies have Shamanistic Rage which pretty much tops their mana off every couple minutes anyway, and if they've got the crit needed to keep Flurry up, they should have no problem critting once every 10sec to maintain Unleashed Rage.

JoL healing BM pets, I never would have thought of that.