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One of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s worst DPS specializations, Retribution Paladin, will see a significant talent tree rework in the game’s upcoming patch 10.0.7, Blizzard has announced.
In a lengthy forum post, Blizzard explained all the reasons it is currently unhappy with the state of the specialization: button bloat, too many stacking modifiers, a lack of survivability, poor maneuverability, and missing group utility.
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“Retribution Paladins currently have one of the highest death rates across all forms of content,” Blizzard said. “For a plate wearing class with hybrid healing, this doesn’t feel right. We’re looking to strengthen them through a mixture of passive bonus and improvements to active abilities and cooldowns, while keeping the degree of challenge that results from being a melee-based spec.”
Blizzard cited the specialization’s currency reliance on stacking modifiers as creating a “confusing and messy playstyle” that can result in huge burst damage when lined up properly, but also leaves core abilities outside of those burst-windows feeling “unsatisfying and under-tuned.”
“We intended to significantly change this,” Blizzard said. “We want your core abilities to feel good and powerful when used in all situations.”
While Blizzard recognizes Retribution Paladins are extremely immobile, it made clear players of the spec “should not expect to gain the mobility of Rogues.” Players of the spec can also expect to gain back some of the support options that are currently optional talents in the spec’s talent tree. These talents currently force players to choose between benefiting themselves or others in their group, something Blizzard wants to change.
The announcement has taken many Retribution Paladin players, many of which have complained about various aspects of the specialization for years, by surprise. Blizzard, historically, does not release substantial class reworks outside of expansion launches or major content patches. Adding to the surprise of many players is the fact that every class and specialization in the game saw significant changes just a few months ago thanks to the new talent tree system introduced alongside the game’s latest expansion, Dragonflight. For a specialization to receive yet another rework in such a short period of time is almost unheard of, but does line up with Blizzard’s goal of delivering content updates and balance patches more frequently in 2023 as part of its Dragonflight content roadmap.
The Retribution Paladin rework isn’t the only major feature coming as part of patch 10.0.7. Blizzard recently revealed the orc and human Heritage Armor players will be able to earn come the new patch. In addition, the update will add new max-level story content to the Dracthyr starting zone, The Forbidden Reach, and revamp the game’s recruit-a-friend rewards.
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