A Weekend Has Passed on the PTR...

..and the 'Nerf Ret' calls are already coming thick and fast. You could take a look for yourself (EDIT: Looks like Blizzard have been cleaning house... heh), though I don't advise it. And that's just the official boards, you can expect WoWInsider, Gameriot and other blogging sites to wax lyrical on the injustice of having a Ret Paladin hand anyone their backside on a plate. That warriors, rogues and other 'pure' classes do the same is of course neither here nor there.

Reasons for the outcry are probably long and equally boring, but here are a few reality checks for the complainers:

Retribution was, and always has been, a bursty spec. It is pretty much their one strength in PvP as they lack many of the tools other classes take for granted, such as a Snare, Interrupt, MS-Effect etc. If it weren't for their burst they'd be useless in all relevant forums of PvP.

All talents are based around lvl80 Gameplay, and should be scaled to such. Even then, sometimes the designers get it wrong - Retribution was nerfed before 2.0, and every single one of the nerfs was later reversed (and in some cases, subsequently buffed further) over the course of 10 months, leading the spec to be left behind in PvE and uncompetitive in PvP.

Nerfing a class to an illusion of burst parity at 70, real parity of course being impossible with the limited tools at the classes disposal, is not good game design.

Season 4 will end with the current patch. There's no way that Blizzard will have Season 4 continue with the Wrath Talent Trees, and it's very unlikely that Blizzard will introduce a short 'Season 5' before Wrath ships. So don't worry, Ret won't be dominating the rankings this Season.

According to some, literally every second person on the PTR is a Paladin and most of them are Ret with very decent gear. If you see 10 Paladins dominating the 'Damage Done' meter, ask what other classes were in that Battleground and how long they stayed.

Regrettably, Retribution may indeed be toned down to appease those complaining on the PTR, though I would hope that Blizzard will keep the PTR as a bug-testing realm and utilise the Wrath Beta as the realm upon which to balance things. They have to be careful though, with Warhammer looming large over the release of 3.0 having one class dominating others, especially others used to having it their own way, may well cause an increased exodus to their rival. Especially from among the ranks of PvPers.

Fundamentally, is it worth nerfing Ret for a month of lvl70 gameplay, and then very slowly buffing them back to viability over the course of 8 months of lvl80-capped gameplay? The answer is obvious, but I don't get to make the decisions ;).

So, if you are on the PTR and getting 'pwned' by Ret here's some advice: Suck It Up. Report your bugs and let the dudes raiding/PvPing in Beta find the optimum point for Ret damage. If you can't live with it on the PTR then get the hell off it, and if you can't stand it when 3.0 goes live then PvE servers will welcome you with open arms. Don't worry, your Brutal Gladiator titles xfer with you.

/rant