Vindication for Ret Engineers Too Stubborn to Change?

Well, the changes to Seal mechanics have shaken up the DPS Rating landscape. Seal of Blood/ Seal of the Martyr will now contribute much more and Judgement much less to overall DPS. SoB is a little strange in that it has double-dependence on miss mechanics: the auto-attack which procs SoB rolls for Dodge/Parry/Miss, and then if it hits the SoB Proc also rolls for Dodge/Parry/Miss. Because of these mechanics Hit Rating, once the 'second best but not worth socketing for' Stat, is now almost on a par with Strength before Cap. Time to go out and buy those Etched Monarch Topaz for your yellow Sockets if you're below the hit cap; +4 of any Rating as a socket bonus will be better than +16 Strength. Expertise is also very, very nice, though not as good as Strength or Hit and so not really worth socketing for.

But that's not the best part. For some time now Retribution Engineering has been lacking a 'Best In Slot' equipment enhancement unique to the profession. Blacksmiths have the sockets, Jewelcrafters have the (frankly obscene) Prismatic +27 Str gems and Enchanters have the ring enchants. Well finally it appears that Engineering has something to show off:



At last. With the cumulative impact of the Haste Rating boost to melee DPS (+30% effectiveness) and greater dependence on Seal Proc damage, Haste trounces Attack Power and is up there dukeing it out with Crit and Agility as third best stat. This means that the Hyperspeed Accelerators are better than Enchant Gloves:Crusher (+44 AP) and Enchant Gloves:Precision (+20 Hit Rating) for your average Hammer-toting Ret Pally. As it is an activated effect on 1 minute cooldown you can also synchronise it with Avenging Wrath and activated trinkets for a cumulative boost to DPS. Yay?

Well, I think it deserves a yay ;P

Other News:

There was a minor build deployed to the PTR this morning but it doesn't appear that there is anything Paladin-oriented to bitch about. I'm starting to write a Ret Paladin primer for 3.1 featuring talent and skill changes, stat weighting changes and new skills and rotations etc. Would that be useful to anyone or should I knock it into touch before I get too far?

Also, Guitar Hero is Hard :(

PTR Build [9733] Changes: JoB Toned Down, SoB Toned Up!

UPDATE: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the current build is a little buggy, especially with regards to SoB/SotM. SoB has the boosted Seal damage shown on the tooltip but it's Judgement damage is still at 3.0.9 level of scaling. Seal of the Martyr has correctly had it's Judgement damage nerfed but the Seal damage hasn't been raised to the levels on the tooltip as compensation.

Because of this, testing DPS levels with a SoB/tM Ret Paladin isn't going to provide accurate results unless the correct coeffs are hotfixed. Horde Paladins will be doing significantly more damage than they should, and Alliance Paladins significantly less.

--

Just a mini-patch to the PTR today, probably to sort out a few Raid issues. Still, we get to see a couple of Paladin changes nonetheless:

Paladin Changes
* Seal of the Martyr now makes all your melee attacks deal [ 48% of min weapon damage ] to [ 48% of max weapon damage ] (up from 22%) additional Holy damage. Unleashing this Seal's energy instantly causes [ 11% of AP + 18% of Spell Power + 26% of min weapon damage ] to [ 11% of AP + 18% of Spell Power + 26% of max weapon damage ] (Down from 16/25/36%) Holy damage at the cost of health equal to 33% of the damage caused.
* Seal of Blood now makes all your melee attacks deal [ 48% of min weapon damage ] to [ 48% of max weapon damage ] (up from 22%) additional Holy damage. Unleashing this Seal's energy instantly causes [ 11% of AP + 18% of Spell Power + 26% of min weapon damage ] to [ 11% of AP + 18% of Spell Power + 26% of max weapon damage ] (Down from 16/25/36%) Holy damage at the cost of health equal to 33% of the damage caused.
* Crusader's Strike has been reverted back to normal - An instant strike that causes 110% weapon damage.
* Sacred Shield now properly scales with Spell Power from Sheathe of Light.

Protection

* Divine Guardian *New Talent* - Tier 4 - Improve the effectiveness of your Divine Sacrifice spell by an additional 5/10% and increases the duration of your Sacred Shield by 50/100% and the amount absorbed by 10/20%.

Source

Ouch, Seal of Blood will hit like an absolute truck, but the Judgement won't be nearly as damaging. Also, Haste just got a huge boost with this change and will be almost as good as Crit, making the Engineering Gloves Enhancement finally valuable! Other preliminary reports are that Hit and Expertise will now scale better than Strength, making getting Capped all the more important (though you will want to be Hit capped at least for JotW mana regen). So, all change for 'BiS' potentially.

The new Divine Guardian talent is great, purely because of the increased duration and power of Sacred Shield. At Tier 4 it is however a little deep for both Holy and Ret, not least down to Tier 2 and 3 having little of value for either build. This is partly down to Divine Sacrifice being such dross... but I think I've beaten that particular drum enough. For now.

One of the questions raised by the change of wording is whether or not the Seal recoil will be dispensed with. Unfortunately the realms are still down so we can't check the exact mechanics, but it is a nice thought to sleep on.

ADDED: 10% Seal Damage Recoil is still in. However the damage is enough for JoL alone to deal with as it procs. JoB recoil damage is still at 33%, but hopefully won't be quite so much of an issue (still wondering what purpose it serves though...).

Also, some good news. Sacred Shield scale with Sheathe of Light Spell Damage. With a 75% coeff I might add. Definitely not to be sniffed at.