Blizzard says WoW Dragonflight patch 10.0.7 will include a Ret Paladin rework intended to change how auras work, with some of the changes made in the latest WoW Dragonflight PTR update. Revenge Paladins are one of the core classes in the iconic MMORPG, with their melee DPS output complemented by excellent defensive utility. These latest changes are meant to optimize some of his aura usage and benefit his raid mates and party members when things get dangerous.
Blizzard Community Manager Randy “Kaivax” Jordan details the planned World of Warcraft update on the Blizzard Forums, noting that the team is “working hard on updates to the Reward Tree” . They explain, “In Dragonflight, the Aura of Retribution only worked as a personal performance buff for Paladins, preventing them from using other auras during gameplay.”
In an effort to change this, Retribution Aura will now grant an additional 5% damage and healing to all party or raid members for ten seconds whenever a member within 40 yards takes more than 50% health in damage. This has a 30 second cooldown, so it won’t constantly spawn, but it should provide a pretty noticeable boon to your entire party during high damage fights.
This new Aura of Retribution replaces the previous Seraphim proc that occurred when a party member took damage. Kaivax notes that Seraphim has been removed from the Paladin talent tree, calling it a major factor for Paladins “having an excessive amount of buttons to press”.
As such, the team decided to “take the performance provided by this cooldown and add it to his cool abilities.” Kaivax also notes that the Divine Toll ability will be moved to the Paladin class tree “to ensure that there is always a powerful and exciting node at the end point of the class tree to target.”
As for the other Retribution Aura component, Avenging Wrath, it is now set to become a new base passive for Ret Pallys called “Instrument of Retribution”. Now when a party member within 40 yards dies, you now gain Vengeful Wrath for 12 seconds (a pretty nice improvement from the previous 8 second duration).
This Retribution Aura change should be welcome, but there’s a chance it’s controversial – those looking to achieve those high DPS scans are now actively encouraged to have someone on the team intentionally take damage, which is an interesting risk/reward mechanism. , but sometimes you may feel like you’re being deliberately encouraged to play “sub-optimally” in order to succeed.
Time will tell how these changes play out – some will be tested on the current WoW Dragonflight 10.0.7 PTR, we’ll probably start to see feedback on how they feel pretty good. In conclusion, Kaivax states, “We look forward to sharing more with you. [about the upcoming Ret Paladin changes] in the coming weeks and listening to your feedback!
Take a look at the WoW Dragonflight February 7 patch notes for the latest class setting changes. We also have a WoW Dragonflight tier list to help you choose the best spec and make sure you’re set up with the best WoW addons for Dragonflight in 2023. If you haven’t dabbled in Dragon Isles yet, read our WoW review Dragonflight to find What is it.