Nerd Culture Podcast

Hi WoW Yoda fans!

I apologize for not having any more specs since December 1st, but I was waiting for the new 5.2 patch to come out in order to fully revise all previous specs and begin creating more. To that end, I start anew with the Paladin spec – Holy Slam; for the casting class lovers that want a Pally that isn’t Ret or Prot spec.

Click here to see the talent spec on WoWHead

Surprisingly, not too much has changed on how this spec works, and in fact, its damage output is highly increased due to this patch. Sadly, Inquisition is no longer available to Holy spec, which does make sense since it isn’t supposed to be doing damage anyway, however Glyph of Harsh Words makes up for this in allowing a nice damage ability. This time, the main offensive spells will be Denounce, Holy Shock, Judgement, and Word of Glory. I recommend Seal of Truth still, due to Judgement causing the Censure effect. As for rotation, Denounce will be your baseline spell, casting whenever your others aren’t available, Holy Shock will give you the holy power necessary to cast your Word of Glory, then the talent Divine Purpose will give you a 25% chance to cast another time, and can actually proc on itself constantly. Glyph of Holy Shock will also allow you to deal more damage with your Holy Shock, while Glyph of Denounce gives the Holy Shock a chance to make your next Denounce to cast more quickly.

As for protecting yourself, Selfless Healer allows your Judgements to allow your Flash of Light to cost less, take less time to cast and heal for  damage time. However, if you can wait for your third Judgement, then your Flash of Light will be free, instant, and empowered. Also, Unbreakable Spirit will allow a more frequent use of your bubbles and Lay on Hands.  Then for the necessary movement for PvE or PvP, Pursuit of Justice will have you covered, especially if you have 3 holy power to move 30% faster.  Also, you can easily build up long lasting holy power by casting Holy Shock while not in combat.

One thing to be sure of, when starting combat with a single melee opponent, be sure to cast your Denounce first, followed by Judgement (to allow Burden of Guilt to slow them down) and then Holy Shock. For ranged opponents, it can be the other way around so you will build your holy power faster.  Sadly, this spec doesn’t have much in the way of AoE, so Holy Prism will cover for you. The one main thing to remember, is that you will need to target yourself first, so that your enemies will be burned. Also, your heals will give you a protective shield due to Mastery, so whenever you self heal, you will be protected, especially whenever Lay on Hands is cast.

I hope you enjoy the newly revised Holy Slam. Check back tomorrow for another revised WoW Yoda spec!

This Retribution Paladin spec is designed to inflict pain on those who would inflict pain on you.

Your main damage dealer will be your Templar’s Verdict, which requires 3 holy power to get it to do its high amount of damage. Your best way of gaining your holy power, is to have a high Haste rating so you can gain more Crusader Strikes and Divine Storms through Sanctity of Battle.  Judgements of the Pure will give you 9% extra Haste after casting Judgement for an extra boost & Pursuit of Justice can also bring extra holy power for whenever an enemy stuns, fears, or immobilizes you.  Also, Divine Purpose will assist in helping to get extra chances of using your Templar’s Verdict by its 15% chance of gaining the temporary use of 3 holy power for about 12 secs or so.

One main thing to remember, is that if you have a potentially long fight on your hands, or perhaps have received an early Divine Purpose, I highly recommend that your 1st 3 holy power be used on an Inquisition. The reason for this, is because with Inquiry of Faith, it lasts for a total of 36 seconds where you are dealing an additional 30% more holy damage than normal, which affects all of your damage abilities. Your Zealotry and Avenging Wrath will ensure that you deal further increased damage to wail on your enemies faster and harder with your Inquisition and Templar’s Verdict as well. This spec can actually deal very good damage for AoE and Single target DPS, as long as you switch out your Seal, hence the reason for the Glyphs of Righteousness, Truth and Insight. Normally I wouldn’t have included Insight in there, but I did for the cases in which mana may have been drained or may have forgotten to use Judgement to gain the Replenishment effect from Communion. So for single target DPS, Seal of Truth should be used, with which the damage is increased from Inquisition, Inquiry of Faith, Seal of Command and Seal of the Pure with of course your Crusader Strikes and Templar’s Verdicts.  As for AoE, Seal of Righteousness should be used along with Divine Storm (if there are 4 or more enemies) and Consecration.

I wanted to make sure this spec had plenty of survivability, since this a Paladin after all, so I included Long Arm of the Law, Repentance and Sacred Shield – Long Arm of the Law for running away from your enemy if needed, Repentance to take one target out of the loop for 1 full minute (non-PVP of course), & Sacred Shield makes you a little harder to kill if you have been weakened. As for Auras, most people would expect to see me say Retribution here, but I’m going to shock you! Personally, I don’t really think that Retribution Aura has much use past a certain level. Sure, when it deals 16 damage to an enemy with 4 to 500 life it’s kind of useful, but doing 200 damage to an enemy with 100k life is barely a dent, even if they are using 2 very fast weapons or have the Focused Strikes ability (where they hit several times in a matter of a few seconds). For this reason, I stick with either Resistance or Devotion aura, depending on if I’m attacking a caster (which Eye for an Eye also helps with) or a melee based opponent. For your Blessing, I would generally recommend Might, since it will increase your melee Haste (which sadly does not affect your Crusader Strike/Divine Storm cool down).

Now, one very important thing about this spec is to try to keep an eye on your holy power. It is a complete waste if Templar’s Verdict is used with only 1 or 2 holy power, unless your enemy is on their last thread of life anyway. So don’t panic and use it early. Also, be sure to be ready for whenever The Art of War procs since it can potentially give you an additional Divine Purpose to follow it.

If you are ready with the correct seal and aura, you will be throwing out a ton of damage with a vengeance!

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sbhZMZfbGsdkszfd:zR0Rc00mc