3.1 DPS Implications

By any guess, Ret raid DPS is going to improve 20-30% from 3.0.8 to 3.1. This is a huge increase, far beyond the scope of "minor tweaks." Is ret playing with a handicap in raids right now? GC has always said they'll tweak the numbers if X class falls behind. Ret has only been "tweaked" down and is now getting huge sustained damage buffs, if it needs a "tweaking" of over 20%, shouldn't this have been addressed much earlier?

Seems like we're back to the buff/nerf rollercoaster.

Lets look at recent changes to Ret DPS from the PTR:

Buffs:

SoB/M going to 46% Weapon Damage, with a minor nerf to JoB. This is huge as it is a large increase to CS/DS/White.
Haste/ArP - Benefit increased.
Divine Storm - 100->110%
Exorcism - Glyph 20%, now works on all types, 15% from Sanct Seals
Holy Wrath - All types.
Crusader Strike - 15% Sanct Seals, now procs RV.

Nerfs:

RV - 40%->30%, no longer double dips from damage modifiers.
Fanatacism - 25->18%

Fanatacism change is minor as a majority of SoB's damage is moving to the seal.
RV change also has less impact as judgement becomes a smaller contributor to DPS, the addition of CS to RV as well as the improved DS/CS weapon damage coefficients greatly offset the reduction.

The question at hand is whether or not these changes are made to turn consecration into a cooldown active/mana dump move as opposed to a sustained damage ability. A reduction in blood recoil, even paired with the glyph, may result in insufficient mana for a full damage rotation including consecrate.

In any case, Ret will be far more competitive in 3.1 than it has ever been. I would seriously expect nerfs after 3.1, especially to the most recent SoB change. Huge implications to controlled burst in PvP as it adds near SoC-equivalent damage to all attacks with no internal cooldown.