.2 Rhymes with QQ

Where to begin.

First, Seal of Command is STILL bugged. How Blizzard plans to obtain accurate testing information when JoC is dealing 50% more damage than intended when within 5 yards of the target, but 50% less damage when beyond 5 yards makes little sense to me. Especially when Justice is our "gap closer" intended to be used at ranged to close gaps. Speaking of which, it is not a gap closer. A gap closer is something that puts you in melee range of the target on demand. Death Grip, Intercept/Charge, Feral Charge/Leap, Shadowstep. All these abilities allow you to close a 25+ yard gap with no setup and no 10 yard range requirement to apply. JoJ's closest analogy is a weak snare, potentially on par with other snares when applied to movement increasing effects.

Second, the Seal of Vengeance change to have it only apply the DoT on autoattacks/HoTR is poorly thought out. Why waste development time implementing this band-aid that is clearly ridiculous from a fight mechanics point of view? Many fights, old and present, do not allow for SoV to be the "PvE" seal. Four Horsemen, Yogg Saron, Mimiron, etc all require sustained DPS on relatively high health adds that require full PvE DPS capability to make you worth your raid slot. A FIFTEEN SECOND dispellable setup time is unsuitable for any fight where you must avoid AoE or have timed target switches on high health targets. SoV has certainly been removed from PvP, which was one of the accomplished goals, but its purpose as the PvE seal has been completely gutted as well. Suffering a 30% DPS penalty for the first 15 seconds of a target swap is not acceptable.

Third, the ever present "Skill Cap" has not been raised. Exorcism vs FoL is barely a decision. Facerolling damage is still the same. All that changes now is Paladins must choose somewhat between supporting their team with Cleanse globals or the additional Crusader Strike globals we need to pay to maintain roughly equivalent PvP damage.

Fourth, Paladins still lack sustainable ways to escape or enter combat. Walking around to every target with no sprint/charge type ability makes Paladins a liability against kite heavy teams that play properly, as well as ranged heavy teams that can put a Paladin at dangerously low health before they have a chance to deal any damage back. This was especially true in Dalaran Sewers, since you could not mount in.

Fifth, Paladins with damage on par with other DPS specs in arena means they are relying on their defensive utility to defeat an opponent. Keeping your teammates alive rarely leads to a kill. At best you will save your healer some mana, at worst you set yourself up for a target swap in taking the damage. Supportive ability is not sufficient to justify the lack of Interrupt or Gap Closer/Creator Ret currently must deal with.

Sixth, Judgements of the Wise not working on Damage Shields. Blizzard was fairly clear that "hard counters" are not fun, yet insists on allowing the Priest class to be able to completely control Ret. Double Magic Dispel, Mass Dispel, and of course denying mana regeneration through shields, plus mana burn. This is a quality of life concern for any class the Ret paladin fights but a priest. In that case, it is just a disaster, as a Ret paladin has no choice but to rely on Divine Plea(dispellable) for mana, gets kited(and becomes unable to judge as a result), or uses up more mana trying to open a hole in a relatively low cooldown damage shield so that they can attempt to judge for mana.

Seventh, Free Expertise. Most melee specs come with a bit of free expertise to reduce the occurence of RNGing. This is especially devastating to Retribution as seal attacks DO NOT WORK unless the originating attack deals damage. The seal attacks roll AGAIN for avoidance/miss, and so are double penalized. Ret needs a free expertise talent and Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, even if it stays, is not a viable solution.

Eighth, and possibly the worst : "We will monitor the situation and make adjustments as necessary." This makes little sense. PvE damage is obviously going to be great on dummies/test patchwerks but poor in actual use. PvP we're still required to attach an interrupt/ms/snare capable class to our hip in order to perform. Shadow Priests and Frost Mages have already been given some of these tools to make them more viable without someone covering these roles. It should be fairly obvious now that Ret PvP damage has been toned down that it too will need additional tools. This is to say nothing of PvE where interrupts are required.

Summary : Poorly thought out changes are going to devastate Ret for 3.2. We're still reliant on others to do our work for us, and the "skill less" portions of the class remain the same. Bad players will still be demolished by Retribution, but good ones will just laugh even harder. PvE looks grim as glyphed SoR could potentially outperform fixed SoC in DPS, while SoV remains complete garbage except for tank and spank fights.