another Shockadin PostFollow

I'm bored, and have wanted to see some enthusiasm about the "spec" again for awhile. So many people like to make fun of it, but it is fun pvp stuff. Recently a couple people gave me a hard time (I go back and forth between 40/0/21 and typical 41/20/0, but was shockadin at the time), so I said lets duel and both times the were so pwned, not even close. Best BG pally spec imo, for what it's worth. Fun for awhile anyway, get yourself a couple sets and you have a lot of versatility. It has it's spot in arena as well, or at least I believe, but haven't found good groups to support it yet. I hear 2v2, shockadin/ ret can work, and still want to find a good ret to partner with.

Anyway, just a stab for some more enthusiasm..

Shockadin in PVE is a DPS/leveling alternative to the standard Ret build. Holy paladins in good healing gear can attain some pretty significant +spell damage, particularly since the 2.3 patch. If you put 10+ talent points in the ret tree, you can single-mob grind at a fairly effective speed with little down time due to your huge mana pool and excellent mana efficiency.

You use essentially the same grinding sequence as a traditional ret pally, with the addition of Holy Shock and downranked Consecration. Seal of Righteousness or Seal of Vengeance subs in for Seal of Command (your goal is YELLOW damage after all). So you do something like SotC, Judge, SoR/SoV, Consecrate, Holy Shock, Judge, SoR/SoV, Consecrate, Holy Shock, Judge....Hammer of Wrath. Throw in Hammer of Judgment or Exorcism as required and you will burn mobs down fast. Before Outland, a ret-style 2-hander works best, but in Outland you'll get slightly better damage out of a good +healing sword-and-board combo.

Depending on mob type, you can also AoE grind thanks to the awesome damage output of your Consecration, using Ret aura for direct damage or by spamming FoL while you have Concentration Aura up. If you go deep enough into Ret to get Sanctity Aura, you have probably gimped yourself significantly on the Holy side and so I won't comment any further on this idea.

The great thing about Shockadinosity isn't the DPS though, but the fact that you're still an amazing healer due to your 40+ points in Holy. Being able to solo competently in Outland is a perk.

It's also fun in BGs, because to the untrained eye of your opponent, you're wearing healing gear, but you can play defense or chase down a flag carrier with surprising results if you so choose.

The OP asked specifically about arena and that's where I lose some of my enthusiasm for the joys of Shockadin. My 2v2 team improved significantly when I respecced to a traditional holy/prot raid-centric build. The ret talents didn't help my partner DPS as much as just sitting back and healing him would. In my 5v5 team, I would never think of charging into DPS an opponent; sitting back to heal/cleanse/BOP is many times more essential than it is for 2v2. One of the experts here (bodh or Dilbrt, IIRC) led an extensive discussion of Shockadin's futility in Arena a few months back. Hopefully one of the premium accounts will be kind enough to dredge it up for us at some point....