Our basic PvE talent build these days is 5/5/55, with 5 points in Seals of the Pure for the obvious buff to SoV damage. However, this build still leaves 6 points to toss around. Where should I put them, you may ask? Let's look at your options, sorted by tree.
Heisenberg doesn't know where to put your talent points, but I do. Lysogen 1, quantum mechanics 0.
HOLY
Spiritual Focus - Garbage. Other than the occasional spot-FoL from an AoW proc, you shouldn't be healing. This should be obvious.
Healing Light - Equally garbage. Again, not healing.
Unyielding Faith - Interesting. Could be situationally useful. Let's keep this one in mind.
Divine Intellect - Not terrible, but we aren't exactly shooting for a big mana pool here. This talent's main value is in allowing us to reach a bit farther in the Holy tree.
Illumination - No.
Improved Lay on Hands - Again, no.
Aura Mastery - This spell would be the point of dumping points into the Holy tree. For us Rets used to having raid utility (RIP RaidSac), AM provides something to do. For heavy magical damage fights, you could activate a resist aura and double its effectiveness for 6 seconds. For heavy physical damage fights, you could activate Devotion Aura and give your tanks double armor for a small crunch period. The actual usage of this spell is somewhat limited, but it's something.
PROTECTION
Do you got your Divine Strength 5/5? Ok, good. Now get out of this tree. Seriously. Since grabbing Seals of the Pure has become mandatory, you no longer have enough free points to grab Divine Sacrifice AND the talent that makes it not suck, Divine Guardian.
Besides, no other talent in the Protection tree within reach will increase your DPS or raid utility. Divinity used to be ok before they normalized JoL healing, but alas, no longer.
RETRIBUTION
You've spent 55 points in this tree and you want to spend MORE in it? Well... ok then.
Deflection - Wow. The fact that you'd even think about putting points into this is making me tear up a little. And angry. Right-click those points back and let's pretend this never happened.
Vindication - I would consider this the main reason to dump your points into the Retribution tree. If you don't have a prot paladin / warrior / feral druid / warlock in your raid, this talent can be very useful in lowering damage taken by your tanks. Communicate with your raid team and see what buffs/debuffs are available.
Eye for an Eye - Barely useful. Shouldn't see this proc too much (probably only on trash pulls) if you have decent tanks / you can manage your threat. For now, I'm going to advise against taking this.
Divine Purpose - Situationally useful. Reduced chance to get hit by spells and ranged attacks is nice (i.e. Lady Deathwhisper's Frostbolts), and the ability to get out of certain stuns (unfortunately, not Tear Gas) could be useful as well.
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So, which build suits you? Here's a hard-and-fast rule:
Do you have an AP debuff in your raid (via feral druid, warrior, warlock, or prot paladin)?
Yes: 11/5/55
No: 7/5/59
The theory behind the second talent spec is that since you shouldn't be getting hit by much of anything, it makes Eye for an Eye useless, freeing up two points that can be put into Unyielding Faith. Less time in fears/disorient effects, the more time DPSing the boss.
Good post, you've prompted me to re-evaluate my Ret spec and go with the 7/5/59 talent tree.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll get more bang for my talent buck vs my current spec which has Div Sac, which I don't use.
Good choice, like I said in the post, we can't really "be all that we can be" AND get the useful version of Divine Sacrifice (DivSac + DivGuardian).
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do miss the intensity of "RAIDSAC NOW ANTIGEN!" and fumbling over my keyboard to find my stupid keybind.