Retribution Paladins Lose Vindication

Well, not entirely, but it certainly was beaten into submission by the nerf stick. Yesterday, Blizzard dropped a hot-fix to make Retribution Paladins less lethal in the arenas. With the fix, popular Retribution talent Vindication no longer reduces Stamina or Intelligence. Check out the thread announcing the fix here.

To be honest, a certain portion of Blizzard's reasoning makes a great deal of sense. The combination Vindication and Hammer of Wrath really does allow Retribution Paladins to burn their enemies' candles at both ends. What has caused significant outcry, however, aside from the fact that it is a substantial nerf, is that the change is purportedly being made to help "balance the ability out, especially in the lower arena brackets." This has given rise to a huge debate over whether PvP should be primarily balanced at the highest levels, or, alternatively, balanced to even the experience for the largest pool of players which currently rest in lower brackets. In addition to the original thread, check out some other fiery debates on the topic here, here, and here.

It seems as if most players' positions on the change are grounded in their own personal experience. Lower rank PvPers who are tired of getting obliterated by Retribution Paladins love the change. Retribution Paladins and upper level PVPers who like a variety of opponents hate it. Regardless of public opinion, the change has happened and it is likely to stick around for a while. I would not be surprised, however, if we see a compensatory PvP bone being thrown to Ret Paladins' way sometime in the near future, perhaps as early as the next patch.