A foray into Theorycrafting

Let's do some math boys and girls!

As time ratchets forward, I'll adjust these numbers as I get to study Oak more, but this will get things started. Omg, he's gonna do some math for us, stand back folks!

So the debate here (for me) is: which is better for leveling a Ret Paladin, Sanctity Aura or Retribution Aura? Now just to be clear, the debate for me is NOT which is better for raiding or pvp. Since I'm not 70 yet, my primary concern is grinding/questing. So I'm not trying to address those aspects and I'm trying to keep this pretty basic.

And the last thing to try and determine from all this is; should a Ret Pally sometimes use one of these and at other times use the other aura? That is to say, is it situational and there is no "best" solution for grinding?

So here we go. Some of these numbers need to be tested more but here is what I have so far.

Let's start off and assume three scenarios.

Scenario 0: I'm fighting a non-caster, melee type that is attacking as fast as I am with my current weapon and doing similar damage. This is with Sanctity Aura and will be my baseline for comparison.

Scenario 1: Using Retribution Aura (Improved), I'm fighting a non-caster, melee type that is attacking as fast as I am with my two hander, and doing similar damage.

Scenario 2: Using Retribution Aura (Improved). I'm fighting a rogue-type mob that is attacking fast (some of the dark iron dwarves in Searing Gorge are like this).

(Remember I haven't attempted to factor in critting or other bonuses - I didn't want to do that quite yet since this is my very first attempt at this sort of thing)

I'm using a base weapon damage for Oak of 280/swing, a 30 second fight with Oak getting 9 melee swings in that fight. During that time he will get about 6 Holy attacks, Judgements/CS (5 second avg gaps), each of those doing a base damage of around 255.

And here are the Results:

Scenario 0 (This then becomes my standard to meet or beat.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base melee damage: 2211
Base holy damage: 1683
Retribution dmg: 0
Cumulative damage: 3894
Base damage per sec: 130

Scenario 1: Improved Retribution Aura vs. 2H slow (4 sec) weapon, non-caster
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Base melee damage: 2211
Base holy damage: 1530
Retribution dmg: 300
Cumulative damage: 4041
Base damage per sec: 135

Scenario 2: Improved Retribution Aura vs. "rogue-type" (2 sec) melee
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base melee damage: 2211
Base holy damage: 1530
Retribution dmg: 900
Cumulative damage: 4641
Base damage per sec: 155

So from the little charts above it seems clear that for soloing, Retrib Aura would be the way to go "most times". Again, this didn't factor in crits, SoC or other bonuses which would only add to the damage listed above.

Judging Crusader instead of Judging Wisdom (and I usually use Wisdom) creates a HUGE swing in damage but results in a total mana burn pretty much every fight. Boo! Give us pallies better mana-management or a large pool, darnit! :D

The thing I didn't allow for because it simply didn't occur to me until right now, is to factor in "misses", "resists", etc. I tried to come at this from a simple point of view and basic math just to prove to myself, if nobody else, which one would be a better way to go with Ret.

More to come concerning this stuff later. I think it requires more research, its better than doing my job at work and it's good to get this outta my head :)

(Major disclaimer: I'm not "good" at this stuff. So if another pally reads this and is offended by my lack of knowledge, then I apologize in advance. I would like some constructive input if anybody cares to share.)