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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.)

Why hello you big beautiful lvl 56, pally you

The biggest news is that I'm one step closer to 60 and yet another mount that doesn't take up a bag slot :) Man I love being a Paladin! Oh sure I know that two bag slots aren't that big of a deal, but I just love that I don't have to worry about them.

Well as the title indicates; ding 56! Sort of a disappointing level though. When I trained, I only got a new rank of Frost Protection Aura and a new rank of Retribution Aura ... neither of which I use.

Which leads me to the main content of my post, which as it turns out, is talking about my next post. Let me explain. No, there is too much ... let me sum up.

I have questions about RETtribution Aura. Seems like a solo'ing Ret Pally would be running this aura all the time. Thus the Ret in Retribution, right? But I've seen few who run it and many who talk about running Sanctity Aura instead.

I myself am usually running Sanctity Aura in my travels and have always read that "thats the way to go for Ret damage". But being an inquistive little dwarven soul, I just have to see for myself and run some very generic, extremely vanilla numbers.

And that's where my "next" post comes in. Or it will. I had intended to get this all done at work today and post the numbers up here but I'm still researching. What I have found so far is a big split in the pally world. No surprise there, this is a game played by millions and heck when was the last time everybody in a guild agreed much less thousands of strangers playing pallys :D

There seems to be just as much information supporting Sanctity Aura as the main way to swing the light as there is Retribution Aura. As with so many things in this game, it most likely comes down to play-style and preference as much as anything else.

But I'm going home tonight to research this some and run numbers on Oak. I've already created an interesting little spreadsheet and I just need some of my very own Pally-data to plug into it. It should be a fun read but alas, it will have to be later tonight or early tomorrow before that is all up on here for debate and for my fellow pallys and guildies to poke fun at my theorycrafting :D

I'm looking forward to it. Onward!