The Light and How to Swing It: Shockadins!

Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Paladin issues, interviews experienced Paladins and reports her findings in The Light and How to Swing It, formerly The Paladin Report.

I am very interested in trying out the Shockadin spec when I get my pally to 70 and I've been trying to find info on this particular spec. Ten Ton Hammer has an excellent Paladin Guide, but doesn't list the Shockadin as a sub guide. The stickied Paladin Guide on the official forums has a lot of information of varied accuracy, but also doesn't have a Shockadin section. I'm pretty much having to scrounge for bits of information here and there, so I thought I'd publish my findings in this week's column.

The Shockadin is mostly a PVP spec, though some claim to be able to heal in raids just fine as long as they change their gear. This is what is so intriguing to me: that the DPS is supposed to be similar or better than a Retribution Pally, but that you still have plenty of Holy for healing. The gear for DPS needs to be high +Spell Damage -- mostly you are looking for caster gear. Some will settle for mail gear intended for Shamans for the casting bonuses. Just as Moonkin will wear a combination of leather and cloth to boost their spell damage, the Shockadin must balance spell damage gear from all armor categories with enough AP to survive.

Everyone seems to agree that the Shockadin spec is 40/0/21, though there are slight variations on how those points are spent. Pictured above is a very common Shockadin spec. Breaking it down according to talent:

Retribution Tree

Benediction (5 points): Mana efficiency is extremely important to the Shockadin. This talent reduces the Mana cost of Judgement and Seal spells by 15%.

Improved Judgement (2 points): Captain Obvious says faster casting = more DPS. This reduces the Cooldown time of Judgement by 2 seconds.

Improved Seal of the Crusader: Some put 3 points into this talent to increase the Holy damage of Judgement of the Crusader by 5%, though others will put 3 points in Parry to increase survivability.

Conviction (5 points): Increases critical strike chance with melee by 5%.

Seal of Command (1 point): Though I have seen Shockadin builds without it, it seems to me that the Judgement of this seal is a big plus for increasing DPS. The Seal of Command gives a chance to deal additional Holy damage equal to 70% of normal weapon damage and when trained to maximum, the Judgement deals 228 to 252 damage (456 to 504 to a stunned or incapacitated foe).

Eye for an Eye (2 points): Spell criticals cause 30% of the damage taken to also be taken by the caster.

Crusade (2 points): Increases damage caused against Humanoids, Demons, Undead and Elementals by 2%. This can be increased by spending one talent point, if not spending it on Seal of command or elsewhere.

Sanctity Aura (1 point): This is required for the Shockadin as it increases Holy damage done by 10% for the Pally as well as all party members within 30 yards. It used to also increase Healing, but unfortunately, not anymore.

Holy Tree

Holy Shock (1 point): This is the most important talent, as it gives Shockadins their name. It is an instant cast, 20 yard range spell that can be trained up 5 ranks and causes up to 574 Damage or Healing. No matter what talent choices you make before this, you must take the path to Holy Shock.

Holy Guidance (5 points): This is the second most important talent as it increases all spell damage and healing by 35% of total Intellect.

Choose whatever talents you wish to get to the above two talents, but here are some suggestions:

Divine Intellect (5 points): Holy Guidance will be much more effective with this talent choice as it increases total Intellect by 10%.

Illumination (5 points) and Divine Favor (1 point): These are both prerequisites for taking Holy Shock. They also reduce mana and increase criticals which benefit the Shockadin greatly.

Holy Power (5 points): As the critical effect chance of all Holy spells are increased by 5%, this is a great way to spend 5 talent points.

Improved Blessing of Wisdom (2 points): As a caster, no matter how well armored, Blessing of Wisdom should be the blessing of choice and the Improved talent increases the effect by 20%.

In the forums, Doru (a level 70 Warrior who also has a 70 Ret Pally) defines the Shockadin as follows:

A shockadin, by definition, is a melee class that has become a caster that stands 40 yds back spamming heals and moves in 20 yds every 15 seconds to hit with a bolt of shock. This completely shocks the enemy as surely there must be some mistake that a character wearing 12000 armor is standing 40 yds away.

Another good source for a discussion of the Shockadin is Sylvina's blog. Sylvina is a WoW Insider reader and a Belfadin. Jeffpally has a video of a PVP Shockadin, which is mostly made up of using Holy Shock and Hammer of Wrath repeatedly.

Is being a Shockadin as fun as it sounds? Has anyone had any trouble with a Shockadin speced pally healing in groups or raids?

Robin Torres is raising a couple of Blood Elf Paladins of her very own on two different servers, because one just isn't enough. In her search for knowledge about her new favorite class, Robin interviews more experienced paladins. If you want to be one of those paladins, please email Robin.Torres AT weblogsinc DOT com for a possible future column.