Shockadin

From WoWWiki

Shockadin is a fan term for a paladin who has the majority of their talents in the Holy tree, but still manages to deal respectable damage. Their biggest sources of damage are Exorcism (in PVE), Seal of Righteousness and Holy Shock, hence the term "shockadin". Consecration can also be a solid asset to a shockadin's damage due to its high spell power coefficient. Shockadins are more than capable of healing as well, as the build invests 31 points into the Holy Tree.

Contents 1 Mechanics 2 Glyphs 3 Talents 4 Mana inefficiency and use outside PvP 5 Gear

Mechanics

Shockadins generally cause very little physical damage, though they are capable of inflicting a high amount of spell damage in a short period of time. The most popular spell will be Holy Shock, if possible combined with Divine Favor. Another important source of damage will be a Judgement spell combined with Seal of Righteousness. Shockadins can also use Consecration to do surprisingly dangerous AoE damage. In addition, Avenging Wrath can be combined with Divine Favor for huge Holy Shock crits. With the release of patch 3.1, Exorcism can be added, though not to pvp player targets as of 3.1.1.

Shockadins are known for their massive burst capabilities, and paladins that seriously gear for the spec are a significant force in PvP. As Holy Shock, Divine Favor, Avenging Wrath, and trinkets will only trigger 1 global cooldown when tied together in a macro, the shockadin can dish out a great deal damage in a single click. At this point, the shockadin can potentially follow up with a Hammer of Wrath to finish off opponents.

The shockadin's main damage spells are all on a 5-10 second cooldown. Judgements, are 10 seconds (down to 8 seconds with Improved Judgements). Holy Shock is a 6 second cooldown (down to 5 seconds with Glyph of Holy Shock). Exorcism is 15 second wait normally, but about 10 seconds with Purifying Power. Consecration is your standard 8 second AOE spell (up to 10 second cooldown and duration with Glyph of Consecration

This build can be very mana efficient starting at level 71 when you gain access to both Divine Plea and the first point of Judgements of the Wise.

The lack of sustained DPS means that shockadins mostly excel in duels against a single opponent, where a well timed burst is enough to end the fight. In longer drawn out arena battles, a shockadin may be useful for bursting down an opposing healer, but after all cooldowns have been popped, the shockadin might just end up healing their allies. It is possible to follow a shockadin spec while still retaining 5/5 Spiritual Focus, which eliminates most of this problem.

Glyphs

Some glyphs to consider are:

• Glyph of Holy Shock - essential to increasing DPS
• Glyph of Exorcism - very good for PVE damage
• Glyph of Avenging Wrath - lower cooldown means more uptime on your wings
• Glyph of Judgement - not a huge increase, but still pretty good
• Glyph of Consecration - will only increase mana efficiency if you are having problems with that, more of a concern before level 71 when you get Divine Plea
• Glyph of Seal of Righeousness - 10% increase to the Seal portion of Seal of Righeousness

Talents

The majority of a Shockadin's talent points will be placed in the Retribution Tree, with the first 31 points going into Holy.

The most important damage talents to consider when building a shockadin are:

• Purifying Power - Bringing Exorcism down to about a 10 second cooldown.
• Divine Favor - Prerequisite for Holy Shock and will allow grant a guaranteed critical shock essential for the maximum controlled burst.
• Holy Shock - Essential for all Shockadin builds, and will provide a significant percentage of your damage.
• Seals of the Pure - Increases damage from Seals and Judgements by 15%.
• Sanctified Light - Increases the critical effect chance of Holy Shock by 6%.
• Healing Light - Increases the effectiveness of Holy Shock by 12%.

• Benediction - Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells. If you intend to be the primary source of damage on your targets, it will be important to reduce the cost of constant spellcasting.
• Improved Judgements - Brings down Judgements to an 8 second cooldown.
• Crusade - 3-6% additional damage depending on the target.
• Sanctified Retribution - 3% additional damage.
• Sanctity of Battle - Increases crit chance by 3%, and damage of Exorcism by 15%

Examples of talent builds:

31/0/40

31/0/40

31/0/40

50/0/21 (A build based on long term mana sustainability and more overall utility)

Outdated builds

43/0/28 (Sanctity Aura)

48/0/23 (Healing and Survivability)

41/20/0 (Arena Shockadin) - Forfeits significant damage for essential healing paladin talents. Can still gear however to provide a critical burst of nearly 4k.

Technically, it is possible to have Holy Shock and with level 80 get the extra spell damage from Holy Guidance though this would not be recommended due to the talents you would be missing from the Retribution tree.

Mana inefficiency and use outside PvP

Perhaps the biggest downside to a Shockadin is the fact that if you run out of mana, you die. Consecration is very mana consuming and shouldn't be "spammed". Outside of PvP, these builds make excellent healing builds.

Some players (including Paladins) believe that the Shockadin is not viable as DPS. Although 5-man instances may allow room for lower DPS output, a raid environment often requires that damage dealers burn down bosses as quickly as possible before they enrage and one-shot players one by one. Holy Paladin gear does not have the +hit rating needed for DPS on raid bosses, and enchanting/gemming to reach the +hit cap would come at the expense of +spell power and +crit rating, thus lowering damage output. This can be offset by using Enhancement Shaman/Hunter mail armor, which often comes with +hit and +crit as well as +Agility (improves +crit) and +Intellect (increases mana pool, and +Spell Power with talents), or wearing DPS caster cloth, which does not provide much armor. The problem with Shockadins are that they are very gear dependent compared to other classes and specs, and a lot of gear that would benefit shockadins would probably be given to other classes as a priority. You may not have a chance to roll on this gear until your guild has the raid in which your desired gear drops on farm (no one needs any upgrades, running for Emblems).

Gear

Shockadins focus on spell damage and spell crit rating.

Most Shockadins use one-handed maces or swords with caster stats and a shield. Using a two-hander leaves you vulnerable to physical opponents, but can help you burn down a cloth wearer if you have a good weapon.

Outdated as of Wrath

A popular one-handed weapon would be The Turning Tide, while solid choices for a shield are Voice of Reason and Deadly Gladiator's Barrier. In addition to having great stats, these shields also look impressive.

Any two-handers should have high top-end such as Sword of Justice. Armageddon is also a great weapon, but the highest spell damage two-hander currently available to paladins in the game is Hammer of Righteous Might. It is particularly useful against casters of course, and it slightly increases the damage from both your Seal of Righteousness procs and Judgements, as well as the damage done by Holy Shock.

As for Librams, Deadly Gladiator's Libram of Fortitude is a good one for granting 120 attack power for 6 sec. when using Crusader Strike. Libram of Radiance is also a solid alternative for increasing the damage taken from your Crusader Strike.