Talent trees are back.

There is a general Paladin Tree and a Spec Specific Tree. Many of these talents are abilities we have had as baseline abilities.

Paladin Tree

Lay on Hands is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. This ability has been baseline for many years and it is unlikely we will spend the 3 points required to acquire it.

Blessing of Freedom is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. At the very least it only takes 1 point to acquire.

Concentration & Devotion Auras are now a talent in the Paladin Tree. This now takes 2 talent points to acquire.

Divine Steed is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. It is also essentially mandatory as it paths into Avenging Wrath.

Judgment is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 29.

Judgment is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 16. Judgment does not generate any baseline Holy Power and this will cause it to generate only 1 Holy Power.

Avenging Wrath is now a talent in the Paladin Tree.

Blessing of Protection is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. It is also essentially mandatory as it paths into reducing the cooldown of Avenging Wrath.

Cleanse Toxins is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 12. Depending on your pathing it will take at least 3 points to acquire.

Avenging Wrath is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 43. Please note the default cooldown of Avenging Wrath is 3 Minutes. This reduces it to the 2 Minutes that we are all used to.

Blessing of Sacrifice is now a talent in the Paladin Tree.

Turn Evil is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. I am glad I do not have to see it in my spell book anymore personally.

Rebuke is now a talent in the Paladin Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 12. It will only take 1 point to acquire it.

Retribution Tree

Blade of Justice is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 19. It is the very first point we need to spend to activate Retribution.

Divine Storm is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 23. It is available right after Blade of Justice.

Improved Crusader Strike is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 33.

Art of War is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 24 and 43 as 2 separate entries. Now packaged into 1 talent and available right after Blade of Justice.

Holy Blade is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 34 and was just called Blade of Justice Rank 2. Unlocks right after Art of War

Shield of Vengeance is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 26. It is a mandatory pick as it will let you unlock Wake of Ashes.

Wake of Ashes is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 39.

Hand of Hindrance is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this unlocked in our baseline kit at Level 18. In most cases would only take 1 talent point depending on how you path.

Avenging Wrath: Might is now a talent in the Retribution Tree. Previously this part of the baseline Avenging Wrath since 8.0.1. It is absolutely ridiculous to split a baseline ability into 2 separate components. Before 8.0.1 Avenging Wrath used to be a flat 35% damage increase. It was changed to 20% damage and 20% Critical Strike to make it less bland. Now they have succeeded it making it even more bland by removing the Critical Strike chance and leaving the baseline damage at 20%.

Things hidden and/or Missing?

I want to just state again I do not have Alpha access so I can not test everything for myself. I did notice a few odd things and had some help from Bolas from Wowhead to look into a few missing leveling talents.

Crusader Strike does appear to still be in the game as the mana cost is the same as live at Level 60.

Judgment has been removed which previously increased our Judgment damage by 50%. I am not sure if this is intentional. This will effect Divine Toll if it is an intentional change.

Blessing of Sacrifice appears to be missing.

There might be more as well but I will save that effort for later in this release cycle or once I get Alpha/Beta access.

In the Development notes they really put a point on our utility being front and center in the Paladin Tree. When looking at what utility we had previously we will actually be missing utility as of course we will be attempting to use as many points as possible to increase our damage. I may do a more in-depth look later but so far I am not impressed with the overall system in its current state.

Why would I want to build SimulationCraft myself if I can just use Raidbots? In most cases Raidbots will do everything that you need. Not everyone has the means to pay for Raidbots so being able to run your simulations locally is a big advantage. In particular cases, such as Alpha/Beta cycles, there is not a way to utilize Raidbots.

Today I am going to show you how you can build SimulationCraft from source. You do not have to be a programmer to build SimulationCraft on your own. If you have basic computer knowledge and can follow along with my instructions, you should not encounter much resistance.

Please remember that Shadowlands is still in Beta and SimulationCraft is not complete. You should not take any results as 100% accurate. The main goal is to help people get their hands on SimulationCraft to help test the APL or spot any errors they might see. The SimulationCraft Dev team does have a SimulationCraft 9.0 TODO list that will let you know the current implementation status.

This guide is intended for Windows 10. If you are on a previous version of Windows, you should really consider upgrading. If you are on Mac or Linux, you can refer to the official “HowToBuild” page on the SimulationCraft Wiki. You will need about ~15GB of free space.

1. Download and install Git. You do not need to modify any of the installation options.

2. Download and install TortiseGit. Use the link right below “for 64-bit Windows”. On the last page on the install you can uncheck the box that says, “Run first start wizard”.

3. Download and run Visual Studio Community 2019.

4. Make sure to select “Desktop development with C++” before pressing “Install”. This is a large download and can take some time based on your internet connection speed.

5. After the install is complete you can safely close both Visual Studio windows that are open.

6. Download and run Qt. You will be required to make and account during the install process. After clicking on the link in your email you need to fill out a First and Last name, industry, check “I am an individual person not using Qt for any company”, select your Country, and press confirm. You do not need to fill out a city and Phone number. Press “Next” until you reach “Select Components”.

10. Expand the list next to the latest Qt version (5.15.1 as of writing) and select “MSVC 2019 64-bit”, and “Qt WebEngine”.

12. Press “Next” and wait for the install to finish. This is a slow process.

13. Uncheck “Launch Qt Creator” once the install is complete.

14. Create a folder that will contain the SimulationCraft source code. Mine is located on my Desktop and named SimC.

15. Open the SimulationCraft Github.

16. The default branch is “shadowlands” as of writing. Click on the green “Code” button and then click on the clipboard icon underneath “Clone with HTTPS” to copy the link to your clipboard.

17. Right click on your “SimC” folder and select “Git Clone…”

18. The previously copied SimulationCraft link should automatically be filled next to "URL:". If it is not paste it inside this box. Feel free to edit the “Directory:” and remove the “simc” from the end.

19. Press “OK” and it will start to download SimulationCraft. This may take a few minutes.

20. Once it is complete press “Close”.

21. Locate your msvc2019_64\bin folder inside your Qt install directory. If you left the install location default this will be “C:\Qt\VERSIONNUMBER\msvc2019_64\bin”. For this example, it would be “C:\Qt\5.15.1\msvc2019_64\bin”. Copy the full directory to your clipboard.

22. Type “path” in your Start Menu and select “Edit the system environment variables.

23. On the “System Properties” window that opens up select “Environment Variables” at the bottom.

24. Select “Path” under “User variables for YOURUSERNAME” and select “Edit". You can use the “Path” under “System Variables” if you have multiple user accounts you want to use this on.

25. Click “Edit” and paste your msvc2019_64\bin directory from your clipboard.

26. Press “OK” on the “Edit environment variable” window and close the other 2 windows.

27. Open a Command Prompt window. Type “cmd” without the quotes in your start menu and choose the black box that says Command Prompt.

28. Copy and paste the following line into your command Prompt window including the quotes.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"

29. The output should be like the image below.

30. Next you need to navigate to your SimC folder created earlier. You can do this in the same Command Prompt window by using “cd” and entering the location of your SimC folder such as “cd Desktop\SimC” and pressing Enter.

31. Paste the following line into your Command Prompt windows and press Enter.

qmake -r -tp vc -spec win32-msvc simulationcraft.pro

32. The output should be similar to what is below.

33. Open your SimC folder and locate “simulationcraft.sln”. Double click to launch.

34. If you are asked, “How do you want to open this file?” select “Visual Studio 2019”.

35. If you receive an error that states “Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.” Close Visual Studio 2019 and do not save any changes if it asks you too. Open your simulationcraft.sln file once more and it should load properly.

36. Near the top left click on the drop-down arrow next to “Debug” and choose “Release”

37. On the top menu bar choose “Build” and select “Build Solution”.

38. This will start the build process which can take some time to run depending on your CPU. Once it is complete the “Output” section at the bottom should “Build: 3 succeeded” like below.

39. You will find your newly complied SimulationCraft in your SimC directory.

40. Double click to launch and you can now use SimulationCraft as normal.

You have now successfully built SimulationCraft! When you want to update SimulationCraft in the future it will be a much faster process. Simply right click on your SimC folder and select “Git Sync…”

Then select “Pull” and it will download any changes that you are missing. Open the simulationcraft.sln inside your SimC directory and Build it again.

You can find an updated APL from Solsacra at this link. You will need to add this to your profile as your sim will most likely fail without it. Start at the line "actions.precombat=flask" and copy down to the end. You do not need the information above it.

Vanguard's Momentum now increases the damage of our next Holy Power by 10% in addition to its existing addition of 2 charges to Hammer of Wrath. This is now essentially a combination of 2 Torghast Anima Powers.

Small Smooth Spike increases the number of Hammer of Wrath charges by 3, and Mark of Conk-quest causes our next Holy Power spender to deal 100% additional damage. Obviously, these had to be tuned to an appropriate level.

Overall I am pleased with this change and Mark of Conk-quest was something I originally mentioned could be a Legendary effect to replace one of our bland selections in a previous feedback post of the WoW forums.

Vanguard's Momentum has good versatility by working effectively in Single target and AoE scenarios. The addition of damage provides good synergy with Holy Avenger by allowing us to alternate Hammer of Wrath and buffed Templar's Verdict/Divine Storm. It also helps to further push the strengths of Righteous Verdict, Execution Sentence, Final Reckoning, Divine Purpose, and Empyrean Power. Stacking percentage-based multipliers is always a benefit.

I do find it odd that we now have 3 Legendaries that interact with Hammer of Wrath. Final Verdict has a 50% chance to allow Hammer of Wrath to be usable and have its cooldown reset. The Mad Paragon increases the damage of Hammer of Wrath by 25% and causes each cast to extend the duration of Avenging Wrath/Crusade by 1 second.

The Mad Paragon is the least interesting choice in my opinion and is anemic after 2 rounds of nerfs. It is hard to find good balance with an effect of this nature as it hovers between overpowered and useless. If one had to go The Mad Paragon would be my choice.

In a future where we can potentially use 2 Legendaries Vanguard's Momentum and Final Verdict would be a perfect match.

Also, I want to point out that Blizzard is trolling us. The name is “Vanguard's Momentum” which “Momentum” could imply a movement speed increase. It could also refer to an increase in rotational speed. However, Vanguard's Momentum uses the icon of our old mobility talent Speed of Light.

Soulbinds received a round of tuning. I am only covering the potency conduits as the others were just tooltip updates.

• Expurgation has received a damage nerf and an update to the wording to make it clearer.
• Templar's Vindication has received a buff to its proc chance. The damage increase is just a tooltip fix. Rank 1 already provided 15% damage.
• Truth's Wake has received a buff in damage.
• Virtuous Command has received significant buffs. The duration, proc chance, and damage have all been increased. This make it a very competitive choice and furthers our damage during important periods such as Execution Sentence and Final Reckoning.

Once the servers are live, I will also check for any undocumented changes and/or bug fixes and edit this post if needed. Overall, this was a good tuning pass on our behalf.

I do know many people are asking specifically for an “AoE Conduit” usually in reference to Divine Storm. I would advise you think about your request more carefully. If Blizzard takes the feedback on face value, which they usually do (see Auras), it will result in a conduit that ONLY works in AoE or potentially with Empyrean Power. At this stage of Beta swapping a Conduit has a 1-week cooldown. Do you really want to alternate between ST and AoE weekly? Instead, I would recommend you advocate for a Conduit that is effective in both ST and AoE such as Truth's Wake.

Undocumented Changes

There were a few undocumented changed I have noticed now that the servers are live.

• Expurgation can no longer crit. Goodbye double dipping.
• Wake of Ashes now does reduced damage to your main target when multiple targets are hit. Prior it always did full damage to your main target. This is most likely a bug as the tooltip still suggests our main target should take the full damage.
• Vanquisher's Hammer will now properly consume Fires of Justice
• Vanquisher's Hammer no longer consumes The Magistrate's Judgment.
• Divine Toll now grants  3 stacks of Zeal. When multiple targets are hit or Ringing Clarity procs it still only grants 3 stacks.
• Ringing Clarity can cause Divine Toll's extra Judgment casts to not deal 100% increased damage.

A full list of known bugs can be located here.

It is time for the annual website redesign.

On a more serious note I think this one should stick around for a while.

For a brief history, the guide was originally a Google Doc that I started during the Night Hold raid in Legion. If you want a trip down memory lane or never originally seen the guide, you can view it here.

3 Months later the Google Doc turned into the RetPaladin.xyz website. Originally, I called it the Ret Wiki and was using the MediaWiki platform. The intention was to have knowledgeable people help contribute and create their own pages and resources on the site. This never came to fruition, and the site was also awfully slow. I would link a screenshot if I could find one, but you can just imagine what Wikipedia looks like and make it look worse and have a dark theme.

At the end of 2017 I migrated the guide to WordPress. I am not a web dev of any sort and wanted something that would be easier to maintain. The site had several issues and was only marginally faster than MediaWiki. This could have been optimized in some way, but I choose to just abandon it and move on.

During December of 2018, the site was redesigned and running on a HTML + Bootstrap theme with no sort of CMS. This did prove to be much faster. The site also looked much better on mobile aside from the charts. However, maintenance and adding new pages was very work intensive. Every time I added a new page or changed a page name, I had to do updates for every single page on my site. Every time I made a new page, it was all HTML. There was no editor or page creator of any sort. It was a very laborious process.

Fast-forward to today, we are now on Ghost. It is much lighter than WordPress. In some cases, it loads faster than the HTML + Bootstrap version. When I create a new page, it will be updated across all pages. It has a built-in editor which makes creating new pages easier. I can also make "posts" as well. These are blog style articles. This will let me easily make short posts, or long posts, on assorted topics related to Ret.

I hope you all enjoy the new layout or at least find it usable. If you do see something that seems off or you feel is a detriment, please let me know.

I also want to thank all the people who support me on Patreon. When I first started the guide, I was unemployed as I quit my job due to elevated levels of stress and workplace dissatisfaction. My Patrons quite literally made it possible to keep the website running. The guide has served as a passion project and something I could devote my time and energy to create a resource I believe to be beneficial. It also helped me not think about real life circumstances. If you find my content helpful and you are in a secure financial position any support on my Patreon is greatly appreciated.