Crusader Strike - Its Place in the World

Now that a lot of the initial excitement has abated, people are starting to sit down and examine how exactly this new and long overdue talent will work. As I have not been fortunate to be a part of the beta, I can only speculate. Based on the feedback of beta players and analysis of the expansion Retribution tree, however, I can venture to explain how I believe Crusader Strike will factor into the 2H wielding Paladin's playstyle.

First, let's look at the description of Crusader Strike:

An instant strike that causes weapon damage plus 40% of your Holy spell damage and refreshes all judgments on the target.

It's still up in the air at the moment whether or not the weapon damage element is or isn't normalized. What will really help this abilty scale, though seems to be one's spell damage stat. The description is unclear, as it specifically enumerates holy spell damage - something which is only specifically enhanced by Sanctity Aura and Judgment of the Crusader (spell damage and healing found on armor and such is general spell damage, not just holy). If one takes the narrow interpretation, we might conclude that Crusader Strike won't scale very well at all with gear like Judgement Armor. I'm still waiting on a blue post to clear this matter up.

Regardless of how well it scales, I believe it will still only hold a ministerial as opposed to a magisterial place in a Retribution Paladin's playstyle. If you're going to pick up Crusader Strike, chances are you'll also be grabbing Fanaticism. We know for certain that our existing means of dealing damage benefit from general spell damage. Fanaticism, and many other talents in the Retribution tree are designed to increase our holy damage output more than physical.

I find this phenomenon to be more than just coincidental. While Retribution Paladins will still want to enhance their critical strike rating, Blizzard has helped ease our conflict with Warriors, Rogues, and Hunters by ensuring that the best way to scale our damage is through both crit and spell damage.

Alright, enough farting around. What's your point already?

My point is that in the Burning Crusade, Retribution Paladins with Crusader Strike will still want to stock up on a substantial amount of spell damage gear. One of the most significant benefits of Crusader strike is that not only is it instant cast, but it will not reset the swing timer. Reading the Paladin forums, I'm getting the impression here and there of the notion that Crusader Strike will be the new damage dealing dynamo for Retribution Paladins. I don't find this to necessarily be the case. Our talent tree tells us that the real meat and potatoes of our damage output will come from holy damage with SoC procs and various judgments enhanced by Sanctity Aura, JotC, Fanaticism, etc. What Crusader Strike does is give us an edge that Holy and Protection Paladins won't have - added damage on demand that we can squeeze in between regular weapon swings. Crusader Strike is the green stuff - the asparagus - on our plate, rounding out the meal called pwnage. It's the vitamins that give us that extra punch, or keep us swinging through counterspells and the like that would leave a Holy Paladin impotent.

I haven't necessarily been set back by the news of greens and blues blowing raid gear away. If for no other reason, I'm endeavoring to complete my Judgement Armor because it looks badass. I'm hoping to pass through the Dark Portal on release day, in full Judgement with melee crit accessories, and strike faces - but mostly to enhance the big 1 - 2 punches I'm throwing around with my SoC procs and judgments.