#1 - Jan. 16, 2016, 5:16 a.m.
"In particular, we’re refocusing most of their core abilities on short-range combat. So many of the Retribution Paladin’s abilities were ranged spells that they started to feel more like a caster than a melee crusader."
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19955661/legion-class-preview-series-paladin-11-9-2015
So far, Blizzard has kept to their word and have dismantled a large amount of Retribution's ranged damage in comparison to the Live model. Judgment's cooldown has been doubled to 12 seconds, up from 6 seconds; Exorcism was removed and replaced with Blade of Justice, which is an admittedly much better ability but still only has a 12 yard range compared to Exorcism's 30 yard range; Hammer of Wrath was removed entirely; and Execution Sentence's range was reduced to 20 yards, down from 40 yards. Additionally, Fist of Justice no longer increases Hammer of Justice's range to 20 yards, and Light's Hammer, Holy Prism, and the Live version of Final Verdict are no longer available to us either. Oddly enough, some new ranged abilities were added to our arsenal in the form of Wake of Ashes and Holy Wrath, but ultimately our potential ranged damage has been heavily nerfed from what we've had before.
None of this is inherently bad, assuming that the rest of our toolkit is compensated for the loss of these ranged damaging mechanics. It's why we were given these ranged damaging abilities in the first place, to counterbalance the fact that Retribution was never meant to be as mobile as some of the other melee. But so far, our mobility hasn't been improved upon to fix the gaping hole in our target up-time toolkit. In fact, our mobility has been made worse as well.
Our most important mobility tools, our T15 talents (Speed of Light, Long Arm of the Law, and Pursuit of Justice), are no longer available to us either. Although Long Arm of the Law still exists as a PvP talent, it's only available to Retribution in PvP content which means that our single most strongest mobility tool isn't available to Retribution Paladins tackling dungeons, raids, Brawler's Guild, or any form of competitive content that will require one to remain quick on his feet. Even Emancipate was removed from our toolkit, which wasn't important for PvE content but still raises an eyebrow regarding what Blizzard has planned for Retribution in the future.
We currently have only two mobility options available to us, Turalyon's Might and Seal of Light; Divine Steed isn't being counted here as Blizzard has already confirmed that the talent is a placeholder and will be exclusive to Protection only.
Turalyon's Might suffers two major issues in that it's a very awkward and ineffective mobility tool on a longer than average cooldown, and that it's competing against strong damage dealing talent choices in the form of Execution Sentence and Consecration. In terms of usability, it requires three distinct mouse clicks to actually perform the charge (first click activates the targeting reticule, the second click throws the sword at the targeted location, and the third click finally activates the charge) and will only cover roughly ~20 yards if you're actually moving in the direction of the target you wish to close the gap on (which you'll be doing if you're attempting to catch a fleeing target anyways); the fact that this underwhelming mobility tool is attached to a grueling 30 second cooldown isn't doing it any favors either. Combined with the fact that you're losing a substantial amount of damage by choosing Turalyon's Might over Execution Sentence or Consecration means that no competitive-minded team is going to choose a Retribution Paladin whom sacrifice their only ability to swap targets in a pinch just so they can deal damage comparable to the melee that are actually capable of moving across the battlefield fluidly and efficiently.
