The Shockadin is a paladin build the community named. It isn't one of the game's specs, which are Holy, Protection and Retribution. It spends 23 points in Holy for Holy Shock and Consecrated Ground and 28 in Retribution for Vengeance and Champion of the Light. You swing a two-hander under Seal of Righteousness, press Judgement every time it comes back, and fill the gaps with Consecration, Holy Strike and Holy Shock. Every one of those scales with spell power, so you wear caster gear in melee range. Our simulator puts it at 1,087.8 DPS on a one-minute single-boss fight, 2nd among 25 damage specs.

Blizzard describes this route as an option inside Retribution, built on Holy Shock and spell power. The build first showed up on MythicSim's Forever tier list, and our talent search started from its points. The melee build the tree is drawn around has its own Retribution guide.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

• Two- and three-minute fights. The Shockadin ranks 1st on a two-minute single-boss fight and 1st on a three-minute single-boss fight. Your damage comes from abilities on 6- to 10-second cooldowns, so it holds up as the fight goes on.
• Packs of bosses. Consecration does most of its damage to the first four enemies standing in it. Against three bosses it is 34.0 % of your damage, against 14.6 % on one, and the build ranks 1st on a three-minute fight against three bosses.
• Mana that lasts. Judgement no longer uses up your seal in Forever, and Sanctified Judgement gives back more mana than each Judgement costs. Over three minutes Consecration still goes out about 7.3 times a minute, nearly on cooldown.

Weaknesses

• A set from everywhere. Each slot wants spell power and melee hit or crit at once, which few items carry together, so the set mixes all four armor types and several reputations. Its weapon, Blade of Hanna, is a random world drop.
• One-minute fights. On a one-minute single-boss fight you rank 2nd, and the one-minute fights are the only ones you don't lead. Half of such a fight runs under the haste of the Manual Crowd Pummeler you open with, so a short fight leans on that one item.
• An open question about Judgement. Our simulator rolls Judgement on the melee table, as Forever's client data marks it. In Classic it rolled as a spell, with spell hit and spell crit. Judgement is 14.3 % of your damage, so if Forever kept Classic's rule your number drops.

On every fight

No fight puts the Shockadin below second. It leads wherever the fight lasts two minutes or more, on one boss or three. It drops a place on the one-minute fights. Choose a fight below and the rest of the guide follows it.

Races

On a one-minute single-boss fight the Alliance's top Shockadin is a Dwarf. Humans lead the two- and three-minute single-boss fights and three bosses for three minutes. Blade of Hanna is a two-handed sword, so a Human's Sword Specialization adds 2 % crit to every spell and attack after the swap. Dwarves take the one-minute fights and three bosses for two minutes, where the set opens with or keeps the Pummeler, a mace, for Mace Specialization's 1 %. The two are within a few DPS of each other on those fights.

On the Horde side the Shockadin is always Undead, Forever's new paladin race and the only Horde one. Touch of the Grave drains health from the boss as Shadow damage on 5 % of your hits, about 1.0 % of your damage on a one-minute fight.

What a Paladin brings to the raid

A paladin adds its blessings and the three judgements, and Blessing of Kings no longer costs a talent point in Forever. The table shows each one's worth to the damage specs it helps on this fight. Another paladin's Judgement of the Crusader adds Holy damage to every one of your hits, so it is worth more to a Shockadin than to almost any other build.

Changes

Each row is one simulator or game-data update and the Shockadin's result on this fight after it. The Updates page explains them.