Lightsworn: Retribution Artifact traits in Legion

Ashbringer, the bringer of ashes, the legendary blade that put an end to the Mograine bloodline, shattered the runeblade Frostmourne, and slew legions of the undead has been central to Paladin and, arguably, Warcraft lore for a very long time. And now this priceless artifact can be yours for only three easy payments of $19.95! Order now and get a second Ashbringer absolutely free!

Joking aside, Retribution being graced with Ashbringer as our Artifact weapon was likely the easiest decision Blizzard had to make going into Legion. Originally lootable in its corrupted state from Naxxramas in vanilla, the item itself became unobtainable in Wrath of the Lich King with Naxx’s relocation to Dragonblight in Northrend. In the lore, Darion Mograine surrendered Ashbringer to Tirion Fordring in order to combat the Lich King at Light’s Hope Chapel, resulting in the purification of the blade from its corrupted state. Tirion has held onto the blade ever since, likely because he never learned how to share in kindergarten.

If the player character is now receiving the blade, we can conclude that either Tirion dies in Legion, or he’s bequeathing it to the new Paladin class leader before he retires to his rotted out shanty in Eastern Plaguelands. Either way it’s now ours to wield against the Burning Legion, and it comes with a smorgasbord of Retribution Artifact traits to choose from that introduce some new abilities, and augment our old ones!

Ashbringer Traits

If you’d like to follow along or just explore Ashbringer’s options for yourself, you can do so using Wowhead’s Artifact Weapon Calculator.

• Wake of Ashes: The first trait available to us is a ranged snare that hits harder than two Templar’s Verdicts on a one-minute cooldown. The variable snare seems a bit strange; with a radius of only 8 yards, is a diminishing effect really necessary? Also, if this functions like the FFXIV Dragoon’s Dragonfire Dive — that is, causing the character to leap up and dive onto the target location amongst a cloud of beautiful visuals — I may or may not giggle with pure glee with every press of its associated button.
• Deliver the Justice, Highlord’s Judgment, Might of the Templar, Righteous Blade, and Sharpened Edge: I’m grouping all of these traits together because they all follow the same pattern: increasing the damage of a rotational ability. The numbers themselves are, of course, subject to change and hardly worth a second glance. While there’s certain to be an “optimal” trait as far as sims are concerned, I believe that the primary motivation behind this selection is which elite trait you want to get first (aside from Sharpened Edge, as it is buried much deeper in the tree).
• Protector of the Ashen Blade: The effect of this trait is quite odd and, in my opinion, misplaced in comparison to the remainder. Ignoring the fact that Hand of Protection is becoming Blessing of Protection in Legion, a 10% reduction in the cooldown of BoP just doesn’t seem like something someone would look at and shout, “Oh cool!” It’s entirely a stepping stone to the elite trait that it gatekeeps, and something that screams “Allan please add interesting trait,” at least to me.
• Healing Storm: Taking the Glyph of Divine Storm to another level, this could be a very interesting trait if Empowered Divine Storm sneaks its way into Legion. I’m skeptical that this healing will amount to much of anything in the long run, but in a melee-heavy team with a few Rets it could allow the group to drop a raid healer to bring more DPS to a fight.
• Endless Resolve: I’d need more hands and feet to be able to properly count how many times I’ve died because I mistimed the life-saving abilities tied to Forbearance. Not only does this trait allow us to cast Divine Shield, Lay on Hands, and Blessing of Protection in quick succession, it allows other Paladins to use their Lay on Hands and BoPs on us as well. This trait is a great example of a seemingly innocuous change that can have a profound effect on the way we approach certain situations.
• Wrath of the Ashbringer: Increasing the duration of Avenging Wrath, also known as our “burst window,” will have a heavy impact on our overall damage profile, so whatever the final number ends up being here (I don’t think “7.5 .1 seconds” is quite right) I would expect it to be relatively small. I still think this is a strong trait, though — getting a big cooldown like Wake of Ashes or even another TV in before Avenging Wrath expires is just extra icing on the cake!

• Deflection: You might liken this trait to the disparaged Protector of the Ashen Blade mentioned earlier, and I wouldn’t fault you for the comparison. I would, however, point out that an overall 10% damage reduction buff is one of those things you appreciate upon reflection later on. When we’re old and gray and the next expansion looms on the horizon, we’ll be able to look back at all of those times we didn’t die and laugh.
• Unbreakable Will: PVP Rets will likely race to this trait as quickly as they can, taking the direct path through Deliver the Justice instead of the scenic route around Highlord’s Judgment and Healing Storm. From the wording of the trait I’d assume it applies to only “loss of control” abilities like Polymorph and Cyclone and not positional control abilities like Entangling Roots or Frost Nova. Tracking this proc, not only on yourself but on friends and foes alike, will be very helpful for a quick and clean takedown.
• Embrace the Light: The loss of Selfless Healer in Legion will make healing with Flash of Light more painful, but perhaps this nice boost to its output will lead to fewer casts necessary to fill the green bar. Naturally, one would hope that this interacts with Blaze of Light in the same way, though who would pick that talent over Divine Steed?
• Light of the Ashbringer: It’s unclear if this trait will even be included in later iterations or if it is merely an artifact (ha!) from a previous build. A flat increase to Holy damage across the board, while a tad bland, would still be a welcome boost to some of our hardest hitting abilities.

Elite traits

These traits are the ultimate goals of your Artifact progression, and which elite trait you want first will likely dictate how you connect these holy dots. As you’ll eventually be able to grab all of them, don’t fret if choosing one trait over another is akin to choosing which child to sacrifice to the sun god. Typically sun gods prefer firstborn children, so I’d say you should feel lucky to be able to choose at all!

• Blades of Light: If I had to choose which of these ultimate traits I’m least excited for, Blades of Light would be it. My primary beef with this trait is the randomness of the Blade of Light proc, making the effect an unreliable source of consistent damage in shorter time windows. Of course, I’d expect the damage to smooth out over the course of a typical raid encounter, and wouldn’t be terribly surprised if this was the highest damage elite trait on a single target.
• Echo of the Highlord: On the other end of the spectrum from Blades of Light, I’d definitely expect Echo of the Highlord to be the trait-to-take for shorter periods of combat like dungeons and PVP. Whenever I get to play Legion content, I highly suspect this is the trait I’ll be heading toward first. A very important question about the mechanics of Echo of the Highlord that I can’t wait to find out: will we get some sort of cartoony, ghost-like floating Ashbringer mimicking our Templar’s Verdicts and Divine Storms, perhaps with a silly face drawn on the floating crystal? I doubt it, but a Paladin can dream.
• Divine Tempest: While I get the feeling that Echo of the Highlord will be the go-to elite trait solely because it has the most versatile and consistent damage output, I’d have to say I’m the most excited about Divine Tempest. It’s not exactly the directional ability I was hoping for back in September, but it’s pretty darn close! What’s interesting is that, at least in theory, the 20% damage boost to Divine Storm that’s tacked onto this trait could push its single target damage higher than Templar’s Verdict. I’m sure that this trait will also create some amusing situations involving crowd control and trash, but I imagine we’ll just puff out our chests and do what we always do — blame someone else.

Of course there’s also the new, gem-like relics to discuss, but let’s save those for another day, shall we?