A cursory glance at the new heroic badge loot available post 2.3 reveals a surprising explosion of balance druid loot, a spec that was once forced to resort to stealing gear from mages and warlocks just to survive. This wasn't surprising though as Edrik from Terenas reminds us...

Right at the end of the [Curse Gaming interview] video Tigole starts answering questions on the ZA patch and badge loot.

"We also want to throw a ton more items on the heroic badge vendor ... to flesh out off-specs like Moonkin Druids and Retribution Paladins."

Edrik goes on to ask...what happened to the retadin itemization that we were promised? As it stands, retribution paladin itemization is similarly barren and an issue of heavy contention. The few raiding retadins out have generally resorted to using generic plate DPS gear alongside their spec-specific tier set and hoping they can make up for it with promises of massive crits and raid synergy. But where's the gear? Drysc says it's already there:

Ret badge rewards are there, technically, but it isn't as apparent as there's still some class changes coming that will be "finishing" the intended vision of hybrid itemization.

You don't want the DPS plate now, but we want you to want it. Similar to the Heart of the Wild change, and the first 'lean' into having kitties desire rogue itemization. It's an overall change in itemization focus as we move forward, and into Wrath. We're in a state of transition now, and it's going to be a bit uncomfortable in some cases.

Similar to the movement away from itemizating feral druid cat DPS gear with strength as opposed to the more popular attack power for rogues, it seems that we might be seeing a change to the way retadin abilities work, most likely a removal of the added spell damage component of Crusader Strike, which currently adds 40% of the paladins holy spell damage in additional damage.