Originally Posted by Moshne
That is rather flawed reasoning with regard to Ret pallies. Their spell damage is a function of their AP. Seal of Command gains damage from AP in the same way anything else would. In addition, the pally's aura gives 2% damage to the group.
This isn't to say that the Ret pally should be there, but it definitely should not be denied the slot on face either.
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Seal of Command gains 70% of AP on its procs and Seal of Blood is improved by AP contributions, but neither Command nor Blood's judgment nor Consecrate nor Exorcism scales with AP. Battle Shout will improve their damage, but not to the extent it will improve an enhancement shaman's or a rogue's, and a druid with lotp brings more net benefit to the party than a Ret paladin.
The aura is 2% to any damage; it doesn't matter if they're in a caster group or a melee group, it's still 2% damage. This gives them far more flexibility regarding group composition as their damage buff is class independent rather than Unleashed Rage or Battle Shout only affecting melee damage. Furthermore the single biggest benefit of Ret (judgments staying up) is automatically a raid wide effect, making them even less group dependent. Their only primary requirement is Windfury which as I posted above will usually be available for the tank group.
In any case the article does not say that Ret should be excluded from melee groups, only that they are not the best choice for an optimized melee group. In certain raid compositions it makes sense for a paladin to be in the melee group, but these situations are the exception and not the rule.