Topic
(Sticky)
Vanguards Retribution Paladin PvP Guide (4.3)
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Edited by Vanguardy on 12/12/11 5:07 PM (PST)
Retribution Paladin Guide
This guide is written mainly for players new to playing retribution in arena / PvP. How's Ret PvP in Season 11? In my opinion Ret PvP is around the same as it was in Season 10. We are still slightly on the underpowered side in terms of how viable we are. We're not as good of an option as bringing a warlock, mage, rogue or other cookie cutter classes in, but we're doing better than specs like enhance shaman. PvP Talents There are 2 big differences in how Rets are speccing. If you are going for Last Word you will off spec mainly to Holy, if you're going for 40 second Hammer of Justice you will off spec Prot. Also, for rated BGs you should pick up divine storm. The rest of the talents most Rets can usually agree on or only have slight variances. 1.) [url]http://wowtal.com/#k=CsoKmCkI.aei.paladin.[/url]. The most common specs for rets at the moment is some type of improve Hammer of Justice Spec. Some arguable talents here are: - 1 Points in Acts of Sacrifice - 2 Points in AOW - 2Points in Guardian's Favor The rest of the talents are pretty concrete. You won't pick up sancity of battle due to the fact most rets should have very little haste in PvP, and bloodlust / heroism is gone from arena. I've been going 2 points into AOW lately with 1 point only into Acts. If your freedom is constantly getting purged / spell stolen switch guardian's favor to AOW (Art of War). 2.) [url]http://wowtal.com/#k=7szq-4SA.aei.paladin.[/url]. This is the probably the highest healing spec for Rets (Last Word). Glyphs I'm going to talk about Prime Glyphs first, for Prime Glyphs I would consider Templar's Verdict to be necessary. After that you'll have some choices to make between Crusader Strike vs Censure vs Word of Glory vs Judgement. Word of Glory is recommended for most general cases unless you're going for some kind of high burst comp, as big burst heals is one of ret's best friend. Censure provides the highest "dps" from a PvE perspective. Use this if you're in a comp that trains a lot and has minimal stuns. I wouldn't recommend this if you're playing with a rogue as the person you're hitting will be stun locked most of the time. Crusader Strike and Judgement are just the "okay some damage here" glyphs if you don't like the other 2. Also with 4.3, keep in mind judgement glyph has been buffed inherently, since judgement damage has been increased. Prime Glyphs: Templar's Verdict (Necessary) Word of Glory (Recommended) Censure vs Crusader Strike vs Judgement (Your Choice) Major Glyphs: Major glyphs I've seen a lot of variance. I'll explain the most useful and commonly used ones here. Crusader Strike (Biggest Mana Saver) Turn Evil (Instant fear can save lives against those deadly pets out there) Hammer of Wrath (Saves a LOT of mana during Avenging Wrath) Hammer of Justice (Longer range stun, what else to be said?) Cleansing (Could be as Valuable or more Valuable than Crusader Strike glyph depending on how much you are cleansing yourself out of slows) Divine Protection (Wizard Protection!) You can pick any variance of these and it would still be considered good choices. Use the mana ones if you have huge mana problems in arena, turn evil for defensive reasons, HOJ for overall convenience, Divine Protection if you're getting wizard trained. Minor Glyphs: (Doesn't really matter, I'll post what I plan to use) Might Glyph (Recommended) Truth Seal Glyph Justice Seal Glyph Gems / Enchants / Stats One word, "STRENGTH", it is KING for rets for damage. It is 2x better than Hit Rating even if you are not hit capped. This means reforge hit! Do not gem into it unless it's a blue socket (use 25str / 25hit) AND it yields equal amount of stat gain. Resilience is usually considered the second most important stat. However, similar to all things in PvP nothing is truly definite. There could be a lot of situations where more damage would be better. The biggest argument and most questions I get as a ret now is "Mastery or Crit?" There is no definite answer here, but from my perspective crit is better in most comps a ret would run. Mastery would be better in comps such as ret lock shaman perhaps. Crit has gotten buffed in 4.3 since judgement is a good portion of our damage, and mastery doesn't help it at all. Recommended Gems: Meta - Strength / +3% Crit Dmg or REFLECT META (If you like RNG!) Red - 50 Strength Yellow - 25 Strength / 25 Resil or 25 Strength / 25 Crit (or mastery) Blue - 50 Strength or 25 Strength / 25 Hit (Depends on Socket bonus!) Recommended Reforging: Get Hit Cap first! (5%) After that go for mastery or crit. |
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Edited by Vanguardy on 12/12/11 4:31 PM (PST)
Recommended Enchants:
Head - 60Str / 35 Resil Shoulders - 50Str / 25 Resil Back - 65 Crit Rating Chest - +20 All Stats OR 40 Resil Wrist - 50 Strength Hands - 50 Strength Legs - 190AP / 50 Crit Rating Feet - 50 Mastery or 32AP Weapon - Weapon Chain (recommended) or Landslide. If you have the luxury have 2 weapons and have one on each, switch depending what opponents you see. Seal This is probably the most common question I've gotten! What seal do you use? For a simple answer, Truth. Here is a more complicated answer: Generally for any target you are staying on for 10+ Seconds, Truth is the highest damage dealing seal. Especially after 4.0.6, Censure is buffed big time. Go Seal of Light when you're getting trained HARD, it does save lives. Use your own instincts here, do you think it's more important to bring this guy down asap with Truth / Righteousness, or to survive longer with seal of light? Seal of Justice, this is an incredibly awkward seal. It's a horrible skill, but yet you still need to use it at times (makes no sense I know). The only time I've used this effectively is Rated BGs (slowing demolishers) and 2s when I played double Ret vs Warlock Enhancement Shaman (we had to stop the shaman). Viable Ret Comps Viability's definition is different for each person. Just about anything can be ran to gladiator range (I've ran triple pally, 2 hunters + ret, 2 priests + ret to 2700+ in 3s) Professions Doesn't really matter, but avoid J/C or you'll be like me! 30 less stats than all the other professions until something changes. How much resil should a Ret aim for? As said before this is largely preference based, and on what comp you are running. I'm trying to stay at roughly 3700-4500, but I've seen people stack to 4800 and go under 3000 as well. What rotation do you use in PvP? There is no rotation in PvP. Everything is situational. Keep note that our hardest hitting ability will be Templar's Verdict, which also clashes with Word of Glory as both takes holy power. Some also simple notes is you should almost never use Templar's Verdict unless you have 3 holy power or a proc. |
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Edited by Vanguardy on 12/12/11 4:31 PM (PST)
What macros does Ret have for PvP?
Most of Ret PvP Macros look like this: /cast [target=party1] Word of Glory. You can basically fit in 1-4 for 1, and Word of Glory with Sacrifice / Freedom / Hand of Protection and you'll have most of the Macros I have. I only have 1-2 for most of them, and 1-4 for WOG for 5s. 1-4 for everything was a bit too overwhelming for me. (Not Enough Buttons + Too Crazy lol) There are people who simplifies this by using mouseover macros and such, all personal preference. Add #showtooltip to the start of these macros if you want to see it. Some other general macros: 1.) Start Attack + Crusader Strike /cast Crusader Strike /startattack 2.) Start Attack + Templar's Verdict /cast Templar's Verdict /startattack 3.) Focus HOJ /cast [target=focus] Hammer of Justice 4.) Focus Repent /cast [target=focus] Repentance 5.) Switching Between 2H and Shield /equip [equipped:Shields] Your2HWeaponName /equip [noequipped:Shields] your1HWeaponName /equip [noequipped:Shields] YourShieldName 6.) Camera Distance *This is the Camera I used to use, I'm going default max zoomed out now though* /console cameraDistanceMaxFactor 4 7.) Focus REBUKE /cast [target=focus] Rebuke 8.) Focus Judgement /cast [target=focus] Judgement 9.) Cancel Bubble /cancelaura Divine Shield 10.) Cancel Wings /cancelaura Avenging Wrath 11.) Wings + HOW - By Jecks /cast Avenging Wrath /cast hammer of wrath The Support Macros I Personally Use: (switch x with number or partyx with Toon Name) 13.) Hand of Protection /cast [target=partyX] Hand of Protection 14.) Hand of Sacrifice /cast [target=partyX] Hand of Sacrifice 15.) Hand of Freedom /cast [target=partyX] Hand of Freedom 16.) Word of Glory /cast [target=partyX] Word of Glory As said with almost everything, Macros have a lot to do with personal preference. You can also use modifiers for different skills in your macros such as Repent. Use these only as a general guideline and form your own macros! Gearing Ret for PvP You can basically use all the PvP Gear and you'll do great! Some recommended pieces in PvP where you actually have choices to make is Expertise instead of Haste for wrists, Mastery for Cloak, Crit and Hit for rings, Mastery for Belt, Crit for Boots, and Hit for necklace. Why expertise over haste? Haste is a rather useless stat for us unless you have a lot of it. As you probably won't even over 5% haste (I don't think I have even 1%) you should neglect this stat as much as possible. PvE gear this season is also rather on the extreme side. PvE gear for almost any class is great in PvP at the moment. |
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Edited by Vanguardy on 12/12/11 4:31 PM (PST)
Trinkets
Unless you're human obviously you would use the trinket that removes all impairing effects. For your second trinket, you have a few options. Most people would use the on use + resilience trinket. On demand burst, and high resil. How great! However, this specific season has released upon us PvPers an insane amount of overpowered PvE trinkets. These trinkets are all raid only or LFR at least. Some good trinkets are the stacking strength trinket, the proc crit trinket, and the whirlwind proc trinket. Notice all the trinkets are "strength" based. They give way more strength and damage than the PvP trinkets. General Arena Tips Ret is a very strange spec, it's place in arena is rather vague. We have good burst damage (that can be purged in seconds), but our melee damage still isn't the best. We have INSANE off heals and good support, but we're also incredibly easy to CC as a melee class which throws everything off. As a ret pally, you always have to remember you ARE NOT a warrior. You need to watch your partners the entire game. Do not waste your extremely insane off heals, freedom, BOP, Sac. You are a support class that can burst once every 2 minutes! In an arena match my eyes are on my party screen the most. If you are playing with a DK or Warrior or Rogue, be considerate about your freedom. In 3s, I almost NEVER freedom myself. You can cleanse most of your roots, and my death knight can kill people around 2 times faster than me, why would I freedom myself? Ret PvP Stream http://www.twitch.tv/samk920 - My (Vanguards) Twitch.TV Stream! Be sure to follow! Ret PvP Page / Question Page http://www.facebook.com/samk920 Ret PvP Videos There are so many countless good ones out there. Here are a few from me: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=177291 - Vanguards 3 http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=183007 - Vanguards 4 Thanks for reading, I hope this helped you out. Post any other questions you have! If you have specific questions for me, try posting them on my facebook page. |
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Edited by Vanguardy on 1/20/12 4:01 PM (PST)
Bonus Points: Crit vs Mastery
1.) 2PC - I don't have 2pc because the rng gods have decided not to ever drop pants in any of my raids, also I'm practicing for tournies that doesn't allow PvE gear. so i have not taken this into calculation for my own. If you do take this into calculation however, 2pc obviously favors mastery more. 2PC = more Holy Power = more TV towards ur damage. If you're running a comp where u can be in melee range a lot, do melee attacks a lot and u have 2pc, mastery would > crit. 2.) What comp are you running - if you're running triple dps u should usually go crit. Crit helps towards last word spec which is good when 40second hoj does much less in an arena match that doesn't usually last more than a minute. Also a slightly harder hitting TV in a triple dps match is much less important than a sudden RNG crit heal or crit attack. 3.) What are you fighting - you can't predict this, but I do plan to get 2 sets of Ret PvP Gear. 1 Set for when I'm fighting something I plainly barely get to attack in melee range (mage anyone?) which would be crit. but if i'm fighting say a warrior melee cleave team that trains my dk when I run ret dk priest, mastery would do much better. I'm TVing / crusader striking probably 3x as much as I would against a mage team, making mastery 3x better than it usually is. 4.) How you play - how often do u stay in melee range when u play in PvP? Do you LOS a lot? I los 80% of the games against wizard teams rendering mastery quite useless since I melee once every 20 seconds. Or do you run in and try to just melee / train something down for 5 minutes straight? Mastery might be better for that. 5.) Your Spec - If your last word crit can be much more favorable as having that extra crit for that heal to happen is important. it kinda blows when u have last word and ur heal doesn't crit when ur partner is about to die. 6.) Length of your games - similar ideas, short games favor crit as u probably hammer of wrath spam to be a large % of ur damage making crit more favorable. hope this helps = ) This is my answer to every1, u can also check out my facebook page at www.facebook.com/samk920 for my faq answers. |
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I've been playing a Last Word build and I wanted to ask what your thoughts are on JotP vs. Protector of the Innocent?
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Sticky for the baddies!~
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You can cleanse most of your roots, and my death knight can kill people around 2 times faster than me, why would I freedom myself? Giving freedom to yourself, especially when under pressure by a melee class (or other set of spam slows, eg. mirror images) is often preferable to giving it to your partner. Example, Rogue is attacking you, you just got out of kidney shot and need to get on the enemy Warlock to deal some damage, your Deathknight partner may be slowed by an exhaust but the repeated application of slows from the Rogue on you make giving your freedom to yourself far preferable, as well watch your mana cleanse is expensive. I'll add you very rarely want to hoj anything other than a healer, with no other magic debuffs to cover hoj unless they are provided by one of your allies, it is generally instant dispelled and wastes a stun diminish on the target. If it is lined up with a seperate lockout on the healer it is effective, or if you can be sure it won't be dispelled go ahead. Otherwise hoj-repentance or visa versa provides a 12 second set of cc that you can be sure will stick on a healer. Good information though by the OP. |
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Yay! This needs to be stickied :O
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Grats on the sticky!
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Hammer of wrath is a spell and requires an 8% spell hit cap, why shouldn't i go for more hit when my hammer of wrath is missing targets at crucial moments in an arena match with a hit cap thats over 5%
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Because of sheath of light |
