[5.4.8] Retribution Paladin Discussion

[Magnus06]

I don't really know Retribution in MoP, only in cata so take this with a grain of salt but feel free to ask anything else. Apologies the text wall, i didn't imagine i would write so much. ^^'

Ret is all about a few things : good trinkets (Thok & Galakras), a good weapon (Sha of Pride or Thok), 21k haste, hit & expertise cap (both 7.5%) and a bit of logic. I actually don't play with T16 set bonuses because it's my offspec and i don't have them but i read somewhere you can stay at 17k haste cap if you have 4p t16.

Now for the logic part.

Gemming requires to be cleaver : you don't want to sacrifice too much strenght just for the sake of getting more and more haste thus sacrificing good sockets bonuses. You don't want to force haste if you're gear doesn't allow it, you'd lose too much. Glyph of exorcism (i consulted your armory) is higly situationnal and shouldn't be used as a generic glyph, not having the ability to deal damage in raid condition when you are not in melee range to use your others abilities will not only make you lose DPS but also it will make your Holy Power generation a bit weaker thus hindering you at some point because you will have to use one extra ability each time you would not be in melee range in order to use either Templar Verdict or to refresh Inquisition.

About playstyle, the rule of thumb is simple : snapshot. Snapshot in WoW means using abilities at the right time hen you know the power of said abilities will deliver their greatest potential. It means for exemple that you have to use Execution's sentence when you have as many strenght procs as possible because all of its damage will be determined by the amount of strenght you had when you used it no matter if you lose all of those procs before the spell (the dot) ends. Same thing applies to Templar Verdict outside of burst phase, you can store 5 charges of Holy power (HoPo) for a reason and this is the one, using Templar Verdict right after getting 3 HoPo won't do much if you had any proc to amplify its damage at this time while you can store 2 more HoPo, potentially getting a proc and there because you have 5 HoPo you can deliver two TV (by doing a Crusader Strike inbetween) in quick succession. Of course you don't want to stack up to 5 HoPo while you have some goods procs, same goes for burst phase.

For inquisition usage, i often find myself thinking "wait, my inq fades is a few secs but my burst is coming back in 20s, should i use 3 HoPo for it ?". Currently, i don't. I use one charge to sync my inq refresh with my next burst phase, i prefer a suboptimal GCD usage outside of burst phase rather than potentially having a fading Inquisition during burst phase which would be a disaster. I really don't know if i'm doing this the right way there but i honestly don't play Ret enough to ascertain that. On the other side, you would make a full refresh of Inq before a burst phase if you know Inquisition won't fade during it.

Finally (i promise), the choice of talent between Holy Avenger and Sanctified Wrath may be a matter of taste although if you pick Holy Avenger you need to precast Guardian of Ancient King 10s before using Holy Avengar to get the most out of its power while Sanctifier wrath allows you pop them both at the same time since their duration are the same.



I hope i'm right and i'm not misguiding anyone that would take that as the truth if it's not.

[kzvasilski]

I'm really having problems with the macros. I don't know how to properly make them (watched some guides) but still.... if anyone in here is willing to just give me his macros, it would be apreciated
- Macros for PvE Retribution Paladin.