Retribution Paladin PVE/PVP Guide

[polarmike76]

Hello, this is my first time writing a guide, but it's a good shot at one.

First of all, I'd like to introduce myself, I'm a Retribution Blood elf paladin, I have been Ret since the day I made my character until today (with some prot fun on the offside). I am in 4/6 sunwell guild and I have been rated 2.2k in arenas in the 2v2 bracket as well as the 3v3 bracket, BUT, I've never healed nor liked healing. And I'm hear to help youuuu with DEE PEE ES. That's right... DEE PEE ES.
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1.First off lets start off with PVE.

What is the best spec for PvE? Well since you asked..

This is the spec I personally use to optimize my damage.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Now with that being said, I do have the tier 6 2 piece bonus which helps me recover my mana, but those of you that are in fact having lots of trouble with mana.. I would suggest this.. even though it isn't a great big change

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

NOTE: Pursuit of justice is not required to PvE dps, it's a very nice utility to have especially on those boss fights that require you to move around alot
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What kind of gear requirements you would need in order to be a good dps retribution paladin.

Now It really depends to be honest..

What is first on the priority list?

BEING HITCAPPED OF COURSE.

The hitcap currently is 9%, which means you need 95 hit rating in order to be..well.. hit capped. That is your first goal.

Now I'll list what's required from first to last

Attack power
Critical Strike
Haste (If you're a blood elf this helps much more then alliance ATM)
Armor penetration
Intellect



SPELL DAMAGE = NONO

You can use websites, such as MaxDPS.com - World of Warcraft Gear Rankings - News to help you determine the gear you might want to pick. It's not as accurate as you, but it helps.

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2. What kind of spells should you be using and when to use them?

Well, the most debatable thing about paladin dps spells is consecretion.

You could use rank 1 or rank 4 if you have no troubles with mana as it still gains the benefits of max coefficients... using rank 8 isn't such a good idea unless you are completely sure you will have sufficient mana to last you throughout the fight.

But generally when you start off a boss encounter

You want to cast seal of the crusader, make sure to cast it before you engage it (like 10 seconds) Go in and judge it, then reseal immediately (if you are horde, use seal of blood, if you are alliance use seal of command).

Now this is the priority of your spells/cooldowns

Use crusader strike first, EVERY SINGLE TIME IT'S UP AS SOON AS IT'S UP
Never let a seal fall before the swing hits.. EVER or it's a giant dps loss.
Always remember to take in consideration your cooldowns/spell use. For instance if you have judgement and crusader strike up at the same time.. always use crusader strike before you judge.. basically here is a list of your prioritys

1. Crusader strike
2. Judgement
3. Consecretion
4. Exorcism (on demon bosses)

Using hammer of wrath at it's current state is considered a dps loss as it resets your swing timer.

(To avoid mana problems, make sure a holy pally is judging wisdom on the boss, or any pally for that matter)
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3. How to manage your greater cooldowns

Avenging wrath is a pretty big DPS increase. You want to use this spell when you have things such as trinket procs up... Whenever you see a bloodlust, that's always a key to pop it. If your shaman decides to pop a bloodlust at 20%... use this spell sooner so that you may have it twice during the bossfight. This is probably only considered on fights that are above the karazhan level..that last at least 5+ minutes.

If there is something like for example in karazhan, against Illhoof.. you might not want to use this spell unless you've already used your bubble.. Because it saves you from demon chains and saves your raid.

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Now on to PVP

1. What kind of gear do you want for pvp?

Simple.. Something with resillience, that gives loads of attack power and crit.

Which would probably be arena/honor gear of course!

Also..make sure your hitcapped for pvp, it shouldn't be a big deal if you have precision, without it you need about 79 hit rating for the 5% cap. But if you have the precision talent, you shouldn't be worried.

2. How do I gem for pvp? Well there's 2 ways you could do this, you could fill your yellow slots (depending on the set bonus) With orange strength/crit gems.. or if it's a red slot a +8 strength gem. If you're a rich person you might want to buy epic gems.

3. But wait! What's a good pvp spec for ret pallys!?!?

There are two actually, this one I mostly use, it's for max survivability with good damage/support.
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

or this one which is prefered if you intend on doing 2v2 with a rogue as it provides max burst damage.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft


4. How do you peeveepee?

Well honestly, noone but yourself and your personal experiences can teach you how to play.. I can only offer you tips sadly.

Tip 1. A ret paladin in 2v2 with another healer is complete garbage.. The only known setups that work is spriest/ret pally, Rogue/Ret pally ( best probly), Ret pally/frost mage

Tip 2. Always be aware of your blessings, for instance if you and your partner are against double stealth.. always cast blessing of sacrifice on your partner to prevent you from getting sapped/blinded/sheeped ETC.

Tip 3. Always, as a ret paladin, put high pressure on the target. If your doing a 3v3 as ret paladin/warrior/resto shaman (which is probably the best 3v3 setup for a retadin).. you have to stick to your target like glue. Make sure to be extremely quick on dispels and make sure your healer is fine..switching targets may be required

Tip 4. DON'T ALWAYS USE BLESSING OF FREEDOM TO GET YOU OUT OF CERTAIN SNARES, PLEASE DISPEL >.<... this is by far one of the biggest mistakes many ret pallys do..they rely on blessing of freedom way too much. If they dispel roots or something like frost nova, it frees up a blessing you could give to your party member thats hamstringed or something like that.

Tip 5.MAX BURST!!! and use blessing of protection wisely, in game, and IRL.



Remember, people that say lolret..are ignorant. Don't give up and don't stop dpsing just because some punk tells you that you should heal. It's your account (hopefully), it's your money, it's your time.. you don't have to listen to anybody.


Oh I forgot to mention, Some good mods you might want

Pally Power -Helps you organize buffs (A MUST FOR ANY SPEC PALLY)
PallyPower | World of Warcraft Addons | Curse

Quartz - has a swing timer that's extremely useful
Quartz | World of Warcraft Addons | Curse
If there's any questions, please post here and I'll probly help.

[Sirupsen]

Been looking for this! Thx
Edit: What about some macros, etc?

[kerosinek]

Great guide so far man. The only thing I would change is the talent spec. For BE (sorry alliance, you are outta luck on this one) put 4/5 in benediction, 1/2 in imp. judgement, max out PoJ, and... I think everything else is the same. I'd post a link but apparently I don't have enough posts yet. The reason for the one point rather than two in imp. judgment is because it has been proven that this actually increases your DPS, granted, a VERY small increase, it's an increase none the less. This is because with only one point in it, crusader strike and imp. judgment will come off cooldown at the same time a lot less. Meaning you'll be wasting a lot fewer GCD's while an ability is/has been ready to go.

I'd also like to add the macro that I live by during raids:

/cast Judgement
/castsequence reset=9 Seal of Blood, Judgement
/startattack

This basically judges whatever seal you have up and instantly re-seals with your primary DPS seal and starts your attack. Obviously, for alliance, change seal of blood to seal of command (remember to add (Rank 1) if you are one of those mana conservation whores) Or, make a seperate one for rank 1 SoC.

As for the number in the second line of the macro, change this to 8 if you have 2 points in imp. judgment, leave it as 9 if you have 1 point in it. (8 second CD vs 9 second CD)

Keep smashing face!

[Unholyshaman]

Nice guide, you don't see many of these around. My friend is a ret paladin but he is really not enjoying himself atm due to paladins lack in dps and performance in battlegrounds, maybe this will help him improve etc. +rep

[polarmike76]

Been looking for this! Thx
Edit: What about some macros, etc?

Well I generally don't use very many macros... I use one or two for pvp and one for pve

This one just lets you start attacking without right clicking the guy

#showtooltip crusader strike
/startattack
/cast crusader strike


This one I use for quick PvP dispels

#showtooltip Cleanse
cast [target=PLAYERNAMEHERE] cleanse

What this one does, is it lets you cleanse you, or your party members without having to target them. I have 3 of these macros setup =\. I'm not very good with them but I'm sure you could make an alt,ctrl,shift modifier.

[polarmike76]

Great guide so far man. The only thing I would change is the talent spec. For BE (sorry alliance, you are outta luck on this one) put 4/5 in benediction, 1/2 in imp. judgement, max out PoJ, and... I think everything else is the same. I'd post a link but apparently I don't have enough posts yet. The reason for the one point rather than two in imp. judgment is because it has been proven that this actually increases your DPS, granted, a VERY small increase, it's an increase none the less. This is because with only one point in it, crusader strike and imp. judgment will come off cooldown at the same time a lot less. Meaning you'll be wasting a lot fewer GCD's while an ability is/has been ready to go.

I'd also like to add the macro that I live by during raids:

/cast Judgement
/castsequence reset=9 Seal of Blood, Judgement
/startattack

This basically judges whatever seal you have up and instantly re-seals with your primary DPS seal and starts your attack. Obviously, for alliance, change seal of blood to seal of command (remember to add (Rank 1) if you are one of those mana conservation whores) Or, make a seperate one for rank 1 SoC.

As for the number in the second line of the macro, change this to 8 if you have 2 points in imp. judgment, leave it as 9 if you have 1 point in it. (8 second CD vs 9 second CD)

Keep smashing face!

I don't like that because it doesn't go well with consecretion and exorcism... thats only based off a 3 spell basis... Judgement Crusader strike and Seals