Ret/Unholy 2v2 for Complete Retards (Faceroll for Epics)

[Dankone]

***EDIT: Retribution talent build changed to include Improved Righteous Fury


Retribution/Unholy : S5 :: MS/Resto : S1

Retribution/Unholy is the FOTM class combo of our time. Insane burst with disproportionately effective survivability makes this spec godlike. My Death Knight is at 1725 2v2 right now, with a Titansteel Destroyer. Only raid loot is the Sealing Ring of Grobbulus, and a couple of badge pieces. My ret partner is more or less geared on the same level as me, with an ilvl 200 weapon (Demise).


[1] The Paladin
[1.1] Talent
[1.2] Gear+Glyphs
[1.3] Macros
[2] The Death Knight
[2.1] Talent
[2.2] Gear+Glyphs
[2.3] Macros
[3] Strategies
[4] Final Notes



[1] Although Retribution got hit hard at the launch of WotLK with a quick buff/nerf cycle, their burst is still incredibly high, and Sheath of Light gives them heals worth a damn.

[1.1]http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZ0ebGfZVfMtbhufMsgzuo
Divine Guardian is a HUGE part of this, as is Imp HoJ. More on Divine Guardian later.

[1.2] Stat heirarchy for a Retribution Paladin:

Hit until 4%>Crit until ~30% buffed>Strength

Of course, you should be using arena gear. Start with Savage Saronite, it's relatively cheap and will do you well until you get "real" gear. If you buy the boots and headpiece from Wintergrasp using marks, you should be fairly close to 4% hit.

As for glyphs, your choices are pretty cut out. Go:

MAJOR
Glyph of Judgement (JoComm crits during an HOJ is crucial to this spec)
Glyph of Seal of Command (Must have)
Glyph of Turn Evil (Renders Lichborne DKs/Metamorphed Warlocks/Ghouls/Gargoyles worthless)
MINOR
Glyph of Sense Dead (The only minor that really does anything)
~Whatever
~Whatever

[1.3] Let "focus" = your partner.

-Cleanse partner

/cast [target=focus] cleanse

My partner uses this when I am polymorphed/Crippling Poisoned/Slowed, or when he has a free GCD. It's a must have to avoid clicking for reaching for F2.

-Bubblesac

/castsequence [target=focus] Divine Shield, Hand of Sacrifice

With this macro, you can give your partner a whopping 51% reduction in incoming damage 1-((1-.3)(1-.3))! This is part of what makes this combo so great.

-Easy repentance

/cast [target=mouseover] Repentance

A shortcut to avoid clicking someone.

[2] Now, for the good part of this guide. Unholy death knights who are 21/0/50 are absolutely breaking the game. They have a tool to give them an advantage in any situation. Caster? No problem, AMZ/Strangulate/AMS. Rogue or Feral Druid almost have you down? Don't worry, Mark of Blood!

[2.1] http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfmMq...MGhbfkgco0foux
Substantial changes made: Desecration and AMZ have been dropped in favor of better talents.

[2.2] As a Death Knight, you should go for the 4% hit cap first (Doing more is overkill. You only have a couple of abilities that are spells). Then, go for crit and strength, but NEVER EVER gem for Attack Power, unless it's a green or purple gem that doesn't have a +str variant. Many talents us Death Knights have only multiply Strength (Same goes for Ret paladins, too).
Glyphs should be as follows:

MAJOR
Glyph of Scourge Strike (Not having to reapply diseases is a HUGE benefit)
Glyph of Rune Tap (Although it's only a 2% gain for you, giving your partner a little more time to live can turn the tide of a game. MUST have)
Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell (Only 2 seconds more, but that can mean a lot, like resisting one more frost bolt)
MINOR
Glyph of Blood Tap (Duh)
Glyph of Death's Embrace (Comes in handy if you need to heal your ghoul. You might have some extra RP some time to heal your gargoyle as well, but if they're attacking your gargoyle he's probably going down either way)
Glyph of Raise Dead (I can't recall if Raise Dead still requires a reagent DURING a game, but I do know that Arena Preparation now removes the Corpse Dust criterion of the spell. If I am wrong, and Raise Dead still doesn't use a reagent during a game, pick up something else, like Horn of Winter)

[2.3]

Summon Gargoyle + Empower Rune Weapon

 /cast Summon Gargoyle
/cast Empower Rune Weapon

Since you'll need the most burst in the first few seconds, I bind Gargoyle with ERW and use this macro after I finish my first set of runes. It gives me -three- Scourge Strikes and a gargoyle hammering away at the target.

Death Pact Gargoyle

/target Ebon Gargoyle
/cast Death Pact

A very simple macro, but it can come in very handy in a pinch.

Blood Tap Macros
I bind Blood Tap to many abilities with a cooldown that only consume a single rune that could otherwise screw up my rotation. I do this with:

Bone Armor (Although I refresh it during combat only if I'm in a really tight spot, as it only gives 20% reduction now)
Rune Tap
Anti-Magic Zone
Chains of Ice (Most important one)

Death Grip Stun

/cast Death Grip
/cast Gnaw

Although Gnaw can now be set to auto cast, it's still best that you keep it off because of this macro. This macro gets the target to your feet and stuns it for 3 seconds, which is a lot on a 20 second cooldown. You can even use this when Death Grip is not up and you just want to stun.

Interrupt Macro

/cast [modifier:ctrl] Strangulate; Mind Freeze

This is a crucial macro. If CTRL is held down, you will cast strangulate. If not, you will cast Mind Freeze. Many Death Knights fumble with using these two spells effectively, and this is the perfect solution.



[3]
Playing a Death Knight/Ret combo is not challenging. I'll divide strategies by combos:

Healer/DPS

1) CC the healer (Repentence, followed by strangulate), and try and burst down the DPS. Good if it's a resilient healer and a squishy DPS (Try and look out for gear. If you can spot T7 on either, that probably means they're sacrificing resil for stats)

2) Burn the healer. Good for, obviously, squishy healers. Ret will open with a HOJ, and the DK will provide Mind Freeze/Gnaw when needed. Nearing death, DK casts Strangulate.

**NOTE: If you only see a healer, drop DND and DG+Chains of Ice the healer in. If you see nothing, that means there's a druid healer, a rogue/rogue or a mage/mage or a mage/rogue team.

DPS/DPS

Since each combo is so different, I'll break down the ones I've seen.

MAGE/MAGE (Arcane/Arcane, Frost/Arcane, etc)
This is tough. You need to get a head start. Try and burst one mage down and make him ice block. After he does, head over to the other mage, but DO NOT take your eyes off the first one. AS SOON AS he pops out of Ice Block, Repentence/Chains of Ice/Death Grip/Gnaw him. If he evocates or goes invisible, all your work has just been wasted.

ROGUE/MAGE
Usually, they'll try and focus down one player. If they choose the paladin, he should bubble just as he nears death. If they choose the Death Knight, apply Mark of Blood to the rogue, but NOT BEFORE HE CLOAKS. Mark of Blood will set them back a lot, especially if said rogue is Mutilate.

ROGUE/ROGUE
One of the easier combos to deal with. MOB the first rogue who pops COS (Obviously after CoS is over). Drop plenty of DNDs, or at least have it ready. Get rune strike ready.

Death Knight/Ret
Congrats, you're fighting your carbon copy. This is hard to do, since you have nothing they don't have (Assuming the death knight is 21/0/50 as well). Try and get MoB on the Death Knight. Use your AMS wisely; popping it before a string of Scourge Strikes can save your life.

This was not meant to be an exhaustive list, it was meant to give you an idea of how to behave. Get creative.

[4]

Synergy, not brute force of the two classes combined, makes this combo what it is. A Death Knight with all the damage reduction abilites activated (Divine Guardian, Bone Armor, IBF, HoSac) will only take 31.36% damage. Extreme communication is necessary to play this to the fullest, it is recommended that you use Ventrilo or the built in VOIP feature.


I hope this helped, have fun getting easy epics.

[pewpewlazerz]

this is a very nice guide! I have a death knight that sucks and I may try this out :-P

[Paperboi]

If you have to look up how to arena, you're not going to do well in arenas.

[Dankone]

If you have to look up how to arena, you're not going to do well in arenas.

Overgeneralization for the sake of sounding cool. Talking about and sharing strategies, keybinds and macros help a lot more than you would think.

[Aimladen]

CLOAK OF SHADOWS DOESN'T REMOVE MOB, how come so many DK's think otherwise? The same goes for hunter's and their pets, they are unable to remove it - it's a physical effect. So putting it up instantly to help negate opening nuke damage and or CD's is very useful.

[Lith]

im in the same boat as pewpew, this may eventually be useful, rep if it is.

[chimx6x]

tell your m8 he should skill holy and go for 2000+

lol

but nice guide

[Kaites]

it's a nice guide. +rep

edit: keep in mind that seal of blood may also be an alternative.

it does superior dmg, but don't underestimate the self dmg.

[Obstructed]

CLOAK OF SHADOWS DOESN'T REMOVE MOB, how come so many DK's think otherwise? The same goes for hunter's and their pets, they are unable to remove it - it's a physical effect. So putting it up instantly to help negate opening nuke damage and or CD's is very useful.

Sorry to say but after 3.0.8 Cloak of Shadow does remove MoB since it is a magic now.

[theKarn]

Mark of Blood - Spell - World of Warcraft note: magic

Thanks for the tips. I'll try it out later but it looks pretty solid. +rep

[dmwpalpha]

nice guide

[PewPewNao]

Vindication not taken, QQ?
and why 1/5 fanaticsm?
I would also take imp retri aura
Everything ealse is pretty good tho

[themaster]

well you can say Ret + dk = face roll ( truth ) but it depends on the Battlegroup too because how can a rogue + affliction warlock go 1800 on Vindication - Eu with 10 loss? yep.. llol and the rogue is blue geared

Edit : no i dont play vindication but a friend of mine does..

[PewPewNao]

WT change battlegroup, Cyclone eu :/ toughest in europe
If you dont have most of your gear epic then you wont get past 1600

[Dankone]

Vindication not taken, QQ?
and why 1/5 fanaticsm?
I would also take imp retri aura
Everything ealse is pretty good tho

There's no room for Vindication in the build. If you really want it, go ahead and trade something else for it, but everything else is pretty essential. Before I went DK I was an 1800+ 2v2 retribution paladin on Stormstrike US. I personally hated Vindication because it would proc at the worst of times, like a fraction of a second after Hammer of Wrath becomes available to use. I uh, won't even talk about imp retribution aura.


Here's a video of me as 21/0/50 with a friend of mine (59/5/7 blood tank in PvP gear :P) wrecking Goldshire and Stormwind. (Be sure you watch it in HQ, it's a lot better) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwkMcQrUVlE"]YouTube - Hillary and Malkiah Do Azeroth[/ame]