Retribution Paladin/Resto Druid 2v2 in-depth Guide.

[Shleven]

Marishka Hargiday.(Don't Ask).

Skip to White writing if you dont want to read about my epeen.

This is my out-take on the Retribution paladin/feral druid 2v2 setup. I have been running this setup since the start of season 5, having got gladiator with Holy paladin/ Resto druid last season. This setup was no longer viable, due to the extensive nerfing of the paladins retri holy spec, so we decided to switch things around. Although gear is a bonus, at the start of this season we were running it with minimal resilience, facerolling most teams with ease. Like i say in all guides, success is generally through good communication and co-ordination. We are currently rated at 2232 (druid is abroad, otherwise we could probably push it alot higher) on the rampage battlegroup. I have 485 Resilience using 4/5 conq, furious shoulders and furious offset items with a win ratio of 87%.

Contrary to what others say, this setup is actually more defensive than offensive. With many death preventing moves, stuns and many forms of crowd control, you can burn out opponents cooldowns before having to burn your own out for the kill. Setting up a good CC rotation is a must if you are looking to win at a competitive level i.e.

Bear Form Bash>Roots>Cyclone>Repentance>Stun while nuking the other oposition.

The wonder of this setup is your leeway for error - Even if you make a mess of something, be it crucial or not, you still have the manpower and survival to recover, regain composure and still aim for a win.

During a match, it is important to get into a good routine of co-ordinating when to use certain CC and cooldowns, as well as where to position yourself under certain circumstances. A good addon for tracking cooldowns of opponents and your partner is SCT. I personally use it, and know alot of high end paladins also using it. Macro'ing certain spell casts to save time, could well be the outcome between winning and losing a match. An example of this is having to click your opponent then click Blessing of Protection instead of just simply clicking the */cast [target=name] hand of protection* macro.

Key Tricks for retri paladins that are often overlooked.:
-Breaking Sheep with Seal of the Martyr.
-Killing totems with Hand of Reckoning.
-Getting in combat to avoid getting sapped using Hand of Reckoning.
-Keeping people in combat to avoid restealthing or drinking using Hand of Reckoning.
-Blessing of protection on your druid if he gets blinded.

Spell rotations when 'sitting' on the opposing healer.
-Auto-attack> Hammer of Justice > Judgement > Crusader strike > Divine Storm. If they are still standing, you have the option of using Repentance, waiting for some of your cooldowns to reset and then proceeding to finish them off.

Against the majority of classes you are going to want to be using judgment of wisdom, in the exception of a rogue trying to sprint away, or a druid in travel form. Outside of this, if you are the one being focused and your healer is having trouble keeping you up, judge for light to help out. As well as this, always remember to keep Sacred Sheild up. In many games that i have fought it has often been the decider between winning and losing a game.

To sum this guide up, always be aware of where you are in conjunction to your partner. Rushing this sort of setup is not the way to succeed, it only impares your judgment. Be ready to drop of a healer and help your druid out by cleansing or healing him, as well as changing your focus to help relieve some on his behalf.

Hopefully this is of use to some of you.

//Shleven

[soto]

my god, most terrible guide ever, nothing else then showing your e-peen around and terrible faceroll strats, my god:
Hammer-Judgement-CS-DS burst, my god, speaking about obvious, also gz on getting gladiator by playing resto-holy, you might also find out that HoR has a cd, really terrible ret paladin, and naice pve gear dude

[Shleven]

Hopefully this is of use to some of you.

Yo soto, read that. I couldn't give a flying shit if you don't like this guide

[tekstorm]

wow just bad imo. Ret dps and druid stays in tree form and never dies. GG

[dippe]

-Killing totems with Hand of Reckoning.

Does not work.

[00kevin]

Hand of Reckoning totem stomp has been nerfed
Useable to break cc vs pet teams though.
Would +rep you for effort, only I already repped your toothbrushing guide, LOL.

Also, methinks Soto should STFU

[Apple]

Yeah, the HoReck nerf was a real pain in the ass.

[egg1337lol]

Haha, I aint gonna read this shizzle but god dammit you dont need an friggin guide for retri+resto druid, Number #1 faceroll, jebus.

[Shleven]

Can people step back a second and just think 'this might be useful for somebody out there.'

If you don't have anything positive to say, don't say it all. Yes it is an easy setup, but maybe not for everyone.

[random1234]

2,5k+ ret on the best battlegroup (CycloneEU) in the world says, you are terrible mate. The suggested rotation is not the optimal one against every healer despite Paladin. HoJ ->CS -> DS -> Judge is the proper opener. Only if you are sporting 4piece set bonus of either Conq of the PvP-set and not the PvPrelic he's right.

Against Druidhealers (most common ones currently and the only ones you will usually end up having trouble with) you only want to perform either quick switches or Repentance in Casterform and hit HoJ exactly the GCD before his lifebloom blooms. If the opposite DPS let's you sit on the opposite Druid the entire time with little peels, HoJ as soon as it lights up. Apply momentum with on-use trinkets and Avenging Wrath during the first two HoJs. After the 4th HoJ you usually will have the restodruid without Barkskin or Trinket and you can normally kill him with some critluck (that's ret guys, it's not pretty but that's how it's done). (First HoJ barkskin -> 40 Sec later he uses trinket when you pop wings -> 80 Sec Barkskin in HoJ -> 120 Sec No trinket nor Barkskin is up.) After the recent changes to Vindication, HoJ and Freedom, the comb is vastly inferior to DK/Druid and War/druid and the likes. You should never be winning against those combs given equal skill, equipment. RNG can give you good result, it will even out in a series though. This setup still remains an absolute nightmare for most 2 DPS so if you find yourself in a battlegroup where the metagame is very 2dps oriantated you might want to give it a shot.

Using Addons like SCT will in the end only dump down your game.

PS: An indepth guide would've been to explain tactics against the current popular comps. If people are interested in this, post in this thread and I might write a truly in-depth guide about ret druid.

[Shleven]

This is my out-take on the Retribution paladin/feral druid 2v2 setup

Meaning this is how i got to my current rating. If you have another way of doing it, go post about it. Random1234 you said that you think i'm a terrible paladin and that my rotation is all wrong. That is your opinion and your entitled to it. You made several reasonable comments, but what makes you the guru of all rets? Your just another 1 rep leeching scrub trolling these forums not contributing anything.