Ret gear changing with patch 2.4

So you've been saving up those honor points for gear and you probably have a few pieces of season 1 or 2 gear. Well patch 2.4 is on the testing server now, when it goes live Blizzard plans on making some tweaks to the gear.

Untill the patch goes live, there are things that can change, but at this point it looks like it's going to be another good patch for Ret Pally's!

• New Season 1 gear stats here
• New Season 2 gear stats here
• No changes to season 3 gear

Not sure what the differences are, dont' worry I've done the heavy lifting....

Season 1 = No more spell damage, instead you now have resilliance around 16 per piece average... Also, increase in strength of about 5 (10 attack power) at the expense of about 5 critical strike


Season 2 = No more spell damage. Added resiliance of about 18 average per piece.... Also increase in strength of about 15 (30 attack power) at the expens of about 7 critical strike

Finally, resilliance has been changed to also reduce the effect of mana drain = great news for us, since we're very suceptable to mana drain. With around 200 resiliance you should see around a 10% reduction in mana drain.

While I'm not thrilled with the loss of Critical Strike stats, I think it is more then made up for in Attack power and Resilliance. And of course, when you move up to season 3 those stats are the same.

There are changes in other classes that (potentially) make them weaker against the retribution pally. For full patch notes and PTR notes check mmo-champion

The golden age of RETRIBUTION is upon us!

1610

Hello folks,

It's been a while since my last post... probably because I've gotten the basics off my chest. But today I'm celebrating a little milestone, a tale of hope for all you Ret Pally's out there.

This week my 2v2 arena team broke the 1600 barrier and reached 1610 for the week! Yay for me :)


After 200+ games in 2v2 I was getting a little concerned that we'd stay in the 1500's forever. In the last three weeks though, I've been able to increase my (unbuffed) attack power from about 1450 to 1720 and add another 50 resiliance or so. I can tell the difference. Druids, Priest and Warlocks are still hard, but no longer an automatic loss. In fact 3 of my wins this week came from a priest/rouge combo... the extra AP gives me enough DPS to out damage the priest (and most other healers) as long as I play it right.

Healing specs are very mana efficent, but I've found that if I put up:
- Improved Seal of the Crusader
- Stack Seal of Vengence to the maximum 5
- Refresh with Crusader strike

And use my two stuns back-to-back at the right time, then they go down and I still have mana.... When's the right time? It's when the healer is below 40% health, and is gearing up for a big heal.

The difference I'm getting from AP has me looking forward to Arena Season 4 and the new gear it will provide... In fact, my next article will deal with the upcoming patch 2.4 changes and after thta I'll talk a little about the Season 4 rumors.

Guild vs You

At some point you may be going about your day, blissfully stomping those arena openents and wailing on others in the BG's. Life is great.... until you get that whisper

Hey we'd like you to respec to Holy we need a healer.

WHOA!.... Your guild leader is waiting for a reply and you probably want to avoid pissing off the guy right away with a well timed "FU_K YOU" so what to do? You've got two main choices:

#1) Meekly accept, sacrificing your personal happiness for the needs of the guild. After all, isn't the group need more important then your own?

#2) Screw that, you're a Ret Pally and they'd better accept it... better they get to accepting now!

Either of these choices comes with some potential consiquences. Choice #1 will leave you in the guild and you'll start running more PvE Instances with your friends. Of course you'll be the group healer and your dreams of RET will go bye-bye... and the armor you've acquired for ret will be tossed aside for healing gear.... Worst of all, you won't get much advise from my blog on Holy :)

The consiquences for choice #2 will vary depending on your guild, either they'll say fine and not bring it up again, they'll say fine and stop inviting you to as many guild functions, they'll ask you to leave (or make it uncomfortable enough that you'll leave).

Of course you'll have to decide what's most important to you. But I will give you my opinion on it.

Tell your guild you will NOT respec. Don't bend over for some guy's request! You haven't asked anyone in your guild to respec for you, and you expect the same courtisy from other people! If they need a healer so bad they should get out and recruit one.

Take a sec to think about why they're asking you in the first place.. probably to run instances. If that's for you then great. But if you've embraced PvP then you don't want to waste 5 hours in a big Kara run anyway. You probably also don't want people setting your WOW schedule for you.

If they threaten to toss you out then go ahead and type in "/gquit" and get out of there. I'll let you in on a little secret... There are plenty of guilds out there oriented to PvP. They'll gladly accept a Ret Pally and will help you run BG's get Arena Teams together and will probably be more condusive to your play style.

It's easier to say "go ahead and quit" then actualy do it, especially if you've been with the guild for a long time. Kind of like moving to a new neighborhood, you won't see your old friends any more.... But you'll make new ones, maybe even better ones that understand you and your spec.

Gems, Gems the musical fruit, the more use equip the more you toot

Alright folks,

I meant to get this article out earlier, but hey with a full time job, two blogs and a website plus a lot of hours on WOW sometimes I just run out of time :)

So, you're on your way to getting all the great weapons/armor you need and you're noticing that some of the new stuff has gem socksts. You may be wondering what colors to get, what cuts, etc.

If you've been following my advice and picking up the Gladiator's PvP armor you're going to be seeing mostly yellow and red slots. This is great for you because these colors will help with hit rating, strenght (AP) and critical strike... all of which you're going to want. You'll find a great site here which allows you to search for gems by attribute.

First of all, let's go over a couple basics.

#1) To socket a gem, open up your character screen and "SHIFT+RIGHT CLICK" on the item. This will open up the gem window and you can drag and drop the gems into the sockets

#2) While you can put new gems in your gear down the road, they destroy the old gems (similar to enchanting over an existing enchant)

#3) Mixed colors count a BOTH gems. For example if you have a Red slot, you could put an orange gem or purple gem in and it would work in the red slot.

#4) Make sure you're putting the right gems into the right slot. If you put a yellow gem into a green slot it will allow you to eqip it but you won't get any of the gems bonuses.... If you're not seeing an increase in your stats after socketing a gem, go back and make sure it's in the right socket. (You can't pull it out, but you can put a new gem it it's place... be careful)

There are so many gems out there that I won't go over most of them. But check the link earlier in the article for a filterable list of them. The Gems you choose will depend a bit on your play style and what stats you're short on. But I'll list the 3 that I think will be of most benefit.

Blue Versions

- Bold Living Ruby = +8 Strength
- Inscribed Noble Topazl = +4 Strength +4 Critical Strike
- Rigid Dawnstone = +8 Hit Rating

Green Versions
- Bold Blood Garnet = +6 Strength
- Inscribed Flame Spesserite = +3 Strength +3 Critical Strike
- Rigid Golden Dreanite = +6 Hit Rating

If you don't have the money for Blue gems yet, you can put in the green versions for a lot cheaper (we're talking 3g instead of 30g) but I would recommend getting the better versions when you have the cash. Also there are slight improved purple versions but they're from heroic drops and such... so the blue is probably the best you can reasonably expect to get.

Helm enchant? Sort of.

So you've picked up a shiny new vengeful gladiator's scaled helm... or you've got something else on you head. But how can you make it better? There are no enchants for helmets.

That is true; but there's Glyphs. These are items that work like enchantments for your helmet and are available from select vendors that you have a high enough reputation with. The best one I've found is the Glyph of Ferocity. It will add the following to your helm:

• +34 Attack Power
• +16 Hit Rating

If you're already past 81 for your hit rating, you could also try Glyph of the Outcast, which provides:

• +17 Strength
• + 16 Intellect
  

There are others out there, but these two are best for a Ret Pally. Click the links for more info and reputation requirements. Tomorrow I'll go over some of the gems that you'll want to use with your gear.

Arena and You

A couple nights ago I got on my main arena team Now You Die. It's 2v2 with myself as a Ret Pally and my partner as a Holy Pally. This is not a common pairing but that's a discussion for another time.

We come across a team called LeeT HaxorZ, composed of a Warlock and Paladin. Immediately we have to make a decision on who to take down. Normally we would go for the Paladin since he can heal. HOWEVER the Pally had the same 2H sword I use so we quickly realized he was a Retribution Paladin. As such we went for the warlock.

The fight was very evenly matched but eventually we take down the warlock. However in the next second the other Paladin finishes off my teammate leaving myself and the other Ret pally to fight it out! To make matters worse, while I had more health then my opponent I had much less mana, around 500. As you know a Pally without mana is a dead one.

Fortunately I have two stuns available to me, I start with Repentance and use the seconds to bandage myself for more health. I quickly see that this wasn't the best move as my health is going down pretty quickly and the damage I'm dealing is a bit less then my opponent due to my using auto attack and the occasional crusader strike as not to completely run out of mana. At this point I'm lower on health and mana then my opponent.

I use my hammer of justice to stun my opponent for another 6 seconds. During that time I run out of his line of sight and drink up to regain my mana. I get up to around 1500 mana before my opponent finds me and starts wailing away. We trade blows back and forth but I stop for a minute and Heal myself. (I was concerned I wouldn't get the heal off in time but I had no choice). This is enough to give me slightly more health then my opponent with maybe 1000 mana left.

We're back to trading blows, but I remember to throw down Consecration since we're in close proximity to each other and that's enough to give me the edge. I win the battle, and thus the match with well under 1,000 life... basically one more solid hit and I would have died.

Let's dissect this match and see how my experience can help you.... keep in mind 2v2 is a very unbalanced play style. A lot of who gives you problems depends on your team makeup

Arena is full of choices, starting even before the gates open. Since my team is 2 pally's we plan our Buffs and aura's to complement each other. You'll want to do the same with your teammate. He gives me BoK and give him BoW, I put up the Improved Sanctity Aura for +12% holy damage and he puts up Concentration Aura for an improved chance not to be interrupted for heals. It works for us, but you'll want to tailor your blessings and/or buffs to you and your partner's needs.

The first major choice in the battle comes when you see your opponents. Who should you target first?

• Healer/DPS combo - you need to target the healer. Otherwise the healer will just sit back and keep on healing thru your damage. Eventually you'll run out of mana or stuns and then they'll go on the offensive.
• Healer/Healer - Ugly, very ugly..... Go with the one that you think is the better healer. For example a shadow preist is not as good at healing as Holy. Alternatively you can try splitting up after the initial burst damage to keep them both occupied. Send your strongest DPS against the main healer, the other guy keep the secondary healer occupied.
• Melee/Melee - Usually a warrior and someone else (hunter or rouge). This really depends on the situation, but remember that a warrior gains rage when attacked making him more powerful, either ignore him outright or take him down ASAP.
• Mage/DPS - Usually go for the cloth, they die faster and deal more burst damage.

Battle Auras - As a ret pally you should start out with Improve Sanctity Aura, but if you see there's a Warlock around, switch to Shadow resistance. Other classes may or may not need you to switch. Bottom line is you need to adapt to your situation, don't be afraid to change Auras.

Trinkets - You're going to be stunned a lot in arena play. Having a trinket to dispel at least 1 stun is a must. You have two options Insignia of the Alliance and Medallion of the Alliance. The cheaper one only costs 2,805 honor and removes 1 stun effect every 5 minutes. The Medallion 16,983 honor. It removes 1 stun effect every 2 minutes AND gives 20 Resilience. If you're getting a lot of honor per week (15k or more) save your honor and get the Medallion. If you average less then 10k honor per week then go ahead and get the Insignia.

Mana Potions - You cannot use regular mana potions in the arena, but there is a drink you can use called Star's Tears. It restores up to 7,500 mana in the arena, you have to be out of combat to use it. Believe me, after 160+ matches this season I've been using this more then I would have thought. Twards the end of a long fight it's possible no one is doing serious damage due to lack of mana. Have your teammate occupy both guys for a while and drink up for a few seconds, if your teammate uses mana do the same for him. Also, if you've just managed to kill 1 team member but you're both out of mana... again one person keeps the guy busy the other drinks up.

Communication - Last on this list but THE MOST IMPORTANT. If you ever want to get above 1,500 you MUST have a microphone headset and use something to talk to your teammate, whether it's the in-game voice option, ventrillo or teamspeak. You cannot stop fighting to chat with your teammate. Voice is even more important then gear!

Speaking of communication. Don't just jump into your next match. Take a minute to discuss why you won or lost; see where you could improve and think about a strategy if you get the same team again... I often see the same team(s) in a given night.

That's it for now... it's been a long post

Stats

Hi Folks,

Yesterday I blogged a bit on the stats you should be looking to get as a ret pally. Today I'm going to give an explanation of these stats and why the numbers should be as high as they are. As a recap, below are the minimum "complete" stats you should have. More is better but if you meet the criteria below the WOW community considers you a veteran (non noob) Ret Pally.

1. Attack Power - 1,500
2. Health - 10,000
3. Resilience - 200
4. Melee Crit - 25%
5. Melee Hit - 81
6. Mana- 6,000


Attack power - Your friend and mine AP. This is probably the most often looked at statistic for a melee class. That's because AP translates directly into DPS, and Ret Pally's are made for DPS. More importantly now, other classes have loaded up on Resilience, and that means you're going to find yourself criting a lot less no matter how high your Crit rating is. So the higher your AP the better.

Health - You're not going to be healing yourself unless it's absolutely necessary. That's what the healing classes are for. Plus your heals are not going to be as effective then a full on healer, and taking time on half assed heals when you could be laying on massive damage is usually a waste of time. As such you're going to want a lot of heath; this allows you to take more damage before needing to heal. 10,000 health is more then enough to keep you alive even against some of the bust damage other classes give out.

Resilience - This is a stat that has been sorely needed. It reduces the chance to crit against you and the damage taken during a crit. 200 is not as high as it could be, but you'll really start to notice you're staying alive longer against burst damage when you hit the 200 mark.

Melee Crit - 25% is said to be the minimum amount to keep vengeance up at all times. That will give you a relatively permanent 5% increase to your DPS.

Melee Hit - 81 is considered the amount needed to never miss your target in PvP against a level 70 opponent. That's extremely important - if you're dealing 1,000 damage per hit and you miss a couple times, there's the difference between a win and a loss. There's not a ton of gear that adds to hit rating, but you can get a great yellow gem called a Rigid Dawnstone that adds +8 to your hit rating. A couple of these will get you much closer to 81. On a side note, if you're doing PvE the hit rating goes up to 142. That's because raid bosses are higher then level 70 so you need a higher hit rating. But for all PvP you will get no additional benefit going over 81.

Mana - Last but not least. Sure the other stats are important but with no mana you aren't dealing any damage so it's important not to skimp out on this skill . If you don't believe me wait till a priest or warlock man burns you for the first time and you're stuck doing auto attack. 6,000 mana means you won't run out of mana very often and you don't need to drink up after every fight in PvP or PvE.

I'll admit the post doesn't have as many hard numbers as I like to give, but there's no way I'm going into the math and theory crafting of how each stat is calculated, how much damage each level of armor mitigates, etc. If you're like most people you won't want it either. On the offshot you do, search it out on the wowwiki link on the side.

Come back tomorrow when I talk about my most nail biting arena match ever, and some strategies that can help you!