Introduction
The original guide was made by me on AT forum in August 2013. Since that time the page of it was opened almost 100k times. My guide became the most viewed Cata AT guide ever made and even one of the most viewed guides on the whole AT forum. I decided to port it to Warmane forum with some updates and additions. Made this guide for those players who want to learn how to play ret paladin on Cata. I've been playing ret paladin on Cataclysm since 2010 (retail, some private servers). I know everything (or atleast almost everything) about rets on Cata, so if you still have any question after this guide, feel free to ask me. In this topic I want to share my experience with the beginners.
General info about Retribution spec on Cataclysm
Ret paladin is strong on Cata. We have not that big tunnel damage, but our burst is awesome. Don't forget that your Wings and Bubble still can be dispelled, you should take care about them.
There are some Ret Cataclysm changes:
- We've got a new resource called "Holy Power". We're getting it from our Crusader Strikes and wasting it for Templar's Verdict / Word of Glory. Templar's Verdict is the most damaging Rets ability, so if you are using Word of Glory you will lose some damage.
- Word of Glory is a new instant heal. Sometimes it becomes crazy, maybe even OP. It didn't have CD so many people were QQing about it on Blizzards forums and they decided to add a 20 seconds cooldown (10 seconds with Selfless Healer talent).
- We've got two more burst abilities called "Zealotry" and "Guardian of the Ancient Kings". The first one improves Holy Power gaining and the second one gives you crazy amount of Strength.
- We've got an interrupt-ability called "Rebuke" with 10 seconds cooldown.
Talents
My main build
This one is my current main build on Warsong. Divinity helps a lot in double dps 2s comps.
Exorcism build
Pretty balanced build. You are getting all the most important talents and you're getting the highest possible Exorcism damage. It used to be my main build on AT for a long time.
Vanguards' S11 build
Here you will lose Exorcism procs chance and 20% damage from it, but you're increasing your Seal damage. More stable one.
Stun build
This one is good if your partners don't have enough CC. You will lose WoG crit here. This build is good to play 2s with healers (but why are you going to play with them if you have insane heals alone and you can play 2 dps without any problems?).
Glyphs - Prime Glyphs:
* Glyph of Templar's Verdict - required. Gives a high damage increase.
* Glyph of Seal of Truth - recommended. Saves a lot of stats.
* Glyph of Word of Glory - recommended. High healing increase.
* Glyph of Crusader Strike - decent one. You can use it instead of Glyph of Word of Glory. Depends on your comps and playstyle.
- Major Glyphs:
* Glyph of the Ascetic Crusader - required. The biggest mana-saver.
* Glyph of Cleansing - decent one. Saves a lot of mana against some classes. Depends on your enemies.
* Glyph of Divine Protection - decent one. We're having some problems against spellcleaves. This one can help you a bit.
* Glyph of Hammer of Justice - decent one. Higher stun range. What else to say?
* Glyph of Turn Evil - decent one. Helps a lot against Warlocks and DKs, but will be useless against another classes.
Gearing info
You MUST use 2T13 PvE pieces. Use shoulders and legs. You can see my stats with Seal of Truth activated on the picture below.
- Required stats:
* 5% hit rating - required. Even 4.99% is not enough.
* 20 expertise - required. You should get 10 expertise from gear and an additional 10 from Glyph of Seal of Truth.
- Crit vs Mastery question:
You might ask which stat is better for us: Crit or Mastery? It's a hard question and you should make your own decision. I will just describe positive sides of both stats here. First of all, Mastery gives you additional damage after your Templar's Verdicts and Crusader Strikes. You can use these abilities from melee range. Against ranged classes you will use Judgements and Hammers of Wrath more often, but they are not changed by Mastery. The result: you are loosing some damage if you're going for Mastery and playing against ranged classes. Ofcourse crit improves all your damage, not only a few abilities. And it improves a chance to have a high heal also.
The final result: Crit is better against spellcleaves and it's better if you're supporting your partners with your heals as much as you can. Mastery will give you more damage against meleecleaves.
- About gems and strength:
Strength is our main stat. It gives more damage increase than crit or mastery. Since you can't reforge into it, just get strength in every socket you can. I'm using 50 strength gems in red spots, 25 strength and 25 resilience gems in yellow spots, 25 strength and 25 hit rating gems in blue spots. As my meta-gem I'm using Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond.
Also I have another set with 25 strength 25 resilience gems in red spots, 50 resilience in yellow spots. It helps you to keep your resilience high even with 2 parts of PvE set.
Macros
I'm not using many of them, just the most important ones. You can find much more but for me it's comfortable to play with these.
- Focus Repentance
Code:
#showtooltip Repentance
/cast [target=focus] Repentance
- Hand of Freedom (using 3 macros: for 2 partners and for me)
Code:
#showtooltip Hand of Freedom
/cast [target=nickname] Hand of Freedom
- Hand of Protection (using 3 macros: for 2 partners and for me)
Code:
#showtooltip Hand of Protection
/cast [target=nickname] Hand of Protection
- Hand of Sacrifice (using 2 macros for my partners)
Code:
#showtooltip Hand of Sacrifice
/cast [target=nickname] Hand of Sacrifice
- Word of Glory (using 2 macros for my partners)
Code:
#showtooltip Word of Glory
/cast [target=nickname] Word of Glory
- Cleanse (using 3 macros: for 2 partners and for me)
Code:
#showtooltip Cleanse
/cast [target=nickname] Cleanse
- Focus Rebuke
Code:
#showtooltip Rebuke
/cast [target=focus] Rebuke
- Focus HoJ
Code:
#showtooltip Hammer of Justice
/cast [target=focus] Hammer of Justice
- Cancel Wings (to avoid mage's spellstealing it)
Code:
/cancelaura Avenging Wrath
- Cancel HoP
Code:
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
Addons
- TellMeWhen - shows my Sacred Shield's internal cooldown and helps me to see enemies cooldowns.
- Gladius - everyone knows about this addon :).
- TidyPlates - better looking nameplates. Nothing special.
- UnitFramesImproved - better looking unit frames. Nothing special.
- LoseControl - shows CC duration on you and your partners.
- OmniCC - counts cooldowns for your spells in numbers.
Interface
On this screenshot you can see my interface
There are some TellMeWhen addon features:
1 - Enemies cooldowns
2 - My Landslide and trinket procs
3 - Shows when Dark Simulacrum is on me
4 - Shows how many Necrotics are on me
5 - Shows WoG CD of enemy Ret
6 - Shows my CD of Sacred Shield
7 - Shows the duration of my Inquisition buff
8 - Shows my WoG CD
9 - Shows my Rebuke CD
How to play in general
Understanding the class comes with experience but I will try to give some tips for newbies to play better on start.
- Try not to use Templar's Verdict or Word of Glory without 3 Holy Powers. You will lose many damage/healing. Sometimes you can do it, but not often.
Example: you have 2 Holy Power and you almost died. You see that you cannot get the 3rd stack of Holy Power (enemies are staying so far and casting something). That's that situation where you should use Word of Glory with 2 Holy Powers or you will just die.
- About Seals: our main seal is Seal of Truth. It applies censure dot on our target and deals decent damage. But don't forget to change seals sometimes. Correct switch to Seal of Insight in that situation when you are dying can save you and give you a chance to win.
- Use Guardian of the Ancient Kings before Zealotry, Wings and burst trinket. It needs some time to stack-up for an awesome strength bonus.
- Get two weapons. You should switch between Landslide and Pyrium Chain enchants depends on your enemies. You can also get a 1h/Shield. Will be awesome against melee cleaves burst.
- Try to heal you as much as you can while your Sacred Shield is active. Your heals are bigger at that moment.
- About your damage: you should always remember that Templar's Verdict is your the best damaging ability, but as I said before, use it with 3 Holy Powers. Also keep Inquisition up all the time on you. Use Exorcism only when it procs (you don't need to cast it, just instant ones). Use Crusader Strike always when it's not on CD! When it's on CD you should use Judgement/Exorcism/Templar's Verdict/Hammer of Wrath (depends on procs, amount of your Holy Powers and range to enemy) and than press Crusader Strike again. With Zealotry you just use Crusader Strike -> Templar's Verdict -> Judgement/Exorcism/Hammer of Wrath -> repeat this line until Zealotry ends.
- Don't use Retribution aura. I see many Rets using it, but it's useless :D. Set active Devotion or Resistance aura (but better the first one, because everyone is getting spell pene cap and Resistance aura becomes useless also) or even Crusader aura.
Arena
- 2x2: I prefer to play double dps comps since Rets got awesome heals. It will be hard to get high rating with a healer because Rets can't kill another healers like DKs and we can't kill dps against dps/healer teams because our CC is so weak.
* Ret/Hunter - my favorite 2s comp but it can be hard for the beginners. You should manage your CC well. I almost always used my stun on the healer to continue the CC line. Everyone can say that hunter teams can counter mages, but it's not so easy in this comp. Just because RM teams are trying to win fast, there won't be long games. In this case you cannot get enough Holy Power on start for your heals. You can hit only mage and his elemental, don't touch a rogue because you will apply censure dot and your hunter won't be able to CC him. Stay near your hunter on start, if RM team will try to make an opener on you, hunter should give you a sacrifice and CC a rogue on opener. You can see more detailed info how to play this comp below.
* Ret/DK - I guess it's the best 2s comp for the beginners. Almost all your freedoms you should give to your DK since you can cleanse slows from yourself. You can easily kill Priests, Holy Palas after Bubble, Rshamans after the spirit link (but Rshammy is the hardest healer to kill for us). Personally I don't like to play this comp, getting no fun.
* Ret/Rogue - It's also sick comp for Ret, not the best but a working one. You have enough CC to win teams with healers. Also you can easily switch to the healer when he doesn't have his defensive CDs and trinket anymore.
* Ret/Warrior - Not so bad comp. Instead of Necrotics strike Warrior has Mortal Strike that helps alot. Didn't play this comp so much but it can easily work.
* Ret/Enh - Not an easy comp for the beginners. Played it not so long but didn't enjoy. You have powerful heals, but you will have some troubles killing ranged/healer comps such as Mage/Disc. Anyway it's easy to win melee/healer teams as far as you have 2 interrupts and insane burst.
- 3x3:
* PHP (Paladin Hunter Priest) - Got 2.2k 3s as PHP on AT PTR. You have high chances to win against RMPs by killing a mage, but XLS comps will make you cry. Lock applies dots on everyone and you just don't know whom should you heal first of all because everyone is dying. There is the only one way: try to win them fast, if game becomes long you will lose.
* PHS (Paladin Hunter Shaman) - Got 2.2k 3s as PHS after Cata AT release. Compared to PHP you will lose Priest's mass dispell and in some situations you will miss it so much, but resto shaman is better against healer-killer comps. With your heals, Sacrifices and Hand of Protections support it's almost impossible to kill a good resto shaman as Vanguards Cleave, for example.
* Vanguards Cleave (Paladin UDK Priest, can also work with Resto Shaman) - #1 Hated comp on Cata. DK can kill Disc Priest solo if you let him to tunnel the enemy. Give all freedoms to your DK, it will be more usefull. Tunneling the healer all the time is not the best idea tho. Do some switches and when their healer will waste his defensive CDs you can kill him almost without any problems.
- Triple DPS: We can que triple DPS after AT-Molten merge. I'm pretty sure it will be disabled in future but still gonna write about it.
* Ret/Hunt/Rogue - The best triple DPS comp. Insane CC and burst.
* Ret/Hunt/DK - Less CC such as smokebomb, saps and blinds but you will get necrotics and the possibility to kill enemies healers even easier.
* Ret/Rogue/DK - You will have different kind of CC compared to the previous comp.
* Ret/Ret/DK - Russians were playing it during live S11. Really insane heals from both Rets and necrotics from DK are making this comp strong.
There are some other decent comps, but I wrote about the most working and the most popular ones.
How to play Ret/Hunt 2s
This is my main 2s comp that was always working the best for me. I've been having the highest Ret/Hunt teams in 2s Cata AT ladder during a few seasons.
Mirror matchup: This matchup is all about who gets more damage/more heals/more CC etc. Always go Ret and CC the Hunter. You should instantly give Repentance to the enemy Hunter and your Hunter can continue the chain with his scatter, trap, monkey stun. The first Ret who uses bubble will lose most likely so you should try to kite a bit and survive as long as you can without bubbling. You can HoJ the Ret at the beginning. He will trinket it most likely and you will be able to stun him again in 1 minute when he has no more bubble and trinket. Hunter should Silence the Ret when his Sacred Shield is active.
Rogue/Mage matchup: Pretty easy for us. You should go Mage. Stay close with your Hunter at the beginning so if Rogue opens with Smoke Bomb your Hunter will be able to Sacrifice you and Blind or Scatter the rogue's opener. Continue the CC with Repentance. If Rogue trinkets anything and you still have you HoJ you should stun the Rogue and kill him with burst during 6 seconds stun.
Rogue/Hunter matchup: Harder then RM imo, but still pretty good comp to farm for us. The opener tactics is the same as against Rogue/Mage. You can also kill the Rogue in a stun after he trinkets something. If the Rogue is smart you can just kill the Hunter. Try to use WoG on CD and live without bubble as long as you can. Try to use your Sacrifice smart: you can use it when the Rogue runs to you to give you CC and it may probably get broken by the damage on your Hunter. You should ALWAYS use Hand of Protection when Rogue's Blind is on your Hunter and he must have a macro to delete Hand of Protection and keep doing damage.
Ret/DK matchup: One of the hardest double DPS enemies team just because you can't survive that long under DK's Necrotics. You should give Repentance DK instantly and your Hunter should continue CC chain. Kill the Ret as fast as you can, long game is not what you want to have against this team. The Ret who bubbled first will lose in 99% of games so you should try to survive w/o bubble as long as you can, even if it's kinda risky. Watch out for DK's Dark Simulacrum when you're low and Cleanse it before using Bubble.
Warrior/Healer matchup: Go Warrior. Start the CC with Repentance on healer and HoJ on Warrior at the same time. Warrior will trinket HoJ to get Freezing Trap and then in 1 minute with the second HoJ when he has no more trinket you can easily give some CC to the healer and kill a Warrior in one stun.
Rogue/Disc matchup: The tactic is pretty similair to Warrior/Healer matchup. Simply try to get Rogue's trinket on your first HoJ and kill him in a minute with the second one. If something goes wrong try to reset the game, get your CDs back and repeat the tactics once again.
Frostmage/Disc matchup: Kill the Mage. Try to save your burst for the moment when you can reach the Mage. You can kill him during a random CC on Healer if there are no more blocks just because Mages are taking so much damage and they have hard times surviving under Hunters pressure. When my Templar's Verdict crits on Mage he instantly loses like -30% HP so it won't be that hard to kill him. Your main goal is surviving.
The hardest matchups and how to play against them: The hardest matchups are Feral/Healer (because Feral can simply sit in Bear form when his healer is getting CCed), Firemage/Healer, Lock/Rsham (you will simply die by dots), DK/Healer (they will play from defense and you will simply die in a long game by Necrotics). Against these comps there are no real tactics. All you should do is to play yolo and try to score a kill randomly by enabling your burst and oneshotting them. It's either oneshot or lose anyways.
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