Since there are a lot of people that ask me how to play Ret I thought that it would be a good idea to make a quick guide that review Ret paladin in pvp. I will talk about talent, stat priority, BiS gear, glyphs and give you tips for my perception of the spec and my playstyle.
1. Talent
2. Statistics
3. Gear/Reforge
4. Glyphs
5. Macros
6. Arena Compositions
7. Tricks
8. Counters
9. Few Information
So basically only the 2 talents in orange can have some change. The rest is the basic talents that you actually need in pvp. I will talk about few important ones.
Important info : Seals of Command has been fixed !
I will start with the first one in Retribution Tree.
Guardian's favor.It is an important talent for arenas. It reduces the cooldown of Hand of protection for 2 minutes. Base cooldown is 5minutes. That create a shield on the target that makes him immune to all physical damage. It is a good thing to have as Ret paladin because you are, at first, an assist spec. Now that you know that, when one of your partner will, or is getting a huge burst you have to protect him (if its physical damage) Hand of Protection or BoP is a really great spell to help your partner. That's why you need to have 2/2 in this talent.
Second is the The Art of the War that allows Exorcism to be casted instantly. 2/3 on it is enough to get some nice proc chance (14%). Plus, you have to be at 2/3 in it to get 2/2 in Guardian Favor.
The third is Selfless Healer. It increases the amount of heal of Word of glory for 50% when you use it on allies and reduces his cooldown for 10sec. Base cooldown is 20sec. Plus, it gives you a 4/8/12% extra damage buff for 6sec after using WoG on allies. No matter what you absolutely need this talent, heal every 10sec, and +50% heal on allies is definitively the best choice.
The fourth is Acts of sacrifice. Allows your cleanse to remove one snare or root effect (movement impairing effect) when used on yourself. It also reduces the cooldown by 10% and mana cost by 10% of your Hand of Freedom, Hand of Salvation and Hand of Sacrifice. The only thing you have to know with this talent is 1/2 is enough to get the cleanse effect and that is the only important thing about this talent, the 10/20% reduces cooldown and mana cost is like ''additional''. Even though you have to freedom your partners. This is not a really big deal at the end and you also need 1/2 in it you get 2/2 in Guardian's Favor.
The fifth and last one is Last Word Increases critical effect of Word of Glory when used on target with 35% or less health by 60%. This is an IMPORTANT talent ! That talent allows you to do huge amount of heal when your partners or yourself have less than 35% health and it can save you or your partners from death.
Ok, now the ones in orange.
The one in protection tree is Eternal Glory. Gives you a 30% chance when you use Word of Glory to not consume your holy powers and it has a 15sec cooldown. It's very powerful and useful. You can WoG and keep your inquisition up if you need to or do a Templar's Verdict right after your WoG. It's usually what people take for pvp and it is a smart choice.
The second one is Seals of the Pure. It increases Seal of Truth's dot damage by 12%. Can be good to increase your damage by a bit with this talent and inquisition.
Seals of the Pure is also an amazing choice while playing RLS 2.0. With Lock's buff on you, your censure damage is increased up to 21% and can do quite a lot of damage.
Lets make it clear and easy.
5% hit >20 expertise (Glyph of Seal of Truth is needed unless you want to reforge for that, Nah.) > Crit > Mastery > Haste
Now let me explain why I recommend that. Mastery is only increasing damage done by Crusader Strike and Templar's verdict by an additional pour cent damage as holy damage (which is increased by Inquisition) and Critical Strike increases every single spell attack, healing spell or attack which make that statistic really powerful for ret especially in 4.3.4 where you can reach 15% crit. So with crit you can increase your heal and damage and that's why I prefer crit over mastery. I won't even argue with haste, it's just not a pvp stat for ret.
Since we pointed out our important stats we can now continue with gear. I am going to do it with Cataclysmic Gear so if you are vicious geared don't forget to get the cap that you don't reach such as hit / expertise the most as you can with gems and if needed reforge, don't forget it's the same statistic for the same version of a season except it has more of less amount of it.
Gear
Head : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Helm : Mastery -> Crit
neck : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Choker of Accuracy Hit -> Crit
Shoulders : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Shoulders Expertise -> Crit
Cloak : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Cloak of Prowess Mastery -> Crit
Chest : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Chestpiece
Bracers : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Armplates of Proficiency Expertise -> Crit
Gloves : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Gauntlets Hit -> Crit | Gauntlets of Radiant Glory Haste -> Hit
Belt : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Girdle of Cruelty
Pants : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Scaled Legguards Haste -> Crit | Legplates of Radiant Glory Mastery -> Hit
Boots : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Warboots of Cruelty
Ring1 : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Signet of Cruelty
Ring2 : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Signet of Accuracy Hit -> Crit
Trinket1 : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Badge of Victory
Trinket2 : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Insignia of Victory
Weapon : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Greatsword
Relic : Cataclysmic Gladiator's Relic of Conquest
Those are the BIS gear you can get for ret in PvP. Fully pvp gear you turn around 5k resi. If you do play with 2T13 4600-4700 resi is the best. If you play 2t13 + gurthalak 4300-4700 resi is needed.
Gems
Pretty easy, unless you doesn't have your hit cap that's how it should look if you are fully pvp gear. If you have some PvE gear, adjust the amount of resilience gem.
Red : Strength
Yellow : Orange Strength/Resilience
Blue : Red Strength
Enchantement
Head : Arcanum of Vicious Strength - 60str/35resi
Shoulders : Greater Inscription of Vicious Strength - 50str/25resi
Cloack : Swordguard Embroidery - 1000ap proc
Chest : Mighty Resilience - 40resi
Bracer : Major Strength + Socket Bracer - 50str + 1 gem slot
Gloves : Mighty Strength + Socket Gloves - 50str + 1 gem slot
Belt : Ebonsteel Belt Buckle - 1 gem slot
Pants : Dragonscale Leg Armor - 190ap/55crit
Boots : Precision - 50hit
Weapon : Pyrium Weapon Chain - 60% disarm duration/40hit
Recommended profession : Blacksmithing and Tailoring
Why ? Because Blacksmithing gives 2slots gems which is +100 stat, and Tailoring gives 1000 AP which is good for more damage and bigger wog.
Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Seal of Truth
Glyph of Templar's Verdict
Glyph of Word of Glory
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Turn Evil
Glyph of Cleansing
Glyph of Hammer of Justice
Minor Glyphs
That's up to you, i personally have seal of truth and seal of insight mana reduction blessing of might so you can rebuff of change seal without consuming all your mana.
These are the macros that you have to use in pvp.
Focus macros
Hammer of Justice
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How its working ? Let's say your HoJ(Hammer of Justice) keybind is C. If you use only C you will HoJ your target. If you do Alt-C you will HoJ your focus). You can easily change the modifier by shift or ctrl depending of your keybind playstyle.
Repentance
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Rebuke
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Support macros
Word of Glory
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I prefer to use name's macro, you can use party1-2-3-4 also.
Hand of Freedom
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Hand of Protection
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Hand of Sacrifice
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Turn Evil
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It is a macro that will save your time. How it works ? In arena with this macro it will search first for a DK with Lichborne to fear*> Fearable pets > Mouseover > Target priority. Out of arena it will be Mousever if you are targeting a non fearable player, and target priority if you are targeting a pet or Dk with Lichborne.
DK Turn Evil only
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I noticed the old macro that should fear dk first, then pet, target, mouseover doesn't work properly, but i made one to only Turn Evil DK automaticly in arenas. So the best is to have 2 macros, the old one to fear pet automaticly, target, mouseover. And use this one when you see Lichborne to automaticly turn evil the DK.
2s
Ret/Rogue
Ret/Hunter
Ret/DK (unholy)
Ret/Disc
Ret/Feral
Ret/Enhance
3s
Vanguards : Ret/Dk(unholy)/Disc
Angel Cleave : Ret/Spriest/Rsham
PHP : Ret/Hunter/Disc
RRP : Ret/Rogue/Disc
RLS 2.0 : Ret/Lock/Rsham
RMP 2.0 : Ret/Mage/Disc
Ret/Dk/Rogue
Ret/Hunter/Rogue
Ret/Ret/DK (isn't that good though)
There is the long/hard to explain part.
As ret when you are playing in arena, the main goal is usually to kill the caster when there is one in the arena. By training the caster he won't be able to cast his spells and he will get interrupted and be in trouble most of the time. That's actually how I am playing. When its Caster Cleave (2 caster classes), if there is a lock, jump on lock. Lock is the easier caster to kill, if that doesn't work very well and there is a mage, go for him. Mages will do a lot of peel and cc(crowd control(nova/fear/sheep/etc...) to your team.
When enemy healer is near from you and you have one of his allies at low health, try to stay near to him to be able to do a quick kick focus and kill the enemy.
Always remember to set a kill with cc chain on enemy healer.
Always remember to Turn Evil pets to avoid dispel, silence(lock) and damage(Dk), use HoJ and Repentance.
Sometime a quick tunnel on healer with every CD works quite well.
Always remember to swap. Don't stick on the same target every time. Most of the time a surprise swap can decide a game.
Always, Always, Always swap to the discipline priest when he uses Pain Suppression to one of the target that you were damaging. You can easily get a kill in that way with a surprise swap on disc.
I think I've said enough. I will update the guide if I miss something. It's always hard to explain with only words how to play. I'm actually making a movie so I hope it will help when it will be out.
Few classes counter ret paladin but i will explain here How to beat your counters (1v1 meaning)
First of all, Rogues.
Of course, rogue now counter ret since we don't have our destun from wotlk, but they are still ways to win ! The first one is the kiting. I have always playing defensive and i feel like it is the best strat to do against every melee/caster. So from kiting the rogue won't do that much damage and you can use judgement, exorcism. Of course you have to get in melee range to get your holy power or from stun. But whenever you see its needed go for melee range and attack him. Secondly, i tried a lot of game play and there are 3 that really work quite well against rogue. Keep your HoJ and your Repent for when the rogue use use his Shadow Dance (his burst basically) so you break up his burst. Another one is to HoJ right at the beginning of the duel (be sure to have atleast 2 or 3 holy power before HoJ. In this way, the rogue might or might not trinket it. If he does, try to survive till you HoJ get back and Burst him. If he doesn't Burst right now. Then again, keep your repentance to his Shadow Dance. Also, rogues usually vanish and cos when he sees your Avenger Wrath, so if you want to still burst a rogue, don't use Avenger Wrath + Trinket + Zaelotry at the same time. Start with Zaelotry, he won't vanish that only disarm (5sec only with Pyrium Chain enchant) and you will do a lot of damage. You might force a vanish cos anyways. So when he came back you can use Avenger Wrath and burst him. He won't have anything unless he uses Preparation.
So basically that's it with rogue.
Mages Frost/Fire
Mage is kinda the class that counter you the most so you can use, or play like you want (even use bubble, who said it was noob to use it ?)
Firstly, as soon as the duel begins use your repentance, get at him use your guardian, Crusader strike and Hand of Freedom. Usually mages use Nova + CS so you can't get out of it. Also, keep in mind that his Pet(if frost) can still able to nova you, so be quick when you see his nova and dispell it. Once you have done that, get your 3 holy power as soon as possible, Mage will probably Deep Freeze you with cds. Trinket it, use Divine protection (-20% damage) In addition Wings will be harder to dispell) get at his range and use your Avenger Wrath with TV as first attack (keep Holy Wrath for when he's not at your melee range. (Bloodelf tip : Use HoJ and Arcane Torrent (AoE silence) before you burst, so he won't be able to get out of it for 3sec). After that you pretty much want to dispell every snare, judgement him for speed bonus and damage, keep yourself alive (You can even LoS with what is in the zone you're playing). Kinda hard to explain but it looks like that in general. You can also keep your Wings for healing purpose when sacred shield proc.
Enhancement Shaman
Enhance counters you because he has a lot of heal coming from his talents, speed increase, root / snare and he can dispell.
So basically you have to kiting even tho its really more harder to do. Secondly, ALWAYS KILL HIS SEARING TOTEM. You see it ? Kill it with judgement ! You will reduce his damage for A LOT since his main attack is increased by the Stack from Searing Totem. Enhance has like 2 trinkets since he has a spell that reduce every spell effect on himself and reduces damage taken by 30%. (Blood elf tip : HoJ and Arcane torrent before burst). I pretty much keep my Wings for healing against Enhance since they do a lot of damage and pressure. I still pretty much keep my HoJ for burst even tho he can get out of it so i can still have my wing for a longer time. Don't forget to use Hand of freedom and Divine protection to protect your wings from dispelling even if you don't need it. Its only to get a longer burst.
9. Few Information
My Armory
My UI
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My Stats
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Addons :
Gladius 4.3.4 compatible
ExtraCD 4.3.4 Shows the cooldown of Sacred Shield
NecrotricTrack 4.3.4 compatible Shows the amount of absorb from Necrotic Strike on yourself
-NEWS-
Work in Progress / Trailer video
Since i'll have a lot of free time during the month to come a video of my gamestyle may be coming, though not before January.
I already have a kind of in progress work that I added in the main post in a new category at the end of my guide. Keep in mind this is no editing and in progress, also skip the 3-4 minutes at the end (there is nothing) Put in HD for better quality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYi4puOGbhU
Contact me
Via Private Message
In Game Flowzlol@Neltharion or Flowz@Warsong
So i hope this can help you. I will keep updating this guide quite often.
Feel free to ask questions or suggestions.
Best regards, Flowz.
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Member
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Member
why crit over mastery i remember in retail full cata u had about 15 percent crit if u reforged everything to crit that was an additional 5 percent 20 percent isnt all that great isnt all that bad either i prefered going full mastery but i was doing rbg's and 2s
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Member
In, mainly 3's, you play support. Outside of wings you are there to CC, Hands and most importantly off heal with WoG's. WoG crits are ****ing huge if used under the correct requirement. Plus the damage from it was nice too.
Another thing Mastery wasn't great against Wizard cleaves due to it proccing off so few ranged abilities compared to melee. If you knew you was going into a Melee then it probably would be benficial to switch to a Mastery>Crit set of gear, just don't risk it and switch then face a wizard comp.
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Member
This, I had better results with crit > mastery
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Banned
Are you still active? :)
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Member
You could say I'm pretty gone.
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