ProtRet PVP in depth guide
Table of contents
Introduction
Objective of the build
Talents + Glyphs + explanation
Formulas + stats + BiS list explanation
Playstyle
Introduction
None of you know me, my name in-game is Chillaxs, im a wrathfull pvp pala healer, with 10+ years of experience and played every class up to 1800 arena rating.
In other words, I'm probably not the best pala (or any other class) player out there, but i know how every class works in pvp, that is why I came up with this build, which is based on the ProtRet pala but with some modifications, so any corrections and additions are welcome. Please comment below everything you want but always with respect :D.
Objective of the build
The objective of the build is to counter the Shadowmournes in this server. While having plenty of survavility against all mele classes and being able to beat all of them, with no exception. This class will never be able to kill on a 1v1 situation the following classes if they have same gear and same "hands": Shadow Priest and Mage or a healer. The reason is that this spec is not based on burst, but in survavility, therefore, u will never break thorugh their shield or heals.
The other range classes are pretty hard to beat playing with this spec, but not imposible, you just need to play good your CDS, an elemental shaman, for example, will run out of mana before being able to kill you, the hunter and the lock have the same prob but can't heal themsalves, and while their pet is out and you can hit their pet, you are unkillable, we will go through the playsyle later.
Talents + Glyphs + Explanation
The talent explanation is easy, the build is focus on survavility and what I like to call "unknown" or passive damage.
The survavility is based on, Improved Righteous Fury, Blessing of Sanctuary, Deflection, Divine Sacrifice with it's glyph, Hand of Salvation and AoW (Art of War) procs. All this added up will give you with the Resillence in BiS items a flat 36% dmg reduction, 10% parry chance, 5% dodge chance, 8% block chance and every 1 minute during 10 sec an extra 20% dmg reduction, take into account that when you cast Flash of Light and it crits, thanks to Sheath of the light you will heal an extra 60% during 12 seconds, and this ability stacks, this means, the more Flash of Light crits the more you passively heal this is why we use glyph of Flash of Light. Also, thanks to Judgments of the Wise your mana will never end.
The damage is kind of surprising in this build that is why i call it "unknown" damage, because the meles will never know how they died, and this damage comes from, you white mele swings with Reckoning (hits around 1.2k every white swing with no crit), Retribution aura with the talent Sanctified Retribution (hits around 180 to 220), your Judgments will hit around 1.3-1.4k with no crit, Shield of Reckoning hits around 1k, and seal of Corruption, which does 600 damage and once full stacked does 33% of mele weapon as holy damage in every atack, and last, Eye for an Eye which is often not taken, but if some one crits you for 2k you give them back 200 dmg and if you are facing a rouge or a feral which they crit 50% of the time... you already know what that means.
It dosn't seem much damage, however in pvp sometimes small damage makes the difference, if you add all this up, with Seal of corruption full stacked, you are hitting for 1.2-1.9k in every swing (part as holy dmg) and passively doing 1k dmg every second. And obiously if you pop up wings increasing all this holy damage 30% and hit with Excorcism you will do way more damage. But as said before, the objective of this build is not to pop up wings and burst your opponent, but to survive, making them use their cds and slowly destroying them with passive damage and mele swings while they can't lower your health under 50%.
Formulas + stats + BiS list explanation
Formulas
Always remember, the objective of this build is to survive. Therefore and for explanation of stats and BiS list, remember this formulas:
- Seal of Corruption/Vengance does [(0.013 * SPH + 0.025 * AP) * 5] dmg over 15 sec, once stacked up to five, 33% weapon damage as additional Holy damage and when using this seal, your judgments do [1 + 0.22 * SPH + 0.14 * AP] Holy damage to an enemy, increased by 10% for each stack.
- Seal of Justice will make your judgments do [1 + 0.22 * SPH + 0.14 * AP] Holy damage
- Seal of Light gives each melee attack a chance to heal the Paladin for (0.15*AP+0.15*SP). Your judgments will do (1+0.25*SPH+0.16*AP) Holy damage.
- Shield of Rightousness deals 100% of shield block value + 520 damage.
- Flash of Light heals 790 + Healing Spell Power.
Minimum stats in BiS items
This stats, can always change, you can vary them on your playstyle, however this are the ones that work for me, in order of preference:
- Hit = 190. You want to hit as many times as possible for the AoW prot, the minimum hit chance is 5% which is 164, however, with the extra hit chance, you make sure hitting classes like mage, rouge, shadow priest, paladin and many others that have some talents that reduce the chance of being hit is always welcome. Is good to know that no hit = no AoW prot = no survavility. This is your main stat, but don't go over 8% which becomes useless.
- Expertise with the glyph Seal of Vengance you get 10, enough for PVP.
- Atack Power minimum 4200 so you increas your spell power for 1260, this are both easy to achive. Gemming or enchanting more AP is good, but dont forget the other stats, I have 4423.
- Spell Power minimum 2500 so with the wrathfull libram you add 3000 spell power to your flash light, more is always welcome. I have 2567.
- Crit chance is a difficult stat to valance, I have 1089 crit chance wich with the talents give you a flat 37% crit chance. That is enough for PVP, don't aim for more since do to resillence is useless, and with the glyph of flash light, the sacred shield and the wrathfull healer hands you will achieve the 50% crit chance of Flash of Light
- Resillence not less that 1200 which will come alone just with some items and enchants and no more than 1300. I have 1278 Resillence.
- Strenght is your main stat, however only use it on red gems, do not give priority to Strength. I have 1404 strength.
BiS List
You will go full ret wrathfull, but you will change 6 items:
- Wrathfull hands, go with the healer ones, is useless the passive of crusader strike and really usefull the crit of flash light
- Wrathfull cloack or neck, either one of them will be with hit rating, so you achive that 164 minimum hit.
- Weapon, the BiS weapon is eithat Terenas or Bloodsurge, both have good mele damage, they have crit chance and 893 spell power equals to 2976 AP in terms of the paladin talent, and no weapon in-game can give you that amount of spell power or atack power. And we like both since all our abilities have a % of spell power and a % of atack power, as seen in the formulas above.
- Shield, you can go with whatever shield you want, i recomend pve tank Shield since it has strength and a gem socket, but you can go with wrathfull caster shield for crit or if you are missing resillence with the normal wrathfull shield.
- Trinkets, i recomend the Whispering Fanged Skull for the extra crit, but Death's Verdict gives the same amount of atack power and has more proc chance, both are good choice.
- Last one I recommend the Ashen healer ring, the reason is that procs with any defensive you use since it procs with helpfull spells, like Flash of Light, buffs or sacred shield, and the extra 296 spell power is really nice for both your heals and your damage, is the same reason on why you use Terenas or Bloodsurge.
- For gems, enchants and proffesions, just go with wathever you want while you achieve the minimum stats. I will recoment at least to get tailoring for the enchant in cloack for proc of 400 AP, it procs always.
Playstyle
For meles is always the same, survive burst and kite, you will make them passive damage with your judgments and mele swings, just make sure you heal your self and use properly your defensive cooldowns, as far as i know, (correct me if is wrong) Hands of Salvation and Divine Sacrifice don't stack, so don't use them at the same time. Make sure you pop hand of freedom in stuns and use trinket for blinds, hex, polymorph and fears. Don't ever pop wings until they've used all their defensive cds including trinket.
For casters is different, here are my tips for each caster:
- Warlock chase him always and try to be in his back to stop casting, if he is to farr hit his pet so if it crits you can steal heal ur self. if the warlock is going to cast a first fear, repentence him holy wrath to stun pet and fear the pet. If his pet is in fear he will lose a lot of cc and damage. It will only give you problems if he starts spaming Fear. If that happens, trinket the first one, the second one it will only be 50% duration due to dimishing returns, there you pop divine protecion which can be casted while on cc, next fear will be 75% duration and 4th fear you will be inmune. After fear, focus pet heal ur self back and you have 15 sec until he can cast again fear on you with out you being inmune, use that chance to pop wings and finish him.
- Mage and Shadow priest, as I said, you have no chance, the playstyle is the same one that a ret, with the difference that you have no burst and you will never brake his shield.
- Hunter, playstyle is similar to warlock, with the difference that he can't heal but he can lower your healing to 50%. The hunter has 2 jumps, normally they jump when their abilities are on cooldown, the second jump will come after an ability they have they reset their cooldowns. You will always chase the hunter using judgment of justice to lower his movement speed, while you are not in his range, mele atack the pet while u chase him, dont use spells on pet. Every time he jumps pop a defensive cooldown to lower damage while u chase him. Hunters have a lot of crit chance so as long as you chase them, stick to them and heal thourgh pet or the hunter, you will win just by being hit and the debuffs on hunter.
- Elemental shaman and druid, both will have to use a lot of either totems or roots to keep you far, there is were both will waste mana, just stick to them like with the warlock, with the difference both can heal, just wate until he runs out of mana, he will not be able to kill you as long as you stick to him, pop defensives every time he runs far from you and cast judgment of justice if he runs in wolf form. Also shaman will lose mana trying to purge, don't worry, keep on putting your buffs, you regain 25% of your mana every time you cast a judgment.
- Last tip for casters and meles. Play with the seals. I wrote both seal of light and seal of justice, When playing against casters if they have already 5 stacks of seal of vengance, switch seal to seal of justice, you will have proc chance to stun them and the debuff will stick to them, before the debuff finishes change seal again so it keeps the 5 stacks. Make the same seal change if you need to heal more, change to seal of light on 5 stacks, heal and change back the seal before you lose the 5 stacks.
Hope you guys enjoy the build and you like it :D
