The 3.2 Ret FAQ

Hello, interwebs.

I have a new version of the Ret FAQ for you. Before we get into it, some caveats:
1. No, this post does not mean I'm posting on a regular basis again.
2. No, I will not be posting on a regular basis in the future.
3. This update to the FAQ was done because it might be published in other places and because I haven't seen anything phenomenal come about to replace it yet.
4. I wanted to see if the HTML coding for in-post bookmarking and tagging was done correctly.
5. I want some community input to make sure I didn't screw anything up.

Without further adieu, the 3.2 Ret FAQ...

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I'm not kidding when I say there are people out there who still don't quite understand what the flux they're doing when it comes to retribution. So, here's a PvE ret primer in FAQ format. Feel free to submit additional commonly asked questions in the comments, I'll add them and the answers as I deem fit.

What follows is up to date as of 9/1/09. To find out what I've changed since the original posting, please refer to the change log at the end of this post.

To jump to a specific section or question, click the appropriate link below.

I. Talents and Skills
How should I spec?
What seal should I use?
What Judgement should I use?
What's my skill rotation?
What blessings do I want?

II. Gear, Enchants, and Glyphs
What stats should I gear for?
What major glyphs should I use?
What minor glyphs should I use?
What enchants should I get?
How should I enchant my weapon?
How should I socket my gear?
Should I stack spell power/intellect?
Should I use weapon A or weapon B?

III. Miscellaneous Questions
I'm running out of mana, what should I do?
What consumables should I use for raiding?
Is sword/board retribution viable?
Are there tools out there to help me make gear choices?
How'd you get so smart, Josh?

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I. Talents and Skills
Q: How should I spec?
A: For PvE, anything resembling 5/5/52 is a good start. Here's some specs to choose from:
5/11/55
5/10/56
11/5/55
I personally run with 5/12/54. Please note that my spec examples have Improved Blessing of Might - Vindication is also a valid choice to provide the group with an AP debuff. Communicate with your raid team to cover the buff/debuff that isn't currently accounted for.

Q: What seal should I use?
A: For PvE in raids, Seal of Vengeance or Seal of Corruption, depending on your faction. Use Seal of Command or Seal of Righteousness in times when the mobs you're attacking won't live long enough for the seal's DoT debuff to stack up to 5 or in AoE situations.

Q: What Judgement should I use?
A: If you're the only paladin, it's a judgment call (hardy har har). Caster-heavy groups get JoWisdom and healing-intense fights get JoLight, choose based on the group composition and encounter. When in doubt, Wisdom it out.

Q: What's my skill rotation?
A: Retribution doesn't have a set rotation like a rogue or a mage might. Retribution normal functioning is more akin to a shadow priest's skill priority system, keeping everything on cooldown as much as possible. Here's your priorities, with conditionals in parentheses:

Crusader Strike > (Hammer of Wrath) > Judgement > Divine Storm > Consecration > Exorcism > (Holy Wrath)

Crusader Strike in 3.2 is your highest DPS and DPM move, as it is relatively inexpensive, has a short cooldown, and procs both your seal and Righteous Vengeance. Use it liberally. Judgement is a big source of damage and returns mana through JotW, so keep that high in your priorities as well. For AoE situations, this priority ranking changes, the above is for single target stationary DPS. For multi-target, emphasize Divine Storm and Consecration while using Seal of Righteousness or Command. For movement intense fights, drop Consecration behind Exorcism.

Please note that these aren't hard and fast rules. Pick which skills you use when intelligently and don't just blindly hit whatever's higher on this list. Your goal is to use as many of these abilities as you can in the time allowed (the boss's life span).

Q: What blessings do I want?
A: Might > Kings > Wisdom > Sanctuary

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II. Gear, Enchants, and Glyphs
Q: What stats should I gear for?
A: For raiding, you want to aim to stack hit to about 263 hit rating (which will yield 8% hit, the most needed for hitting a raid-level boss) and lots of strength. Past that, stack to about 214 expertise rating (which will yield 26 skill, or 6.5% dodge reduction) and then crit, haste, and armor penetration can come as they may. In list format:

1. Hit (to 8%, or ~263 rating)
2. Strength
3. Expertise (to 6.5%, or ~214 rating before racials - get to 26 expertise skill)
4. Crit
5. Agility
6. Haste
7. Armor Penetration
8. Attack Power

Please note that while haste is still ranked fairly low, it is by no means useless. Haste, crit, and agility are about equal, crit just barely edges out haste. Don't shun the haste gear. Also, the value of Armor Penetration scales upward as you stack it - the more you've got, the better it is.
Also note, if you are Alliance and always run with a Draenei, you can get away with 230 hit rating, as you will have the Heroic Presence buff aura.

Go forth and gear up.

Q: What major glyphs should I use?
A: Glyph of Judgement, Glyph of Consecration, Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, and Glyph of Exorcism are your choices. My recommendation is the following:

1. Glyph of Judgement
2. Glyph of Consecration
3. Glyph of Seal of Vengeance if you are not expertise dodge-capped (26 skill), Glyph of Exorcism if you are

If can get any significant amount of Expertise out of the Glyph of SoV, I recommend using it.

Q: What minor glyphs should I use?
A: As long as you include Glyph of Sense Undead as one of them, it doesn't matter. I recommend using Glyph of Lay on Hands in one of your other minor slots.

Q: What enchants should I get?
A: Enchant for hit if available for the slot and you're not hit capped. Otherwise, enchant for AP. Want it broken down by armor slot? Here ya go -
Head: Arcanum of Torment
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe
Back: Major Agility
Chest: Powerful Stats
Wrists: Greater Assault
Hands: Precision if not hit capped, Crusher if you are
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
Feet: Icewalker if not hit capped, Greater Assault if you are
Please note, profession-only gear enhancements are not in the scope of this FAQ. Research your particular professions benefits and adjust your gear accordingly.

Q: What about my weapon, how should I enchant that?
A: Berserking.

Q: How should I socket my gear?
A: Meta = Relentless Earthsiege Diamond. Make sure you fulfill your meta requirements.
Gem to the melee hit cap if necessary (~263 hit rating for general raiding), then stack pure strength gems.

Q: Should I stack spell power/intellect/(insert caster stat here)?
A: No. Stick to the melee DPS plate. On occasion, you can branch out into the hunter mail or the rogue leather. Don't you dare put on that elemental shaman mail. I will find you and beat the sense back into you.

Q: Should I use weapon A or weapon B?
A: Whichever one has the higher DPS, unless there is a huge difference in damage range. If the DPS is the same, pick the one with the higher top damage. For example, The Jawbone has the same DPS and a higher top damage than Death's Bite, therefore pick The Jawbone if you're choosing between the two (discounting their other stats).

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III. Miscellaneous Questions
Q: I'm running out of mana, what should I do?
A: First step is make sure you're using Divine Plea on every cooldown. Second step is to ensure that your Judgements are not missing by having a good amount of +hit. Third step is use a mana potion. Fourth step is to cut back on Consecration if you're spamming it. Past that, if you're still running low on mana, you're doing something wrong. Parse your damage on an encounter with Recount (I recommend Patchwerk in Naxx and Ignis the Furnace Master in Ulduar as good test subjects), screenshot the skill split, and seek professional help.

Q: What consumables should I use for raiding?
A: Dragonfin Filet, Flask of Endless Rage. Runic Mana Potion if you are worried about mana, Potion of Speed if you are not.

Q: Is sword/board retribution viable?
A: Not if you want to keep up with the rogues. Get a two-hander and smash something with it.

Q: Are there tools out there to help me make gear choices?
A: There sure are. Rawr can help.

Q: How'd you get so smart, Josh?
A: By frequenting forums and think-tanks like Elitist Jerks, Maintankadin, and Retpaladin.com.

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Stick A Fork In Me

If you haven't noticed, I haven't been updating very much. This isn't because I don't like you, or because I stopped playing - neither of which are true. It's simply because I haven't been keeping up with the times. I don't lead PUG raids very much anymore, nor do I raid 25-mans with my guild, nor do I get to instance much at all. And I'm not a PvP fanatic, so I haven't arena'ed a lick. I've been logging in sporadically, leveling a hunter alt or trying/failing to get a guild PUG raid going. I'm most often found online when there's a scheduled 10-man raid I'm going to, which is once a month or so, on average. (In a related note, has anyone seen Siha? She hasn't posted in over a month, I'm starting to get worried.)

That said, I can't fill the purpose of this blog anymore. I originally used the blog as a platform to lobby for the fair and ethical treatment of retribution raiders. With each successive patch and update, Blizzard brought retribution damage and contribution in line with other DPS'ers, making the need for a ret-lobbyist disappear. Then I began gearing it toward educating the masses about how to raid as retribution, so as to minimize the teeming masses of retnoobs that sully my/our good names. My increased responsibility at work combined with the master's program I'm in killed my ability to raid regularly and my ability to keep up with the latest theorycraft on EJ and elsewhere. Since I'm not raiding and I'm not scouring the forums, I'm just another uninformed ret paladin now. I can't educate or theorycraft with the authority I used to. I can't fulfill this blog's purpose to the standards that I've set for myself.

So, here we are, at the crossroads. Do I try to reinvent the blog into a "this is what I've been doing" sort of blog? Or do I try to scour the forums once more and become an armchair ret theorycrafter (since raiding regularly is out of the question)? Or, the third option, do I stop posting regularly and just bow out of the blogging scene, like several others have done recently.

I've never been one to like the personal chronicle-type blogs, and I don't have the time or the inclination to theorycraft without practicing what I preach, so option three is what needs to happen. Fear not, gentle readers, I have places to send you for your retribution needs:

• Ferraro knows her shiznit, and she is an internal tester for Blizzard, so she doesn't just think things, she knows things. she may or may not be real. Either way, good guides on Paladin Schmaladin.
• Suicidal Zebra is always spot-on when he analyzes a change or a trend in the paladin world. Give him some lovin'.
• Retpaladin.com has several knowledgable paladins on staff, among them Slayton (of Vis Maior fame) and the aforementioned Ferraro.
• Hofflerand is one of those Retpaladin.com folks that has spun off his own blog. He blogs about PvP tactics, from beginner to advanced. He is everything that I am not.

There is a very good chance that I will continue to revise the Ret FAQ and post it after each major patch revision, so this blog is not dead and buried. I feel an obligation to keep the FAQ up to date since I've set it up in a way that it only needs minimal maitenance and it remains useful. I'm going to leave it up in its full form, without cleaning out the archives and without altering it in any way. You shouldn't expect me to post anything terribly informational or helpful in between patches, though.

I hope that this blog has been useful in your adventures as a paladin in Azeroth. Good luck, safe travels, and Light be with you.

-Josh
Cathmor, Malfurion-US
formerly Baelor, Runetotem-US

EDIT 6/1/09: Ferraro may not actually be who she has been claiming to be, but the guides on Paladin Schmaladin are still good and accurate. I stand by my linkage.

Cathmor IRL

Is that hot or is that hot? I'd like to reiterate that my girlfriend is some sort of fantastic. If I ever get someone with a digital camera into my apartment, I'll post better quality photos. For now, ones snapped with the camera in my phone will have to do.

Just looking at it makes me want to buy an Argent Dawn tabard t-shirt. Is that weird? It sounds weird. Too bad I don't think anyone has produced 'em.

For those that are wondering, the items Cathmor is fashionably displaying are the Vengeful Gladiator's Vindication complete set, along with the season 3 belt/boots and a Tabard of the Protector. I would have gone with the Lightbringer set, but the red accents in the arena set go better with the Sulfuras and his red hair.

This was all made possible by the great folks over at Figureprints. Consider this a ringing endorsement! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go stare longingly at his Sulfuras and wish for a life-size version.

Figureprint Is Here!

It's purty. And pretty gorram accurate, too. I'll post picture(s) as soon as I get my hands on a digital camera.

My girlfriend is friggen awesome.

Oh, and I might be going to Ulduar-10 on Thursday night. If I do, and I don't tank, I'll post my impressions of the zone from a ret P.O.V. for all to read.