The All-Consuming Shopping List

You wanna raid Retribution? That's dandy. You know what consumables you should be using? If you answered anything other than "yes Josh, I'm smarter than you and know all there is to know about Retribution consumable usage," then read on.

Raiding guilds will often request (or require) its members to arrive at raids with the gear shiny and polished after being repaired at the armorsmith, and with a utility belt full of potions, elixirs, flasks, and other fun one-use items that are the main cause of bank account shrinkage after epic mounts and multi-profession powerleveling. Being a physical DPS class with a mana bar, we Retribution Paladins have to be mindful of both our damage output and our mana consumption, as these two things usually have an inverse relationship. Consumable choices get tricky, and plentiful. Should you use a Super Mana Potion or a Fel Mana Potion? Or a Super Mana Potion or a Haste Potion? Elixir of Mastery, Elixir of Greater Agility, or Elixir of Major Strength? These are all choices to make. Lucky for you, I'm going to compile a list of all the consumables you should seek out and keep on hand, including options for which ones you should choose when there isn't a clear cut option and why. Here goes nothin'.

Flask
Flask of Relentless Assault
No contest here, 120 AP is the only flask buff you should consider for most content, Blade's Edge flasks for Gruul's Lair being the only exception. If your guild offers Mark of the Illidari to members for flasks, spring for the Shattrath Flask of Relentless Assault version.

Elixir
Battle - Elixir of Major Strength, or Fel Strength Elixir
Guardian - Elixir of Major Mageblood
If you're doing farm content and don't anticipate dying too much, using elixirs is usually cheaper than flask'ing up. From a damage-per-second standpoint, Fel Strength with Mageblood are the best available. Alternatively you could use Elixir of Major Fortitude for a Guardian elixir, but Mageblood gives you a tiny bump to your mana regen, which in the end lets you use Consecration at either a higher rank or more often, depending on how you play. As for Battle elixirs, you get the most bang for your buck out of any strength elixir, don't settle for agility/crit from Elixir of Major Agility. Fel Strength has a drawback in that it decreased your HP, however, so use with caution.

Food
Roasted Clefthoof
Spicy Hot Talbuk
Listed in order of preference. If you're short of the hit cap (95 hit rating with Precision) by an appreciable amount, Spicy Hot Talbuk can give you that little extra push to get you capped. Otherwise, Roasted Clefthoof is the way to go. It is superior to Ravager Dog because of Divine Strength and Blessing of Kings scaling Paladin strength totals. If at all possible, achieve the hit cap through gear and chow down on the Clefthoof, it is the better option. (Why? Because if you die mid-combat and get resurrected, you'll be without your food buff. If you depend on your food buff to hit cap, you'll end up swinging and missing after getting res'ed. Otherwise, unless you are perfectly at 75 hit rating, you're wasting itemization points by going over the hit cap. You can never have enough strength, on the other hand.)

Potions
Haste Potion
Fel Mana Potion
Super Mana Potion
Three choices, all valid. If you're an alchemist, definitely use Fel Mana Potions or Super Mana Potions while wearing your [Assassin's Alchemist Stone]. Which one? Depends on your trinkets. Fel Mana Potions are generally more effective, as they recoup more mana than a Super Mana Potion and the -spell damage debuff has a very slight effect on your abilities. Operating at negative spell damage will decrease your damage by a small amount, but the increased mana gain will allow you to use Consecration at a higher rank or more often. Plus, Fel Mana Potion replenish your mana over time, so you can chug one earlier in the fight before you've achieved the full potion deficit and therefore have the cooldown up sooner. If you've got the bank to support them, have excellent mana management skills, and are not an Alchemist, Haste Potions alternating with mana potions give you the best of both worlds. Oh, and bring Super Healing Potions too. Remember the first commandment of Ret DPS - don't die. (Side note: I highly suggest getting Mana Potion Injectors and Health Potion Injectors made so you don't end up with an entire bag full of just potions. They condense 4 stacks of Super Mana Potions or Super Healing Potions down into 1.)

Other Useful Shtuff
Dark Rune / Demonic Rune
Heavy Netherweave Bandage
Dark and Demonic Runes are basically a Warlock Life Tap in item form. Being that you've got a mana bar and you need mana to operate at full capacity, bringing runes is always a good idea. User beware: they share a cooldown with Warlock Healthstones, and cause you damage. Do not use if you are at risk of dying to splash/raid damage. As for bandages, no raider should ever be without bandages. If you're trapped away from a boss, or out of mana, or whatever, and you're hurt, bandage yourself. The healers often have other things to think about, like "How did the tank just take a 10k spike!? OMG GOTTA HEAL GOTTA HEAL AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHH..."

Scrolls
Scroll of Strength V
Not normally considered by many to be a raid consumable, certain scrolls can be used while in a raid and not conflict with raid buffs. Scrolls of Intellect and Stamina generally cannot be used in a raid, as they provide the same buff as Power Word: Fortitude and Arcane Brilliance. However, Scrolls of Strength, Protection, and Agility, to name three, can all be used in addition to raid buffs and other consumables. That said, Scroll of Strength V gives you as a Ret Paladin a direct strength boost, and therefore a nice bump to your total AP.

Weapon Buffs
Adamantite Sharpening Stone
Adamantite Weightstone
These should almost never be applicable, as you should be grouped with a Shaman for Windfury Totem. Please be aware, you should not use these unless you get no Windfury Totem, as Windfury does not get applied to weapons that have a poison/stone buff/oil applied to them. However, in the event that you aren't given a Shaman who is gracious enough to drop Windfury Totem for you, a weapon buff is called for. The increased base damage from the above stones outweigh the mana return from a Superior Mana Oil in overall damage output potential, and are definitely more damage than a Superior Wizard Oil. For sharp weapons (for example, swords) use the sharpening stone, and for blunt weapons (for example, maces) use the weightstone.

-------------------------

Did I miss anything? Flask/Elixir, potions, food, miscellaneous items, weapon buffs... nope, I think that's it. Go forth and fork your gold over to the herbalists and alchemists, farm Scholomance/Jaedenar, and contribute to the extinction of the Clefthoof species - pull out all the stops and GET BUFFED!

EDIT 6/4/08 - changed the Potions section. Fel Mana Potion's debuff putting spell damage totals into the negative will decrease the effectiveness of many Paladin abilities, but not significantly so.
EDIT 6/10/08 - changed the Elixirs section. Added Fel Strength Elixirs.

I promise I won't make this a habit...

... but I've gotta brag.

WWS - Anetheron 6/2/08

1937 DPS with me messing up when lining up my Avenging Wrath-Heroism cooldowns, and having non-full consumables (only Elixir of Major Strength, no Flask of Relentless Assault). Am I ready for Brutallus? Yea, I think so.

EDIT: And I don't think I had Battle Shout either! Pfff, Brutallus Shmutallus, bring on that punk.

Waving the Banner

Big thanks to Lore for creating me a sweet-lookin' image banner for the title bar of this here blog. 'Tis most definitely made of awesome.

The Ret Commandments

In the spirit of Aldriana's 7 Commandments of Rogue DPS (found in this post on the EJ Forums), I present my Ret Commandments - rules to live by for a raiding Retribution Paladin:

1. Thou shalt not die.


2. Thou shalt not do anything that causes raidmates to die.


3. Thou shalt maximize thine time on target.


4. Thou shalt Crusader Strike every cooldown.


5. Thou shalt Judge every cooldown, so long as it dost not interfere with Crusader Strike.


6. Thou shalt ensure 100% Seal of Command up-time


7. Thou shalt use the maximum ranks of Consecration & Exorcism that thine mana can support.


8. Thou shalt use thine Avenging Wrath early and often, threat allowing.

Yea, most of the rules are ripped off from Aldriana's list. BUT, Rogues are melee damagers as well, and melee damage mechanics are applicable across all melee classes. #1-3 should be abided by all melee damagers, not just Rogues. And, being that not every Paladin has read the Elitist Jerks threads relating to Rogues, I'm willing to bet that many Ret Paladins out there have not seen the 7 Commandments of Rogue DPS. So, here they are, adapted for your viewing pleasure in Retribution Paladin language. Need explanations for some of these? I'd be happy to oblige -

1. Dead damage-dealers are not capable of dealing damage. (Unless you're a Warlock. DoT's are gorram hacks, I say.) Stay alive and you'll definitely do more damage than the alternative.

2. Doing something that kills a fellow raider or causes a wipe is always bad. What can you do that would kill a raidmate? Examples would be standing too close to others during a shatter on the Gruul encounter, killing an Ember of Al'ar when others are in explosion range during the Al'ar encounter, or attacking a boss while standing in his frontal arc, causing potential parry-hasted attacks on the tank. Having dead raidmates limits raid effectiveness, and is just as bad as you dying. No matter how much of a noob you think Timmy is, he's better to you and your raid alive rather than dead.

3. Time-on-target is important. Start attacking as soon as possible to get as many attacks in as you can. If you have to run away from a boss, get back into melee range the moment it's safe enough. In encounters where you have to move around a lot to avoid environmental hazards or boss abilities, this becomes very important, and getting back on the target 1 second earlier when you have to disengage 20 times during a fight can account for a handful of extra attacks, which in turn present more opportunities for Seal of Command damage, and more JoWisdom procs...

4. Crusader Strike is your #2 source of damage behind auto-attack (white) damage. Make sure to use this ability every time you can to maximize your damage. Crusader Strike should take precedence over every damage ability you have.

5. Judgement is your #4 source of damage behind auto-attack, Crusader Strike, and Seal of Command damage. In addition, the [Libram of Divine Judgement] gives an attack power bonus when you judge. Use this ability as much as possible, so long as it doesn't decrease the amount of times you can Crusader Strike during a fight (when the cooldowns overlap, choose Crusader Strike).

6. Seal of Command is your #3 source of damage. Every time you auto-attack it has a chance to proc. If you auto-attack without SoComm active, you just missed an opportunity. Make sure SoComm is up at all times so you don't miss procs - make a Judge-Seal to ensure this happens.

7. Consecration and Exorcism are additional sources of damage and should be maximized whenever possible. Having mana when the fight ends is wasteful, turn that mana into damage. Obviously you cannot spam Consecration r6 for an entire fight without outside buffs or extenuating circumstances (high amounts of Spiritual Attunement mana return, for example), but choosing the highest rank that you can support for the length of a fight is advisable for maximum damage.

8. Your Avenging Wrath cooldown is one of your most powerful tools, use it early in a fight so that it will come up again before the fight is over. Having 30% increased damage for 40 seconds of a fight is favorable to having 30% increased damage for 20 seconds of a fight. The only caveat is when timing Heroism/Bloodlust - try to arrange with your Enhancement Shaman when he will be using his cooldown so you know, and you can use Avenging Wrath simultaneously.

These are the rules, and they are undisputed. Break them, and I break you.