Retribution Leveling gearing guide

[Elsie]

+20% crit damage on Crusader strike, +25% on judgment, +50% on divine storm vs. +15% strength
-As I posted above in this exact same thread?

Remember this is a thread about leveling and potential pvp involved in said leveling. maxdps assumes a raid environment. Even if STR was slightly ahead in damage, the burst damage and healing win out.

Elsie, you have to keep in mind that all the above stated things that rely on crit are going to change in 3.0.3.
Art of War will no longer buff crits, and Righteous Vengeance will not improve crit damage, it will instead add a Deep wounds-like DoT when you crit with Judgement or Divine Storm.
This greatly lessens the worth of crit.

The art of war part is true, but the RV part actually raises the value of crit comparative to Strength.

[twinkfist]

just go spell damage...cause i was running a heroic last night with a ret pally that had spell damage gems...i almost kicked him out.

my main is ret and he has the

helm off council
swiftsteel or shoulders from hyjal..or the season 2 shoulders
s3 chest or the one from mgt
red belt of battle
pants off archimonde
boots from za cause ros is the worst
badge ring and ring from bloodboil
vengeance wrap cause i'm too cheap to make the cloak of darkness
sso neck
shard of contempt, darkmoon card crusade, bloodlust brooch or any other trinket i have.

my dps illidan post patch was 2900...unsure what it is now as i haven't touched my ret pally.

[twinkfist]

just go spell damage...cause i was running a heroic last night with a ret pally that had spell damage gems...i almost kicked him out.

my main is ret and he has the

helm off council
swiftsteel or shoulders from hyjal..or the season 2 shoulders
s3 chest or the one from mgt
red belt of battle
pants off archimonde
boots from za cause ros is the worst
badge ring and ring from bloodboil
vengeance wrap cause i'm too cheap to make the cloak of darkness
sso neck
shard of contempt, darkmoon card crusade, bloodlust brooch or any other trinket i have.

my dps illidan post patch was 2900...unsure what it is now as i haven't touched my ret pally.

[Falkman]

The art of war part is true, but the RV part actually raises the value of crit comparative to Strength.

Not in a lvling scenario.
Granted we do not know how long the DoT will last, but Ret today kills stuff very fast, and I am inclined to believe we will continue doing so, even with the nerfs to our crits, and thus a DoT that probably won't even get to run it's course isn't especially good.

EJ has worked out that in a raid scenario Str is by far the best stat to stack, even before hit, and I believe that Str will be best for soloing as well, the crit provided by talents and gear is enough, we should not have to gem for it.

[Elsie]

The art of war part is true, but the RV part actually raises the value of crit comparative to Strength.

Not in a lvling scenario.
Granted we do not know how long the DoT will last, but Ret today kills stuff very fast, and I am inclined to believe we will continue doing so, even with the nerfs to our crits, and thus a DoT that probably won't even get to run it's course isn't especially good.

EJ has worked out that in a raid scenario Str is by far the best stat to stack, even before hit, and I believe that Str will be best for soloing as well, the crit provided by talents and gear is enough, we should not have to gem for it.

Again, this isn't a raid scenario. We don't have kings, leader of the pact, etc etc. This is a pure leveling scenario and there are non-dps things to consider. Remember the str-crit relation is a curved graph.

It's true, I have no idea how much the DoT ticks for. It could be a DoT is sufficient to solo a mob while you move pull more. The DoT could be applied by critting 4 mobs with Divine Storm. I have no idea how strong it is or how it will be applied or if it ignores armor.

Ret kills things very quickly, you are right. However, the point is to optimize that speed and efficiency. I'm of mind that crit, particularly to keep yourself concistently over 30% as you level, is important.

If EJ works out how well STR vs Crit is without any buffs and considering the effect on healing and sustainability, I'll be excited to read it.

[Kelaan]

Since this seems to be the thread for ret advice (lol?).... is SoBlood worth using when soloing? I have watched people using it and half-gibbing themselves (and same for our ret paladin in h.SH who would die like every 5th pull, it seemed), and wonder if the health loss is significant enough to warrant using SoC. How is the damage comparing?

God, I feel like a noob all over again.

[uke]

Being Alliance, I still kick it old school and rock Command, especially since I have the SoCommand glyph.

Haven't done Martyr too much, honestly, but I still get very good damage with command both solo'ing and raiding.

[Elsie]

Since this seems to be the thread for ret advice (lol?).... is SoBlood worth using when soloing? I have watched people using it and half-gibbing themselves (and same for our ret paladin in h.SH who would die like every 5th pull, it seemed), and wonder if the health loss is significant enough to warrant using SoC. How is the damage comparing?

God, I feel like a noob all over again.

Short Answer: Don't use Blood solo.
Long Answer: It does too much self-inflicted damage. You'd waste tons of mana healing yourself from that plus the mob damage. Think 1 divine storm, 4 crits for 3000, that's 1200 damage self-inflicted. Judgment crit for 3000 is 1000 self-inflicted damage. You'd kill yourself in a short time. Seal of Command is second best, nice burst, and looks pretty when re-applying. Seal of Corruption takes time to "rev up" and Seal of Righteousness doesn't crit.

Funny Answer: You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

[Kelaan]

See, that's what I'd thought too, but every time I see a ret paladin they seem to be using SoB/SoM. O_o

I'll take the low-maintenance approach and use SoCommand.

[Elsie]

See, that's what I'd thought too, but every time I see a ret paladin they seem to be using SoB/SoM. O_o

I'll take the low-maintenance approach and use SoCommand.

You use Seal of Blood to break the monotony