Tanking as Ret Concern

[Arees]

I know they have stated that for normal 5 mans, that you don't necessarily have to have an actual tank, that a dps warrior for a example should be able to throw on some tank gear and tank fine. I've heard from y'all in the beta about tanking them as ret fine, but now that cs and ds are physical damage instead of holy, is that still true? Does ret even deal any holy damage at all anymore? Maybe stuff will die so fast threat doesn't matter, I don't know.

I plan on going ret in a few days time after my guild uses me to tank bwl and aq for the achievements, and level as ret until maybe 75 when we get ShoR. I am just wondering if I will still be able to tank instances as ret while leveling.

[uke]

From a threat perspective:

-Judgements and seal of command/martyr/blood are all holy, and scale off of physical weapon damage. Hammer of Wrath is also holy, and guaranteed to crit via Sanctified Wrath in ret tree.

-Your physical damage will be much higher with a high dps 1h weapon as ret, then prot, so it should balance out. Might want to opt for a slow 1hander, like a 2.5 speed or higher, to tank with as it will boost CS and DS more.

[Sabindeus]

I think it's still possible, just not as good as it once was. However between JotW and SA mana you should be able to spam Consecrate pretty hard, which is a lot of threat as Ret by itself.

Basically what this means is that things I hit with an initial Divine Storm won't stick as hard as they once did before the change.

Also keep in mind ShoR at 75.

[majiben]

Don't forget that RF has a hidden 1.43 modifier that applies to physical damage. Additionally DS heals will generate a good chunk of threat.

[Sabindeus]

Additionally DS heals will generate a good chunk of threat.

no they won't