Beta Retribution

[Forgrim]

I've been leveling as ret, but my experience has been somewhat negative. HP generation is amazing, but if you don't get an art of war proc, I find myself sitting on CS/EXO/Ja all on CD at times with HP at 2-3. Losing holy wrath/consecration filler has hurt since I can't fill it with anything.

Mind you, i'm unable to optimize my keybinds/ui at the current time (using friends account) but it seems even with ideal play, i'd be in situations like this. what do you fill the empty time between with?

[Worldie]

Uhm, while istancing as ret i have, let's say 20% downtime where I can't hit anything. I think it has always been part of the intended melee gameplay to have moments in which you got nothing to press (all melee classes have some)

[Forgrim]

i was thinking maybe to glyph harsh words and use WoG at 2HP against the opponent just to fill in during those times i can't do anything. otherwise, refresh sacred shield (if your talented that way). but to optimize dps, it really sucks not doing anything during those downtimes.

[Worldie]

It's definitively a DPS loss to use Harsh Words at 2 HP.

Any ret will be specced Sacred Shield anyway since the other 2 talents are more or less pointless in a PvE view.

[Levantine]

I wouldn't say useless, but I'm definitely leaning towards sacred shield myself for pve.

Anyway, is there any consensus on the top tier talents for ret? I tend to lean towards ES for single target at LH for aoe, but I could be entirely off base. Am I wrong for thinking that ret is going to be hit with some kind of monster nerf once the pvp players discover that ret burst is intense again? I mean, looking at it, with avenger, wings, gank and ES it looks like ret will be bringing a lot of hurt for 15/20 seconds every few minutes and not much outside of that. Kind of seems problematic

[Worldie]

ES is the highest DPS spell of the pack according to EJ.

[theckhd]

That's not terribly surprising. ES is highest DPS for Prot by a good margin for the same reasons it's best for Ret.
-It's the highest total damage per minute if cast on cooldown.
-It scales 6x as fast as Holy Prism
-It has the lowest opportunity cost (1 GCD vs. 3 for HPr). That's even more important for Ret than for prot, since they have good fillers and more on-GCD casts.