Standard PvP Build

[Deleted]

Having come back from my first break in five years (or something like that), I'm looking for some help. Paladin is the only class I've ever played so, while I'd normally be up to date, there are a few things I'm unsure about, the standard Ret PvP spec in particular.

According to Vanguards, this is the most common build. I can't understand some of the selected talents.

Why choose Divinity over Eternal Glory? 6% Healing across the board is hardly weak but a potential free TV seems better to me.
What's the rationale behind maxing out Arbiter of the Light instead of The Art of War or Acts of Sacrifice?
If not Arbiter, is there anything else that might be worth dropping points in to complete the two aforementioned talents?

...And a few general questions.

Is it still advisable to only hit Inquisition when you're about to pop cooldowns (AW especially) or when you have HP that will otherwise go to waste?
What's the consensus on Resilience? Highest and lowest figures, what's the range?

Thanks.

---------- Post added 2011-11-05 at 05:38 PM ----------

Bump! Can't find answers anywhere

[Fhi]

There are two commonly accepted trees - the one you linked subspecs into prot to get improved hammer of justice. The other one subspecs into Holy to get Last Word - in which case you'll use WoG alot.

Art of War is usually sacrificed in pvp talents because it only procs off autoattack, and considering our uptime on targets is horrible, it's an easy candidate to axe in favor of, say, Arbiter (+6% crit chance per point for your hard hitter) and Acts of Sacrifice (at least one point is a must, the second point is individual preference).

Not sure about Inq, I like to have it just before cooldowns, but it also makes me predictable. And most of the time I get CCed to crap anyway. I would suspect a very low priority on Inq unless you're not being focused and you're going in for the kill.

Resilience - take what you can from gear. Sacred Shield + Last Word makes up a little for our squishiness. Full vicious is a minimum, about 3500? Easily obtainable.

[Deleted]

There are two commonly accepted trees - the one you linked subspecs into prot to get improved hammer of justice. The other one subspecs into Holy to get Last Word - in which case you'll use WoG alot.

Art of War is usually sacrificed in pvp talents because it only procs off autoattack, and considering our uptime on targets is horrible, it's an easy candidate to axe in favor of, say, Arbiter (+6% crit chance per point for your hard hitter) and Acts of Sacrifice (at least one point is a must, the second point is individual preference).

Not sure about Inq, I like to have it just before cooldowns, but it also makes me predictable. And most of the time I get CCed to crap anyway. I would suspect a very low priority on Inq unless you're not being focused and you're going in for the kill.

Resilience - take what you can from gear. Sacred Shield + Last Word makes up a little for our squishiness. Full vicious is a minimum, about 3500? Easily obtainable.

Thanks for the response. I was using the Last Word spec just before I left the game so I'm much more familiar with that.

Fair point about auto attack and Exorcism but isn't the effectiveness of 6% crit also affected by the incapability to stick on a target for periods of time? Either way, I accept what you're saying and it makes enough sense for Arbiter to be an equally good choice.

3500 Resil sounds good, as does keeping Inq for certain situations. Pretty much cleared it all up, so thanks again.

Would anyone care to comment on Divinity vs. Eternal Glory, though? That's probably the biggest issue for me now.

[Reith]

Eternal Glory has a 15 second ICD so you will only see one extra TV every ~48 seconds (or even more) on average and that's only if you're getting lucky (or holding your HP) and you time it EXACTLY right, so in reality, it's more like once a minute at best during actual use (holding HP for the ICD of Eternal Glory specifically is a huge loss). It's really not good for Ret.

[Deleted]

Eternal Glory has a 15 second ICD so you will only see one extra TV every ~48 seconds (or even more) on average and that's only if you're getting lucky (or holding your HP) and you time it EXACTLY right, so in reality, it's more like once a minute at best during actual use (holding HP for the ICD of Eternal Glory specifically is a huge loss). It's really not good for Ret.

Was that always the ICD or something that has changed relatively recently? I remember pretty much everyone taking it back prior to WoG itself having a cooldown.

[Reith]

Was that always the ICD or something that has changed relatively recently? I remember pretty much everyone taking it back prior to WoG itself having a cooldown.

Maybe my calculations were a bit off actually, I would say a TV every 40-45 seconds on average if you're constantly using Word of Glory. It's just not reliable enough now. I think it always had an ICD on 3 Holy Power but never did on Divine Purpose before 4.2. Not sure if it has an ICD with Divine Purpose at the moment, but even if it didn't, it still wouldn't be worth it. it's just an RNG talent (unreliable) that relies on you constantly using Word of Glory to be mediocre (you won't have to, making it even more unreliable).

[Fhi]

Fair point about auto attack and Exorcism but isn't the effectiveness of 6% crit also affected by the incapability to stick on a target for periods of time? Either way, I accept what you're saying and it makes enough sense for Arbiter to be an equally good choice.

If you're going Last Word, you're going to have to put points in Arbiter anyway. But talent-to-talent, Art of War's effectiveness is diminished because it empowers Exorcism, which really only hits decently hard if you're specced into Blazing Glory (+20% damage) which you won't. For an expensive 3 points, it's why it's one of the first talents to get axed. Likewise, Templar's Verdict hits as hard as it currently does due to Crusade (+30% damage), glyph (+15% damage) and Arbiter (+12% crit chance). In pvp it's all about stacking (I think the same can generally be said for pve too).

[Deleted]

Maybe my calculations were a bit off actually, I would say a TV every 40-45 seconds on average if you're constantly using Word of Glory. It's just not reliable enough now. I think it always had an ICD on 3 Holy Power but never did on Divine Purpose before 4.2. Not sure if it has an ICD with Divine Purpose at the moment, but even if it didn't, it still wouldn't be worth it. it's just an RNG talent (unreliable) that relies on you constantly using Word of Glory to be mediocre (you won't have to, making it even more unreliable).

Yeah, suppose that makes Divinity look a lot better in comparison. It's a shame really, I liked Eternal Glory a lot.

If you're going Last Word, you're going to have to put points in Arbiter anyway. But talent-to-talent, Art of War's effectiveness is diminished because it empowers Exorcism, which really only hits decently hard if you're specced into Blazing Glory (+20% damage) which you won't. For an expensive 3 points, it's why it's one of the first talents to get axed. Likewise, Templar's Verdict hits as hard as it currently does due to Crusade (+30% damage), glyph (+15% damage) and Arbiter (+12% crit chance). In pvp it's all about stacking (I think the same can generally be said for pve too).

I might go back to Last Word but I thought I'd try out Imp HoJ first. I sort of had a preference for Exo but, of course, without Blazing Light (I think that's what you meant?) it's just not as good even on high armour targets.

Thanks for all the help and explanations.