Retribution Paladin PvP Guide

[Vanguards]

Retribution Paladin Guide

Hello, I've received some requests to make a guide from people here, so decided to post my updated 4.3 guide here as well. Hopefully it'll help someone out there! More updates are to come for 4.3, such as further evaluation on crit / mastery, PvE gear, 2PC PvE gear and more.
This guide is written mainly for players new to playing retribution in arena / PvP.

How's Ret PvP in Season 11?
In my opinion Ret PvP is around the same as it was in Season 10. We are still slightly on the underpowered side in terms of how viable we are. We're not as good of an option as bringing a warlock, mage, rogue or other cookie cutter classes in, but we're doing better than specs like enhance shaman.

PvP Talents
There are 2 big differences in how Rets are speccing.
If you are going for Last Word you will off spec mainly to Holy, if you're going for 40 second Hammer of Justice you will off spec Prot.
Also, for rated BGs you should pick up divine storm.

The rest of the talents most Rets can usually agree on or only have slight variances.

1.) http://wowtal.com/#k=CsoKmCkI.aei.paladin..
The most common specs for rets at the moment is some type of improve Hammer of Justice Spec. Some arguable talents here are:
- 1 Points in Acts of Sacrifice
- 2 Points in AOW
- 2Points in Guardian's Favor
The rest of the talents are pretty concrete. You won't pick up sancity of battle due to the fact most rets should have very little haste in PvP, and bloodlust / heroism is gone from arena. I've been going 2 points into AOW lately with 1 point only into Acts.
If your freedom is constantly getting purged / spell stolen switch guardian's favor to AOW (Art of War).

2.) http://wowtal.com/#k=7szq-4SA.aei.paladin..
This is the probably the highest healing spec for Rets (Last Word).

Glyphs
I'm going to talk about Prime Glyphs first, for Prime Glyphs I would consider Templar's Verdict to be necessary.
After that you'll have some choices to make between Crusader Strike vs Censure vs Word of Glory vs Judgement.
Word of Glory is recommended for most general cases unless you're going for some kind of high burst comp, as big burst heals is one of ret's best friend.
Censure provides the highest "dps" from a PvE perspective. Use this if you're in a comp that trains a lot and has minimal stuns. I wouldn't recommend this if you're playing with a rogue as the person you're hitting will be stun locked most of the time.
Crusader Strike and Judgement are just the "okay some damage here" glyphs if you don't like the other 2. Also with 4.3, keep in mind judgement glyph has been buffed inherently, since judgement damage has been increased.

Prime Glyphs:
Templar's Verdict (Necessary)
Word of Glory (Recommended)
Censure vs Crusader Strike vs Judgement (Your Choice)

Major Glyphs:
Major glyphs I've seen a lot of variance. I'll explain the most useful and commonly used ones here.
Crusader Strike (Biggest Mana Saver)
Turn Evil (Instant fear can save lives against those deadly pets out there)
Hammer of Wrath (Saves a LOT of mana during Avenging Wrath)
Hammer of Justice (Longer range stun, what else to be said?)
Cleansing (Could be as Valuable or more Valuable than Crusader Strike glyph depending on how much you are cleansing yourself out of slows)
Divine Protection (Wizard Protection!)
You can pick any variance of these and it would still be considered good choices. Use the mana ones if you have huge mana problems in arena, turn evil for defensive reasons, HOJ for overall convenience, Divine Protection if you're getting wizard trained.

Minor Glyphs: (Doesn't really matter, I'll post what I plan to use)
Might Glyph (Recommended)
Truth Seal Glyph
Justice Seal Glyph

Gems / Enchants / Stats
One word, "STRENGTH", it is KING for rets for damage. It is 2x better than Hit Rating even if you are not hit capped. This means reforge hit! Do not gem into it unless it's a blue socket (use 25str / 25hit) AND it yields equal amount of stat gain.
Resilience is usually considered the second most important stat. However, similar to all things in PvP nothing is truly definite. There could be a lot of situations where more damage would be better.
The biggest argument and most questions I get as a ret now is "Mastery or Crit?" There is no definite answer here, but from my perspective crit is better in most comps a ret would run. Mastery would be better in comps such as ret lock shaman perhaps. Crit has gotten buffed in 4.3 since judgement is a good portion of our damage, and mastery doesn't help it at all.

Recommended Gems:
Meta - Strength / +3% Crit Dmg or REFLECT META (If you like RNG!)
Red - 50 Strength
Yellow - 25 Strength / 25 Resil or 25 Strength / 25 Crit (or mastery)
Blue - 50 Strength or 25 Strength / 25 Hit (Depends on Socket bonus!)

Recommended Reforging:
Get Hit Cap first! (5%) After that go for mastery or crit.

Recommended Enchants:
Head - 60Str / 35 Resil
Shoulders - 50Str / 25 Resil
Back - 65 Crit Rating
Chest - +20 All Stats OR 40 Resil
Wrist - 50 Strength
Hands - 50 Strength
Legs - 190AP / 50 Crit Rating
Feet - 50 Mastery or 32AP
Weapon - Weapon Chain (recommended) or Landslide. If you have the luxury have 2 weapons and have one on each, switch depending what opponents you see.

Seal
This is probably the most common question I've gotten! What seal do you use?
For a simple answer, Truth.
Here is a more complicated answer:
Generally for any target you are staying on for 10+ Seconds, Truth is the highest damage dealing seal. Especially after 4.0.6, Censure is buffed big time.
Go Seal of Light when you're getting trained HARD, it does save lives. Use your own instincts here, do you think it's more important to bring this guy down asap with Truth / Righteousness, or to survive longer with seal of light?
Seal of Justice, this is an incredibly awkward seal. It's a horrible skill, but yet you still need to use it at times (makes no sense I know). The only time I've used this effectively is Rated BGs (slowing demolishers) and 2s when I played double Ret vs Warlock Enhancement Shaman (we had to stop the shaman).

Viable Ret Comps
Viability's definition is different for each person. Just about anything can be ran to gladiator range (I've ran triple pally, 2 hunters + ret, 2 priests + ret to 2700+ in 3s)

Professions
Doesn't really matter, but avoid J/C or you'll be like me! 30 less stats than all the other professions until something changes.

How much resil should a Ret aim for?
As said before this is largely preference based, and on what comp you are running. I'm trying to stay at roughly 3700-4500, but I've seen people stack to 4800 and go under 3000 as well.

What rotation do you use in PvP?
There is no rotation in PvP. Everything is situational. Keep note that our hardest hitting ability will be Templar's Verdict, which also clashes with Word of Glory as both takes holy power.
Some also simple notes is you should almost never use Templar's Verdict unless you have 3 holy power or a proc.

What macros does Ret have for PvP?
Most of Ret PvP Macros look like this:
/cast [target=party1] Word of Glory.
You can basically fit in 1-4 for 1, and Word of Glory with Sacrifice / Freedom / Hand of Protection and you'll have most of the Macros I have. I only have 1-2 for most of them, and 1-4 for WOG for 5s. 1-4 for everything was a bit too overwhelming for me. (Not Enough Buttons + Too Crazy lol)
There are people who simplifies this by using mouseover macros and such, all personal preference. Add #showtooltip to the start of these macros if you want to see it.
Some other general macros:
1.) Start Attack + Crusader Strike
/cast Crusader Strike
/startattack

2.) Start Attack + Templar's Verdict
/cast Templar's Verdict
/startattack

3.) Focus HOJ
/cast [target=focus] Hammer of Justice

4.) Focus Repent
/cast [target=focus] Repentance
5.) Switching Between 2H and Shield
/equip [equipped:Shields] Your2HWeaponName
/equip [noequipped:Shields] your1HWeaponName
/equip [noequipped:Shields] YourShieldName

6.) Camera Distance *This is the Camera I used to use, I'm going default max zoomed out now though*
/console cameraDistanceMaxFactor 4

7.) Focus REBUKE
/cast [target=focus] Rebuke

8.) Focus Judgement
/cast [target=focus] Judgement

9.) Cancel Bubble
/cancelaura Divine Shield

10.) Cancel Wings
/cancelaura Avenging Wrath

11.) Wings + HOW - By Jecks
/cast Avenging Wrath
/cast hammer of wrath

The Support Macros I Personally Use: (switch x with number or partyx with Toon Name)

13.) Hand of Protection
/cast [target=partyX] Hand of Protection

14.) Hand of Sacrifice
/cast [target=partyX] Hand of Sacrifice

15.) Hand of Freedom
/cast [target=partyX] Hand of Freedom

16.) Word of Glory
/cast [target=partyX] Word of Glory

As said with almost everything, Macros have a lot to do with personal preference. You can also use modifiers for different skills in your macros such as Repent. Use these only as a general guideline and form your own macros!

Gearing Ret for PvP
You can basically use all the PvP Gear and you'll do great! Some recommended pieces in PvP where you actually have choices to make is Expertise instead of Haste for wrists, Mastery for Cloak, Crit and Hit for rings, Mastery for Belt, Crit for Boots, and Hit for necklace.
Why expertise over haste? Haste is a rather useless stat for us unless you have a lot of it. As you probably won't even over 5% haste (I don't think I have even 1%) you should neglect this stat as much as possible.
PvE gear this season is also rather on the extreme side. PvE gear for almost any class is great in PvP at the moment.

Trinkets
Unless you're human obviously you would use the trinket that removes all impairing effects.
For your second trinket, you have a few options.
Most people would use the on use + resilience trinket. On demand burst, and high resil. How great!
However, this specific season has released upon us PvPers an insane amount of overpowered PvE trinkets. These trinkets are all raid only or LFR at least. Some good trinkets are the stacking strength trinket, the proc crit trinket, and the whirlwind proc trinket. Notice all the trinkets are "strength" based. They give way more strength and damage than the PvP trinkets.

General Arena Tips
Ret is a very strange spec, it's place in arena is rather vague. We have good burst damage (that can be purged in seconds), but our melee damage still isn't the best. We have INSANE off heals and good support, but we're also incredibly easy to CC as a melee class which throws everything off.
As a ret pally, you always have to remember you ARE NOT a warrior. You need to watch your partners the entire game. Do not waste your extremely insane off heals, freedom, BOP, Sac. You are a support class that can burst once every 2 minutes! In an arena match my eyes are on my party screen the most.
If you are playing with a DK or Warrior or Rogue, be considerate about your freedom. In 3s, I almost NEVER freedom myself. You can cleanse most of your roots, and my death knight can kill people around 2 times faster than me, why would I freedom myself?

Ret PvP Stream
http://www.twitch.tv/samk920 - My (Vanguards) Twitch.TV Stream! Be sure to follow!

Ret PvP Page / Question Page
http://www.facebook.com/samk920

Ret PvP Videos
There are so many countless good ones out there. Here are a few from me:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=177291 - Vanguards 3
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=183007 - Vanguards 4

Thanks for reading, I hope this helped you out. Post any other questions you have! If you have specific questions for me, try posting them on my facebook page.

[Reith]

Technically, JC is only 30 stats less once you have all epic gems.

[Vanguards]

Yea that's basically it, hopefully by the time every1 can afford epic gems blizzard will have changed something. I can understand if blizzard wants to keep the stats as is temporary since not everyone can pay 5-15k a gem.

[ipoststuff]

Any thoughts on 2piece PvE set or tentacles?

[Paladinwtf]

Thank you.

[BloodGutter]

Hmm, i was going full mastery up to this point. I primarily run 2's with an enhance shaman. so i'm guessing crit as main stat would do much better with that comp? will be trying it out in bgs and arenas regardless. thanks for the guide!

edit: tried it out today, as crit isnt guaranteed the times i wouldnt crit would suck obviously, but when it did, especially with offheals, it made a huge difference. will try this out in arenas to keep my partner alive if im not getting chain cc'd like crazy.

[BloodGutter]

Well, I decided to not only reforge my gear to crit, but I also went into the Last Word spec and I personally like it way more than mastery and Improved HoJ. In random BG's, I'm able to keep up dps who are doing way better than me, or healers who are getting focused, and even flag carriers.

In 2v2 arena with my Enhance Shammy partner, our odds of surviving initial bursts went up for most of our games and the heals usually made the difference of staying alive and getting the kills. Crit is still RNG but when fully reforged with full 390 ruthless, you have around 10% without buffs.

Thanks again for the guide Vanguards!

[Vanguards]

Mastery / Crit POV from Me to answer some people:

Crit / Mastery Argument Points:
1.) 2PC - I don't have 2pc because the rng gods have decided not to ever drop pants in any of my raids, also I'm practicing for tournies that doesn't allow PvE gear. so i have not taken this into calculation for my own. If you do take this into calculation however, 2pc obviously favors mastery more. 2PC = more Holy Power = more TV towards ur damage. If you're running a comp where u can be in melee range a lot, do melee attacks a lot and u have 2pc, mastery would > crit.

2.) What comp are you running - if you're running triple dps u should usually go crit. Crit helps towards last word spec which is good when 40second hoj does much less in an arena match that doesn't usually last more than a minute. Also a slightly harder hitting TV in a triple dps match is much less important than a sudden RNG crit heal or crit attack.

3.) What are you fighting - you can't predict this, but I do plan to get 2 sets of Ret PvP Gear. 1 Set for when I'm fighting something I plainly barely get to attack in melee range (mage anyone?) which would be crit. but if i'm fighting say a warrior melee cleave team that trains my dk when I run ret dk priest, mastery would do much better. I'm TVing / crusader striking probably 3x as much as I would against a mage team, making mastery 3x better than it usually is.

4.) How you play - how often do u stay in melee range when u play in PvP? Do you LOS a lot? I los 80% of the games against wizard teams rendering mastery quite useless since I melee once every 20 seconds. Or do you run in and try to just melee / train something down for 5 minutes straight? Mastery might be better for that.

5.) Your Spec - If your last word crit can be much more favorable as having that extra crit for that heal to happen is important. it kinda blows when u have last word and ur heal doesn't crit when ur partner is about to die.

6.) Length of your games - similar ideas, short games favor crit as u probably hammer of wrath spam to be a large % of ur damage making crit more favorable

edit: there are more points to this than what i listed.. hopefully it'll give people an idea on whether they want to go crit or mastery though

[Deleted]

Is there some kind of expertise cap or should we just ignore the stat?