1. #1

    Smitus' guide: how to dominate Proving Grounds as Ret

    Hey guys! These last few days I've been putting a good amount of time into Proving Grounds as Ret, so I thought I might write a detailed guide about everything you need to get far as ret. Hope you enjoy!

    TALENTS:
    T1- Long Arm of the Law: The on-demand mobility makes this the top choice here. Pursuit of Justice is also viable, but I would highly recommend LAotL as later will be discussed you need to circle around amber balls coming towards you, and 30% increased speed (what PoJ gives you, assuming you have 3+ HP) isn't enough to do it efficiently, while 45% increase from LAotL is just enough.
    T2- Fist of Justice: There are a few times throughout the 10-wave cycle that you need burst CC, and FoJ far surpasses the other two options in the tier simply for the fact that it is instant. While repent in theory could fill the same role, the need to stand still and cast for ~1.4 seconds make it far worse than FoJ.
    T3- Has no effect.
    T4- Unbreakable Spirit: The reason why this is mandatory is because, as will be later discussed, if you mess up you may need to bubble to get out of an amber prison, and this cuts the cooldown on bubble in half, which obviously gives you twice as many breaks
    T5- Sanctified Wrath: I myself have always been a SW player in and out of PG, and I was just most comfortable using this thus developed my strats around it. I'm sure HA could perfectly viable as well, but as I have no experience with it, my guide will revolve around the use of SW. I would NOT recommend Divine Purpose simply because of the RNG aspect which makes it unreliable.
    T6- Light's Hammer: Ret Pally AoE is somewhat lacking compared to other classes, and this compensates. In addition, you can cleave at least 3-4 mobs with this every wave with correct placement. Furthermore, you can precast this. These factors combined make this better than ES, especially because ret has the CD's to make the single target waves (5, 10) trivial in comparison anyway.

    GLYPHS:
    G1- Glyph of Inquisition- This makes inquisition a non factor. You cast it once on wave 1 and never have to worry about it again. Save lots and lots of HP making it a huge dps increase.
    G2- Glyph of Double Jeopardy- Every single wave (not counting 10) has more than 1 mob, making this glyph a direct dps increase.
    G3- Glyph of Burden of Guilt- This is an unconventional choice, but it is what I found to be the best. The main alternative would be Glyph of Mass Exorcism, but in my experiences this glyph is actually BAD for PG. This is because on waves where the mobs are clumped enough for GoME to benefit from are so few, while the amount of times that the range reduction on Exorcism comes into play are many. GoBoG is good for keeping Banana-Throwers more in place and helps you catch up to them more quickly when not already in melee range.

    THE MOBS:
    Amber-Weavers: These mobs can come in small and large form. They cast a spell called 'Amber Globule' (interruptable) every ~9 seconds which creates a floating ball that moves towards the player's current location (changes course as the player moves) that last ~11 seconds or until they reach something to explode on. If they DO reach something, they encase that thing + everything within ~6 yards in amber, which stun said thing(s) for 5 seconds and cause that target to take 50% increased damage for the duration.
    Mystics: They cast a spell called "Heal Illusion" every ~18-20 seconds (unsure exactly how often) which heals a nearby injured illusion for a moderate sized chunk.
    Guardians: These mobs cast a shield which encompasses 180 degrees of their model, and that 180 degrees they block all attacks. They recast this and face it in a new random direction every 10 seconds, but during their cast (~2 seconds long) they are prone to attacks from all 360 degrees.
    Banshees: Can come in big and small. When they spawn (which is at a set timer on waves that they do spawn), they spawn with a timer, that if it runs out and they are still alive, end the proving ground instantly and forces you to restart. Also said, they have a timer, they must die in that time, if they don't, you lose.
    Banana-Thrower: These throw bananas at the players location that take ~2-3 seconds to land. If you are hit by one of these, you get a 2 second debuff that reduces your hit chance by 75%. They have a cirlce around them with about a ~12 yard radius which if you are in, they DO NOT throw bananas at you. The bananas they throw are dodgeable though, as they do take ~2-3 seconds to land. There is a small circle animation on the ground that show where the bananas are going to land.
    Shas: Have a barrier which causes them to take 50% less damage while the shield is active. When the shield is NOT active they gain a debuff which causes them to take 300% additional damage. So they take EIGHT times more damage with the shield down than with the shield up.
    Plain Illusions: Some mobs have no abilities, do not move, they do absolutely nothing. All you have to do is kill them.

    THE WAVES:
    Proving Grounds is a endless cycle of the same 10 waves over and over until you fail a wave. These 10 waves are as follows:

    KEY:
    Orange Circle: Amber-Weaver
    Green Circle: Mystic(Healer)
    Blue Circle: Guardian(Shield-Bearer)
    Red Circle: Where a Banshee spawns
    White Cirlce/Dot: Non-Ability/Non-Moving mobs
    Black Cirlce: Sha
    Yellow: Where a Banana-Thrower spawns

    Keep in mind that the FRONT and BACK of the room are important here. In all of my pictures you can see Trial-Master Rotun off to the right. Where he is standing is the FRONT of the room, the opposite side is the BACK of the room. You can also put down floating markers to make it visually easier to locate each in the heat of the PG.

    WAVE 1: Cooldowns: None
    http://imageshack.us/f/401/ho0g.jpg/
    This wave is fairly simple. With ~1-0.5 seconds until it starts, throw a LH in the middle of the room (take in mind you CANNOT LH this wave after the first time, as it will still be on cooldown from the previous wave). Start standing next to where one of the AWs spawns as kill it immediately. Interrupt the cast the one your attacking does. It should die before the other two AWs globules reach you. As it does (or is about 15-20%, you can walk away and cast your ranged attacks: HoW, Jud, Exo while you move towards the next mob) you can move either to the middle 6 small illusions, or to one of the other AWs, it doesn't really matter. If you go to the middle, make sure you drag the currently active globules into the small illusions to make them take more damage. If you move to another AW, go behind it so the currently active globules hit the AW you're attacking and it takes 50% additional damage for every globule debuff it has. Make sure you keep one AW alive (but low health enough to be 1 hit by a Jud, this is a very delicate process that you get better at the more you do) and kite the globules around until around ~3 seconds on the wave timer. At this point you want an active globule chasing you, and to kill the AW with a Jud. If you can position it perfectly, the globule will hit the mystic in the next wave just as it spawns.

    WAVE 2: Cooldowns: None (Avenging Wrath optional between 2 and 3)
    http://imageshack.us/f/17/k5oh.jpg/
    You want to start this wave by pre-casting LH so it hits both the AW and one of the guardians. You need to LH at the VERY start of the wave, if you're 10 seconds in and you realized you forgot, don't do it not, just don't do it at all. You want to start the wave by getting on the mystic asap. You can also FoJ the AW to make things cleaner, but when doing this wave at higher levels you shouldn't FoJ, as you need the globules the AW casts to make the wave faster. Kill the mystic asap, than move to whichever guardian has a shield which is more favorable. Take in mind that that you can cast judgement EVEN WHEN A SHIELD IS FACING DIRECTLY AT YOU. THIS APPLIES TO ALL GUARDIANS ON ALL WAVES. Judgement does damage from above, so a shield has no effect on it. You want to start kiting globules into whatever you're killing at the moment. Take in mind a Banshee spawns at 0:30 on this wave, so be ready. The same as in the first wave, you want to keep the AW as long as possible, because if you can land a globule in the DEAD CENTER of the room just as WAVE3 starts, it makes WAVE3 MUCH easier. Try to end the wave with a J and 5 HP as always.

    WAVE 3: Cooldowns: None (Avenging Wrath optional between 2 and 3)
    http://imageshack.us/f/841/alew.jpg/
    You should LH asap when this wave starts. You should FoJ a Banana-Thrower right after your LH, and start killing it. As long as it is stunned (and amid the small illusions) you can Divine Storm instead of TVing to help your aoe. Make sure to dodge the bananas from the 2nd Banana-Thrower as you kill the first. Once you kill the first BT, go the 2nd and kill it. Once this is dead, due to your LH and DS, many of the small illusions should be dead/very low. Clean up the rest, while making sure to have 5 HP as the wave ends.

    WAVE 4: Cooldowns: GoAK
    http://imageshack.us/f/109/cq4k.jpg/
    You want to start by popping GoAk exactly when the wave starts and killing guardians. Cycle through the guardians killing as many of them as you can until 0:31, making sure to be using the globules the AW spawns on the guardians to kill the guardians faster. At 0:31 you wan to LH to cleave the AW, where the Banshee will spawn, and any guardians that are still alive (Should be no more than 2 with one of them at 50%). Switch to the banshee and kill it, than switch to the AW and kill that as you are already in the middle. After this clean up any remaining guardians with 5 HP, and stand where the BT spawns in WAVE5.

    WAVE 5: Cooldowns: Avenging Wrath
    http://imageshack.us/f/13/xkdl.jpg/
    Start this wave by FoJing the mystic on your first global. Than burst down the Banana-Thrower as quickly as you can, it MUST die before the FoJ runs out and mystic gets a heal off on the BT. After the BT is dead, kill the mystic than switch to the sha(the shield will still be up). At 0:30 a small banshee will spawn, kill it. Make sure you are the watching the shield timer on the sha, as you need to have 5 HP stored up when the shield falls. When the shield falls instantly pop your Avenging Wrath and go to town. If you have wiggle room (you should) you should be able to save up 5 HP for the next wave. KEY: DO NOT use LH on the sha at all.

    WAVE 6: Cooldowns: None
    http://imageshack.us/f/33/6ouc.jpg/
    You should pre-cast LH with 1 second left on wave 5 (assuming sha is already dead) in the dead center of room. You should also be standing in the middle of the room when WAVE6 starts. You should divine storm (AW is still active from WAVE5, and you should have 5 HP stored up, or at least 3 for a DS) than immediately move to a mystic and start killing it. Both mystics will heal on of the small illusions in the middle (they will heal the same one- the lowest health one- so don't even bothering interrupting either on their first cast) but you can ignore it. You should still have 8-9 seconds of Avenging Wrath to burst one of the mystics down, it SHOULD die before they cast another heal, but if they do you need to FoJ the one you're not attacking and rebuke the one you're attacking. Than switch to 2nd mystic and kill it, finishing the wave off by finishing the small adds. Make sure to have 5 HP saved up as always.

    WAVE 7: Cooldowns: GoAK
    http://imageshack.us/f/690/cnnq.jpg/
    Start this week by Blinding Lighting standing in a location that will hit the Banana-Thrower and one of the Amber-Weaver. With your next global you want to LH in a position that will hit two of the guardians. As you cast your 3rd global, you also want to hit GoAK. Your should start out by bursting the Banana-Thrower down. After the Banana-Thrower is dead this wave becomes fluid, as there are so many globules your main priority is to be attacking something that has the globule debuff on it. I would also suggest killing 1 of the 2 Amber-Weavers soon after the Banana-Thrower is dead. Make sure to use globules to your advantage, and you should be good. If possible you want to have an active globule from am AW for WAVE8, and 5 HP as always.

    WAVE8: Cooldowns: Avenging Wrath
    http://imageshack.us/f/51/1hlz.jpg/
    Start this wave by popping Avenging Wrath instantly and bursting down the mystic asap. THREE Banshees spawn during this wave (sorry I don't have their times recorded) But at least the mystic should be dead before the 1st spawns. Between the mystic and first Banshee, you should switch and kill one of the two standard illusions, you will still have avenging wrath active while doing this. After that you can switch to the 2nd standard illusion but be ready to switch to Banshees. Two banshees spawn about 5 seconds apart so you need to be ready for them both, don't procrastinate killing the first Banshee as you are able to in other waves, you need to switch immediately. After this kill the 2nd standard illusion and have 5 HP ready. You should be standing in the dead middle of the room in preparation for WAVE9.

    WAVE9: Cooldowns: Berserking buff provided by box
    http://imageshack.us/f/855/0m03.jpg/
    You want to start this wave by getting berserking buff about 2 seconds before wave starts so you can be ready with it in middle of room. Burst down the Banana-Thrower asap. Once it is dead it becomes a matter (similar to WAVE4) about using the globules to help you kill the 3 mobs + Banshee (spawns at 0:30) as efficiently as possible. Having a globule up for WAVE10 is very irrelevant, and even 5 HP is much much less relevant than the other waves.

    WAVE10: Cooldowns: Avenging Wrath & GoAK
    http://imageshack.us/f/14/8ig7.jpg/
    This wave is all about the 20 seconds of burst you get on the sha and maximizing it. Just do your standard dps rotation WITHOUT cooldowns until 0:32. At ~0:32-31 you want to pop GoAK but NOT Avenging Wrath yet. At 0:30 exactly you want to pop Avenging Wrath. The reason for this 1-2 second difference is because when GoAK runs out, the guardian does a burst of damage and you want that available if you need it for the sha. Make sure to have 5 HP saved up for the second the shield drops. When the shield drops go nuts and go as hard as you can, and you should be able to finish this out without much of a problem.

    EXTRA:
    If you noticed I only designated 1 of the 2 berserking buffs the room provides you. You NEED one on wave 9, but the other one you can use on whichever you so decide you need. WAVE4, WAVE7, and WAVE10 are the most likely candidates.

    I hope this was helpful! If I missed anything let me know, I hope it was coherent enough, I know it was somewhat rambley.
    Smitus of <Solace>, previously of <SNF>

  2. #2
    One thing I didn't see you mention and didn't see in the other topic about Ret PG's is gear. As someone who hadn't played Ret this expansion I'm not sure if current itemization is the same for raiding as it is scaled to 463. I ended up gearing for raid Hit and Exp caps, then Haste>Mastery>Crit. I went with the Strength flask and food. A little discussion on gear, stats, and trinkets might be helpful for others as well.

    As for the rest, I find your discussion to be pretty good. I don't have a lot of time to play outside of raids so I've only done about an hour or two and made wave 19 but at that level I've found that Ambers are the most important part and your wave specific discussion handles the use of them pretty well. I'm looking forward to having another chance to try this weekend and I'll try your CD rotation and a few other changes and see how it goes.

    Thanks for the well written guide.

  3. #3
    What trinkets were you using for this? The evil eye of galakras specifically can change AW's cd, and I wondered if you had played around with that.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Sadinar View Post
    What trinkets were you using for this? The evil eye of galakras specifically can change AW's cd, and I wondered if you had played around with that.
    Our ret was struggling on wave 18 or something, got the amp trinket and cd reduction one and instantly got wave38 that same night lol.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by oggyowl View Post
    Our ret was struggling on wave 18 or something, got the amp trinket and cd reduction one and instantly got wave38 that same night lol.
    Don't they get scaled down to uselesness?
    People don't forgive, they forget. - Rust Cohle

  6. #6
    I use shit trinket's, I havn't optimized my own gear at all (I think I'm hit and exp capped because I never miss?)
    But a link to my armory is here- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...mitus/advanced

    I only very recently came back to the game- I don't even have the legendary cloak (I realize scaling makes not AS much as a factor but still a small factor).
    Last edited by Smitus; 2013-10-09 at 12:09 AM.
    Smitus of <Solace>, previously of <SNF>

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Faesroll View Post
    Don't they get scaled down to uselesness?
    The Amp trinket does, but I'm not so sure about Galakras. The amp trinket gives you next to no stats and isn't worth using. But the CD trinket still shaves ~20s off of AW and ~30s from guardian - not amazing, but might make cooldown usage differ enough to get through tough stages. Specifically, I think it allows things like popping Wings at the very beginning of wave 9 and having it up for most of the burn in wave 10, so I'm not sure how valuable it is.

  8. #8
    Hi, I don't really think your cd usage is that good.
    You're only using AW (2min cd) 3 times on a cycle which is over 10 minutes long.
    Now I understand that you want to use it early on some waves and later in the wave on others which prevents you from using it 5 time, but you should definitely be able to get 4 uses in.
    Also you chose SW as your tier 5 talent which I think is terrible with your AW usage. The reduced cd on HoW is nice but the real value of the talent is prolonging the AW duration to 30 seconds, which is almost completely wasted when 2 of your 3 uses of AW are on waves 5 and 10 where you only have 20 seconds on the Sha while his shield is down.

    I personally use cds in the following way: AW on waves 4, 6, 8 and 10, GoaK on waves 5 and 10, berserker buff on waves 7 and 9.
    This way I always have a cd up for every wave from 4 forward and you don't really need any for the first 3 waves as they are very easy in comparison as long as you have LH for wave 3.

    I use the same talents in tiers 1-4 and the 2 damage increasing glyphs. I prefer the glyph of Blinding Light as my 3rd for wave 3 where I stun both banana throwers in the middle on top of my LH and AoE them both with some of the vermin for a few more seconds. This obviously isn't that important but I don't think any other glyph is useful.

    As for tier 5 and 6 talents, I use DP and swith for HA between waves 9 and 10 to have the extra burst for the last Sha, then switch back to DP after wave 2.
    I also precast LH on waves 2 and 3 and then change ES before wave 4 becuase I like to have ES for the Shas on waves 5 and 10 and I want to use some t6 talent every wave between 4 and 10, so I don't have time to let the cd run out and swap back for LH until between waves 1 and 2 again.

    I'm not saying this is the best way, I think there are some possibilities to make HA work nicely, but I wouldn't run with SW and definitely not when using it on waves 5/10.
    I also kinda like the idea of using LH on all waves, I was a bit worried about wave 5 where I don't stack cooldowns, but if it is doable without a level 90 talent, LH should be better overall on the other waves.

    Some random tips:
    - you can cast not only Judgment but also HoW into the shield
    - on wave 5 kill the healer first, that way you don't have to worry about not killing the banana thrower before your FoJ runs out and you can easily avoid the bananas by just moving around the mystic mob
    - on wave 7 I don't reccomend killing the amber shapers before all other mobs are dead, you should be able to kite 2 globules into every guardian and use the fact that the damage taken debuff stacks

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Meiffert View Post
    Hi, I don't really think your cd usage is that good.
    You're only using AW (2min cd) 3 times on a cycle which is over 10 minutes long.
    Now I understand that you want to use it early on some waves and later in the wave on others which prevents you from using it 5 time, but you should definitely be able to get 4 uses in.
    Also you chose SW as your tier 5 talent which I think is terrible with your AW usage. The reduced cd on HoW is nice but the real value of the talent is prolonging the AW duration to 30 seconds, which is almost completely wasted when 2 of your 3 uses of AW are on waves 5 and 10 where you only have 20 seconds on the Sha while his shield is down.

    I personally use cds in the following way: AW on waves 4, 6, 8 and 10, GoaK on waves 5 and 10, berserker buff on waves 7 and 9.
    This way I always have a cd up for every wave from 4 forward and you don't really need any for the first 3 waves as they are very easy in comparison as long as you have LH for wave 3.

    I use the same talents in tiers 1-4 and the 2 damage increasing glyphs. I prefer the glyph of Blinding Light as my 3rd for wave 3 where I stun both banana throwers in the middle on top of my LH and AoE them both with some of the vermin for a few more seconds. This obviously isn't that important but I don't think any other glyph is useful.

    As for tier 5 and 6 talents, I use DP and swith for HA between waves 9 and 10 to have the extra burst for the last Sha, then switch back to DP after wave 2.
    I also precast LH on waves 2 and 3 and then change ES before wave 4 becuase I like to have ES for the Shas on waves 5 and 10 and I want to use some t6 talent every wave between 4 and 10, so I don't have time to let the cd run out and swap back for LH until between waves 1 and 2 again.

    I'm not saying this is the best way, I think there are some possibilities to make HA work nicely, but I wouldn't run with SW and definitely not when using it on waves 5/10.
    I also kinda like the idea of using LH on all waves, I was a bit worried about wave 5 where I don't stack cooldowns, but if it is doable without a level 90 talent, LH should be better overall on the other waves.

    Some random tips:
    - you can cast not only Judgment but also HoW into the shield
    - on wave 5 kill the healer first, that way you don't have to worry about not killing the banana thrower before your FoJ runs out and you can easily avoid the bananas by just moving around the mystic mob
    - on wave 7 I don't reccomend killing the amber shapers before all other mobs are dead, you should be able to kite 2 globules into every guardian and use the fact that the damage taken debuff stacks
    Hey, you bring up some really good points but just some counterthought to some of them:
    An explanation of my SW build and how to stacks up to DP/HA(on WAVE10)-
    -Makes AW strong enough to carry you as the only cooldown through WAVE5, which gives you access to GoAk on WAVE4 and WAVE7, which gives you 3 total uses of GoAk as opposed to your only 2. While in your build AW is used 4 times and mine 3, I used GoAk 3 times and you 2.
    -If I were to take the "free floating" berserking that I do not specificy which wave to use it on, and put it on WAVE6, I would also have a cooldown on every single wave 4-10.
    -->WAVE6 would not only have bersking but also the ~11-10 of AW left from WAVE5, so not only does each wave of mine have at least 1 cooldown, but also WAVE6 has the equivilent of ~1.4 cooldowns.
    -Since we both can configure our builds to have a cooldown on every wave, SW makes the waves where AW is assigned easier than the waves you have AW assigned. This is counteracted that you have DP across all waves. So while you're build makes ALL waves slightly easier, mine specifically makes 5, 7, and 10 (10 is comparable since you lose DP to pick HA on this wave, but if I really wanted to I could also switch out SW for HA right before WAVE10 just as you do.)

    To address some of your other points:
    -I didn't know HoW went through shield too, ty for this
    -I looked at glyph of blinding light, and yes it makes WAVE3 a little easier, but WAVE3 in all iterations (Even the 5th one.. that's wave 43) is probably the 2nd easiest wave overall and I can finish it without any trouble at all WITHOUT the glyph so I don't need it. Mine as well take a glyph (Burden of Guilt) that gives a time amount of time saving on waves that can and will come down to the wire (WAVE7, WAVE9, any wave that has a Banana-Thrower that needs to be appropriately herded).
    -On WAVE7 you bring up a good point, but I would still want to kill 1 of the 2 Amber-Weavers before taking out the 3rd and middle Guardian as efficiently as killing it would be with only one Amber-Weaver as constantly circling and dodging globules from 2 different directions.
    -On WAVE5 if you have 4-5 HP stored up you can ALWAYS burst down the Banana-Thrower before the Mystic gets a heal off (At least in my experience, done this wave maybe ~70-80 times lifetime including 5th iterration- wave 45). And it is more efficient to do it this way as trying to chase down a Banana-Thrower after killing the mystic and than coming back to the Sha involves A LOT of movement.
    -I really like your idea of switching to ES between waves 3 and 4 (forcing you to precast by about 2 seconds on WAVE2 and WAVE3) as the single target is definitely more beneficial to waves 4-5 than LH's aoe.
    Smitus of <Solace>, previously of <SNF>

  10. #10
    Your signature makes me want to go back in PG and crush your score. Haven't been in there since the first week o.-

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