Ret - Mixed feelings about the t16 4pc

[Rainistal]

Hello everyone, first poster here!
Reason I created this thread is because I just recently got my 4 piece Ret bonus, and I have been researching on some sites about which level 75 talent should I take, mainly Sanctified Wrath or Divine purpose, I have tested both, but I don't see much of a difference, maybe it's the RNG.

I mainly just raid normal's but would like to improve my dps so I have this question xD.

I hope I get some feedback from the more experienced rets here!

[6ev4enko]

I've read that Divine Purpose is better, because a Divine Purpose proc can proc the 4p bonus and vice versa (or even both can proc!!). So you start mashing your buttons quite hard when you start getting those procs.

Personally, I go with Divine Purpose just for the reason I stated. In AOE fight I spam my Divine Storm like mad and my DPS sky-rockets.

[Rainistal]

Thanks for the quick answer, so you're saying it's clearly better for aoe, and it is for the boosted Divine storm but what about single target?

[Snuzzfizzle]

I use SW for single target and DP for cleave. Many boss fights include certain burst phases which don't favor DP at all.

[Basemath]

Although some may say it's SW for single n DP for AoE, it really depends on whether you're progressing through fights or you have them comfortably on farm. It depends on the goals in every fight. Because then the way the raid approaches the bosses changes. Also the classes running with you and their AoE capabilities. So for the sake of the argument, let's assume you're running normal modes and still progressing.

A fight like Fallen Protectors, on progression, you might not be stacking the three + adds, bringing down the value of DP. Galakras, personally I go DP if i'm not doing towers. When i'm doing towers, I do it so the mini-boss dies super fast, before any smash (healer tends to get knocked off). For that reason I take SW for towers. Spoils is the only fight in normal mode I could see DP shining in, aside from stacked up Protectors, and even then your tank needs to be vigilant with the box opening. Paragons is a single target SW fight, except for the 4 set free pass to pad. Garrosh can have DP to pad the meters on the first phase adds, but you're not helping kill the boss faster. So on progression, SW is better for Garrosh.

So it's up to you and how your raid does the boss to decide whether you need SW or DP. However, less than a handful of bosses in SoO really benefit more from DP. Also don't forget that with SW you can still get back to back 4set procs.

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

I'll make it simple.
- Immersus go DP unless you have CD red trinket, if you have it go SW.
- Pandas go DP, follow your raid strat and make sure to push them in order.
- Norushen go DP and make sure to hit the lesser sha adds on the side when you use 4set for DS. You don't have to face them, just be close to them. Boss range is pretty huge.
- Sha of whatever go DP and DS spam the corrupted fragments down, if people position themselves correctly most fragments should be under or close to the boss itself
and then DS will hit 2+ targets which is a dps increase.
- Galakras go DP and cleave your heart out, keep in mind to interrupt the shamans and stun the charging fuckers. If you're going up towers then SW can be useful but that's
more of a specified job.
- Juggernaut go SW, no contest.
- Shamans go SW, no contest. If your guild is keeping the bosses together (which is like 61 times harder then DP can be used but not recommended to keep them together)
- Nazgrim go SW, just pop cds whenever you have something major to attack or when it's off cd.
- Malkorok go SW, adds that show up will die from tank cleaves/passive cleaves anyways.
- Spoils go DP and just aoe nuke whatever.
- Thok go SW and pop cds when you're on thok, save them during kiting phases.
- Siegecrafter go SW if you're on the belt team, DP if you're cleaving mines (you lucky fuck)
- Paragons go SW for the controlled burst you need.
- Garrosh go SW, Garrosh is a single target fight and while P1 might look like a fun place to use DP it really doesn't matter how much AoE dps you can do if you're far behind on Garrosh requirement (which is quite tough anyways)

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

Reason why I say DP on Immersus (HC ofc) is that as the fight goes on you'll get less and less benefit of SW, you can still do well with it if you have CD reduction trinket but depending on your raid dps and "skill" with handling the blobs when Immersus takes a nap the actual "hit immersus" phases will last such a short period of time that your SW won't do much and IMO you're better off trying (hoping) to get procs to help you on everything instead.

And I agree with Dakeshi, swap to whatever your raid requires you to. What I listed is what I usually have on every weekly hc rekill so talking from my own experience.

[nightfalls]

And I agree with Dakeshi, swap to whatever your raid requires you to. What I listed is what I usually have on every weekly hc rekill so talking from my own experience.

I was going to say, I don't think DP is really necessary or useful on Garrosh HC, but that would also depend on your raid group and needs. If you're sorely needed (the few pulls I did as Ret, I was not) to break MC's, it might be more useful.

[Vash The Stampede]

Best answer is to test it yourself. Generally it's like this for me.

Sanctified Wrath for single target.
Divine Purpose for AOE.

But it's hard to determine when to use what. Like on Spoils I used Divine Purpose and didn't do good numbers, but with Sanctified Wrath I did better. Even though there's 2+ targets to cleave, it's not consistent on that fight. Also targets die too quickly for Execution Sentence, and the tank keeps moving them out of Light's Hammer. Holy Prism was the winner for me on that fight.

Don't rule out Holy Avenger either. On a fight like Kor'kron Dark Shaman, which is a single target dps fight for melee, it's hard to make good use of SW or DP. You have to run out for Iron Tomb on Heroic, so you have a lot of down time. SW lasts too long, and you lose it's full duration for Iron Tomb. SW doesn't seem to work any better, and maybe worse. But Holy Avenger still does the job right. Even though with the Eye trinket the cool downs don't match for Avenging Wrath, you get more use out of it on that fight then with any other talent. Just figured that out last night, but there maybe other fights since I wrote off that talent when I got the trinket.

[Imperviable]

Don't rule out Holy Avenger either. On a fight like Kor'kron Dark Shaman, which is a single target dps fight for melee, it's hard to make good use of SW or DP. You have to run out for Iron Tomb on Heroic, so you have a lot of down time. SW lasts too long, and you lose it's full duration for Iron Tomb. SW doesn't seem to work any better, and maybe worse. But Holy Avenger still does the job right. Even though with the Eye trinket the cool downs don't match for Avenging Wrath, you get more use out of it on that fight then with any other talent. Just figured that out last night, but there maybe other fights since I wrote off that talent when I got the trinket.

Your raid must do a pretty strange strategy for melee to ever have to move for a tomb. I've always found shamans to have 100% uptime for melee.