The Ret Pally Guide, Max your DPS now

[Holyblud]

OK. First I would like to start off that I am a Ret Paladin fairing well in wrath content, doing a fine amount of dps, keeping up with many of the top dps'ers in my raids. Ret Paladin is fairly gear intensive. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ker&n=Holyblud
This is my armory link, it has the maximum damage spec you need.

0/6/65

my preferred spec

5/5 points of divine strength of course (always socket strength, NOT AP) 15% more strength from strength sockets

5/5 Benediction, less mana cost on all your offensive abilities keeping your dps up and time spent white hitting/cyclying judgement to a minimum

2/2 imp Judgements, lower cooldown means faster usage

3/3 Heart of the Crusader, Raid wide 3% crit (including yourself)

5/5 Conviction, 5% crit to all attacks/spells

1/1 Seal of Command, Sometimes you can't always use Seal of Blood (Loatheb, Gluth during decimate)

2/2 Vindiction, keep note, you still need to kill trash mobs

3/3 Two-hand wep spec, more damage

3/3 Sanctified Seals, 3% crit to all attacks/spells

3/3 Crusade, 3% increased damage, 3% extra damage versus few types of mobs

1/1 Sanctified Retribution, Raid wide 2% damage increase

3/3 Vengeance, 9% increased damage stack seems nice right?

2/2 Imp Ret Aura, for aoe pulls(always pull aggro for some reason =( ), and assists tank with threat

2/2 Art of War, 10% more damage from your 3 main attacks

1/1 Repentance, need the cc

3/3 Judgements of the Wise, mana return

5/5 Fanaticism, 25% increased crit chance for judgment, 30% less aggro

2/2 Sanctified Wrath, +50% crit strike chance for hammer of wrath, reduce cd on avenging wrath by 1 min

3/3 Swift Retribution, 3% raid wide haste

1/1 Crusader Strike, self explanatory

3/3 Sheath of Light, you get 30% of ap, as sp, which increases damage for most of your other abilities

5/5 Righteous Vengeance, 40% of damage when judge or divine storm crits over time (Blizzards sad attempt at giving us a bleed to steady our dps)

1/1 Divine Storm, self explanatory

Rest of your points can go into anything, look at my armory (above) for what i did.

Ok, now for the basic Raiding Strategy

Your best friends include:
any class that will buff your sp/ap, spell crit/melee crit, stats, mp5, and all that fun

Consumables:
Flask of Endless Rage
Dalaran Clam Chowder or Great Feast (if someone drops one)
Adamantite Weightstones/Sharpening Stones
Scroll of Strength VII (IF you don't have a Shaman dropping Strength of Earth or a DK using Horn of Winter)

Itemization:
Hit Cap, 296, comes along in gear
Exp Cap, roughly 185, get a little bit in gear
Strength, 15% more from talents, never,ever, get ap over strength, EJ says Str is better to stack over anything
Crit, Caps at about 55% but is hard to hit
Haste, Using Seal of Blood makes it a raw dps increase
Armor Penetration, If its tagging along in your gear, sure why not, but don't gem for it

DPS cycles:
I normally start with putting my seal up and judging wisdom (puts me back to 100%), next is crusader strike, divine storm, consecrate, (continue with exorcism and avenging wrath if the mob is undead), and repeat according to what attacks come back first. Priority lies along the lines of Judgement, Hammer of Wrath(if the mob is below 20%), Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, Consecrate

Seal of Blood:
The reason I choose Seal of Blood over Seal of Command, is the simple fact that, if you notice on your tooltips, Seal of Blood actually says it does more damage. Seal of Blood damage is increased with haste (already increased with swift retribution). Seal of Blood does damage to you, therefore makes you require healing, therefore gives you mana back from spiritual attunement.

Enchants:
Berserking is the truest top dps enchant for 2-hand weapons because of its 33% uptime, 400 ap up 33% of the time, compared to 110 ap up, 100% of the time, making the 400 ap to balance out to about 133ap, I do not have it because I didn't feel the need for 23 ap for an extra 500g in mats, especially since I will probably replace my weapon soon.

Sockets:
Always socket Str.

Glyphs (Seal of Blood):

Major Glyphs
Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Seal of Blood or Glyph of Crusader Strike, not 100% sure on which will save you more mana
Glyph of Consecration

Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Sense Undead
Glyph of Blessing of Might
Glyph of Lay on Hands


Thank you for reading my rendition of Paladin DPS, if you have any comments or corrections please let me know so I can assess the problems accordingly (Sorry if I my spelling is bad, felt a little lazy)

[Rhonen]

"Adamantite Weightstones (If you don't have a Shaman dropping Windfury)"

You lost me here...

[Holyblud]

"Adamantite Weightstones (If you don't have a Shaman dropping Windfury)"

You lost me here...

Blizz failed to put weightstones in wrath, so i bought some adamantite bars and netherweave off the auction house for 20g, and made myself 80 hours worth of +14 crit rating, and +12 damage, the little things count

[Bewbslól]

Try and socket Hit until you cap.

That made me laugh.

Edit: I fail

[Rhonen]

As far as I know, adamantite weightstones don't work on items beyond a certain level. e.g. I can't use one on my Titansteel Destroyer...

[Holyblud]

As far as I know, adamantite weightstones don't work on items beyond a certain level. e.g. I can't use one on my Titansteel Destroyer...

Odd, been able to use one on every weapon that I've used so far, Even my current naxx-25 mace

[Vantro]

You realize that windfury isn't a weapon buff anymore right? Kinda curious how you got into 25.

[Holyblud]

You realize that windfury isn't a weapon buff anymore right? Kinda curious how you got into 25.

Oh, sorry for not realizing, haven't exactly come across any enhancement shamans since lvl 70. All that I have seen have been resto.

[Sleeper52]

What kind of dps are you pulling? Probably the best encounter to measure dps is patchwerk 25man.

[Holyblud]

What kind of dps are you pulling? Probably the best encounter to measure dps is patchwerk 25man.

Hmm, haven't been top in our 25's, not exactly easy trying to beat a flurry of mages/hunters, a decked spriest and a boomkin, but I usually get about 2k-2.5k on trash(Divine Storm makes up most of it), about 3.5k on bosses, and topped charts once on Thaddius at 5k (keep in mind, raid full of retards, didn't get all polarity stacks, somehow people cant make the initial jump)

[Aldub]

What glyphs would you recommend for a primarily SoB rotation?

[Holyblud]

What glyphs would you recommend for a primarily SoB rotation?

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Seal of Blood or Glyph of Crusader Strike, not 100% sure on which will save you more mana
Glyph of Consecration

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Sense Undead
Glyph of Blessing of Might
Glyph of Lay on Hands

[Tastywaffulz]

Good guide, but I personally wouldn't put expertise that high on the list, standing behind a boss gets rid of dodging/parrying...it's def not as important as strength...

[Gribble]

It won't get rid of dodges, just parries. however, Expertise is not quite as important to ret as it is to other melee classes, as Judgement cannot be dodged.

[Mysmere]

Good guide, but I personally wouldn't put expertise that high on the list, standing behind a boss gets rid of dodging/parrying...it's def not as important as strength...

wrong.
that is all.

[Holyblud]

Considering white damage tops list of attacks, expertise seems to be well worth the time

[issuesbunny]

You're using the wrong meta, and the wrong libram.

And as far as gear goes, you should get the blacksmithing bracers made, get a titanium belt buckle, and put sockets on your bracers and gloves (you're a blacksmith, remember?)

Also, what's with the 1 point into Avoidance? What's that all about?

[Mysmere]

he is like me and has not bothered to find a libram post wotlk
his meta is indeed wrong.

the 1 pt in in avoidance is because he chose to not get kings in a pve build. an odd choice even if you raid with someone else with kings (this is not 100% guaranteed that theyll show up)

[Holyblud]

You're using the wrong meta, and the wrong libram.

And as far as gear goes, you should get the blacksmithing bracers made, get a titanium belt buckle, and put sockets on your bracers and gloves (you're a blacksmith, remember?)

Also, what's with the 1 point into Avoidance? What's that all about?

The Meta: Intrigue me

Libram: Current one is still good, waiting for the pvp libram to come out

Blacksmithing Bracers: Don't feel like making the next ones if I'm going to upgrade soon

Belt Buckle: I have one, and I put the sockes on my bracers and gloves, look at the original items.

[issuesbunny]

The crafted ones are still fairly solid through Naxx, and they don't cost too much either.

Your current libram is not good, you shouldnt be using SoC enough to have it be useful, the Crusader Strike damage Libram or the PvP DS Crit Rating Libram are both fine choices.

The reason your meta is wrong is because 21 crit rating will net you more crit than 21 agility.

Unless you really need the extra armor bonus from agility to go with your 1 point in Anticipation. ;p