Stupid Sword of Justice...arg

[LoLHoly]

Well im at the point where I have everything I need from heroics (or very close too) according to RAWR. I could use the Incisor Trinket but I'm mining my tail off to afford a Greatness Deck (which would be great with my mirror of truth). With only a necklace from Heroic badges my Be Imba score is right around 455.

The only sizable upgrade I really want is the Sword of Justice. I have a titansteel with beserker right now. Based on what I hear with tons of AP/Crit the SoJ should scale better. Some people say its a 200-300 dps increase over the Titansteel Destroyer.

The only problem is that people avoid HoStone like they avoid leper colonies! Finding a group to do it really means waiting for the daily or praying to find a group of nimrods who "really want to explore HoS". The chest event is pretty intense for the average PuG.

What's everyone's take on this? If its the keystone piece im missing (and not going to run 25 mans) should I keep plugging away at the que till I find a group? Does the DPS between this and the noobtool really make it worth the wait?

I'm tempted to work on my holy gearset and play skills. I already can keyboard face-roll pwn as Ret.

Thanks!

[bals]

do raids

[LoLHoly]

If its the keystone piece im missing (and not going to run 25 mans) should I keep plugging away at the que till I find a group?

Thanks but as noted above, I don't raid and prob won't ever. I'll prob build a PVP set and do that before raiding.

I was hoping on commentary on the SoJ vs TD more than anything. Is it really a Holy Grail of DPS im missing out on with my Titansteel Destroyer?

Since you have to hit 25-man raids to replace it, my guild doesn't have 25 geared raiders, and my 2 jobs keep me busy most of the time...I'm runnin out of options.

*shrug*

[WoW2k6]

Get a guild and do some raids...

The content is totally easy, so you will progress really fast and get much better gear in less time you needed to get all that heroic stuff.

[Gajan]

I share your frustration with HoS... Am a rogue and I can't get in there to get my dagger for the life of me :'(... Everyone has the TD though, so I'm sure you'd be fine sticking with that until you can get into HoS to upgrade...

[Firecrest]

Do all of the above in my opinion. There's no reason to stop gunning for an improvement because the grouping is hard to find. There's also no reason to sit around and just LFG the whole time you're online. Work up a Holy set. It will just make finding a group that much easier if you can Heal or DPS. Seriously, as a Healer main spec, any instance I want any time I want is mine. We're in such demand now. DPS is a dime a dozen. Find yourself a decent tank and you're good to go.

On the subject of Raiding... You should give it a try. 10-Man PUGs are not too difficult to get into and the gear rewards and additional content are both worth it. It can be a time investment though, so if you just don't have the time, then you just don't have the time. At least try for Sarth or Maly though. After 30 minutes the boss is either dead or it's clear that it's not gonna happen.

[Ashmadai]

Since nobody has really answered your question yet, I will tell you that there is no way Sword of Justice is a big upgrade over the Titansteel Destroyer. The axe from Halls of Lightning is better than both, but it doesn't have any hit on it. The weapon you really want is Death's Bite, but that depends on if you're farming 10 man Naxx. Demise would also represent an upgrade over any of the aforementioned weapons other than Death's Bite, and Black Ice from Malygos is better than all of them except Death's Bite. Speaking strictly from a 10 man perspective here because you said you won't be doing 25 mans.

[Thorgred]

On my server, HOS is easy to get a group for... its quick and fun

And, no, Sword of Justice is NOT better than Titansteel Destroyer.
I use Redcape's DPS calculator: http://files.filefront.com/Ret+dpsv2.../fileinfo.html to work out my approximate maximum DPS. Its really good.
You might also want to look at http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t37843-r...d_wrath_3_0_a/

With my gear, Sword of Justice is a 1.5% decrease in DPS (2900 to 2855) from my TD, according to this spreadsheet.
Even being way over the hit cap (339 hit atm , trying to find pieces to swap to) using the Skull-Clad-Cleaver is a DPS loss for me as a dwarf as i lose my racial expertise.

[LoLHoly]

RAWR rates the SoJ as better than the Titansteel Destroyer (which is even better than the HoL axe). In fact, RAWR says its even better than Demise. With a 20str gem (which I don't know that exist at this point) it even is placed right under the Armageddon.

You all are very correct though, it would be better to aim for the Death's Bite as it outscales the SoJ even with a 20str gem. The simple honest truth is that I won't raid because I don't really have the time. I could look for a guild that will zap me in for a 3-5 raid session but from what I hear it's mostly people spending all day while idiots try to unstable pets, repair their armor, and otherwise come back from AFK.

I played a raiding game long ago and did the "I gotta get the best stuff" race. I remember 8 hour raids twice a week and then some more on the weekend. I would in fact love to quit my second stupid job and spend more time gaming, doing chores, etc...but that ain't happening for a while!

From all the comparisons that I have found with Ret pallies, ARMS warriors, and DK's the SoJ always prevails. It makes sense for any class with a multitude of instant attacks that's using only one 2hander. RAWR states this as fact is Hit is not an issue (str gem, +crit, higher base/top damage, etc). If you have found other results that is interesting and I'm definitely going to consider them as I have nothing to base my info on besides internet rantings and of course my preferred program.

Maybe I'm just getting tired of seeing every fresh 80 with the damn club. I've seen people pull 1300 dps in heroics using a Titansteel which has made it seem kinda dirty, Lol. Then again I've seen a Fury pull the same dps with a Loken Axe/TD combo so apparently an idiot IS born every 10 seconds!

[Firecrest]

Well, to be honest, the raid scene has changed dramatically from Vanilla days. The biggest difference (in terms of time wasted) came with the abolishment of 40-man raid groups in favor of 25-mans. This brought a much larger measure of organization and control over the raid. Putting 40 people to a common cause used to be like herding cats. But with 25-mans, the lower number of people leads to much more focused raids.

Then Blizzard introduced the new 10-man raid versions which even further reduced the non-raid related wait times.

Your slightly undergeared group can complete Naxx in about three hours. Well geared groups can do it in less than two. Finding 25 PUGs to raid with might be difficult, but forming up a 10 man certainly is not. And Blizzard has purposely made Naxx very very easy. So your standards of acceptance for who you take don't have to be exceptionally high.