Ret or Holy?

[starfox10]

What do you think I should go for the new arena season, ret or holy/prot?

I've been researching this and just wanted to know what you all think.

[Switchshot]

I want to stay ret for this season but im not sure if its even somehwta viable anymore

[Slim]

Holy/prot will get u alot farther faster. Ret works ok but every match has to be a sequence of perfect events to get the win it seems. Iv been running ret/rogue gona switch it up to ret/ice mage and see if that goes further with all the c/c.

[zcks]

Well for 2v2 holy/prot tends to work allot better because while ret is godly against melee when it comes to casters (mages/hunters/discipline priests/ well played warlocks in specific) it tends not to have the tools to counter them. For 3v3 & 5v5 however ret tends to be allot better for its extreme survivability moderate burst & ability to slow/prevent damage that it and its teammates takes.

[Dayle]

Do whatever you want. You don't need anyone else's opinion but your own. Whatever you're comfortable with, try them out, you don't need to follow other people and always choose what's OP.

[fex]

Do whatever you want. You don't need anyone else's opinion but your own. Whatever you're comfortable with, try them out, you don't need to follow other people and always choose what's OP.

If he wanted to just do whatever he felt like, he wouldn't have come to the forums asking for our input. Thanks.

Ret is viable in larger brackets, as they offer a tremendous amount of burst, good survivability, tons of CC outs, and a pretty decent amount of CC - plus the ability to emergency heal every once and a while.

Holy paladins are, as they've always been, gimped. Apparently, having 12 seconds of immunity every five minutes (only against comps without a warrior or a priest, mind you) is a good enough reason not to give us any real utility. We offer no offensive threat, are easily chain-CCed, and have no CC to offer besides a short-range stun on a 40 second CD. Our only "high notes" are Beacon of Light, Hand of Protection, and Sacred Shield. All three will be dispelled immediately in 2k+ brackets.

That leaves you with Flash of Light, Holy Shock, Holy Light (once or twice every 2 minutes, when you have Aura Mastery to counter the inevitable silence), and of course - Bubble. At least you've got Bubble, amirite?

There are only two viable means of achieving Gladiator with a holy paladin, this season. Your options include pairing up with people who can kill one of the opposing team members in the 12 seconds of invulnerability you're given (Wizard Cleave), or pairing up with a DK and a warrior who can survive for ridiculous amounts of time without any heals at all (and trust me - you'll spend more time humping pillars or eating CC than you will healing).

Enjoy retribution, it's actually kind of fun.

[furium]

That leaves you with Flash of Light, Holy Shock, Holy Light (once or twice every 2 minutes, when you have Aura Mastery to counter the inevitable silence), and of course - Bubble. At least you've got Bubble, amirite?

There are only two viable means of achieving Gladiator with a holy paladin, this season. Your options include pairing up with people who can kill one of the opposing team members in the 12 seconds of invulnerability you're given (Wizard Cleave), or pairing up with a DK and a warrior who can survive for ridiculous amounts of time without any heals at all (and trust me - you'll spend more time humping pillars or eating CC than you will healing).

Enjoy retribution, it's actually kind of fun.

Obviously this guy missed the fact most 5's have a holy pally. If your not a tard and actually know how to play, you can get yourself out of most CC, with BoSac/group sac/bubble/trinket, and a little fake casting here and there to juke a silence will let you free cast for a few seconds. Pallies also have amazing burst heals, and the 12 second bubble, which is pretty amazing, and its not the only time you will be able to heal. A LOT of 3's teams run with a pally, because they are hard to kill, have awesome group utility and nice heals, just some comps with a holy pally would be: (ele/destro/hpally)(Hpally/enhance/BM)(Hpally/war/dk) and countless other comps, most comps will work with a pally.

Ret is also a good decisions, but if you actually want to be good, you will be doing a lot of micro managing, with bubbles/bops/cleansing/off heals/freedoms/sacs/sacred shields. If you play ret like a dps class, and not utilize your utility you wont go very far. I run disc/hunter/ret and its a fun comp, but I'm just glad my ret pally knows what hes doing, otherwise we would have lost many games.

Both specs can get glad easily, you just need to choose the one you think you'll have the most fun with and learn it inside out. Get gear, find good partners and practice, no one got good over night.

[Requital]

Obviously this guy missed the fact most 5's have a holy pally. If your not a tard and actually know how to play, you can get yourself out of most CC, with BoSac/group sac/bubble/trinket, and a little fake casting here and there to juke a silence will let you free cast for a few seconds. Pallies also have amazing burst heals, and the 12 second bubble, which is pretty amazing, and its not the only time you will be able to heal. A LOT of 3's teams run with a pally, because they are hard to kill, have awesome group utility and nice heals, just some comps with a holy pally would be: (ele/destro/hpally)(Hpally/enhance/BM)(Hpally/war/dk) and countless other comps, most comps will work with a pally.

Ret is also a good decisions, but if you actually want to be good, you will be doing a lot of micro managing, with bubbles/bops/cleansing/off heals/freedoms/sacs/sacred shields. If you play ret like a dps class, and not utilize your utility you wont go very far. I run disc/hunter/ret and its a fun comp, but I'm just glad my ret pally knows what hes doing, otherwise we would have lost many games.

Both specs can get glad easily, you just need to choose the one you think you'll have the most fun with and learn it inside out. Get gear, find good partners and practice, no one got good over night.

By saying easily you are overlooking the fact that there is nothing easy about getting Glad as Ret, Your teammates have to be willing to hold your hand because we take a lot of cleaning up after, Where we are great cleanse bots and as Ret that is what you are with support burst it's not easy you have to have good players on your team. Easy would be playing Holy with a Wizard cleave.

Ret is fun but it's not easy it requires way more effort and teamwork then Holy ever has or does. If you are good at Holy and want Glad then go holy it's pretty much a given that you will have a much easier time with it. I enjoy Ret and push for high ratings every season but it's not always the easiest to get a competent team as Ret.

[starfox10]

Thanks everyone for all the info. Im not sure what im gonna do yet, gonna check my realm and see what classes i can find for comps.

[Narveid]

Well, when finally SoC is changed in patch 3.2.2, Ret will be a little bit easier to play against some classes ..

[onaqui]

Im staying ret, waiting for my promised utility that would come after the burst had been dealt with. If blizz could only remove the bubble from arena and give us some other defensive CD and utility instead of balance us around it, most of us would kill for an 50% snare and +20% cast time for 4s after crusaderstrike or something instead of that bubble.