Ret Paladin Arena noob - seeking advice

[cc4l]

Hello everyone.

I've been PvEing on my main (Holy Paladin) since i hit 80. The same deal when I was 70. Really enjoy it, but I want to experience all aspects of the game. At 70, i did alot of battle grounds and then jumped into some arena with a RL friend of mine. We were pretty terrible, but enjoyed it.

Now that Im happy with my guilds progress in PvE, I would like to start doing some PvP seriously. I would like to DPS in Arena rather then heal. I want to really keep my PvP and PvE seperate in almost every aspect.

I collected the full Hateful set http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...adin_melee.jpg as well as the boots, bracers, cape, trinkets etc... Im using Relentless Edge http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/..._31_9767_3.jpg from Ulduar 10-man. All socketed and enchanted. I got a good Ret build from here a few months back.

Now, basically, Im still kinda sucky at Arena. Im getting better at BGs everyday, getting used how to deal with different classes and such, no where near fantastic, but ok. But when it comes to Arena, Im terrible. Me and my girlfriend (Arcane Mage) are my 2v2. My 3v3 is unholy DK, Resto Druid and myself. I cant figure what Im doing wrong. At lvl 70, we won and lost 50/50, towards the end we were winning a little more then what we lost. But now, I feel totally useless at it.

Any info will be welcome, weapon change, sudgested best partner, practice options... anything!

I hope I have supplied enough info. I dont care about getting the top Arena achievements or gear, I just basically wanna have fun and TBH loosing 100% of the time is starting to loose its charm

Any info is much appreciated.
Thanks for reading
MRD!

[Garrim]

Retidans own in 3v3s more then 2v2. For 3v3s be with someone that can give an MS debuff (warriors or rogues), once that happens you'll be ok. I'd say a rogue is best b/c of the stuns which increases ur dps as a paladin. Rogue stuns, you pop wings and go ape, rogue is there to CC with you as back up. Also keep up Hand of Sacrifice on the rogue so he doesn't get bursted asap (redirects 10% of all dmg he takes to you). For a healer I would suggest a druid/priest. About all I can offer.

Oh 2v2s you'll want to be more of a burst on demand while helping by healing and in defensive ways, if you go with a dps. Basically 1h sword and shield to up ur spell power while ur partner does most of the dmg/CC (even if ur ret go sword and board at times if ur in trouble). Both of u should save CC abilties til you know u're getting the kill off. It takes skill and there is no real way to just simply 'win'. However a class that brings MS to the table is really going to help you in 2v2s or 3v3s.

Also mages will bring an MS effect next patch so you might wanna wait til next patch to start the games. GL.

[Finnbarr]

If you raid you'd be better off rolling 4/5 t8 for the set bonus instead of using hateful gear

[K4ge]

Press your 3 keys harder.

No need for thanks.

[Finnbarr]

Press your 3 keys harder.

No need for thanks.

ROFL yeah you know rets really well

[kainron]

Retidans own in 3v3s more then 2v2. For 3v3s be with someone that can give an MS debuff (warriors or rogues), once that happens you'll be ok. I'd say a rogue is best b/c of the stuns which increases ur dps as a paladin. Rogue stuns, you pop wings and go ape, rogue is there to CC with you as back up. Also keep up Hand of Sacrifice on the rogue so he doesn't get bursted asap (redirects 10% of all dmg he takes to you). For a healer I would suggest a druid/priest. About all I can offer.

Also mages will bring an MS effect next patch so you might wanna wait til next patch to start the games. GL.

'
jesus dont listen to this man.
he obviously doesnt know what hes talking about.

hand of sac is 30 percent damage for 12 seconds and going shield ans sword as ret spec isnt necessary. you can keep your partner with art of war procs or switch to a shield and caster mace when you need to cast some spells.

sacred shield is whats really going to be keeping you alive.

if your partner is an arcane mage have her sheep someone while you stun the other one. pop wings crusader strike divinestorm judgement. while your partner barrages your target then resheeps the other target then counterspells the sheeped target while assisting with the kill on your target its then all up t you to repentance the person who has just been sheeped for 14 seconds silenced for four seconds. if you repentance him for another 6 seconds and continue focusing on the kill target he will be dead.

use vent get gladius and practice setting up cc targets in bgs while double teaming someone else.

[Powell]

best ret pala teams:
2v2:
Disc priest/ret pala - a very offensive team, both great survivability and burst, this is a setup that requires you to do huge pressure on them, get vent to time your fear -> repentance -> stun -> mind control combos in.

Resto sham/ret pala - another very offensive team, hexx the healer, force him to trinket, keep pressure up, dont tunnel vision just zerk the closest one for pressure, if they go defensive now and use their CDs you usually win, because when you forced the healers trinket and you can hexx -> repentance him again when the CD is over, follow with BL + wings and go ape on the DD
for double dps teams its obvious to just zerk one of them and CC the other, needs less care then dd/healer.
interrupts from the shaman and the pressure from the pala burst usually doesnt need this tactic at lower rating but you will need it vs higher rated teams

Rogue/ret - VERY offensive team with good surivability, you can litteraly kill someone in a stunlock
its a pretty hard setup to master without communication but you will have to anticipate your partners moves and work with it
also great CC combo.

resto druid/ret pala - actually, all ret teams are offensive! :O... CC spam + burst, if the druid is full resto this is abit more defensive then the other 3 teams because a druid cant dish out burst or support your burst, other then CCing someone

3v3:
DK/Ret/Druid - cleave team, dont need MS to do this, its an obvious zerkfest onto one of them depending on the setup your up against, RMP, nuke priest, game over, this team cant be CCed or is very hard to CC

Ret/muti/disc - a common setup, with offensive dispel and double defensive dispel to prevent RMPs from sheeping
good burst and CC

Ret/warr/druid - cleave team with MS, defensive dispels, CC, burst

ret/hunter/shaman - cleave team with MS, CC, defensive dispels, burst

ive fattened the most common and strongest teams.

other then that arcane/ret has to many weaknesses -> to many countercomps
a arcane mage can get nuked fast even with HoP a good team, or any team with common knowledge infact would easily counter this with LoS.

[Mysmere]

in before "faceroll to the left instead of the right"

[Dubroya]

Well... Have your girlfriend respecc Frost. She must learn how to Focus sheep, and stuff. If the focus target trinketes the sheep, she must Counterspell the Focus pronto, and you throw a repentance. Do not keep these two targets together since YOU do some AOE damage and will fuck it up. So, that's pretty much it.

Get Furious/Deadly offset gear and always be ready to bubble and heal and keep Sacred Shield.

[cc4l]

Thanks a million for all the advice guys!
There is a lot to play around with there.
I'll give it a pop and see what happens...

Once again, thanks for the advice
MRD

[Figoment]

Now, basically, Im still kinda sucky at Arena. Im getting better at BGs everyday, getting used how to deal with different classes and such, no where near fantastic, but ok. But when it comes to Arena, Im terrible. Me and my girlfriend (Arcane Mage) are my 2v2. My 3v3 is unholy DK, Resto Druid and myself. I cant figure what Im doing wrong. At lvl 70, we won and lost 50/50, towards the end we were winning a little more then what we lost. But now, I feel totally useless at it.

2s - Ask your GF to go frost it'll work slightly better if she can avoid damage well and u can take the damage

3s- You lack an MS effect if possible I would recommend switching the DK out for a amrs warrior

[K4ge]

in before "faceroll to the left instead of the right"

Made me laugh.

[mogulkhan]

Make this macro

showtooltip Faceroll
/cast Face to Keyboard
/cast Keyboard to Face


Profit.

[Syce]

best ret pala teams:
2v2:
Disc priest/ret pala - a very offensive team, both great survivability and burst, this is a setup that requires you to do huge pressure on them, get vent to time your fear -> repentance -> stun -> mind control combos in.

Resto sham/ret pala - another very offensive team, hexx the healer, force him to trinket, keep pressure up, dont tunnel vision just zerk the closest one for pressure, if they go defensive now and use their CDs you usually win, because when you forced the healers trinket and you can hexx -> repentance him again when the CD is over, follow with BL + wings and go ape on the DD
for double dps teams its obvious to just zerk one of them and CC the other, needs less care then dd/healer.
interrupts from the shaman and the pressure from the pala burst usually doesnt need this tactic at lower rating but you will need it vs higher rated teams

Rogue/ret - VERY offensive team with good surivability, you can litteraly kill someone in a stunlock
its a pretty hard setup to master without communication but you will have to anticipate your partners moves and work with it
also great CC combo.

resto druid/ret pala - actually, all ret teams are offensive! :O... CC spam + burst, if the druid is full resto this is abit more defensive then the other 3 teams because a druid cant dish out burst or support your burst, other then CCing someone

3v3:
DK/Ret/Druid - cleave team, dont need MS to do this, its an obvious zerkfest onto one of them depending on the setup your up against, RMP, nuke priest, game over, this team cant be CCed or is very hard to CC

Ret/muti/disc - a common setup, with offensive dispel and double defensive dispel to prevent RMPs from sheeping
good burst and CC

Ret/warr/druid - cleave team with MS, defensive dispels, CC, burst

ret/hunter/shaman - cleave team with MS, CC, defensive dispels, burst

ive fattened the most common and strongest teams.

other then that arcane/ret has to many weaknesses -> to many countercomps
a arcane mage can get nuked fast even with HoP a good team, or any team with common knowledge infact would easily counter this with LoS.

another comp that is used quite often(less then these but still works) is ret/rogue/rdruid. good for bursting the opposing teams healer down with good cc.

ive gotten to around 1900 with this comp but damn rogues keep leaving the team as my partner now live in japan so the times are messed up.

[Deyman]

Hi mate! Im playing 2v2 with my mate whos also a mage. He is arcane atm but we decided that he would be frost in 3.2 because of the MS effect and buffs frost mages get.

What we do is something like this:
Cast Repentance on enemy healer, pop wings and AP trinket, Healer uses pvp trinket to free him/herself from the Repenance, Do HoJ and then nuke the DPS together with your mage. When your HoJ is finished make sure the mage sheeps the healer (we want the healer CCd at all costs = dps dying) We usually nuke the dps before the healer can say "wtfhappened?".
But ofc... We fail a lot at some games. And we are still looking for ways to improove our strategy and communications. Ventrilo is awesome when you need to tell your partner something, doing 2v2 with htis combo (and any other combo) is going to get frustrating at some point when u start to loose some games and u see ur rating falling, best thing to do is to discuss what can be done to improove your gameplay and your strategys.

If you notice that you are the one that will get CCd for this game you can trinket when you get CC'd first and then use Divine sacrifice or Hand of sacrifice, because they will break the next CC when your mate takes dmg.

Learn to love Hand of Reckoning! It can be used for a lot of things! Examples are: Stop mana users from drinking, get in combat so u can't get sapped.

And for the love of god, don't forget to heal and put HoP on your team mate when she needs it (when a mage ice blocks your supposed to heal ((if low on hp)) )
HoP is very usefull in this combo! Especially when theres a melee running behind the mage and she needs some protection from you. Remember, you are not a pure dps class like warriors or rogues etc. You can use a lot of talents to make sure your mates survive the fight. Things like this are HoF, HoP, heals, buffs, stunns, etc.

If your GF still wants to play arcane spec make sure she has Icy Veins and the glyph for it. It can increase your chances for victory in the arena.

After you reach 10% resilience (~600-800 resilience) you can start getting PvE ret gear.

Read forums!
www.mmo-champion.com gives a bucket full of tips and tricks on how to improove your gameplay. www.arenajunkies.com has a lot of good information on how to play arena games with various combos. www.elitistjerks has some good sections on rets in arena.

Ofc you could dump your GF from your 2v2 and go with a R-druid or Disc shaman and just nuke ur way easily to 2k rating but this may result in you loosing your GF! ;D

Btw Mage/Ret-pala can reach over 2k rating. just look at theese guys: http://www.arenajunkies.com/rankings/2v2/Paladin/Mage/