Retribution 3.2, Simplified

[Skopan]

Patch 3.2 brought some changes for us rets. These are some simplified points on what to do, use and get for us rets.
If you only know what I write here you'll only have a rough idea of what to do. But not why you're doing it.

This is a shameless copy/paste "guide" with pieces taken from all over the fantastic world wide web.
Oh and by the way, this is for PvE. I don't do PvP, I suck at it.

1. Seal
2. Gems
3. Enchants
4. Stats
5. Spec
6. Glyphs
7. FCFS
8. Consumables

1. Seal

The general idea is to use Seal of Vengeance/Corruption for single target fights lasting longer than 20 seconds, due to building a stack and so on.
For fights lasting less than 20 seconds use Seal of Righteousness.

The reason for this is that it takes about 10-12 seconds to build a stack with SoV and about 8-10 seconds for your dps to catch up to what 20 seconds of SoR does. After 20 seconds SoV pulls ahead by quite a bit.

2. Gems

Meta slot: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
One of these: Nightmare Tear
Every other slot: Bold Cardinal Ruby

The jury is still out on the question about how much strength a socket bonus has to give for it to be an advantage to use a Inscribed Ametrine.
Don't gem for hit, agi or anything else equally stupid.

3. Enchants

Head: Arcanum of Torment
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
Bracers: Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Crusher
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
Feet: Enchant Boots - Greater Assault
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Berserking

If you're under hit cap use Enchant Gloves - Precision and/or Enchant Boots - Icewalker. With the abundance of hit available on gear this shouldn't be a problem.

4. Stats

First get hit capped. Which is 263 without a draenei and 230 with one.
Then get 16 expertise. Which is 131,2 expertise rating. You get 10 expertise from your Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Then stack strenght as much as you can.
Crit isn't bad either.

5. Spec

This works fine: 5/11/55

6. Glyphs

Major:
Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Glyph of Judgement
Glyph of Consecration

Minor:
Glyph of Sense Undead
Glyph of Lay on Hands

7. FCFS

We don't have a rotation. Hit whatever is off CD first. Here's a simple priority list for you:
HoW > CS > Judge > DS > Conc > Exo

Remember that Hammer of Wrath only is available when your target is under 20%
Remember that Exo is on a cast time, but becomes instant with Art of War proccs. Only cast it when it's instant.

8. Consumables

Flask: Flask of Endless Rage
Food: Dragonfin Filet

Fish Feast works just fine when someone's throwing one out.



I don't explain everything. There's more in depth guides out there doing that.
Have fun.


Edit: Added "single target" to the Seals part about fights lasting longer than 20 seconds.

[Deathnar]

Don't gem for hit? LOLWUT, if its needed, you better be hit capped instead of being under hit cap with OVER 9000STR

[Nillo]

HoW > CS > Judge > DS > Conc > Exo

CS > WHAT? It's one of the worst ability imo, as both Conc and Exo are compareable in Dmg and have less gcd cause of spell haste.

[Honesty]

You don't read it all do you "Deathnar"?

4. Stats

First get hit capped. Which is 263 without a draenei and 230 with one.
Then get 16 expertise. Which is 131,2 expertise rating. You get 10 expertise from your Glyph of Seal of Vengeance
Then stack strenght as much as you can.
Crit isn't bad either.

FIRST GET HIT CAPPED... Thought that everybody knew that, why would he explain more.

[Honesty]

CS > WHAT? It's one of the worst ability imo, as both Conc and Exo are compareable in Dmg and have less gcd cause of spell haste.

Really... hope you're a troll because that line of yours is pretty far out. CS is ahead of Jude. because of it's CD and that it procs SoV.

To OP good and simplified post.

[Skopan]

Hitcap will be reached with half assed gear and both the hit enchants. Don't gem for it because if your gear is shitty enough to not get you to the cap you'll replace gear fast. Thus making gemming for hit a waste of gold. If you have tons of gold, ok then.

CS will give you higher dps in the long run. If Exo and CS comes of CD at the same time, hitting CS first will net you more DPS anyway because of length of cool downs and so on. This is all covered here: http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t68951-r...ion_3_2_a/p10/

Since I intended this for beginners/rerollers or just plain bads I thought I might as well explain some things that might seem obvious.

[Deathnar]

Meta slot: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
One of these: Nightmare Tear
Every other slot: Bold Cardinal Ruby

The jury is still out on the question about how much strength a socket bonus has to give for it to be an advantage to use a Inscribed Ametrine.
Don't gem for hit, agi or anything else equally stupid.

[Saraduahn]

CS > WHAT? It's one of the worst ability imo, as both Conc and Exo are compareable in Dmg and have less gcd cause of spell haste.

Whew. Way to use your opinion to explain why every theorycrafter at Elitist Jerks is wrong.

I'm sure all their math is wrong and your "comparable in dmg with less gcd" theory is the winner.


Erm, or maybe, perhaps, the OP was posting the exact correct prioritization order that has been supported by numerous theorycrafters as being optimal for dps and your opinion is wrong, because you forgot to include the fact that CS procs SoV and that Exo can miss since you will not be spell-hit-capped in normal ret gear...

[korthelle]

CS > WHAT? It's one of the worst ability imo, as both Conc and Exo are compareable in Dmg and have less gcd cause of spell haste.

priority list is damage per second, not damage per cooldown. therefor CS will always be better, and by a long shot.

Haste stopped affecting global cooldowns in TWotLK. welcome to 3.0+

Don't gem for hit? LOLWUT, if its needed, you better be hit capped instead of being under hit cap with OVER 9000STR

In 3.1/3.0 STR was point for point a better DPS increase even with 0 hit, str came out better. in 3.2 hit has pulled out to be just slightly better than str up to the cap, but even then, you shouldn't ever be gemming for it. Gem for str, gear and enchant for hit. You get far better itemization this way. Also: There is so much gear with Hit on it, you'll likely spend your playtime OVER hit cap, and not under.

[DaGhostDS]

CS > WHAT? It's one of the worst ability imo, as both Conc and Exo are compareable in Dmg and have less gcd cause of spell haste.

ok thats scary..

[Aldoran]

The general idea is to use Seal of Vengeance/Corruption for fights lasting longer than 20 seconds, due to building a stack and so on.
For fights lasting less than 20 seconds use Seal of Righteousness.

when fighting 3+ low hp mobs (like hc's trash) Seal of Command is still better. Judg do less damage, but seal hit more and can crit (SoR can't crit) - works fine with DS

[korthelle]

ok thats scary..

Yep. Was thinking that guy might be where most retardins get their lessons from

sounds like the kinda person who thinks 3.2 nerfed ret PvE too :

when fighting 3+ low hp mobs (like hc's trash) Seal of Command is still better. Judg do less damage, but seal hit more and can crit (SoR can't crit) - works fine with DS

Most people who are PvE ret nowadays, dont spec SoCom unless they're PvP specced. Far too much utility for real content. I'd rather give up 200-400 DPS on trash, and have a perma Demo shout or be able to use divine sac.

TL;DR?? SoR for trash, and get a useful tallent.

[Skopan]

when fighting 3+ low hp mobs (like hc's trash) Seal of Command is still better. Judg do less damage, but seal hit more and can crit (SoR can't crit) - works fine with DS

In that certain type of situation SoC might be a tiny bit better.
Though those kinds of fights aren't really situations where it matters.

Plus you don't want to waste a talent point on something that won't be used other than trash in heroics.

[davep]

Most PVE Ret pallys go with this spec http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sVZAM...uhdIfsu:o0a0cm which leads to having 1 point left, mine as well put it in SoC since everything else is equally as useless

[Deathnar]

Most PVE Ret pallys go with this spec http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sVZAM...uhdIfsu:o0a0cm which leads to having 1 point left, mine as well put it in SoC since everything else is equally as useless

I know there's a lot of hit gear and stuff. But once you start in Naxx10 (I had to reroll last week), you kinda need hit.

[Skopan]

Most PVE Ret pallys go with this spec http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sVZAM...uhdIfsu:o0a0cm which leads to having 1 point left, mine as well put it in SoC since everything else is equally as useless

I'd rather run 8% faster than have a seal I'll never use.
Though in most cases running 8% faster won't make a noticable difference either.

[cryogenic]

CS > WHAT? It's one of the worst ability imo, as both Conc and Exo are compareable in Dmg and have less gcd cause of spell haste.

crusader strike gets seal damage added to it ex and cons dont, the lower on priority your lowest cooldown ability gets there is a much greater amount of times it doesnt get used over a period of time where as the attacks with longer cooldowns will be losing a lot less uses.

the more abilities you use over the course of the fight the higher the output.

23 haste isnt better then 22 agi for cloak? nearly .5 crit vs .9 haste
Icewalker is a better enchant then 32 ap, 44 points is better then 32
you should look to be using icewalker to get to cap and even slighly over is fine as ret uses spell hit as well.

[Nillo]

Haste stopped affecting global cooldowns in TWotLK. welcome to 3.0+

The last time i had heroism in prot spec i certainly still had the feeling that it DOES affect gcd for spells, else i wouldn't have been able to keep up 96969 with an added Exorcism ,it does not affect gcd on melee abilities though.

crusader strike gets seal damage added to it ex and cons dont, the lower on priority your lowest cooldown ability gets there is a much greater amount of times it doesnt get used over a period of time where as the attacks with longer cooldowns will be losing a lot less uses.

Even with the Seal added CS doesn't do significantly more dmg than exo/cons.

[DaGhostDS]

In that certain type of situation SoC might be a tiny bit better.
Though those kinds of fights aren't really situations where it matters.

Plus you don't want to waste a talent point on something that won't be used other than trash in heroics.

stop using soc for pve.. unless you have a full lvl 254 set, numbers are on EJ
SoR is better until there and dont use anymore talent point since you already talented Seal of the pure

[Honesty]

I know there's a lot of hit gear and stuff. But once you start in Naxx10 (I had to reroll last week), you kinda need hit.

Again...IF you're hit capped or very close gem for strength. Stop talking about your Naxx 10 reroll. It's a simplified guide, no need to cover every possible outcome/situation.