A simple observation

[Prentice]

Maybe its just me or the server that I play on, but I have noticed a significant reduction in the number of ret pallys being played. Early in WotLK, you couldn't join a pug with any less than 4 ret paladins and that was a number capped by the raid leader. The RL, undoubtedly, turned away no less than 10 other ret paladins that were looking for a raid spot. Nowadays, I seem to be one of the few which is pretty amazing seeing as how ret paladins are are strong right now as they have ever been(minus the 3.0 patch that allowed us to one-shot everyone/everything).

When possible, I run Naxx 25 with a guild, but other less desirable raids, like OS or VoA, I find myself pugging. Seeing raid leaders looking for ret pallys is just unbelievable considering how many there used to be. It seems as though all of the FotM reroll rets have now gone back to their rogues/warriors/fill-in-the-blank-class and those who were there are the start are still playing their rets. This is a welcome change for me considering how bad most FotM rets are at the class and who have aptly earned the title "loladin".

While I doubt this thread is conducive to a good conversation, I just wanted to see if any other paladins have noticed the decline in rets playing on their servers. I have a ret paladin on the ally and horde side of my server and have noticed the absence on both sides. Feel free to give your 2 cents.

[Dekool]

lol a few of our main raiders couldn't show up today so we actually had 3 ret pallies in the raid

no shortage for us i suppose

[Adamson]

lol a few of our main raiders couldn't show up today so we actually had 3 ret pallies in the raid

no shortage for us i suppose

my guild plays with 2 of each melee class with the exception of death knights and ferals. So

2 enhance
2 rets
2 warriors
2 rogues, sometimes a 3rd fills in
1 feral dps/tank Dual spec
1 DK tank/dps dual spec

We tried to do the same with ranged but our ranged lack in a lot of areas so we're just getting good ranged vs having a balanced ranged repertoire.

[Prentice]

Evidently, this is just occurring on my server then. Its odd because the two best guilds on ally side are begging for a great ret and the good guilds on horde side appear to have mediocre rets. There are only a couple of really good rets on my realm.

Not gonna lie. The disappearance of the bad rets is very nice though. I guess we're just lucky.

[Adamson]

I'm on laughing skull and I'm pretty sure DV has had trouble finding a good ret paladin since late BC. I don't know thin intricacies of their guild very well, but from what I can tell they don't seem to have a very steady or appropriately geared ret paladin.

[amk]

My guild is pretty melee heavy as well. We regularly run with

3-4 Rogues
1 Fury Warrior
1 Enh Shaman
1 Ret Paladin (moi)

We had a DK DPS but he went MIA a month or so back.

The best part though is most of the melee have raided together since TBC as 'the melee group'.

We'd never recruit another Ret Paladin as I have 100% attendance, and a 2nd one is just a waste of a raid spot that could be better used by other classes.

As for the 'decline in Ret Paladins', that's fine by me. There are 3 other Ret Paladins on my server who raided TBC through to BT/SWP, and I know them all by name. The rest are just rerolls/respecs who jumped at the chance to smash face with 4 keys, and while some of them are good, I'll never look at them as equals. The fact that they can perform as well as me is just proof that our rotation needs more complexity.

Sorry, if you've never tried to DPS Kaz'rogal pre 3.0 lolpatch, then to me at least, you aren't a real Ret.
And if someone wants to get in my face and tell me I'm not a real Ret because I wasn't DPSing as one in BWL/Naxx 1.0, that's fine too; I'll happily agree with a Ret who says that to me...all 10 of them in existence :P

[Martini]

Finally, the insane number of ret paladins, FoTM ret pallies that is was driving me nutz. So much that I don't even spec ret anymore. It was freakign sickening. When I was leveling and I did most dungeons with 4 re paladins a holy paladin, and of course i was a paladin obviously. You have any idea how cray that can drive someone... And I didn't even mention loot arguments >.>

[DaGhostDS]

about time, noobadin (the 4rth spec) were annoying...
and it suck to get up in the morning and be scarred to be hit by the nerfhammer, because people QQ like hell for nothing..
I cant kill a resto shaman or druid (well good one) i dont call for a nerf..

weird enough im the only ret in my guild 0_ô
never seen anyone else, except the holydin with their dual spec and even there its people who gem ap
/facepalm

[Martini]

and even there its people who gem ap
/facepalm

Thank you I just did IRL, kinda tingles now

LOL dude I'm sooo bored

[Adamson]

Sorry, if you've never tried to DPS Kaz'rogal pre 3.0 lolpatch, then to me at least, you aren't a real Ret.
And if someone wants to get in my face and tell me I'm not a real Ret because I wasn't DPSing as one in BWL/Naxx 1.0, that's fine too; I'll happily agree with a Ret who says that to me...all 10 of them in existence :P

Dude, easy mode. Just put on your mother gear and you're good to go.

epic lulz

Yeah, I remember BC fondly, 3 alliance guilds in BT used ret paladins and we were all best buds. Strutting around with our various cool 2 handers. I never got a cat's edge 14 archimonde downings and never saw one.

We only ever saw one torch too. but I got that one :P

[Prentice]

@ amk

I know exactly what you're talking about. On Kil'Jaeden(US) there were 3 rets ally side that did their thing from the beginning of TBC through Sunwell. I spoke many times with the other 2 and both were very smart guys. I really enjoyed picking their brains for the little edges I could gain. I can't remember the name of the site now, but there was a site named something like WWS Scoreboard that the three of us used to compete on. My best ranking ever was #7 worldwide on Eredar Twins. The next week I got smashed by one of the fellow rets from my server. Those were good times.

[Adamson]

omg I just reminisced using Seal of command ever.

[amk]

Dude, easy mode. Just put on your mother gear and you're good to go.

epic lulz

Yeah, I remember BC fondly, 3 alliance guilds in BT used ret paladins and we were all best buds. Strutting around with our various cool 2 handers. I never got a cat's edge 14 archimonde downings and never saw one.

We only ever saw one torch too. but I got that one :P

I remember farming Dark Runes like a sumnabitch...and I'm a Draenei, which meant Shadow Res back in TBC.

And while I never got Cat's Edge, I was very happy with meh Torch! I replaced it at LV 77 with that axe from Ring of Blood 2.0.

[Prentice]

Dude, easy mode. Just put on your mother gear and you're good to go.

epic lulz

Yeah, I remember BC fondly, 3 alliance guilds in BT used ret paladins and we were all best buds. Strutting around with our various cool 2 handers. I never got a cat's edge 14 archimonde downings and never saw one.

We only ever saw one torch too. but I got that one :P

Thats exactly what I did.

Had Cats, Felspine, Torch, and that crappy 2H axe from BT with the ArP. Never got Apolyon. /cry

[Adamson]

wtb cat's edge

Best AFK weapon ever.

[amk]

omg I just reminisced using Seal of command ever.

I miss Seal of Command

Sure I QQ'd like a fiend about not having access to SoB because I was Alliance, but I do sort of miss those seal procs.

While on the subject, I miss pre-3.0 Windfury Totem 8)

[Adamson]

While on the subject, I miss pre-3.0 Windfury Totem 8)

I think I just http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXfHLUlZf4

[Martini]

While on the subject, I miss pre-3.0 Windfury Totem

Whats a Windfurry totem??!!!? Hell whats a totem!!??

[Prentice]

Knowing that SoC was worse than SoB for damage output, it was still surprising to see that about 50% of the top DPS scores in Sunwell came from ally pallys. Just shows that the longstanding races have more skillz.

Sadly, I play my blood elf more commonly than my human. Gotta raise the curve for the horde side pallys.

[Ninsanba]

My guild only ever had one good ret pally... but we still bring 2+ because a ton of noobs think that rolling a FOTM class makes them good at the game.