RSS feed2007-11-09 13:50:26
Retribution FAQ - Updated with 3.3 relevant info.
This is a little compilation of some frequently asked questions within the Paladin community. Im making this so it might help others getting a quick answer to their questions instead of making the same threads over and over again. Might be a helping hand for quite a few.
Im a wannabe-theorycrafter myself, and love to micromanage my class, thus I will try to keep this thread up to date when new issues arise. Special thanks to Cromfel & ElitistJerks for a lot of helpful hints along the way.
This thread is finally updated with WOTLK releavant information, suggestions and corrections is most welcome, as I try to keep the information here as specific and correct as possible.
[UPDATED]
January 13th, 2010 (v 3.3.0)
Q: Slow or quick weapon?
A: Slow. Every 0.1 speed slower is equal to ~20 DPS due to Seals and Judgements not being normalized.
Q: What about Seal of Command and Haste rating then? Will it give more SoC procs pr minute?
A: Yes, SoC now scales with haste.
Q: What Seal for PvE, and what for PvP?
A: Now that Seal of Blood is removed and Seal of Command re-designed, Seal of Vengeance/Corruption will be our main DPS Seal. Once you have 5 stacks of the debuff from SoV on the target, each swing will deal 33% extra weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. For mobs/trash that die quickly (~12 seconds) you might be better Seal of Command however. This is because SoC now works more or less like a cleave/chain lightning, and it chains to 2 additional enemies within melee range.
For PvP, SoV is the better choice, but somewhat requires you to be able to stick to your target to keep the debuff stack up. Otherwise, stick with Righteousness (talent and glyph it aswell).
Q: What is the hit cap for retribution paladins?
A: 8% melee hit is the cap with a 2hander. you need 262 hit rating to reach the cap, or 32,8 hit rating to reach 1%. Note that alliance players with a draenei in the group will only require 7% hit on gear to reach the cap. In PvP, the hit cap is only 5%. In PvE, it is very important to be hit-capped.
Q: What about judgements? They are spells, right?
A: No, Judgements are now considered Melee attacks, that cannot be dodged, parried or blocked. They require the same hit rating as melee swings (262 hit rating or 8%).
Q: What kind of gear should i aim for?
A: There is no "correct" answer to this. I suggest you download Rawr (http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr) and start building yourself a template, based on where you stand content-wise.
Q: What stats is important then?
A: To begin with, you should aim for around 2500 ap and 25% crit. Strength is favoured over AP, because it scales with Divine Strength and Blessing of Kings. You should try to stack (in order):
Q: What kind of gems should I use?
A:Gem to meet your Meta requirements, and focus on STR in most slots if the socket bonus is worth less than any other option. However, here are the best alternatives based on color. )
Q: What is the weapon speed normalization for Crusader Strike and Divine Storm?
A: 3.3 ( Read more about normalization here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Normalize )
Q: Can Crusader strike and Divine Storm proc Seals?
A: Yes and No. They will not stack the Dot portion of Seal of Vengeance, but once you have 5 stacks on your target, they will proc the 33% extra holy damage. The other seals will proc off both abilities.
Q: What professions would be the strongest combo if i want to max my DPS?
A: Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting is the strongest combo for retribution.
Q: What weapon enchant is better?
A: If you have a decent weapon you KNOW you're gonna use for a while, you might spend some money on Berserking. If you're less on cash or know you're about to replace your weapon in the near future, Massacre or Greater Savagery does the trick.
Q: Does Crusade and Exorcism work against players in PvP?
A: Crusade applies to all attacks, including Eye for an Eye. Exorcism is once again usable on players.
Q: What is our base rotation for PvE DPS?
A: During the beta it was agreed upon that because of vastly changed mechanics, our rotations should be thrown out and thus came to be known as FCFS (First Come First Serve) - and this is still true in 3.2. (quoted from ej forums).
Tier 9 FCFS prioriy is as follows: HoW > CS > Judgement > DS > Consecration > Exorcism > Holy Wrath
Tier 10 FCFS prioriy is as follows: Judgement > DS > CS > HoW > Consecrate > Exorcism > Holy Wrath
Q: Whats the best food buff for DPS?
A: Fish feast is slightly better than Dragonfin Filet, but at a much steeper price. Aim for Dragonfins if you cant afford / have time to cach the fish required for the feast.
Q: What is the best DPS spec for raids?
A: Ofcourse minor tweaks and arguments comes into play here aswell, and is somewhat based on your playstyle. However, here are the essentials:
This gives you 7 talent points to put wherever you prefer. I put two points in Divine Purpose to break stuns, which again often yields more dps, however you can free up these two points aswell if you prefer.
Which Glyphs should i use?
Other useful links:
This is a little compilation of some frequently asked questions within the Paladin community. Im making this so it might help others getting a quick answer to their questions instead of making the same threads over and over again. Might be a helping hand for quite a few.
Im a wannabe-theorycrafter myself, and love to micromanage my class, thus I will try to keep this thread up to date when new issues arise. Special thanks to Cromfel & ElitistJerks for a lot of helpful hints along the way.
This thread is finally updated with WOTLK releavant information, suggestions and corrections is most welcome, as I try to keep the information here as specific and correct as possible.
[UPDATED]
January 13th, 2010 (v 3.3.0)
Q: Slow or quick weapon?
A: Slow. Every 0.1 speed slower is equal to ~20 DPS due to Seals and Judgements not being normalized.
Q: What about Seal of Command and Haste rating then? Will it give more SoC procs pr minute?
A: Yes, SoC now scales with haste.
Q: What Seal for PvE, and what for PvP?
A: Now that Seal of Blood is removed and Seal of Command re-designed, Seal of Vengeance/Corruption will be our main DPS Seal. Once you have 5 stacks of the debuff from SoV on the target, each swing will deal 33% extra weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. For mobs/trash that die quickly (~12 seconds) you might be better Seal of Command however. This is because SoC now works more or less like a cleave/chain lightning, and it chains to 2 additional enemies within melee range.
For PvP, SoV is the better choice, but somewhat requires you to be able to stick to your target to keep the debuff stack up. Otherwise, stick with Righteousness (talent and glyph it aswell).
Q: What is the hit cap for retribution paladins?
A: 8% melee hit is the cap with a 2hander. you need 262 hit rating to reach the cap, or 32,8 hit rating to reach 1%. Note that alliance players with a draenei in the group will only require 7% hit on gear to reach the cap. In PvP, the hit cap is only 5%. In PvE, it is very important to be hit-capped.
Q: What about judgements? They are spells, right?
A: No, Judgements are now considered Melee attacks, that cannot be dodged, parried or blocked. They require the same hit rating as melee swings (262 hit rating or 8%).
Q: What kind of gear should i aim for?
A: There is no "correct" answer to this. I suggest you download Rawr (http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr) and start building yourself a template, based on where you stand content-wise.
Q: What stats is important then?
A: To begin with, you should aim for around 2500 ap and 25% crit. Strength is favoured over AP, because it scales with Divine Strength and Blessing of Kings. You should try to stack (in order):
- 1. Hit Rating - Stack until you reach the cap, which is 262 rating or 8%. (7% for raiding alliance paladins with a Draenei in your group)
2. Strength - Stack as much STR as possible.
3. Expertise - Should come naturally as your gear improves. You should try to avoid gemming or enchanting for Expertise. You can however use the Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, that will yield +10 Expertise when that Seal is active.
4. Crit Rating - It's not useful to have too much crit, so you should NOT gem for it. Gem for STR instead.
5. Agility - You need 52 AGI to gain 1% crit, but this only counts towards melee crit, making crit rating flat out superior to AGI for dps.
6. Haste - After the buff Haste rating recieved in patch 3.1, it scales pretty decent for Paladins. Haste does NOT reduce the global cooldown for melee abilities however.
7. Armor Penetration - This is a fairly useless retribution stat, simply because ~60% of our damage is unmitigated holy damage. Avoid this stat if you can.
8. Attack Power - Better than nothing, but certainly not better than STR. Sometimes you have to settle with AP over STR simply because there is no alternatives (i.e enchant on boots).
9. Spellpower, Intellect, Armor - Does next to nothing for our DPS.
Q: What kind of gems should I use?
A:Gem to meet your Meta requirements, and focus on STR in most slots if the socket bonus is worth less than any other option. However, here are the best alternatives based on color. )
- Yellow Sockets:
- Crit & Strength - http://www.wowhead.com/?items=3.5&filter=cr=20:96;crs=1:1;crv=6:6
- Red Sockets:
Strength - http://www.wowhead.com/?items=3.0&filter=cr=20;crs=1;crv=13
- Blue Sockets:
Prismatic Gems (Only One Allowed - But thats all you need for your meta requirement) - http://www.wowhead.com/?items=3.8&filter=cr=20;crs=1;crv=5
- Meta Sockets:
PvE Meta # 1 - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41398 (Less requirement, but also 0.5 DPS weaker than the Chaotic Skyflare one - My favourite however)
PvE Meta # 2 - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41285 (Also counts towards spell crit)
Q: What is the weapon speed normalization for Crusader Strike and Divine Storm?
A: 3.3 ( Read more about normalization here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Normalize )
Q: Can Crusader strike and Divine Storm proc Seals?
A: Yes and No. They will not stack the Dot portion of Seal of Vengeance, but once you have 5 stacks on your target, they will proc the 33% extra holy damage. The other seals will proc off both abilities.
Q: What professions would be the strongest combo if i want to max my DPS?
A: Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting is the strongest combo for retribution.
Q: What weapon enchant is better?
A: If you have a decent weapon you KNOW you're gonna use for a while, you might spend some money on Berserking. If you're less on cash or know you're about to replace your weapon in the near future, Massacre or Greater Savagery does the trick.
Q: Does Crusade and Exorcism work against players in PvP?
A: Crusade applies to all attacks, including Eye for an Eye. Exorcism is once again usable on players.
Q: What is our base rotation for PvE DPS?
A: During the beta it was agreed upon that because of vastly changed mechanics, our rotations should be thrown out and thus came to be known as FCFS (First Come First Serve) - and this is still true in 3.2. (quoted from ej forums).
Tier 9 FCFS prioriy is as follows: HoW > CS > Judgement > DS > Consecration > Exorcism > Holy Wrath
Tier 10 FCFS prioriy is as follows: Judgement > DS > CS > HoW > Consecrate > Exorcism > Holy Wrath
Q: Whats the best food buff for DPS?
A: Fish feast is slightly better than Dragonfin Filet, but at a much steeper price. Aim for Dragonfins if you cant afford / have time to cach the fish required for the feast.
Q: What is the best DPS spec for raids?
A: Ofcourse minor tweaks and arguments comes into play here aswell, and is somewhat based on your playstyle. However, here are the essentials:
- http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sVZVZVfbxbIuhdIfsu:0oamc0
This gives you 7 talent points to put wherever you prefer. I put two points in Divine Purpose to break stuns, which again often yields more dps, however you can free up these two points aswell if you prefer.
Which Glyphs should i use?
- Major Glyphs:
Glyph of Judgement (Must Have)
Glyph of Consecration
Glyph of Exorcism
Optional: Glyph of Seal of Vengeance (Replaces the Exorcism Glyph, For +10 extra Expertise.)
- Minor Glyphs:
Glyph of Sense Undead (1% Free damage to undeads. Just dont forget to activate Sense Undead for the bonus to apply.)
Glyph of Lay on Hands (5mins off the cooldown)
Glyph of whatever blessing you prefer
Other useful links:
- http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t68951-retribution_3_2_a/
- http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr
Inner sanctum of theorycrafting:
Rawr - A great program used to compare gear/specs and what to obtain.
[ Post edited by Amphi ]
Grand Crusader of Credendum
Amphi
