The big Ret Arena Thread.

The retribution paladin is a strange spec, its shunned by a lot of the WoW player base and is the subject of jokes and scorn like no other class or spec has been in my time playing. In PVP it’s a spec of two extremes. In arenas it’s massively underrepresented by skilled and knowledgeable players, not just in one bracket but completely across the board. In battlegrounds however its massively over represented by very poorly geared players who don’t understand the mechanics behind the spec .
The spec itself is horribly torn between two extremes as well, the spell based mechanics and the melee based mechanics. Though this is hopefully something that’ll soon be resolved.

Yet despite the jokes, the subpar performance and the glaring contradictions in its mechanics, Retribution is loved dearly by many players.

This thread will hopefully grow from humble beginnings into a source of knowledge for ret players in PVP, both the confused oathkeeper wielders and the full season 3 gladiators alike.

please contribute, and I’ll amend the first few posts to offer information on specs, gearing, team set up, and tactics for Ret in the arena.

Useful Threads on US and EU forums:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3414662573&sid=1&pageNo=1
-A 2k+ team in S2 and 1800 in week 2 of season 3 taking questions.

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=2111301358&sid=1
-Balls of Steel, 2k+ Season 3 team commenting on ret in the arena.



Specs-


Durability Build.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZVGkhMhZVfcth0uiIoz
+with gear you get a 35 second stun
+- 6% damage taken

- less raw DPS output
Variations:
2/2 improved sanc aura can be switched for 2/2 eye for an eye.
3/3 imp. Seal of the crusader can be moved to 3/5 parry.

Burst build
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sLZVGzZVfcth0uiIot
+higher DPS output
+easier to get and keep vengeance

-Stun is on a longer cool down
-You go down quicker
-More chance of losing BoF/bubble/wings

Variations:
3/3 imp. Seal of the crusader can be moved to 3/5 parry.

Just-about-heal build
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxxhMZZVfcth0uiIot
+push back resistance on heals.
+12% more healing.
+10% fear resistance

-Stats for improving your healing will do nothing for your DPS
-Season 3 gear is very poorly suited to the build.
-Heals will be poor and expend lots of mana.


Gear Pointers.

Blacksmith crafted weapons - Ideally thunder/deepthunder/stormherald. (slowest speed)
Arena Weapons, swords/maces for humans.

Your armor will be almost entirely the PVP armor. Sadly its the only armor in the entire game thats currently itemized for ret properly, the rest have redundant spell damage.

Gems
Meta : 12agi+3% crit damage (you should have pursuit of justice, speed boost is useless)
18stam +5% stun resist ( I rarely get focused, so I find this less useful)

General gear gems :

Go for DPS. With plate and bubble you'll be tough to kill, you need the DPS boost.

Personally I'd aim for 28% crit, and then gem for strength.

Build up 3 stacks of vengeance, then blow cooldowns, and the strength is where the DPS will come from.