After about an hour's play we hit 1801 today and should be at 2k next opportunity we have to play. We were 2200 last season and after having posted a few threads about Ret's flaws in the arena I wanted to offer some help to those struggling with Ret or with a Ret partner in any bracket.

I'll try to answer any questions.

lol keylogger

1. ret+ms warr - better with resto druid, or resto shaman?

2. 2v2 - better with rogue or frost mage?

3. and… in 1700+ with all the resil, is AP or crit better?

thank you in advance.

There is a holy priest in my guild who is really good. Armory Cure. I'm doing ret in 2s with a frost mage now.

Would I be better off with Cure or with my current partner? Would Cure be better off with a hunter or with me? http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shandris&n=Cure
He's at 1748 with a hunter. I have done about 20 games with this mage and we're still getting it figured out, only at 1559 now but we just need practice to reach 1800ish, not sure how we will do beyond that.

What spec does your partner use for 2s? You run disc/holy if I remember correctly?

I'm like 1886 ap 31% crit 10.7k hp 7k mana with kings with my 5/14/42 build.

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Q u o t e:
1. ret+ms warr - better with resto druid, or resto shaman?

2. 2v2 - better with rogue or frost mage?

3. and… in 1700+ with all the resil, is AP or crit better?

thank you in advance.

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1. If you're asking which is a better healer for 3s with a MS Warrior and Ret Pally then definitely Resto Shaman. You're playing a burst damage team and Windury and Bloodlust coupled with high burst damage from Ret and a MS healing debuff should be enough to quickly drop someone. Ideally you want to turn every 3v3 into a 2v3 very very quickly - that team isn't built around longevity.

2. Honestly, both are extremely functional.

3. After the changes in 2.3 20 Prot 41 Ret became one of the most viable PvP specs and after the changes Ret crit is at all time high whereas if you're ditching Divine Strength your AP will be a bit low. My partner favors AP slightly more than Crit i.e. picking up the AP PvP trinket.

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Q u o t e:
There is a holy priest in my guild who is really good. Armory Cure. I'm doing ret in 2s with a frost mage now.

Would I be better off with Cure or with my current partner? Would Cure be better off with a hunter or with me? http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shandris&n=Cure
He's at 1748 with a hunter. I have done about 20 games with this mage and we're still getting it figured out, only at 1559 now but we just need practice to reach 1800ish, not sure how we will do beyond that.

What spec does your partner use for 2s? You run disc/holy if I remember correctly?

I'm like 1886 ap 31% crit 10.7k hp 7k mana with kings with my 5/14/42 build.

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Personally, I don't care a whole lot for the Disc Priest/Hunter combo. That said: I find our combo to be working better than when I was Shadow (yes I am Discipline this season) and I always found Ret/Frost mage to be better than Ret/Shadow Priest. Both teams are extremely weak to heavy outlaster teams: Disc Priest/ SL SL Warlock but as the new FOTM happens to be Disc Priest/HARP Rogue, Frost Mage/Ret tends to work better against that.

Ultimately I think Ret/Frost Mage is SLIGHTLY stronger of a combo than Ret/Disc Priest but both work fairly well.

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Q u o t e:
Hrm, you have a BE ret pally advantage, but I'll bite..

What classes do you typically target first to kill and which do you CC.

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What bracket?

Still new to 70 as ret, got a O.K. healing set, was thinking, (gonna pvp and arena for all my s1 gear for a long time) should i be reckadin, is it any good for arena, and is it ok for normal bg? or norm ret :P? ty for any help

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Q u o t e:
Still new to 70 as ret, got a O.K. healing set, was thinking, (gonna pvp and arena for all my s1 gear for a long time) should i be reckadin, is it any good for arena, and is it ok for normal bg? or norm ret :P? ty for any help

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Reckoning is a relic of the past, my friend. If you're interested in meleeing as a Paladin I'm a big advocate of the 20 Prot 41 Ret build.

Survivability Vs. Damage

Were you finding that leaving out some resilence for damage was the way to go for the Ret paly even at the higher bracket or does the ret pally still need alot of resilence and stamina like any other class would? Does this change with the bracket?
Does this change with class/spec make up for your arena team?

I really am not understanding how your setup works, Its very nice to see healer ret paladin working but really I dont see how you guys can go about fights.

I'm hoping you can give me some sort of incite against say the top combinations such as
Druid/Warlock, Druid/Warrior, Rogue/mage , rogue/s.priest.

You dont have to explain them all but I'm trying to understand what type of style do you guys play? Outlast or have the paladin burst someone down, or strong mana burning. I mean paladin burst damage is good but I really cant understand how he can kill someone without a healer unless you drain that healer of mana.

Anything would be good info wise I guess.

Id love some general Strategies of a ret paladin coupled with a frost mage in 2v2.

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Q u o t e:
Survivability Vs. Damage

Were you finding that leaving out some resilence for damage was the way to go for the Ret paly even at the higher bracket or does the ret pally still need alot of resilence and stamina like any other class would? Does this change with the bracket?

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Up until this season resilience wasn't even much of an option. That said: rely on the resilience you get from honor and season 3 gear and continue to socket yourself with crit/ap/strength. Retribution is already a sacrificial spec in terms of damage for surviability.

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Q u o t e:


Reckoning is a relic of the past, my friend. If you're interested in meleeing as a Paladin I'm a big advocate of the 20 Prot 41 Ret build.

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20 Prot 41 Ret... i personally go 12-15 pts in holy, more dps and healing capability. I havn't seen much of the other good paladins go into prot unless theyre pve for the 3% hit. Spiritual focus is too important for me to give up, 10% str adds about 120 ap, unyielding faith, and im starting to think of dropping fanatism to max sanctified judgement and healing light for more mana/healing for such little dps loss. 20 prot / 41 ret isnt that superior but both specs have theyre ups and downs. then again, i do 2v2 with a warrior and sometimes a frost mage so i dont need prot talents as much.

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Q u o t e:


I'm hoping you can give me some sort of incite against say the top combinations such as
Druid/Warlock, Druid/Warrior, Rogue/mage , rogue/s.priest.

You dont have to explain them all but I'm trying to understand what type of style do you guys play? Outlast or have the paladin burst someone down, or strong mana burning. I mean paladin burst damage is good but I really cant understand how he can kill someone without a healer unless you drain that healer of mana.

Anything would be good info wise I guess.

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All of those are quite difficult fights but very much winnable!

Druid/Warlock: I spend most of this fight dispelling dots and hots and Mana Burning the Warlock. I know it sounds silly to Mana Burn the Warlock because he can life tap it right back but it gets to a point where he'll Life Tap and I'll already be landing a Mana Burn effectively wasting a GCD of his. We dispel/cleanse Fears off of each other as much as possible. Eventually my Ret partner will get the Druid to about half health and HoJ. With the Druid having no trinket up at this point he'll pop AW and I'll PI myself and start smiting. 2-3 1300+ Smites and a 6 second stun plus Repentance (I stop doing anything soon as HoJ wears off) and sometimes an Arcane Torrent 9 times out of 10 result in a dead Druid.

Druid/Warrior: For the most part we use a divide and conquer strat on this team. Ret Paladin stays on the Druid as he runs around the arena and I pull the Warrior off to somewhere remote. After the Druid has blown his trinket and the next time HoJ is up I nuke down the Warrior (pretty easy for a Disc priest) while my partner keeps HoJ then Repentance on the Druid.

Rogue/Frost Mage: They usually focus on me. First thing my partner does is kill the Water Elemental. He keeps BoS up on me to help bounce PoM. After the WE is dead he goes on the Rogue. Between Pain Suppression, a Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Freedom, and BoS a lot of damage can be mitigated.

Rogue/Shadow Priest: Pretty much same concept. I tend to tank both the Rogue and SPriest while chain dispelling DoTs and bouncing PoM with BoS. Pillar dancing the SPriest as much as possible and Mana Burning him when I get the opportunity.

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Q u o t e:
Which set do you wear for ret/disc? I'm assuming its the mooncloth but I haven't seen this combo befoe.

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Mooncloth.