At last! 5x Paladins hit the "big" time!

[kate]

My problem in most boss fights is that I'm a spaz and I just hit every key I have like a crazed monkey This technique worked wonders for normal dungeons, but I guess I'll have to refine it for heroics!

There are a few things working against me right now:

1) I'm literally just barely geared to do heroics with my tank. Maybe slightly better than just barely, but not much - I've no epics, still one green item, and the "daunting" or "tempered" saronite stuff that's craftable. I've got my blacksmith up to 450, so I can make anything the trainers teach me - not sure if it's worth investing in the titansteel stuff just yet since I'll always get the relevant drops.

2) My retadin dps seems to be hovering around 1000-1500 DPS, according to recount, so they aren't very geared either. They're also doing double duty - healing the tank and themselves while also doing DPS, so I guess that's not too bad, actually. When I whack on a dummy to try them as pure dps with no healing that does go up a bit, but that's just not gonna be happening, so I don't worry about it.

3) My talent specs are wacky - once I get home and can make sure I have all the proper names I'll link them, but basically my tank is the only one who's used all talent points, each Ret I couldn't figure out what to put the last 7-10 points in. My glyphing is also a bit off, I think, but not too miserable. I know I could probably be a bit more survivable on my tank with a better set-up - right now I am mostly protection, and specced a bit into ret to get the seal of command to do more multi-target damage & recover mana since I was running low due to being overgeared for many normal dungeons and too lazy to use divine plea...

4) My rotations are completely wacky - I need to set up 969 macros for my tank, at the least. With ret it's pretty much "use anything that's on cooldown" so they're pretty much good to go, I think.

[Myc]

Grats!,
I got the same team just got first piece of tier gear yesterday, out gearing dungeons seems to be a big key with ret team. [DPS race] Though I am having troubles with the first boss in TOC.. =l the rogue owns the group no matter what without a healer but I cant stop to not dps... but if u have luck in TOC good starting gear on normal and triumphs
also If you are ready you should give Normal Forge of Souls a try, I got 1st boss down no problem. (2nd can only get to like 100k =l) but anyways u can get a triumph from there and epic loot.

[Acerak]

Melee teams are hugely fun..gratz! I totally know what you mean about smashing buttons like a monkey...I still do that sometimes. I run prot pally/ret pally/enhance sham/feral druid/resto shaman

If you stick with it, you'll find that there will come a point where you will relax. There will also be times when you want to throw your monitor our the window...heh. You can't make too many mistakes as a boxer with a fresh 80 team, as one or two mistakes means you wipe..it's a rough road at first. Gear eventually provides a nice buffer.

One nice thing is that the standard heroic dungeons were designed pre-badgeflation, so once you get even a few of triumph badge gear pieces they will become much easier. My team is at about 4800gs, which is about where I planned to stop as upgrades come much more slowly. At that gearlevel, almost all the heroics are a joke they are so easy.

My advice:

I farmed the gold and made the titansteel stuff for my entire team, including weapons. I don't regret doing this one bit---one piece of ilvl200 gear is substantially better than green or even blue quest rewards or normal dungeon drops. The titansteel boots and helm for rets are both particularly awesome at their ilvl, and you won't replace the titansteel shield on your tank for quite awhile as there are only a few upgrades available - I think it wasn't until I was able to beat Halls of Reflection that I replaced it.

Normal ToC is tough at first, particularly if you get unlucky and get the rogue and/or the bladestorming warrior. Once you get a bit more gear, ToC/Forge of Souls/Pit of Saron runs are definitely where it's at for gearing up fast (in roughly that order). HoR is tough at first even on normal, but once you get it on farm you've made it to easy street.

Keep in mind that the three ICC dungeons drop Triumph badges even on normal mode.

Also, stamina is HUGE for a melee box group, and the pre-dungeon stuff just doesn't have enough...I recommend tossing the heavy borean stam kits on any non-enchanted spots as it is super cheap to do so and the overall effect on your team is substantial.

Give Gundrak a try for starters as well..I found that to be the easiest heroic. You can skip/bypass most of the bosses if you are having trouble with one of them (end boss requires killing the rest, though). Most of Utgarde Keep and Utgarde Pinnacle are a faceroll as well, although the Skadi gauntlet takes some thought.

Exciting to hear others enjoying a melee team

[Myc]

3) My talent specs are wacky - once I get home and can make sure I have all the proper names I'll link them, but basically my tank is the only one who's used all talent points, each Ret I couldn't figure out what to put the last 7-10 points in. My glyphing is also a bit off, I think, but not too miserable. I know I could probably be a bit more survivable on my tank with a better set-up - right now I am mostly protection, and specced a bit into ret to get the seal of command to do more multi-target damage & recover mana since I was running low due to being overgeared for many normal dungeons and too lazy to use divine plea...

DOH! haha, I forgot to add my last glyph and fix up specs a little.
v v [If you care..] v v
I recommend using this as basic spec for all. with the 4 points spare.. (mainly pve)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sVZEZVf0xbIuhdIfsu
then 1 pally can have some points in Vindication
other could have aura mastery (but u will loose good stats )
maybe even have one get improved blessing of wisdom
or divine purpose (seems specs not that flexible now that Seal Of Corruption is good)