Cataclysm: The Ret Paladin- AKA Multi-Box Burst PVP Machines.

[remanz]

I played ret extensivly through PVP (BG, arena), and also in 10man PVE raid.

1. If you took heal talent, and you spend holy power to heal. You will do half dps as what you can be. So 12k dps becomes 6k if you heal.

2. You need/have to manage inquisition to do onpar damage. exorcism (this might be 2nd biggest damaging spell for ret), hammer of wrath, judgement, holy wrath, seal damage are all holy. If you don't manage inquisition, Retribution paladin damage will be low (-20 , 30%). In PVE, Inquisition needs to be on all the time. In PVP, inqusition needs to be on before exorcism and hammer of wrath.

3. Rets are no longer the frontal burst class as we know. They need about 5-7 seconds ramp up time to get the first 3 holy power. Then use Zealotry to burst.

4. Using Templar's Verdict with less than 3 Holy power. Your dps will suffer quite a bit. So with hand of light proc and different paladins get 3 holy power at different times, it is best for you to wait then use TV all together.

5. As for PVP, retribution does not counter frost mage. Removing root/snare is only half of the answer. The other half is to have a 10k per tick bleed on the mage, and Rets don't have that. Rets are kited the moment you touch the mage, if you keep cleansing, you will never have enough damage on the mage.

Retribution cannot go toe to toe against any melee. The burst is just not that high. It has some burst in the middle of the fight. But not as high as warrior/dk/feral, and rogue's defensive CD just too much to handle.


All in all, Retribution is no longer a faceroll class. Can't just mash 1 button and expect people to drop dead (sounds more like dks' drop right now). You have to manage your skill CD + rotations to achieve normal damage.

Retribution is currently the bottom melee for damage in pvp, middle for damage in pve. With the upcoming buff, Rets will come back, as the hand of light proc nonesense is gone. It should beat warrior in PVE damage. and It should not be too far behind in pvp as CS and TV damage increased.