A Mini Guide To Ret DPS.
Hey peeps!
In one of my more recent comments I was asked by Immortal Avenger how I do I dps.
Well i guess its time to pass on what i’ve learnt to my young Padowa…er…Paladins…
Key Figures:
There are 3 key figures you have to attain to be considered good ret-dps.
Hit rating – Key figures being 95 (with precision from the prot tree) or 142 (without precision)
Once you have attained 95 then you can work on the 2nd key figure:
Crit Rating – Get your crit to at least 25-30% This will ensure that you keep vengeance up at all times.
Attack Power – Get this up as much as possible once you’ve attained the first 2 figures. Ideally you’re looking to get as close to 2000 AP as possible (unbuffed)
Right now i’m sitting on:
98 Hit rating
32.64% Crit
1990 Attack Power (unbuffed – Not even with Blessing of Might)
When I’m raid buffed however I’m pushing the following:
40-45% crit
3000-4000 Attack Power.
(I’ve seen it go up to 5000 AP once with trinkets/librams all up!!)
Things to do to increase you stats:
If you’re lacking in any of the above things, there are plenty of things you can do to help out temporarily.
Food:
Hit Rating: Spicy Hot Talbuk – This 30 minute buff gives you +20 Hit rating.
Attack Power: Roasted Clefthoof – This 30 minute buff gives you 20 Strength = 44 Attack Power.
Crit Rating: Warp Burger – This 30 minute buff gives you 20 Agility.
Potions and Flasks:
Attack Power: Elixir of Strength – This 1h potion gives 35 Strength gives 77 Attack Power.
Crit Chance: Elixir of Major Agility – This increases your crit chance by 3-5% i think (cant remember)
Flask of Relentless Assault: This 2 hour buff gives you 120 Attack Power.
Scrolls:
Scroll of Strength V: +20 Strength
Scroll of Agility V: +20 Agility
What buttons to press:
Ok so you’re ready to go…all buffed up….Ready for Action!
Cast Seal of the Crusader (provided you’ve got the +3% crit chance talent point spent…if not why not!!)
Now I have a small macro that judges whatever seal i have up and casts Seal of Command.
/cast Judgement
/cast Seal of Command
Its not perfect, and it doesnt always work (and i have no idea why) so I always double click it just in case. (Obviously due to global cool down it wont cast SoC twice so dont worry)
Now the mob should have Judgment of the Crusader on him and he’s ready for you to start plugging away.
Run in let auto swing do its thing, hit the judgement/command macro BEFORE you swing again.
Then mash Crusader Strike.
So essentially its:
Auto Swing – Judge SoC, Cast SoC – Crusader Strike.
Hopefully you’ll have had a Seal of Command hit the mob for some nice combined Burst Damage.
Just remember to only judge command directly after an auto-swing.
Get a swing timer – I suggest Quartz – its ace.
Thats basically it.
Obviously there are other seals you can use depending on the situation. I’m really hoping to see Seal of Blood come over to the Alliance side some day…
9 Responses so far
Tenryuu
February 28th, 2008
5:06 pm
I’ve wanted to use Quartz, but I can’t seem to get the swing timer to work.
Here is to Blizzard to giving my pally brothers in Alliance SoB soon.
Tenryuu
February 28th, 2008
5:17 pm
I also notice you use Mongoose over Savagery. Has this really shown much improvement?
Alex - aka Firelight
February 28th, 2008
5:30 pm
Crit over AP Every time for me!!
+5% crit chance when it procs….
I was thinking about getting executioner if i get world breaker.
Tenryuu
February 28th, 2008
6:35 pm
Yeah, was thinking of Executioner and Mongoose for Trollbane, if I ever get it. Don’t figure to waste the mats on Gorehowl right now.
Light Of The Sun
March 2nd, 2008
1:15 am
i dont know what kind of gear i should get for ret
gt
March 3rd, 2008
6:18 am
Advertising Comment O.o
Ret dps… Hrm… thats how you guys roll… Informational
Lalecize
March 3rd, 2008
6:58 pm
Woah nice dude! I have absolutely no experience with ret at all.
Cheers for the post!
Anonymous
March 9th, 2008
11:17 pm
Remember though savergy is 70ap guranteed all the time.
Mongoose has to proc.
Mongoose increase crit and haste which is more handy in pve then pvp due to resilience.
Mongoose is a very expensive enchant.
Mongoose is ideal if you are sitting at 2000ap unbuffed otherwise go for ap until then.
Just my opinions. Take them like a grain of sand.
Rondayvu@Fenris
Anonymous
June 11th, 2008
10:01 pm
In my opinion you’re slightly off on your rotation.
You just judge crusader, then crusader strike, then seal of blood/command. You want to start the cooldown on crusader strike as soon as possible and it’s damage is > proc of your seal.
Once you’ve got JoC on the target all you need to do is keep judging command/blood refreshing the seal and making sure it won’t interfere with smacking crusader strike the moment that cooldown is up.
Once you’ve reached the 2k ubuffed AP go for mongoose, prior to that keep savagery on your weapon.
As for ret gear: You want warrior gear. Get all the str and crit you can get your mitts on. And please remember str always always always > AP. Str gets the benefit of your talents and blessing of kings, AP does not so you get more bang for your buck with str.
Always remember you’re melee dps as such you’re lower on the priority for heals and dead dps does no damage. Make sure you’re behind the mob, running out of AE damage and bandaging like you should. Bandages are a great way to conserve your mana for dps.
As an aside your big limiter will be mana on long fights, don’t stack for it though remember that’s what your potion cooldown is for. If you’re not mana starved make sure you’re judging your SoComm or SoB every time and never wasting a CS cooldown. If even then you’re not mana starved then that potion cooldown can be used for haste or insane str potions.
Just my two cents.
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