Retribution Guide Part 4  

Continued from Part 3...

Contents [hide]

Credits

This guide is designed for PVE. For PVP you'll want to talk to some of the other more skilled PVP Rets. Much of this guide will discuss preparing for heroics and starting Kara, but I will include some info for even the beginning Ret Pally.

First off I'd like to say thank you to several people who encouraged me to do this and helped to make it as useful as it is: Capjack of the Seven Seas, tommyguns (much of the formation of my opinions came from his posts), The RuenBahamut of Doom, Vaeliorin, Jornam

5.2 Gems:

5.2.1 Red: The best red gems are the Bold (str) gems, Bold Living Ruby and Bold Crimson Spinel. Also good are Delicate (agi) gems, Delicate Living Ruby and Delicate Crimson Spinel. For JC's Delicate Fire Ruby.

5.2.2 Blue: The only blue gems worth using are Lustrous (mp5) or Solid (sta) blues. Lustrous is only really useful if you find yourself running out of mana too fast, and Solid only if you find you have too little HP (i.e. PVP). Otherwise, I recommend getting Purple or Green gems for blue sockets.

5.2.3 Yellow: For yellow sockets either Smooth (crit) or Rigid (hit) are handy depending on which you need. If you don't have 9% hit then you should take Rigid Dawnstone, Rigid Lionseye or Rigid Bladestone till you get there. If you are already at 9% hit, then use Smooth Dawnstone or Smooth Lionseye. For PVP you can use Mystic (resil) gems until you get to S3 gear which has a good amount of resil already.

5.2.4 Purple: Probably the best purple gems are Shifting (agi+stam), Sovereign (str+stam), Infused (AP+mp5). These are good for any blue slots you have where you want the gem bonus, but the Red gems are probably better for any Red sockets you have.

5.2.5 Orange: The best Orange gems are Glinting (hit+agi) or Inscribed (crit+str) depending really one whether you need more hit or strength.

5.2.6 Green: The only reason to take any green gems really is for PVP where the Jagged gems (crit&stam) would be nice.

5.2.7 Meta: For Meta gems, the following four will be your better options.

For PVP the Brutal Earthstorm or Potent Unstable Diamond will likely be your best bets for the chance to stun or the stun resist. For PVE I recommend Relentless Earthstorm Diamond or Enigmatic Skyfire Diamond.

5.3 Enchants

5.3.1 Weapon: There are several weapon enchants that would be handy for a Ret. For pure dps Mongoose is easily the best enchant you can get. For more utility, assuming your gear is capable of generating adequate dps by itself, I'd recommend Battlemaster to give yourself Shadow Priest-like healing utility. While this won't make a third healer for raids, it will take a little healing pressure off the real healers. For PVP I would take Battlemaster for the healing, Savagery for the steady 70 AP boost, or Major Agility for the steady crit increase.

5.3.2 Head: There are 2 good Glyphs for your helmet depending on whether you need Hit or not. If you have not maxed out Hit yet, You should get the Glyph of Ferocity from revered reputation with Cenarion Expedition. If you are maxed on Hit then Glyph of the Outcast from revered reputation with Lower City is the best one you can get.

5.3.3 Shoulder: Probably the best shoulder enchant you can get is Might of the Scourge from Naxx. Other than that one, which one you get depends on whether you choose Aldor or Scryers. If you are Aldor you get item:Greater inscription of Vengeance]. If you're Scryer you get Greater Inscription of the Blade.

5.3.4 Cloak: For cloak enchants it's a toss-up between Greater Agility (12 agi) and Subtlety (-2% threat). If you find yourself constantly holding back on your DPS throughout the fight, get Subtlety. More agility won't do you any good anyway. If you find you have good enough tanks that your threat is safely below theirs, then get Greater Agility.

5.3.5 Chest: For chest the best enchant is Exceptional stats (+6 to all stats). The only exception to this is if you find yourself going OOM too fast in longer fights you might want to get Restore Mana Prime (6 MP5). If you go OOM early in a fight extra stats will do you very little good.

5.3.6 Wrist: I recommend Brawn (12 str), but Stats (+4 stats) would also be a good option.

5.3.7 Hands: There are 2 good glove enchants - Major Strength (15 str) and Superior Agility (15 agi). Both are good and which you take depends on whether you need more crit or more AP.

5.3.8 Leg: The best leg enchant is the Nethercobra Leg armor from Leatherworking.

5.3.9 Feet: For PVE the best enchant is Dexterity (12 agi). For PvP the best one is probably Cat's Swiftness (6 agi & speed increase)

5.3.10 Ring (Enchanters only): The only ring enchant you will want is Stats (+4 to all stats). Putting this on both rings will give you a nice boost in stats.

6.0 Consumables:

6.1 Food:

There are 2 main kinds of foods a Ret should be eating. Either foods that boost Agility/Crit (Warp Burgers, Grilled Mudfish) or Strength/AP (Roasted Clefthoof, Ravager Dogs). If through your gear and your enchants you haven't maxed out your Hit yet, you can use Spicy Hot Talbuk. If you find that your biggest weakness is your mana pool, you can also use Blackened Sporefish.

6.2 Weapon Enhancements:

I highly recommend keeping a good stock of sharpening or weight stones handy.

6.3 Potions and Elixirs:

There are a couple potions that are useful for Rets. For non flasks, I recommend Fel Strength Elixirs or Elixir of Major Strength and Elixir of Major Mageblood. If you can't find Fel Strength Elixir or Major Strength or need more crit instead of AP, I'd recommend Elixir of Major Agility. If you can't get Major Mageblood, Elixir of Draenic Wisdom is a decent alternate. Also make sure to keep several mana pots and health pots on hand. Insane Strength Potion is a nice one to have on hand too for brief burst. Shrouding Potion is handy if you have a problem with getting to much hate. Heroic potion and Haste potion are nice too….

For flasks I'd recommend Flask of Relentless Assault. If you need mana regeneration, go with the 2 Elixir combo.

7.0 Other Resources:

For those who want to do further research or get a second opinion, here is a list of a few resources that have been recommended to me (I won't say I have read everything in these sites, nor will I fully endorse them - I merely provide them for a more complete resource for Ret Pallies):

  • Elitist Jerks Ret Theorycraft - This thread has some information and spreadsheets that are mostly theory craft, but possibly of interest to some.
  • RETLOL - The Guide - A very thorough and in depth guide. Haven't had time to read it all though.
  • MAX DPS - An interesting resource for comparing stats and gear. I find my in game DPS to be higher than what they say for my stats, but it's really not too far off. Also the gear comparison is more interactive than I have time to put together.

Notes

Parts of this page were originally written by toolofjesus.

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This page last modified 2008-07-23 10:27:05.