Ret 2.3+Follow

downtime = screenshots

Kara night #2(new guild). up to Shade, couldn't down him due to lack of coordination: http://www.geocities.com/tommy0guns/WoWScrnShot_120907_223234.jpg

5v5, we went 4 wins in a row using the following method: ret pally rides in with SoC active, targets a nuker/dotter, consecrate, bubbles and soaks up all inc dmg, team targets ret pally's target, pick em off 1 by 1. no heals needed. sack em before they can react: http://www.geocities.com/tommy0guns/WoWScrnShot_121007_224942.jpg

carry this strat to 2v2 and results are similar, gl trying to heal through that: http://www.geocities.com/tommy0guns/WoWScrnShot_121007_231745.jpg

no healer for 5v5...
no way, im not taking chances, i want heals

Wonder how long you will get away with soak+bubble before a disc priest f'ucks your couch and leaves a stain.

The t5 ret pally in guild is moving slowly up the charts on fights though, which is hopeful.

I haven't been doing a lot of arena, just enough to get my 10 games in for 3v3 and I have yet to run into a ret pally in gear that would intimidate me, so I will reserve judgement cause the best I have seen is guys in warriors blues with a smattering of epics.

other news-i finally got Deep Thunder with a Savagery enchant. maybe now with the stun proc i can finally solo a Healadin >:O

Fine. I guess it's up to me to play devil's advocate again.

Wins or losses in the 1400's and 1500's respectively while maintaining a win percentage barely over 50% is not really anything to brag about, nor does it prove anything, least of all Retribution's effectiveness.

Maintain your winning ways up to and through a 1700-1800 rating and I'll start paying attention. Make it to 2000 with either team and I'll concede you're a Retribution Paladin for the ages.

That's exactly my point, really... or, well, you got close enough to it.

In the 1400-1500's, you're up against a lot of people who just plain suck or have worse gear than you. Most of them are probably in the process of gearing up for the arena while adapting to the style of PvP it encompasses and trying to hammer out strategies for the pairs they encounter.

There's no such thing as "overgeared" for the arena. There's only "geared for the arena" or "not geared for the arena". And the closer you get to 2000, the less gear is an issue. Once everyone is in arena gear, winning through brute force based on out-gearing your opponent is no longer possible. At that point, skill, strategy, and often above all, class matrix and spec define the victor.

That's why Retribution Paladins generally fail to reach a rating beyond purely where their gear will take them. They don't have the tools to be a power spec in the arena. Their lack of mobility and other overbearing weaknesses will be exploited by the better teams/players out there and they don't bring any strengths great enough to compensate for it.

Honestly, I wish you and your partner the best of luck, but... as I've said, thus far your showing hardly proves how WTFPWN Ret is. I realize you're beyond that nonsense, I just don't want anyone else to get a false sense of hope from your post here.

It's really not.

Welll..... sorta.

You start out at 1500, so by your logic that would be like I was 1800 by the end of the season. However, 1800 carries with it a connotation of accomplishment, wheras if I started out at that rating, I have accomplished nothing yet.

However, right now after a couple weeks, if you are still 1500, that means you've won 50% of your battles. This can be harder to accomplish now since you are fighting other teams who may have been in the 2000+ range in the last season, wheras at the end of the last season you wouldn't have had to fight them in order to move up in the ranks, only others that were around your rating level at least until you got into their bracket. So, whereas in the last season you would have been 1800 by now since you didn't have to fight those tougher teams as you rose through the ranks, now you do have to fight those teams, and the resulting offset of your win-loss could put you at around 1500 rating.

Nevertheless, the ratio of higher-rated teams and lower-rated teams is much more in favor of lower-rated. So, you should be fighting more lower than higher, and while you may not be able to achieve 1800 just yet, you should be able to float around the 1600 level if you were 1800 in the last season.

So in conclusion, I believe that the fair rating to temporarily compare this season to last season is 1600 for a previous rating of 1800.

The thing about ret pallies at least in 2v2 is that they not threatening at all.

Repentance is and always will be a joke.

The bubble is almost worse. 12 seconds of no dps. A lifetime by PvP standards and lets face it, ret pally heals are laughable. No, not laughable, flat out embarrassing.

The few times I chose not to ignore the ret pally in 2v2 (say if they actually have a stormherald or worldbreaker) it is a matter of focus firing them and forcing them to pop a bubble. From there the fight is over, 12 seconds is more than enough to time kill their companion or at least put some serious hurt on em. CC the pally when he comes out of the bubble, finish burning his friend and spend 5 mins letting the holy pally kill the ret pally to make a point.

I can bubble and put out 10-15k+ heals in 12 seconds, a ret pally can do a 1/3 of that and be OOM when he is done.

ret pally cannot beat a holy pally. so your perspective is skewed. show me mail or less and you're in for a bumpy road.


in 2v2 bubble is only used as last resort or to shake dots/cc. most classes cant fight on the run and when a ret pally pops up out of the gate it creates a bit of panic. should the bubble be needed from the start, that 12 secs only affects autoattack...still got full CS, consecrates, judgements at full.


w/o losses


when you roll into arena with t6 gear it makes things a whole lot smoother than startin with crafted blues and epics. skill is also one that comes from playing. you have player skill as well as team skill to contend with, so if you dont log enough teamplay, you probably aren't gonna get very far. my old rogue teammate was great for pve but couldn't figure out how to hold his own in arena/bg.


lol well yeah. fact is fact tho, we switched our tactics to revolve around the ret pally and it payed off, going from losing 5 in a row to win 4 in a row. also, i never got less than 2nd in dmg done(on a 'pure dps' team)...while throwing some key stuns and soaking up most of the inc dmg.

A roll both 2s and 5s w/ a imp. Mass Dispel priest. Your team has about as much a chance of eclipsing 1700 as I have of getting a gladiator title.

Ret pallies are a joke to pretty much everyone but rogues and enhancement shaman. You'll never get through a geared warrior's HP before he turns around and smacks you down after the bubble, mages are going to Ice Block/Blink away, Locks are going to soak the damage and then lock you down, healers are going to heal through, except priests, who will mass dispel you, fear you, then heal through. Druids can travel form away from you, and... well... are you seeing a pattern?

Edited, Dec 13th 2007 11:24am by Loki

3 posts of heresay, w00t. clueless ret pallies are dime a dozen.

if a ret pally is being kited by anything but a hunter, said pally = fail. mass dispell only works when dispeller is not getting pummelled, and casting mass dispell = no healing/dmg done, another win.

also if you play a ret pally post 2.3 you already know mages, shammy, warlocks are just plain fun and pose no threat if they are target #1. dont tout their CC/kiting ability when they essentially have none vs a ret pally who is smackin em fiercelike.

hunter, warrior, and stunlock rogue pose the biggest threat since they can hit on-the-move and most attacks are instant and repetative. also they seem to have greater survival.

i ran into this guy omw to Heroic SV: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blade%27s+Edge&n=Vigor he was doing SSC

i didn't fight him, but he looks sexy and his personal arena aint bad either.