Am I ready for early raiding as ret?Follow

ok take my advice with a large grain of salt since it's been a long time since I was ret. First though get rid of that green belt, there is a nice blue one from the arc key quest chain that should be easy to blow through if you're guild is letting you raid kara as a ret pally.

You also know that you definitely need to lose all your greens and preferably your blues as well maybe with some badge gear since you should be getting badges.

As far as kara goes, and once again take this for just face value, but I always was under the impression that PVP gear really doesn't have any place in kara raids, but anyone whose done a lot of raiding please correct me.

I also don't see any enchants on any of your gear? For me anyone that doesn't have gear fully enchanted wouldn't even see the gate of kara; personal preference though, so you might want to look into that.

Also I know that there is a good stickie by toolofjesus with pretty much everything related to being a ret pally that might be more useful than my long rant.

As far as your AP goes, I wouldn't even dream about hitting ZA until you've got your full T4 set gemmed and enchanted.

honestly, za is several steps up from kara. it would be best if you can to gear up as completely as you can from kara, gruuls and mags. as far as stats go, i'd suggest that for za you prolly want to be getting closer to 28-30% crit and 1800AP. i'd say it's easy to get 2k AP and 30% crit just from kara gear and badge gear. but 2k AP and 30% crit might be more than is NEEDED for za. i just like to aim high personally. a lot of your readiness depends on how you play and your guild. if you play ret properly you're being useful beyond your dps and the minimum stats will be enough for you to be useful. if your guild is well past za and just running it for fun and to gear you up you'll be fine whenever they feel like taking you. if you're just playing for pure dps and your guild is working through ZA you better make sure you're at about 30% crit, 2k AP and hit capped to make sure you're actually contributing enough. it's not hard to get from combining merc glad gear and badge gear. i'm currently working offline on my "ideal" ret set based on gear you can get outside of raids that will be upgraded only in hyjal/bt/swp for those that don't get a lot of raiding options. i'll put that up in my ret guide when it's completed.

and as far as pvp gear in kara, it's not maybe my preference, but ever since S2 was avail for honor merc glad gear is actually better than anything you'll get before kara. most of the merc gear is better than t4 level gear even for pve dps. if you're working on merc glad gear, i'll let you know that the helm, shoulders, chest, neck and ring are on my new ret gear list. get those first. after that get whatever pvp gear you want for pvp use and use it only till you get a better pve peice. don't bother with the pvp weapons, the badge axe is far better and will last a long time. it's the first badge peice i'd recommend getting. huge dps increase.

PvP wastes a fair bit of item stats on resilience but as long as you can gem, ring and trinket your +hit it should do till better gear comes along.

You have to make sure your hit capped for raiding otherwise your dps will suffer as a result of all those misses.

The head glyph from CE (gives you some hit and AP) but the rest will have to come from gems and talents.
I=> http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=29192

If your looking to up your dps throwing 5 talent points into divine strength would be a good boost too. 10% more strength from that talent and 10% more strength from kings (+ the bonus to agility => increase crit strike %) adds up and gives you space to add in your +hit pieces.