Ret Pally Weapon ChoicesFollow

So, I'm a Lv65 Ret Paladin currently questing in Terokkar (Zangarmarsh last night) when I came upon a question.

I was using a 2H Sword of Power. It was a 3.50 Speed sword, had +60 AP, and +7 Weapon Damage (enchant).

I completed a quest, and they offered me a 2H Sword with some other stats, but this was a speed 2.60 weapon, no AP but it had +crit rating, and 7 more DPS.

This brought about some deep thinking into future weapon planning, and something I wasn't sure on...

If two weapons had identical stats, say...two weapons had exactly 100.0 DPS, and same stats, but one was a 2.60 weapon and one was a 3.50 weapon, which is better for a ret paladin?

So I thought about this...

Fast Weapon:

Pro: More healing procs from judgment of light. Faster weapon = more swings = more healing. More Seal of Command procs.... faster weapon = more swings = more chances to proc SoC.

Con: Smaller Crusader Strike damage, as Crusader Strike is based upon weapon's total damage capability, which is lower in faster weapons.

Slow Weapon:

Con: Less healing procs (see above) and fewer SoCs from white hits (see above).

Pro: Larger Crusader Strikes (see above).

I'm thinking that faster weapons are better (as long as they are 2H!).

Am I right on this?

Edit: Oh, and... Seal of Command is better than Seal of ... gah, what's that called? The one I _just_ learned... Seal of Vengeance, I think? The one with the Up-to-5 Stacks of Holy DoT? SoC seemed to put out more damage, even with the faster weapon...

Edited, Nov 28th 2008 10:28pm by Zariamnk

heaviest weapon you can find. like Arthoriuss said, Top End Damage. you want the last number to be as high as possible, forget the speed.

other thing to look for: +Str. no stat is gonna give you half the bang this will.

look at www.maxdps.com and go to the pally tab. it shows you your rotation to use and you can even import your spec/gear and it will tell you what you will benefit from most...kinda.

you have some more learnin to do. enjoy.

Its still worth using Divine Storm when your Crusader Strike and your judgement are on cooldown. It may not give you as much dps as when there are 2 mobs but it is an extra strike and I believe it can proc SoC so there is worth in adding it to your solo rotation.

Like Tommy said Strength is your best stat as far as increasing dps. Crit strike will increase your dps but its similar to the "crit or mp5" debate that Holy paladins face. Strength will give you a consistent increase in dps whereas Crit is still left to chance. My Crit is just under 30% right now so sometimes I will have a great string of crits and finish of a mob before Hammer of Justice has finished and other times I can go 4-5 swings and not get a crit at all. If you have about 25% crit then that is enough to keep Vengeance stacked so I would advise you to look for either strength or AP. I wouldnt worry about gear too much though as your levelling up. As long as your picking up plate or mail dps gear you should be fine until you get to northrend.

Personally I dont use Judgement of Light. I find that judging wisdom and throwing an instant FoL every now and then works better for me. Also when soloing I will choose to finish off a mob with a judgement over Hammer of Wrath too so that I can receive that extra mana return allowing me to fight on without having to stop and drink.

Also since your using SoC so much you might want to look at investing in the SoCommand Glyph. The 10% increased Judgement damage one is also very nice.

Edited, Nov 29th 2008 6:12am by arthoriuss

SoC Glyph is invaluable, but yes. You want a BIG SLOW STRONG weapon to make it work best.

As for your order, if you're Ret you should ALWAYS open with Judgement, since it gives you +crit. The only time I DON'T open with it, is if I am pulling undead that are 3-4 levels higher, I open with Exorcism.

As for stats, I find STR > STA > rest. This is because there have been so many times I've found myself in a BAD spot, with 5+ mobs all higher levels and when I kill them, another 5 show up! I've won fights with single digit HP and no MP numerous times. It's a lot of fun :)

But take the advice above for order :)

My 2 cents, BIG and SLOW. STR and AP are a must. Crit is a nice bonus. I always open my cast sequence with a Judgement as well, JoW to be exact unless the mob is undead. Then I open with Exorcism followed by a judgement..

You make it sound like haste will make Seal of Command worse. That's not the case, though, is it? In fact, haste won't affect your Seal of Command procs in any way at all. So yeah, it's a waste of stats, but it's not like haste will ruin anything. It just means you'll get less Seal of Command procs per swing while the procs per minutes will remain the same. On the bright side, haste will increase your auto-swing speed, meaning more hits, crits and talented procs (Vindication/Vengeance).

You might argue that haste is useless, but it's not "bad news" for Seal of Command.

Edited, Nov 30th 2008 11:23am by Mazra

Haste isn't a priority stat by any means, but it's still a nice bonus on a weapon. Consider: this axe.

Probably the most powerful ret weapon currently available outside raiding (and without dropping a few thousand gold on a Titansteel Destroyer. Which i did!), and with a whole mess of haste on it. Besides, you'll probably be using seal of blood most of the time.

Technically, a slower weapon will have more PPM than a faster one. I'll give an extremely exaggerated example here: You have a weapon with a swing speed of 30 seconds (I know, rediculous). That's two swings a minute. With a proc rate of 2 PPM, every attack you make should proc it (30 weapon speed x 2 PPM / 60 seconds = 1/1 chance to proc), theoretically; there is actually still an amount of chance involved, despite the logic pointing to it being otherwise. We are going to assume it procs every swing for simplicity. This includes instant attacks. Let's say you make 20 instant attacks that minute, in addition to your 2 melee swings. That means 22 attacks. Multiply the number of attacks (22) by the chance to proc (1) and you get the actual PPM. This is all assuming your ability can proc off of special attacks. Some abilities can only proc off of auto-attacks(Omen of Clarity comes to mind).

Why, thank you. I put a bit of work into that. I think I should additionally note that haste increases number of procs. It still calculates the PPM off of your weapon speed before the haste is calculated in.

im missing the whole point of the Haste debate/clarification.

haste shouldn't really be a stat to consider when gearing unless it comes in sick amounts(like +100). at no time should haste be gemmed or enchanted. im actually pretty sad that they put so much budget as haste in our tier gear and pvp gear.

in-and-out pve battles and getting kited in pvp make the swing timer almost irrelevant. the actual use of haste is pretty minor in the overall DD picture.